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School of Science Summer Research
Again this year students and faculty from the School of Science are completing eight to twelve weeks of research, which is part of the college-wide Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Forty sophomore, junior and senior students are working with full-time faculty members on various projects in biology, chemistry, computer science and physics in research labs here as well as other facilities. Each student receives a $2,000 - $5,000 stipend and housing. The program is partially funded by grants from National Starch, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, USDA National Research Initiative, New Jersey Department of Justice, New Jersey State Police and the American Chemical Society.
In this program small student research groups have the benefit of working side by side with faculty mentors, as well as the opportunity to interact and share facilities with researchers in other areas. Research groups meet formally, as well as informally, to report on the progress of their projects throughout the summer. This is done by joint breakfasts and luncheons, and an afternoon ice cream party, which stimulate discussion and foster interest in continuing research within TCNJ or outside the College, and in pursuing graduate study. Each student group will present a summary of its research at the end of the summer program by poster, PowerPoint presentation, or student roundtable either here at TCNJ or at the sponsoring company.
One of this summer’s research projects is truly multidisciplinary and includes two faculty from the Department of Computer Science: Monisha Pulimood and Ursula Wolz, as well as Phil Sanders, program coordinator for Interactive Multimedia and Kim Pearson from the English Department. The over-arching goal of the work is to create innovative database support for multimedia experiences. Pulimood, whose own research is most closely associated with novel work in database systems is mentoring Andrew Chiusano and Dan Tilden (CS majors). They are implementing the database architecture for article submission for the online magazine "Unbound" , an online magazine created and managed by TCNJ students, which was initiated by Pearson ten years ago. Their project is concerned with integrating information security into multimedia databases. Andrew Chiusano is also collaborating with Kate Lynch (Interactive Multimedia major, CS minor) and mentored by Sanders to develop a multi-user interactive art installation that will be presented at the highly prestigious SIGGRAPH conference in August. Pearson's main focus this summer has been to create a model for a highly interactive magazine piece. She is mentoring Nia Haqq and Eve Roytshteyn (Interacitve Multimedia majors) as they collect, edit and develop media to construct an interactive piece in Flash that includes digital art, movie clips and recorded audio. Haqq is also collaborating with Kevin Bollinger (CS major) on the rMUSIC project mentored by Wolz. This project involves bringing an innovative music sharing system for an ad hoc network to completion so that it can be submitted to SIGGRAPH next year. rMUSIC was originally conceived by Wolz and Michael Massimi (CS major, class of 05, now a PhD candidate in Human Computer Interfaces at the University of Toronto ).
Biology research is being conducted under the direction of Drs. Jim Bricker, Curt Elderkin, Jeff Erickson, Don Lovett, Janet Morrison, Amanda Norvell, Marcia O'Connell, and Howard Reinert. In Dr. Bricker’s laboratory student Divya Patel is studying “Molecular Genetics of the Cornsnake Population in New Jersey ” and student Michaela Olsavaska is researching the “Use of Diatoms as a Marker for Cross Pollution from Streams/lakes/ponds to Wells”. Students working in Dr. Elderkin’s lab are Perian Doko and Eugene Muchnik. Michael Rossetti and Brian Sposato are doing research with Dr. Erickson. The topic of Dr. Erickson’s research is “Immunohistochemical Analysis of the Caudal Raphe Nuclei of the Brainstem from Wild Type and Homozygous Pet-1 Null Mutant Mice”. Students working with Dr. Lovett are Peter Treitler and Aaron McKeon-Fish, who are both working on projects concerned with ATPase, an enzyme used for regulation of blood salt levels in crabs exposed to changes in seawater salinity. Conducting research entitled "The Population Biology of Plant- pathogen Interactions: Smut Fungus and Broomsedge Grass" with Dr. Morrison are Jessica Decker and Arthur Romanchuk. Working Dr. Norvell are students Jason Anari and John Trahanas. They are working to understand the role of RNA binding protein Squid in mRNA localization during Drosophila oogenesis. In Dr. O’Connell’s laboratory students Anjali Mone and Naomi Siegel are conducting an investigation of “Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation During Embryo Genesis in Zebra Fish”. Students Jing-Jing Feng and MacKenzie Esch are conducting research with Dr. Reinert.
Chemistry research is taking place under the direction of Drs. David Hunt, AnaMaria Soto, Don Hirsh and John Allison. Working with Dr.Hunt is rising junior Joanne Bertonazzi on “A Study of the Reaction of Thermolabile Aryllithium Reagents with Isatoic Anhydrides”, which is funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb and where the final presentation will be made. Other students working with Dr.Hunt include Maryll Geherty working on “ Halogen-Metal Exchange Studies on Bromoaryl-Substituted b-Lactams", Christina Papanagopolous on "Part I: A Study of the Reaction of Functionalized Aryllithium Reagents with Trialkyl- and Triarylboranes. Part II: Attempted 1,3-Dipolar Cycloadditions of b-Nitrostyrenes with Heteroaromatic N-Oxides", and Tim Craven on "Use of Dialkyldiazo dicarboxylates Toward a New Synthesis of Dihydrobenzopyrazoles." Dr. Soto has three undergraduate researchers. They are Valerie Schneck: " Effects of TAR-RNA Conformation to the Binding of Aminoglycoside Antibiotics& quot;; Joseph Kassman: "The Role of Electrostatics in Antibiotic- TAR interactions"; David Adams: "Contribution of specific protein-RNA contacts to the overall affinity of TAR-Tat interactions". Working with Dr. Hirsh are Xi Jun Chen: "DNA as a Model System for Electron Spin-Spin Interactions" and Bruce Wolf: "Temperature Control Systems for Optical and Magnetic Resonance Measurements". Luke Boralsky and Kaitlin Papson are both working on a project entitled " Analysis of Pigmented Inks" with Dr. Allison, which was funded by the New Jersey Department of Justice. Other chemistry research being conducted under the guidance of Dr. Allison is part of the New Jersey State Police internship program. Ten students working in a twelve week program at State Police laboratories are Marc Altenau, Lori Adriance, Matthew H. Andress, Anthony Macino, Alison McQuilken, Jennifer Miller, Lauren Munoz, Michael Rosana, Erin Sigwart and Rachel Underwood.
In the Physics Department Dr. Romulo Ochoa is the mentor for rising senior John Fisher. Their research is entitled "Precursors of Fracture in Silica Glass: a Molecular Dynamics Study."
The Summer Undergraduate Research Project provides an intensive and nurturing environment for scientific research by undergraduates. The project was made possible by the support of the Provost's Office and by funding from TCNJ and external grants. Some of the projects will be continued this fall through mentored research and independent study.
