KINSC 2023
The Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center KINSC 2023 | i
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MAJORS Astronomy Astrophysics Biology Chemistry Chemistry – ACS Certified Computer Science Environmental Studies Geology (at Bryn Mawr) Interdisciplinary Physics Mathematics Neuroscience Physics Psychology
MINORS Astronomy Chemistry Chemistry – ACS Certified Computer Science Environmental Studies Health Studies Mathematics Neuroscience Physics Psychology Statistics
CONCENTRATIONS Biochemistry Biophysics Computer Science Geoarchaeology (at Bryn Mawr) Geochemistry (at Bryn Mawr) Mathematical Economics Mathematics Education Scientific Computing
DEGREE PARTNERSHIPS 4+1 Bioethics with UPenn Accelerated Masters in Engineering with UPenn 3+2 Engineering with CalTech
KINSC The Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center (KINSC) catalyzes and facilitates programs that maintain Haverford’s position at the leading edge of academic excellence in the sciences. To this end, the KINSC promotes scientific scholarship involving close collaboration between faculty and students and provides opportunities for these collaborations to expand beyond the borders of the Haverford campus. The KINSC is unique among Haverford’s three academic centers in that it is both a building and a program. The 185,000 squarefoot building is the epicenter of natural science research at Haverford. It was constructed to facilitate sharing of instruments, methodology, and expertise across disciplines and to contribute to a climate of cooperative problem solving and investigation. The KINSC comprises the departments and programs of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Neuroscience, Physics, Psychology, Mathematics and Statistics, and Computer Science. To supplement the efforts of the departments, the KINSC supports interdisciplinary dialogue and collaborations. In addition to directly funding students and faculty, the Center supports academic activities initiated with outside grants and individual faculty awards. The programming and funding functions of the Center support the faculty and students of these departments as well as others within the College who wish to pursue research in the sciences. The KINSC funds individual research projects and also sponsors symposia, curricular initiatives, courses, and scholarly projects that go beyond the bounds of a single discipline and involve students and faculty from multiple departments. KINSC 2023 | 1
THE RANGE OF PROGRAMS SUPPORTED BY THE KINSC IS LIMITED ONLY BY THE IMAGINATION OF THE HAVERFORD SCIENCE COMMUNITY. Currently, the KINSC supports the following activities: Summer research opportunities for students, on
campus or at other institutions Fall research symposium, showcasing work by
students from Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and other area colleges Travel for students to pursue research during the
academic year with collaborators in labs within the U.S. or abroad Travel for students to attend conferences,
to present research, or to gain experience applicable to future careers (in collaboration with the Green Fund)
Student and faculty training in new science-related
techniques Special projects initiated by science faculty Events such as research talks, film screenings,
and panels Annual career panel for science majors, in
collaboration with the Center for Career and Professional Advising Annual Student Scientific Imaging Contest Research and travel for students from groups
underrepresented in the sciences, through the Access and Achievement Fund
We are committed to supporting a wide variety of creative ideas in the sciences; students should not feel limited by the categories listed.
Advanced Lab in Biology Group Photo of Assistant Professor of Biology, Amy Cooke’s (far left) class, back row left to right: George Morgulis ’26, Nathan Rose ’23, Darshan Mehta ’25, Justin Adler ’24, and Post Baccalaureate Research Associate, William Skipper; (front row left to right): Kristen Min ’23, Kendall Ozorowski ’23, Liva Pfhuler BMC ’23, Megan Heflinger ’23, and Jaclyn Holtby ’23. Photo by Holden Blanco ’17
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KINSC BY THE NUMBERS 2023
Awards to fund research opportunities
Distribution of students in the sciences
528
300
Majors *
Awards *
12 Frances Velay Women’s Science Research Fellows 32 different conferences/meetings around the country
17 Astronomy & Astrophysics Majors 49 Physics Majors 60 Computer Science Majors 65 Mathematics & Statistics Majors
36 KINSC Summer Scholars (including three students who traveled internationally)
54 Chemistry Majors 53 Psychology Majors
72 students received conference travel funding to attend and/or present their work
82 Biology Majors 61 Environmental Studies (with BMC)
148 students performed summer research with faculty in the KINSC *Student research opportunities are funded through the KINSC and through individual faculty grants from the NSF, NIH, etc.
85 Neuroscience (with BMC) *This figure captures juniors and seniors who have declared a major in the sciences. Students do not declare majors until the end of the sophomore year.
36
100%
$9.5 M
On-campus faculty supervising student researchers
Science majors who graduate with research experience
External funding for research by our natural science faculty KINSC 2023 | 3
STUDENT CONFERENCE TRAVEL Conferences students attended with funding from the KINSC: Ocean Science Meeting Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Society for Neuroscience Meeting of the American Astronomical Society Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students American Chemical Society American Physical Society International Zebrafish Conference Eastern Psychology Association Society of Behavorial Medicine APS March Meeting Joint Mathematics Meeting Molecular Education and Research Consortium in Undergraduate
Computational Chemistry (MERCURY) Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics The National Society of Black Physicists 2023 Annual Conference Grace Hopper Conference
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PUBLIC OBSERVING EVENTS WHAT WILL YOU OBSERVE? STAR
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OUTREACH Sharing Science With the Community
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In the northwest corner of campus, the double-domed Strawbridge Observatory is, by day, a classroom, library, and lounge space. After sundown, however, the building opens its doors four times a semester to continue its Public Observing Program, which for years has offered a bridge between the College and the surrounding community. At the astronomy-centered gatherings, a team of Bi-Co students provide presentations, children’s programming, craft projects, and viewing of celestial objects with the observatory’s two telescopes — making for all-ages fun that anyone can enjoy. Public Observing activities vary from night to night, but when weather permits, students locate planets, nebulas, or star clusters using the 16-inch and 12-inch telescopes that sit atop the building. Downstairs, craft activities (like building rocket ships or designing planets) are popular with the younger visitors. And after an hour or so, Haverford students practice distilling astronomical knowledge into broadly understandable terms by presenting on their research or something astronomy-related in the news.
HAVERFARM CONNECT WITH THE FARM STAR
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The Haverfarm is a year-round farming and educational space designed to integrate sustainable food and agriculture into the academic and extracurricular lives of Haverford students, faculty, staff, and surrounding community members. With a focus on interdisciplinary and experiential learning, the Haverfarm invites students and other members of the community to engage with issues of food justice and local, progressive agriculture.
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2023 FALL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM An annual showcase for student research, the September event this year featured student talks and poster displays on topics in astrophysics, biology, chemistry, environmental studies, computer science, mathematics, physics, and psychology— together spanning cognitive science and neuroscience, and even including algorithmic fairness.
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2023 SELECTED STUDENT RESEARCH TALKS “The Role of Galactic Bars on Star Formation” Petra Mengistu ’24 “Virtual Reality Goggles for Mice in Behavioral Neuroscience Research” Emi Krishnamurthy ’24 “Artificial Photosynthesis: Chemical Reactions With Visible Light” Kyra Jackson ’25 “Association of Nitrogen in Triethylamine Reduces Terminal Alkyne Raman Frequency” Anagha Aneesh ’24 “Mapping the Star Formation Rates of Virgo Cluster Galaxies” Emma Martignoni ’24 “Early Life Stress and Memory in Rodents” Alex Abramenko ’24 “Developing a Guided Inquiry Curriculum for Organic Chemistry Laboratory CHEM 225” Spencer Brown ’25 “Using Delay Differential Equations to Model the Concentration of Phages” Mark Hubertus ’25 & Thea Schwallie ’25 “Social Connectedness: A Protective Factor Against the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Mental Health in First-Year Undergraduate Students” Margaret Weisblum ’23 “Stirring the Pot : Could JWST Observations Test Cosmic Phase Transitions?” William Haresch ’24 KINSC 2023 | 7
SCIENTIFIC IMAGING CONTEST The KINSC Scientific Imaging Contest is an annual contest for student-submitted images from experiments or simulations that are scientifically intriguing as well as aesthetically pleasing. Judging is based on both the quality of the image and the explanation of the underlying science. First Prize: Ash DiCristofalo ’23 “Bacteria Disco” shows the intracellular bacteria Wolbachia (green dots) localizing along microtubules (red lines) during cell division (with blue DNA dots at the microtubules’ centers) in a Drosophila sturtevanti (fruit fly) embryo. My senior thesis used antibody staining and confocal microscopy of three species of Drosophila fruit flies to test the hypothesis that the localization of Wolbachia along cells’ astral microtubules during fly embryonic development is conserved across species. In this image, the cells within this embryo are dividing, and the Wolbachia is present at the ends of the microtubules as the spindle lines up the chromosomes for division. Second Prize: Annemarie Wood ’23 While marine pollution is often in the news for its negative environmental impacts, plastic debris also provides an alternative habitat for ocean organisms. Animals, plants, and bacteria accumulate on plastic surfaces, forming little communities that can be carried by ocean currents far from their original territory. Hitching a ride on the plastic bottle shown here are several barnacles and a calcareous casing that formerly housed a marine tubeworm. By covering the surface of the plastic, these organisms may play a protective role in preventing its breakdown via photooxidation from the sun. Third Prize: Darshan Patel ’23 The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest galaxy in our Local Group, providing an ideal opportunity to investigate the dynamics of spiral galaxies due to its proximity and orientation. Its abundance of HII regions (in red), which act as nurseries for star formation is noteworthy, with NGC 604 being the brightest and housing over 200 young O-type stars. The data used to create this image was collected on October 14, 2022, using the 16” telescope at Strawbridge Observatory for the “Advanced Topics: Observational Astronomy” course. The data was later processed using AstroImageJ and Photoshop to highlight the galaxy’s unique features. Honorable Mention: Charlie Mamlin ’23 Honorable Mention: John Dvorak ’23 Honorable Mention: August Muller ’23 Honorable Mention: Jahsaiah Moses ’23
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COOL CLASSES: “INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY” Taught by: Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Anthony Kling Says Kling about his class: Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques used to secure communication and protect information from unauthorized access or malicious interception. In our modern digital age, it plays a vital role in ensuring the security of transactions and data transmission. For example, when you make an online purchase and send your credit card details to a retailer, that information is first scrambled before being sent off. Then the receiver unscrambles the transmitted message using some sort of key to get the original message. If an adversary gets a hold of the scrambled message, we want to make sure it’s nearly impossible for them to unscramble it without knowing the key. This process of scrambling and unscrambling relies on the difficulty of certain mathematical problems. This course studies the mathematics behind cryptography as well as its various implementations. In this course, students also work in groups on problems as a way to reinforce and discover ideas, as well as enhance their mathematical communication skills. I also hope students realize there are still many questions in mathematics we don’t know the answer to. After all, this is partially what makes cryptography work.
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Assistant Visiting Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Anthony Kling
Kling on why he wanted to teach this class: Many of the mathematics that underlie cryptography are rooted in number theory, which is my research area. Number theory is a fascinating branch of mathematics that generally studies the integers and is home to many easy-to-state and understand, yet difficult-to-solve problems. I thought it would be exciting to see some of the practical applications of number theory, especially since cryptography is such a widespread application. Kling on what makes this class unique to his department: This course is designed at the 200-level with only a prerequisite of multivariable calculus, although it doesn’t really build off any ideas in calculus. Rather, this class serves as a bridge to students in encountering new mathematical concepts for the first time, many of which stem from number theory. The students in my class all come from different points in mathematical studies, ranging from those who have just taken multivariable calculus to those who have completed upper-division math courses. As such, this class presents topics in an accessible, yet interesting way.
COOL CLASSES The resources and facilities of the KINSC support a wide range of the interesting, unusual, and often unique courses that enrich the Haverford College experience for every student. Check out the Haverblog for more Cool Classes.
“Explaining the Universe: An Astrophysics Writing Seminar”
“Ethics and Use of Mathematics with a Focus on Antiracism”
“Communicating Psychological Science” “Encoding Music: Digital Approaches to Scores and Sound”
“Statistical Thermodynamics and Kinetics”
“Clinical Psychopharmacology”
“Cancer Narratives” “Perspectives in Biology: Plants and People”
hav.to/coolclasses
“Advanced Topics: Observational Astronomy”
“Introduction to Fisheries Science”
“Lab in Chemical Structure and Reactivity”
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National Science Foundation Award Goes to Assistant Professor of Biology Foen Peng Assistant Professor of Biology Foen Peng has won an award from the National Science Foundation for his project, “Genomic and Molecular Bases of Pollination Syndrome Evolution in Monkeyflowers.”
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his study seeks to provide an in-depth, genome-wide view of the genes that influence floral traits important in attracting animal pollinators, such as corolla color and shape. In addition, it will also try to understand how these genes interact with each other to form a network in regulating flower trait development. The successful completion of this project is expected to help move the field forward in several ways. The approach developed in this project could be applied in other studies when the traits of interest are controlled by many genes, which in general are much more challenging to study than traits controlled by a single gene. Also, the gene interaction networks identified in this project are likely conserved, which means researchers could use the knowledge gained in this project to understand flower variation when studying other plants. Finally, since the project will use an unbiased approach to discover new genes, 12 | KINSC 2023
novel mechanisms of gene functional change could be uncovered, which will influence how researchers study trait evolution in general. “Monkeyflowers (Mimulus) have been studied for decades, and it has become an important plant model system,” says Professor Peng. “Over the years, we accumulated a lot of resources in this system which are enabling us to carry out this kind of detailed genetic analysis.” Spanning a four-year period from September 2023 through August 2027 the award totals $360,131 and will fund a collaborative project that includes Peng’s colleagues at the University of Connecticut. The grant is part of the NSF’s Enabling Discovery through GEnomics (EDGE) program, which supports the development of innovative resources and technologies that advance biological research connecting genes and phenotypes and functional genomic research. Successful pollination is a prerequisite for the reproduction of the approximately 325,000 flowering plant species on earth. Many flowers have evolved a suite of floral phenotypes that enable specialized associations between the flower and the pollination agents such as bees, or even wind. Called the pollination syndrome, these traits include flower size, color,
As a child growing up in the countryside of south China, Peng became fascinated by the nature that surrounded him – fish, frogs, and flowers were constant companions. After receiving his B.S. degree in urban and rural planning and resource management in Shanghai, he came to the United States and attended the University of Washington. There he switched to evolutionary biology and plant genetics, earning a Ph.D. As part of the NSF grant, Peng and his colleagues will engage students and the public through several activities. At Haverford, a course-based undergraduate research experience will be created as part of the Superlab series, offering authentic research experiences to many undergraduate students. Through the collaboration, it will also provide valuable training opportunities to students at every level—postdoc, postbac, graduate, and undergraduate students. A focused effort will be made to engage students from populations underrepresented in STEM fields, through the McNair Scholars Program at UConn and the Chesick Scholars Program at Haverford College. “This is kind of a highlight for our project,” says Peng. “Basically, we will be having students running most parts of the project.” Additionally, a variety of Mimulus plants in the Demonstration Garden on the UConn campus will be planted every summer as a live exhibit for students and the general public. This will also serve as a base to engage local communities in an organized pollinator observation experiment to raise public awareness of animal pollination service. Working with a professional science communicator, Peng and his collaborators will also produce videos aimed at bringing their Mimulus pollination syndrome research story to life. These videos will be released on a highly subscribed YouTube channel, Science IRL, to add even further to the project’s profile.
JOLT MAGAZINE
ISSUE 3 – SPRING 2023
And yet, says Peng, little is known about actual genetic changes that ultimately cause the phenotypic evolution in a pollinator syndrome switch. “In our system, we will focus on three species that are (genetically) really closely related,” he says. “In terms of evolutionary history, they’re like cousins, but in terms of appearance, they are very different. One species is pollinated by hummingbirds; the flower is red, it’s really rich in nectar, and it does not produce scent. Another species is bumblebee-pollinated, it has a wide corolla for bees to land, and it provides scents as chemical cues to guide the bees. The third species is self-pollinated. It has tiny flowers and has no scent or nectar, since it does not rely on animal pollination.”
Haverford’s student-led STEM publication
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Is AI the New Normal?
NEUROSCIENCE Psychological Effects Of COVID Lockdowns
JOLT MAGAZINE
Jolt is a student-led, open-access EXCLUSIVE RESEARCH FEATURES, magazine that provides accessible INTERVIEWS & CROSSWORD science journalism to the Haverford community. Jolt publishes both student and faculty writing, reporting on recent scientific advancements, research, and discoveries around the world and within the College. Founded as a digital publication in 2021, Jolt has expanded to include an annual print edition. To learn more, visit: hav.to/d8t
JOLT MAGAZINE
ISSUE 2 – FALL 2022
scent, shape, orientation, nectar reward, and pistil and stamen arrangements.
Haverford’s student-led STEM publication
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From left, top row: Laurel Benjamin ’21 (Psychology–Developmental Psychology), Gabriel Braun ’21 (Life Sciences–Biochemistry), James Dougherty ’21 (Life Sciences–Environmental Biology), Grayson Hamrick ’21 (Engineering–Bioengineering); from left, bottom row: Mallory Kastner ’21 (Geosciences–Chemical Oceanography), Christina McBride ’22 (Chemistry–Chemistry of Life Processes), Sophia Nelson ’20 (Life Sciences–Immunology), Jan Estrada Pabon ’21 (Chemistry–Computationally Intensive Research). Not pictured: Oscar Garrett ’23 and Franklin Kostas ’18, who received honorable mentions.
ALUMNI RECOGNITION The National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program has recognized eight Haverford alumni pursuing graduate degrees in life sciences, psychology, chemistry, engineering, and geoscience.
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ight Haverford alumni who are or will be pursuing graduate degrees in life sciences, psychology, chemistry, engineering, and geoscience have received awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
tuition and fees, as well as opportunities for international research and professional career development.
The NSF fellowship program is the country’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in various science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. In an average year, NSF funds around 12,000 competitive awards for research, education, and training, and backs nearly 318,000 researchers, entrepreneurs, students and teachers. The NSF fellowship provides a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 and a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for
“I attribute much of my success so far to my undergraduate coursework,” she said. “In particular, I am beyond thankful for my mentor and thesis advisor, Dr. Shu-wen Wang, whose ‘Cultural Psychology’ course and lab provided an important theoretical basis for understanding cultural variability in social processes and offered a first glimpse at the culturally sensitive, intersectional approach that informed my NSF proposal.”
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Laurel Benjamin ’21 is a prime example of how Haverford’s mentorship can inspire students to pursue meaningful research.
Benjamin will begin her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the UC San Diego and San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program under the mentorship of Dr. Lauren BrookmanFrazee. The award will help fund research on the long-term effects of COVID-19-related school closures on children’s socioemotional functioning.
“My research with Dr. Lou Charkoudian taught me all about the wonders of chemical biology and opened my eyes to the modern developments in the field of synthetic biology,” he said. “My work with Dr. Casey Londergan helped solidify my interest in mathematical and computational modeling and applying such techniques to biological systems.”
Gabriel Braun ’19 shared that his time at Haverford laid the groundwork for his graduate studies, “both through the knowledge gained in my coursework and, more importantly, through the cultivation of a practice of independent critical thinking.”
With the support of the NIH T32 biotechnology training grant, Hamrick is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Duke University, where he is working on engineering synthetic microbial systems for a variety of applications.
He is grateful to Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Karin Åkerfeldt, who gave him his first experience in laboratory research, and to many other professors who have shaped his academic and intellectual trajectory. After graduating in 2019 with a degree in chemistry, Braun spent a year in Sweden studying the Alzheimer’s-linked aggregation of β-amyloid peptides under a Fulbright Study/ Research award, and then worked at the University of Pennsylvania researching proteins associated with ALS. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at UCSF and focusing his research on how the activity of certain enzymes is affected by incorporation into protein-rich “biomolecular condensates.” James Dougherty ’21 has come a long way from his beginnings at the Arboretum at Haverford to his work at the Wistar Institute lab, and his experience and success since graduation have paved the way for his upcoming research in Harvard’s Organismic and Evolutionary Biology program. Dougherty attributes his success to the guidance provided by professors Jon Wilson and Helen White, particularly during his summer research and thesis experience. His love for plants and nature grew at Haverford: “The arboretum provided the perfect space for me to embrace my love for plants and commitment to nature.” His focus now will be on plant hydraulic function and carbohydrate allocation. “With this research,” said Dougherty, I hope to better understand how plants and ecosystems as a whole may change as a result of climate change, in the near future and over evolutionary time.” Grayson Hamrick ’21 is making strides, from Haverford to Duke University, in the field of biomedical engineering. As a chemistry and mathematics double major, Hamrick’s time at Haverford taught him the skills necessary for his current work in synthetic biology and biological engineering.
Mallory Kastner ’21 credits Haverford for providing interdisciplinary opportunities and teaching her the importance of community engagement. After graduation, she joined Dr. Amy Apprill’s lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she discovered her love for marine science. She conducted a year-long research project through NSF’s Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Participants, and will now pursue a Ph.D. in biological oceanography through the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in oceanography. Kastner’s research will focus on understanding how tiny organisms contribute to the health of vulnerable ecosystems and animals, especially in the context of climate change. Said Kastner, “NSF’s GRFP was particularly compelling to me when applying, as my motivations very much align with its emphasis on linking robust science with the broader community impacts of research.” Christina McBride ’23 is the only Ford of the Class of 2023 to earn the NSF GRFP. As a chemistry major and biochemistry concentrator, McBride credits her success to the support and mentorship of Haverford’s STEM faculty, especially her research mentors Lou Charkoudian and Eric Miller. Reflecting on her experience, McBride said, “Attending a primarily undergraduate institution [also] has its perks—I am the intellectual driver of my own research projects, and that has given me the strength and creativity needed to develop new ideas.” The fellowship will support her as she pursues a Ph.D. in chemical biology at the University of Michigan, where she plans to join a lab focused on natural product biosynthesis to gain a deeper understanding of the complex organic chemistry and enzymatic teamwork innate to nature. Alumni Sophia Nelson ’20 and Jan Estrada Pabon ’21 also received NSF GRFP fellowships. Nelson is currently an immunology Ph.D. student at UCSF. Pabon is currently at Stanford University pursuing a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry.
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NASA Invites Haverford Physicist Andrea Lommen and Team to Investigate Novel Space Navigation Program Lommen, a professor of physics and astronomy, will work on an initial concept development project that will incorporate work by Haverford seniors.
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averford’s senior thesis program is an unmatched opportunity for students across disciplines to identify, design, and conduct a research project and then analyze and present their conclusions. And four recent physics and astronomy students — Nathaniel Ruhl ’22, Noah Schwab ’22, Romana Hladky ’22, and Seamus Flannery ’23 — will see their senior thesis work applied to a NASA program by a team of scientists that includes their thesis advisor, Professor of Physics and Astronomy Andrea Lommen. Two current students, Allen Gift ’25 and Kaia Reenock ’26, are working this fall on the next phase of the work. “The agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs invest in a diverse portfolio of American small businesses and research institutions to support NASA’s future missions,” says Lommen. “Our proposal, one of 300 that NASA wants to learn more about, is to launch a small spacecraft to demonstrate our navigational system. Ruhl, Schwab, and Hladky made a significant contribution in designing the system to 16 | KINSC 2023
work around the Earth.” Reenock and Gift are now extending the system for operation around the moon. The small business with which Lommen collaborates is ASTER Labs, Inc., led by Suneel Sheikh. ASTER Labs concentrates on engineering consultation for the aerospace and medical industries. Lommen, Ruhl, and Schwab received funding both from the NASA Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) program and Haverford’s Astrophysics Travel Fund in order to develop their basic algorithm. The method Lommen’s group developed is called Occulting X-ray Source Navigation, or OXNAV. “It’s a relatively simple concept. If you’re orbiting a planet, there will be distant stars that get occulted every time you go behind the planet,” Lommen says. “If you know the exact moment a star gets occulted, you also know your position at that time. That’s how we calculate position in space.” “When it gets fun,” Lommen laughs, “is when you try to work out the geometry of that situation. That’s what Nate and Noah did for their theses. And now Kaia is working that out for the topography of the moon.” Using data from NICER, an X-ray telescope perched atop the International Space Station (ISS), Lommen’s team demonstrated they could determine the station’s location within a few kilometers without the aid of any of the station’s onboard tracking systems.
Ruhl, Schwab, Hladky, and Flannery’s work assumed their spacecraft would be orbiting a planet with an atmosphere, meaning it’s actually the atmosphere that eclipses the star. Now, Lommen’s team is extending the program to include a rocky, lumpy body with no atmosphere, like the moon. Reenock and Gift’s work this fall involves doing 3D calculations using a model of the moon’s terrain from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They are also mining the databases of previous X-ray telescopes for serendipitous occurrences of eclipses that will allow the team to test its updated method. Jenn Gustetic, director of early stage innovation and partnerships for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, says the agency has a key role to play in growing the aerospace ecosystem in our country. “Through these early-stage small business awards, we are inviting more innovators into this growing arena and helping them mature their technologies for not only NASA’s use but also for commercial impact,” she says. More than a quarter of the selected companies are womenowned, veteran-owned, disadvantaged, and/or HUBZone small businesses. Some 30% of the selected proposals, including the one from Haverford, are from first-time NASA SBIR/STTR recipients. “We are proud to work alongside the small businesses and research institutions in need of government investment,” says Gynelle Steele, deputy program executive for NASA’s SBIR/STTR program at NASA Headquarters. “This program enables NASA to nurture pioneering ideas from a diversity of innovators across the country that may not attract the initial private industry funding needed to thrive.” NASA selected SBIR/STTR Phase I proposals to receive funding by judging their technical merit and commercial potential. ASTER Labs has contracted with Haverford for $22,500 to explore the potential of the novel navigation technology. Based on their progress during Phase I, ASTER Labs and Haverford plan to submit a proposal for Phase II funding to develop a prototype. Students who worked on this research previously have been supported in part by the Astrophysics Travel Fund, which was made possible by a generous donation to Haverford from the parent of an astronomy and physics alum. The fund allowed Lommen’s team to travel to the American Astronautical Society Meeting in Breckenridge, Colorado, where they presented the first stage of their work.
APRIL FOOLS Who says scientists can’t be silly? Every year, senior majors in biology, chemistry, computer science, environmental studies, mathematics and statistics, physics and astronomy, and psychology—all of which are housed in the KINSC—take a break from their studies and pull a prank for April Fools’ Day. Students in each department pick a theme, and overnight, transform their section of the sprawling KINSC with handmade decorations. This year, they took inspiration from movies including Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Sponge Bob, Snow White, and Harry Potter.
Lommen points out that even if the team’s SBIR Phase II proposal isn’t selected after completing the initial Phase I effort, the very process of authoring it helps students better understand both their research and what’s required in order to persuade NASA to support the design and launch of a mission. KINSC 2023 | 17
STUDENTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS Student experiences in the KINSC As an intern in Assistant Professor of Biology in Kristen Whalen’s lab, Eshal Asim ’26 studied the relationship between a marine phytoplankton and a marine bacterium when they are cultured together. Asim has always been fascinated with cell biology. Last year, she even wrote and illustrated a children’s book about the parts of a cell. “Before this internship, I didn’t have a lot of experience working in a lab or with marine biology, so I was a little apprehensive. But as we began to run the experiments that we spent a lot of time and effort planning, my nervousness shifted to excitement.”
Khady Ndiaye ’26 says her interest in chemistry was sparked during classes she took toward the end of her high school career, but it took a summer internship to confirm that it’s the right major for her at Haverford. As an intern in the lab of Assistant Professor of Chemistry Clyde Daly, Ndiaye has been exploring the properties of ionic liquids and their potential to contribute to the process of carbon capture and help fight climate change. “There is a great deal of background, knowledge, and skills that I have needed to develop while working in the lab. I have days where I am met with the obstacle of my codes not working, but it is a learning experience to overcome the obstacles. Honestly, the more challenges I have faced, the more comfortable I’ve become with coding and experimenting with the next steps to fix my problem.”
Nicholas Bayan Mostaghim ’23 majored in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry and a minor in religion. As he embarks on his post-graduation path, he finds himself in Switzerland as a Fulbright Scholar. “The incredible research mentorship of Lou Charkoudian and Casey Londergan, as well as the dedicated and supportive teaching by the Department of Chemistry, were critical to my positive experiences at Haverford. Haverford’s Superlab courses, for which I was both a student and later a TA, definitely stood out as incredibly unique opportunities, filled with learning.” 18 | KINSC 2023
Sarina Smith ’23, a biology major and health studies minor, now works as a lab technician in Dr. Elizabeth Bhoj’s lab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Haverford enabled me to gain independent research experience in an encouraging environment that nurtured my curiosity and allowed me to appreciate the interactions between science, medicine, history, and society. I appreciate Haverford’s emphasis on collaboration, which is a critical but often overlooked element of scientific discovery and an essential life skill.”
The path to medical school for Justin Adler ’23 was paved with distinction, having been accepted through an early assurance program with the University of Rochester. Graduating a full year early from Haverford, he seized the opportunity to join the Penn Image-Guided Interventions Lab as a research specialist in the departments of Cancer Biology and Radiology of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He studies hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of primary liver cancer among adults and the third leading cause of all cancer-related deaths. “I was greatly influenced by Haverford’s commitment to social justice and to valuing the social determinants of health. I was able to explore coursework in medical humanities to gain a broader perspective of all the social, cultural, and environmental factors that affect someone’s health, not just purely their biomedical disease.”
Clarice Xu ’23 currently works as a research associate in a neurodegeneration laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies disorders like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Xu credits all of the biology professors at Haverford as a source of unwavering support. “I really enjoyed the biology elective courses I took, especially the neurobiology course because it is really relevant to my current research. I also enjoyed medical anthropology and understanding various perspectives of medicine.”
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KINSC Staff Karen Masters Director, Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center, Professor of Physics and Astronomy Marielle Latrick Associate Director, Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center
KINSC Steering Committee Nicole Cunningham Biological Laboratory Assistant John Dougherty (jd) Associate Professor of Computer Science Rebecca Powers Director of Foundation Relations Leah Seebald Assistant Professor of Chemistry
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For more information about studying the natural sciences at Haverford College, please visit: hav.to/kinsc
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370 Lancaster Avenue Haverford, PA 19041
Cover image: Ash DiCristofalo ’23