2000-2001 Undergraduate Research Award Winners
Richard
L. Gill Jr. is a chemistry major working under the direction of
Dr. James Warren. He began his research experiences in the summer
of 1995 at Penn State, University Park, where he conducted research on
technology based speech synthesis under the guidance of Dr. Janice
Light. He then went on to work with Dr. Girija Subramaniam
during the 1996-97 academic year, where he did an independent research
project involving the synthesis and characterization of a liquid
crystal. The following academic year was spent in the laboratory
of Dr. Mark Guiltinan, where Rich worked on a project that involved
the isolation of the genomic sequence of Starch Branching Enzyme SBE
2a of maize. His last research experience before coming to
Behrend was a six-month co-op project from July to December 1998 at
Avery Dennison Chemical Division, where he served as a technical
services intern.
After his co-op project, Rich transferred to Penn State Behrend in spring 1999 where he began working in the laboratory of Dr. James Warren. He initially worked on studies associated with Dr. Warren's Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Institutes of Health. His efforts have resulted in him being a co-author on three sequence submissions to an international DNA sequence database (Genbank), an oral presentation at the Penn State Behrend Undergraduate Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference, and four posters, one of which was at an International meeting for the Society for Developmental Biology. Rich will also be included on at least two research papers that will be submitted in the next year.
Rich is a chemistry major working in a biologist's laboratory. The unique perspectives that he has brought with him have helped Dr. Warren venture into a relatively new area of research: the biochemical bases for some of the more common birth defects. The genes that Rich has characterized and submitted to Genbank are genes encoding key enzymes involved with folic acid metabolism, and his work will serve as the foundation for a research grant that Dr. Warren will submit to the National Science Foundation that will investigate these genes and their involvement in neural tube defects.
Jason A. Jell is a biology major working under the direction of
Dr. Mary Chisholm. He is very focused on his career goals and is
planning to go to graduate school in pharmacology. It is a field
as competitive as medical school, and there are only a limited number
of medical schools that offer pharmacology programs.
He joined Dr. Chisholm's research group in spring 1999. He mastered the basics of gas chromatography quickly and became self-sufficient on complicated instruments that many students never master as undergraduates. He became proficient in gas chromatography-olfactometry, and it was this skill that earned him a spot in the summer internship program at Pepsico. His supervisor was very impressed with his skills and rated him the best student in the lab.
The skills and techniques that he has mastered as an undergraduate researcher include: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-olfactometry, computer expertise in running the software for operating instruments, solid phase micro-extraction methods, and flash chromatography.
His efforts have resulted in him being a co-author on a submission to ACS Symposium Series 782 and two poster presentations at the Penn State Behrend Undergraduate Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference. Jason will be a presenter at the Undergraduate Symposium at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.