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Seven Lafayette students recently presented research conducted with faculty at the 227th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, Calif.
“For an undergraduate institution, this is a very large number of students to be presenting,” says Chip Nataro, assistant professor of chemistry. “And our students were presenting in the main sessions, not the special undergraduate sessions. It was a wonderful opportunity for them to go out and discuss their work with the greater scientific community.”
A total of 14 presentations of Lafayette student research have been given at the last two national meetings of the American Chemical Society. Students returned from Anaheim with new ideas that they want to explore in their research, says Nataro.
“I received numerous compliments about how well the students presented their work and the quality of their work,” he adds. “My students were asked numerous times what year of graduate school they were in. It was a good experience for all of them.”
The students were biochemistry majors Alison Campbell ’04(West Chester, Pa.) and Michelle Ferguson ’04(Wallingford, Conn.); chemistry majors Katie Bocage ’04 (Sicklerville, N.J.), Laura Hagopian ’06 (Chelmsford, Mass.), and Katie Thoren ’06 (Hebron, Conn.); neuroscience major Meghan Ramsey ’04(Lakeville, Minn.); and Brett Swartz (Bethlehem, Pa.), who earned a geology degree from Lafayette in 1996 and will earn a second degree in chemistry this month.
Bocage, Campbell, Hagopian, and Swartz presented their inorganic chemistry research with Nataro, while Ramsey and Thoren shared physical chemistry research conducted with Yvonne Gindt, assistant professor of chemistry. Ferguson presented findings from research guided by both professors.
At the 226th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in New York City, four Lafayette students presented their research and three others had their work presented by others. All of them collaborated with faculty through the College’s EXCEL Scholars program, which has helped establish Lafayette as a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to present their research at conferences and/or in academic journals.
Nataro received a Petroleum Research Fund grant administered by the American Chemical Society to conduct research with students to aid the chemical community in understanding when certain compounds will be ideal catalysts without having to actually test many different compounds. Gindt received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue her research with students on protein folding and aggregation, which has applications to a number of terminal diseases. Both have mentored Lafayette students who have published their research through coauthored articles in scientific journals and presentations at academic conferences, including national and regional meetings of the American Chemical Society and the Intercollegiate Student Chemists’ Convention.
Campbell and Ferguson have collaborated with Nataro to publish research in Journal of Organometallic Chemistry and Proceedings for the 224th American Chemical Society Meeting. Campbell also published articles last year with Joseph Sherma, Larkin Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, in Journal of Liquid Chromatography & Related Technologies, Journal of Planar Chromatography, and ACTA Chromatographica. She has a total of seven publications in scientific journals to her credit. Campbell also was among the students giving presentations at the 226th American Chemical Society National Meeting.
Ramsey published an article coauthored with Gindt, biochemistry majors Katelyn Connell ’04 (Modena, N.Y.) and Stacey Wagner ’03(Shavertown, Pa.), and others last year in Journal of Physical Chemistry B. Hagopian is in the latter stages of preparing an article for submission to a scientific journal, which most likely will be Organometallics, says Nataro. Thoren’s work has been submitted to the journal Biochemistry. Bocage and Swartz are both preparing manuscripts for submission to a journal.
Ramsey, Campbell, and Ferguson also are undertaking yearlong independent research projects in pursuit of honors in their major.
Campbell and Ramsey are recipients of the Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award of its kind in the field of science, mathematics, and engineering. Lafayette is No. 1 among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges in the number of Goldwaters in the last three years, with eight. Campbell, Ramsey, and Ferguson also are recipients of Lafayette’s Trustee Scholarship, while Hagopian and Thoren are Marquis Scholars.
Ramsey advanced to the final round of state competition as a Rhodes Scholarship candidate. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a recipient of an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, an Academic All-America Team selection, and one of 60 students chosen from 600 applicants to participate in the Mayo Clinic Undergraduate Fellowship program. This year, she was named the Patriot League Women’s Soccer Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the Lehigh Valley Association of Intercollegiate Athletics student-athlete of the year for women’s soccer. She also was the 2003 Eastern College Athletic Conference Robbins Scholar-Athlete Award female recipient. She recently was honored with Lafayette’s William C. Rappolt ’67 and Walter Oechsle ’57 Neuroscience Prize, awarded to outstanding seniors based on scholarship in the classroom and laboratory and service to the major, college or community.
Campbell was named an honorable mention candidate this year by the National Science Foundation for its Graduate Fellowship. She has been honored with the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry, presented to the Lafayette junior chemistry major with the greatest achievement in the study of analytical chemistry.
Hagopian is the recipient of Lafayette’s Chemical Rubber Company Freshman Achievement Award, presented to the most outstanding first-year student in general chemistry.
“EXCEL provides an outstanding opportunity for hands-on involvement in a research environment,” says Campbell. “The satisfaction and added knowledge it has brought me have positively reinforced that focus.”
“Research at Lafayette is backed up by both funding and faculty support,” she adds. “The EXCEL Scholars program provides an outstanding supplemental learning environment where faculty encourage student involvement beyond the classroom and connect with students to support these efforts. Their commitment and enthusiasm is truly contagious.”
“Lafayette provides an incredible learning environment, especially when research is involved,” says Ferguson. “Learning hands-on teaches like nothing else can. One of the main reasons that I came to Lafayette was because of the EXCEL program, which is unlike any other program I found. The professors are so welcoming and eager to do research with their students. They welcome their students’ ideas and truly make them a part of the experiment process, instead of just telling them what to do. Through the EXCEL program, Lafayette enables any of its students to learn about something such as organometallics in more detail or to test out what research is really like, since a lot of the students do plan to go into industry.”
She adds, “Lafayette in general has been an incredible experience for me. The professors are unlike any others. They are thrilled to do research and to share it with their students. There is such a variety of projects that students can choose to work on, and each will give the students a different view of chemistry. I could not have picked a better school to help me better my education as well as provide me with the lab background that will greatly help me after college.”
Hagopian says she is happy that she participated in EXCEL and pleased at the many opportunities available at Lafayette, particularly her research with Nataro.
“It’s nice to have one-on-one interaction,” she says. “I don’t think a lot of colleges would have that for their students.”
Thoren notes that she feels fortunate to work so closely with Gindt, and to use sophisticated equipment in a well equipped, modern laboratory.
“If I had gone to a different school, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity,” she says.
She plans to continue her work with Gindt over the summer, and possibly into her junior and senior years.
“I now see the bigger picture and there’s so much more I would like to learn about it,” she says. “I see how my research connects to bigger problems.”
Other current Lafayette chemistry and biochemistry majors have published and/or presented their research as well, including several who shared their findings at the 18th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), hosted April 15-17 by Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. Biochemistry major Steve Presciutti ’05(Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) presented collaborative research on contaminated water and treatment programs. Biochemistry majorMyat Lin ’04 (Yangon, Myanmar) outlined his project combining physicalchemistry and computer science to develop less expensive alternatives to platinum for chemical reactions. Biochemistry major Beth Ponder ’04 (Oaks, Pa.), who has a second, individualized major in cultural biomedicine, presented research on why some infections are more resistant to antibiotic treatment.
Chemistry major Caitlin Sullivan ’05 (Bethlehem, Pa.) published EXCEL Scholars research with Sherma in Journal of Liquid Chromatography and Related Technologies, has had another article accepted for publication by the journal, and is preparing a third article for submission. She will join the contingent of Lafayette students presenting their research at the next American Chemical Society National Meeting, which will be held Aug. 22-26 in Philadelphia.
Biochemistry major Ryan Evans ’05 (Mohrsville, Pa.) coauthored a research paper with Sherma and Bernard Fried, Kreider Professor Emeritus of Biology that was published in Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology. He is one of the few undergraduate students in the nation selected for a highly competitive fellowship at Siteman Cancer Center, a nationally recognized center for patient care and research based at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. About 10 percent of the applicants for this year’s fellowship were accepted.
Biochemistry major Jessica L. Schneck ’04 (Walnutport, Pa.) presented her research with Laurie Caslake, assistant professor of biology, at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science March 26-28. She presented her research with Sherma and Fried at last year’s American Chemical Society Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting at Princeton University and published it in Journal of Planar Chromatography. She also coauthored a research article with her mentors that was published in The Veliger.
In addition to the article in Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Connell coauthored an article with William Miles, associate professor of chemistry, that was published in Tetrahedron Letters, and another with Gindt and Wagner published in Proteins.
Biochemistry major Joyce Ong ’04 (Panang, Malaysia), published a research article with Nataro in Organometallics.
As a national leader in undergraduate research, Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty-two Lafayette students were accepted to present their work at the conference last month.
Chosen from among Lafayette’s most promising applicants, Marquis Scholars receive special financial aid and distinctive educational experiences and benefits, including a three-week, Lafayette-funded study-abroad course during January’s interim session between regular semesters. Marquis Scholars also participate in cultural activities in major cities and on campus, and mentoring programs with Lafayette faculty.
Selected from among Lafayette’s top applicants, Trustee Scholarship recipients have distinguished themselves through exceptional academic achievement in high school. They receive from Lafayette an annual minimum scholarship of $7,500 (totaling $30,000 over four years) or a grant in the full amount of their demonstrated need if the need is more than $7,500.