S S S Sweeping uccess

Lander Art Students Dominate At 2023 Pbc Art Exhibition

Lander University students from the Department of Art + Design earned top honors in the 2023 Peach Belt Conference Art Exhibition.

Of the six awards given in the annual competition, Lander students received four of the prizes.

Lander students swept the Campus Spirit Category by winning all of the awards.

Kyle Bryant, of Easley, won first place for his “Heads Will Roll” multimedia sculpture of a headless Queen of Hearts.

Jacob Ray Harry, of Simpsonville, earned second place honors with his sculpture, “Ride ‘Em Cowboy,” created in steel and wood.

A multimedia work of art, featuring a rabbit wearing a men’s suit and titled “Calvin Works a 9-5,” won third place for Maggie Ahern, of Easley.

In the General Category, Anastasia Muzzarelli earned second place for her oil and acrylic painting “Familiar Faces.”

For the ninth consecutive year, the art exhibition is presented digitally and has become a virtual exhibition for art lovers. Each institution in the Peach Belt Conference was invited to submit digital images of twoor three-dimensional artwork completed by students and faculty. All submitted artworks were featured in a slideshow presentation during the recent Peach Belt Conference Basketball Tournament Championships.

Muzzarelli, of Mauldin, said the human form was her inspiration for the painting.

“I was very interested in drawing and creating works that included the human form, and I wanted to experiment with different ways to portray the face,” she said. “I incorporated a lot of friends and family and tried to create a flowing composition with a range of emotions.”

Bryant, who recently won the Slay Sculpture Award during Lander’s Student Juried Exhibition, said the Queen of Hearts was first created for a puppet parade at Lander. He enhanced the puppet for the Lander art show and included a miniature guillotine as part of the display.

Lander students have a history of success in the Peach Belt art show. Last year, Lander students won first place honors in the General and Campus Spirit categories. In 2021, student artists won four of the six awards.

Lander Microbiology Students Conduct Research for Local Business

By Karen Petit

microbiology class at Lander University can say “cheers” to the nation’s rapidly growing, competitive craft beer industry and know that their research is part of that success.

The average consumer probably has little knowledge of the intense research that goes into the brewing of craft beers and other beverages. But 16 students in the Biology 421 class at Lander spent the Fall 2022 semester working with faculty member Dr. Melissa Hayes, an assistant professor of biology, and AnnaBelle Kratz, cellar manager of Good Times Brewing, to study the impact of wort pH on yeast kinetics. Their research ultimately led to the development of a new Bearcat Brew for Good Times’ customers.

Their findings, recently released at a scientific poster session at Good Times Brewing for Lander faculty and the community, revealed the intricacies of brewing beer.

Wort is the “beer starter.” It’s a liquid containing sugars that will be fermented by yeast. The process ultimately yields alcohol.

Hayes said the study of yeast kinetics includes the duration of fermentation (number of days to final specific gravity), temperature, pH of the initial wort (how acidic or basic the liquid is) and the final beer product, as well as “harvest parameters,” such as yield, cell count and viability.

“These parameters were measured during and after fermentation over multiple batches,” Hayes said. “The study helped to answer a beer industry-wide concern over what can cause the variation in beer quality from batch to batch and also led to understanding the microbiology of why this happens.”

For Kratz, the decision to involve Lander’s science students was practical. “Brewing beer is all science. There is no way of getting around it.”

At Good Times and other breweries, yeast is re-used and changed over time depending on how the yeast performs in the fermentation process. The impact of wort pH on yeast can affect the taste of a beer, Kratz said.

Hayes said the collaboration gave her microbiology students the opportunity to learn scientific techniques that they may encounter in future studies or careers. “In this case, it went from an academic dimension to how our work could impact a local brewery. For a business, it’s not easy to maintain consistent taste and quality among the batches of beer. Our research helped answer some of those questions.”

Ethan Fowler, a senior from Conway, was among the students discussing their research posters. “It was really exciting to learn about the craft beer industry. Our science wasn’t focused on a life-or-death situation, but on science in the workplace,” he said. Fellow student Zach Branham, a senior from Greenville, agreed. “It was fun to see how our work directly relates to something we could do after Lander.”

Branham is right: the rapid growth of the craft beer industry has created a market for science graduates with degrees in microbiology, chemistry, fermentation and other related disciplines.

“We don’t always have opportunities for this type of hands-on research. It was very exciting to be part of this work,” said Kayla Freeland, a senior from Charleston.

The class was a perfect fit for Andrea Burchett, of Great Falls, who will graduate in May. She plans to attend graduate school to study food microbiology. “The experience was fun and practical. We were working with a brewery. This was not basic microbiology. We’ll be out in the world very soon working with other microbiologists.”

Working with Lander was a win-win for students and the brewery, Kratz said. “They gained real-world experience. They could see how what they are studying has an impact on business, and we were able to use those research findings.” 

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Video by Walker Smith.

Pictures by Deb Nygro.