2019 Projects
Anthropology
Estimating Endocranial Volume of Incomplete Crania Using Human Dataset
Madi Boone ’21, Marisa Petticord ’21, and Zachary Cofran (Anthropology)
Biology
The Role of eIF3 on the Ribosome and Across the Transcriptome
Luo, Juncheng ’21 and Professor Colin Echeverría Aitken
Molecular Dissection of the Mechanism of Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 3 (eIF3)
Kyungyoon Yoo ’20 and Professor Colin Echeverría Aitken
Digital Peripheral Arterial Tonometry Measures and Cardiovascular Disease Events
Joonghoon Auh ’20, Adam Stefek ’20, and Professor Leroy L. Cooper
The Effect of High Salinity Environments on the Cellular Differentiation of Developing Freshwater Anurans
Sonia Gollerkeri ’21 and Professor Erica Crespi
Research and Development into the Production of a Model of Transgender Health Care in Zebra Finches and Mice
Sarah Garijo-Garde ’20 and Professor Kelli Duncan
Linking Ranavirus Infection Dynamics and Microbiome Diversity in Larval Wood Frogs
Jillian Hornbeck ‘20, Claire Stutzman ‘21, and Professor Myra Hughey
Changes in Latitude: Diversity and Pollination Syndromes in the Floras of Skálanes Nature and Heritage Center, Iceland and the Vassar College Ecological Preserve
Anna Elewski ’21, Samantha Sze ’21, and Professor Mark Schlessman
One is the Loneliest Number but Three’s a Crowd: How Social Dynamics Influence Male Vocalizations in a Neotropical Treefrog
Ben Gregory ’20 and Professor Justin Touchon
How Do Females Choose their Mate? The Role of Recorded Versus Live Frogs in Female Mate Choice of a Neotropical Frog
Dean Rosenthal ’20 and Professor Justin Touchon
Unappetizing Invasives: Deer Browse Preferences on the Vassar Ecological Preserve
Eric Feeney ’22 and Professor Meg Ronsheim, and Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri Van Camp
Mapping and Reassessing Communities on the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve
James Lord ’22 and Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri Van Camp
Conservation Action Planning: Water Quality Monitoring Through An Analysis of Benthic Macroinvertebrates
Benji Mathot ’22, Professor Meg Ronsheim, and Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri Van Camp
Forest Community Regeneration in Priority Habitats on the Vassar Ecological Preserve
Rachel Strout ’20, Professor Margaret Ronsheim, and Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri Van Camp
Conservation Action Planning: Water Quality Monitoring Through An Analysis of Benthic Macroinvertebrates
Benji Mathot ’22, Professor Meg Ronsheim, and Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri Van Camp
Chemistry
Progress Towards Synthesis of Some Antimicrobial Marine Natural Products
Anne-Marie Abban-Demitrus ’21 and Professor Nicholas Dodge
Synthesis of Pyrimidinyl Benzamides en Route to Marine Natural Product
Hawkins Barratt Heitmann ’21 and Professor Nick Dodge
Progress Towards the Synthesis of Glycerol 1-hydroxy-2,5-dimethylbenzoate
Grace Henrich ’21 and Professor Nick Dodge
Advances in the Synthesis of Marine-sourced Natural Product via the Preparation of Pyrimidinyl Benzamides by Amide Bond Formation
Milind Joshi ’21 and Professor Nick Dodge
Probing the Antioxidant Activity of Embelin Related Compounds using DPPH and RRDE
Emmanuel Garcia-Villar ’20, Navar Mercer White ’19, and Professor Sarjit Kaur
Separation of Hudson Valley Bee Pollen Components and Analysis of Antioxidant Potential
Annika Rowland ’20 and Professor Christopher Smart
An Artificial Leaf: Generating Photocurrent by Immobilizing Histag-Photosystem II on Gold Nanoparticle Decorated Carbon Nanotubes
Laura Vidano ’20 and Professor Christopher Smart
Synthesis, Characterization and in vitro Antitumor Analysis of Novel Gold I & III Compounds
Heng Liu ’20 and Professor Joseph M. Tanski
Cognitive Science
Learned Categorical Perception Research
Polyphony Bruna ’22 and Parker Marks ’20, and Professor Jan Andrews
Modeling Aesthetic Preferences with Autoregressive Deep Neural Networks
Emma Alexandrov ’21 and Professor Josh de Leeuw
Studying Human Cognition with Online Games
Noah Ari ’20, Jonayed Ahmed ’20, and Professor Josh de Leeuw
Executive Functions in Urban Youth
Mya Powell ’21 and Professor Nicholas de Leeuw
To Err is Human: How We (Mis)Assemble Robots
Xinyue Hu ’21, Connor McShaffrey ’21, and Professor John Long and Postdoctoral Research Associate Candido Diaz
Computer Science
A Domain-Specific Language for Generative Art
Max Hamilton ’20 and Natalie Kim’21, and Professor Thomas Ellman
Indexing Commonsense Knowledge
Junrui Liu ’20 and Professor Jonathan Gordon
Computational Models of Literary Variation
Alice Marbach ’21, Dingyi (Penny) Pan ’20, and Professor Jonathan Gordon
Ancile: Privacy-Aware Programming
Corin Rose ’20, Mohamad Safadieh ’21, and Professor Jason Waterman
Geography
Data Analysis for Climate Action and Sustainability at Vassar
Melissa Hoffmann ’21, Jack Oliver ’22, Cole Palatini ’21, and Professor Mary Ann Cunningham
Quantifying Air Quality in the City of Poughkeepsie, Identifying Causes, and Context
Penelope Mort Ranta ’20 and Professor Mary Ann Cunningham
Mathematics and Statistics
Research in Knot Theory: Unknotting and Region Crossing Change
Sarah Goodhill ’22, Valeria Muñoz Gonzales ’22, Jessica Rattray ’22, Amelia Zeh ’21, and Professor Adam Lowrance
Tensegrity: Theory and Practice
Nicolas Demaria ’21, Matthew Goldberg ’20, and Professor John McCleary
Physics and Astronomy
Ultrafast Laser Science at the Nanoscale: Pump-Probe Spectroscopy of MoSe2
Ethan Murray ’21, Jacob Stuligross ’22, Madelaine Pelletier ’22, and Professor
Impacts of Epitaxial Graphene Patterning on 2D-Metal Intercalation
Gabriel Natale ’20, Brian Bersch, Joshua Robinson, Alex Vera, and Ana de la Fuente Duran and Professor Brian Daly
Ultrafast Laser Science at the Nanoscale: Analysis of Pump-Probe Data Through Computer Simulation
Jacob Stuligross ’22, Madelaine Pelletier ’22, Ethan Murray ’21, and Professor Brian Daly
Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Thin Film Transducers in Nanoscale Phonon Imaging Experiments
Martin Terrazas Lopez ‘20, Thomas Mc Knight, Dr. Joan Redwing, and Professor Brian Daly
Ultrafast Laser Science at the Nanoscale: Fabrication and Analysis of Thin Film Layers
Madelaine Pelletier ‘22, Ethan Murray ‘21, Jacob Stuligross ’22, and Professor
Psychological Science
Binge Alcohol “Drinking-in-the-Dark” Increases Fear Memory Expression in C57BL/6 Mice
William Christopher Cho ‘22, Charlie Mangan ‘22, and Professor Hadley Bergstrom
Effects of the Child’Space Method on Caregiver Confidence and Infant Comfort In Prone
Athena Davis ’20, Alexandra Blaine ’20, and Professor Carolyn Palmer
The Effect of 17-β estradiol in Regulating Astrocyte AQP4/GLT-1 Expression and Spatial Working Memory
Louisa C. Kuper ’20, Julie J. McInvale ’19, Sydney L. Lambert ’19, James Bonaroo ’20 and Professor Lori A. Newman
Astrocytic Glutamate Recycling: A Key Regulator for Cognition
Weipeng Xie ’21, Tammy Wang ’21, Elizabeth Kharitonova ’19, Arianna Cascone ’21, James Bonanno ’20, Sirin Zhang ’20, and Professor Lori Newman
Effects of Developmentally-Based Feldenkrais Lessons on Adult Experience of Movement
Alexandra Blaine ‘20, Athená Davis ’20, and Professor Carolyn Palmer
Reframing Resilience: Updating Concepts, Methods, and Applications for Well-Being
Tse Yen Tan ’20, Louise Wachsmuth ’20, and Professor Michele Tugade
Flexible Grit: The Effects of Emotion on Flexible Self-Regulation
Louise Wachsmuth ’20, Tse Yen Tan ’20, and Professor Michele Tugade