Wagner College students won four awards at the 61st annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference on Saturday, April 21. The conference was hosted by the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, the Bronx.
A busload of Wagner College students, faculty, and interested others attended the conference, in which approximately 20 colleges and universities participated.
Wagner College undergraduates and graduate students gave eight poster presentations and nine oral presentations. In addition, three full-length research papers by Wagner College students were submitted for judging. Our students won four awards for excellence in presentation.
Also competing at the conference was Amanda Rollizo, a Marist College environmental science major, who won an excellence award for her poster presentation. Amanda’s mother, Stephanie Rollizo, is the faculty secretary for the Department of Biological Sciences at Wagner College.
During the conference, Wagner biology professor Roy Mosher was elected by unanimous vote to the ECSC Board of Directors. He joins Wagner faculty members Gregory Falabella (Assistant Professor, Physics), Laurence Nolan (Associate Professor, Psychology) and Donald Stearns (Professor, Biology) on the board. Stearns is the president of ECSC and works with the chair of the board of directors every year to sustain ECSC conferences.
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EASTERN COLLEGES SCIENCE CONFERENCE
APRIL 21, 2007
WAGNER COLLEGE PARTICIPANTS
ORAL PRESENTATIONS
Title: Activation of microglial toll-like receptors increases uptake and degradation of amyloid beta in vitro
Student Presenter: Emily Babcock-Petrus (Biology major)
Co-authors: Daniel Kerr (Institute for Basic Research) and Dr. George Merz (Institute for Basic Research)
Research Advisor: Dr. Daryl Spinner (Institute for Basic Research)
Title: Racial bias: Do we love ourselves or just hate everyone else?
Student Presenter: Daniel Bryant (Psychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Amy Eshleman (Department of Psychology)
Title: Integrating materials science into middle school science programs
Student Presenters: Racquel Campo (Chemistry major) and Kimberly Farrell (Chemistry major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Wendy deProphetis (Department of Chemistry)
Title: Duplications, position effect, and the phenotypic changes associated with bar-eye mutations in Drosophila melanogaster
Student Presenter: Irena De Mario (Biology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Ammini Moorthy (Department of Biological Sciences)
Title: Jury bias: The effects of race, sex, and physical attractiveness on jury sentencing
Student Presenter: Elicia Enriquez (Psychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Amy Eshleman (Department of Psychology)
Title: Crossing the burning sands: a social psychological investigation of hazing
Student Presenter: Christianna Gozzi (Psychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Amy Eshleman (Department of Psychology)
Title: Hydrothermal crystal growth of ZnO
Student Presenter: Jennifer Hart (Physics major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Maria Gelabert (Department. of Chemistry and Physics)
*Excellence Award for Student Presentation in Animal Biology*
Title: Comparing intracardial perfusion fixation and immersion fixation in the adult zebrafish brain ultrastructure
Student Presenter: Letizia Hobbs (Microbiology major)
Co-authors: Vincenzo DiMaggio (Microbiology MS Program) and Christopher Corbo (Microbiology MS Program)
Research Advisors: Dr. Zoltan Fulop (Department of Biological Sciences) and Professor Linda Raths (Department of Biological Sciences)
Title: A statistical analysis of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
Student Presenter: Maris Reutzel (Physics major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Otto Raths (Department of Physics)
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
*Excellence Award for Poster Presentation in Cell Biology*
Title: Activation of microglial toll-like receptors increases uptake and degradation of amyloid beta in vitro
Student Presenter: Emily Babcock-Petrus (Biology major)
Co-authors: Daniel Kerr (Institute for Basic Research) and Dr. George Merz (Institute for Basic Research)
Research Advisors: Dr. Daryl Spinner (Institute for Basic Research)
Title: Rhodococcus equi: Spore or non-spore former?
Student Presenters: Michael Bois (Microbiology major), Edmond Kurtovic (Microbiology major)
CoAuthor: Mouhammed Halwani (Microbiology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Kathleen Bobbitt (Department of Biological Sciences)
Title: Virtual screening and identification of small molecule inhibitors of the melatonin rhythm enzyme
Student Presenter: Margarita Javoroncov (Biology major)
Co-authors: Dr. Lawrence M. Szewczuk (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology), Dr. Surajit Ganguly (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology), Dr. S.A. Saldanha (Scripps Research Institute, Department of Molecular Biology), Dr. R. Abagyan (The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Molecular Biology), and Dr. Philip A. Cole (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology)
Research Advisor: Dr. Philip A. Cole (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology)
Title: The relationship between perfectionism and sleep difficulties
Student Presenters: Laura Kohberger (Psychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Steven Jenkins (Department of Psychology)
Title: Effect of various ethanol concentrations on the shoaling behavior of zebrafish
Student Presenter: Anastasia Kurta (Biopsychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Brian Palestis (Department of Biological Sciences)
Title: The effects of varying ethyl alcohol concentrations on zebrafish development: a morphological study
Student Presenter: Lauren Maltese (Microbiology major)
Research Advisors: Dr. Zoltan Fulop (Department of Biological Sciences), Professor Linda Raths (Department of Biological Sciences), Christopher Corbo (Microbiology MS Program)
Title: The effect of caloric density on conditioned taste preferences of caffeinated beverages
Student Presenter: Alfred Raccuia (Biopsychology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Laurence Nolan (Department of Psychology)
Title: Cloning of the jadR1-jadR2 intergenic region from the jadomycin biosynthesis cluster of Streptomyces venezuelae venezuelae ISP5230 in a promoter probe plasmid
Student Presenter: Yevgeniy Statnikov (Microbiology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Roy H. Mosher (Department of Biological Sciences)
FULL-LENGTH RESEARCH PAPERS
*Excellence Award for Full-Length Paper*
Title: Activation of microglial toll-like receptors increase uptake and degradation of amyloid beta in vitro
Author: Emily Babcock-Petrus (Biology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Daryl Spinner (Institute for Basic Research)
*Excellence Award for Full-Length Paper*
Title: Invention and application of stereotaxic apparatus for adult zebrafish brain surgery
Author: Letizia Hobbs (Microbiology major)
Research Advisors: Dr. Zoltan Fulop (Department of Biological Sciences) and Professor Linda Raths (Department of Biological Sciences)
Title: Small molecular inhibitors of melatonin rhythm enzyme
Author: Margarita Javoroncov (Biology major)
Research Advisor: Dr. Philip A. Cole (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology)
POSTER PRESENTATION GIVEN BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS MENTORED BY WAGNER COLLEGE GRADUATE STUDENTS
Title: The effects of chloroform, bromoform and tetrachloroethylene on PKA in developing zebrafish brain
Student Presenters: Peter Tuminelli, Joseph Trabulsy, Megan Williamson, and Christopher Lafferti (St. Joseph by the Sea High School)
Research Advisors: Christopher Corbo (Microbiology MS Program), Charles Jenkins (Microbiology MS Program)
