Culminating the 2018-2019 academic year, students from Catawba College Sciences attended the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), in Orlando, Florida, to celebrate New Frontiers and the Internal Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT).
Student attendees included Kara Cline (senior) of Salisbury; Accola Hudson (senior) of Randleman; Alexa Marcy (alumnae) of Ft. Collins, Colo.; Devan Shell (senior) of Ferguson; Cheyenne Smith (junior) of Jacksonville; Trevor Williams (senior) of Mt. Pleasant; Destiny Whitman (senior) of China Grove; and Wyatt Zander (senior) of Rockwell.
Students of Catawba Sciences not only represented the college well, but also the local business in the Salisbury area that they work in conjunction with, including seniors Accola Hudson and alumnae Alexa Marcy who work very closely with New Sarum Brewery. Their on-going research with New Sarum is being conducted to aide in the determination of caloric content, International Bitterness Units (IBU) and color reference know in the field as SRM or standard reference material.
Additionally, research conducted by senior Trevor Williams and Salisbury’s local cold-pressed juice shop, Juice Life, was performed to determine the amino acid concentration in Arthrospira platensis (Blue Spirulina) that is in one of Juice Life’s most popular juices.
Other Catawba research being conducted includes: Research that supported a lipid-peroxidation model for artemisinin activity in Plasmodium parasites by demonstrating a decrease in the ability of artemisinin-heme adducts to generate a novel fluorescent compound, believed to be a product of peroxidation, by application of the antioxidant catechin hydrate to his in vitro assay system by Wyatt Zander. Another research project underway is geared toward chemically synthesizing and classifying gold nanoparticles in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly protocol by Devan Shell.
The ACS division of chemical education awarded honors to Devan Shell and Dr. ChaMarra Saner on their nanoparticle work and characterizations and the potential of the work to be used as an undergraduate interdisciplinary chemistry lab.
Attendees participated in activities such as the periodic playoffs, the career fair, and the chemical exposition. Kara Cline, Cheyenne Smith, and Destiny Whitman presented the activities of the student ACS chapter during the sci-mix networking event receiving numerous positive comments. Also co-presidents, Accola Hudson and Devan Shell, on behalf of the Catawba College ACS chapter, accepted the chapter award -- an honorable mention -- during the ceremony.
All of the Catawba students are pictured below enjoying the ACS conference and taking a moment to pose with Professor Molenium and Megamole, ACS mascots.
