June 08, 2007

Rogers summer researchers present findings

(Portland, Ore.)—Students at Lewis & Clark College are spending the summer conducting research in collaboration with faculty members as part of the John S. Rogers Science Research Program.

(Portland, Ore.)—Students at Lewis & Clark College are spending the summer conducting research in collaboration with faculty members as part of the John S. Rogers Science Research Program. Nearly 40 students will discuss their research in fields including physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics and computer science during a series of brown bag talks in June and July. The presentations are free and open to the public.

The John S. Rogers Science Research Program promotes collaborative research in the mathematical and natural sciences and provides the framework and financing for more than a dozen student-faculty research projects each summer at Lewis & Clark. The program gives science majors the opportunity to work together, full time, for 10 weeks each summer. All talks will take place in Olin Center for Physics and Chemistry, Room 204. More information on the research program, including abstracts of the research projects, is available at www.lclark.edu/dept/sumsci.

Tuesday, June 12, 12 p.m.
Bjorn Vanberg ’08 and Anne Cade ’07 will present their research project titled “Investigation of the Enhanced Reactivity of Smectite Clays in Contact with Iron Metal.” Faculty research collaborator: Barbara Balko, associate professor of chemistry.

Tyler Adint ’07 and Allison Akagi ’09 will discuss their research project titled “Hydrolysis of Phosphate Triester Neurotoxins with Organometallic Complexes.” Faculty research collaborator: Louis Kuo, professor of chemistry.

Tuesday, June 19, 12 p.m.
Jasmine Carver ’09 and Elise Maxwell ’09 will present their research project titled “Molecular evolution of the toxic enzyme sphingomyelinase D in venoms of brown spiders (Loxosceles).” Faculty research collaborator: Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology.

Caitlin Byrd-Fisher ’09 and Jeanine Fallen Bailey ’08 will discuss their research project titled “Light Curves and Spectra of Eclipsing Binary Star Systems.” Faculty research collaborator: Thomas Olsen, associate professor of physics.

Tuesday, June 26, 12 p.m.

Franny Delaney ’08 and Sean Galagan ’09 will present their research project titled “Isolation and Purification of Diterpenoid Metabolites Used in Herbivory Deterrence from Marine Algae.” Faculty research collaborator: Louis Kuo, professor of chemistry.

Jessica Minnier ’07 and Parker Lewis ’08 will discuss their research project titled “Listening to Orbifolds and Orbigraphs.” Faculty research collaborator: Liz Stanhope, assistant professor of mathematical sciences.

Tuesday, July 3, 12 p.m.
Kevin McAllister ’08 and Turin Hill ’08 will present their research project titled “Evolutionary patterns of neurotoxin expression in spider venoms.” Faculty research collaborators: Janis Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Professor of Science, and Greta Binford, assistant professor of biology.

Lucas Hill ’09 and Yunjie Zhao ’10 will discuss their research project titled “Modified Taylor-Couette Flow: Models to predict the onset of Spatio-Temporal Chaos and Algorithms to achieve Control of Chaos.” Faculty research collaborator: Thomas Olsen, associate professor of physics.

Tuesday, July 10, 12 p.m.
Mariya Chavarha ’08 and Conor Jacobs ’08 will present their research project titled “Synaptic secretion of neuromodulators implicated in long-term memory formation.” Faculty research collaborator: Janis Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Professor of Science.

Anne McHugh ’10 will discuss her research project titled “Feeding performance of Oregon silverspot butterfly larvae on host plants from different populations.” Faculty research collaborator: Paulette Bierzychudek, William Swindells Sr. Professor of Natural Sciences.

Thursday, July 12, 12 p.m.
Kelly Dayne Hansen ’08 and Garrett Waagmeester ’08 will present their research project titled “Characterization of a Secretory Signal for Chicken Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor.” Faculty research collaborator: Gary Reiness, professor of biology.

Michael Sanders ’08 and Nicholas Tiller ’09 will discuss their research project titled “Detecting statistical signal in genetic linkage and association studies.” Faculty research collaborator: Yung-Pin Chen, associate professor of mathematics.

Tuesday, July 17, 12 p.m.
Marcela Kokes ’08, Steven Levitte ’10 and Emily Scavarda ’09 will present their research project titled “Investigating the biogenesis of lysosomes in a multi-cellular animal.” Faculty research collaborator: Greg Hermann, assistant professor of biology.

David Calkins ’08 and Lila Forte ’09 will discuss their research project titled “A Search for Pseudopericyclic Allenyl Cope Rearrangement Pathways, Employing CASSCF Ab Initio Molecular Orbital Calculations.” Faculty research collaborator: James Duncan, professor of chemistry.

Tuesday, July 24, 12 p.m.
Scott Henderson ’08 and Nick Peach ’08 will present their research project titled “Investigating the Kinematics and Physical Conditions of Interstellar Matter in Face-on Spiral Galaxies.” Faculty research collaborator: Steve Tufte, associate professor of physics.

Elgin Dean ’08 and Kevin Imber ’09 will discuss their research project titled “Sensor Networks and Grid Computing.” Faculty research collaborator: Jens Mache, associate professor of computer science.