Chemistry and Biochemistry News

This summer, Biochemistry senior, Nicole Wenzel, is completing her Capstone internship with the New Jersey State Police. The first task that she worked on was a PDQ (Paint Data Query) project. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police maintain a worldwide database of automobile paints. For a police lab to have access to this database, the lab must send in 60 paint samples every year. Nicole and her group went to a junkyard and collected the samples. They then spent time in the lab analyzing and cataloging the paint samples in order to submit them to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Nicole is having a great start to the summer! She is looking forward to a career in forensics.

Chemistry faculty member, Dr. Sara Narayan, attended the 9th International Conference on Green & Sustainable Chemistry in Reston, Virginia. She presented a poster on an easy method for the isolation of caffeine from tea bags that can be used for nursing students taking their chemistry course.

Chemistry alum Erika Harden was featured in an SU online blog post about her career as a Crime Scene Technician with Baltimore City Police. Erika completed her chemistry degree in 2014 and her master’s in forensic science in 2015 by participating in the 4+1 program. Undergraduates take six courses while a fourth year student, at undergraduate tuition rates. They then have only one year of full time work left to complete the masters. The full story of Erika’s career can be read here.

^{L-R Kelsey Duprey, Meytal Guller, Dr. Dwyer, Alex Bull, Dr. Mason, Erica Quan, Kait Beardsley}

^{Alex Bull (BS’18) participated in a panel discussion by recent graduates}

The Summer Science Research Scholars have begun work in the labs since Memorial day, but took off a day to attend the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society with faculty members Drs. Dwyer and Mason. The students attended a panel presentation of recent graduates, including Chemistry alum Alex Bull (BS’18) who offered perspective on what lies after graduation. After the panel, students participated in a picnic lunch and a chemistry team trivia contest and attended talks that interested them.

Congratulations to Biochemistry Alum, Aaron Dixon on being honored with the The Orsia F. Young Leadership Award at the SU Graduation! This award is conferred on a graduating student from each academic school who has performed in an outstanding manner as a leader in the university community, initiated action, motivated others to do so, and has been an agent for positive change in the university. It was a well earned award!