News Center

Oct. 8, 2013 — Two Allegheny College faculty members recently received grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Jamie Lombardi, associate professor of physics, received an NSF Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) grant of $231,312 through the Astronomy and Astrophysics Research program for his project, “The Hydrodynamics and Observational Signatures of Binary Mergers.”

Through his research, which will be conducted collaboratively with Allegheny students and Josh Faber of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Lombardi will use computer simulations to explore what happens when stars merge and what those mergers look like. The results will help explain the observations of numerous types of exotic stars and astronomical events, including so-called mergerbursts.

One hundred percent of the cost of the project will be covered by federal funds through the NSF grant.

Shaun Murphree, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, received a grant of $243,237 through the NSF’s Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science program for his project, “Collaborative Research: A Student-centered Organic Laboratory Curriculum Featuring Microwave-assisted Organic Synthesis.”

Murphree will collaborate with colleagues from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and Queensborough Community College in New York on the project. Allegheny is the lead institution.

The project, which provides internship opportunities for chemistry students at Allegheny, will explore innovative pedagogies for the organic chemistry laboratory, particularly the inclusion of open-inquiry experiments that encourage formal operational thought and critical thinking, relying on Microwave-assisted Organic Synthesis, a tool for the acceleration of reactions.

One hundred percent of the cost of the project will be covered by federal funds through the NSF grant.