Beloit College 7th International Symposium, November 12, 2008
Beloit College 33rd Annual Student Symposium, April 16, 2009
Midstates Symposia
The Beloit Biologist, Volume 28, 2009
Having survived the move from Chamberlin Hall last summer, we have now successfully completed our first academic year in our new home, the Beloit College Center for the Sciences (https://www.beloit.edu/alumni/science_center/). The labs and classrooms, which we were intimately involved in planning, work even better than we had envisioned. Not only are the rooms spacious, making it much easier to work collaboratively and move freely among groups, but the abundance of exterior light and the views both within and outside the building add greatly to the feeling of space and light. People feel good about being in the building, so much so that the six additional classrooms beyond the number formerly available in Chamberlin are filled most of the time, many by courses from outside of the sciences. As we had hoped, the additional highly functional classrooms, the informal spaces for students to gather throughout the building, and the atrium as a place for events ranging from the Study Abroad Fair to the inaugural Miller Upton Residency keynote address by economics Nobel Laureate Douglas North, have succeeded in drawing students and faculty from around the campus.
The deconstruction of Chamberlin Hall was completed by Thanksgiving last year, with more than 95% of the materials claimed for recycling. After a lull over the winter, work on the greenhouse and garden on the south side of the building started up again this spring. You can follow the progress at https://www.beloit.edu/webcam/. The construction and site work should be finished by the end of July, in time for the arrival of our next crop of new students.
Robin Greenler has been shepherding the LEED certification process through the very successful submission of the design points to the U.S. Green Building Council. The construction points will be submitted by the end of the summer, so we should receive our level of certification late in the fall. Having said from the start that we were seeking a Silver rating, it now appears that we will be solidly Gold. Robin has been working on the contents for the Green Touchscreen™ kiosk in the atrium, which is now in operation to provide directory and donor information for the building, as well as explanatory text about the green features of the building and real-time data streams for energy and water consumption, which are archived for research purposes. The contents of the kiosk can also be accessed remotely at http://science.beloit.greentouchscreen.com/.
The Chamberlin Rat culture has made the transition largely intact, with new student offices populated all hours of the day and (particularly) night as before. Come visit us. We will be delighted to show you around.
After an intense summer spent moving from Chamberlin Hall into the new Center for the Sciences and getting labs and instruments set up for fall classes, we have settled into a somewhat less hectic pace that allows us to enjoy teaching, learning, and socializing in our highly functional and attractive new spaces. Little things like enough fume hoods – that work and are quiet enough to encourage conversation in lab, spaces that are visible from the corridor so that visitors can see science being done, views across campus and the city from almost anyplace in the building, and public spaces that encourage interaction among the sciences and with many visitors from across campus all contribute to the highly positive impact of our new facility.
With Kathleen Mandell's decision to go to medical school, we have been fortunate to be able to keep Kevin Braun '99 on our staff for the 2008-9 and 2009-10 academic years after he served as George Lisensky's sabbatical replacement in 2007-8. With the arrival in July of H. Scott Bierman as Beloit College's 11th president and the move of Political Science Professor Ann Davies to become Academic Dean, we will begin a process of college-wide staff planning, which will include decisions about long-term staffing in the Chemistry and Biochemistry programs. By later in the year we hope to be able to start searching for a tenure track position in Biochemistry.
During the 2007-8 academic year, we completed a departmental self-study and an external review by Profs. Karen Nordell of Lawrence University and Lee Sharpe of Grinnell College. Coming out of our self-study and in response to both national trends and student interest, we have reorganized the majors that we offer. We have revised the Chemistry and Applied Chemistry majors to provide more flexibility in covering the five areas of chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical, analytical, and biochemistry) and in supporting courses. We have also added specific tracks in Environmental Chemistry and Biological Chemistry. In the environmental area, students can now choose specific environmental tracks in Chemistry, Biology, and Geology, or a new interdisciplinary Environmental Studies major with emphases in both science and policy. With the addition to the staff of molecular biologist Demetrius Gravis in the Biology Department, we now offer students the option of a major in Cellular and Molecular Biology in Biology, a major in Biological Chemistry in Chemistry, or an interdisciplinary Biochemistry Major spanning both departments. We have also just completed this summer our 5-year report to the American Chemical Society's Committee on Professional Training for recertification as an approved department.
As detailed in an earlier Newsletter, we replaced our atomic absorption spectrophotometer and NMR the last year that we were in Chamberlin, in preparation for the move. We also cleared out other old instruments, donating some to other colleges that could use them or sending them off to an industrial salvage company in Milwaukee. Our plan was to have largely new instrumentation in the new building. Kevin Braun has reviewed his work with students to build a Hadamard transform capillary electrophoresis system for collaborative work with Biology and Psychology.
A major addition this past year has been a replacement for our outdated HP gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS), which was donated for parts to another college with the same instrument of a similar vintage. Using Chemistry Department and Science Division endowed funds, raised in response to challenge grants from the Kresge and W. M. Keck Foundations in the 1980s, we obtained a Griffin 400 GC/MS. Developed at Purdue University for with support from the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, this compact (82 pound) instrument "can be mounted to operate in moving vehicles for rapid on-site detection, identification, quantification, and confirmation of chemicals" at the parts-per-trillion level. Although we don't anticipate taking it into the field, the GC/MS is clearly a robust and highly versatile instrument, providing the rapid throughput needed for routine use in larger courses, as well as enhanced capabilities, such as tandem MS/MS analysis, which can be of use in advanced instrumental courses. Kevin Braun has already put it to good use in his 225 Topics in Instrumentation course this past spring, and we ran analyses for organic lab projects as well.
We are currently completing the third year of our 5-year $500,000 Science Division grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. The major instrument for this past year, supported by the grant and matching Chemistry Department endowed funds, is a scanning probe microscope system. As this newsletter is going to press, the NT-MDT Solver Next instrument is being installed in Rama Viswanathan's Physical Chemistry laboratory on a new laser table with an active vibration cancellation platform added for the instrument. This research grade instrument has dual heads for both atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and Beloit's instrument will be one of the early instruments installed in the U.S. by this Russian company which is moving into the American market from a strong base in Europe. Consistent with theme of the Sherman Fairchild Foundation grant, this new instrument will take visualization of materials to the nano and even molecular scale. We will be working during the coming year to explore its capabilities and begin to integrate it into our courses and student/faculty research.
Finally, we call your attention to our students, as always. The graduating seniors have had a varied and rich set of experiences, matched by the variety of directions they are taking after graduation. Both for them and for the excellent crop of majors coming up in Chemistry and Biochemistry, the internship and research experiences that have allowed them to explore career options and prepare for their next steps are impressive. Their academic involvement is evident from their honors and success in being accepted into top graduate and professional programs. But so, too, is their involvement in athletics, service, and a variety of other co-curricular activities. Beloit College is noted for its unusually high level of "student engagement," which is certainly true of this outstanding group of majors.
Kevin Braun '99
Visiting Assistant Professor
B.S. (chemistry) and B.A. (anthropology) Beloit College
Ph.D. University of Arizona
At Beloit since 2007
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/braun
This year finds me settling into a new office and laboratory in the Science
Center. The transition into the new facility has been an exciting experience,
although a bit frantic initially with only a few weeks to unpack before students
arrived. This summer, though, provides me an opportunity to step back,
unpack a few more boxes, and appreciate the beautiful new space.
In the fall, I taught Chemistry 117 and a new course, Chemistry 115. The
new course was a topical general chemistry course that focused solely on Environmental
issues and sought to provide an entry point into the sciences for students with
little to no background in Chemistry. Topics discussed included global
warming, acid rain, automobile pollution, renewable energy, mining, and the social,
economic, and long-term environmental ramifications of current environmental
policies. New laboratories included the synthesis of biodiesel from used
DK’s fryer oil, Petri dish ecosystems for the analysis of acid rain, and
the extraction of copper from natural ores. Outside of the lingering fry
smell, the laboratories provided a foundation to critically evaluate and discuss
possible solutions to a range of environmental issues.
In the spring, I taught a section of Chemistry 117 (modeled off Chemistry 115)
and Chemistry 225: Topics in Instrumental Analysis. Chemistry 117, as in
the fall, focused on environmental issues and provided an opportunity to continue
to refine our biodiesel synthesis. The refined process resulted in a substantial
yield improvement and provided material for an expanded qualitative and quantitative
analysis section. This semester’s offering of Chemistry 225 differed
from previous semesters in that the analytes of interest were the focus rather
than instrumentation. The topic, Bioanalytical Chemistry, explored the
process of adapting, refining, and developing new analytical methodologies to
study biological molecules. Excitingly, the course attracted students from
both Chemistry and Biology and made use of the department’s new GC-Mass
Spectrometer.
On the research front, work continued on the 3-D printer with Leah Kelly 09’ spearheading
a retrofit with a new translation stage generously donated by Biology and optics
donated by Prof. Craig Aspinwall, my former advisor and current collaborator. In
a harmonic combination of her Chemistry and Art History majors, Leah used the
printer to fabricate a range of unique shapes in addition to a miniature Beloit
billboard and worked to characterize the polymerization volume. Rachel
Yucuis 09’ continued work on the capillary electrophoresis instrument with
LED induced fluorescence detection through an Honors Term in the spring. Substantial
progress was made with completion of the instrument only awaiting the addition
of a PMT and home built high voltage power supply. The first application
of the instrument will be a collaborative project between Psychology, Biology,
and Chemistry for the analysis of neurotransmitters. Also in the spring,
Tess Jacquez 11’, through the generous support of the WiscAMP consortium,
conducted research on the utilization of discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) as
a means to denoise electropherograms collected by Hadamard transform capillary
electrophoresis (HTCE). The collaborative project with Prof. Bruce Atwood
from the Mathematics department and Prof. Craig A. Aspinwall from the University
of Arizona seeks to exploit the denoising capabilities of wavelets to facilitate
the reduction of the Hadamard matrix size required to resolve low concentration
analytes. The combined HTCE-DWT will provide an efficient means to monitor
fast neurotransmitter concentration dynamics by increasing the repetition rate
for Hadamard application while still facilitating low detection limits. Once
the project is complete, Tess will travel to the University of Arizona to apply
her research to the Aspinwall group’s HTCE instrument.
Overall, it has been an exciting year to be at Beloit with the move into the
new Science Center. If you find yourself in the area, please stop by and
check it out.
George Lisensky
Professor
B.A. Earlham College
Ph.D. California Institute of Technology
At Beloit since 1980
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/Lisensky
In the fall of 2008 George taught Introductory Chemistry (117) and Solid State Chemistry (250). He organized the seventh annual International Student Symposium at Beloit. A previous workshop presentation in Dar es Salaam, Tanazania, was written up in “Materials Science in the Developing World: Challenges and Perspectives for Africa,” Adv. Mater. 2008, 20, 4627–4640. He also was invited to Israel for a week to run a nanotechnology workshop and talk about laboratory education.
In the spring of 2009 George taught Environmental, Analytical and Geochemistry (220) and Nanochemistry (150). He attended the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Salt Lake City, UT, where he gave two invited talks. One of these was written up in “Integrating Nanoscience into the Classroom: Perspectives on Nanoscience Education Projects,” ACS Nano, 2009, 3 (4), pp 762–769. The journal article included two photographs of Beloit students doing nanochemistry in the new Science Center!
Through George’s continued association with the University of Wisconsin – Madison
Materials Science Research and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured
Materials and Interfaces, Beloit students Brian Liewergen ‘10, Kim Pater ‘12,
Hanna Thornberg ‘11, Rachel Yucuis ‘09, Stephen Rudisill ‘09,
Catherine Cooper ‘11, Adam Nicholas ‘12, Adilene Dominguez ‘12,
and Jamie Eversage ‘12 helped present science to the public at the biannual
Engineering Expo at UW – Madison, April 17-18, 2009 where they explained
Nanoworld table top demonstrations.
In July 2009 George will again organize and teach a week-long workshop at Beloit
for college chemistry faculty from around the country on Materials Science
and Nanotechnology as part of the NSF-funded Center for Workshops in the Chemical
Sciences administered by Georgia State University. See https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/cwcs/. George
has also been accepted to participate in a workshop “Assessing the Effectiveness
of Visualization Projects” and a Gordon Research Conference on “Visualization
in Science and Education,” both at Oxford, England in July, 2009.
Presentations
• Conference opening presentation “Online
Video Lab Manual for Nanoscale Science and Technology,” Conference on Undergraduate
Laboratories, Safed, Israel, Sept. 8, 2008.
• Plenary talk, George Lisensky and Rama Viswanathan, “3D Computer
Projection in the Classroom,” Midwestern Association of Chemistry Teachers
at Liberal Arts Colleges, University of Dubuque, IA, Oct. 17, 2008.
• “Resource Materials for Nanoscale Science and Technology Education,” Chicago
Section American Association Physics Teachers, Crystal Lake, IL, Nov. 11, 2008.
• “A First-Year Undergraduate Course in Nanotechnology,” American
Chemical Society National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, March 22, 2009.
• “Illustrating materials science and nanochemistry using JCE classroom
activities,” American Chemical Society National Meeting, Salt Lake City,
UT, March 23, 2009.
• “Nanoparticles for Nanodays,” Discovery Center Science Museum,
Rockford, IL, April 4, 2009.
Workshops
• “Hands-on Nanotechnology Laboratory Experiments,” Bar-Ilan
University, Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Ramat-Gan,
Israel, Sept. 7, 2008.
• AP Chemistry, Big 8 A.P. Math and Science Conference, Oct. 15, 2008.
• “Nanotechnology Physics Workshop,” Chicago Section American
Association Physics Teachers, Crystal Lake, IL, Nov. 11, 2008.
• Octadecanethiol Monolayer on Silver, “Integrating Nanotechnology
into K12 Classrooms,” Baldwin Workshop, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
April 30, 2009.
• Middle and High School Nanoscience, Danville, KY, June 23, 2009
Notes for the coming year:
• Linus Pauling meeting notes - May, 2009 - Twice a day: vitamin C,
500 mg. Once a day: vitamin E, 400 iu; fishoil, 1-2 g; vitamin D, 2,000
iu; vitamin K-500 mcg!!!
• "Be conscious of what you put in your body."
• Meditate.
• Search for and find happiness and wisdom at http://beloit.edu/~ordman/courses/classes/chem12702/C12702schedule.htm
• Email ordman@beloit.edu, subject: send nutrition newsletter, to get bimonthly
peer-reviewed nutrition summaries.
• Email ordman@beloit.edu to let me know how you are doing.
Life is so beautiful! Loving kindness is my religion! Exploring consciousness and nutrition and peace is my profession. Having a wonderful family including many of you and present Beloit College students is my sustenance. -Roc
Laura E. Parmentier
Professor and Chair
B.S. Northland College
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin - Madison
At Beloit since 1991
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry/parmentier
This has been a very enjoyable teaching year for me. With two large sections of Chem 230 in the fall and two lab sections of Chem 235 in the spring, most of my time is still largely devoted to organic chemistry, courses I love to teach. Projects in Chem 235 were particularly fun this year with ample hood space and new instrumentation, and we will have several new molecules with which to begin our new Organic Wall of Fame. I also taught our interdisciplinary, laboratory based Women’s Health class this year, together with Professor Suzanne Cox (Psychology). Enrollment demand for the course was quite high (more than 50 students pre-registered), so we are looking at ways we can keep the unique interdisciplinary classroom teaching component but also accommodate larger numbers in the laboratory. The opportunity to team-teach this course, and model daily our interdisciplinary approaches to women’s health, is a distinct pleasure.
I have three ongoing research projects. One is the continuation of the climate change project I began during my sabbatical in Norway with Dr. Matthias Paetzel from Sogn og Fjordane University College. I spent summer of 2008 in Norway, and I anticipate returning in the summer of 2010 to complete our work. In the meantime, we have one Beloit College student enrolled in the From Mountain to Fjord Program for international students beginning in the fall of 2009. The second on-going project is the completion of two manuscripts based on work completed as part of my NSF-CCLI grant in organic chemistry education. One is completed and has been submitted for publication, the other is in the final stages of preparation.
Finally, the resurgence of interest in scholarly work within the academy on academic women in the sciences who are also mothers (see for instance Biernat, M., Crosby, F., & Williams, J. (2004). The maternal wall: Research and policy perspectives on discrimination against mothers. NY: Blackwell; Evans, E. & Grant, C. (2008). Mama, PhD: Women write about motherhood and academic life. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press; Williams, J.C. (Nov., Dec., 2004). Hitting the Maternal Wall http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2004/ND/Feat/04ndwill.htm) has compelled me to revisit my earlier women in science work. To this end, Professor Suzanne Cox and I presented a paper entitled “Combining an Academic Career and Motherhood on a Liberal Arts College Campus: Ensuring Models of Success,” as part of a symposium sponsored by the Association for Research on Mothering at Brandeis University in February 2009.
As always, it’s the opportunity to work with outstanding students and colleagues that sustains our work here. Professors Kevin Braun and George Lisensky and I had the particular pleasure this spring to travel to Salt Lake City Utah for the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society with Leah Kelly (Chemistry ’09), Hilary Schwafel (Biochemistry ’09) and May Fern Toh (Biochemistry ’09). George gave two presentations, and the students each presented a poster based on their summer research. In addition, we enjoyed numerous excellent talks, “shopping” at the expo, skiing at Alta (!), and sight seeing in beautiful Salt Lake City.
Brock continues to teach Introductory Chemistry (117) both fall and spring semesters using modules developed under the ChemLinks project. He plans to be involved in a project starting this summer to revise these materials so that they can be used independently as individual thematic in-class or laboratory-based activities. The publisher (W.W. Norton) is interested in this project because of the greatly increased use of inquiry-based approaches to learning tied to relevant applications, a development that we helped to initiate more than a decade ago. Because of his involvement in undergraduate science education reform efforts, Brock was an invited participant at a workshop on "Promising Practices in Undergraduate STEM Education" convened by the National Science Foundation and the Board on Science Education of the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. in June, 2008.
Last fall, Brock and Robin Greenler co-taught an Environmental Studies course "Buildings as Teachers." Its focus was to have teams of students produce materials that would interpret the new Science Center to a variety of audiences, particularly it's green features. The 24 students produced an amazing array of projects including an archival photo history of where and how science has been taught at Beloit, way-finding signs for the building, a short video showing students how different spaces could be used, a series of displays of green materials used in the building, work with our housekeeping staff on green housekeeping practices, and a survey of the occupants to assess the building's indoor environmental quality. An outgrowth of the course was an Honors Term project by Connor Donahue '09 to develop a self-guided tour of the green aspects of the building, as well as guidelines for tours for prospective science students, both of which will be useful for what has become an average of at least two tours of the building per week for a variety of audiences. Last October in Madison, Brock and James Baird, the principal architect with Holabird & Root, gave a presentation on the Science Center to the North Central Regional Conference of the Society for College and University Planning.
During the past year, Brock has been involved with others in preparing successful proposals to the Beloit Foundation and the Booth Farris Foundation for the building and new scientific instrumentation for it. He continues to administer the 5-year grant for $500,000 from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for scientific equipment. In the current year it has helped to support Dr. Rongping Deng, our building Instrument Specialist, obtain a high definition digital capture system for use in biology and psychology for animal behavior studies, and an atomic force microscope (AFM) for chemistry and physics, which was installed early this summer. Expect to hear quite a bit about the AFM in next year's newsletter. We also obtained a new GC/Mass Spec this year using endowed funds from the Chemistry Department and The Science Division. Scheduled for the coming year is a replacement for our venerable FT IR spectrometer, as well as new digital polarized light microscopes for Geology.
This was a busy year following the successful move to the new Center for the Sciences. The exciting (albeit hectic) part was setting up the brand new Visualization and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) laboratory in approximately1100 sq. ft. of space on the top floor of the building facing west, with a beautiful view of the Rock River, the west side of Beloit, and glorious sunsets. This state-of-the art computer laboratory houses computer equipment including 9 Mac Pro Desktops equipped with 30 inch LCD screen displays and capable of booting Mac OS, Windows XP, and Linux. The laboratory was partially funded by a National Science Foundation grant (DUE-CCCLI # 0633651) The laboratory aims to innovate and enhance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education through development of an interdisciplinary minor emphasizing two key aspects of computational science – computational visualization and modeling (CVM). [See https://www.beloit.edu/academics/fields/minors/computational_overview.php for more details.] I am the advisor for the minor, and am working hard to convince my colleagues in the building that CVM ought to be required for all science and math/cs majors! Finally, I presented details of the project at a national CCLI meeting that NSF selected me to attend in Washington, D.C., in August, 2008. The proceedings have been published as a resource guide.
Chemistry 245 "Molecular Visualization, Modeling, and Computational Chemistry" was taught for the first time in the new facility in fall 2008, and is now permanently scheduled to be taught in this laboratory. The new Conputer Science161 "Data Visualization" course that I developed and that is a key requirement for the CVM minor was also taught successfully in the new facility this spring. In addition, an environmental studies course emphasizing GIS, which uses cutting-edge software, was taught by Geology Professor Sue Swanson. Finally, Physics Professor Paul Stanley used the unique Ubuntu/Linux boot option for the laboratory part of Physics 260 "Computational Physics," where students experimented with clustering the multi-core machines for computations. Thus, the laboratory has already become very popular and has lived up to expectations that courses emphasizing visualization, computer modeling and simulation, and GIS would find the unique facilities very appropriate in terms of both pedagogy and curriculum.
A unique feature of the laboratory is the ability to display computer-generated pictures and images in true 3D using a portable GeoWall dual-projector system, and I used this system very effectively in both the CHEM245 and CS161 courses, as well as in a workshop for parents and teachers attending the annual Girls and Women in Science Conference at Beloit in the spring. George Lisensky and I also presented the system to colleagues in a keynote session at the Annual Meeting of the Midwestern Association of Chemistry Teachers in Liberal Arts Colleges (MACTLAC) held at the University of Dubuque, Iowa in fall 2008.
Dr. Chia Hung '91, Ph.D. in immunology, talked to the Chemistry Seminar on October 24, 2009.
A DO Medical School Fair with representatives of 11 osteopathic medical schools was held in the atrium of the Science Center on November 12, 2008.
Dr. Ken Foreman, Director, Semester in Environmental Science at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA was on campus on February 9th. He gave a talk on "How Ecosystems Science & the SES can help prepare you for Careers in Environmental Science & Management” where he discussed what the Ecosystems Center does and how this work informs decisions about applied issues, as well as careers of several students and how the Semester in Environmental Science helped them.
Dan Murphy ’08 an Associate Research Specialist for Fariba Assadi-Porter in the Markley Lab at the National Magnetic Resonance Facility (NMRFAM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gave a seminar on May 5th on "Metabolomics and Sweet STD NMR Spectroscopy: Early-Diagnosis of Complex Diseases and Membrane-Bound Sweet Taste Receptor Molecular Interactions with 1-D 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy."
| 117 | Chemistry | 83 |
| 127 | Biochemical Issues | 19 |
| 225 | Instrumental: NMR & Chromatography | 8 |
| 230 | Organic Chemistry I | 43 |
| 245 | Molecular Modeling/Visualization | 4 |
| 250 | Solid State Chemistry | 7 |
| 300 | Biochemistry of Macromolecules | 16 |
| 380 | Senior Seminar | 13 |
| 385 | Senior Thesis | 7 |
| 390 | Special Projects | 1 |
| 395 | Teaching Assistant | 4 |
| Total | 206 |
| 117 | Chemistry | 56 |
| 127 | Biochemical Issues | 16 |
| 150 | Nanochemistry | 4 |
| 220 | Environmental, Analytical, & Geochemistry | 19 |
| 225 | Bioanalytical chemistry | 7 |
| 235 | Organic Chemistry II | 29 |
| 240 | Thermodynamics and Kinetics | 3 |
| 260 | Biometabolism | 25 |
| 280 | Professional Tools for Chemists | 11 |
| 380 | Senior Seminar | 4 |
| 385 | Senior Thesis | 3 |
| 390 | Special Projects | 1 |
| 395 | Teaching Assistant | 2 |
| Total | 180 |
| Tanishka | Armbrister | 2010 | Biochemistry | Nassau, Bahamas |
| Karen | Baumann | 2010 | Chemistry (Minor) | Chicago, IL |
| Abraham | Behrmann | 2010 | Chemistry | Brentwood, Missouri |
| Catherine | Cooper | 2011 | Chemistry | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Benjamin | Dahl | 2011 | Environmental Chemistry | Lambertville, New Jersey |
| Shanna | Dell | 2010 | Biochemistry | Madison, Wisconsin |
| Michael | Devine | 2010 | Biochemistry | Winnebago, Illinois |
| Dana | Dieringer | 2010 | Biochemistry | Marshfield, Wisconsin |
| Mary | Evans | 2011 | Biochemistry | Beloit, Wisconsin |
| Geethika | Fernando | 2010 | Biochemistry | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Jennifer | Gilbertson | 2012 | Chemistry | Novato, California |
| Kyle | Hansgen | 2010 | Chemistry | Sebring, Florida |
| Zeke | Hess | 2010 | Applied Chemistry | Halstad, Minnesota |
| Allie | Hunter | 2012 | Chemistry | Stevens Point, Wisconsin |
| Savanah | Huston | 2012 | Biochemistry | Roscoe, Illinois |
| Tess | Jacquez | 2011 | Chemistry | Pescadero, California |
| Izlinda | Jamaluddin | 2010 | Biochemistry | Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia |
| Faith | Jones | 2012 | Biochemistry | Elburn, Illinois |
| Christopher | Juels | 2011 | Applied Chemistry | Atalissa, Iowa |
| Kourtney | Kingslien | 2012 | Chemistry | Beloit, Wisconsin |
| Theresa | Lamb | 2010 | Biochemistry | Milton, Wisconsin |
| Brynson | Lemkuhl | 2011 | Biological Chemistry | South Elgin, Illinois |
| Clare | Loxterkamp | 2010 | Applied Chemistry | Belfast, Maine |
| Brian | Maunze | 2010 | Biochemistry | New York, New York |
| Roald | Morris | 2011 | Chemistry | San Jose, California |
| Kelsey | Morse | 2010 | Chemistry | Carlinville, Illinois |
| Anny | Nguyen | 2010 | Biochemistry | Beloit, Wisconsin |
| Nicholas | O'Block | 2011 | Biochemistry | Highland Park , Illinois |
| Keith | Olson | 2011 | Biochemistry | Elmhurst, Illinois |
| Jessica | Panks | 2010 | Biochemistry | Issaquah, Washington |
| Darren | Pilcher | 2010 | Chemistry | Phoenix, Arizona |
| John | Rindfleisch | 2011 | Biochemistry | Clinton, Wisconsin |
| Annemarie | Rini | 2010 | Environmental Chemistry | Valparaiso, Indiana |
| Kathleen | Schurr | 2010 | Chemistry (Minor) | Canal Winchester, Ohio |
| Li | Shen | 2012 | Chemistry | Shanghai, China |
| Corey | Shircliff | 2011 | Biochemistry | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Diana | Sopkowicz | 2011 | Biochemistry | West Bend, Wisconsin |
| Alisha | Takahashi | 2010 | Applied Chemistry | Green Bay, Wisconsin |
| Robert | Wilkins | 2010 | Environmental Chemistry | Helena, Montana |
| SUMMA CUM LAUDE | Laurel Purdy May Fern Toh (Bachelor of Science hood) Jason Tse |
| MAGNA CUM LAUDE | Jill Beamon Kelsey Frei Paul Mueller Stephen Rudisill Rachel Yucuis |
| CUM LAUDE | Aarti Chawla Meilssa Goslawski Derek Keefer Han Lai Michael Mandel |
| DEPARTMENTAL HONORS | Daniel Addis – Chemistry Jill Beamon – Biochemistry Aarti Chawla – Biochemistry Derek Keefer – Chemistry Leah Kelly – Chemistry Han Lai – Biochemistry Michael Mandel – Physics Paul Mueller – Chemistry Stephen Rudisill – Chemistry, Theatre Arts Hilary Schwafel – Biochemistry May Fern Toh - Biochemistry Jason Tse – Biochemistry |
| Phi Beta Kappa | Kelsey Frei '09 Laurel Purdy '09 (elected as a junior) Stephen Rudisill '09 May Fern Toh '09 (elected as a junior) Jason Tse '09 Anny Nguyen '10 (elected as a junior) |
| Mortar Board | Jason Tse '09 |
| Eta Sigma Phi | Laurel Purdy '09 |
| Order of Omega | Daniel Addis '09 Jill Beamon '09 |
JOHN H. NAIR AWARD
honors an alumnus (Class of 1915) and
provides membership in the American Chemical Society for one or more seniors
who plan careers in chemistry.
Paul Mueller '09, Stephen Rudisill '09
EDWARD C. FULLER AWARD in CHEMICAL EDUCATION
was established by the majors of the Class of 1982 in honor of Professor Fuller
and is given to a junior or senior who has done outstanding work as a teaching
assistant.
Kelsey Frei '09, Derek Keefer '09
WILLIAM J. TRAUTMAN AWARD IN PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY
recognizes chemistry majors for outstanding performance in physical chemistry.
Professor Trautman taught chemistry at Beloit College from 1921 to 1947.
Darren Pilcher '10, Annemarie Rini '10, May Fern Toh '09
CRC PRESS FIRST YEAR CHEMISTRY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
recognizes outstanding work by a first-year student and consists of a copy of
the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.
Jamie Eversage '12
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry recognizes outstanding work in
the introductory organic chemistry course.
Kiera Hayes '12, Allie Hunter '12
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY AWARD
sponsored
by the Division of Analytical Chemistry, recognizes a student who displays
an aptitude for analytical chemistry.
Tanishka Armbrister '10
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY AWARD FOR ACHIEVEMENT IN INORGANIC
CHEMISTRY
sponsored by the Division of Inorganic Chemistry, recognizes undergraduate
achievement in inorganic chemistry.
Alisha Takahashi '10
FREE RADICAL AWARD
established by chemistry majors in the classes of 1986-1988,
this award is given only occasionally to recognize academic achievement and
particularly unusual “social spirit,” as is fitting for the catalytic
effect of chemical free radicals.
Leah Kelly '09
EDWARD STEVENS '78 RESEARCH AWARD
was established in his honor and provides funds for chemistry-related undergraduate
research and travel to present research results.
Leah Kelly '09, Hilary Schwafel '09, May Fern Toh '09
ANN M. VERVILLE SCHOLAR’S AWARD (Biology Department)
presented to an
upper class biology major chosen by the biology department faculty as the outstanding
student of the year.
May Fern Toh '09
GERTRUDE E. SWEET AWARD (Biology Department)
presented to a biology student
who is committed to serving others and demonstrates leadership in societal
issues related to the life sciences.
Kelsey Frei '09
CONWELL-HUFFER MATHEMATICS PRIZE (Mathematics and Computer
Science Department)
recognizes an outstanding senior major. Established
in 1978, the prize honors two former department chairs: Hermon Conwell, who
taught from 1920 to 1952, and Ralph Huffer, whose Beloit career covered 1923
to 1961.
Han Lai '09
JUNE BAKER MEMORIAL AWARD (Music Department),
a memorial to
June Baker established in 1989.
Laurel Purdy '09, Stephen Rudisill '09
R. R. PALMER FELLOWSHIP IN TEACHING AWARD (Physics and Astronomy
Department)
recognizes an upperclass physics major of high scholarship and potential
in teaching for work as a teaching assistant in an introductory course. Established
in 1975 by alumni and staff in honor of Professor Palmer, former Chair of the
Physics Department.
Michael Mandel '09
GUY ALLEN TAWNEY PRIZE (Department of Psychology)
is awarded
to a rising junior who has achieved academic excellence in the psychology field
of study and contributed to the life of the department. The prize was established
in 1989 by the department in honor of Professor Tawney, Beloit's first psychologist,
who taught mental and moral science from 1897 to 1907.
Keith Olson '11
2008-2009 Athletic Honors
All-Midwest Conference First Teams
Tess Jacquez '11 – Volleyball
Leah Kelly '09 – Softball
Bo Wilkins '10 – Soccer
All-Midwest Conference Academic First Teams
Tanishka Armbrister '10 – Track
Tess Jacquez '11 – Volleyball, Softball
Leah Kelly '09 – Softball
Clare Loxterkamp '10 – Soccer
Daren Pilcher '10 – Baseball
Katie Schurr '10 - Track
Hilary Schwafel '09 – Track
, Cross Country
Diana Sopkowicz '11 – Basketball
Alisha Takahashi '10 – Soccer
American Chemical Society National Meeting, Salt Lake City, March 22-26, 2009
Leah Kelly '09 – Size Controlled Growth of Sexthiophene Islands on Silicon Dioxide: Toward Spatially Resolved Interfacial Charge Transfer Studies in Organic Solar Cells (work done at the University of Arizona)
Hilary Schwafel '09 – Use of Surface Plasmon Resonance Techniques for Screening Novel Compounds with Applications to Autism Treatment (work done at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks)
Fern Toh '09 – Structure-Function Studies of Neuropeptide Processing Enzyme EP 24.15 (work done at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Sciences/Chicago Medical School)
WiscAMP Symposium, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, April 7, 2009
Tess Jacquez '11 – Denoising Fast Hadamand Transform Capillary Electrophoresis Signals Using Wavelet Transforms (work done at Beloit College with Kevin Braun and Bruce Atwood)
Beloit College 33rd Annual Student Symposium, April 16, 2009
Tanishka Armbrister '10
Individualizing Chemotherapy: A Pharmacogenomic Approach (work done at Beloit
College with Laura Parmentier and Demetrius Gravis)
2008 Midstates Consortium Undergraduate Symposium in
Biology and Psychology
October 31-November 2, 2008, University of Chicago
Tanishka Armbrister '10 – Individualizing Chemotherapy: A Pharmacogenomic Approach
Jill Beamon '09 – Investigation of the Enterochelin System and Acetyl Phosphate in Iron Uptake by OmpR Mutants of Escherichia Coli
Shanna Dell '10 – A Gender Study on ADCC Activity Against HIV
Peter Reiss '08 – Regulation of Aminoacylase-1 (ACY-1) in Glioma Cell Lines
The Beloit Biologist, Volume 28, 2009
Jill Beamon '09 with Sylvia Reimann and Alan Wofe – Iron Uptake in OmpRMutants of Escherichia Coli is not Dependent on the Enterochelin System or Acetyl Phosphate
Aarti Chawla '09 with Kijong Rhee and Cynthia Sears – Biologically Active Bacteroides Fragilis Toxin Initiates Cleavage of Intestinal Surface Proteins E-cadherin, Carbonic Anhydrase IX, and Desmoglein-2 in Vitro
Melissa M. Goslawski '09 – Including Men in Vaccination
Programs for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) May Decrease Occurrence of Genital
Warts and Cervical Cancer in Certain Populations
Leigh Ella Hirte '09 – Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) as an Alternative
Treatment for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) Wound
Infections
Jason Tse '09 – Mechanisms of Axonal Degeneration in Multiple Sclerosis
Tanishka Armbrister '10 spent the summer of 2008 in the University of Chicago
Summer Research Training Program in the Dolan Lab (University of Chicago Hospital
- Medicine, Hematology/Oncology Department). This summer she has a clinical
internship at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau, Bahamas.
Catherine Cooper '11 will be working with Kelly Knudson '97 in her new archaeological
chemistry lab at Arizona State University for the first part of the summer,
then moving to Brown University to work in Annie Schmidt's EEB lab.
Dana Dieringer '10 was accepted into the University of Iowa's Microbiology Summer Program. She is working in an immunology lab, studying the formation of the antibody repertoire.
Mary Evans '11 has been accepted into the 2009 Summer Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Jamie Eversage '12 is spending the summer at Beloit working with George Lisensky on his nanochemistry projects.
Jenny Gilbertson '12 is taking calculus and EMC/first responder courses, as well as working in a women's clinic in San Francisco.
Savannah Huston '12 is working at Roscoe Animal Rescue near her home in Roscoe, IL.
Tess Jacquez '11 has a summer research position at Syracuse University on an organic synthesis project. She also worked with Kevin Braun during the academic year as part of the WiscAMP program.
Chris Juels '11 has a job at the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City.
Theresa Lamb '10 will be a Schweppe Scholar this summer doing research at Loyola University in Chicago.
Brynson Lehmkuhl '10 has a summer research internship at Rush Medical University in Chicago.
Clare Loxterkamp '10 spent the spring semester studying in the CIEE program at the University of Rennes II in France.
Adam Nicholas '12 has a summer internship at Kerry Ingredients and Flavors in Beloit.
Anny Nguyen ‘10 is one of only four students selected for a summer research position in the UW-Madison Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Summer Research Program.
Keith Olson '11 has a summer internship at the University of Washington – Seattle
working with nanotube proteins.
Darren Pilcher '10, is participating in the DAAD RISE (Research Internships
in Science and Engineering) program this summer in a project entitled, "Improvement
of a continuous mode equilibration system for trace gas analysis in seawater." It
is at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at Kiel University in Kiel,
Germany.
Katie Schurr '10 was selected for a summer NSF/REU program in biological anthropology
at Notre Dame University.
Alicia Takahashi '10 spent the spring semester studying at James Cook University
in Townsville, Australia.
Fern Toh '09 has an internship at Orlandi Inc. in New York this summer doing
lab chemistry in the area of promotional products for the fine-fragrance, candle,
and cosmetic industries.
Elise Wall '10 is working on a project to replicate cryovolcanic conditions on Titan at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA.
Bo Wilkins '10 spent the spring semester studying at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Rachel Yucuis '09 had an Honors Term in the spring semester working with Kevin Braun on building capillary electrophoresis instrumentation and being a TA for Chemistry 220.
Daniel Addis – Scandia, Minnesota
Applied Chemistry Major
Dan worked in the Tourtellotte lab at Northwestern University as part of his
Schweppe internship, where he assisted in genotyping mouse litters by PCR and
helped design and cloned a recombinant plasmid. He also worked at Electrol
Specialties Company in South Beloit on up-scaling the production of a novel
pharmaceutical substance. As a proud member of Phi Kappa Psi philanthropic
fraternity, Dan will continue to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity as he attends
pharmacy school in the near future.
Rachael Alfredson – South Beloit, Illinois
Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biology; Chemistry Minor
Jill Beamon – Lexington, Massachusetts
Biochemistry Major
While at Beloit, Jill was granted the Schweppe Biomedical Research Fellowship
where she worked with Dr. Alan Wolfe at the University of Loyola, Chicago.
She researched iron uptake in ompR mutants of E. coli and presented her work
at the Midstates Undergraduate Research Symposium. The summer before her junior
year she studied medical Spanish in Santiago, Chile. Also, she studied for
a semester in Barcelona, Spain where she had an internship in a molecular genetics
lab. She participated in the Girls and Women in Science program at Beloit College.
Aarti Chawla – Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Biochemistry Major
Aarti's research experiences at Beloit College have included working with Dr.
Bill Brown on a supramolecular chemistry special project in the fall semester
of 2005, a summer (2007) internship in the department of microbiology
and immunology at Loyola University in Chicago through the Schweppe scholars
program, and a summer (2008) internship in the departments of gastroenterology
and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. During the
fall 2006 semester, she gained a lot through being a TA for John Jungck's microbiology
class. She studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark during the spring 2007 semester,
in the DIS medical practice and policy program. Aarti participated in the Midstates
Science and Math Consortium in St Louis in the fall 2007 semester where she
presented her summer research from Loyola. After graduating from Beloit College,
Aarti will be enrolling in the biomedical gateway Ph.D. program at Indiana
University, where she hopes to join the departments of microbiology and immunology.
Kelsey Frei – Janesville, Wisconsin
Biochemistry Major
Kelsey has done a lot of TA work in the organic chemistry courses and was a
coordinator of the 2009 Girls and Women in Science conference. Next year
she will be doing graduate work in the School of Pharmacy at the University
of Wisconsin – Madison.
Melissa Goslawski – Western Springs, Illinois
Biochemistry Major
Ellie Hirte – Eagan, Minnesota
Biochemistry Major, Health and Society Minor
Derek Keefer – Richland, Washington
Chemistry Major
In the summer of 2006 Derek worked with George Lisensky on Prussian blue thin
films. Last summer he completed research in the National Nanotechnology
Infrastructure Network (NNIN) at Penn State, where he was working
on developing a new type of transistor. During his senior year he has been
a valuable teaching assistant for organic and analytical chemistry, and instrument
technician for the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. Derek
will be returning to Penn State this fall to enter the Ph.D. program in materials
chemistry.
Leah Kelly – Tucson, Arizona
Chemistry Major, Art History Major
Leah started out in both Chemistry and Art History and decided she did not
need to choose between them, completing both majors. She has been a teaching
assistant for General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, a resident assistant,
student representative for the chemistry department, and president of the Chemistry
Club, as well as playing varsity softball for four years. As a junior
she worked with Kevin Braun to build a 3D printer. In the summer of 2008
she went back to the desert to work with Dr. Monti in the Chemistry Department
at the University of Arizona depositing and characterizing thin films, and
was able to play for the chemistry graduate student slow pitch softball team
- The Free Radicals. She presented this research at the ACS Spring 2009
National Meeting in Salt Lake City. This summer she and Hilary Schwafel
'09 plan to go on an adventure in Ireland for several weeks before Leah moves
back to the University of Arizona as a chemistry graduate student in pursuit
of a Ph.D. while continuing to play softball as much as possible.
Han Lai – Chengdu, Sichuan, People's Republic of China
Biochemistry Major, Computer Science Major, Computational Visualization
and Modeling Minor
Han started with a Biochemistry major and later on started liking computer
programming and decided to complete both majors. In the summer of 2007, he
worked with Profs. John Jungck and Rama Viswanathan on a Excel front end VB
program called BioGrapher, which analyzes network interactions. He helped program
a Tree structure and Newick data type import engine for protein interaction
and food web analyses. He did an internship in the JMP Genome group at the
SAS Institute Inc. in the summer of 2008, working on an import engine and analysis
program for Tiling arrays, which is one type of DNA micro-array. This project
involved thermodynamic energy, DNA hybridization equilibrium, and C++ programming. He
has been a TA for Genetics, Calculus, and Analytical Chemistry, and has modified
programs that were designed for Mac OS 9 so that they can run on the new Mac
OS X. He has two opportunities after graduation, one is a Genetic, Bioinformatics,
Computational Biology program at Virginia Tech working on comparative genomes
with pattern matching programs; another is a job at DNA Star Inc. in Madison,
WI.
Michel Mandel – St Louis, Missouri
Physics Major, Chemistry Minor
Michael will be returning in the Fall of 2009 for an honors term to continue
research in the field of Fluid Dynamics with Professor Paul Stanley. He
plans to apply to attend graduate school in Physics or Materials Science in
2010.
Paul Mueller – Streamwood, Illinois
Chemistry Major
Paul is interested in materials chemistry, particularly the many commercial
and environmental applications of new materials. Last summer he did materials
research at the University of Iowa, and next fall he will return there to work
toward his Ph.D. in chemistry. During his time at Beloit, Paul enjoyed
being a tutor and teaching assistant for the chemistry department.
Laurel Purdy – Canby, Oregon
Classical Philology Major, Chemistry Minor
Laurel, a Classical Philology major, decided to minor in Chemistry after thoroughly
enjoying George Lisensky's Nanotechnology FYI. For two summers she worked
for the department, conducting thermodynamics research with Rama Viswanathan
in 2007 and helping in the move to the new Science Center in 2008. She
spent a semester in Rome through the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies
and another in Budapest on exchange. She will return to Hungary in the
fall to teach English for a year.
Stephen Rudisill – Beloit, Wisconsin
Chemistry Major, Theatre Arts (Acting and Directing) Major, Music Minor
Stephen Rudisill presented his thesis, "Charge-Conduction Layers and Electroluminescence
of Silicon Nanoparticles," during the Fall 2008 semester, on research
from the previous summer with the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. He had also presented this
research earlier in a national convocation at Cornell University. After graduation,
he will be moving to Minneapolis to work with Dr. Andreas Stein at the University
of Minnesota on synthesis of macroporous media. In June, he and Rhiannon Chavey
'09 will get married. Next year, he will begin pursuing a doctorate degree
in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities.
Hilary Schwafel – Fairbanks, Alaska
Biochemistry Major, Physics Minor
Hilary thoroughly enjoyed her time with the chemistry department at Beloit,
serving as a teaching assistant and as a department student representative.
She participated in an REU program in the Mechanical Engineering Department
at Washington University in St. Louis, working on a molecular modeling project.
She presented her findings at the 2007 Midstates Science and Math Consortium's
Undergraduate Research Symposium. She also spent a summer in a biochemistry
lab at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, working on a potential Autism drug.
She wrote her senior thesis on this project, and also presented a poster at
the 2009 American Chemical Society National Meeting in Utah. Hilary's international
experience was going to Sweden to race in the 2007 sled dog World Championships,
placing 16th in the 4-dog class with a borrowed team. While at Beloit, Hilary
was a 4-year athlete on the Cross-Country and Track teams, and active in the
Women's Center club and Girls and Women in Science. She was also co-(re)founder
of the Beloit College Chemistry Club. After graduation, she plans to return
to University of Alaska – Fairbanks to continue working on her earlier
project for the summer and then apply to Veterinary/Ph.D. programs. In the
meantime, she will race sled dogs and entertain herself by substitute teaching.
May Fern Toh – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Biochemistry Major
During her time at Beloit, Fern enjoyed all her chemistry classes and also
her experience as a teacher's assistant in several classes. With a strong interest
in cosmetic science, she was the recipient of the 2006 Midwest Society of Cosmetic
Scientists Undergraduate Scholarship Award. In the summer of 2007 she was a
summer intern at Rosalind Franklin University of Science and Medicine, doing
structure-function studies in neuropeptide processing enzymes. She presented
this research in the 2007 Midstates Science and Math Consortium's Undergraduate
Research Symposium and in a poster at the 2009 American Chemical Society National
Meeting in Utah. In summer 2008 she did research in medicinal chemistry at
the University of Kentucky. Next year she will be pursuing a doctorate
degree in medicinal chemistry at University of Illinois - Chicago and hopes
to focus more on cosmetic science in the future.
Jason Tse – Beloit, Wisconsin
Biochemistry Major
Jason spent two summers interning at the University of Pittsburgh and University
of Wisconsin-Madison where he did research in immunology, focusing on dendritic
cell-based vaccines and the role and function of natural killer t-cells, respectively.
He presented his research projects at the Midstates Undergraduate Research
Symposium. In addition, he was a tutor at the Stateline Literacy Council and
Beloit College Community Outreach Center. Jason was elected to Phi Beta Kappa
and Mortar Board and was active in intramural sports and the Beloit College
Orchestra. Jason plans to attend medical school in Kansas City in the fall.
Rachel Yucuis – Iowa City, Iowa
Chemistry Major
During her freshman year, Rachel joined Alpha Sigma Tau sorority and became
involved in the Beloit College chapter of Habitat for Humanity. She has continued
to be active in both organizations for all four years. Her junior year, she
studied in Ireland and enjoyed taking classes on various subjects having little
relation to chemistry. During the summer of 2008 Rachel stayed on campus and,
in addition to helping us move from Chamberlin into the new Science Center,
had an internship researching capillary electrophoresis (CE) and began building
a CE instrument with Kevin Braun. This project turned into a senior thesis
and an honors term project, both entitled “Construction of a CE instrument
with LED-induced Fluorescence Detection.” Rachel will be staying in Beloit
for the summer, working with an organic farm and market, before beginning a
Student Conservation Association internship in August.
*Past issues of Beloit College Magazine can be accessed on-line and downloaded in PDF format at https://www.beloit.edu/belmag/.
Bob Norris '66 was presented with the Community Unity Award by the Longmont, Colorado Ctiy Council in May, 2009 for his work on inclusion and immigration issues at the national, state, and local level. He is also chair of the Longmont Board of Environmental Affairs, which is working on sustainability issues for the city. In May he was also given a Lifetime Achievement Award by his colleagues in the soil and groundwater remediation industry.
Brenda Waller '93 is a Staff Scientist working on laboratory robotics with Symyx Technologies in Sunnyvale, CA.
Ashley Eversole Hesslein '95 is a Senior Product Development Scientist with Bayer Healthcare in Berkeley, California.
Bianca Romina Mothé '96 is the project director of a recently awarded stem cell training grant (http://www2.csusm.edu/biotechnology/stem.html) and Biotechnology Program Coordinator at California State University – San Marcos, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Dawn Miller Sloan '96 is completing her family practice residency at DeWitt Army Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, VA.
Theresa Johnson '00 has been elected to the School Board of the City of Beloit.
Rich Bowker '01 is starting a Masters Degree program in Chemistry at Western Washington University this fall.
Jon Scheerer '01 has joined the Chemistry Department at the College of William and Mary as an Assistant Professor.
Bryna Dunaway '03 is a Physician's Assistant in Seattle, Washington and is a faculty member at the University of Washington in the Department of Family Medicine.
Everald Walker '06 has been admitted to Meharry Medical School for fall of 2009.
Annie Wentz '07 is technician in Peter Crawford's lab in the Cardiology Department in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.
Elise Marquie '08 was recently accepted into the Watts School of Nursing in Durham, North Carolina.
Dan Murphy '08 is an Associate Research Specialist with John Markley's group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Biochemistry Department's National Magnetic Resonance Facility.
Jhaunell Reid '08 from Jamaica, was accepted into dental school at the University of the West Indies.
Ashish Thapa '08 is working for Genscape, an energy information company, in Amsterdam.
Our alumni email network has been tremendously helpful to our present students for finding mentors, summer research positions, and post-graduate opportunities. The Beloit College Alumni office now maintains an email directory that can be accessed at http://alumni.beloit.edu/. Please send email addresses and changes to alumni@beloit.edu.
Chemistry faculty
braunk@beloit.edu
lisensky@beloit.edu
ordman@beloit.edu
parmentr@beloit.edu
spencer@beloit.edu
ramav@beloit.edu
Web pages
https://www.beloit.edu/chemistry
(Previous issues of the Annual Newsletter dating back to 1993 are available
on-line via the home page!)
ALUMNI, PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH!! Please send your news and notes to any of the Chemistry faculty - this is what keeps the newsletter going!
Thank you for your support, and thank you to all those who continue to give generously to Beloit College and the Chemistry Department. Your support is crucial for nurturing and enhancing the strength of our programs and infrastructure as we move into the new Center for the Sciences.