SMC group presents at national conference
By NELLIE WILLIAMS
News Writer
Saint Mary's College was well represented last week at the National Meeting of American Chemical Society in San Francisco.
Seniors Julie Bower, Anne Pangilinan, Katie Goolsby and Laura Carroll, along with junior Emily Koelsch and professors Deborah McCarthy and Philip Bays, attended the four-day conference directed towards learning and presenting chemical research. Of the 16,000 in attendance, only about 2,000 were undergraduate students. The four Saint Mary's seniors each presented a poster on research they had conducted.
Anne Pangilinan's research title was "Comparison of DRIFT FTIR for Quantitative Determination of Silica and Phosphorus Pentoxide in a Mixture". She got the idea for research from her advisor, McCarthy, who has been working since 1997 with Honeywell Aircraft Landing System in South Bend.
"I just continued the research they started back then," Pangilinan said. "I was able to begin working on it this past summer through SISTAR grant through Saint Mary's."
Her fellow colleague, Carroll, researched ionic competition in Lymphoblastoma cells, using a technique known as Fluorescence Spectroscopy.
According to Carroll, the conference is like a "giant science fair with people that know way more than you walking around asking questions." The students were questioned about their own research and were also allowed to question other students and learn more about other research projects.
"People come up with questions you've never thought of in another direction," said Carroll. "I learned a lot about communication skills — communicating what you've researched, communicating with other scientists — and a lot about networking. It really exposes you to different things you can do."
Pangilinan expressed excitement about some of the information she required from other professors for help on her research.
"I benefited a lot," Pangilinan said. "I think we represented Saint Mary's very well. There are stereotypes that chemistry majors are geeks. You can be cool and a chemistry major."
Saint Mary's Affiliates of American Chemical Society (SMAACS) also presented a poster. Koelsch and Carroll are co-presidents of the club.
"[Koelsch] went with us to go to leadership workshops and present the SMAACS poster with us," said Carroll.
The group received an outstanding achievement award in 1999.
Although the poster presentation is not a requirement for chemistry senior comprehensives at Saint Mary's, it is valued for the experience. Koelsch went as a student affiliate to attend workshops and learn about what other chemistry chapters are doing. She noted that the chemistry field includes great diversity.
"We discussed stereotypes of chemistry and how to break those down. It was very obvious to me, that there is no stereotype for chemistry. There were a lot of minorities [at the conference]," Koelsch said.
Koelsch also learned about the apathy of many chemistry students, who work hard and then do not benefit from it.
"We learned how to deal with apathy and what to do when you get tired of chemistry and it's your job," Koelsch said.
All News Stories for Thursday, April 6, 2000
