Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants CAMPUS CURRENT
Awards Recognize Student Research SENIORS STUDYING ENGINEERING AND MATH HONORED
Two seniors have developed into accomplished researchers and are preparing to continue graduate work in their respective fields. Elissa Leonard ’12 of Haddon- field, N.J., was named a winner of a Biomedical Engineering Society 2011 Undergraduate Student Award, de- signed to provide encouragement and recognition for students’ academic achievements. For several years, Leonard worked on the Corneal Tissue Engineering project with Elizabeth Orwin ’95, associate professor of engineering. Or-
Elissa Leonard ’12
win and her student researchers are working on designing a tissue engineered artificial corneal model, a complicated problem that few undergraduate colleges are undertaking. The idea is to make a new cornea out of cells and a matrix material or biological poly- mer, not unlike what is found in your skin or eye. Leonard is majoring in an Independent Program of Study (bio- molecular systems and design), and is the president of the Mudd Creative Collective. An HMC President’s Scholar, she plans to at- tend graduate school for a Ph.D. in cell, tissue or biomolecular engineering, then continue doing research in that field. Dhruv Ranganathan ’12 of Chen-
nai, India, was awarded the inaugural Giovanni Borrelli Fellowship, which recognizes an HMC mathematics ma- jor who has completed high-quality research either independently or in tan- dem with a faculty advisor. The fellow- ship, established through the generosity of Emeritus Professor Robert (“Bob”) Borrelli, includes a stipend that will support summer research and travel re- lated to the research. Ranganathan is working with mathematics Professor Dagan
Dhruv Ranganathan ’12
Karp and Paul Riggins ’12 on techniques to study basic proper- ties of toric varieties, with applications to Gromov-Witten Theory and Donaldson-Thomas Theory. This work impacts high-energy physics, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and combinatorics. Ranganathan plans to study algebraic geometry and repre- sentation theory in graduate school, with the goal of joining the professoriate.
NEW Student News
Course description: A laboratory course for chemistry juniors and seniors that focuses on techniques of chemical measurement and is built around the chemistry needed to determine the concentra- tions of common analytes in seawater. Topics include titrations of several flavors, spectrophotometry and ion chromatography.
Texts: None (all students have Quantitative Chemical Analysis, Harris, seventh edition, for the corresponding lecture course)
Assignments/Activities: Students develop and optimize pro- cedures to measure nine common compounds in seawater using the basic principles and methods of analytical chemistry. After six weeks of optimization, students rotate through their classmates’ procedures to continually monitor the analytes in a tropical ma- rine ecosystem. Final reports summarize the method and series of results obtained on their compound. Students also learn to write scientific abstracts on the various experiments.
Faculty say: “Allowing the students freedom and responsibility to design their experiment makes them much more engaged in the technical details of the chemistry. They internalize the principles of analytical chemistry more quickly as they optimize their project.” (Lelia Hawkins)
Students say: “It’s a little intimidating at first to design a whole lab protocol, but you really get to be an expert on the analysis of your specific analyte. Also, it’s nice to see how a lab technique we talk about in class can actually be important in a real-world situation— nobody wants the fish to die!” (Alex Chan ’12)
Only at Mudd: Most schools provide the students with seawater. Mudd students get an entire tropical marine ecosystem—with fish—to monitor as the analyte levels change.
FALL/WINTER 2011 Har vey Mudd College
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