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During her three years at Lafayette, Jessica Schneck ’04 (Walnutport, Pa.) has conducted complex scientific research, coauthored a paper for a scholarly journal, and worked with one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of parasitology.
A biochemistry major, Schneck is studying snails to gain a better understanding of invertebrates. She was selected from a pool of graduate and undergraduate students to present research June 8-11 at the 2003 American Chemical Society Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting at Princeton University. Her presentation will be part of the Student Award Symposium sponsored by the Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley.
For her study, Schneck manipulated the diet of temperate climate Helisoma trivolis snails, feeding one group egg yolks and the other lettuce. Those fed egg yolks turned a bright orange-yellow, and those eating lettuce turned a very different greenish-brown. As Schneck predicted, the research proved that snails on the egg yolk diet had a higher concentration of fats in their bodies than those fed lettuce. The researchers also observed that the fat-fed snails live as long, but don’t grow as large as the others.
Schneck conducted this research as an EXCEL Scholar under the guidance of Joseph Sherma, professor emeritus of chemistry, and Bernard Fried, professor emeritus of biology. In Lafayette’s EXCEL program, students work closely with faculty on research while earning a stipend. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences. A $20,000 grant from the Dreyfus Foundation will enable Schneck and her faculty mentors to continue their research this summer.
“Jessica’s award for having her submitted abstract accepted for presentation consists of an honorarium of $250, reimbursement of the student meeting registration fee, and a certificate acknowledging her accomplishment and commemorating the event,” says Sherma. “This award represents a significant honor for Jessica because it is open to applications from graduate as well as undergraduate students with major courses of study in the areas of separation science, medicine, biochemistry, engineering, and organic chemistry.”
Schneck, who is considering a career in pharmaceuticals, takes piano lessons on campus and is a General Chemistry teaching assistant.
Included in the current edition of Who’s Who in America and once featured on the Discovery Channel, Fried is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of parasitology, with three organisms named in his honor. His research has led to important advances in the effort to conquer tropical diseases caused by parasitic flatworms.
Author of more than 490 research papers, books, and reviews, Sherma has spent much of his career advancing the fields of pesticide analysis and chromatography, a procedure for separating closely related compounds for analysis. A recipient of the Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution by American Chemical Society, Sherma has involved more than 125 different students as coauthors for over 170 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.