Whitman students receive collaborative research grants for the summer
By Karah Kemmerly '14
Find a summer job or research fossils instead? For two Whitman students, studying a collection of vertebrate fossils was the obvious choice.
Geology majors Craig Barstow ’14 and Jenna Rolle ’15 are among those who have made academic plans rather than vacation or employment plans this summer, upon learning they are recipients of Louis B. Perry Summer Research Grants, provided by Whitman. They will study a newly acquired collection of vertebrate fossils from the Ringold Formation in the Columbia Basin in order to find clues about faunal and climate change in North America during the late Pliocene era.
A total of 30 student-faculty teams received Perry Grants this year. Recipients of the grants receive a cash stipend to conduct original research in a variety of disciplines.
These projects give professors the opportunity to further their previous research and to publish journal articles and formulate conference presentations. Students benefit, too, because they experience the challenges and rewards of doing scholarly research and they often get ideas for potential senior thesis topics.
The Louis B. Perry Summer Research Grant was established in honor of Louis B. Perry, the eighth president of Whitman and a member of the Board of Overseers. The grant is generously funded by the Parents Fund through the Student-Faculty Research Fund.
“Funded student-faculty research, such as work supported by the Perry Grants, is a hallmark of Whitman’s academic program,” said Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, provost and dean of the faculty. “I am always impressed with the breadth and depth of the research. I have seen work from Whitman students that rivals the work of students at the best graduate programs in the nation. I congratulate all the Perry recipients and look forward to learning about their projects.”
The following list includes information about the student and faculty recipients of Perry Grants and their projects.
| Student | Professor | Project | |
| Brandon Hunzicker '15; Environmental Humanities Major; Middleton, Wis. | Assistant Professor of English Chris Leise | "From Seven Generations: A Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Reader" | |
| Cheney Doane '15; Music Performance Major; Salt Lake City, Utah | Assistant Professor of Music Paul Luongo | "A Critical Edition of Select Orchestrations by Theodore Thomas" | |
| Alice Wilson '14; Environmental Studies-Biology Major, Maple Valley, Wash | Assistant Professor of Biology Timothy Parker | "Understanding the Decline of an Abundant Native Species" | |
| Molly Simonson '14; Environmental Studies-Biology Major, Burlingame, Cal | Assistant Professor of Biology Timothy Parker | "Understanding the Decline of an Abundant Native Species" | |
| Erik Feldman '14; Music Theory and Composition Major; Davis, Calif. | Catharine Gould Chism Chair of Music Susan Pickett | "Marion Bauer: Symphony No. 1" | |
| Stefanie Barrera Aguila '14; Art History & Visual Culture Studies Major, Seat | Assistant Professor of Art History Matt Reynolds | "Taking Place: Art & Urban Redevelopment in Hollywood, CA" | |
| Morgan Dienst '15; Chemistry Major; Lynnwood, Wash. | Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dalia Rokhsana | "Computational Modeling and Biomimetic Synthesis of the Active Site of Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase" | |
| Daniel Ellis '14; BBMB Major; Bellevue, Wash. | Assistant Professor of ChemistryDalia Rokhsana | "Computational Modeling and Biomimetic Synthesis of the Active Site of Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase" | |
| Jordan Brown '14; Anthropology Major; Paolo Alto, Calif. | Professor of Anthropology Gary Rollefson | "Excavation at Widad Pools, Eastern Jordan" | |
| Rosemary Hanson '14; Anthropology Major; Tacoma, Wash. | Professor of Anthropology Gary Rollefson | "Excavation at Widad Pools, Eastern Jordan" | |
| Hasan Ali '15; Undeclared Major; Baghdad, Iraq | Associate Professor of History Elyse Semerdjian | "Digitally Archiving Shari'a Court Records" | |
| Jessica Lawrence '15; Film & Media Studies Major; Alamo, Calif. | Professor of Film and Media Studies Robert Sickels | "Grant Farmer Post #992: The Walla Walla VFW" | |
| Cathryn Klusmeier '14; Environmental Humanities and Philosophy Double | Senior Lecturer of Environmental Humanities Don Snow | "Sustaining Place: the Persistence of the Local in an Era of Globalization" | |
| Jenna Rolle '15; Geology Major; Portland, Ore. | Professor of Geology Patrick Spencer | "Fauna and Paleocology of the Ringold Formation at the Type Locality, White Bluffs, Washington" | |
| Craig Barstow '14; Geology Major; Windham, N.H. | Professor of Geology Patrick Spencer | "Fauna and Paleocology of the Ringold Formation at the Type Locality, White Bluffs, Washington" | |
| Elizabeth Leong '14; BBMB Major; Vancouver, Wash. | Professor of Biology Dan Vernon | "Tracking PIRLs: determining the locations of plant proteins with GFP fusions" | |
| Luis Alba-Sanchez '14; Religion Major; Windsor, Calif. | Associate Professor of Religion Melissa Wilcox | "The Parodic Finale: Final Research on the Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence" | |
| Ornella Leukou '14; Sociology Major; San Francisco, Calif. | Assistant Professor of History Jacqueline Woodfork | "From Olalite to the Written Word" | |
| Miriam Moran '14; Foreign Languages and Literatures: French Major; Livermore, Calif. | Assistant Professor of History Jacqueline Woodfork | "From Olalite to the Written Word" | |
| Theo Ciszewski '15; French and Politics Double Major; Washington, D.C. | Associate Professor of Foreign Language and Literature: French Zahi Zalloua | "The Double Bind of the Intellectual: Toward a Hermeneutics of Skepticism" | |
| Alan Pugh '14; Psychology Major; Potamac, Md. | Assistant Professor of Psychology Pavel Blagov | "Validity of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy in a Community Sample" | |
| Morgan Walker '13; Psychology Major; Hillsborough, Calif. | Assistant Professor of Psychology Pavel Blagov | "Validity of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy in a Community Sample" | |
| Walker Larson '14; Physics Major; Portland, Ore. | Benjamin H. Brown Professor of Physics Mark Beck | "Remotely Operated Quantum Mechanics Laboratories" | |
| Molly Hayes '14; Environmental Studies-Biology Major; Portland, Ore. | Miles C. Moore Professor of Political Science Phil Brick | "The Beaver Believers: How Four Strong Women Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Climate Change" | |
| Janni Conrad '15; Chemistry Major; Tabernash, Colo. | Assistant Professor of Chemistry Nathan Boland | "Surface Catalysis of Ligand Exchange Reactions between Strong Chelating Agents" | |
| Tristan Endreo '14; Chemistry Major; Seattle, Wash. | Associate Professor of Chemistry Allison Calhoun | "Xe-129 NMR of Aqueous Mixed-Micelle Solutions: Determining the Mechanism of Action of Hydrotropes in Micelle Systems" | |
| Lucus Ramadan; Kentfield, Calif. | Associate Professor of Chemistry Allison Calhoun | "Analysis of Protein Matrices in Scleractinian Coral Structures: Developing Methods for Quantifying the Organic Composition of Hard Corals" | |
| Phuong Le '16; Undeclared Major; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. | Assistant Professor of Politics Melisa Casumbal | "Claims on the National Uterus: The Filipina Body in Debates on the 2012 Reproductive Health Law" | |
| Kristen Whittington '15; Economics Major; Manchaca, Tex. | Assistant Professor of Economics Jennifer Cohen | "How Much Discrimination is Enough? A Simulation Model of Sex Discrimination" | |
| Amber Lombard '14; Biology Major; Los Altos, Calif. | Professor of Biology Heidi Dobson | "Pollen Consumption by Adult Solitary Oligolectic Bees" | |
| Ted Younie '14; Biology Major; Portland, Ore. | Professor of Biology Heidi Dobson | "Pollen Consumption by Adult Solitary Oligolectic Bees" | |
| Livingston Martin '14; Biology Major; Beaverton, Ore. | Associate Professor of Biology Kendra Golden | "Tracking E. coli and T4 Bacteriophages in Hemolymph of Manduca sexta Larvae to Elucidate the Cause of Toxicity in the Presence of these Agents" | |
| Kendall Gilmore '14; BBMB Major; Pasco, Wash. | Research Specialist Nancy Forstoefel | "Too Much of a Good Thing, Part II: Effects of PIRL9 Gene Over-Expression in Genetically Modified Plants" | |
| Zach Strater '14; Chemistry Major; Portland, Ore. | Assistant Professor of Chemistry Marion Gotz | "Structural and Kinetic Analysis of Novel Proteasome Inhibitors" | |
| Emma Snyder '14; Sociology Major; Berkeley, Calif. | Associate Professor of Sociology Michelle Janning | "Gender, Generation, and Technology in Paths to and from Couplehood" | |
| Hannah Midget '15; Chemistry Major; Salt Lake City, Utah | Assistant Professor of Chemistry Mark Juhasz | "Boron Clusters for Drugs and Advanced Materials: New Derivatives of 1- carba- closo-dodecaborate (1-)" | |
| Greg Dwulet '15; Chemistry Major; Los Altos, Calif. | Assistant Professor of Chemistry Mark Juhasz | "Boron Clusters for Drugs and Advanced Materials: New Derivatives of 1- carba- closo-dodecaborate (1-)" | |