SRF News

SRF Student & Science Faculty NEWS

Three SRF students receive 2008 Goldwater Scholarship! Nicole Stone ('09), Kate Mittendorf ('10) and Alex Breitinger ('09) are the recipients of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. The scholarship was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The purpose of the Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields. For more information on this award seehttp://www.act.org/goldwater/yyschrel.html

Kate Mittendorf

Alex, Nikki and Kate! Congratulations!

Winter Term 2008 at DePauw! Dr. Robert Stark, Dept. of Biology teaches taxidermy and bone cleaning. Students stuffed three coyotes, one owl, a muskrat, a collared lizard and a snow leopard (died of natural causes) which was donated by the Miller Park Zoo in Normal, IL by DPU Alum, Kristen Kern Hall (Zoology,'84), the zoo's educational director. No animals were harmed in this class. They are road-kill donations.

Dr. Kevin Kinney, Biology, spent his sabbatical working in the lab of Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University. His paper titled, "Characterization of moncyte chemoattractant protein-1 expression following a kainate model of status epilepticus" is in press in Brain Research available at www.sciencedirect.com

The annual Fall Research Poster Session held Nov. 7, 2007 at DePauw University featured 55 posters by 87 students. The students were both DePauw undergraduates and students from local high schools who participated in the Eli Lilly Endowment Summer Science Research Camp.

Physics SRF students, Brian Spector, Dan Bennett,Kyle Foster and Professor John Caraher presented their poster titled, "Temporal Photon Correlations and Two-Photon Absorption in Alkali Metals" at the June meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics in Calgary, Canada.

Students and Faculty members publish paper in Journal of Insect Physiology (Vol. 53; No.1, Jan.2007); Wade Hazel and Kevin Kinney (Dept. of Biology) and students: Matt Jones, Lauren Rakes (SRF,'06), Marisa Yochum (SRF,'07), Gabe Dunn and Stacey Wurster.  
Title: The Proximate control of Pupal Color in Swallowtail Butterflies: Implications for the evolution of environmentally cued pupal color in butterflies. Way to go gang!

November 1, '06:  The Annual Research Poster Session will be held from 7-9 pm in the Percy Lavon Julian Science and Mathematics Building Atrium. This year's session will include 59 posters from on- and off campus research projects and internships.

DePauw hosted 7 science speakers over a three week period in October! Science rocks!

July 1:  Dr. Gloria Townsend, Professor of Computer Science was appointed the new Director of the Science Research Fellows program for academic years '06-'07 and '07-'08.
Spring semester, 2006

Dr. Bridget Gourley, Dept. of Chemistry, will be attending the 231st National American Chemical Society meeting in Atlanta, GA on March 26-30, 2006. She will be presenting a poster/talk from research conducted while on sabbatical titled, "Size and Co-surfactant implications on solvation dynamics in CTAB reverse micelles" of whom (among others) Bryce Lynn, SRF student, is a co-author.

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Dr. Wade Hazel, Dept of Biology and several students will be attending the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Meetings at Univ. of St. Louis on March 17-19, 2006 presenting posters/papers from summer research funded by NSF and SRF: 

Poster--The evolution of life history strategies in swallowtail butterflies: the trade-off between body size and larval growth period; Bryan Helm, Ashley Maire, Ashley Amodeo, Lauren Hoffman; 

Poster--The evolution of life history strategies in swallowtail butterflies: the timing of diapause; Ashley Amodeo, Lauren Hoffmann, Ashley Maire, Bryan Helm

Paper:  The role of genetic variance in the analytical modeling of conditional strategies; Ben Steffen, Ryan Smith

Poster:  The convergent evolution of a polyphenism:  the effects of cyclic adenosine monophosphate on pupal color polyphenism in the swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes;  Marisa Yochum, Lauren Rakes

Paper:  Phylogeography of an intertidal barnacle and its gastropod predator in the gulf of California; Qiming Deng and faculty, C. Fornari, P. Evans, W. Hazel

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Darwin Days at DePauw 2006 which was held from Feb. 12-16 was quite the week of evolutionary education. The events featured: Darwin's 197th Celebration Birthday Cake, A Galapagos Island (winter term) photo and evolutionary educational literature exhibit in the Prevo Science Library, Film "Why Sex?" from PBS Evolution series and keynote speaker, Dr. Sean B. Carroll of Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison featuring his newly published book: "The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom--Endless Forms Most Beautiful".  The lecture was standing room only in Olin Auditorium and students/faculty stayed for discussion until late into the night. Dr. Carroll generously spend time in DPU science classes and meeting with faculty and students before we sent him home into a northern winter storm.

Fall Semester 2005

Henning Schneider, Dept. of Biology, along with students, Marissa Yochum and Christine Heumann, presented posters at annual Meeting of the Society Neuroscience in Washington, DC on November 15, 2006.

Gloria Childress Townsend, professor of computer science at DePauw University, will participate in a National Science Foundation workshop on Integrative Computing Education and Research (ICER), to be held in Chicago, December 2-3, 2005. Four sessions will be held on the topic in different regions of the country. Dr. Townsend is among 30 experts invited to take part in the Midwest workshop, which "will bring together a group of deep thinkers and visionaries who share a common interest in the intriguing challenges in integrative computing education and research," according to co-chair David Lee of Ohio State University.  

Nov. 2: the Annual Research Poster Session featured 53 posters by 79 students. Research by students both on campus and away on internships was presented at the annual fall event.

Jesse Williams, Taron Davis Lissy Garland and Erin Andrade of the Schneider Research Group

 

Spring and Summer 2005

Geoscience junior, Philip Mooney, will receive an Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship from the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  Phil will receive up to $8000 per year and participate in a full time summer internship in summer of 2006. Congratulations Phil!

Senior student, Joshua Wilson, and DPU alum, Dr. Tim Turkington of Duke University, have abstract titled, "A Multisphere Phantom for Image Quality in PET/CT" accepted for Society of Nuclear Medicine conference in Toronto, Summer, 2005.

February 7, 2005, Greencastle, Ind. - Three students in the psychology department at DePauw University are recipients of undergraduate research grants from Psi Chi to support their research on the communication of emotion. Meg McCullough was awarded a grant for her research proposal entitled “The Effects of Televised Emotional Displays on Infant Behavior” which investigates how television impacts infant emotional development. Brittany Bulleit & Ariane Jaskolka (seen at right) were awarded a grant for their research proposal entitled “The Communication of Emotion via Touch and Gesture.” The grant will support their senior thesis research investigating how gesture communicates emotion.

Senior student, Qiming Deng, will present poster titled, "The Phylogeography of an Intertidal Barnacle and its Gastropod Predator in the Gulf of California", at joint annual meeting of Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Naturalists and Society of Systematic Biologists in Fairbanks, Alaska in June, 2005.

Q.Deng took time for his poster presentation at conference in Alaska; 

 

Students, Andie Wyatt, Katherine Marshall, Niki Stone (South Putnam High School, Greencastle and new first year SRF student at DPU!) and faculty member, Wade Hazel, have an accepted paper titled, "Interspecific Comparison of Pupation Site Preferences in Swallowtail Butterflies:  Implications for the Evolution of Environmentally Cued Pupal Color"; Annals of the Entomological Society of America; in press.

Faculty Members, Wade Hazel, Rick Smock, will present a talk titled, "Quantitative Genetic Approach to Status Dependent Selection", at same meetings above in Fairbanks, Alaska in June, 2005.

Fall Semester, 2004

Students present Summer- and Internship Research at the Annual Poster Session at DPU on Nov. 3, 2004. 67 students presented 53 posters!

 

Prof. Vanessa Artman, Dept. of Biology (below), discusses her summer research with community member, Marge Smith, at the DePauw Nature Park dedication on Sat. Sept. 11,2004.

 

Summer, 2004

August 4, 2004: Asst. Prof. of Astronomy and Physics, Alexander Komives, receives National Science Foundation 3-year grant for collaborative study: "Development of an Apparatus to Measure the Electron-Antineutrino Correlation in Free Neutron Beta Decay"

Spring Semester, 2004

April 2, 2004: Geosciences Prof. Jim Mills awarded a grant from American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for collaborative research w/ former DPU prof. Erik Melchiorre of California to study stable isotope analyses of waters from  Greencastle and carbonatite samples from Bancroft,Ontario.

Dr. James Mills; Dept. of Geosciences

April 21, 2004: Asst.Prof. of Chemistry, Sharon Crary, receives N.I.H. grant for project:  "Initiation of Nucleocapsid Assembly in Ebola Virus" This grant will support Dr.Crary's research for 3 years.

March 31, 2004: Sergei Markov, Asst. Prof. of Biology: has received a travel grant for research collaboration with colleagues in Russia for collection and analysis of algae from Lake Baikal.

March 31, 2004:  David Berque, Prof. Computer Sciences, Mellon Foundation grant to GLCA and ACM for developing and deploying a database to increase the usefulness of the ETS Major Field Test for C.S.Dept. program assessment

March 30,2004:Sara M. Smaltz ('06) receives Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship! This premier undergraduate award in sciences is based on academic merit and faculty recommendation.  Congratulations Sara! 

Sara Smaltz, Geoscience student

March 9, 2004: Ten Biology students made presentations at the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference at Notre Dame. They included: Matt Jones, Gabe Dunn, Andie Wyatt, Kate Marshall, Kristen Mellencamp, Adam Werne, Meredith Hass, Ben Steffen, Jennifer Wingstrom, Amanda Tolle.

March 9, 2004: Biology Dept. Professors Bob Stark, Jim Benedix and Wade Hazel accompany students presenters to MEEC at Notre Dame. DPU shines with undergraduate presenters at a graduate student conference!

February, 2004: Jackie Roberts, Assoc. Prof. of Chemistry, received the Exemplary Teaching Award for 2002-2003.

January, 2004   Brian Howard, Asst. Prof. Computer Science, received an IBM student/faculty collaborative research grant for project entitled "Functional Networked Integrated Environment (FUNNIE).

Dr. Brian Howard, Computer Science Dept.

Fall Semester, 2003

October 2003
Nate Nichols '05 and Paul Raskin '06 present paper at the Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Math.

Kristin Briney '05 and Atanas Vlahov '05 present papers at the Midstates Conference for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science and Mathematics at Denison University.

Kristin Briney's '05 has paper accepted to the "First Midstates Conference for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science and Mathematics" which is being held on October 25, 2003.

Matt Abbott publishes manuscript titled "Osteoblastoma" in Pediatric Neurosurgery, 2003; 39:279-281, a result of his internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.

Jill Mecklenborg '05 presents poster at the Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in Nashville, TN.

Summer, 2003

August 2003
Sharon Crary, Asst. Prof. of Chemistry, received a research award of $20,000 under the 2003 Camille and ZHenry Dreyfus Faculty Start-up Grant Program for Undergraduate Institutions. The research project is "Investigating the RNA encapsidation signal for the binding of thenucleocapsid protein in Ebola virus."
 

Jeanette Jerz, Asst. Prof. of Geology, received a National Science Foundation Grant of $28,285 for three years for the following project: "Enhancing Student Understanding of Environmental Systems with Ion Chromatography."

August 2003
Katy Adank '05 presented a poster at the Animal Behavioral Society annual conference in Boise, Idaho

Brittany Bulleit '05, Jonathan Hart '05, and Jill Mecklenborg '05 present posters at the 2003 American Psychological Association Annual Convention in Toronto.

July 2003
Kristin Briney '05 and Tod Karpinski '06 present poster and paper at the Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation Conference in Chicago, IL       

Spring Semester, 2003

April 2003
National Science Foundation grant allows students to explore research careers
Dave Berque, Assoc. Prof. of Computer Science
Carl Singer, Prof. of Computer Science

March 2003
Andrea Dawson '04, Loren Faulkner '04, Mark Rickard '03, Andy Schmitt '04 present posters at the National American Chemical Society Meeting in New Orleans, LA.

February 2003
Three Faculty Members Awarded Grants for Research
 

Fall Semester, 2002

October 2002
National Science Foundation Awards DePauw $841,000 for Interdisciplinary Faculty-Student Research Project