Chemistry and Biochemistry News

Senior Biochemistry major Brianna Slattery plans to be a physician. Her internship at 4 Oaks Physical Therapy helped her to understand better the aftercare for surgical procedures and injuries. She worked as a PT tech, and assisted patients with their exercises. During these interactions, she heard feedback from the PT patients about the way their doctors treated them, the sorts of things they did not like, or ways that their recovery has been more difficult. This showed her the ways in she can strive for improvement in patient care, and what a patient is looking for in their doctor. She was surprised to learn that PT is more than just exercises and stretching, but has an important pain management approach with its administered therapies. Brianna is graduating from Stevenson in December 2022.

Erika Harden is a CSI with Baltimore Police, but she’s also an alumnae from Chemistry ’14 and Forensic Science ’15. She also teaches as an adjunct instructor of Forensic Science in SUO. Erika, and her director, Rana DellaRocco, also an adjunct FSCI instructor, were featured in a recent publication “Becoming a Crime Scene Investigator” by Jacqueline Detwiler George. The author shadowed Erika on her shift as a Crime Scene Technician at BPD and described in the book what a day in the life on a crime scene team really looks like.

Dr. Matthew Hudson returns to Stevenson after a stint as a Visiting Professor in the chemistry department at Colgate University, this time as a full time faculty member. While at Colgate, Dr. Hudson taught General and Physical Chemistry while developing a new course in Materials Chemistry. His area of research focuses on materials chemistry at the interface of inorganic/organic and physical chemistry with an emphasis on materials for climate change. Dr. Hudson comes to Stevenson with over a decade of mentoring STEM students in both the university and national research laboratory settings. Look for Dr. Hudson’s special topics class in Spring 2023 on materials chemistry!