Winners at the Sigma Xi Columbia-Willamette Student Research Symposium
April 11, 2011
1) Behavioral and social sciences
First place: Cassandra Manning, PSU
The role of salmon in Snake River human economy: Hetrick site faunal records in regional contexts.
Second place: Alexandra MacColl Garfinkel, Lewis and Clark College, OHSU
Alcohol self-administration prevents pair bond formation in prairie voles.
2) Biological science
First place, graduate: Sushma Kommineni, OHSU
Nitric oxide dependent and independent transcriptional regulation by NsrR in Bacillus subtilis.
Second place, graduate: Brian Turner, PSU
Examining the potential for overcompensation by the invasive European Green Crab in response to removal efforts.
First place, undergraduate: Adam Ard, University of Portland
Characterization of ovine GM1gangliosidosis through immunochemiluminescence.
3) Biomedical science
First place: Yanping Ye, OHSU
Designing new Ca2+ release channel inhibitors based on enhanced electron donor characteristics.
Second place: Valeria Ursu, David Douglas High School and OHSU School of Dentistry
Improving sealants that eliminate tooth decay and cavity-causing bacteria by combining chlorhexidine with bioactive glass.
4) Chemistry
First place, graduate: Kelly Chacon, OHSU
The pathways toward assembly in a purple protein: selenium labeling as a probe of metal transport in Thermus thermophilus CuA.
Second place, graduate: Natasja Swartz, PSU
Use of X-ray microanalysis and infrared microspectroscopy for multianalytical characterization of the Walter Codex, and Ethiopian manuscript.
Honorable mention, graduate: Risikat Ajibola, PSU
Activation by reduction: a study of kinetics and mechanism of reduction of anticancer Ruthenium complex NAMI-A by MESNA
First place, undergraduate: Orin Holland, PSU
The introduction of mutations to a self-assembling ribozyme
Honorable mention, undergraduate: Lindsay Lermo, Concordia University
Development of a novel GC/MS method for the detection of nicotinamide and activity of ADP-ribosylating toxins.
5) Earth Science
First place, graduate: Ashley Van Hoose, PSU
Apatite sulfur systematics and crystal populations in the 1991 Pinatubo magmas.
Second place, graduate: Kristy Hauver, PSU
Cohenite in NWA 5964 (L3-6 melt breccia): a possible product of shock-induced contact metamorphism.
First place, undergraduate: Niina Jamsja, PSU, CML
Presence of hydrous phases in R chondritic meteorites.
6) Engineering, mathematics, and computer science
First place, graduate: Peter Banda, PSU
Self-organizing maps meet random Boolean networks: optimal network node placement in metric space.
Second place, graduate: Kapil Gotkhindikar, PSU
Adaptive test: Real-time test reordering and elimination.
First place, HS: Sean Petegorsky, Grant HS and PSU
Simulation framework toward optimization of dye-sensitized solar cells utilizing nanoscale pores for light scattering.
7) Environmental science
First place, graduate: Anthony R. Hofkamp, PSU
“Ground truthing” the use of radiographic analysis of vertebral growth rings for age determination of Pacific salmon (Onchorynchus spp.)
Second place, graduate: Leslie Bliss-Ketchum, PSU
The effectiveness of vertebrate passage and prevention structures: a study of Boeckman Road in Wilsonville, Oregon.
Honorable mention, graduate: Keith Leffler, PSU
Strong and weak upwelling transitions on the Pacific Northwest coast.
8) Physics
First place, graduate: Athavan Nadarajah, PSU
ZnO nanowire, CdSe quantum-dots based heterojunction solar cells.
Second place, graduate: Martha Coakley, PSU
ZnO nanowires: a better anti-reflection coating for solar cells.
First place, undergraduate: Allan Dunham, PSU
Bulk (RE)Ba2Cu3O(7-x) mono-domain superconductors using multi-seeded seamless infiltration and growth.