24 Students Invited to Present at National Conference on Undergraduate Research

Christina Mingora '11 works with Manuel Ospina-Giraldo, assistant professor of biology, on research to prevent late blight disease in potato plants.

A total of 24 students have been invited to present their research at the 25th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) held March 31-April 2 at Ithaca College.

NCUR is the largest conference of its kind in the country with approximately 2,200 undergraduates from more than 250 colleges and universities in attendance. This is Lafayette’s 24th year of participation. In that time, more than 650 students have been accepted to present their research.

Hannah Rhadigan '11 documented economic redevelopment in Honduras through photos.

Students invited to the conference represent majors in all four of the College’s academic divisions including 12 in the humanities and social sciences and 12 in engineering and the natural sciences. Projects include a book of poetry, cancer research, the effects of child labor and HIV on African economic growth, the effects of pesticide on wildlife, homosexuality in the military, how after-school programs affect juvenile crime rates, a photo essay documenting economic redevelopment in Honduras, prevention of late blight disease in potato plants, shifts in unemployment, and water infrastructure in developing countries.

Professor Sharon Jones (left) and Lindsay Weir ’11 (right) worked to develop locally sustainable drinking water resources in Malawi.

All of the students have worked with a faculty member through the College’s honors thesis, independent study, or EXCEL Scholars programs. Lafayette’s focus on close student-faculty interaction has made it a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the hundreds of students who participate in these programs each year publish their work in academic journals and present at regional and national conferences.

The following is the list of students invited to this year’s conference along with their proposed project titles and faculty research advisers.

• Stephanie Artigliere ’11 (Kensington, N.H.), double major in economics and English
  “Do Teenage Daughters Benefit From Their Professional Working Mothers?”
  Susan Averett, Dana Professor of Economics

• Christina DeSalva ’11 (Bethlehem, Pa.), mathematics-economics
  “An Analysis of the Effects of Early Childhood Household Income on Obesity during Young Adulthood”
• Susan Averett, Dana Professor of Economics

• Elizabeth Devaney ’11 (Ridgefield, Conn.), double major in psychology and anthropology & sociology
  “The Effects of Persuasive Arguments on Attitude Change toward Genetic Testing for Familial Alzheimer’s Disease”
  Jamila Bookwala, associate professor of psychology

• Adetutu Egunsola ’11 (New York, N.Y.), biology
  “Determining Whether Signaling through Myeloid Differentiation Primary Response Gene 88 (Myd88) Contributes to Tumor Metastasis”
  Robert Kurt, associate professor of biology

• Mildred Gonzalez ’11 (New York, N.Y.), double major in psychology and English
  “Life In The Aftershock”
  Lee Upton, Professor of English and writer-in-residence

• Susan Grunewald ’11 (Wilton, Conn.), Russian and East European studies
  “The Rocky Road to Modernity: Global Technology Trade and the Soviet Automotive Industry”
  Joshua Sanborn, professor of history and chair of Russian and East European studies

• Max Kalman ’11 (Monsey, N.Y.), double major in policy studies and economics
  “The Role of the Equity Risk Premium in the Shortfall Risk of Target-Date Funds”
  Michael Kelly, assistant professor of economics

• Colleen Kelley ’11 (Hamel, Minn.), biology
  “Hyalella Azteca as an Experimental System for Determining Pesticide and Antimicrobial Contaminant Effects”
  Nancy Waters, associate professor of biology

• Nathan Kenison-Marvin ’11 (Center Tuftonboro, N.H.), double major in geology and government & law
  “Hurting by Helping: An Analysis of How State Political Districting Can Erode a State’s National Political Power”
  James Lennertz, associate professor of government and law

• Hannah Klein ’11 (Wilmington, Del.), mathematics-economics
  “The Cost-Benefits and Policy Implications of Federally Funded After-School Programs on Juvenile Crime Rates”
  Susan Averett, Dana Professor of Economics

• Khine Lin ’11 (Yangon, Myanmar), dual major in computer science and mathematics
  “The Spanning Ratio of a Delaunay Triangulation”
  Ge Xia, assistant professor of computer science

• Dylan McNamara ’11 (Pasadena, Md.), mathematics
  “Can Changes in Wage Growth Predict Shifts in the Natural Rate of Unemployment?”
  Ed Gamber, professor and head of economics

• Christina Mingora ’11 (Bethlehem, Pa.), biology
  “Characterization of Carbohydrate-Esterase Coding Genes in Phytophthora Infestans”
  Manuel Ospina-Giraldo, assistant professor of biology

• Brian Peacock ’12 (Haddonfield, N.J.), civil engineering
  “A GIS-Based Riparian Buffer Placement Decision Support Tool Geospatially Integrating Hydrological, Ecological, Pollution, Economic, Social and Cultural Considerations”
  Dan Hikuroa, community earth systems science programmes manager at the Institute for Earth Science and Engineering in Auckland, New Zealand

• Victoria Pocius ’11 (Scranton, Pa.), biology
  “Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Pesticides and Impacts on Parasitic Infection in the Monarch Butterfly, Danaus Plexippus”
  Nancy Waters, associate professor of biology

• Colin Rementer ’12 (Langhorne, Pa.), chemical engineering
  “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Desire: An Analysis of the Changing Homosocial Environment of the U.S. Military”
  Mary Armstrong, associate professor of English

• Hannah Rhadigan ’11 (Lapeer, Mich.), art
  “Empowered. A Photographic Essay of Rural Honduras”
  Anuradha Ghai, lecturer in economics

• Nina Skretkowicz ’11 (Midland Park, N.J.), psychology
  “Perceived Attractiveness of Attachment Styles Regarding Ideal and Actual Romantic Partners”
  Jamila Bookwala, associate professor of psychology

• Nicholas Stacey ’11 (Mbabane, Swaziland), double major in economics and mathematics
  “Child labor and HIV/AIDS: A Theoretical Model”
  David Stifel, associate professor of economics

• Cara Sullivan ’11 (Warwick, N.J.), government and law
  “How the Unique Interaction of Post-Soviet Conditions Produced Unexpected Results in Tajikistan”
  Katalin Fabian, associate professor of government and law

• Qi Sun ’11 (Shenyang, China), mathematics
  “Copula Method with Mixture Normal Model on Asset-Backed Security”
  Qin Lu, associate professor of mathematics

• Heidi Verheggen ’12 (Zionsville, Pa.), mathematics
  “Attitude is Everything: Extending Models of Fish Kinematics to Maneuvers”
  Robert Root, associate professor and associate head of mathematics

• Jing Wang ’11 (Beijing, China), psychology
  “Effects of Verbal Distraction and Task Difficulty on College Students’ Reading Comprehension: Is the Library a Good Studying Place for Everyone?
  Jennifer Talarico, assistant professor of psychology

• Lindsay Weir ’11 (Castleton, N.Y.), double major in policy studies and biology
  “Decision-making Considerations for Sustainable Rural Water Infrastructure in Developing Countries”
  Sharon Jones, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of engineering