News Center

Dec. 7, 2011 – Students and faculty at Allegheny College have recently authored works or participated in professional activities across a wide range of disciplines.

Ryan Brindle ’12 presented a poster titled “Role of Motor Pathway in Central Angiotensin II Signaling” at the Midwest/Great Lakes Undergraduate Research Symposium in Neuroscience held at the College of Wooster. The conference was organized by Amy Jo Stavnezer ’94, who is an associate professor of psychology at the College of Wooster. The research project that Ryan presented was conducted during a summer internship with Sean Stocker ’97, who is an associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology at Penn State University.

Annie Homan ’13 presented a poster titled “Effects of Vitamin A Deficiency on Olfactory Receptor Responses to Odorants in Mice” at the Midwest/Great Lakes Undergraduate Research Symposium in Neuroscience. Annie’s co-authors were Allison Hensler ’11 and Associate Professor of Neuroscience Lee Coates. The research was based on Allison’s senior project and experiments that Annie conducted during an independent study. Allison is a first-year dental student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Allison Nettnin ’13 has been selected to present her paper “Gleeking Out: New Directions in Television Branding” at the What Is Television? conference in Portland, Oregon in March.

Three chemistry majors presented their research at the Rust Belt RNA conference in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 21-22. Brittany Rauzan ’13 (working with Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Alice Deckert) presented an oral talk titled “Entropic and Enthalpic Activation Parameters of Dodecamer DNA Duplex Formation are Dependent on Sequence.” Liz McMichael ’12 (working with Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Martin Serra) presented a poster titled “Use of 2-Aminopurine to detect positional ambiguity in group II single-nucleotide bulge loops.” Lauren Hammell ’12 (working with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ivelitza Garcia) presented a poster titled “Thermodynamic analysis of the ATP binding pocket for a bacterial DEAD-box protein.”

Elyse Schmitt ’12 attended the oikos International School for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Berlin, Germany. The conference is held in different parts of the world annually to bring together students who are committed to addressing social, economic and ecological challenges around the world. During the weeklong conference, activities included listening to lectures from CEOs and other young professionals from around the world as well as attending workshops to strengthen leadership and business skills. The last few days consisted of business competitions in which the 25 student participants from around the world voted for six projects to be presented to a jury. The jury awarded Elyse first place with a cash prize to invest in her urban community garden aquaponics plan. She is continuing her research with her senior project.

On November 4, biology majors Catherine Youngs ’12, Samantha Tucker ’12, and Anthony Hessel ’12 presented their summer research at the Regional Science Consortium Annual Research Conference at the Tom Ridge Center in Erie. Presenters include undergraduates, graduate students, and senior researchers. Anthony took home the Best Student Talk prize. You can read more about the conference on the Whitenack Lab blog https://whitenacklab.wordpress.com.

Nine Allegheny students presented research they conducted using GIS at the 2011 Northwest Pennsylvania GIS Conference held at Clarion University of Pennsylvania October 13-14. Brian Anderson ’13 took home top honors in the Intermediate/Advanced Map Contest at the sixth annual GIS conference for his suitability analysis locating a Peace Park in the Lower Jordan River Valley, “Peace through Parks.” Four students enrolled in Associate Professor of Environmental Science Caryl Waggett and GIS Manager Chris Shaffer’s course ES 215: Introduction to Environmental Mapping — Sophie Finlayson-Schueler ’12, Brian Thompson ’13, Anna Koebley ’14, and Eric Yan ’13 — presented “Indicators of high risk for lead exposure: Using GIS to target prevention efforts in rural northwestern Pennsylvania.” Three students from ES 315: Advanced Environmental Mapping, taught by Professor of Environmental Science Terry Bensel and Chris Shaffer (in 2010) and Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant and Chris Shaffer (in 2011) presented the results of their student research projects. Jordan Abbott ’12 presented “A Community Needs Assessment and Asset-Based Analysis for Erie, PA,” Erin Cavagnaro ’12 presented “Seagrass Change in Maine from 1996–2006,” and Maranda Nemeth ’12 presented “Wetland Suitability Analysis for Crawford County, PA.” Travis Tasker ’13 presented results of class findings – titled “Suitability and Public Perception Analyses of Offshore Wind Turbines in Waters of Lake Erie, PA” — from Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Kristin Wilson’s ES 210: Environmental Research Methods course. A number of other Allegheny students attended this professional conference for local governments, utilities, GIS professionals, and educators, including Emma Cook ’13, Daryl Ford ’13, Courtney Papinchak ’12, and Shane Wells ’13.

Students Elizabeth Donaldson, Brendan O’Leary, Adrienne Nelson, Lucas Carrion, Hayley Woodman, Zach Cramer, Brian Anderson, Maranda Nemeth, Kiley Fisher, Ian Colley, Nathan Malachowski, Elizabeth Stiles, Benjamin Stewart, Sara Schombert, Tiffany Ng, Jennifer Lauer, Brendan Turley, Alivia Haibach, Sharon Zavala, Mahala Hobbs, Ian Arturo, Teresa Bensel, Bennett Buchanan, William Chappel, Dominique Billingslea, and Sam Hyun traveled to Washington, D.C. on November 5 to protest the proposed extension of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a construction project with the potential to cause environmental harm. The pipeline could also harm many farmers and low-income communities. The 26 students, who represented a variety of Allegheny organizations and academic departments, joined 12,000 other concerned citizens in forming a circle around the White House to voice their issues with the pipeline extension. The protest was led by environmental activist Bill McKibben, who will visit Allegheny in February as a part of the Year of Sustainable Communities. President Obama heard the protest and delayed the project so that the proposal could be reviewed by his administration.

Sustainability Coordinator Kelly Boulton gave a presentation, “Integrated Sustainability Financing,” at the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) 2011 Fall Regional Collaborative Symposium in Boston on November 4. Boulton and Director of Physical Plant Cliff Willis presented “Strategic Approaches to Implementing Sustainability” at the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC) Annual Meeting and Fall Conference in State College on November 11. Executive Vice President and Treasurer Dave McInally presented “Strategies for Funding Sustainability” at the same meeting. Also in attendance were Lee Swaydis ’14 and Allison Elick ’11. Allison is now working at Mercyhurst College as an AmeriCorps Vista Energy Corps member.

Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden presented “Greasing a solution to a complex problem: A college-municipal community effort to turn used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel” at the 2011 annual meeting of the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, held in Burlington, Vermont. The poster presentation — which also included coauthors Meadville City Manager Joe Chriest, Meadville Mayor Christopher Soff, Alessandra Trunzo ’11, Sandra Wayman ’09, Krystle Castillo ’10, Samuel Elliot ’11, Katie Flood ’10, Lynette Gardner ’11, Justin Gaudi ’11, Peter Grella ’10, Sarah Kane ’10, Isis Lawson ’11, Jessica Longobardo ’10, Xi Lu ’11, Kelsey Minto ’10, Chas Moore-Seymore ’11 and Daniel Roth ’10 — described research conducted by Allegheny students that resulted in Meadville’s adoption of a program that converts waste cooking oil from local restaurants into biodiesel fuel used in Meadville’s city vehicles.

Professor of Religious Studies Carl Olson’s essay “The Tension between Scholarship and Politics: A Consideration of the Legacy of Eliade” was published in the International Journal of Humanistic Ideology Vol. 4/2 (Winter 2011): 29-41. This was a special issue of the journal devoted to the topic of the legacy of Mircea Eliade, a historian of religions at the University of Chicago, on the 25th year of his death. Olson was invited to contribute by the editor. At the annual convention of the American Academy of Religion in San Francisco on November 19, Olson presented a paper titled “The Conflicting Themes of Nonviolence and Violence in Ancient Indian Asceticism as Evident in the Practice of Fasting.”

Associate Professor of Art Richard Schindler is featured with an interview and a gallery of his artwork in the first issue of Phantom Drift: A Journal of New Fabulism (Fall 2011).

Associate Professor of Dance and Movement Studies Eleanor Weisman presented a paper at the National Dance Education Organization October 2011 convention in Minneapolis. The paper, co-authored with Assistant Professor Emerita of Dance Studies Jan Hyatt, is titled “Creating Landscapes: A Process of Questioning, Collaborating, and Creating.” Creating Landscapes is an intergenerational collaboration between Allegheny College, Crawford Central School District, the community of Meadville, and the originators of the now eight different programs. The vision of Creating Landscapes grew from the perceived need for Allegheny students to have an opportunity to apply insights generated by their studies in the dance/movement studio to real life educational venues.