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Marquis Scholar Ryan Evans ’05 (Mohrsville, Pa.) recently received the Organic Chemistry Scholarship from the Lehigh Valley Section of the American Chemical Society.
A biochemistry major, Evans scored the highest on an organic chemistry test administered by the Lehigh Valley American Chemical Society. Applicants also wrote a short paper on a topic in the field.
“Ryan is undoubtedly one of the best students we have ever had in organic chemistry at Lafayette over the past 16 years,” says Charles Nutaitis, associate professor of chemistry. “Organic chemistry has the reputation of being one of the hardest courses at Lafayette or any college. Yet Ryan breezed through the course.”
Among approximately 1,200 students who have taken organic chemistry since Nutaitis has taught the class, only a handful have earned marks as high as Evans’, the professor notes.
The award follows a summer-long collaborative research project in which Evans fed, infected, observed, and dissected tiny, disk-shaped snails. Evans conducted the work, which is likely to yield big results for a career in research, as an EXCEL Scholar with Bernard Fried, professor emeritus of biology, and Joseph Sherma, professor emeritus of chemistry.
Lafayette is a national leader in undergraduate research. In Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, students assist faculty with research while earning a stipend. Many of the 180 students who participate each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
Evans fed lettuce to one group of Helisoma trivolvis snails and egg yolks to a second group, watched as the first group turned greenish brown and the second group turned orange-yellow, then dissected the snails, extracted pigments, and analyzed the pigments using thin-layer chromatography (TLC). He also dissected a group of Biomphalaria glabrata snails infected with Schistosoma mansoni parasites and conducted similar TLC analyses.
“We were hoping to more closely see what diet and parasitism do to these snails, since they are an important model in the life cycles of countless parasites that also infect humans,” says Evans, who is co-writing a paper on the subject with Fried and Sherma that will be submitted to an academic journal.
The diets, as Fried says they expected, had a “dramatic effect” on pigmentation. Fried also says that Evans used sophisticated techniques to analyze the data he gathered on the parasite-infected snails. “No one in the past has used these more sensitive quantitative techniques.”
Fried also notes that Evans worked independently for much of the project. “He’s very steady,” he says. “He’s done a very good job.”
For Evans, who hopes to continue his biochemistry studies in graduate school, the opportunity to publish a paper equals increased choices among graduate programs.
“I like using chemistry techniques on biological applications, since this is probably what I will be doing in the future,” he adds. “I also enjoy the freedom I am given to explore these situations and the excitement of finding new knowledge when the results come in.”
Evans points out that both Fried and Sherma offered him help when he needed it.
“They directed me in the right way, but gave me ample freedom to explore, perform experiments, and come to conclusions on my own,” he says.
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 550 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 140 different students as coauthors for over 195 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.
In January 2002, Evans took one of Lafayette’s distinctive three-week interim-session courses in London. He is a member of the campus chapter of the American Chemical Society and the Physics Club, serves as a campus tour guide, and plays club volleyball.
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.