Science Journal June 2014

June 2014

Powering the Future PG 4

The Math Behind Decision-Making PG 12

Climate & Diversity: It’s All About Communication PG 26

Melissa Rolls

All in a Day’s Work PG 18

Table of Contents

FEATURE STORIES:

4 Powering the Future

Understand how researchers are propelling big discoveries on the nanoscale.

12 The Math Behind Decision-Making

Discover how one scientist is applying game theory to explain human nature in his research for Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.

18 Melissa Rolls: All in a Day’s Work

Learn how Melissa Rolls is setting an example as a mentor, researcher, and leader.

Discover how one committee is opening the lines of communication in the Eberly College of Science to facilitate a welcoming, safe environment for those who work and learn here.

26 Climate & Diversity: It’s All About Communication

COLLEGE NEWS:

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:

ALUMNI NEWS:

New Planetarium Planned for the Arboretum at Penn State

Undergraduate Student Awards and Honors

Alumni Board Celebrates 40 years

Intellectual Property Focus

Commencement Spring 2014 Student Marshals

Welcome Associate Dean Teresa Davis

Alumni, Collegues, and Friends Celebrate Dr. Roy Olofson

Undergraduate Scientists

Brian Geary Receives Alumni Achievement Award

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Above and Beyond: Focus on Graduate Students

Masatoshi Nei Endows Innovation Prize in Biological Sciences

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:

Graduate Student Awards and Honors

Snapshot of Philanthropy

Faculty Awards and Honors

Mentoring Dinner

Upcoming Events

New Faculty

Editor: Tara Immel Writers: Barbara Collins, Carley LaVelle, Brenda Lucas, Sam Sholtis, Whittney Trueax, and Katrina Voss. Special thanks to all of our other contributors!

Design: Penn State Science Marketing Office Printer: Watkins Printing

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

Dear Friends of the College, This is a time of transition in the senior leadership at Penn State. Provost Nicholas Jones arrived July 1, 2013, and Eric Barron assumed the presidency on May 12. Coincidently and appropriately, it is also a time of looking back at goals and accomplishments and of formal strategic planning for the years ahead. As we look back, I am impressed by what the college has accomplished. I also realize that although we have made gains in many areas, we need to maintain our efforts in order to continue on the track of increasing success for all members of the college community.

In the past five years, we have expanded and enhanced opportunities for our undergraduate students through educational and co-curricular improvements. By building a stronger sense of community in the college, enabling and encouraging more students to participate in long-term study abroad and other international academic experiences, and improving our academic programs—in part by introducing new modes of teaching and learning, providing more and better career information and advising, and increasing the number scholarships available, among other things—our college has worked to improve the academic experience and better prepare students for their future in a changing global economy.

We are attracting more students and a more diverse group of students. Undergraduate applications to the Eberly College of Science have increased by 75 percent over the last ten years; enrollments increased by 23 percent in the same timeframe. Over that time, applications from underrepresented minority students increased by over 105 percent, and their enrollments have shown a similar increase. Underrepresented minority students constitute 15 percent of the students who will matriculate in the college this coming summer and fall.

The most dramatic change in applications over

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

the last ten years is the more than eight-fold increase in undergraduate applications from international students. International undergraduate applications went from just a few percent to over 20 percent of the college’s total undergraduate applications, even as the total number of applications grew, and international students now comprise just over 10 percent of the undergraduates enrolled in the college. This dramatic increase in applications from around the world is testimony to Penn State’s increasing visibility as one of the world’s great research universities.

We are continuing to develop our strategic plan for the next five years. In the process, we have identified three key themes: enabling research of the highest caliber in the physical, life, and mathematical sciences; elevating the quality of our undergraduate and graduate educational experiences to the level of our research; and increasing our impact on society through better translation of our research. We are working to identify specific initiatives in each of these areas so that we can position our college to improve the world through our students, discoveries, and outreach. The college has also been working with Provost Jones to ensure that our priorities align with those identified by the University. I will have more specific details of the college’s strategic plan to share with you in the December issue.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed the successes of our initiatives and to those who have been working on the development of the new strategic plan. I greatly appreciate the continued support of the entire college community.

Sincerely,

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Feature Story

Powering the

Future From witnessing the first catalytic nanomotors to advancing the way we think about modern medical treatment and more, Ayusman Sen and Thomas Mallouk are making big discoveries on the nanoscale.

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AYUSMAN SEN

THOMAS MALLOUK

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Although more than ten years have passed since Ayusman Sen and Thomas Mallouk first started collaborating on nanomotor research, you would think it happened just yesterday when you hear them talk. Their curiosity about the natural world and infectious enthusiasm for discovery have aided them on their long collaborative journey into the world of nanomotors.

In 2003, Sen and Mallouk were both on Walter Paxton’s doctoral thesis committee. Before Paxton’s first-year meeting with his thesis committee, he went to Sen with a few ideas, and Sen encouraged him to think big. “He really left the field wide open. He told me, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as it’s good science,’” said Paxton.

Sen’s enthusiasm and encouragement helped Paxton decide that he wanted study the feasibility of a catalytic nanomotor. He thought he had some great ideas to make it work, and Sen and Mallouk were intrigued. “We told him, let’s try it right now, today,” said Mallouk.

A catalytic nanomotor is a tiny particle that is powered into motion by a chemical reaction.

Previous research done at Harvard University

by Rustem Ismagilov and George Whitesides had found that a macroscopic motor equipped with a platinum strip would move on the surface of a tank of hydrogen peroxide and water like a miniature boat. Paxton’s nanorod motor idea took this to another level: much smaller motors, going from centimeter-sized to two microns by 350 nanometers; and a much more challenging environment, as the tiny rods were immersed in the solution instead of on top of it.

Using gold-platinum rods Mallouk had from an 5

Feature Story unrelated metal project, Sen and Mallouk helped Paxton test his idea. The nanorods moved, autonomously, in a solution of hydrogen peroxide, and to the team’s delight, bore “an eerie resemblance under the microscope to live swimming bacteria,” Sen and Mallouk wrote in a 2009 article in Scientific American.

But why did they move? Sen and Mallouk were curious, and it was then that their mutual interest and subsequent research collaboration on nanomotors was born.

a greater impact. “For objects the size of human cells (roughly a 15-micron diameter), Brownian motion is hardly perceptible in water. For objects ten times that small (bacteria or nanorod motors), it is strong enough to reorient the particle every second or so,” he said.

Not only was the environment they were working in challenging, so were their early findings.

In 2004, a team including Paxton, Sen, Mallouk, and Department of Physics colleague Vincent Crespi published a paper on the nanorods, explaining their hypothesis that the rods moved as a result of being pushed through the solution by a catalytically generated surface tension gradient.

But that’s not exactly how it worked, they would discover.

“There was so much we didn’t understand.

This was an entirely new area, not just for me as a graduate student, but also for Ayusman and

Small Particles, Big Challenge Nanomachines have a bright future. Their implementation could spark innovations in a variety of fields, including modern medicine, technology, energy, and even environmental conservation.

The fact that Paxton’s idea for a nanomotor had worked was significant because for years, scientists had been hitting a scientific wall when it came “WITH AYUSMAN’S ENCOURAGEMENT AND making nanomachines move.

EXCITEMENT ABOUT THE RESEARCH, AND TOM’S While scientists could envision many ways to build tiny CONTAGIOUS OPTIMISM, WE PRESSED FORWARD nanomachines and improve upon earlier designs, many AND LEARNED MANY THINGS...” sophisticated nanomachine Tom,” said Paxton. “They were both undaunted. designs were literally sitting idle.

Because of the miniature scale of nanoparti- With Ayusman’s encouragement and excitement cles, there are many challenges in making them about the research, and Tom’s contagious optimove. One cannot just shrink down a ship to mism, we pressed forward and learned many nanoproportions and expect it to work the same things about the chemistry and physics of small as it does in the normal large size. Not only is wa- catalytic objects.”

The nanomotors were powered in a more fasciter thick and hard to propel through at that level, but researchers also have to consider Brownian nating way, as the team discovered and explained a year after the first paper was published. At the motion.

Mallouk explained Brownian motion as mo- nanoscale level, the law of inertia is outweighed tion that we see caused by random collisions by drag, so that remaining in motion as a “jet of molecules with solid particles. The effect of propulsion” reaction is nearly impossible for a naBrownian motion is more dramatic as an object is nomotor. A nanomotor can only glide for about a smaller, because a single molecular collision has microsecond, which amounts to about one hun6

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THE CATALYTIC NANOMOTORS RESEARCH GROUP FROM 2004.

Back (left to right): Paul Lammert, Jeffrey Catchmark, Vincent Crespi, and Ayusman Sen. Front (left to right): Yanyan Cao, Timothy Kline, Shyamala Subramanian, Walter Paxton, and Tom Mallouk.

Credit: Sen and Mallouk labs

dredth of a nanometer.

Instead, the nanorods were applying a continuous force to get through the drag. And because the rods had two different metals on the ends, two interesting reactions were taking place to power the nanorod. At the gold end, protons and electrons were combining with the hydrogen peroxide to create two water molecules. At the platinum end, protons were being formed by the oxidation of hydrogen peroxide to molecular oxygen. The two reactions created an imbalance in proton concentration. The resulting electric field exerted a force on the negatively charged nanorods, propelling the nanorod in the direction of the platinum end.

Soon after this discovery, the team learned to steer the nanomotors with magnetic fields, and

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

even have the motors pull plastic sphere “cargo” containers through fluids. But the motors, being fueled by reactions between metals in hydrogen peroxide, were not safe for their ultimate research fantasy: a “Fantastic Voyage”-style trip among living cells.

The Journey to the Human Body Many of the practical applications of nanomotor technology exist in healthcare fields. Possibilities abound in that realm, including nanomachines acting as tiny surgeons and more targeted approaches to curing disease on the molecular scale.

But in order for Sen and Mallouk’s nanomotors to be viable for healthcare innovations, they needed to fuel the motors with something other than concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which can be toxic

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Feature Story inside a human body.

Where did they look for inspiration? Nature is full of nanotechnology—small particles exist everywhere, moving on their own without external power to complete biological processes.

Cell division, intracellular transport, and muscular movement are all examples of autonomous nanoparticles at work. Sen and Mallouk wanted to find out how these processes worked so that their nanomotors could mimic biological processes and move without toxic fuel for propulsion.

Though their project involved synthetic creations, they hoped to understand the natural world better with their experiments.

Ultrasound Power A breakthrough on this front came while Mallouk was on sabbatical at École Normale Su-

périeure in France in 2010. He was presenting a physics seminar at neighboring school ESPCI (Paris Tech). After the presentation, several ESPCI researchers interested in the physics of colloidal particles (like live bacteria, which Sen and Mallouk were trying to imitate with their nanomotors), approached Mallouk.

One of those researchers was French physicist Mauricio Hoyos, an expert in acoustics. Hoyos had been studying the differences between chemically powered nanomotors and bacteria when it came to their interactions with cell surfaces, using an ultrasonic transducer to create a standing wave to lift the particles off the cell floor. But the ultrasound did more to the metal nanorods— they started “shooting around like bullets and spinning,” according to Mallouk.

The movement was due to the high acoustic contrast that the metals had with the surrounding fluid. But the idea had taken root with Mallouk— nanomotors could be powered by something used safely in medical procedures already: ultrasound.

Mallouk returned home to Penn State and together with a team that included his graduate student Wei Wang and Assistant Professor of Engineering Science

OPTICAL MICROSCOPE IMAGE OF A HELA CELL containing several gold-ruthenium nanomotors. Arrows indicate the trajectories of the nanomotors, and the solid white line shows propulsion. Near the center of the image, a spindle of several nanomotors is spinning. Inset: Electron micrograph of a gold-ruthenium nanomotor. The scattering of sound waves from the two ends results in propulsion.

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Credit: Mallouk lab

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and Mechanics Tony Huang, decided to incubate the nanorods with HeLa cells, an immortal line of human cervical cancer cells, to test the abilities of ultrasound to power the rods. After twenty-four hours, the HeLa cells had eaten the nanorods, which meant that the rods were physically inside of the living cells. The team still does not understand this phenomenon entirely, but believes it to be similar to phagocytosis, a process where a cell engulfs and digests bacteria before the bacteria can cause an infection.

Inside the HeLa cells, the motor rods were still responding to attempts to power them with ultrasound. When the ultrasonic power was increased, Mallouk’s team did something no other research team had done—moved a nanomotor from inside a live cell. “And it lived,” Mallouk joked about the cell remaining alive during the process.

So far Mallouk’s team has learned that the motors can scramble a cell’s inner contents, similar to an eggbeater, or act as a battering ram to puncture the cell’s membrane. A potential application of this idea is that a nanomotor could effectively destroy a cell that ingests it, which could be used in medical treatment. Better yet is that the nanomotors inside the cells can move autonomously rather than in a group, so the nanomotors could be used in diagnostic or even surgical applications that require them to act independently.

Fixing Bone Cracks While Mallouk was working on moving nanomotors with ultrasound, Sen had been pursuing another way to safely power nanoparticles in a human body with a graduate student in his lab, Vinita Yadav. Together with Yadav and a Boston University biomedical engineering laboratory led by Mark Grinstaff, he was exploring a novel way to use nanoparticles to heal microcracks in bones, a common occurrence for those with osteoporosis or other bone conditions. Patients with SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

THIS GRAPHIC SHOWS HOW NANOMOTORS are electrically charged to fill a bone crack. In the dark image, the fluorescent cells shown are nanomotors carrying an osteoporosis drug to a bone crack. Credit: Sen lab

those types of conditions benefit greatly from healing the microcracks before they turn into actual breaks of the bone.

Current methods to treat microcracks in bones rely on a medicine passively traveling through a patient’s bloodstream, eventually arriving at the microcrack. The problem with this method is that by the time the medicine gets to the crack, the dosage might not be high enough to treat the crack. Sen and his team hoped a nanoparticle approach would prove to be a more targeted way to treat this condition.

When a bone cracks, the bone’s minerals are disrupted, causing charged ions to leach out of the bone and create an electric field. This meant that charged nanoparticles could be attracted to the crack, either to fill in the crack or to treat it with medicine. The pull of the electric field would serve as both the trigger and the energy source for the nanomotor, eliminating the need for any sort of fuel to power it.

“Working on bone crack repair was like venturing into uncharted waters,” said Yadav. “Al9

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At Penn State, many researchers in the Eberly College

Collaboration though we were novice in the biomedical field, we succeeded because we played on our strength: nanomaterials chemistry.”

The teams at both Penn State and Boston University performed series of tests using bone from a human tibia and femur, starting with synthetic nanoparticles tagged with fluorescence for better visibility. After successful separate test runs with first synthetic nanomotors and then organic material, the team pushed the idea further to include a combination of the synthetic and biological materials. The idea was that a synthetic material could attach to a biological material and carry it to the bone crack. In this case, the biological material would be a drug used to treat the crack or the condition causing it (an osteoporosis drug, for example), and the synthetic material an FDA-approved substance already widely used in medical devices, polyactic-co-glycolic acid.

Yadav said, “We had expertise in propelling our nanomotors, and we applied the same to a biological environment instead of an inorganic one.

This was particularly exciting since nanomotors have for long been touted for their possible impact in medical research.”

To test this idea, the team watched the fluorescent motor’s progress through the microscope.

The test was successful. “Our experiments show that this bio-safe nanomotor can, in fact, successfully carry the osteoporosis drug to a fresh crack in a human bone,” Sen said.

In the team’s final set of experiments, done in Grinstaff’s lab at Boston University, the test was performed on live human bone cells, which proved that the method for repairing human bones was viable in the live cells also.

“We can now actively target the damaged sites,” said Yadav. “Our technique also uses the damaged substrate itself as both the trigger and fuel, obliterating the need for an external power supply.”

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of Science and the College of Engineering have been interested in applications of Sen and Mallouk’s nanomotor research. Their collaborators agree that it’s exciting and inspiring to work with Sen and Mallouk.

J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences Paul Cremer, who worked with them on a project that exploits the heat generated by enzyme turnover to create particle motion, said, “They are great collaborators with lots of imaginative ideas on self-propelled nanomotors. The implications of Tom and Ayusman’s imagination are far reaching.”

Some, like Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering Darrell Velegol, feel that Sen and Mallouk’s nanomotor research has created a new field of study: “Their insights have raised an entirely new research field that spans fluid mechanics, catalysis, biology, and many other fields.”

Peter Butler, associate professor of biomedical engineering, agrees with Velegol’s assessment: “My collaboration with Tom and Ayusman has presented to me a whole new area of how forces influence biological function.”

The research will need many more tests before it can be considered safe and ready for use, but the implications for future healthcare innovations are exciting. “What makes our nanomotors different is that they can actively and naturally deliver medications to a targeted area, such as a bone crack,” Sen said.

And for Yadav, the discovery was only part of the positive experience she had working with Sen, who is her adviser: “It’s an absolute joy to work with him. He gives you the freedom to drive your own research, intervening only when required.” Even when she gets stressed, Sen is able to help her refocus: “Talking to him is a great stress-buster. Not only does he provide the right direction, but also the enthusiasm to push your project to completion.”

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Nanomotors as Microscopic Pumps The applications of Sen and Mallouk’s nanomotor research reach beyond healthcare to other fields and industries. The team has been working with a variety of researchers from all over the country and world on possible other applications.

When a nanomotor is immobilized, its mechanical force is transferred to the surrounding fluid, turning it into a self-powered pump. The nanomotor can pump any kind of fluid past itself and can even deliver drugs in response. An implanted pump could deliver insulin automatically in response to high glucose level in the blood, for example. But the pump also opens up other doors outside of healthcare.

The pumping action of the nanomotor could be used to remove valuable substances from hardto-access places, like the traces of crude oil left in tiny pores in oil wells. Nanomotors can also be used to purify fluids, an example being making fresh water out of brackish or saltwater.

And then there’s the capability for improving public safety: nanomotors could help protect

against agents of chemical warfare. Using the example of nerve gas, a nanomotor could use the nerve agent as fuel and could be programmed to pump an antidote out. Sen and Department of Chemistry colleague Scott Phillips just received a grant from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to pursue the foundational research for this idea.

While possibilities proliferate for nanomotors to contribute to society in a variety of life-changing ways, Sen and Mallouk are happy to pursue just one simple goal for their research in the future: to understand biology better.

“We are trying to mimic the living systems as closely as possible,” said Sen. As they continue to explore the nanolevel of cell biology and better understand motion as it occurs on that level, they will continue to aim for their goal of making the motors act like real cells.

Sen would be happy if the nanomotors could be very much like living cells, except in one way: “I want them to do everything that living cells do but reproduce,” he laughed.

THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS THE PROCESS OF AN ENZYME ACTING AS A MICROPUMP. The rate that the enzyme pumps out fluid is dependent on the level of glucose in the surrounding solution. This enzyme micropump could be a model for insulin regulation in the body. Credit: Sen lab SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

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The Math Beh Decision-Maki

Penn State Eberly College of Science

ind ng Mathematics is a language interwoven in the everyday movements of the world around us. It is universal, often surprising in its applications, and can reveal previously hidden patterns and information about the workings of the world.

Tim Reluga is an applied mathematician using the language of mathematics across disciplines in his work with the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) at Penn State.

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Reluga, associate professor of mathematics and biology, took an interest in biology at a very young age. As a child, he spent summers wading through tidal pools at the beach with his father, who was a high school biology teacher.

“My father would teach a marine biology class, and so when we would go to the beach, he would point out, ‘Look at this type of seaweed or that type of animal or shellfish.’ So I spent a lot of my time wandering through tidal pools collecting things and catching things. And I was always sort of fascinated by the huge variety of different things we would find there. And some years there would be new animals there that had never been there before. I was always fascinated by the life that we would find around us,” Reluga said. There on the beach, Reluga knew biology was in his blood.

But when he showed an aptitude for calculations and computers in school, he began to follow a different path. He found that, in high school, the science math paired with was physics, not biology: “You would go into class and learn about Newton’s laws, then you would go and figure out the trajectory of a cannon ball 13

Feature Story and get the answer. Then, you’d go into the lab track, and his calling. and figure out that ‘Yeah, that answer is about After postdoctoral work at the Yale School the same’ and the math helped you predict of Medicine researching disease dynamics, something about it. But, in biology, there never Reluga studied how disease works in the body was really any math,” said Reluga. at Los Alamos National Laboratory, performing In college, he skipped over biology his first research to help make pharmaceutical drugs semester because he felt he never quite fit more effective. with the traditional biology major following a pre-med track. So, he “WHAT I’M REALLY INTERESTED IN IS HOW leaned more toward physics. Reluga LIVING THINGS WORK. THAT GOES FROM said, “I was sort of debating ‘Do I major in physics or math’ and I PEOPLE DOWN TO DISEASES AND EVERYING was sort of leaning toward physics IN BETWEEN. I USE MATH AS A LANGUAGE because it seemed like an exciting area.” Then, an entertaining biology TO DESCRIBE THESE THINGS AND BETTER class during his second semester at UNDERSTAND HOW THEY WORK.” Tufts University made him decide to double major in his two interests.

He recounted, “I took a biology class my second semester. There was a guy who was One day, a dream opportunity arose. The giving a lecture on Mendelian Genetics the first Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) day of class and it was just fun. It was so much at Penn State was forming and they were more entertaining than the physics stuff I had looking for a mathematician to join the team. been doing. And so I said, ‘Okay, well I’m going Reluga answered the call. to do biology and I’m going to do math. Maybe I With expertise that crosses the disciplines can find a way to do both.’” of math and biology, Reluga adds to the worldMerging his roots in biology and his renowned expertise of the scholars in CIDD. aptitude for math led him to graduate work Some of his research involves applying the at the University of Washington, where he language of mathematics, through game theory, was surrounded by faculty with the same to create models that better explain human interests he had. The research being done at the behavior and how it affects the spread of disease.

University of Washington applied mathematics And his award-winning research in this area to biology, and the faculty there were discovering is helping to create more effective public policy how living things work in new and exciting around the world. ways. Reluga recalled, “My adviser, Mark Kot, But he sees what he does in a much more studied ecology. There was a statistician named simple way: “What I’m really interested in is Elizabeth Thompson who was involved with how living things work. That goes from people saving the condors. There was another guy down to diseases, and everything in between. I who studied insect flight. There were all these use math as a language to try to describe these sort of mathematically inclined people who were things and better understand how they work,” applying math to biology.” Reluga had found his he said.

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Using Math to Describe Human Behavior Recently, Reluga’s research has focused on using game theory to create a framework for describing how human behavior can impact public health.

Reluga explained, “Science gets you so far, but human nature kicks in at a certain point and makes things much more difficult. If you want to actually eradicate diseases, understanding how people react…is going to be essential to future public health efforts.”

To illustrate this point, Reluga cited an infamous policy failure. The federal government approached the problem of the public health crisis nicotine addiction was creating by mandating a lower concentration of nicotine in cigarettes. The thinking was that less nicotine per cigarette meant less exposure to the drug and would result in better national health.

But, the government did not account for “policy resistance” created by individuals looking out for their own best interests. Instead of less exposure to cigarettes, smokers were actually smoking more to get the same dose of nicotine and the policy resulted in poorer overall health.

“Good policy takes into account how people will react. It tries to understand the mechanisms of disease transmission and behavior,” says Reluga. His research gives policy makers the tools to create good policy and avoid situations of policy resistance. It is a systematic way of comparing policy options. “The mathematics allows us to set up a framework to compare data instead of a system where the loudest person wins the argument,” Reluga explained.

Winning Research Along with Dr. Alison Galvani of Yale University, Reluga was recently awarded the prestigious Bellman Prize, for their research paper, “A General Approach for Population Games with Application to Vaccination,” SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

published in Mathematical Biosciences during 2010-2011. The Bellman Prize is judged by a panel of mathematical biologists and is awarded every two years to the best paper published in the journal.

The winning paper explores the interaction of public health initiatives that focus on the best interests of the community and the behaviors of individuals who will act in their own best interests with regard to vaccination. However, Reluga and Galvani created their model to enable more extensive use in the future.

In the past, theoretical epidemiologists would look at ideal vaccination coverage by looking at the entire community and assuming that everyone would act in the best interests of the group. They failed to account for an individual’s choice not to adhere to medical advice and make decisions based on his own personal best interests.

Generally, when there is prevalent disease, the risk is obvious and individuals are more willing and likely to get vaccinated. It makes sense for the group and also for the individual.

However, when we begin to eradicate disease, or at least effectively treat it so that it is no longer as visible, the perceived risk diminishes and the choice to vaccinate becomes less obvious. People begin to deviate from medical best practices and act in their own perceived best interest.

Traditional theories that ignore individual behavior could not explain mounting resistance to health initiatives and diminishing coverage, nor could they advise how to counteract it.

This is becoming increasingly obvious with diseases like measles and whooping cough which are both experiencing resurgence even though they were nearly wiped out and are both extremely preventable. When everyone knew someone who had been infected, was sick, or who had died, individuals were clamoring for the 15

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What is Game Theory?

While many people find games to be endlessly entertaining, game theory is not as purely recreational as the name suggests. At its most basic, game theory is a study of strategic decision-making. Mathematical

payoff. But, if both defect, both receive a harsher

models are built using game theory to explain the

punishment. This is the prisoner’s dilemma. The most

interactions between two or more rational decision-

common conclusion is that confessing is the rational

makers.

choice because each party must assume that the other will only act in his own best interest.

A way to better understand basic game theory is to look at a classic example: the prisoner’s dilemma.

Reluga explains, “In mathematics, we try to make

This “game” examines how two “players” will make a

models that capture part of reality and study those

decision based on an understanding of motives and

models. The models have to start with a set of

strategies.

assumptions. Game theory assumes that people are trying to maximize their payoff.”

Two players are accused of a crime. If both agree to keep quiet and neither confesses to the crime

There are some limitations to the theory. It is extremely

(known as “cooperation” in game theory terms),

difficult to isolate and account for every factor and

both will receive a punishment of five years in prison.

variable that may influence an individual’s strategy.

If, however, one takes a deal offered to him and

And there is really no way to account for the “x-factor”

confesses (known as “defection” from the cooperative

in human behavior. Sometimes, it is even hard to

relationship”), he will be released while the other

tell what it means for a person to behave rationally.

suspect will get a 20-year sentence. Finally, if both

However, setting parameters and validating behavioral

defect from the agreement and both confess, each will

models is becoming more feasible with the increasing

receive a 10-year punishment.

availability of “big data.” There is certainly more work to be done, but the methodologies are improving and,

Seemingly, both players would benefit the most by

as they do, there will be more and more applications

cooperating with each other. But, with the chance

across disciplines.

to go free, both players know that the other must be considering the option to maximize their personal

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can’t quite avoid.”

The framework Reluga and Galvani developed in their 2011 research paper has since been expanded and has been used to investigate the management of several infectious diseases, including HPV and chickenpox, in a variety of contexts. And new possibilities are being explored outside of vaccination.

In 2013, Reluga published a research paper in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology entitled, “Equilibria of an Epidemic Game with “AS AN APPLIED MATHEMATICIAN, I’M NOT Piecewise Linear Social AN EXPERT IN ALL FIELDS, BUT I BRING IT ALL Distancing Cost.” The paper builds upon the TOGETHER AND CREATE A FRAMEWORK THAT framework Galvani and he created to show WE CAN ANALYZE, STUDY, AND MAKE SENSE how individuals change OF USING THE MATHEMATICS. PULLING IT ALL their behaviors (known as “social distancing”) TOGETHER IS WHERE THE MATH COMES IN.” to balance the cost of prevention against the research, they realized that both the population- risk of infection when faced with an epidemic.

Reluga talked about applying his framework scale models and the individual-scale models in new areas: “As an applied mathematician, were needed to describe disease management problems. Disease prevalence depends on the I’m not an expert in all fields, but I bring it all behaviors and interventions of the policy- together and create a framework that we can makers and individual behaviors can depend analyze, study and make sense of using the on disease prevalence. Their approach allows mathematics. Pulling it all together is where the two models to be expressed in parallel to the math comes in.” Realizing the massive “create population games with explicit ecology impact human behavior has on public health, it dynamics” according to Reluga and Galvani. will be exciting to see just how far-reaching the Reluga explained, “The act of accounting for all applications of this framework may be. vaccines. Now there are fewer infected people and the diseases are no longer widely visible to the public, so the perceived risk of infection is dramatically lowered. Individuals are now weighing the personal choice of vaccination.

Some have found reasons of personal interest not to vaccinate, are deviating from medical advice, and opening the door for these diseases to make a comeback.

When Reluga and Galvani began their

the different incentives and choices and how our decisions influence what happens next should give us better insight into what consequences our decisions have, how to hold ourselves accountable for our decisions, and how to make better decisions so that we can deal with these problems that we can foresee but for some reason

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Cover Story 18

Penn State Eberly College of Science

All in

a Day’s Work Melissa Rolls Excels as Researcher, Mentor, and Leader Scientists have different motivating factors when it comes to deciding what exactly they are going to study. For some, the thrill of discovering something new pushes them to pursue research in a particular field; for others, passion or experience in an area makes the topic an easy choice. For Melissa Rolls, one direction of her research at Penn State was guided by a suggestion from one of her lab technicians.

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Person-to-person: Michelle Stone

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During the day, you can find Michelle Stone hard at work in Melissa Rolls’ lab while simultaneously working on her graduate degree in genetics. In the early mornings, evenings, and weekends, you’ll find Stone feeding calves, milking cows, and helping her husband work on their 100cow dairy farm, all while chasing after their three-year-

old daughter.

Rolls, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular Stone, a research technician in Rolls’ lab since 2007, initially started in the lab with the intention of only staying six months to help set biology, came to Penn State up the lab and then leaving to attend a medical technology school. in 2007 with the intent to continue her research in “After working with Dr. Rolls for several months, I changed my mind and asked if I neuronal polarity.

After could stay working in her lab. She agreed and I have been here ever since. Her getting this work off the enthusiasm for science and research is inspiring,” Stone said. ground and publishing her For Stone, the most rewarding part of working in the lab on several projects from first paper, Michelle Stone, start to finish and seeing the end result in the form of several published papers. a research technician and “The first project I worked on in the lab was to map microtubule polarity in part-time graduate student Drosophila neurons. After that, I helped develop the neuronal injury assays we in Rolls’ lab, approached Rolls currently use in the lab to look at the cellular responses to axon and dendrite with a suggestion. Stone’s injury. My latest project is to help develop a way to map microtubule polarity father had suffered a stroke in the neurons of the model organism Nematostella vectensis or sea anemone,” that left him unable to work Stone said. and function normally. Stone Stone considers the lab as not only a place to learn and discover, but for her to thought that the system the teach as well. “We have a lot of people in the lab right now, including what we Rolls lab was using could be call our ‘army of undergrads’, but everyone teaches and helps one another in adapted to study how neurons, order to get things done.” or nerve cells, respond to After she finishes her degree, Stone intends to remain in Rolls’ lab and continue damage or injury; she wanted her work on microtubule polarity in sea anenomes, as well as neuronal injury.

Rolls and her team to study neuronal injury to better understand it and potentially make a discovery that could aid future stroke victims.

Rolls considered the idea and together she processes associated with nerve-cell growth and Stone came up with a strategy to add the and regrowth are the same in humans as in study of neuronal stress and injury to the lab fruit flies,” Rolls said. “Discoveries can be made portfolio. She organized her lab into two parts in much more quickly and economically in flies. order to gain a full perspective on neurons and They also don’t bleed!”

Using fruit flies, the team discovered that the nervous system repair: half of the lab focused neuroprotective pathway initiated in response on the foundation, which included studying how neurons develop and function normally; the to injured or stressed neural axons serves to other half of the lab investigated how neurons stabilize and protect the nerve cell against further degeneration. Neurons have a single behave when injured. axon that transmits signals to other neurons or to output cells. Because the axons often Experimenting with Fruit Flies Rolls chose to use Drosophilia, or fruit flies, as extended long distances within a cell, they are her model organism rather than mammalian prone for damage. So, if an axon is damaged, its cells. “On the molecular level, many of the parent neuron can no longer function; and since

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

many animals develop only one set of neurons, those neurons will mount major responses to axon injury.

Working in vivo, Rolls and her team severed fruit fly axons and discovered that neurons responded to the injury by increasing production of microtubules in order to stabilize the neural dendrites. The pathway represents an endogenous neuroprotective response to axon stress—and could potentially be developed into a diagnostic tool for the detection of early stages of neurodegenerative disease, or even utilized in novel therapies for such illnesses.

Axons ideally survive throughout an animal’s lifetime. To be able to survive, nerve cells need to be resilient and, in the event of injury or simple wear and tear, repair damage by growing new axons. These microtubules might need to be rebuilt as an important step in this type of repair.

“In order to grow a new part of a nerve, raw materials will be needed, and the microtubule highways will need to be organized to take the new materials to the site of growth,” Rolls said.

With this thought in mind, the team began to study the role of microtubule-remodeling proteins in axon regrowth after injury. In particular, the team members focused on a protein named spastin, which is a key player in axon regeneration.

Rolls and her team found that a mutation in a single gene could entirely stop the axon growth process. “The fact that the spastin protein plays a critical role in regeneration is intriguing because, in humans, it is encoded by a disease gene called SPG4,” Rolls explained.

“When one copy of this gene is disrupted, affected individuals develop hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), which is characterized by progressive lower-limb weakness and spasticity as the long-motor axons in the spinal SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

cord degenerate. Identifying a new neuronal function for spastin may help us to understand this disease.”

The scientists also found that an impaired spastin gene affected only how the axons regrew after being severed. In addition, the researchers found that, while the gene affected the flies’ axons, their dendrites continued to function and repair themselves normally.

“Now that we know that spastin plays an important role in axon regeneration and also that this gene is dominant, we have opened up a possible path toward the study of human diseases involving nerve-cell impairment,” Rolls said.

The Rolls lab’s latest discovery involves a pathway for repairing nerve cells that could have implications for quicker and improved

IN FRUIT FLIES WITH TWO NORMAL COPIES OF THE SPASTIN GENE, Rolls and her team found that severed axons were able to regenerate. However, in fruit flies with two or even only one abnormal spastin gene, the severed axons were not able to regenerate.

Credit: Rolls lab

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Cover Story healing. These findings reveal that dendrites have the ability to regrow after an injury.

Despite it being a seemingly basic question, other scientists had not asked whether or not dendrites could regenerate.

Again using the fruit fly, the researchers took a radical approach by cutting off all of the dendrites in neuron cells. “We wanted to push the cells to the furthest limit,” she said. “By cutting off all the dendrites, the cells would no longer be able to receive information, and we

regeneration, they found that dendrites were unaffected and continued to regrow. “These neurons have an incredible ability to generate.

We also discovered that they have two different regeneration pathways: one for axons and one for dendrites,” she said.

As with her other research, this project yields an important real-world application. For example, when a person has a stroke, a region of the brain has blood loss, and dendrites on brain cells are damaged; these cells can only

THIS IMAGE SHOWS A SINGLE NUERON in a whole animal five hours after dendrites were removed with laser surgery (left). The same cell was imaged at 48 hours and 96 hours after the dendrites were removed. At 48 hours (middle) a new dendrite arbor extends from the cell body, and by 96 hours the new arbor fills the entire space normally occupied by the cell. Credit: Rolls lab

expected they might die. We were surprised to find that the cells do not die. Instead, they regrow the dendrites completely and faster than they regrow axons. Within a few hours they’ll start regrowing dendrites, and after a couple of days they have almost their entire arbor.”

Based on this experiment, it was also apparent that dendrite regeneration happens independently of axon regeneration. When Rolls and her team blocked the key signaling molecules that are required for axon

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be repaired if blood loss is minor, otherwise the brain cells die. However, if those cells are able to regenerate dendrites, and if researchers learn how dendrite regrowth occurs, they may be able to encourage this process.

Each step along the research pathway leads Rolls and her group to their long-term goal: use the basic knowledge of neuronal cell biology and neuronal responses to injury to improve outcomes in neurodegenerative disease and neuronal injury. With each research discovery,

Penn State Eberly College of Science

the team gains a better understanding of neuronal biology, which could someday be used in a practical application.

As a high school student, she secured a spot in Carolyn Machamer’s cell biology lab at Johns Hopkins University, despite her age and inexperience. After that initial summer, Rolls was invited back for three more during her summer breaks as an undergraduate at Yale.

Despite being young and inexperienced, Rolls was given a chance to prove herself, and did.

Because of this, Rolls recognized the need to give undergraduates an opportunity to make discoveries, develop a lab work ethic, and be successful as a researcher.

Rolls has also recognized the need to help change-of-location students obtain the research experience they need to apply for graduate school. She has been working with Carl Sillman, a senior lecturer in biochemistry and molecular biology, on a course that is offered for juniors including those who have just moved to University Park from a Commonwealth campus or other university. “Students come to University Park as juniors and have not yet

Mentoring Undergraduates in the Lab While labs at some universities only employ faculty, graduate students, and research staff, the Rolls lab, and a number of others across the college, regularly invite and encourage undergraduates to participate in the lab work. At any given time, you can find about 10-15 undergraduate students either working alongside Rolls or doing their own independent research. Knowing that students need research in order to go to graduate school or to pursue a research-related occupation after college, Rolls opens her lab to students who are willing to make a commitment to research.

“I really love working with undergraduate students in the lab if they are truly motivated about research,” Rolls said. “I believe in giving students the opportunity to work in the lab, along with the tools they “I BELIEVE IN GIVING STUDENTS THE OPPORTUNITY need, and a research TO WORK IN THE LAB, ALONG WITH THE TOOLS THEY question to NEED, AND A RESEARCH QUESTION TO PURSUE, BUT pursue, but u lti mat ely ULTIMATELY IT’S UP TO EACH STUDENT TO SUCCEED.” it’s up to each student to succeed.”

The knack for research and discovery has had the opportunity to participate in research. been engrained in Rolls from a young age.

This makes it difficult for them to apply for a Both of her parents were Oxford Ph.D. program because they are behind their researchers—her father Edmund in University Park peers in lab participation,” computational neuroscience and her mother Rolls said.

Barbara in nutritional physiology. Rolls had Rolls and Sillman give these students her own experience as a fledgling scientist an opportunity to take the “fast track” into participating in a research lab at a young age. research by taking a class offered by Rolls

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Cover Story that puts them in the lab immediately and teaches them how to answer questions in the lab. As with any undergraduate student doing research, they learn pretty quickly whether or not research is something they enjoy or loathe.

“Research isn’t for everyone, but it’s important to provide the opportunity to experience it,” Rolls said.

Taking the Lead When she’s not mentoring undergraduates or helping them integrate into her lab, Rolls wears several hats with graduate students, serving as the department’s graduate program

liaison officer, working as an ombudsperson for students, and helping them with research in her lab.

Despite the time that going out of her way to work with students takes, Rolls still finds time to pursue another initiative, serving as founder and director of The Center for Cellular Dynamics.

“I started this in 2008 soon after I arrived at Penn State because I realized that there were a lot of people here with shared scientific interests, but it took me a long time to find them because they are scattered in different departments and colleges,” Rolls said.

MICHELLE STONE at a confocal microscope equipped with a pulsed UV laser for severing fruit fly neurons, in the Rolls Lab. Credit: Seth Palmer

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

The center brings together scientists who study the cytoskeleton and intracellular transport, cellular changes during development and disease, cell-cell communication and interactions, and who use live imaging.

This interdisciplinary group of faculty meets monthly to brainstorm science ideas.

Additionally, Rolls helps center faculty organize workshops and mini-meetings throughout the year. Their most recent event, a workshop on a new genome engineering strategy that makes use of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, included nearly 100 people from across campus. This type of interdisciplinary engagement and collaboration is one of the reasons that Rolls chose Penn State.

“I wanted to come to Penn State for its research-centric community. The college and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences have been great for supporting interdisciplinary research,” Rolls said. “Being closer to my mother, who is a professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State, also enticed me to settle here.”

Penn State Science was a natural fit for Rolls. When Rolls was considering where to start her lab, she had a one-year-old and knew that she could only succeed in a place where the environment was supportive of families and children. After talking with other Penn State faculty and visiting the Bennett Family Center (the child care facility on campus), she knew that Penn State was the only place where she could juggle family, run a lab, teach, and have opportunities for leadership.

Rolls also has interests that extend beyond the lab and classroom. She has served as a chair and co-chair of the Eberly College of Science Climate and Diversity Committee for several years, where she helped guide the committee toward undertaking numerous climate-related SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

initiatives.

“Melissa was a driving force in the distribution and display of the college Code of Mutual Respect and Cooperation and of the establishment of the digital signage now found in eight key locations in college buildings around campus,” said Chuck Fisher, professor of biology and co-chair of the committee. “Her energy and commitment to improving the climate for all members of the college, coupled with her considerate but aggressive approach with new projects, has been a major factor in the success of the committee for the past several years.”

In her seven years at Penn State, Rolls has been able to undertake and effectively manage an impressive number of initiatives. From establishing a successful lab, to mentoring students, to managing multiple leadership roles, Rolls has committed her energy towards making an impact and excelling everywhere she is involved. Although only time will tell what is on the horizon for her next big discovery or project, the college community is looking forward to seeing what Rolls sets out to accomplish next.

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Feature Story 26

Climate &

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Diversity:

It’s All About Communication

Climate outside the office can affect us everyday, whether it is winter weather making transportation difficult or a warm sunny day lifting the mood. But what about the other type of climate?

People experience climate everyday in the workplace, in school, and in social situations; the atmosphere in each situation has a profound effect on a person’s mood, productivity level, and mental well-being. So what can be done to improve this type of climate?

Enter the Dean’s Climate and Diversity Committee. Every month, this committee of people from all over the college, including faculty, staff, students, and postdocs, meets to talk about issues of climate in the Eberly College of Science.

How do they define climate? Climate is how someone would describe the atmosphere in the college. Climate encompasses how a member of the college feels in regard to acceptance, safety, and support. Do you feel that your background and beliefs are respected in your work unit? Do you feel safe and comfortable? Do you feel you have all of the resources you need in your unit, and would be comfortable asking for them if you

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didn’t? All of these factors contribute to climate.

The Dean’s Climate and Diversity Committee, comprised of two to three representatives from each department in the college, meets frequently to discuss ways to improve the climate and diversity of the college, and to ensure that every faculty member, staff person, and student feels safe, comfortable, and accepted.

Dean Daniel Larson formed the college’s Climate and Diversity Committee in 1999, charging the committee “to develop and sustain a welcoming environment that is inclusive of all groups with an emphasis on underrepresented populations and inter-group relations.” The dean’s plan was to gather information that could help further the college’s vision of providing a supportive and welcoming environment where all members can carry out missions of research service, teaching, and learning to the best of their abilities.

In addition to the committee members from each department, the committee includes other staff around the college. Hank McCoullum, director of the Office of Diversity Initiatives and

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Feature Story Multicultural Programs, and Amanda Jones, manager of the college’s human resources office, sit on the Climate and Diversity Committee on behalf of their areas in the college. Other representatives on the committee not from academic departments include staff from the dean’s office and delegates from Science LionPride, the college’s student ambassador program. In addition to the college’s main committee, each department has its own Climate and Diversity Committee.

Improving Communication No matter what issues the committee tackles, committee co-chairs Chuck Fisher and Melissa Rolls say that communication is their biggest issue.

“All of the issues we deal with are ultimately about bettering communication,” said Fisher, “whether it’s letting someone know about existing resources, dealing with a difficult situation, instituting best practices in mentoring, or getting the word out about a new policy.”

One method the committee uses to communi-

“ALL OF THE ISSUES WE DEAL WITH ARE ULTIMATELY ABOUT BETTERING COMMUNICATION...” cate is the embedding method. They use their committee members, ombudspeople, and departmental committees to help spread the word about an important policy or initiative in their area.

At the request of the committee, the college purchased digital signage for nine buildings frequented by the college’s faculty, staff, and students. Digital signage will be a primary means of disseminating information about the commit28

Digital signage like the one shown here in Thomas Building, is one way the Climate and Diversity Committee communicates initiatives to the college community.

tee’s initiatives, the college’s Code of Respect and Mutual Cooperation, and information about policies that can make staff, faculty, and students feel more comfortable in the college. Buildings with digital signage include Chemistry Building, Davey Laboratory, Frear Building, McAllister Building, Mueller Laboratory, Osmond Laboratory, Ritenour Building, Thomas Building, and Whitmore Laboratory. Signage is managed by the college's marketing office.

“We hope that by putting the information in spaces people pass through every day, we can get them information on things they may not have even thought to look up,” said Rolls.

Another way to communicate the importance of work in climate and diversity is to reward individuals for their achievements in this area.

Since 2009, the Climate and Diversity Awards have been recognizing three individuals per Penn State Eberly College of Science

year for their work to improve the college’s cli- Ombudspeople mate and diversity. In addition to recognizing Each department in the college has its own omthe winners, the committee also recognizes ev- budspeople, which is the result of an important ery person who was nominated for a Climate initiative of the committee. The committee’s and Diversity Award at the annual awards pre- goal was to identify people in each department sentation, even if they did not win. who were trusted and approachable, someone Rolls believes these awards are important: who all members of the department would be “Hearing about what our college members have comfortable talking to about climate or other worked on is inspiring. We have recognized ac- job-related issues. Rather than letting a minor complishments ranging from increasing recruit- issue fester or waiting until an issue escalates ment of underrepresented students in the chem- to the point that serious intervention is needed, istry graduate program to working to improve the postdoc community.”

THE OMBUDSPEOPLE WORK WITH THOSE So what are some of the committee’s big initiatives? What are some WHO APPROACH THEM TO SOLVE examples of their work in action?

PROBLEMS, OR MORE OFTEN, TO HEAD

College Climate Survey One of the most important initiatives of the committee is the College Climate Survey. In 2007, the committee conducted a survey to assess the climate in the college. The results of the survey helped to inform the committee’s initiatives in the years following the survey.

In 2012, a follow-up survey was developed and given to the college community. The committee compared the results from 2007 to the results from 2012 to determine where progress has been made in relation to the college’s climate, and where attention should still be focused to improve climate.

A few areas that the 2007 and 2012 surveys identified as areas in need of improvement included postdoctoral and graduate student mentoring, graduate student and staff confidence in our commitment to protect them from harassment, and the general lack of knowledge about existing resources. The climate committee has taken these results to heart and have initiated activities to address these needs on several fronts.

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POTENTIAL PROBLEMS OFF EARLY. the ombudspeople are available for counseling, to intervene gently, or sometimes just to be a sympathetic ear.

Working with an ombudsperson is a confidential process. Unless a crime has been committed or there is a risk to someone’s health or well-being, the ombudsperson does nothing without the permission of the person seeking their help. The ombudspeople have been trained by the college’s human resources office to best serve the faculty, students, and staff in their department and are aware of the range of resources available to assist people in need. The ombudspeople work with those who approach them to solve problems, or more often, to head potential problems off early.

How are ombudspeople chosen and vetted?

Each department nominates their ombudspeople, and the nominations are brought to the college’s human resources office. The human resources office then reviews the nominations.

What is the most important quality they look for in an ombudsperson?

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Feature Story “Whether they are approachable,” said Rolls.

“We want you to feel comfortable coming to the ombudsperson with any issues you might have, so they need to be approachable.”

There is one tenure-track and one non-tenure–track faculty member in each department to help diversify the ranks of ombudspeople.

Fisher, who is an ombudsperson for the Department of Biology, said, “Fortunately it is not a very time-consuming job, as we are rarely needed. I’ve met with only 3-4 people a year in my roll as ombudsman. In most cases, the problems were still minor and were taken care of quickly by clarifying misunderstandings or miscommunications. In a couple of cases, more serious situations were identified early and also dealt with quickly and productively.”

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Mentoring Programs The Eberly College of Science employs more postdoctoral researchers, fellows, and scholars than any other college in the University, with 52 percent of all University postdocs working in the college. The large number of postdocs in the college made the concern about insufficient mentoring a priority for the committee.

To improve postdoctoral mentoring, the committee first formed a postdoctoral subcommittee in 2010 to investigate the needs of postdoctoral fellows, scholars, and researchers in the college.

When the subcommittee discovered an inconsistent approach to mentoring postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and scholars, they decided to do some research to see if a better model existed somewhere else.

After reviewing recommendations from the

Penn State Eberly College of Science

National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Postdoctoral Society, and a number of peer universities, the committee concluded that development and use of Postdoctoral Individual Development Plan was a centerpiece of the best practices in the nation.

They then worked to modify plans developed by these other groups to best fit the needs of postdoctoral scholars in the college. The result is an instrument that helps postdocs to identify areas of personal and professional development that would benefit them while providing a mechanism to facilitate open communication between a postdoc and his or her mentor about their individual needs and aspirations.

According to Will Horton, a postdoctoral scholar in neuroscience and member of the committee’s postdoctoral subcommittee, not all postdocs want the same things out of their experience, which can make mentoring a postdoc challenging. “Postdocs can have different goals: some may want to teach, some may want to perform research, some may want to go to industry,” he said.

Opening up a line of communication about what is desired from the experience is key, which he says the Individual Development Plan helps to do: “The Individual Development Plan gets you to communicate with your mentor even if you are shy.”

The College Climate Survey also brought up concerns about the lack of consistent mentoring for the college’s graduate students. Using a similar process as they did with postdoctoral mentoring, the committee researched best practices for graduate student mentoring from peer universities, such as the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University. The committee then took those best practices and customized them for the diverse needs of the students in the college, based on information from the SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

College Climate Survey and with help from the committee’s graduate student subcommittee.

Mathematics Graduate Student Workshop After the release of results from the 2012 College Climate Survey, some individual departments decided to take action on the items they saw in the survey results. One of these departments was the Department of Mathematics.

Diane Henderson, professor in the Department of Mathematics and college Climate and Diversity Committee member, helped to arrange a town hall meeting in the Department of Mathematics to have a discussion of some of the survey results.

After the town hall meeting, a few students approached Henderson privately to talk about some of their personal concerns about climate in the department. One of those students was Diego Chaves, now a third-year Ph.D. student in mathematics.

“We discussed some inappropriate comments that we’ve heard in the department,” Chaves said. These comments included sexist jokes and slurs against homosexuals, as well as some concern about cultural integration issues. Henderson suggested setting up a student-given workshop to address these issues.

Chaves and seven other graduate students in the Department of Mathematics identified eight major issues of climate for which they wanted to raise awareness and start a departmental dialogue. The issues were: inclusion, humor in the workplace, sensitivity to human identities, reactions to behaviors, academically disparaging attitudes, respecting our students, gossip, and professionalism.

Each graduate student on the small team prepared a presentation and discussion on one of the eight issues. The students then put on four workshop sessions, each session combining two 31

Feature Story Climate and Diversity Committee co-chairs Chuck Fisher and Melissa Rolls speak at this year’s Climate and Diversity Awards reception

of the eight issue areas. The students who signed up were randomly assigned to a workshop rather than choosing it, which meant that first-year graduate students were often in workshops with third- and fourth-year graduate students, creating a more well-rounded discussion.

The students who gave the workshop also created a social contract for the department which students could voluntarily sign, stating they would respect other students and their cultures, identities, and beliefs, with suggestions for how to handle difficult situations.

Chaves had personal experience with the workshop topic of inclusion. Chaves, who is Bra32

zilian, said that as an international student, there is a tendency to stick with students from your own nationality or background when you come to graduate school. He himself experienced this during his first year of his Ph.D. program.

Because the Department of Mathematics attracts students from many countries around the world for whom English is not a first language, language can be a huge barrier to integrating with other members of the department.

“It’s so easy to go back to your first language,” Chaves said, admitting that for his first year, he did this rather than socialize with those outside his culture. It wasn’t until a chance encounter Penn State Eberly College of Science

with fellow graduate students outside of campus that he began to try to meet other people from the department and truly integrate.

The workshop on inclusion encouraged inter-

Without an inclusive climate and fair treatment for all members of the college community, the college would not be recognized as one of the premiere institutions for science across the country; a healthy climate is THE WORKSHOP ON INCLUSION ENCOURAGED imperative to the overall success of the college. While the INTERNATIONAL AND AMERICAN STUDENTS TO committee is pleased with the success that they have had GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER. THE WORKSHOP with their climate initiatives INCLUDED STRATEGIES FOR NATIVE ENGLISH in the last 15 years, they continue to work hard to identify SPEAKERS TO HELP NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS AND areas that need improvement.

ENCOURAGEMENT TO MAKE LEARNING ABOUT With support from the dean and other administrators in OTHER BACKGROUNDS A PRIORITY. the college, the committee will continue its efforts to imnational and American students to get to know prove communication and make the Eberly Coleach other. The workshop included strategies lege of Science a positive place for all members of for native English speakers to help non-native the college community. speakers and encouragement to make learning about other backgrounds a priority. A key message in the workshop was that “talking to someone from a different part of the world will enrich your life,” said Chaves.

Both the team of graduate students and Henderson were awarded a Climate and Diversity Award for this work to improve the climate in their department.

The Department of Mathematics would like to continue the workshops every year, with the hope that participation by first-year students will help to quell some of the issues brought up by the climate survey.

Workshops like the one created in the Department of Mathematics embody the spirit of the Climate and Diversity Committee, said Fisher and Rolls.

“We want to inspire all members of the college to do their part to create a good climate in the college,” said Fisher.

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College News New Planetarium Planned for The Arboretum at Penn State New, technologically advanced digital visions of the night sky on campus? With the completion of a new planetarium as part of The Arboretum at Penn State’s Education Center expansion, this fantasy could become a reality.

The current 30-seat planetarium in Davey Laboratory, built in the 1980s, is a popular facility that balances many varied uses. The facility, being the closest planetarium to many areas of the state, attracts numerous local and not-so-local school and scouting groups, and also receives requests to partner with community organizations.

Balancing educational, community, and elementary school trip usage at the small planetarium is tough, and doesn’t factor in the planetarium’s original purpose: an education and research facility for Penn State students, researchers, and faculty. The planetarium serves the students, faculty, and researchers in the Department 34

of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and provides planetarium shows for very popular science general education astronomy courses with many hundreds of students each semester.

This leaves demand for shows at the planetarium high, and resources in the current facility struggling to meet the demand. The small seating capacity and central campus location make access to planetarium shows challenging. In-

stead of being able to seat an entire group for a planetarium show at once, the planetarium staff may have to run multiple shows to accommodate all members of a group. And then there’s the issue of a bus dropping off a class of elementary-school children near the entrance to Davey Laboratory—in the center of campus on the HUB mall, where traffic flow is limited.

Knowing the current faPenn State Eberly College of Science

cility’s limitations, Larry Ramsey, then head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, came up with the concept of the new planetarium at the Arboretum in 2007 after a conversation with members of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics’s Board of Visitors. Ramsey took the idea to Kim Steiner, director of the Arboretum, and Deb Howard, director of facilities resources and planning for the UniverSCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

sity. Steiner and Howard were interested in the idea, and the trio worked together on a formal program statement, which enabled architectural studies of the project to begin.

The new planetarium at the Arboretum would be built on the grounds of the proposed Education Center, which is still awaiting funding. The new planetarium would be able to seat 125-150 people, more than four times as many as the

current planetarium’s capacity.

And the Arboretum’s location makes loading and unloading buses of students easier than the current location on the HUB mall.

The new facility would provide increased technology, an upgrade that is long overdue, said Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Senior Lecturer Christopher Palma, who helps to manage the planetarium. “Many other universities with planetaria (Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Colorado) have either already upgraded or are in the process of doing so.”

According to Ramsey, the new planetarium plans include a fully modern and upgradable full-dome 2D and 3D digital projection system, making the planetarium a capable digital theater that several departments on campus could use for innovative educational and research activities.

Increased technology in the upgraded facility will provide more up-to-date career preparation for the department’s astronomy majors interested in science education. Many of the students who work at the campus planetarium go on to careers managing other planetarium or science education facilities as a result of the valuable hands-on experience they 35

College News receive before they graduate.

Modern, upgraded planetarium facilities are capable of much more than just astronomy-based programming. The new digital projection technology makes it possible to feature shows and projections on subjects ranging from meteorology, life sciences, and geosciences, to art, history, and music, while also providing hands-on career preparation for other disciplines, like education and film majors.

Another possibility is a new stream of revenue. While the planetarium does not charge admission for planetarium shows (and has no plans to change that), they could rent the new space for events. And digital projection allows for the

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creation of new shows featuring Penn State astronomy research that could be licensed to other institutions, another way to generate revenue.

The proposed Education Center at the Arboretum, of which the planetarium would be part, brings a host of opportunities for learning to the Arboretum.

“When the Education Center is completed at the Arboretum, it will make that part of campus not only a gateway to the rest of the University, but it will also be a destination learning center for K-12 classes and the community at large,” said Palma.

The new planetarium would continue a long history of having a planetarium on campus.

Palma and his colleagues found evidence of a planetarium predating the current facility: a 1940s planetarium in Osmond Laboratory started by Henry Yeagley, a former professor of physics and astronomy.

Ramsey, Palma, and their colleagues in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics are eager to continue this tradition at the Arboretum’s Education Center.

“We have had a long tradition of welcoming the community to our campus for educational events, and look forward to being able to expand our capacity for these sorts of programs in collaboration with the Arboretum,” said Palma.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Intellectual Property Focus

Research Leading to Practical Benefits for Society One yardstick for measuring the quality of a University is by measuring its beneficial impacts on society. The Eberly College of Science is justifiably proud of the impacts our students have made on Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world. Often overlooked, however, are the impacts of our college through the transfer of our research from the lab bench into economic and societal benefits. Each issue of the Science Journal will highlight a faculty member whose recent intellectual property has real potential to benefit society.

Scott Phillips, assistant professor and Martarano Career Development Professor of Chemistry, has developed elegant and deceptively simple tests for analytes that are inexpensive to produce, require no refrigeration, and provide reliable quantitative data using no electronic readers or specialized equipment. A simple watch will suffice. Consequently, Phillips’s technology could be used, for example, to develop diagnostic tests for water quality, health-related point-of-care tests, and tests for food-borne bacterial contamination in rural areas around the world. Such diagnostic tests would meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ASSURED criteria for diagnostic tests: affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, robust and rapid, equipment-free, and deliverable.

—Andrew Stephenson, associate dean for research and graduate education

Speed and simplicity are two words we don’t usually associate with tests, particularly effective diagnostic tests used for human health. But what if diagnostic tests could be both simple, meaning easy to perform, without multiple steps to complete the measurement; and quick, as in the ability to measure a chemical species quickly and effectively?

The goal of point-of-care diagnostic tests—examples include personal glucose meters, pregnancy tests, and breathalyzer tests—is that the person performing the test can easily complete the process while obtaining the most accurate data. Phillips and his team have developed many new strategies to advance point-of-

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

care diagnostic tests, including modifying existing tests for new purposes.

The team repurposed a personal glucose meter so that it could measure relevant concentrations of enzyme biomarkers. Without changing the glucose meter or the strips that go into it, Phillips and his team were able to merely change the reagents and assay strategy of the meter to repurpose it. They tested the system to measure a marker of liver function with success. For patients going through treatments that could damage their liver, this simple test could be a life changer.

But repurposing the glucose meter isn’t even their most promising strategy. They are researching using paper as This paper testing device, a diagnostic platform. By designed by Phillips, measures embedding new reagents the levels of lead and mercury in into paper, Phillips’s team water. The levels are measured is able to perform very by counting the time between sensitive tests that detect when the green appears on the trace quantities of analytes left and the red appears on the with ease. And the paper right. Credit: Phillips lab diagnostic test is easy to perform, too—Phillips and his team have set up the test so that the user merely has to add a sample to the paper and the reagents do the work and provide a definitive readout. The paper can even quantify how much of an analyte is in a sample: the user can either count the number of colored regions that appear on the paper, or time how long it takes the affected part of the paper to change color relative to a region of the paper not subject to the sample. The user does not need any specialized electronic devices to perform these tests or analyze the results.

Phillips said the goal of this research is “to make tests exceedingly simple, but still quantitative and high performance.” The idea of simpler, more effective diagnostic tests that anyone can perform and analyze could revolutionize healthcare testing. Not only are the tests Phillips and his team are coming up with simple, effective, and easy to perform, but they also have the ability to be mass produced and more readily available than electronic testing devices.

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College News

Penn State Science Welcomes Teresa Davis, Associate Dean of Administration

With a reputation around Penn State of “no shrinking violet” and 18 years of leadership experience at the University, it’s not surprising that Teresa Davis was selected to fill the vacant associate dean of administration in the college. The position, which was previously filled by Karin Foley, is unique because it requires a skillset that cannot just be learned from a textbook or in a classroom. From facilities planning, to IT and marketing management, combined with interacting and communicating with people at all levels in the University and beyond, her duties make for a challenging, yet rewarding, job.

As Davis can attest, since her first day in early February, no day has been “regular.” Between attending meetings, making decisions, handling problems, and dealing with faculty, staff, and other administrators, there is not a typical daily schedule; every day brings something different to the table. Despite what the job throws at her, Davis has the experience and knowledge to handle it.

Davis, who began her career in the U.S. military as an enlist38

ed soldier in the Army military police corps in the mid-1980s, quickly learned that discipline, hard work, and perseverance were necessary to do the job well. Those character traits have served her well, enabling her to advance in various civilian positions in the Department of the Army around the globe, ending her career with the Department of the Army at the United States Military Academy at West Point as the Provost Marshal office’s plans officer.

In 1996, Davis joined Penn State as director of transportation services, where she oversaw the transportation needs of 41,000 students and 16,000 employees while managing the usage of 17,000 parking spaces, a 500-vehicle rental fleet, campus bus and shuttle services, and 10 informational kiosks. Additionally, on any given day, she was responsible for establishing and enforcing plans, supervising staff, managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and serving on commissions and committees, among other duties.

Administrators across Penn State recognized Davis’s strong work ethic and talents for planning, organization, and customer service, and invited her to participate in the University’s Administrative Fellows program in 2009. She joined Craig Weidemann, Vice President of

Outreach, and worked alongside him for a year, shadowing his daily activities and serving on multiple committees working to improve the University’s outreach program.

All of her work and life experiences, along with her master’s degree in public administration and her doctoral degree in workforce education and management, have prepared Davis for her new role as associate dean of administration. In this role she oversees information technology, facilities, marketing, outreach, and a number of budget and leadership-related processes for the college. Areas of focus include planning for renovations on our instructional laboratories, restructuring and re-visioning the outreach efforts of the college, and a number of budget-reduction and processimprovement-related initiatives.

Outside of work, Davis can be found spending time with her son, Connor, who will be starting at Penn State in July. She also is active in the State College Downtown Rotary Club, and often spends free time helping to plan or attend Rotary activities.

The college community is looking forward to the positive changes and fresh perspective that new leadership will produce. We hope that you will join us in welcoming Teresa Davis to the college.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Department News Chemistry

Yin Tang, Chun Kit Kwok, and Yiliang Ding, who carried out the research.

Chemistry Meets Plant Biology: Genomewide Probing of RNA Structure Reveals Novel Mechanisms of Gene Regulation Many genes in prokaryotic genomes are regulated by changes in RNA structure.

Plants, because of their sessile nature, are exposed to extreme abiotic stresses such as temperature fluctuations, drought, and light, and these stresses are prone to alter the fold of RNA. However, the nature of RNA structure as it prevails in the living organism was previously unknown in any organism at the genome-wide scale.

A team led by Professors Sally Assmann in biology, Philip Bevilacqua in chemistry, and Yu Zhang in statistics, along with postdoctoral fellow Yiliang Ding and graduate students Yin Tang and Chun Kit Kwok, has developed new approaches to determine RNA structure in vivo in a genomewide fashion by applying experimental and statistical approaches.

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Ding and Kwok carried out chemical probing of intact seedlings from Arabidopsis thaliana, a small model plant species related to mustard.

The chemical used, dimethyl sulfate (DMS), modifies nucleotides that are not tied up in Watson-Crick base pairing.

Genome-wide patterns of DMS reactivity were determined by deep sequencing and were then mapped back to the genome.

These patterns were used to constrain reactive nucleotides to be single-stranded, and the fold of each RNA in the genome was predicted. Computational analysis then helped identify key structural and regulatory patterns across the transcriptome. Among the patterns identified were a triplet periodicity in DMS reactivity in mRNA and secondary structures near polyadenylation sites and alternatively spliced introns. In

addition, the team developed techniques to study the structures of low abundance RNAs by using a ligation-mediated PCR method.

The research team reported their findings in two papers recently published in Nature and Nature Communications.

Currently, the team is applying these techniques to study changes in the patterns of RNA when plants are exposed to environmental stresses, broadly applying these studies to crops.

Their long-term goals are to learn how plants respond to abiotic stresses at the level of RNA folding and to develop crops with improved tolerance to stress.

You can read more about the research in Nature: nature. com /nature/journal/v505/ n74 8 5 / f u l l / n at u r e1275 6 . html.

Philip Bevilacqua, professor of chemistry

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Faculty Spotlight Faculty Awards & Honors Sarah Ades, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, was selected by GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) as a winner of its discovery Fast Track competition, which is designed to accelerate the translation of academic research into novel medical therapies. Ades is one of eight winners in the competition.

G. Jogesh Babu, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and statistics, has been awarded, along with Eric Feigelson, the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in cosmology and astronomy for his book Modern Statistical Methods for Astronomy with R Applications. The PROSE award was established in 1976 to recog40

nize the best in scholarly publishing as judged by publishers, librarians, and academics.

Ottar N. Bjørnstad, professor of entomology, biology, and statistics, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed by peers upon members of the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Squire J. Booker, professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, has been named a Fellow of the American Association

for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed by peers upon members of the AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.

Dimitri (Dima) Burago, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, and two co-authors, Yuri Burago and Sergei Ivanov, have been awarded the Leroy P. Steel Prize for Mathematical Exposition by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for their book A Course in Metric Geometry. The AMS recognized the book for making available a novel approach to differential geometry.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Meredith Defelice, senior lecturer of biochemistry and molecular biology, received the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is presented each year to four faculty members across the University who have devoted substantial effort to undergraduate teaching.

Eric Feigelson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and statistics, was awarded the Faculty Scholar Medal in the Physical Sciences. This award is given in recognition of scholarly excellence demonstrated by a single contribution or series of contributions focusing on a coherent theme.

Babu, the American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in cosmology and astronomy for his book Modern Statistical Methods for Astronomy with R Applications. The PROSE award was established in 1976 to recognize the best in scholarly publishing as judged by publishers, librarians, and academics.

Kateryna Makova, a professor of biology, has been honored by the University’s Eberly College of Science by being appointed the Francis R. and Helen M. Pentz Professor of Science. The Pentz professorship was established in 1989 to provide outstanding faculty members with the resources necessary to further their teaching, research, and public service.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has honored Péter Mészáros by awarding him the 2013 Einstein Professorship.

Mészáros, who is the Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Astronomy and Astrophysics and a professor of physics, was honored for his contributions to science during ceremonies from 17 to 27 October in China, where he gave a series of lectures at conferences in Shanghai and Nanjing.

Raymond E. Schaak, professor of chemistry, has been appointed as the DuPont Professor in Materials Chemistry in recognition of his distinguished contributions in research and education.

Feigelson has also been awarded, along with G. Jogesh SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

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Faculty Spotlight B. Franklin Pugh Named an Evan Pugh Professor B. Franklin Pugh, Willaman Professor in Molecular Biology and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, has been named an Evan Pugh Professor, which is the highest honor the University bestows on its faculty. The Evan Pugh Professorships, named for Penn State's first president, are awarded to faculty members who are acknowledged pioneers in their fields of research or creative activity; have demonstrated significant leadership in raising the standards of the University with respect to teaching, research or creativity, and service; and have demonstrated excellent teaching skills with undergraduate and graduate students who have subsequently achieved distinction in their fields.

Pugh has built a research program that investigates how all genes of an organism are controlled by its environment. He uses both human and yeast cells as model systems. Pugh’s research takes advantage of cutting-edge new technologies such as "next-generation" DNA sequencing which produces billions of data points.

Computational modeling of the data allows his research team to integrate biochemicallygrounded regulatory mechanisms to produce more unified concepts on gene-regulatory networks. His laboratory’s work on gene regulation as resulted in more than eighty scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

He manages an academic research laboratory 42

having 15-20 students, postdocs, and technicians. Significant visibility of his work has come through the invention of the ChIP-exo assay in his lab, which allows the genomic binding locations of gene regulatory proteins to be identified with pinpoint accuracy. A patent for the process was issued in 2013. In 2012, he co-founded a company called Peconic, LLC to provide wider access to the assay.

Pugh was named a Leukemia Society of America Postdoctoral Fellow in 1988, a Searle Scholar in 1992, and a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar in 1996. At Penn State, he was honored with a Daniel Tershak Faculty Teaching Award in 1996, a Faculty Scholar Medal in 2006, and in 2007 became holder of the Verne Willaman Chair in Molecular Biology. He was a member of the American Cancer Society peer-review committee on Genetic Mechanisms from 1999 to 2003, and was a member of the peer-review panel for the Florida Department of Health from 2001 to 2003. He currently is director of the Center for Eukaryotic Gene Regulation at Penn State, and editor for the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology.

Pugh received a bachelor's degree in biology from Cornell University in 1983 and a doctoral degree in molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987. He was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1988 and at the University of California, Berkeley from 1988 to 1991. He joined the faculty at Penn State as assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in 1992. He was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and to professor in 2005.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Andrew Read Named an Evan Pugh Professor Andrew Read, Alumni Professor in Biological Sciences and professor of entomology, has been named an Evan Pugh Professor, which is the highest honor the University bestows on its faculty. The Evan Pugh Professorships, named for Penn State's first president, are awarded to faculty members who are acknowledged pioneers in their fields of research or creative activity; have demonstrated significant leadership in raising the standards of the University with respect to teaching, research or creativity, and service; and have demonstrated excellent teaching skills with undergraduate and graduate students who have subsequently achieved distinction in their fields.

Read is the director of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. He works on the ecology and evolution of infectious disease.

Read is perhaps best known for his research on how natural selection shapes the virulence of malaria and how the "unnatural" selection imposed by medicine shapes the evolution of disease-causing organisms. This evolution causes drugs to fail and can create "super-bugs" that are resistant to pharmaceuticals. Because evolutionary responses to drugs, insecticides, and vaccines are the main causes of problems in preventing and treating infectious diseases, Read's research, which provides an improved understanding of pathogen evolution, can be used to inform public-health decisions.

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Read has been honored for his research achievements with an American Academy of Microbiology fellowship in 2014, an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship in 2012, an Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin fellowship in 2006, a Royal Society of Edinburgh fellowship in 2003, and a scientific medal from the Zoological Society of London in 1999. He has served on the scientific advisory boards for the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Evolutionary Research and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge, as well as on other international scientific committees. He currently serves on the editorial boards of PLoS Biology, Trends in Ecology, Evolution and Evolutionary Applications and he is a senior editor of the journal Evolutionary Medicine and Public Health. Read has co-authored more than 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Nature, PLoS Biology, Evolution, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Before joining Penn State in 2007, Read was at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, where he was the 13th Professor of Natural History, an endowed Chair established in 1767. He was an adjunct professor in evolutionary ecology at the University of Tromsø in Norway from 1992 to 1997, and a lecturer in zoology at St. Catherine's College at Oxford University in the United Kingdom from 1989 to 1990. He earned a doctoral degree in evolutionary biology at the University of Oxford in 1989 and a bachelor's degree with honors in zoology at the University of Otago in New Zealand in 1984.

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Faculty Spotlight

New Faculty Raquel Assis, assistant professor of biology, studies the role of gene duplication in the evolution of novel traits.

She focuses on understanding how the functions of duplicate genes change over time, and the evolutionary forces, such as natural selection, that are responsible for these changes.

To uncover the timing and mechanisms of evolutionary innovation, Assis compares the genetic sequence and expression profile—where and when a gene is active—of duplicate genes within and between species. Before joining Penn State, Assis was an NIH postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a doctoral degree in bioinformatics at the University of Michigan in 2011 and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and zoology at the University of Florida in 2006.

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Eugenio Bianchi, assistant professor of physics, studies the role of quantum entanglement—a phenomenon in which the individual quantum state of interacting particles cannot be described— in gravitational events such as the evaporation of a black hole and the dynamics in the primordial state of the universe.

The main objective of his research is to understand the quantum nature of space-time and the entanglement between its elementary constituents. The ideas and methods he works with have applications in the theories of loop quantum gravity and quark-gluonplasma thermalization, as well as in other areas of physics.

Before joining Penn State, Bianchi was a postdoctoral scholar at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada and at the Centre de Physique Théorique de Marseille, France. He earned his doctoral degree at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in 2010.

Michael DeGiorgio, assistant professor of biology, uses mathematical and computational approaches to study evolutionary relationships within and among species. He works on both theoretical and applied problems in statistical population genetics, human evolutionary genomics, and phylogenetics. Within these research areas, DeGiorgio is specifically interested in constructing mathematical models of human evolutionary history, designing statistics to search for genomic regions under natural selection, and developing and evaluating computational methods for estimating species relationships using data from multiple regions of the genome. Before joining Penn State, DeGiorgio was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science at the University of Central Florida in 2006, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in bioinformatics at the University of Michigan in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Chad Hanna, assistant professor of physics, is a gravitationalwave astrophysicist who focuses his research with the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) on detecting gravitational waves emitted by compact, binary neutron stars or black holes. Hanna hopes to detect the gravitational waves that are predicted to be observable just prior to the merging of two neutron stars or black holes. Along with his LIGO Scientific Collaboration colleagues, Hanna aims to conduct real-time, gravitationalwave searches, which will enable joint electromagnetic and other astroparticle observations in order to learn more about these extraordinarily powerful events. Before joining Penn State, Hanna was a postdoctoral fellow at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and a postdoctoral scholar in the LIGO Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Hanna earned his bachelor’s degree in physics at Penn State in 2004, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Louisiana State University in 2006 and 2008, respectively.

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Edward O’Brien, assistant professor of chemistry, is focused on understanding, modeling, and predicting the behavior of macromolecules inside of cells through the development of theoretical and computational tools rooted in the fields of chemistry, physics, and computer science. His current research efforts include the development of a molecular perspective and a theoretical framework to describe protein synthesis and its effect on newly synthesized proteins.

Before joining the Penn State, O’Brien was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Christopher Dobson at Cambridge University. As a graduate student, O’Brien studied processes of protein folding and amyloid formation at the University of Maryland College Park, where he earned a doctoral degree in chemical physics in 2008. He attended the University of the Sciences in Pennsylvania and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry with minors in mathematics and physics.

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Student Spotlight

Undergraduate Student Awards and Honors

2014 President’s Freshman Award Nora Ackerson Ryan Ahn Nathan Arnett Vrianna Arrell Kerstyn Auman Rohan Basu Sarah Bevilacqua Alice Cai Mia Casale Ravi Dalsania Amber Delhagen Tiffany Dharia Paolo Dugo Declan Evans

Caitlin Lynch Jacob Mascaro Nicholas McCarroll James O’Hara Mit Patel Ruhiben Patel Tanmay Patel Turner Pecen Brent Perry Joseph Puthenpurayil Carrie Reesman Erica Sidorowicz Pallavi Sindhu Mark Smeraldo

Grant Smith Emily Sterbis Ryan Stronach Shuhan Tian Sankia Udyaver Jarrett Venezia Zhiyu Yin Cassidy Young Siavash Zamani Hankun Zhang Jikai Zhang Yichuan Zhang

Joshua Reynolds Nicholas Rizer Spencer Schrock Lauren Ulsh Emily Cery Francesco Volo

Anna Wing Lingjuan Zeng Artemis Zhu

Jia Fan Cruz Finnicum JingJing Fu Casey Graham Kirby Graham Tong Guo Qinglan Huang Morgan Keegan Anne Klepeiss Karishma Kodia Michelle Li Wanni Lin Xinyue Liu Yangyu Liu

2014 President Sparks Award Shahroz Fatima Terry Hafer Maren Healey Ziqi Kan Grace Lee Ellie McKinstry

Karthik Nataraj Neal Patel Jacqueline Patterson Haley Randolph Laura Reese Corinne Renner

2014 Evan Pugh Scholar Award (Junior) Adeline Answine Tesia Chuderewicz Stephanie Crilly Peter Hohman

Matthew Lee Charles Levin Kelly McGill Michelle Pistner

Anthony Roman Caleb Shervinskie Zachary Snyder Han Wen

Brendan Wood

2014 Evan Pugh Scholar Award (Senior) Nicholas Anzalone Bridget Backer Jacob Boyer Rene Clark

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Christian Conlon Jessica Cunning Charles Defrancesco Geoffrey Gao

Audra Kelly Wan Ying Lian Elisabeth Paulson Christopher Rae

Kristin Romutis Bryan Tornabene Amy Weidert Lianfei Yan

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Spring 2014 Student Marshals Daniel Abercrombie of Linden, Pennsylvania, and Laura Krecko, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, were honored as student marshals during the Penn State Eberly College of Science’s spring commencement ceremonies on May 10, 2014.

Sarah Shandera, assistant professor of physics, served as Abercrombie’s faculty escort. Krecko’s faculty escort was James Strauss, senior lecturer in biology.

DANIEL ABERCROMBIE Daniel Abercrombie graduated from Penn State with a 4.0 grade-point average and bachelor’s degrees in physics and nuclear engineering and a minor in mathematics. He was a member of the Schreyer Honors College and was on the Dean’s List every semester of his undergraduate career.

During his time at Penn State, Abercrombie was named an Undergraduate Fellow and a Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Scholar

by Toshiba-Westinghouse; was the recipient of scholarship awards from the Department of Energy University Program and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation; and recognized with a national conference award for Best Undergraduate Presentation in Reactor Physics and an Accelerator Applications Division Scholarship from the American Nuclear Society. Abercrombie also won a slew of Penn State awards

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

and scholarships, including the University-level President’s Freshman Award and President’s Sparks Award. Other Penn State scholarships and awards Abercrombie received were the John J. Brennan Excellence in Nuclear Engineering Award, the College of Engineering Research Symposium Poster Award, the Klevans Scholarship in Nuclear Engineering, the Schreyer Honors College Bain Family Scholarship, the Florence and Charles Haines Memorial Scholarship, the Paul Morrow Endowed Scholarship, the Monty Schultz Memorial Scholarship in Nuclear Engineering, the Professor H. A. Everett Memorial Scholarship, and the Ralph B. and Eleonora K. Strawbridge Memorial Trustee Scholarship.

While he was an undergraduate at Penn State, Abercrombie had the opportunity to conduct research under Philip Harris, a staff physicist at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Abercrombie assisted Harris’s team at CERN and researchers from MIT and Northwestern University in the search for hypothesized dark matter that is produced in the decay of the Higgs boson particle. In particular, Abercrombie’s research tried to characterize the spray of hadrons (particles made of 47

Student Spotlight quarks) that emerge during some collisions that generate a Higgs boson. Successful characterization will help find the Higgs, even when it decays into invisible dark matter.

Outside of the classroom and research lab, Abercrombie was a member of the Penn State Chapter of the American Nuclear Society. Active at the society’s national level, Abercrombie participated in the planning of the 2014 American Nuclear Society National Student Conference as Technical Lead. In his home chapter at Penn State, he was involved with the chapter’s outreach activities, including educating Boy Scouts groups and high school students about the field of nuclear science and engineering.

When informed he had been selected as student marshal, Abercrombie said he was “very surprised and honored to be selected as a representative for the entire college.” His time at Penn State taught him many important lessons, including learning to embrace change: “I came to Penn State thinking that I would obtain an engineering degree and get a job in design.

However, I was drawn to pure science. Now I will be attending graduate school for physics, even though it was only partway through my junior year that I started to realize that was what I wanted to do.”

Abercrombie plans to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to obtain a doctorate degree in experimental high-energy physics.

A graduate of Williamsport Area High School, Abercrombie was accompanied by his parents, David and Diane Abercrombie, at the commencement ceremony.

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LAURA KRECKO Laura Krecko, a member of the Schreyer Honors College, graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average and a bachelor’s degree in biology. She was on the Dean’s List every semester of her undergraduate career.

Krecko won many awards during her time at Penn State, including the University-level honors of the President’s Freshman Award, the President’s Sparks Award, and the Evan Pugh

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Scholar Senior Award. The Schreyer Honors College recognized her achievements with an award from the Pre-Eminence in Honors Education Fund and multiple Academic Excellence Scholarships. She also was the recipient of the Virginia L. Corson Headings Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science and inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society.

Krecko has served as a teaching assistant for James Strauss in his mammalian physiology and histology classes and also performed research in the Vascular Health Interventions Laboratory under the guidance of Sheila West, associate professor of biobehavioral health.

Krecko’s research involved assisting with a variety of tests that measure or assess glucose me-

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

tabolism, insulin sensitivity, endothelial function, and cardiovascular responses to stress at the Penn State Clinical Research Center. She completed a Schreyer Honors College thesis investigating the association of clinic and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements with cardiovascular disease risk factors in adults with type-2 diabetes mellitus.

Krecko split her free time between two student organizations, Peace.Love.Lyrical Dance Company and Global Medical Brigades. She was vice president of Peace.Love.Lyrical Dance Company and was selected as a THON dancer for the organization this year, helping the company to raise $26,000 this year for pediatric cancer research. As part of Global Medical Brigades, Krecko spent her spring break in 2012 on a medical service trip to Panama, where her group helped to organize a mobile clinic to provide medical assistance for underprivileged rural Panamanian communities.

Krecko will attend the Penn State College of Medicine to pursue a career as a physician.

Krecko says she was “surprised and extremely honored” to be selected as a student marshal for the college. “The people I’ve met throughout my four years at Penn State are some of my greatest sources of happiness and inspiration. The warmth, pride, and strength of the Penn State community will continue to shape me for years to come.”

Krecko, a graduate of Hershey High School, was accompanied by her parents, Valentins and Anne Krecko, along with her sisters Kristina and Ingrid, at the graduation ceremony. Her sisters are also Penn State graduates, with Kristina expected to graduate from the Penn State College of Medicine this year.

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Student Spotlight

Undergraduate Scientists Research Cruise in the Gulf of Mexico Samantha Berlet and Danielle McKean recount their experiences studing coral health as part of Charles Fisher’s deepsea lab research.

Samantha Berlet: Cruising for Corals Penn State has always been a part of my life. My grandfather and father both obtained their undergraduate degrees from Penn State.

I grew up going to Penn State games and learned to love the State College area. When my interests turned to marine science, I thought attending Penn State was out of the picture. It wasn’t until I saw the numerous research labs on campus that Penn State became my first choice.

When I first arrived at Penn State, I wanted to take full advantage of the amazing research opportunities available to me as an undergraduate student, so I investigated several research labs with a focus on marine science. Dr. Charles Fisher’s deep-sea laboratory immediately caught my attention.

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Danielle and Samantha aboard the E/V Nautilus.

One interest of Dr. Fisher’s lab is the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which I had read about before coming to Penn State, however, I had not encountered anything about the particular species he was researching. Little is known about the deep-sea community, mainly because this previously inaccessible area is now beginning to be explored.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

The novelty of this research drove me to work in the deep-sea lab starting in January 2012.

As an undergraduate researcher at Penn State, I organized and compiled data from seven years of research expeditions, consisting of photographs from nearly 400 corals located at nine different sites in the Gulf of Mexico. Forward-looking photos of each coral were taken, digitized, and categorized to produce proportions of different health levels.

Software programs called Fiji Is Just ImageJ (FIJI) and Inkscape were used to digitize each coral branch, and different colors were utilized to represent the different health categories.

After proportions were computed, analysis between multiple time periods was conducted to understand the ongoing impact of the 2010 oil spill.

While working on this project, I participated in two different research expeditions: one aboard the RV Falkor in November 2012 and another aboard the E/V Nautilus in June 2013.

I was particularly impressed by the technology used on the Nautilus for education; innovative telepresence capabilities were used to collect and transmit data from the ship to the general public viewing online. The technology played a key part in educating the viewers. My responsibilities on the E/V Nautilus research trip included collecting photographs of corals, leading the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) pilots to each of the sample sites, and answering realtime questions from the public.

My interest in biology and marine science has grown and developed throughout my unSCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

dergraduate studies at Penn State and while working in Dr. Fisher’s deep-sea lab. These experiences have molded my interests in marine science toward research, especially in marine biology and conservation. After my participation on two research cruises during my undergraduate career, I am especially interested in opportunities to gain more research experience aboard other vessels.

Samantha Berlet is a senior majoring in biology, ecology option, with a minor in marine science. After graduating in August 2014, she plans to attend graduate school to study marine science or marine biology.

Danielle McKean: Exploring the Depths of the Ocean

Last summer, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the Gulf of Mexico and be part of a two-week research cruise aboard the E/V Nautilus. Along with another undergraduate student and two Penn State graduate students, we set sail with researchers from other universities to investigate the deep sea. This opportunity allowed me to meet people from all parts of the world, observe picturesque sunsets, and witness 51

Student Spotlight the remarkable communities of the deep ocean.

During my sophomore year, I became involved in Dr. Charles Fisher’s deep-sea marine biology research lab. I was looking to do research in a field I knew little about and hoped it would be something that captured my interest. Besides, who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to explore the depths of the ocean? As a researcher in this lab, I’ve gained teaching experience, the ability to hone my interpersonal skills, and had opportunities to go on two cruises within two years.

Our main goal at sea was to study the impacts of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill on deep-sea coral. Aboard the ship, we navigated a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to the ocean floor. We then used this to sample and image the coral, and obtain water data. In imaging the corals year after year, we are able to determine if health is improving or declining. This is an extremely important undertaking that illustrates what will happen to these corals if another occurrence, such as the oil spill, were to take place.

Being out at sea was an adventure! The days were filled with the hustle and bustle of many people, including crewmembers, engineers, ROV pilots, educators, and other researchers, busy at work. Imaging the corals varied frequently, ranging from daylong efforts to work being done in the early hours of the morning. The vessel

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was alive with research activity, and someone always needed help somewhere, which was a great opportunity to learn about the research of the other scholars on board. When I was not doing work, I would find myself out on the deck overlooking the ocean. The beautiful skyline on the horizon was peaceful and unchanging except for the occasional oilrig, and when the day finally came to an end, it was easy to fall asleep from the ebb and flow of the ocean waves.

My favorite memories from the cruise happened after midnight when we would explore the bottom of the ocean. Seeing the unique interactions between all the creatures of the deep was breathtaking; whether it was squid attacking our ROV, witnessing fish and crabs fight over food, multiple sharks swimming by, or, of course, the beautiful jungle of corals inhabiting the deep sea—I could not get enough of the beautiful ocean. Ultimately, my time out at sea has shown me the importance of research, and given me a deep appreciation for the sea and all the creatures that call the ocean home.

Danielle McKean is a senior majoring in biology. After graduating in May 2014, she hopes to perform research at the National Institutes of Health before applying to medical school.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Tiffany Cole: Traveling the World to Improve Public Health A LOVE FOR WORLD TRAVEL AND INTEREST IN MEDICINE DREW TIFFANY COLE TO JOIN THE PENN STATE CHAPTER OF GLOBAL BRIGADES DURING HER FRESHMAN YEAR. FOUR YEARS LATER, AS COLE LEAVES PENN STATE, SHE PLANS TO CONTINUE HER HUMANITARIAN WORK BY PURSUING A MEDICAL DEGREE, AS WELL AS A MASTER’S DEGREE IN PUBLIC HEALTH. Cole, a first generation college graduate from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, was recently featured by BusinessInsider.com, which focused on 18 “incredibly impressive” undergraduates at Penn State, for her extensive work with Global Brigades.

Global Brigades is the world's largest studentled global health and sustainable development movement. It was initiated in 2003 by students from Marquette University who traveled with doctors to provide medical care to rural communities in Honduras. Penn State Global Brigades, which began in 2007, provides students with the opportunity to volunteer abroad through one of seven programs, ranging from architecture to public health, or volunteer locally in State College through two local initiative committees.

The group also organizes and co-sponsors educational events to spur awareness of global issues such as poverty, the global water crisis,

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

and global health disparities. Cole served as the campus chairperson during her senior year.

Although her academic strengths lie in mathematics and numerical computations, Cole decided to pursue a general science degree that allowed her to include more human elements into her studies, particularly with a medicine and global health focus. Trips to Ghana, Honduras, Panama, and Nicaragua with Global Brigades helped Cole understand more about global medical needs and narrow the focus of her future career. These service trips also gave her the opportunity to volunteer at health clinics abroad, where she worked triage, shadowed doctors, and presented educational materials. Additionally, she helped construct schools, community health centers, and water systems.

Although Cole gets satisfaction knowing that she is really making an impact with her efforts, she also gets enjoyment out of seeing the influence that these trips have on her fellow students.

“The most rewarding part of being involved in Global Brigades is, hands down, the students.

Knowing how Global Brigades is very much responsible for my own realization that ‘health’ is more complex than a simple disease + medicine = cure equation. The most rewarding part is seeing this same revelation take place within other members. During my summer medical/dental brigade to Panama in May 2013, a member ex53

Student Spotlight plained during our final evening reflection that when I had originally said that the trip would change the way he felt about medicine, he didn't believe me. He had gone into the trip thinking it would be a good excuse to travel and gain physician-shadowing experience. However, because of this experience, he now sees how our traditional view of medicine may not be enough to address the health needs around the world, particularly with rural, developing regions that are in more dire need of quality health care. Although not everyone has this sort of visceral response to Global Brigades, with even one member who is truly impacted to their core like this student,

my continued work within Global Brigades feels validated,” Cole said.

Cole plans to continue her work with Global Brigades in Nicaragua for the next year as an adviser to university chapters. “After that, I plan to attend medical school and public health school to get a combined M.D. and a master of public health. Once I complete my degrees, I’d like to work in a nonprofit organization or government agency to create programs that address health disparities and needs in rural, developing regions of the world,” Cole said.

Outside of her advocacy efforts, Cole enjoys yoga, mountain biking, and pastel artwork.

Ryan Henrici: Understanding the Molecular Basis of Human Diseases AFTER SPENDING NEARLY 30 HOURS IN THE LAB EACH WEEK, IN ADDITION TO CLASSES AND COURSEWORK, BEING SUCCESSFUL AND HAVING “FREE TIME” DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A POSSIBILITY. RYAN HENRICI PROVES IT IS DOABLE.

Recently selected as a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship recipient and featured by BusinessInsider.com, which focused on 18 “incredibly impressive” undergraduates at Penn State, Henrici has a bright future ahead of him both inside and outside of the lab. Henrici, a junior biochemistry and molecular biology major, conducts research in the Center for Eukaryotic Gene Regulation to understand the molecular basis of human diseases while

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also finding time to volunteer for THON and participate in sports.

Henrici, who is also a Schreyer Honors Scholar, decided to join the center because of his interest in studying how gene regulation proteins interact with their chromosomal targets and so that he could work alongside Song Tan, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

“Dr. Tan is a highly respected crystallographer, and his laboratory works to determine the structures of gene regulatory proteins bound to their targets, and in doing so, gain insights into how these proteins may cause disease. It was

Penn State Eberly College of Science

the perfect blend of clinical and biochemical relevance for me,” Henrici said.

Although Henrici helps Tan and the other researchers in the lab with their projects, he also currently has a project of his own, which focuses on crystallography. His work involves characterizing gene regulatory enzymes bound to their chromosomal substrates.

“Over the past year, I cloned, expressed, and purified a 3-subunit chromatin-modifying enzyme complex. At the end of last spring, I crystallized the complex bound to its nucleosome target. To my knowledge, this is the first chromatin enzyme ever crystallized in complex with its nucleosome target. This year, I am trying to similarly characterize another chromatin-modifying enzyme that has been directly implicated in breast and other cancers,” Henrici said.

The type of research that Henrici is doing can potentially reveal novel targets for early-detection assays and therapeutic intervention.

In addition to his research, Henrici is also a co-author on a paper about avian influenza, which will be used by leaders in policy and intelligence communities around the world to learn about avian influenza research. He presented his findings at the Five Eyes Analytic Training Conference, a twice-yearly event between five

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

countries’ intelligence communities.

For Henrici, the most rewarding part of working in a lab is seeing hard work pay off as meaningful results.

“I’m driven by the pursuit of knowledge so everyday results are exciting, but the big, and sometimes unexpected, results are the best. One example was seeing the crystals of that complex for the first time,” Henrici said.

Medical school is the next step for Henrici when he finishes his undergraduate work in 2015. He has plans to continue doing research and pair it with clinical medicine to learn more about the biology of cancer and gene regulation.

“I am really interested in pediatric oncology because of my involvement in THON and my research interests. My ultimate goal would be to unite the laboratory and clinic to improve quality of life for both patients and families,” Henrici said.

Outside of the lab and his coursework, Henrici is involved with THON, most recently serving on a hospitality committee and working as the graphic design chair.

Despite this seeming like a full schedule, Henrici still finds time to serve as a youth ministry leader, where he plays play guitar in a band, and participate in cycling and swimming.

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Student Spotlight

Penn State Science Dances For the Kids FOUR PENN STATE SCIENCE STUDENTS WHO DANCED IN THON THIS YEAR CHOSE TO SHARE THEIR THON EXPERIENCES. THE STUDENTS ARE NICHOLAS LYKTEY, EMILY SKONECKI, JOYCE LEE, AND NATALIE DAPAS. WITH THEIR HELP, THON 2014 RAISED $13,343,517.33 FOR THE FOUR DIAMONDS FUND AT PENN STATE HERSHEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL. THE FOUR DIAMONDS FUND SUPPORTS PEDIATRIC CANCER RESEARCH AND HELPS RELIEVE THE FINANCIAL BURDEN FAMILIES FACE WHEN A CHILD IS DIAGNOSED WITH PEDIATRIC CANCER. Joyce Lee, Natalie Dapas, Nick Lyktey, and Emily Skonecki pose together at THON.

Nicholas Lyktey, senior Forensic Science major Why did you decide to dance in THON, and what organization did you dance for?

I have wanted to dance ever since my freshman year. I am currently the president of Science LionPride, and have been in the organization since my freshman year. Science LionPride is extremely fortunate to have a THON family, where we essentially sponsor Colton Watson and his family. The determination and strength Colton shows on a daily basis is something that really drove me to want to dance even more. The "troubles" a college student has everyday are absolutely nothing in comparison to what some children unfortunately have to endure with different types of pediatric cancer. I danced for Science LionPride, an organization I love more than anything, and an opportunity to show how much I love and support the Watson family.

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Describe your experience at THON. THON is a very challenging mental game, in my opinion. Those who are positive and optimistic throughout the weekend can fight through any physical pain, but people who are negative may have had a tougher time.

Emily Skonecki, senior Biology major Why did you decide to dance in THON, and what organization did you dance for?

I danced for Science LionPride. We have been paired with the Colton Watson family for three years now. Colton was considered cured last May, so this was a really special THON for us.

What was the best or most memorable part?

The best memory I have from THON is dancing with my good friend, Nick Lyktey. We were able to represent an organization we both love Penn State Eberly College of Science

and have been a part of since freshman year. It was a great way to end our senior year at Penn State. Besides Nick, the rest of the club's members were so supportive of us, and there's no way we could have done it without them. Nick and I were so thankful we could share the experience with them.

Joyce Lee dressed as Jabba the Hutt.

Was it difficult to stay awake all weekend?

What motivated you to dance for 46 hours?

In the moments that I felt down, I used the energy from the stands, especially our club, to put me in a better mood. Our THON family came on Saturday, and that made me feel great. Colton's unwavering optimism despite all he has faced gave me the strength to continue.

Joyce Lee, senior Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major Why did you decide to dance in THON, and what organization did you dance for?

I danced for Springfield, a special interest organization. My passion is science and I want my science to make a difference in this world by increasing our understanding of human disease. I felt that dancing at THON would inspire me and allow me to always remember the responsibility that members of the research and medical community have toward families who live day by day on the hope that someday someone will discover a cure or treatment for the disease that has devastated their lives.

What was the best or most memorable part?

One of my favorite moments during THON was when my dancer partner, my moraler, and I dressed up in Star Wars costumes and took pictures with all the characters during Star Wars hour. I was wearing an inflatable SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Jabba the Hutt costume. My costume resulted in many smiles and laughs from other dancers, kids, and people in the stands, and I was really excited that something so silly could bring joy to others.

Natalie Dapas, senior Chemistry major Why did you decide to dance in THON, and what organization did you dance for?

When I first came to Penn State, I quickly became involved by joining a THON committee and Sailing Club. When my last THON approached, I wanted to dance to celebrate the lives of the ones, like my mom, whom we have lost to cancer, and I wanted to dance for a cure for the kids who continue to fight. It meant so much to me to be dancing for the members of Sailing Club and for the kids.

What was the best or most memorable part?

I'll never forget walking up to the BJC before THON in the human tunnel. It was an incredible feeling to be surrounded by such inspiring families and supported by so many peers. I carried their enthusiasm and encouragement with me all weekend.

I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who supported me as I stood for 46 hours at THON 2014 in the fight against pediatric cancer. $13.3 million raised for the kids! I love my school.

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Student Spotlight

Matthew Lee:Gaining Real Experience in the Business World I knew that I would not have nearly as much experience in the corporate world as compared to my future classmates when matriculating into the MBA portion of the Science BS/MBA program. To gain some real-world business experience, I decided to apply for a co-op within the Global Strategic Sourcing (GSS) department in the Product Supply Organization (PSO) at the Clorox Company in Atlanta, Georgia. I chose Clorox in particular because of the company culture. Clorox is not a large consumer packaged goods company, as compared to businesses like Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, or Unilever. Clorox only has a little north of 7,500 employees around the world. Thus, working for a smaller, yet very successful company, made it enjoyable to come to the office everyday because I was able to network with not only people within my department, but across the company as a whole. It is rare to have the chance to build close relationships with VPs, as well as have opportunities to work on projects with the senior management of a corporation.

I had the opportunity to work on a diverse number of project management tasks, data management projects, and personnel projects.

Within GSS, I worked with a team on multimillion-dollar cost-savings projects, organized and managed Clorox E-sourcing events, and even helped with Clorox’s college recruiting efforts. I developed a wide range of technical skills that I

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most likely would not have had a chance to learn in my classes through these types of projects. I became familiar with various systems that are commonly used in sourcing departments, which include SAP, IASTA, PPM, and CMS. Beyond technical skills, I was able to develop my professional skills through presentations, mock interviews, and simply being in the business setting.

Although this co-op was not directly related to my undergraduate major, it made me more versatile by giving me a chance to get my feet wet in a different field of interest. The skills I took away from this internship have helped me during school with time management, teamwork, and networking. I would highly recommend doing a co-op because you gain skills that are hard to develop inside the classroom. I also encourage students to branch outside their respective majors because you can develop a wide range of skills and will have a multifaceted experience. I was a bit skeptical before going to Atlanta to work for Clorox, but I can say with complete confidence that it was an extremely valuable experience.

Matthew Lee is a third year in the Science BS/MBA program. The program is a five-year, dual degree program where students study general science during three years, and then enter into the Smeal MBA program for the remaining two years. Lee is starting the MBA portion of the program in the fall and intends to graduate in the spring of 2016. After completing the Science BS/MBA program, Lee plans to attend medical school.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Above&Beyond Focus on Graduate Students

Distinguished Graduate Fellowships and Strong Research Opportunties Recruit Outstanding Scientists Lauren Quevillon, a second-year Ph.D. student in biology, is a 2012 recipient of a Campbell Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship recognizes outstanding first-year doctoral students who exhibit academic excellence in the Eberly College of Science.

Quevillon, who is a member of the David Hughes lab, knew that pursuing graduate school in infectious disease ecology was in her future before she finished her undergraduate work in biological sciences at Cornell. However, with her father as a teacher, and being the oldest of three children, Quevillon wanted to try teaching before starting graduate work. Prior to starting her Ph.D., she taught chemistry at high schools in Connecticut and Maryland for two years.

“I began teaching chemistry knowing that I would ultimately be returning to graduate school, but I had no idea how much that experience would benefit me as a graduate student,” Quevillon said.

However, with multiple offers on the table, making the decision on where to attend graduate school was not an easy one for Quevillon. A combination of research prospects and funding SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Lauren Quevillon, a graduate student studying biology, reviews footage of ants taken overnight in the lab.

Photo credit: Clair Poletti

were both factors in her final decision.

“The Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics (CIDD) was the number-one reason why I came to Penn State. CIDD is a think tank of leading infectious disease ecologists and theoreticians —interacting with such incredible faculty is a grad student’s dream. There is also a very active graduate student organization (the CIDD GSA) that provides many opportunities for professional development. I knew that if I did my Ph.D at 59

Student Spotlight Penn State, I would be trained by the best in the field and I would be extremely competitive in the future job market.”

In addition to the opportunities within the CIDD, the Campbell Distinguished Graduate Fellowship offer helped to seal the deal and direct Quevillon to Penn State.

“Coupled with the presence of CIDD, receiving the Campbell DGF made choosing Penn State a no-brainer. It would have been a much more difficult decision if I didn’t receive the Campbell,” Quevillon said.

Quevillon’s research focuses on the co-evolutionary dynamics of social structure and disease transmission in ant societies. She studies this using carpenter ants and their many parasites (including the infamous zombie ant fungus) as a model system.

“Through studying the interplay of ant societies and disease, I hope to make broad generalizations about how social behavior and infectious disease impact one another. I think that ant societies can inform us about many other complex societies, including humans. The benefit of studying ants is that I can actually infect them with disease, which (ethically) isn’t a pos-

sibility when working with humans,” Quevillon said.

One project that she finds particularly interesting is studying nest architecture and its implications for the human world. “I’m currently tackling how nest architecture impacts ant social network structure and thus the potential for disease transmission. This has direct applicability to other systems—for example, how does our design of buildings impact the spread of the flu?”

After Quevillon completes her studies at Penn State, she plans to complete at least one postdoctoral fellowship that studies the intersection of disease and sociality.

“After my future postdoctoral work, I’m keeping my options open—I’m game for anything that allows me to doggedly pursue open questions. I have immensely enjoyed my time as a teacher and TA, so my future will also need to integrate education and mentoring at some level,” Quevillon said.

Outside of the lab, Quevillon enjoys hiking with her two dogs, yoga, running, and crafting.

Graduate Student Awards and Honors Alumni Association Dissertation Award Chun Kit Kwok, Chemistry Shan Gao, Physics

Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award Ehssan Khanmohammadi, Mathematics Daisy Phillips, Statistics

Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award Anthony DiLauro, Chemistry

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

Alumni Mentoring Kickoff Dinner and Workshop Connects Students and Mentors Every February, Penn State Science alumni mentors make the trip to snowy Happy Valley to meet their protégés for the annual Alumni Mentoring Kickoff Dinner and Workshop. This year the dinner was held on Feburary 8 at the Nittany Lion Inn, and 95 alumni mentors from seven departments attended.

The Alumni Mentoring Program pairs student protégés with an alumni mentor to provide them with guidance as they finish their education and prepare for a career. The Mentoring Kickoff Dinner and Workshop is an important chance for mentors and protégés to meet in person and set goals for their mentorship.

This year at the dinner, two student protégés and one alumni mentor spoke about their experience with the program.

For students Sabrina Walley (biology) and Matthew Casey (pre-medicine), the Alumni Mentoring Program has made a huge impact.

Casey has gained invaluable support and guidance from his mentor into his chosen career of dentistry. Because Casey’s mentor had few resources when he applied for dentistry school, he wanted to ensure that resources are in place for students like Casey, and has offered him guidance and job-shadowing opportunities. Walley wasn’t sure of her career direction yet, but her mentor widened her perspective to include careers in research and the pharmaceutical industry. Walley’s mentor also shared ideas for internships Walley might enjoy to help her discover a career path that is right for her.

The mentors also reap benefits from the mentoring relationship, as the group heard when Lisa Collins (’79 Bio) spoke about her experience. Collins loves being an alumni mentor to SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

Penn State Science students. She has mentored three undergraduates over the past five years, and says her protégés have enriched her life.

Her relationships with her protégés have extended beyond graduation through graduate school to employment.

During the workshop segment of the evening, the mentors spoke about career topics, including the importance of asking the correct questions in an interview, how to prepare an “elevator speech,” and networking opportunities among the database of mentors.

The Science LionPride ambassadors also gave a workshop to help student protégés make the most out of their mentoring relationship. Four Science LionPride ambassadors spoke about addressing the important questions with your mentor, asking for help, taking criticism, finding career focus, and grabbing opportunities wherever possible. Another topic of this workshop discussed how to form meaningful relationships with mentors despite infrequent meetings, and how even when the career trajectories of the student and mentor diverge, mentors can be helpful in redirecting the protégé to another relevant contact via their own professional networks.

At the end of every Alumni Mentoring Kickoff Dinner, the mentor and protégé pairs set goals for the future to keep the relationships on firm ground going forward.

To join the program as a student protégé, visit science.psu.edu/alumni/for-students/becoming-a-student-protégé. To participate as an alumni mentor, visit science.psu.edu/alumni/ get-involved/becoming-a-mentor or contact Mary Hudson at meh25@psu.edu.

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Alumni News

Eberly College of Science Alumni Board Celebrating 40 Years

In June of 1974, a planning meeting was held to form the College of Science Alumni Society. With the leadership of Dean Thomas Wartik and William Van Pelt (’48 B.S. Commercial Chemistry), the Eberly College of Science Alumni Board was launched! Since its beginning, this group has been a vital part of the college throughout the last 40 years.

Who Are We? We are Penn State Science alumni who volunteer our time to serve a three-year commitment, with re-election possible for another three-year term. Twice a year, we travel to University Park to meet and discuss, plan, and implement activities to enhance the college. We have the opportunity to meet with and receive updates from the dean, associate deans, and department heads. The opportunity to interact with current students is always a highlight of our time on campus and this engagement helps us to determine areas of support.

Mission To connect alumni to the Eberly College of Science and to each other; to provide valued service to members; and to support the college’s mission of providing a rich educational experience that will motivate and enable all of our students and alumni to seek the highest levels of intellectual achievement and personal growth; and sharing our knowledge, discoveries, and inventions with the people of the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world.

What We Do During the past 40 years, alumni board events and activities have evolved and grown within the college. While on campus for meetings, we have held student events such as a career in science fair, a research poster contest, senior sendoff breakfasts. We also actively engage with students from the Science LionPride and Science Student Council. Individually or as a group, we also participate in undergraduate classes or career development initiatives.

From the Winter 1992 issue of the Science Journal: Daniel Reilly, '73 B.S. CompSc, vice president of the Board; Ronald B. Kessinger and Norman Freed, recipients of the Eberly College of Science Distinguished Service Award; Charles Sweeney, '60 B.S. Chem, president of the Board; and Dean Gregory Geoffroy.

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

From the Spring/Summer 1990 issue of the Science Journal: Eberly College of Science Alumni Society directors Chip Paradise (second from right), ’73 B.S. CompSc, and Fred Shaffer (far right), ’60 B.S. Phys, greet fellow science alumni at the Penn State Alumni Society’s Homecoming Hospitality Tent, November 4, 1989.

Major milestones along our way: • In June 1974, a planning meeting to form the College of Science Alumni Society under the direction of William Van Pelt and Dean Wartik, was held and by 1977, the first constitution of the society was written.

• Alumni Society Career Day first took place in 1979, and has since been a mainstay event for the board and students.

• The College of Science Alumni Society Distinguished Service Award was established in 1979 to recognize individuals who have made significant and outstanding leadership and service contributions to the College of Science over a sustained period of time.

• In the early 1980s, the College of Science Student Council began their representation of the student body at alumni council board meetings.

• In 1985, a science expo with 3,000 attendees, including 300 minority high school students was held.

• The Outstanding Science Alumni Awards were started in 1995 and today have recognized over 80 alumni who have made significant contributions to the field of science.

• In 1999, the Alumni Society Board Enhancement Endowment was endowed at $100,000. The endowment was created to support activities and programs to enhance the educational and research missions of the college.

• Beginning in 2004, the Alumni Society began sponsorship of one of the two C.I. Noll Teaching Awards at $2,500 each year. The C.I. Noll Award was initiated in 1974 by the College of Science to recognize one faculty SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

member who took a special interest in students, and who, through their interactions, had a positive impact on them.

• Science LionPride is a student ambassador group charged with representing the Eberly College of Science to prospective students, parents, and college alumni. The Alumni Board created this organization in 2008.

• The Science Alumni Society Trustee Scholarship was established in 2009 and provides financial assistance to an undergraduate student with a demonstrated need for funds.

• The board began funding grants for science students to participate in a study abroad program in 2010.

• In 2013, both the Science Student Council and Science LionPride representatives were granted a vote on the alumni board.

How Can Science Alumni Become Involved?

• Become a mentor for a science student • Volunteer for speaking in courses or other speaking engagements at University Park • Contribute to an alumni endowment • Participate in the college alumni bio and video projects • Volunteer to speak at a Millennium Scholars program event • Participate in networking events • Attend regional advertised events Thanks to the commitment and action of a few individuals forty years ago, we have an active and thriving board today. To learn more, visit science.alumni.board_members.com or contact Barbie Collins at bhc10@psu.edu.

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Alumni News

This is Your Life: Dr. Roy Olofson More than 50 alumni, colleagues, and friends gathered on December 10, 2013 to surprise and celebrate Roy A. Olofson at the Nittany Lion Inn. The luncheon illustrated the influence Olofson has had through the years on so many: from students at all levels, to colleagues, to many professional organizations.

Receiving his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the University in Chicago in 1957, and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1961 (where he had the opportunity to study with Robert Burns Woodward, a Nobel Laure- over the country to celebrate ate in Chemistry), he became and share their memories in an instructor, then assistant person. Many of his Ph.D. stuprofessor of chemistry, at Har- dents shared memories and vard. In 1965, he arrived at events on how Olofson influPenn State to begin his “...I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR career as an associ- BEING SUCH A GREAT TEACHER ate professor, AND POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON becoming a professor in ME AND MY CLASSMATES.” 1972, leading to his current role as professor enced their lives. Even more emeritus, which began in 1996. sent emails such as this one: Throughout these decades, he “I was a student in your firstprovided organic chemistry lec- semester sophomore organic tures that inspired thousands chemistry course way back in of Penn State undergraduates. 1986…and I loved it. It just Today, he continues to assist clicked. You made it come alive with review sessions and the and I just loved to go to class. preparation and grading of or- Those two courses, and you as the professor, had a significant ganic chemistry exams.

Alumni traveled from all impact on my career and life.

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I want to thank you for being such a great teacher and positive influence on me and my classmates.”

Olofson’s deep and abiding love of the history of chemistry brings the subject to life by relating rich stories about the lives and personalities of key figures in the field whose work built the foundation of our present knowledge. As he often said in Chem34 organic chemistry lectures, “To know where we’re going, you have to know how we got here.”

Throughout his career, along with guiding the organic chemistry research of dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, he published over 100 articles and monographs.

He also patented a number of chemical processes. Olofson initiated, promoted, and organized celebrations, marker installations, and displays of historical significance for many professional chemical organizations.

This luncheon, organized by his colleagues and alumni, provided a wonderful opportunity to honor and share with Olofson how his critiques, lessons, mentoring, and leadership reached so many lives on campus and far beyond.

Penn State Eberly College of Science

Geary Receives a 2014 Alumni Achievement Award Brian Geary (’01 B.S. Microbiology) has been honored with the Penn State Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes alumni 35 years of age and younger for their extraordinary professional accomplishments. The award winners are nominated by an academic college and are invited by the President of the University to return to campus to share their expertise with students, faculty, and administrators.

Geary is director of business development for OnDeck, Inc., a technology-enabled financial firm that provides financing to small and medium-sized businesses. OnDeck was named to Forbes Most Promising Companies in America and to the Inc. 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies in America for the last two years.

During a five-year tenure at Citigroup, Geary developed cutting-edge products for both consumer and small business finance.

Among the financial tools that he implemented were Citi’s first mobile wallet for the iPhone, Google Wallet, which led to the

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

connection of smartphones and payments, and the CitiBusiness ThankYou® Card. Geary excelled at Citi’s “fast track” executive program and was promoted to vice president of product development.

Geary led a successful career as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 2001 to 2005, where his leadership helped the missile destroyer USS Barry receive the 2004 Arleigh Burke Fleet Trophy for most improved ship in the Atlantic Fleet. For two years, he ranked number one out of 24 officers. He also earned the Shiphandler of the Year Award, and the Navy and Marine Corp Commendation Medal for Outstanding Leadership. He served as aide to the U.S. Navy Chief of Strategy at the Pentagon, where he worked with members of the State Department to analyze and map global terrorist and piracy threats.

At Penn State, Geary was a Naval Reserve Officer and was elected to Company Commander, overseeing 200 students. He performed research in the lab of Song Tan, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in microbiology. He also earned a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Geary lives in New York City with his wife, Kristin.

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Alumni News

Alumni Photo Album

On campus and around the country, from award dinners to receptions— alumni, students, faculty, and staff (and even the Nittany Lion!) come together to celebrate their love of science!

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Penn State Eberly College of Science

Be on the lookout for upcoming events. Check the calendar on the back cover, visit our website at science.psu.edu, or email Brenda Lucas atbnl1@psu.edu for the latest information. RECONNECT TODAY!

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

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Alumni News

Paying It Forward – Gift of Prize Money Endows Innovation Prize in Biological Sciences

Masatoshi Nei, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and director of the Institute for Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, and recent recipient of the Kyoto Prize, committed the $500,000 cash prize that accompanies this award to establish the Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biological Sciences. Nei shares, “I donated the Kyoto Prize award money to enhance the quality of biological sciences at Penn State.”

The Kyoto Prize, an international award presented by the Inamori Foundation, recognizes individuals who have contributed significantly to the progress of science, the advancement of civilization, and the enrichment and elevation of the human spirit. The foundation honored Nei in recognition of his “research on the evolution of biological populations using qualitative analyses of genetic variation and evolutionary time.”

Daniel J. Larson, Dean of the Eberly Col68

lege of Science, commented, “It was an honor to attend the ceremonies in Kyoto, Japan, where Dr. Nei received the prize in November. Professor Nei’s impressive accomplishments have added great strength to our college. The generous gift of the prize money will support the continuation of this excellence.”

Donating the $500,000 cash prize, Nei and his wife Nobuko, created the Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biological Sciences to bring public recognition to Penn State and its excellence in the biological sciences. The award will provide a substantial prize to a preeminent scientist who is on the faculty at the University; who is acknowledged as an innovator in their field; who is actively engaged in research; and who has achieved outstanding scientific research and leadership in the biological sciences.

Department Head of Biology Doug Cavener noted, “This gift is a testament to the lifelong commitment of Masatoshi Nei to innovation and excellence in research. The Nei Innovation Prize will provide us the means to honor our most innovative and accomplished faculty in the biological sciences.”

Nei earned a bachelor’s degree in genetics at the Miyazaki University of Japan in 1953, followed by master and doctoral degrees in quantitative genetics at Kyoto University in Japan in 1955 and 1959, respectively. He was an assistant professor at Kyoto University in Japan from 1958 to 1962, a geneticist at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan from 1962 to 1969, and head of the Population Genetics Laboratory at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan from 1965 to 1969. In 1969, he moved to the United States Penn State Eberly College of Science

to become an associate professor and then professor at Brown University until 1972 when he became professor of population genetics at the University of Texas at Houston until 1990.

Here, he served as the acting director of the Center for Demographic and Population Genetics at the University of Texas at Houston from 1979 to 1980 and from 1986 to 1987. Nei joined the Penn State faculty in 1990 as Distinguished Professor of Biology and founding director of the Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics, and was named Evan Pugh Professor of Biology in 1994. He was a visiting professor of biology at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan for three months during 2001.

Nei’s gift helped the Eberly College of Science to reach its goals in For the Future: The Cam-

paign for Penn State Students. This Universitywide effort was directed toward a shared vision of Penn State as the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America.

The University engaged Penn State’s alumni and friends as partners in achieving six key objectives: ensuring student access and opportunity, enhancing honors education, enriching the student experience, building faculty strength and capacity, fostering discovery and creativity, and sustaining the University’s tradition of quality. The campaign’s top priority was to keep a Penn State degree affordable for students and families. The For the Future campaign was the most ambitious effort of its kind in Penn State’s history, with the goal of securing $2 billion by 2014.

Join Us for the 2nd Annual All-Science Tailgate September 6, 2014 Penn State Nittany Lions vs. Akron Zips 8:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (or two and one-half hours prior to kickoff time) Porter Gardens, Medlar Field at Lubrano Park

Free of charge Gather your science friends and family, and join us for this informal event! Representatives from science departments and undergraduate organizations will be present.

Tickets A limited number of game tickets will be available. Details to reserve tickets in advance will be provided on a postcard sent to all science alumni this summer. Tickets must be reserved and paid for in advance and will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information Contact the Science Alumni Relations Office at 814-863-3705 or bhc10@psu.edu.

Over 300 people joined us last year and we anticipate more this year—don't miss out! We Are.... Penn State Science!

SCIENCE JOURNAL June 2014

6th Annual CME/ Physician’s Reunion: Today’s Health Concerns and Pioneering Research 6 CME Credits with Closing Reception and Dinner September 5, 2014 8:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Watch your mail for an invitation and RSVP to attend.

For more information, please email bhc10@psu.edu or phone 814-863-3705 science.psu.edu/alumni/2014_CME

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Alumni News

Snapshot of Philanthropy – Funding the Future of Penn State Science Thank you to the alumni and friends who have committed funds for scholarships to benefit students in the Eberly College of Science.

Below are gifts received between July 1, 2013 – February 28, 2014 Verne M. Willaman in Science IV, V, and VI Established by: Verne M. Willaman* Living Trust (’51 B.S. Agriculture and Biological Science) Amount: $1M each Purpose: Supplement departmental support for outstanding University faculty in the Eberly College of Science in order to provide a holder of the professorship with the resources necessary to continue and further the scholar’s contributions to teaching, research, and public service.

Patil-Taille Award Established by: Stephen V. Stehman (’79 B.S. Bio) Amount: $20,000 Purpose: Honor and recognize an undergraduate student who has demonstrated forethought and application of the use of statistics in the study of the environment.

Raymond and Christine Ayoub Award in the Department of Mathematics Established by: Christine Ayoub (retired professor of mathematics) Amount: $40,000 Purpose: Honor and recognize a doctoral degree student for an outstanding doctoral thesis in algebra or number theory.

Aldine Lucille Cech Honors Scholarship Established by: David (’75 B.S. PreMed) and Mary Schwartz Cech Amount: $100,000 Purpose: Provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding undergraduate students who are also enrolled in the Schreyer Honors College and, to the extent permitted by law, who are U.S. citizens.

Dr. Mary M. Finn and Robert F. Pruner Sr. Trustee Scholarship in Science Established by: Mary M. Finn (’90 B.S. Chem; ’90 B.A. Lib Arts) Amount: $150,000 Purpose: Provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their

necessary college expenses.

Edmund J. Elder Trustee Scholarship Established by: Edmund J. (’59 B.S. Chem) and Josephine T. Elder Amount: $50,000 Purpose: Provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their necessary college expenses.

Dr. Larry Travis Term Endowment for the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Established by: Larry D. Travis (’71 Ph.D. Astro) Amount: $200,000 Purpose: Support for the construction and maintenance of the Planetarium in the Arboretum Complex when the University moves forward with this construction project.

Christopher R. Dyckman and Susan Scotto Scholarship in Biology (Non-Endowed) Established by: Christopher Dyckman (’80 B.S. Bio) and Susan Scotto Amount: $12,500 Purpose: Provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding undergraduate students majoring in biology and who have achieved a GPA of at least 3.25.

Christopher R. Dyckman and Susan Scotto Scholarship in Mathematics (Non-Endowed) Established by: Christopher Dyckman (’80 B.S. Bio) and Susan Scotto Amount: $12,500 Purpose: Provide recognition and financial assistance to outstanding undergraduate students majoring in mathematics and who have achieved a GPA of at least 3.25.

Drs. Milton and Rose Prystowsky Trustee Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science Established by: Eric N. (’69 B.S. Micrb) and Bonnie S. Prystowsky (’67 B.A. Lib Arts)

Amount: $50,000 Purpose: Provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their necessary college expenses.

Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biological Sciences Established by: Masatoshi Nei (Evan Pugh Professor & Dir., Inst.

Of Mol. Evol. Genetics) and Nobuko Nei Amount: $500,000 Purpose: To bring public recognition to Penn State and its excellence in the biological sciences by providing a substantial prize to a preeminent scientist who is on the faculty at the University; who is acknowledged as an innovator in their field; who is actively engaged in research, and who has achieved outstanding scientific research and leadership in the biological sciences.

Harold Kohn Endowed Alumni Lectureship Fund Established by: Howard L. Kohn (’71 Ph.D. Chem) Amount: $100,000 Purpose: Provide funding to bring in distinguished and nationally and internationally renowned scientists for the purpose of developing broad interests in the chemical sciences through lectures.

Donald and Nancy Abraham Trustee Scholarship in the Eberly College of Science Established by: Donald J. (’58 B.S. Chem) and Nancy Abraham Amount: $50,000 Purpose: Provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their necessary college expenses.

Anonymous Trustee Scholarship Established by: Anonymous Amount: $130,000 Purpose: Provide financial assistance to undergraduate students who have a demonstrated need for funds to meet their necessary college expenses. *deceased

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Marketing Office 509 Thomas Building The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-2112 814-867-3388 Email: sciencejournal@psu.edu

Upcoming Events June 5-8 • Traditional Reunion Weekend, Science Brunch • Distinguished Alumni Induction July 11-12 • Forensics Mini Camp during Festival of the Arts September 5-6 • Physician’s Reunion/CME Seminars • All-Science Tailgate, Penn State vs.

Akron Porter Gardens at Medlar Field

September 26-27 • Penn State Homecoming (vs.

Northwestern) October 8-9 • Alumni Fellow Dinner and Induction Ceremony October 10-12 • Parents & Families Weekend • Alumni Board Meeting • Outstanding Alumni Awards Dinner • Careers in Science

For more information on any of the events listed above, visit science.psu.edu/alumni/events.

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