Clarkson Magazine

Undergraduate Research

Students at Clarkson are gaining valuable, hands-on experience in cutting-edge research and working side-by-side with faculty mentors. They are also receiving national recognition and winning prestigious awards and competitive scholarships for their work in the laboratory and in the field.

Terrance Richards '05 delivers a poster
presentation on cono-toxin research.

Graduating senior Daniel Marker, a biomolecular science and pre-physical therapy double major in the Honors Program, has co-authored two research papers that could explain why the presence of the Human Papillomavirus may cause an increased risk in contracting cervical cancer. The articles appear in the scientific journals Carcinogenesis and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (in press). Daniel has been working on this research with Craig Woodworth, professor of Biology and one of the co-authors of the articles. He spent much of last summer working on research that was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Clarkson Honors Program.

In January Honors student Kirstin Schillemat, a junior Physics major from New Hampshire, delivered a poster presentation titled "Exploring the Jet Proper Motions of SS433" to the American Astronomical Society at their annual conference in San Diego. The paper was based on microquasar research she conducted last summer in Socorro, New Mexico, as part of the NSF's Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

Graduating senior Peter Bird and junior Adrienne Povero, both technical communications majors, presented a research poster titled "Societal Dynamics and Public Representations of Nanoscale Science" at the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing conference held in March in San Francisco. Peter was also selected recently to receive one of two national 2005-06 undergraduate scholarships from the Society for Technical Communication. He is also working on a four-part online course module that will be used as part of a larger online study of nanotechnology and integrated into the Materials Science and Engineering course (ES260). His work is supported by the National Science Foundation under a grant received by Clarkson professors Brenton Faber, Ian Suni, and Don Rasmussen.

Halimatu Mohammed '06

Halimatu Mohammed, a junior chemistry major in the Honors Program, was one of 15 students nationwide selected this spring to receive a Science Initiative Scholarship sponsored by the United Negro College Fund and Merck & Co. Halimatu will receive over $35,000 in scholarships, which include $25,000 toward tuition and education costs as well as a $10,000 departmental grant to help support her laboratory and research. She will also participate in two summer research internships at Merck Laboratories with combined stipends of at least $10,000.

Romana Semouchtchak, a junior studying e-Business in the Honors Program, presented a research paper with Professor of Communication and Media Brenton Faber at the "Writing Research in the Making" conference held last February at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The paper "Writing Nanoscience & Making Undergraduate Research" looked at the public representation of nanoscale science and technology. Romana was the only undergraduate student presenting at the conference, which had scholars participating from across North America.

Joel R. Thomson, a graduating senior majoring in Aeronautical Engineering, finished third in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Northeast Region 1 Student Paper Competition at Princeton University. Joel presented two papers at the conference. The first paper was titled "Assessment of Visual Stabilization for Controlling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles." Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Piergiovanni Marzocca advised Joel on this paper. Joel's second paper was titled "Development of an Evolutionary Neuro Controller for Autonomous Control Under Various Flight Conditions." Clarkson Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering Ratneshwar Jha co-authored the paper and advised Thomson on the research.

Adam C. Searleman, a junior with double majors in biomolecular science and mathematics, has been selected to participate in a 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program at the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Adam has been performing undergraduate research for his Honors Thesis in the laboratory of Craig Woodworth, associate professor of Biology. Adam is studying a new form of cancer therapy that targets the epidermal growth factor receptor.

Sophomore biology major Terrance Richards was recognized as the "Outstanding Freshman/Sophomore Researcher in the Natural Sciences" by the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at the 13th Annual Statewide CSTEP Conference. Terrance was selected by the judges from over 90 poster presenters representing 47 different colleges and universities across the state. Terrance presented a poster titled "Synthesis of a Fluorescent Cono-toxin that Targets Muscle Sodium Channels." His presentation explained the research he began over the summer of 2004 as a Clarkson CSTEP Research Scholar under the mentorship of Jon-Paul Bingham and Edward Moczydlowski in the Biology Department.

Nadeeka Yapa, a graduating senior Honors student in Electrical Engineering, has won the highly prized NSF Graduate Research Fellowship competition. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program provides three years of financial support for graduate study and is intended for students who are at the early stages of their graduate study. Nadeeka will enter the graduate program in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the fall. Her research interests are communications and signal processing.

Clarkson sophomore and Goldwater
Scholarship award winner Andrew
Bingham and faculty mentor Ken
Visser, associate professor of
Mechanical and Aeronautical
Engineering, review Andrew's winning
submission to the NASA Institute for
Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Student
Visions of the Future competition. His
concept, "Deployment of an
Interstellar Electromagnetic
Acceleration System" promoted the
use of an external propulsion system
and a series of unmanned space
stations for interstellar travel.
Bingham is also a recipient of a
prestigious 2005-06 NIAC Student
Fellows Prize.

Two students named Goldwater Scholars

Sophomore mechanical and aeronautical engineering major Andrew Bingham and junior chemistry major Norman Marshall, both in the Honors Program, have each been awarded the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2005-06 academic year. They are the 12th and 13th students from Clarkson to receive this prestigious award since the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established 16 years ago. Andrew recently received a 2005-06 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Student Fellows Prize for his proposal on interstellar space travel.

Goldwater Scholar Norman Marshall
with his advisor, Yuzhuo Li, professor
of Chemistry.

The Scholarship Program is designed to foster and encourage students to pursue careers in their chosen mathematics, natural sciences, or engineering field. Recipients are selected on the basis of academic merit and only a select number of college sophomores and juniors throughout the country are singled out for support by the Goldwater Foundation each year.