Chemistry and Biochemistry News

The Chemistry Department was happy to host a talk by Suzanne Johnson, Ph.D. of McCormick Spice Company as part of the SOS Steminar series. Dr. Johnson described the chemistry behind flavor chemistry and did small flavor sensing experiments with the participants. She will be teaching a course in the fall on this special topic which is open to any upper level science student who has completed Organic II with a C or better.

The office of Career Connections hosted the first “Mustang Mentors” event this semester to connect alumni mentors with current students. We were please to see Andrew McGregor (BS’15/MS’16) come to the mixer to give advice to up and coming forensic science majors. Pictured above, Andrew is speaking with Meghan, who was recently admitted to the BS/MS program.

Biochemistry (BS’19) alum Meghann Hefner recently accepted a position as a Beverage Application Technician at McCormick Spice Company. During her summer senior capstone internship, Meghann worked as a Quality Assurance Intern at Medifast, a nutrition and weight loss company based in Baltimore. She completed more than 300 hours at her internship and during the course the subsequent fall semester, wrote a substantive paper about the most current research on the issue of artificial sweeteners and the effects on metabolism. This paper was supported by a professional poster that she presented at the semi-annual School of the Sciences poster session. In addition to her work at Medifast, Meghann performed independent biochemistry research, synthesizing and purifying MDH protein for use in protocols to study its role in cancer chemotherapy. Before this position, Meghann has been employed elsewhere in the flavoring industry, but is excited to transition to McCormick. She hopes to pursue a Master’s in food science while an employee at McCormick. Congratulations Meghann on landing your dream job!

Cookies with Chemists is a popular event in the Chemistry Department where students and faculty get together and play games, eat cookies and unplug. It is so popular that the group created a logo and are offering T-shirts for sale! Follow this link to order a shirt until February 27th. Gift one to your favorite student, just let us know who it’s for in the order form, and we’ll make sure they get it!

Warmest congratulations to Chris Toth (BS Biochem ’16) on receiving his Masters in Biomedical Sciences Physician Assistant from the University of Toledo! Chris’ plans are to “return to Maryland and deliver care to this wonderful community!” When asked how his degree at Stevenson prepared him, he said “Stevenson prepared me for PA school by providing a strong, supportive and challenging curriculum forming my biological sciences foundation. The personal, professional advising I received provided the framework I needed to achieve my goals and ultimately end up in my dream career.”

We’re so excited for him on this wonderful accomplishment!