Ah, summer, when work days seem a little shorter, lunches in Jackson's Garden linger a little longer, and the hallways of academic buildings are a lot quieter.
Which doesn't mean that the College closes in July and August. The rhythm of the regular academic year may be absent, but there is still considerable activity:
-Boys and girls entering grades four through nine are seen-and heard-on campus as part of Union's Summerskill program.
-The Athletic Department runs sports camps for students in grades four through twelve.
-Twenty-four students spent six weeks taking classes as part of the Academic Opportunity Program.
-Students were taking summer classes in all departments.
-And research was taking place, almost hidden in the offices of professors and the labs of the Science and Engineering Center.
Illustrating that the College's commitment to undergraduate research is a year-round
one, more than sixty Union students-the highest number ever-spent their summers involved in research projects. Some worked towards academic credit; others were here as paid research assistants through Union College Summer Research fellowships or private grants.
We talked with three seniors whose idea of the perfect summer job turned out to be a lot of reading, listening, taking notes, studying, observing, and writing.
Jodie Iannacone '96, of Watervliet, N.Y., could be found in the labs on the second floor of the Science and Engineering Building. There, she and Tom
Werner, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of Physical Science, collaborated on research titled “Fluorescence Studies Using Cyclodextrin Polymers.”
Iannacone, who will graduate in 1996 with a B.S. in chemistry with American Chemical Society certification, is one of several students who have worked with Werner during the past few years. As a full-time research assistant, she expanded the work that other students have done and will continue through the year as her senior thesis. She plans to present her findings at the College's Steinmetz Symposium and “hopefully” at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in the spring.
Iannacone is looking at the spectral properties of molecules that bind with cyclodextrins, a type of sugar. She is comparing how monomers (single units) and polymers (multiple units) of cyclodextrins bind with various molecules.
When cyclodextrins bind with molecules, a host-guest complex is formed-the molecule is the host and the cyclodextrin is the guest.
Iannacone is studying what the cyclodextrins do to the fluorescence properties (which measure the intensity) of the host molecules.
Cyclodextrins, she explains, are often used in pharmaceuticals to increase the solubilities, and therefore the efficacy, of certain drugs. They can also be used in the decaffeination process; caffeine binds inside of the cyclodextrin molecules and is carried away, leaving a decaffeinated coffee bean.
Iannacone began working with Werner because of her interest in analytical chemistry,
and in particular, Werner's work with cyclodextrins. Last summer, she had an internship with Schenectady International, and she continued working there part-time in the fall.
Even with her fairly extensive experience, Iannacone is not planning to go into research after she graduates. She has been accepted into Union's M.A.T. (Masters of Arts in Teaching) program and looks toward getting her master's degree and teaching high school.
“I always thought I'd be a chemist,” she says. But after volunteering at area junior high schools as a lab assistant this past academic year, she began rethinking her career goals.
“I'm one of only fourteen chemistry majors in my graduating class. There's about a hundred biology majors. Even if people are more interested in chemistry, they're going into biology. I want to get kids interested in chemistry,” she says.
Werner has been working with cyclodextrin since about 1985 and in fluorescence studies for about two years. He began his research when he was on sabbatical, collaborating with Isaiah Warner of Louisiana State University, an expert in the field. The collaboration has lead to a publication and a research grant from the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society.
What do international students experience when they come to the United States to study at Union? What are their impressions before they come? What are they when they leave? What are their reactions to food, living conditions, dating, and academics?
Betsy Phelps, a senior anthropology major from Hoosick Falls, N.Y., spent eight weeks this summer trying to find answers to these and other
questions. She was working with George Gmelch, professor of anthropology, through a Union College Summer Research Fellowship.
Phelps analyzed more than 1,500 pages of data that have been collected over the past eight years by students who were assigned to interview international students at the College. Phelps divided the respondents into five
groups European, Asian, Latin American, African, and other and created an index of different topics, such as academics and family life.
From there Phelps could begin to try to find patterns within each group and between the groups. For example, she found that Asian students tended not to like the food, thought drinking was extreme, and thought education-particularly student and professor interaction-was excellent. European students, on the other hand, loved the food,
thought that drinking among students was about the same, and found education to be similar, although some reported that the workload at Union was a little less than what they had experienced in their home countries.
Phelps recorded her findings for each section and put the sections together, creating a “useful” resource that compiled the research that had been done over the years.
Phelps found her research to be extremely interesting. “Some international students get their impressions of Americans from television shows like `Dallas' or `Dynasty.' Before they get here they think that all Americans are either rich or like Rambo.”
Phelps will do the “flip-flop” of her summer research when she goes to Barbados this winter, where she will be writing her senior thesis on how American students adjust to living in a different culture. She
will look at the social scene, religion, elementary and secondary education, and the family system. “That's a big one,” Phelps says.
Educational studies majors on the term will live and work with teachers while Phelps and the other anthropology majors will do field work in various towns in northern Barbados. They will take a class with Gmelch once a week and work on their individual projects.
Phelps will interview the Union students before they leave the United States about their expectations and
impressions. In Barbados she will continue to interview the students as well as the families they are staying with, looking at such things as problems and surprises.
Although Phelps is unsure of what she will do after graduation, she has thought about teaching English as a second language or going abroad as an au pair. For now, she enjoys “getting her feet wet” in research.
Eighty percent of patients die while waiting for heart transplants, and those who make it to the operation have a low chance of survival after living so long with a bad heart.
“When I see the statistics and see that so many people are dying, it just makes me want to get this thing done and out there.”
“This thing” is the Union College vortex blood pump, and the speaker is Charles Howarth
'96.
Howarth took over the project more than a year ago and has devoted his time to redesigning several parts of the apparatus, fixing problems such as leaks and working towards simulating the physiological flow of the human body. In early July, he finally had the pump working at a 125 over 75
blood presure rate. “Now I'm going to go on vacation,” he said.
When he returned, Howarth began testing the vorticity, or how fast fluids go through the pump. He studied the flow patterns by placing white particles in the water and shining a light into the pump. A video camera records the patterns, and a computer measures the speed.
The pump can be used to replace the left side of the human heart (two pumps could also be used together to replace a whole human heart), and a human-made hemofoil inlet valve is used to replace the function of the heart's own mitral valve.
Howarth has presented his results at several conferences, including the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which was held at Union last spring. Howarth also won the General Electric Power Generation Steinmetz Award, which is given to the student in mechanical engineering who completes the best senior project as voted by the faculty.
This summer he began writing articles for journal publication on flow visualization and on the mechanical drive system, which is what generates the physiological flow of the body. He hopes the articles will spread
the word about his work. This summer he also began applying to medical school.
Howarth has been working with J. Richard Shanebrook, professor of mechanical engineering, who has collaborated with several students on this kind of research for about twenty years. Shanebrook has received national recognition for his work and also received a patent with former student Michael Clune for the hemofoil valve.
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