Karilyn Larkin '06, Meghan Dunn '06, and Frank Pickard '05 won Outstanding Poster Presentation Awards at a recent 46th annual Sanibel International Symposium on Atomic, Molecular, Biophysical, and Condensed Matter Theory. The meeting, held on St. Simon's Island from February 26 - March 3, is an international symposium devoted to forefront theory and computation in quantum chemistry, condensed matter, chemical physics, nanoscience, quantum biochemistry, and biophysics.
Karilyn and Meghan shared the Superior Poster Award. Karilyn presented "Analysis of Raloxifene and its Derivative's Binding Affinities to the alpha Estrogen Receptor Ligand Binding Domain" while Meghan presented "Predicting Atmospheric Chemistry Through Quantum Theory: Intermolecular Attractions of OH, O2 and N2 with H2O." Frank won the inaugural Most Creative Two-minute Presentation for his poster "Methodology Development for the Study of Bergman Cyclization in Enediyne Anticancer Antibiotics," for his interpretive dance that showed cell death after DNA cleavage by enediynes.
The judges were impressed by the quality of the Hamilton students' two-minute talks and the way they explained their posters during the poster session. In addition Frank, Professor Karl Kirschner and Winslow Professor George Shields submitted a paper for publication in the conference proceedings, which will be peer-reviewed for the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. Their paper, "CCSD(T), W1, and other Model Chemistry Predictions for Gas-Phase Deprotonation Reactions," was co-authored by Daniel Griffith '07 and Matthew Liptak '03.
Shields gave a plenary talk at the conference, "Computational Design of a Small Peptide that Inhibits Breast Cancer." He explained the on-going cancer drug design research that Hamilton students have completed. His talk highlighted the work of Katrina Lexa '05 and Amanda Salisburg '08 from the summer of 2005. In addition he discussed the research of Lorena Hernandez '03, Chantelle Rein '03, Sarah Taylor '03, Abby Markeson '04, Frank Pickard '05, Becky Shepherd '06, Amber Gillis '06, Valery Danilack '06, Karilyn Larkin '06, Sarah Felder '07, and Amy Barrows '08. Professors Kirschner and Shields research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Fund, the National Science Foundation, and the Research Corporation.
