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Skidmore College
Dean of the Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs

2010 Research

Collaborative Research

2010 Research Projects

Read the Scope news story about some of these projects.

Project Summary:

For summer 2010, there are 45 students and 33 faculty members working on 35 different projects.  Two faculty members are involved with multiple projects.

Art 1   Government 1
Art History 1   Health and Exercise Science 2
Biology 5   History 2
Chemistry 4   Management and Business 1
Classics 1   Mathematics 2
Economics 1   Music 1
English 2   Physics 1
Environmental Studies 2   Psychology 2
Geosciences 3   Sociology 2
Joint Biology/Environmental Studies 1

TOTAL:   35 projects (22 math-science, 13 disciplines), 33 professors and 45 students participating.

Summer Faculty/Student Research

Support for these teams provided by:
Arthur Vining Davis Foundation
Marlene Oberkotter Fowler ‘61
Rathmann Family Foundation
W.M. Keck Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Woodcock, Parents 1996
Margaret Williams Page ‘43
Charles Slaughter Foundation
Cynthia Blum Carroll ‘78

Paul Arciero, Associate Professor, Health and Exercise Science
Kanokwan Bunsawat  '11
Jake Mendell  '10
Nicholas Steward  '10
Qian Zheng  '11

Project:  Effects of Whey Protein and Exercise on Health Outcomes

Michael Arnush, Associate Professor, Classics
Ross Jaffe ‘11

Project: Ekklesia: Epigraphic Database for the Origins and Development of Athenian Democracy

Lisa Aronson, Associate Professor, Art History
Andrew Noon ‘11

Project: Mapping and Visualizing the African Environment

Erica Bastress-Dukehart, Associate Professor, History
Patrick Glennon ‘11

Project: Women, Science, and Nature in Early Modern Europe

Catherine Berheide, Associate Professor, Sociology Anthropology & Social Work
Joelle Sklaar ‘11
Emily Cooper ‘11

Project: Supporting Women Faculty in STEM at Liberal Arts Colleges: Phase II

Beau Breslin, Associate Professor Government
Matt Rothenberg ‘12

Project: Echoes of the Founding: Examining America’s Constitutional Birth

Mary Campa, Assistant Professor, Psychology
Samantha Savoy ‘12

Project: Communication Patterns in Initial Dating Conversations

Nigina Chiteji, Associate Professor, Economics
Siphiwe Sikhondze ‘11

Project: Disparity in Health Outcomes Among the Different Racial Groups in the United States

Jordana Dym, Associate Professor, History
Randy Abreau, ‘
11
Project: Acts of Independence: American Declarations of Independence from the US to Argentina

Gove Effinger, Professor, Math and Computer Science
Benjamin Cooper ‘11

Project: Twin Prime Polynomials over Finite Fields

Kristie Ford, Assistant Professor, Sociology
Victoria Malaney ‘10
Jamie Cohen ‘10

Project: A Comparative Assessment of the Educational Benefits of Inter- and Intra- Racial Curricular Dialogues on White Racial Identity Development

Amy Frappier, Assistant Professor, Geosciences
Aurora Pinkey-Drobnis ‘12

Project: Calendar-Year Dating of Pre-historic Hurricanes in Yucatan, Mexico Using Florescence Micro-imaging of an Annually-layering Stalagmite

Raymond Giguere, Professor, Chemistry
Gabriela Bermudez ‘11

Project: A Novel Tandem Intramolecular Diels-Alder (TIMDA) Reaction

Charles Joseph, Professor, Music
Mary Horn ‘11

Project: The Public Intellectual: Leonard Bernstein’s Charles Eliot Norton Lectures

Sang Wook Lee, Assistant Professor, Art
Victoria Manganiello ‘12

Project: Computer-Dobby Textiles

Denise Brooks McQuade, Senior Teaching Associate, Biology
Elena Stansky ‘12

Project: Sex Differences in Digit Length of Octodon degus

Michelle Rhee, Assistant Professor, English
Caitlin Allen ‘12

Project: Visual Rhymes

Mark Staton, Visiting Instructor, Management and Business
Alison Frey ‘12

Project: Socio-economic Status and its Influence on the Endowment Effect 


Axelrod-Porges Scholars

Established in 2006 by Felicia Axelrod '62 and Robert Porges to support faculty-student teams in the area of the sciences.

Hugh Foley, Professor, Psychology
Mila Woodfield ‘12
Isabel Cain ‘12

Project: Reporting More than What Was Seen: Closure vs. Boundary Extension

Monica Raveret-Richter, Associate Professor, Biology
Rosalind Freeman ‘12

Project: Foraging Behavior of the introduced Paper Wasp Polistes Dominulus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)


Schupf Scholar Program

Established in 2008 by Sara Lubin Schupf '62 to support summer faculty-student research with a preference given to students pursuing projects in the STEM disciplines.  Schupf Scholars are selected beginning the summer after their freshman or sophomore year.  Schupf Scholars may access additional funding for travel to meetings and conferences as well as for research supplies and expenses during their continuing research with faculty during their academic career at Skidmore.

Kimberley Frederick, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Taylor Moot ‘13

Project:  Rapid, Non-destructive Analysis of Painting Materials Using Raman Spectroscopy and X-ray Fluorescence

Kyle Nichols, Associate Professor, Geosciences
Caroline Loehr, ‘12

“How Large were Floods Caused by 19th and 20th Century Logging Dams in the Upper Hudson River Watershed?

Rachel Roe-Dale, Assistant Professor, Math and Computer Science
Ava Hamilton ‘12

Project: Modeling Time Dependent Electroosmotic Flow

Andrew Skinner, Visiting Assistant Professor, Physics
Rebecca Conneely ‘12

Project: Feshbach resonances for Ultracold Neutral Fermions in a Graphene-Type Optical Lattice 


Scribner-Mellon Scholar Projects

The Scribner-Mellon Scholar Research Program, initially funded in part by the W. M. Keck Foundation and now funded by the Mellon Foundation, enables teams of Skidmore faculty and first-year students to engage in significant projects over ten- eight- or five-week periods during the summer.

Kimberly Frederick, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Sondra Lipshutz ‘13

Project: Development and Understanding of Polyelectrolyte Multilayer coatings for Capillary Electrophoresis

Kate Greenspan, Associate Professor, English
Kali Block-Steele ‘13

Project: Reevaluating Representations of Medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian Women: An Exhibition

Kyle Nichols, Associate Professor, Geosciences
Melanie Hoermann ‘13

Project: Rocks, Atoms, and Black Magic: Transforming Raw Geologic Samples into Erosion Rates 


Water Resource Inititative 

WRI at Skidmore College brings together students, faculty and community partners in the investigation of our local water issues. 

Alex Chaucer, GIS Instructional Technologist
Karen Kellogg, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies
 
Project: Visualizing Changing Landscapes and Resource Use in the Saratoga Lake Watershed 

Catherine Gibson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Claire Superak ‘11

Project: Linking Nitrogen and Phosphorus Uptake through Organic Matter Stoichiometry in Headwater Streams 

Joshua Ness, Assistant Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies
Gordon MacPherson ‘12

Project: Forest Health: A Matter of Ephemeral Plants versus Ephemeral Streams

Kyle Nichols, Associate Professor, Geosciences
Jonathon Reeves ‘12

Project: How Large were Floods Caused by the 19th and 20th Century Logging Dams in the Upper Hudson River Watershed? 


Weg Scholars

Established in 2010 by Carol Little Weg '64 and Ken Weg and awarded with a preference for students pursuing projects in the sciences and social sciences.

Jennifer Bonner, Assistant Professor, Biology
Cecilia Culp  '11
Aleksander Krazinski  '11  
Andrew Ross  '11 
 
Project: The Distribution of DCC Genese in the Spinal Cord, and Development of a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Model in Zebrafish

David Domozych, Professor, Biology
Korena Burgio ‘11

Project: Transformation strategies for the New Model Green Plant, Penium Margaritaceum

Kimberly Frederick, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Sarah Bashaw ‘11

Project: Investigation of Thermoresponsive Guanosine Gels for Preconcentration in CE Separations

Kimberly Frederick, Associate Professor, Chemistry
Katherine Roguski ‘11

Project: Fundamental and Applied Research in Microfluidics and Capillary Electrophoresis

Bernard Possidente, Professor, Biology
Katherine Kenny ‘11

Project: Fruit Flies as a Model for Organism for Neurotoxic Effects of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenols)

T.H. Reynolds, Assistant Professor, Health and Exercise Science
Megan Gaugler ‘12

Project: Type 2 Diabetes and Autophagy Related Gene Expression

Rachel Roe-Dale, Assistant Professor, Math and Computer Science
Emese Lipcsey Magyar ‘10

Project: Modeling Time Dependent Electroosmotic Flow