Posted on Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Four Westminster College seniors presented their research at the American Chemical Society's (ACS) annual meeting March 20-26 in San Francisco.
Nichole Batey, a biochemistry major, is a daughter of Debra Batey of Lawrence and a graduate of Canon-McMillan High School. She presented a poster on "Sodium Phosphate Effects on the Helical Stability of a Mainly Alanine Peptide."
"This was the largest ACS meeting in history with over 18,000 people in attendance," Batey said. "There were a variety of things to do every day, including poster sessions and lectures, lots of new things to learn by attending the Exposition, and many new people to meet."
"One interesting talk was on the nutrition of chocolate, where the speaker had statistical data proving dark chocolate has healthy advantages," Batey added. "The best poster session I attended was Sci-Mix, where there were numerous topics of chemistry on some new and innovative research."
Linda Farnham, a chemistry major, is a daughter of Paul and Sally Farnham of Westfield, N.Y., and a graduate of Westfield Central School. She presented "Morphologies of Lanthanum and Yttrium Oxide Powders via SEM after Precipitation Stripping."
Christina Hamill, a chemistry major from Jeannette, is a graduate of Penn-Trafford High School. She presented a poster on "Synthesis of (PNP) Hafnium Complexes." The poster was chosen for presentation in the Sci-Mix session, an interdisciplinary session with representative posters chosen by the organizers.
Hamill, the 2008-2009 president of Westminster's Chemistry Club, accepted an honorable mention on behalf of the club at the national awards reception.
Kimberly Worst, a chemistry major, is a daughter of Paul and Maria Worst of Butler and a graduate of Butler Area High School. She presented a poster on "Optimization of SPME GC-MS Analysis of Osajin and Pomiferin in Osage Oranges."
"My favorite part of the conference was meeting other scientists, many of whom were interested in my research, and talking to people in ACS's chemical education division," Worst said.
Also attending the ACS meeting was Dr. Peter Smith, Westminster associate professor of chemistry. He organized and chaired "Sustainability in Action," a symposium sponsored by the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Speakers included ACS staff, the director of recycling programs at the Moscone Convention Center, organizers from sustainability summits in Oswego, N.Y., and scientists from Rhodia, Inc., who detailed their organization's current sustainability initiatives and their challenges for the future.
Smith, who serves as treasurer, also participated in the governance meetings of the Division of Professional Relations.
Smith, who joined the Westminster faculty in 2002, earned an undergraduate degree and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee.
The four students received travel/presentation grants from Westminster's Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning to attend the conference.
The Drinko Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning was created to enrich undergraduate education at Westminster through advancing world-class teaching as well as by participating in collaborations that address community and regional needs including strengthening K-12 education. The Undergraduate Research Initiative provides funding for students to conduct research and to present their research at regional and national conferences.
Contact Dr. Tim Sherwood, associate professor and chair of Westminster's Department of Chemistry, at (724) 946-7296 or e-mail sherwota@westminster.edu for additional information.
