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

Faculty Student Summer Research Program
2014 Research Projects

For summer 2014, there are 91 students and 46 faculty members working on 76 different projects.

Biology major Robert Kahn '14 in the lab
Biology major Robert Kahn '14 in the lab (photo by Gary Gold)

Projects

  • THE GREAT WAR IMAGE ARCHIVE, FRANCE, 1914-1918
    Luke Conley, 2015
    John Anzalone, Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures

  • POST-CONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION: WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT IN AFGHANISTAN
    Nahid Paiman, 2015
    Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program

  • SEED EXCHANGE NETWORKS AND FOOD SYSTEM RESILIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES
    Lauren Bosche, 2015; Helen Alemayehu Mebrate, 2016; Tsering Choden, 2017
    Nurcan Atalan-Helicke, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies Program

  • SYNTHETIC INVESTIGATION AND APPLICATION OF A SUBSTITUTED 4,6-DIMETHYL-3-CYCLOHEXNE COMPOUND
    William Miller, 2015
    Kara Cetto Bales, Senior Teaching Associate, Department of Chemistry
  • SYNTHETIC STRATEGIES AND THEIR APPLICATION IN THE ORGANIC CHEMISTRY LAB
    Lauren Soong, 2016
    Kara Cetto Bales, Senior Teaching Associate, Department of Chemistry

  • THE ECONOMY OF DESIRE
    Ryan Crotty, 2015
    Erica Bastress-Dukehart, Associate Professor, Department of History

  • IMAGINATION INFLATION AND LEI ONLINE ADMINISTRATION
    Jennifer Wicks, 2014
    Rebecca B. Bays, Professor, Department of Psychology

  • THE GENERATIONAL CONSTITUTION: JEFFERSON, MADISON AND THE CALL FOR PERIODIC CONSTITUTIONAL RENEWAL
    Ben Polsky, 2015
    Beau Breslin, Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor, Department of Government

  • SELECTIVELY DISTRUPTION OF THE CELL WALL OF CHAROPHYTE ALGA Penium margaritaceum
    Berke Tinaz, 2016
    David Domozych, Professor, Department of Biology

  • MAPPING SARATOGA SPRINGS:   AN EXHIBIT AT THE SARATOGA SPRINGS HISTORY MUSEUM
    Deirdre Schiff, 2015
    Allie Smith, 2015
    Zach Mooring, 2015 (Duke University)
    Jordana Dym, Professor, Department of History

  • TOWARDS FACIAL RECOGNITION FOR SPEAKERS AT SKIDMORE FACULTY MEETINGS
    Yang Yu, 2016
    Michael Eckmann, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

  • RACE AND UNEMPLOYMENT
    Taylor Sczymecki, 2015
    Rebecca Datus, 2015
    Amon Emeka, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology  

  • A DISTANT READING OF EMPIRE
    Mae Capozzi, 2015
    Scott Enderle, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of English

  • CALIBRATING A NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING OCEAN CARBON FLUXES IN THE PRESENCE OF HIGH-SILICATE PHYTOPLANKTON BLOOMS
    Melanie Feen, 2016
    Meg Estapa, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences

  • THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC ON AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE (AD) PATIENTS AND HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS‬‬
    Renee Schapiro, 2015
    Denise Evert, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program

  • LAB ON A CD PLAYER
    Julie Bryant, 2016
    Kimberley Frederick, Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • STABLIZING ENZYMES FOR A MALARIA DIAGNOSTIC TEST
    Meti Debela, 2016
    Kimberly Frederick, Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • MICROFLUDIC CHIP FOR PRE-CONCENTRATION AND ANALYSIS OF ORGANIC WATER CONTAMINANTS
    Sarah Markiewicz, 2016
    Justin O'Sullivan, 2017
    Kimberley Frederick, Professor, Department of Chemistry  

  • DEVELOPMENT OF A MICROFLUIDIC ASSAY FOR ANALYSIS OF D-LACTATE IN URINE: A DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR MALARIA
    Sibin Wang, 2016
    Kimberley Frederick, Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • SYNTHETIC STUDIES ON NEW TANDEM INTRAMOLECULAR DIELS-ALDER REACTIONS
    Hannah DeGraaf, 2015
    Raymond J. Giguere, Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DOES GENTLY CLEARING THE NASAL CAVITY IMPACT ODOR IDENTIFICATION?
    Mitchell Spring, 2015
    Robert M. Hallock, Visiting Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Program

  • ENGINEERING A COST-EFFECTIVE MICROMANIPULATOR FOR  XENOPUS OOCYTE INJECTION
    Heather A. Braun, 2015
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • EXPLORING THE EVOLUTION OF ETHANOL: DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING TOOLS AND NEW EXPERIMENTS ON ETHYL ALCOHOL
    Glenna E. Joyce, 2016
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • QUANTITATIVE MODELING OF ETHANOL BINDING IN LIGAND-GATED ION CHANNELS
    Daniel E. Manson, 2015
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • ROLE OF LOOP 2 IN ETHANOL MODULATION OF THE GABAAR
    Alex Mola, 2016
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • ROLE OF AN EXTRACELLULAR AMINO ACID RESIDUE IN ALCOHOL MODULATION OF LIGAND-GATED ION CHANNELS
    Travers M.D. Ruel, 2016
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • ROLE OF PORE-LINING RESIDUES IN DRUG MODULATION OF LIGAND-GATED ION CHANNELS
    Thomas R. Schneider, 2015
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • PHARMACOLOGY OF BACTERIAL MODELS OF THE HUMAN GABAA RECEPTOR
    Thomas B. Voigt, 2015
    Rebecca J. Howard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • EXPLORATION OF ENVELOPES AS FOCAL SETS
    Adam Winchell, 2016
    Mark Huibregtse, Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

  • EXAMINING STONE TOOL PRODUCTION AT WATER'S EDGE
    Elizabeth Hopkins, 2015
    Professor Heather Hurst, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
    Professor Matthew Kroot, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

  • CHRONOLOGICAL AND SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL WORK AT THE WATER'S EDGE SITE
    Priscilla Montalto, 2015
    Heather Hurst, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology
    Matthew Kroot, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

  • A CHRONOLOGY OF HABITATION AT WATER'S EDGE
    Kim Snow, 2015
    John Kolios, 2016
    Heather Hurst, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology

  • UNDERSTANDING THE INTEGRATION OF OXYGEN TRANSPORT AND UTILIZATION: A MITOCHONDRIAL PERSPECTIVE
    Cheyanne Slocum, 2017
    Stephen Ives, Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Exercise Sciences

  • SERIAL PROCESSING OF LETTERS OR FIRST LETTER ADVANTAGE?
    Haley Cirka, 2016
    Rebecca Johnson, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

  • A NEW ECONOMY OF JOKES: HASHTAG SOCIAL MEDIA, HASHTAG COMEDY
    Rebecca Baruc, 2015
    Beck Krefting, Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies

  • MITOCHONDRIA'S ROLE IN SCA1 DISEASE PROGRESSION
    Austin Ferro, 2015
    Jenny Zhang, 2016
    Sarita Lagalwar, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Program

  • PROPAGATION AND DEGRADATION OF ATAXIN-1 PROTEIN IN AN SCA1 CELL CULTURE MODEL
    Mayumi Kohiyama, 2015
    Nicholas Toker, 2015
    Sarita Lagalwar, Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Program

  • THE OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM (OP) ALUMNI PROJECT: EXPLORING THE CAREER EXPERIENCES OF FIRST GENERATION STUDENTS AND STUDENTS OF COLOR AT A PREDOMINATELY AND HISTORICALLY WHITE LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE
    Amari Boyd, 2014
    Aldin Medunjanin 2016
    Sue Layden, Ph.D., Research Analyst on Enrollment, Retention, and Student Achievement, Office of Admissions & Financial Aid
    Lei Ouyang Bryant, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Music
    Michael Ennis-McMillan, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology
    Bernardo Rios, Ph.D., Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology

  • MEANINGS OF FOOD:  CONVERSATIONS OF AMERICAN WOMEN ON FOOD BLOGS
    Emily Kortright, 2015
    Ela Lepkowska-White, Associate Professor, Department of Management and Business

  • COPPER-SILVER CROSS RESISTANCE – TESTING THE POTENTIAL OF HOMOLOG PROTEINS OF COPA FROM ESCHERICHIA COLI
    Jody-Ann Facey, 2014
    Sylvia Franke McDevitt, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology

  • AMOEBA AS A MODEL SYSTEM TO STUDY METAL DEPENDENT BACTERIAL KILLING BY MACROPHAGES
    Ketan Yerneni, 2017
    Sylvia Franke McDevitt, Associate Professor, Department of Biology

  • COPPER-SILVER CROSS RESISTANCE – TESTING THE POTENTIAL OF HOMOLOG PROTEINS OF COPA FROM ESCHERICHIA COLI
    Bryan Zepeda-Carranza, 2017
    Sylvia Franke McDevitt, Associate Professor, Department of Biology    

  • DIGIT RATIO: A METHODOLOGICAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH ARTICLES PUBLISHED FROM 2011 TO 2013
    Kristina Francoeur, 2015
    Anh Vu Nguyen, 2017
    Denise Brooks McQuade, Senior Teaching Associate, Department of Biology

  • INVESTIGATING THE INFLUENCE OF BEHAVORIAL ATTRIBUTIONS ON BACKLASH AGAINST MALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL EDUCATORS
    Elizabeth Johnson, 2015
    Corinne Moss-Racusin, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology

  • INNOVATION, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND MAKERS
    Ramzy Kahhale, 2015
    Scott Mulligan, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Management & Business and International Affairs Program

  • AROUND THE WORLD: IRON DISSOLUTION FROM GLOBAL FLY ASH AEROSOLS IN ACIDIC MEDIA
    Jaya Borgatta, 2016
    Amanda Paskavitz, 2017
    Juan Navea, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DIFFUSION OF GASES: DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORY EXPERIMENT
    Hannah DeGraaf, 2015
    Juan Navea, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry
    Judith Halstead, Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • NITRATE ADSORPTION ONTO TIO2: A QUANTUM CHEMICAL COMPUTATIONAL STUDY
    Matthew Lueckheide, 2017
    Juan Navea, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • PHOTOCHEMISTRY OF NITRATE CHEMISORBED ON DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF MINERAL AEROSOL
    Daniel Lesko, 2017
    Juan Navea, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • VACCINE COVERAGE AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN MIDDLE INCOME DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
    Rachel Spring 2015
    Mehmet Odekon, Professor, Department of Economics

  • A TOY MODEL FOR THE NONLINEAR OPTICAL RESPONSE OF MOLECULES WITH MODULATED CONJUGATION
    Quanhang Chen, 2016
    Javier Perez-Moreno, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics

  • VISUAL DIFFERENTIATION OF OBJECTS: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
    W. Emerson O'Donnell, 2015
    Flip Phillips, Professor, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience Program

  • ARTIFICAL SWEETNER IN NEW "COKE LIFE" AFFECTS SLEEP CYCLES IN FRUIT FLIES
    Agnieszka Brojakowska, 2017
    Cemile Antal (Doan Stuart School)
    Bernard Possidente, Professor, Department of Biology

  • DO C(60) FULLERENE NANOPARTICLES ALTER SLEEP CYCLES IN FRUIT FLIES?
    Matt Ciotti (Siena College)
    Bernard Possidente, Professor, Department of Biology

  • FRUIT FLY FLASH MOBS
    Arianna Laszlo, 2015
    Nicholas Friedman 2017
    Bernard Possidente, Professor, Department of Biology

  • SUCCINIC ACID TREATMENT DOES NOT IMPROVE INSULIN RESISTANCE OR ALTER ENERGY HOMEOSTASIS IN OBESE MICE
    Daniela Escudero, 2016
    Gabriella Vero T.H. Reynolds, Associate Professor, Department of Health and Exercise Sciences

  • IDENTIFYING THE CELLULAR MECHANISM FOR THE MnTBAP-INDUCED REDUCTION IN BODY WEIGHT
    Saada Legesse, 2015
    Caitlin Sheridan, 2015
    T.H. Reynolds, Associate Professor, Department of Health and Exercise Sciences

  • VISUAL REPRESENTATION IN THE TRANSNATIONAL LIVES OF MEXICAN MIGRANTS
    Bethany Hunt, 2017
    Bernardo Ramirez Rios, Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology 

  • EXPANDING THE GENETIC CODE WITH PYROGLUTAMATE
    Miles Calzini, 2016
    Stephanie Zhen, 2016 Kelly Sheppard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DISCRIMINATING NATURE OF THE B. ANTHRACIS ASPARTYL-tRNA SYNTHETASES
    Julia Erskine, 2017
    Kelly Sheppard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DISCRIMINATING NATURE OF THE ASPARTYL-tRNA SYNTHETASES FROM THREE HUMAN PATHOGENS
    Mohammed Islam, 2015
    Kelly Sheppard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DUAL ROUTES FOR B. HALODURANS ASPARAGINYL-tRNA FORMATION
    Nilendra Nair, 2015
    Kelly Sheppard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • DUAL ROUTES FOR B. SUBTILIS ASPARAGINYL-tRNA FORMATION
    Hannah Raff, 2015
    Kelly Sheppard, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

  • TECHNOLOGY USE AND EMERGING ADULT COLLEGE STUDENTS
    Erica Walker, 2016
    Dr. Joan Ann Swanson, Assistant Professor, Department of Education Studies

  • BUILDING BRIDGES ACROSS DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES
    Lulu Li, 2016
    Peter von Allmen, Professor, Department of Economics


We would like to thank the following donors and funding agencies for their support of our collaborative research efforts and the Faculty Student Summer Research Program:

Alumni, Family, and Friends

Katherine Durham Brechner '76

Harman Cain Family, Class of 2012

Samuel Croll '73

Marlene Oberkotter Fowler '61

Rowena Chan Au '74, Martha Hsu Ho '75, Katherine Suk Ki Lu '74, Winnie H. Wan '74, and Elise Huibonhoa Wen '77

Christiana Johnson '90, given in honor of Tom Lewis

Jim Lippman and Linda Friedman Lippman '82

Philip P. Markowitz '13

Richard A. Mellon '87

Margaret Williams Page '43

Michael Rose '90

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Woodcock, Parents 1996

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

Schupf Scholars
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.

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.


Foundation/Grant

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research: NSF

W.M. Keck Foundation

The National Science Foundation

Rathmann Family Foundation

S3M Transitional Program

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority

The Charles Slaughter Foundation