Chemistry & Biochemistry Students Present at 4th Annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference

Students from the chemistry department and biochemistry program presented their undergraduate research in the form of posters and oral presentations today at the 4th Annual Undergraduate Scholars Conference. The event, held in the HUB, showcases the talent and drive of our students as they supplement their class loads with real-world research experience.

The following students participated in oral presentations:

• Ms. Caitlin Williamson and Mr. Peter Stonehouse with "Calcium Tungstate: A Convenient Recoverable Catalyst for Hydrogen Peroxide Oxidation" (advisor: Dr. Keith Kyler)
• Ms. Brittany Buterbaugh with "Life Happens: An Unexpected Reaction Between Magnesium and Copper (II) Chloride" (advisor: Dr. Wendy Elcesser)
• Ms. Maura Barrett and Ms. Jennifer Beveridge with "The Toxicity of Mercury on Daphnia Pulex" (advisor: Dr. Ellen Yerger)
• Mr. Dragomir Milovanovic with "The Srs2 Protein Expression Using the pET11c Expression Vector in the BL21 (DE3) Bacterial Protein Expression Strain of Escherichia coli" (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)
• Ms. Olivia McGovern with "The Cloning of Inositol Monophosphatase Gene from Paramecium tetraurelia: A Search for the Molecular Basis of Ultradian Rhythms" (advisor: Dr. Robert Hinrichsen)
• Ms. Jennifer Casanova with "Finding DNA-Aptamers Against Human IMPDH Enzyme via Ligand-binding Isoelectric Focusing Electrophoresis LIFE" (advisor: Dr. Keith Kyler)

The following students participated in poster presentations:

• Ms. Amy Devlin with "Effect of pH on Uptake Rates of Non-polar Organics by Semi-permeable Membranes" (advisor: Dr. Nathan McElroy)
• Mr. Andrew Crawford with "The Efficacy of a Proposed Ion-paired Reverse-phased HPLC Method for the Determination of Polythionate Mixtures" (advisor: Dr. Lawrence Kupchella)
• Ms. Martha Conners with "The Ion-paired Reverse-phase Chromatographic Separation of Polythionates from Sulfur Oxidizing Bacterial Cultures Grown on Nonathion" (advisor: Dr. Lawrence Kupchella)
• Ms. Laura Fox, Ms. Nadia Szymanski, and Ms. Victoria Constant with "Water Chemistry for Beer Brewing" (advisor: Dr. Nathan McElroy)
• Ms. Whitney Simmons with "A Computational Redesign of Cellulase" (advisor: Dr. Jaeju Ko)
• Ms. Galit Regev with "Characterization of Salicylic Acid Treated Mutant for Double Stranded RNA (dsRNA) in the Plant Pathogenic Fungus Rhizoctonia solani: Isolate 303" (advisor: Dr. Bharathan Narayanaswamy)
• Ms. Ee Leng Terng with "Computational Function Prediction of Hypothetical Proteins" (advisor: Dr. Jaeju Ko)
• Ms. Ashley Rossib and Ms. Heather Wagner with "Using Technology to Discover the Constituents of a Mental Model of Chemical Equilibrium" (advisor: Dr. Michael Briggs)
• Ms. Jessica Nichol with "Azobenzene Dye Synthesis for Attachment to Carbon Nanotubes to Control Conductance" (advisor: Dr. Carl LeBlond)
• Ms. Li Yin Wong with "Characterization of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Srs2 Helicase Features Essential for Regulation of Homologous Regulation" (advisor: Dr. Jana Villemain)
• Mr. James Zewe with "Development of ELISA for Mouse Growth Hormone Binding Protein (GHBP)" (advisor: Dr. Jonathan Southard)
• Mr. Brandon Jones with "Is Bacterial Alkaline Phosphatase Capable of Phosphite Oxidation?" (advisor: Dr. Jonathan Southard)