Archives for 2019

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Receives Chesapeake Cultural Studies Grant

November 4, 2019

St. Mary’s College of Maryland has been awarded a $24,000 Chesapeake Material Cultural Studies Grant from The Conservation Fund.

The grant will advance the College’s work using archaeological artifacts to examine how Native American groups in the Chesapeake’s major river drainages responded to the region’s occupation by European settlers. SMCM Professor of Anthropology Julia A. King and Project Archaeologist/GIS Specialist Scott M. Strickland will compare artifact collections from 17th- and 18th-century Native sites in Maryland and Virginia to document post-Contact Indian lifeways and experiences. King and Strickland will be assisted by tribal consultants from the Pamunkey, Piscataway, and Rappahannock tribes.

The Conservation Fund—a national nonprofit dedicated to providing environmental solutions that make economic sense for communities—presented grants to SMCM and 10 other research, education and historical institutions and specialists to support the conservation, preservation and study of cultural artifacts from the Chesapeake region dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

“Funding from The Conservation Fund provides an excellent opportunity to understand how the Chesapeake region’s many Indian groups shaped the colonial encounter,” Scott Strickland noted. “Tribal participation in this project will provide an important but often missing Native perspective for interpreting early American history.”

Ranging from $15,000 to $25,000, the Chesapeake Material Cultural Studies Grants help further research and expand current knowledge of artifact collections from previously excavated archaeological sites at Jamestown, Martin’s Hundred, Carter’s Grove, Kingsmill and other locations in the Chesapeake region to better understand and interpret the colony’s first settlers and their response to the new environment and climate.

“American history is intrinsically connected to the land. In Virginia and especially in the Chesapeake region, our land can tell a variety of stories going back multiple centuries,” said Heather Richards, Virginia state director for The Conservation Fund. “While we at The Conservation Fund focus on protecting the places where history happens and conserving important natural resources, we depend on our peers in the archeological field to research and interpret how human lives intersected with these places. We are honored to support St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s ongoing work.”

A full list of the eleven Chesapeake Material Cultural Studies Grant recipients can be found here: http://bit.ly/ChesapeakeGrants.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Barry Muchnick Awarded $30,000 for Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm

November 4, 2019

Barry Muchnick, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, has been awarded $30,000 from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States. The funds will support research, development, and implementation of new programming at the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm through enhanced partnerships between St. Mary’s College and Historic St. Mary’s City. “The ‘Kate Farm’ is a special place to grow food and community,” said Muchnick. “The Community Foundation funding will allow us to deepen and expand the ways the farm serves all St. Mary’s students as well as the surrounding community.”

First founded as a student garden on campus, and then relocating in 2009 to a parcel leased from Historic St. Mary’s City near the corner of Point Lookout Road and Rosecroft Road, the Kate Chandler Campus Community Farm educates students about sustainable agriculture and empowers people to become engaged environmental stewards. The farm is one of the many unique living laboratories at St. Mary’s College that provides fertile ground for experiential learning. “The ‘Kate Farm’ is about much more than growing food,” said Muchnick, who coordinates the effort along with student farm managers and a Farm Advisory Board. “In addition to growing delicious produce, the Farm offers co-benefits including improved well-being through healthy eating, increased contact with nature, and a strengthened connection to our rural landscape and history.” Muchnick sees the farm as “a place to roll up your sleeves, solve real problems, build relationships, and practice caring for each other and the planet.”

As part of an effort to reach and engage all St. Mary’s students – not just environmental studies majors – Muchnick plans to use The Community Foundation award to help improve infrastructure, to launch a new mini-grant program to support farm-based scholarly and creative projects, and to develop new course offerings and a strategic plan for the Farm’s future.

Assistant Professor Shanen Sherrer and Colleagues Awarded St. Mary’s College’s First NSF MRI Grant

October 14, 2019

(L to R): Drs. Larsen, Bowers, Sherrer, Malisch, Mertz, and Laboratory Coordinator Hovland

St. Mary’s College of Maryland was awarded its first National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) grant using lead investigator Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Shanen Sherrer’s expertise on circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Geoffrey M. Bowers, assistant professor of chemistry; Randolph K. Larsen, professor of chemistry; Jessica L. Malisch, assistant professor of physiology; and Pamela S. Mertz, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, are co-PIs, with assistance from Laboratory Coordinator Doug Hovland as senior staff and collaboration with Lindsay Jamieson, associate professor of computer science, on this project. The NSF grant provides funding for acquisition of a CD spectrometer and accompanying equipment for faculty research and student training opportunities. The $121,819 grant started October 1, 2019.

The acquired CD spectrometer will monitor rotational change in circular polarized light as it passes through a sample with chirality (molecules with non-superimposable bonds like a mirror image). Most biomolecules and metal-containing complexes have at least one chiral center and thus are favored for CD spectroscopic studies in biochemistry, biology, biophysics, inorganic chemistry, materials science and geochemistry. The CD spectrometer will be used by faculty and undergraduate researchers for probing macromolecular structures or changes to chemical properties under specific experimental conditions to yield information on structural composition, stability, changes and thermodynamics of targeted molecules. The CD spectrometer planned for purchase is a high performing model with a wide range of accessories for maximum flexibility in both research and teaching applications. The acquisition of a CD spectrometer by St. Mary’s College will significantly advance several critical research projects in the areas of biology, biochemistry, geochemistry, and environmental studies.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Gives Invited Plenary at Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations Project Yearly Meeting

October 14, 2019

The Council on Undergraduate Research Transformations Project (CUR-TP) held its third yearly meeting this past weekend, October 4-6, 2019, at which meeting participants continued their work on integrating undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum. Attending the meeting on behalf of St. Mary’s College of Maryland this year was director of the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning (CITL), Samantha Elliot, and members of the two departments involved in the CUR-TP Project including Psychology: Aileen Bailey (co-lead), James Mantell (co-lead), Torry Dennis, Gina Fernandez and Chemistry/Biochemistry: Kelly Neiles (co-lead), Geoffrey Bowers, and Daniel Chase.

At this year’s meeting Bailey, Mantell, Neiles and Bowers gave an invited plenary in the session titled “So what are we learning: Research agenda of the CUR Transformations Project” which was well received by project leaders and participants. The team also continued its work in collaborating with the CUR-TP administration team and other institutional participants to further develop its undergraduate research curriculum. These fruitful discussions include plans to disseminate what the two departments have learned both on-campus, with help from CITL, and off-campus through national conference proceedings.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland is one of only 12 institutions selected by CUR for its Transformations Project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-DUE award #1625354). Through this project, participants from institutions around the country have been engaged in novel research to understand the student, faculty, departmental, and disciplinary influences on the process of integrating and scaffolding undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum.

SMCM Student Connects Physics and Drones with Anthropology During Internship at UMD UAS Test Site

September 19, 2019

Using drone technology, Luke Quinn ‘20 spent his summer researching a way to more efficiently survey archaeology sites for magnetic anomalies.

Through an internship with the University of Maryland Unmanned Aerial Systems Test Site (UMD UAS), Quinn, a St. Mary’s College of Maryland physics major with a concentration in applied physics, researched the feasibility of attaching a magnetometer to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly referred to as a drone, to survey archaeology sites.

The UMD UAS Test Site takes on five interns each summer. Applicants submit a project proposal with their application. According to information from its website, “summer internships give students an opportunity to work hands-on with researchers and staff on the modeling, design, analysis, simulation, assembly, and experimentation of UAS.”

“[Quinn’s] work is intriguing because it would allow archaeologists to conduct remote sensing surveys without having to literally be on the ground,” said Julia King, St. Mary’s College professor of anthropology. Magnetometers are typically hand-held and walked in straight lines over areas being surveyed.

“In the case of southern Maryland, so many important sites are located in actively farmed fields,” she said, adding that most farmers support the work of anthropologists but “not when it comes to traipsing through their crops.”

Throughout the 11-week program, Quinn has had the opportunity to research, design and build — using a 3D printer — a harness that would attach a magnetometer onto a drone and with assistance from UMD UAS Test Site test engineer Josh Gaus, he was able to test his project at an important archaeological site in Chaptico, recommended by King.

According to King, the site was once occupied by a governor of Maryland in the 1660s until his death in 1679. A previous survey revealed brick foundations, a cellar, and a brick drain. Quinn and faculty adviser Joshua Grossman, professor and chair of the physics department at St. Mary’s College, said knowing anomalies have been previously recorded would allow Quinn to have data for comparison. “I had no idea I’d be out here doing research like this. I can’t really put it into words,” Quinn said during one of his opportunities in the field. Quinn said he was able to take lessons learned about magnetism in Grossman’s class and apply them to his research in the field.

Grossman explained that during this internship, Quinn was getting first-hand experience with project management. “That’s a highly transferable skill,” Grossman said. Grossman explained that aside from the physics and drone skills, Quinn was learning the importance of time management, communication, and figuring out what can be done within the parameters of a fixed budget.

Grossman also commented on the internship’s fit with a liberal arts education, “bringing together the engineering and technology and application in the humanities, in this case, archaeology.” After his field work, Quinn spent the remaining weeks of his internship analyzing data and matching timestamps from the drone and the magnetometer to determine locations of the readings. He said while the data didn’t match with King’s initial survey, he still found it helpful to his research and was pleased with his experience. He said he gained a lot of experience working with drones and learning how they operate. He also was able to work with 3D printers and various software packages. Quinn plans to continue this project throughout the Fall 2019 academic semester.

Danielle Spaulding ’20 Awarded Research Grant from Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid Research Program

September 4, 2019

St. Mary’s College of Maryland student Danielle Spaulding ’20 was awarded a research grant from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Program for her research titled “Can Glyphosate and Polyethoxylated Tallowamine Inhibit Cytochrome P450 Enzymes?” Spaulding, who is a double major in biology and chemistry, is pursuing this research question for her St. Mary’s Project (SMP) under the guidance of Shanen M. Sherrer, assistant professor of biochemistry. Her work, which stems from summer research conducted in 2019 with a St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, is investigating the biochemical consequences of glyphosate, an active ingredient of herbicides such as Roundup®. The enzyme studied is important for drug metabolism. Results from Spaulding’s SMP can help provide new insights on negative health outcomes after herbicide exposure.

Villadsen Receives National Radio Astronomy Observatory Grant to Support Student Research

August 16, 2019

Jackie Villadsen, assistant professor of physics, has been awarded a $13,000 grant from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). The funds will provide stipends, conference travel support, and access to astronomical datasets for students participating in research with Villadsen.

Their research will be tied to two sets of radio telescope observations, competitively awarded to Villadsen, on the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). These observations include a search for the radio signature of star-planet interaction, and a radio follow-up of close-in exoplanetary systems discovered during the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission.

St. Mary’s College and SolarCube LLC Research Partnership Wins Award for Innovation

July 26, 2019

Solar energy startup company SolarCube LLC has won a $100,000 technology product development grant through the Maryland Industrial Partnerships Program (MIPS). The funding will directly support the research and development work led by Troy Townsend, assistant professor of chemistry at St. Mary’s College of Maryland (SMCM), who is the principle inventor for technology that uses nanomaterials to allow photovoltaic solar modules to be manufactured using an affordable, inkjet-like printing process.

MIPS, a program of the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute (Mtech) in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, supports research projects at University System of Maryland universities (plus Morgan State University and St. Mary’s College), to help Maryland companies develop technology-based products. MIPS funds are matched by participating companies to pay for the university research.

Solar Cube’s MIPS project is also supported by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Innovative Technology Fund, a partnership between DNR, the University of Maryland and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with the goal of accelerating Chesapeake Bay restoration through the development of new technologies. DNR provided funding to MIPS for the project.

Townsend developed the base technology at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in 2014 and has proven the process with a working nanocrystal prototype. In June 2018, SolarCube LLC and the Naval Research Laboratory signed the license agreement for the lab’s patented “spray deposition method for inorganic nanocrystal solar cells” technology. TechLink, the Department of Defense’s national partnership intermediary, assisted SolarCube with development of the required commercialization plan and patent license application.

“Of all the renewable energy options, solar is the only one with enough potential to exceed even our future global power demand,” Townsend said. “Solar power is a really nice financial benefit for homeowners. But not for everyone else. In order to make it more accessible, we need to drive the price way down and seamlessly integrate it into our everyday life.”

Townsend’s work on printed electronics involves undergraduate research at St. Mary’s College. Student Bradley Moore ’20, who works on printing the nanocrystal inks said, “If we do the layers correctly, it will make a solar panel that would be 40 times thinner than a human hair.” Moore injects inks made of semiconducting and metallic nanocrystals into cartridges to print out 2D patterns onto arbitrary substrates to build electronics.

Moore works with fellow student Megan Waters ’20, who is synthesizing the inks using air-free conditions. Waters, who has been synthesizing silver nanowires said, “Trying to figure out just the right concentrations and times of injection were definitely the most challenging and interesting parts of the synthesis.”

Townsend said, “Undergraduate research is our pride and joy here at St. Mary’s College. These projects would not be possible without our talented students. In the meantime, they are working on graduate level projects and publishing their work in journals and presenting at national conferences.” Townsend was also co-director of the 2019 St. Mary’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship, which provided opportunities for students to work on mentored projects over the summer.

Townsend’s research group will continue to work with SolarCube LLC to develop printed solar cells. SolarCube LLC is located at the TechPort incubator in California, Maryland. Townsend plans to print a prototype solar module using the support of the MIPS award and work with SolarCube LLC on ways to adapt the lab-scale process into industrial-scale printing-press manufacturing.

Townsend said, “Just like the printing press revolutionized the written word, rapid roll-to-roll printing of electronics is the next step.”

For more information about the project, please visit TEDx Leornardtown video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivV1w2GFcmE&feature=youtu.be

Malisch Awarded American Association of University Women Fellowship

July 15, 2019

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) awarded its 2019–20 American Fellowship to Jessica Malisch, assistant professor of biology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. AAUW is one of the world’s leading supporters of graduate women’s education: Over the past 130 years, it has provided more than $115 million in fellowships, grants, and awards to 13,000 women from more than 145 countries.

“I am honored to be selected as an AAUW American Fellow,” said Malisch. “A major career goal of mine is to write a competitive proposal to the National Science Foundation. This fellowship will provide me the time and resources necessary to develop an excellent proposal.”

Malisch plans to use the fellowship to investigate the fitness consequences of the vertebrate stress response in white-crowned sparrows, to develop a new biochemical lab technique, and to apply for additional funding to maintain an active undergraduate driven research laboratory.

“The support of AAUW is giving me a major career boost that will help me accomplish my academic goals and my career aspirations,” said Malisch.

Two SMCM Students Accepted into National Institute of Standards and Technology Summer Research Program

May 8, 2019

Nicholas (Nick) D’Antona ’19 and Peter Orban ’20 were recently awarded fellowships from the National Institutes of Standards & Technology (NIST) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). NIST is one of the nation’s premiere research institutions for the physical and engineering sciences. The two SMCM students will work at labs in Gaithersburg, MD during the summer of 2019.

Peter Orban ’20

This will be the second consecutive NIST SURF fellowship for Peter, who will work in the Physical Measurement Laboratory in the Fluid Metrology Group. Peter is majoring in both mathematics and physics, with a materials science minor. After graduating from SMCM he plans to go into a PhD program in applied physics. Peter’s project title is: “Improving Stack Flow Measurements by making them faster and more accurate”.

Nicholas D’Antona ’19 (right) examines spin-coated thin film solar cells with Dr. Troy Townsend

Nick will work with Dr. Lee Richter in the Materials Measurement Lab on a project titled: “Wide bandgap metal oxide films as electron transport layers in scalably-printed quantum dot solar cells”. Nick is pursuing a double major in physics and chemistry and plans to attend graduate school to study chemistry or materials science in pursuit of a PhD after graduating from SMCM.