Chemistry students conduct summer research with support from the Benkovic Scholarship
For our undergraduate chemistry students, conducting summer research is a great way to explore their specific areas of interest and develop as scientists. The Benkovic Summer Research Scholarship supports these important educational experiences.
The Benkovic award provides financial support for undergraduates who are conducting outstanding unpaid summer research at the University Park campus under the direction of a faculty member. The award was established by Dr. Stephen Benkovic—Evan Pugh University Professor of Chemistry at Penn State—and his wife Patricia Benkovic.
This summer, ten students have been named recipients of the Benkovic Scholarship: Molly Burns, Alex Butzler, Benjamin Curlee, Jake Ehrbaker, Lara Fitzpatrick, Gaby Hohenwarter, Kelley Melanson, Tanachot Phitprom, Hanna Priller, and Walker Stradley.
Below you can learn more about some of our 2023 Benkovic Scholars and their summer research projects:
Molly Burns
Molly has been conducting research in the Sykes Lab. She has been working with Dr. Sykes to analyze microplastic content in the Susquehanna River. In May of 2022, she collected samples from four locations along the river in both Pennsylvania and Maryland (Millersburg, Harrisburg, Columbia, and Havre de Grace, MD) and spent the last year analyzing them. In May 2023, she returned to the exact sites to collect another round of samples. This summer she has been processing and analyzing these samples to see if any changes have occurred over time in the types of microplastics found.
Alex Butzler
Alex has been conducting research in the Freedman Lab. His project in question aims to develop an effective, mildly acidic pH probe system to accurately assess the pH of aerosol particles. By incorporating a fluorescent pH-sensitive dye and a pH-insensitive carbon quantum dot as an internal standard, he can utilize the resulting fluorescent intensities to establish a linear, ratiometric assay. This approach will allow him to construct a calibration curve, enabling precise determination of the pH levels of the aerosol particles under investigation.
Jake Ehrbaker
Jake has been conducting research in the Sykes Lab. He has been working to develop an electrochemical sensor to detect nano- and potentially piko- molar concentrations of the PFAS known as GenX in water samples. He is primarily focused on stabilizing the signal and reducing error so he can have a more reliable measurement. Current methods will not detect GenX until it is well beyond the what the EPA designates as a level of concern.
Gaby Hohenwarter
Gaby has been conducting research in the Bevilacqua Lab. Her project involves working computationally using SPARCS, a Snakemake pipeline for predicting riboSNitches genome wide. This pipeline has been used to extract trends in genomics data (from Ensembl) and, through obtained results, provide insight into the relationship between mutations and RNA secondary structure. In particular, her data analyses have investigated the distribution of riboSNitches across the transcript, the ratio of transversions to total single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in riboSNitches versus non-riboSNitches, and more.
Kelley Melanson
Kelley has been conducting research in the Bevilacqua Lab. Her project is focusing on studying RNA duplex formation under in-vivo like conditions using a stopped flow instrument. The analysis of the kinetics of this process and influencing factors can help her understand any differences between thermodynamically predicted structures and those formed in the cell. The stopped flow is used to record an exponential decrease in fluorescence over millisecond intervals of time as the RNA folds to form a duplex. A pseudo first order approximation is made, allowing the data to be fit exponentially. This yields values of kobs, which can be analyzed to determine the rates of duplex formation and dissociation.
Tanachot Phitprom
Tanachot has been conducting research in the Cremer Lab. His project focuses on finding the effect of pH and buffer conditions on PIP3 and the backfilling of Bovine Serum Albumin on PIP2.
Hannah Priller
Hannah has been conducting research in the Lear Lab. Her project focuses on understanding how the electronic properties of gold nanoparticles change with their size. Gold nanoparticles have various applications, especially in electronics, so understanding their properties is useful for being able to apply them.
Walker Stradley
Walker has been conducting research in the Sykes Lab. The focus of his research is to characterize the adsorption of organic pollutants on to the surfaces of microplastics as a function of particle type and size. Pyrene is used as a fluorescent probe to determine how organic molecules adsorb to the surfaces of synthesized microplastics, specifically PP, PET, and PVC, as a function of time from simulated fresh water. Characterization of adsorption of heavy metals onto the surfaces of the same microplastics is planned for the future.
