Some of the biggest names in chemistry were there. Researchers. Scholars. Public health officials. Policy makers.
And so were Union students.
They did more than simply sit at tables, periodic and otherwise. A dozen students, accompanied by four College faculty members, presented their research in Atlanta recently at the 231st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). With more than 158,000 members, it's the world's largest scientific society dedicated to a single discipline.
“Participation in a national meeting on this scale is a very valuable experience for our undergraduate students,” said Mary Carroll, director of undergraduate research and professor of chemistry.
Even with more than 13,000 people on hand and some 8,000 presentations made, the Union contingent didn't go unnoticed.
“Many of the Union students presented in divisions that were made up of mostly graduate students, which really made our school stand out from the rest,” said senior Aaron Phillips. “Many people who visited our posters were surprised to hear that we were still undergraduates.”
Valuable feedback
Phillips' project used aerogels as the hosts for a specific chemical probe that exhibits different fluorescence intensities in the presence of oxygen, as opposed to a non-oxygenated environment.
“One of the benefits of going to the ACS meeting was that I was given the chance to present my research in front of others who had a wide variety of backgrounds in chemistry,” he said. “Many of these people were able to give me valuable feedback on new things to try in the lab or even to commend the work I was doing.”
Sarah Sparks, president of the Union Chemistry Club, agreed.
“ACS was one of the best and most helpful experiences I have ever had as a chemist – and it was by far the best experience I have had as an undergraduate,” Sparks said. “It puts all the chemistry you learn into perspective, and it's inspiring because you discover that people other than your advisor are interested in your work. Getting together with so many chemists who do so many different things gave me a new appreciation for chemistry as a whole.”
A chemistry major and mathematics minor who serves as the Minerva Council student representative for Green House, Sparks has been accepted to a number of graduate programs in chemistry.
Club awarded
While at the ACS meeting, Sparks accepted the “Commendable Student Affiliate Chapter” award for the chemistry club. It's the 12th straight year the club has received an award at the conference, and it's on display in the Chemistry Department.
Other students who made presentations at the ACS conference were: seniors Gordon Carlson, Andrew Dikan, Kristina Gehring, Thomas Hickernell, Brandon Knight, David Olson, Jennifer Paludi, Michael Popowich, Ian Schaefer and Richard Uluski. All are majors in chemistry, biochemistry or biology. Junior Aaron Almeida, who performed research with Prof. Joanne Kehlbeck last summer, attended without presenting.
Chemistry faculty who attended included Carroll, Michael Hagerman, David Hayes and Kehlbeck.
Hager and Kehlbeck jointly presented a poster in the Colloids Division session, while Carroll participated in meetings of the Society Committee on Education before the conference began.
“All Union students participated in every aspect of the conference,” said Carroll.
This included areas of chemistry familiar to them from the Union curriculum, such as analytical chemistry, biochemistry and inorganic chemistry, and areas that are not familiar, such as archaeological applications of chemistry, chemistry and law, and catalysis.
“I gained knowledge and excitement for non-traditional careers in chemistry I never knew existed,” said Sparks.
Collaborative research
Several students worked collaboratively. Olson, a chemistry major and Goldwater scholar, is working on a project with Joanne Kehlbeck in Chemistry and Barbara Danowski in Biology.
Dikan, a chemistry major with a minor in Russian, is working under Carroll's direction in the aerogels lab on a project with a scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Schaefer, a double major in chemistry and physics, is conducting research that spans both these disciplines, working with Hagerman and Prof. Michael Carpenter from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany.
Popowich, a biochemistry major, presented a poster titled, “Characterization of Quantum Dots as FRET Donors in DNA Hairpin Probes.” He is working in Brian Cohen's lab in the Biology Department and collaborating with Hagerman in chemistry on HHMI-funded nanotechnology research involving quantum dots.
“I really enjoyed the conference because I got to see the top research in the fields I'm interested in,” Popowich said. “And for the first time, I got feedback from my research from people in the private sector. That was cool because they were very interested in what I was doing.”
Student travel to the ACS event was supported by several sources, including IEF grants, Dean of Undergraduate Education Kimmo Rosenthal, individual faculty members' research grants, and the departments of Chemistry and Biology.