Campus Far from Silent as Students Engage in Summer Research

As the weather heated up, many students and professors abandoned the campus, but the library and science labs are hardly gathering dust.

Working alongside more than 20 professors from the astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics departments, dozens of Haverford students – almost five percent of the student body – are staying on campus to do research in the sciences. Sixty-two students, including a few recent graduates from the class of 2003, are spending many of their days, and some of their nights, working on a variety of projects and not just in the sciences. Students studying the humanities are doing research as well on a variety of subjects ranging from the classics to English to anthropology. Additionally, professors with private grants in many other departments are also offering students the opportunity to study and explore their fields of interest in a manner that only graduate students are permitted at most other institutions. The College is certainly a quieter place during the summer, but it is hardly a ghost town.

Third-year student Noor Ali is working as a research assistant for several members of the anthropology department; Andrew Cantino '05 and Reid Sherman '04 are involved in a collaborative effort between the astronomy and computer science departments to sort through data collected from the Parkes Observatory in Australia to locate extremely dense, rapidly spinning stars called pulsars. Eric Acton '04 and Carl Lederman '05 are also doing interdisciplinary research under the direction of mathematician Robert Manning and physicist Suzanne Amador Kane, studying the polymer physics properties of aggregates made from myosin-II rod domains through image analysis of atomic force microscopy.

The following list highlights some of the students and the research they are undertaking with members of the faculty over the summer months.

Eric Acton '04 & Carl Lederman '05 - Analyzing AFM images of the rod domain of myosin II

Adolphe Alexander '05 - Studying a method for calculating phase diagrams of two dimensional materials

Noor Ali '05 - Researching topics in anthropology

Jeff Barton '04 - Synthesizing a molecule that binds to cobalt

Jake Bilhartz '04 - Researching the IAP class of proteins, especially survivin

Priscilla Bisnath '05 - Compiling biography, bibliography, and critical bibliography for a course on Caribbean literature

Brooks Bond-Watts '04 - Making and characterizing nanowires that can be activated by light

Andrew Cantino '05 & Reid Sherman '04 - Developing a distributed data processing site at Haverford for use in pulsar searches

Emily Chen '05 - Researching the activity of caspase proteins and its expression in T-cells

Sarah Czarkowski '05 - Working on the synthesis of a model for the beet dye, betacyanin, and studying the model's reactivity with thiols

Jamie Diorio '04 - Researching the fluid dynamics of polymer solutions

Megan Ehrenwerth '04 & Katrina Julian '04 - Researching the total synthesis of the RNA polymerase inhibitor antibiotics, Ripostatin A and B

David Fask '04 - Compiling articles from magazines of the late 19th century relating to public perception of literature and“genius”

Romy Gibly '04 & Margot LeClair '04 - Designing and making new light-activated devices that can serve as solar cells, sensors of pollutants, or diagnostic instruments

Ben Gordon '04 - Investigating the stability determinants for long coiled coils, a subclass of helical proteins, using a minimalist design approach

Donald Grunewald '04 - Researching wage differentials between men and women in high-technology firms

Katie Hart '04 - Designing nanowires using peptide/porphyrin complexes

Joshua Havassy '04 - Performing a molecular and cytological study of him-5

Brook Henkel '05 - Researching the optical properties of extreme radio galaxies

Brandon Johnson '04 - Researching the role of heat resistant agglutinin 1 in colonization by enteroaggregative Escherichia coli

Lucy Joo '05 - Researching the comparative genomics of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli strains

Jeff Jopling '04 - Exploring the role of the amino terminal residues on polymerization of the rod domain from Acanthamoeba castellanii myosin II

Seung-hee Kim '04 - Determining the structure of the him-5 gene and analyzing the him-8 gene

Brian Kovaric '05 & Tom McNicholas '04 - Researching ways in which molecules similar to chlorophyll interact with DNA

Judy Lackey '03 - Researching residential segregation and concentration of poverty in urban areas

Susannah Locke '05 - Investigating how molecular signaling pathways differ between immature and mature T cells

Andrew Maier '05 - Studying the effect of the sulfoxide spectator ligands in stereoselective reactions

Kevin Monahan '05 - Researching the incorporation an azobenzene photoswitch into a coiled-coil designed to form long polymers in solution

Tania Mucci '04 - Researching the virulence plasmids of atypical enteropathogenic Escherichia coli O119

Shilpa Narayan '05 - Researching the electrical conductivity of porphyrin nanorods

Emily Nietrzeba '04 - Researching an antereograde molecular motor in the flagella of Chlamydomonis reinharditii

Collin Rich '04 - Researching carbon nanotubes as probes for single cells

Peter Schaefer '04 - Studying diffusion processes in surface alloys

Nalini Singh '04 & Abigail Stern '03 - Researching the effects of sexual orientation on labor market outcomes

Charles Thomas '05 - Researching the behavior of granular materials interacting in a fluid and the principles of self-organization exhibited by these materials

Matt Weiss '04 - Researching translation theory and the act of textual translation through a variety of mediums