Three Hamilton students have been named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars for the 2007-08 academic year. Juniors Marco Allodi, Kristin Alongi and Dan Campbell are among 317 scholars from across the U.S., bringing to 10 the number of Goldwater Scholarships awarded to Hamilton students since 2001. The scholarship is the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.
Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,110 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry M. Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.
Marco Allodi, a chemical physics major, conducts research with George Shields, the Winslow Professor of Chemistry. As a result of working in Shields' lab, Allodi has presented research at the MERCURY conference, a national undergraduate computational chemistry conference held each year at Hamilton, and at the Hamilton chapter of Sigma Xi's poster session for student research in Fall 2005. He also attended the Sanibel Symposium in Florida in Feburary where he presented a poster on his most recent isoprene and methane research. Allodi was first author on a paper published in Journal of Physical Chemistry A (2006) "Do Hydroxyl Radical-Water Clusters, OH(H2O)n, n=1-5, Exist in the Atmosphere?".
Allodi is the recipient of a Hans H. Schambach Scholarship, awarded with admission to 10 members of the entering class based on academic promise; the Charles A. Dana Prize Scholarship; the Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize; and has been named to the Dean's List from 2004 to 2007.
He is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity for which he has served as chaplain, secretary and philanthropy chair; the College Choir; the Tae Kwon Do club; an RA for pre-freshman summer science researchers; Hamilton Christian Fellowship; Chemistry Society, and Spanish Club. After graduation from Hamilton Allodi plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physical chemistry, then research and teach at the college level.
Kristin Alongi, a chemistry major, began conducting computational research with Chemistry Professors George Shields and Karl Kirschner in 2005, after her freshman year, and has continued the work throughout her junior academic year. She has also collaborated with Dr. Theodore S. Dibble, a faculty member in chemistry at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Alongi has presented her research at the MERCURY Conference at Hamilton College and at the ACS March 2006 National Meeting in Atlanta, Ga. In Feburary, she presented her pKa project at the International 2007 Sanibel Symposium. To diversify her research experience, Alongi will conduct food science research at Cornell University this summer to study the chemistry involved in food absorption, consumption, and preservation and its affects on the body. She is first author on a paper, "Exploration of Potential Energy Surfaces, Prediction of Atmospheric Concentrations, and Prediction of Vibrational Spectra for the HO2---(H2O)n (n=1-2) Hydrogen Bonded Complexes," in Journal of Physical Chemistry A., 2006.
She is the recipient of the CRC Press First-Year Prize in Chemistry; ACS and Joint Polymer Education Committee Award for excellence in Organic Chemistry; Phi Beta Kappa Book Prize given to the top 10 students; the Brockway Prize; recipient of a National Science Foundation Summer Research Grant in 2006; Research Corporation Stipend in 2005; Benjamin Walworth Arnold Prize awarded to student with the highest academic record in the first-year class; was named a Levitt Scholar; and a member of the Deans List.
Alongi is a member of Association for Women in Science and on its executive board; the American Chemical Society Student Chapter; a grader for chemistry, vector calculus and calculus; and a volunteer with Project SHINE, in Utica where she taught English to refugees. She plans to pursue a Ph.D in a discipline of food science and to become a research professor after her graduation from Hamilton.
Dan Campbell, a physics major, served as a research assistant to Hamilton Physics Professor Ann Silversmith during the summer of 2005. He co-authored an article "5D3--7FJ emission in terbium-doped sol-gel glasses" in the Journal of Luminescence, Vol 121, Issue 1, November 2006.
During the summer of 2006 Campbell was the recipient of a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Physics Lab Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Campbell received the Harvey Cameron Prize in Physics for most promising experimental physicist in 2006; the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in 2005; and is recipient of a Siuda Foundation Scholarship. A Dean's List student, Campbell is a member of the Capoeira Club and served as president; a violinist with the Hamilton Orchestra; and a member of the Hamilton Outing Club.
After graduating from Hamilton he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in the optical or solid state branches of experimental physics with the goal of performing research in one of those two fields.
