Five current Hamilton students, two alumnae, and two professors attended the 47th Sanibel Symposium from February 22-27. The first Sanibel Symposium was held on Sanibel Island in 1960, and over the years moved across Florida and up the coast. This year's meeting was held on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, at the King & Prince Resort, and was devoted to theory and computation in quantum chemistry, condensed matter and chemical physics, nanoscience, and quantum biochemistry and biophysics. The students all presented posters co-authored with their professors. Each poster presentation consisted of a two-minute public advertisement followed by the traditional poster session. Faculty from all over the world talked with the Hamilton students, giving them feedback and ideas on their research projects and on their future plans after Hamilton.
Marco Allodi, '08, a chemical physics major, and Jovan Livada, '08, a chemistry major, won the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation awards. Marco's poster, "The Effect of Prereactive Complexes on Gas-Phase Reactions," and Jovan's poster, "An Ab Initio Study of the Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Prereactive Complexes in Gas-Phase Reactions of the OH Radical and Hydrocarbons," were based on their paper with Meghan Dunn '06 and their professors that was recently published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.
Karilyn Larkin, '06, a former chemistry major who is currently in medical school at Albany Medical, presented her poster based on the research she did the summer after graduation. Her poster, "A Case of Computational Drug Design: Creating a Reliable Methodology for Screening Potential Breast Cancer Drugs," was co-authored with Rebecca Mackenzie '08 and Alexa Schwarzman, 09. Mackenzie presented her own poster, "Honing a Computational Methodology for Breast Cancer Drug Design," which was co-authored with Larkin and Schwarzman.
Amanda Salisburg, '08, a chemistry major, presented her poster titled "Hydrogen Bond Stabilization in Designing a Pharmacophore." This work was co-authored with Katrina Lexa '05 and Katherine Alser '09. Lexa, currently a graduate student in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan, also attended the meeting. The joint work of Alser, Lexa, and Salisburg has recently been accepted in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Chemistry major James McConnell, '07, presented his poster titled "The Development of Accurate pKa Calculations."
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner was the moderator for the fifth Plenary Session that was devoted to Case Studies of Computational Methods in Drug Discovery & Design. Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields was the moderator for the first Poster Session.
Professor Shields first attended this meeting in 1993, in St. Augustine, Fla. In 1994 he brought Karl Kirschner with him to the meeting, then an undergraduate at Lake Forest College, and Karl was the first undergraduate to attend and present a poster at this Symposium. Professor Shields has now brought 27 undergraduates to this conference in the 12 years he has attended. Previous winners of the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation include Frank Pickard (2004), Katrina Lexa (2005), Karilyn Larkin (2006), and Meghan Dunn (2006).
Marco Allodi, '08, a chemical physics major, and Jovan Livada, '08, a chemistry major, won the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation awards. Marco's poster, "The Effect of Prereactive Complexes on Gas-Phase Reactions," and Jovan's poster, "An Ab Initio Study of the Kinetics and Thermodynamics of Prereactive Complexes in Gas-Phase Reactions of the OH Radical and Hydrocarbons," were based on their paper with Meghan Dunn '06 and their professors that was recently published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.
Karilyn Larkin, '06, a former chemistry major who is currently in medical school at Albany Medical, presented her poster based on the research she did the summer after graduation. Her poster, "A Case of Computational Drug Design: Creating a Reliable Methodology for Screening Potential Breast Cancer Drugs," was co-authored with Rebecca Mackenzie '08 and Alexa Schwarzman, 09. Mackenzie presented her own poster, "Honing a Computational Methodology for Breast Cancer Drug Design," which was co-authored with Larkin and Schwarzman.
Amanda Salisburg, '08, a chemistry major, presented her poster titled "Hydrogen Bond Stabilization in Designing a Pharmacophore." This work was co-authored with Katrina Lexa '05 and Katherine Alser '09. Lexa, currently a graduate student in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Michigan, also attended the meeting. The joint work of Alser, Lexa, and Salisburg has recently been accepted in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Chemistry major James McConnell, '07, presented his poster titled "The Development of Accurate pKa Calculations."
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry and co-director of the Center for Molecular Design Karl Kirschner was the moderator for the fifth Plenary Session that was devoted to Case Studies of Computational Methods in Drug Discovery & Design. Winslow Professor of Chemistry George Shields was the moderator for the first Poster Session.
Professor Shields first attended this meeting in 1993, in St. Augustine, Fla. In 1994 he brought Karl Kirschner with him to the meeting, then an undergraduate at Lake Forest College, and Karl was the first undergraduate to attend and present a poster at this Symposium. Professor Shields has now brought 27 undergraduates to this conference in the 12 years he has attended. Previous winners of the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation include Frank Pickard (2004), Katrina Lexa (2005), Karilyn Larkin (2006), and Meghan Dunn (2006).
