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Daniel Griffith, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton College, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant to Germany. His proposed project, to be conducted at the Technical University of Braunschweig in the lab of Dr. Ullrich Jahn, aims to develop an efficient and generally applicable synthesis of a class of natural products called cyclopentanoid monoterpenes. He also plans to appreciate the German culture through community involvement.
In 2006 Griffith was the recipient of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.
Griffith was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honorary society, in 2006. He received a Merck/AAAS Summer Research grant in 2005, when he conducted research with Professor Ian Rosenstein. Griffith worked in Professor George Shields' lab during the summer of 2004, and presented his work at the MERCURY 2004 meeting, then did research in Shields' lab during the 2004-05 academic year. At Hamilton Griffith was awarded the Denney Prize in Physical Chemistry, the CRC Prize in Chemistry and the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize. He co-authored the article" CCSD(T), W1, and other Model Chemistry Predictions for Gas-Phase Deprotonation Reactions" in the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry with Shields and Visiting Assistant Chemistry Professor Karl Kirschner.
Griffith is a member of the varsity golf team, the Newman Council, the Scrabble Club and hosted a sports talk show on WHCL, Hamilton's student radio station. He was a trip leader for Hamilton's alternative spring break in 2004, 2005 and 2006.
After his Fulbright travel he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry with an emphasis in organic chemistry.
The purpose of the Fulbright Program is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills. The program is designed to give recent college graduates opportunities for personal development and international experience.
It offers invaluable opportunities to meet and work with people of the host country, sharing daily life as well as professional and creative insights. The program promotes cross-cultural interaction and mutual understanding on a person-to-person basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity and intellectual freedom. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the Department of State. The U.S. Student Program awards approximately 900 grants annually and currently operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
