CNHS Newsletter Fall 2019

During her summer fellowship, Leah was able to purify three enzymes involved production of (E,Z,E)-GGPP. She then assayed the enzymes both individually and in pairs to determine which enzyme or enzyme combination resulted in production of the new compound. She also tagged the enzymes with specific labels that will allow future researchers to determine if the enzymes are forming complexes. Leah continued her research with Dr. Mann into the school year, and she is currently working with two other students to finalize data and submit her first publication. Leah plans to pursue a M.S. in toxicology or a related field prior to applying to medical school, and this summer fellowship provided her with experience in the laboratory while also helping build her research resume.

During his summer fellowship, Joel tested various silicon pseudopotentials for modeling the inert core electrons in each atom using density functional theory codes by calculating the relevant energetic properties of bulk crystalline silicon and comparing to published calculated and experiments values. He developed UNIX  shell and Python-based scripts to execute these codes and analyze the data produced by the codes’ simulations. Joel has continued his research with Dr. Parker into the school year beginning to model the electronic and vibrational properties of silicon, varying the exchange-correlation model used to solve the equations describing the electronic density in the material. Joel is currently working to produce data to present at the 2020 March Meeting of the American Physical Society. Joel plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, and this summer fellowship provided him with valuable experience in computational modeling while expanding his research portfolio.

This research examined interrelations among belief in a just world, modern sexism, feelings towards social groups, conservatism, and religiosity in undergraduates. They answered questions measuring Global Belief in a Just World, Modern Sexism, and feelings towards 15 social groups (African Americans, Asians, atheists, Catholics, Caucasians, Democrats, fundamentalist Christians, Hispanics, Jews, lesbians, male homosexuals, men, Muslims, Republicans, and women). They also indicated their political and religious affiliations, sources for news, and answered demographic questions. Conservatism, religiosity, and belief in a just world correlated with modern sexism and negative feelings towards stigmatized groups. Students reported getting their news from unreliable sources regardless of political orientation.

The bulk of our work on the manuscript was spent writing the introduction and discussion sections. Reading the primary literature is not an easy feat for an undergraduate but Mikayla rose to the occasion and did an excellent job with her contributions to the manuscript. 

The device is a key component of superconductor electronics with applications ranging from bio-magnetic sensors for mapping human brain activities to quantum computing and military and space applications. Initially, Nathan learned to perform synthesis of polycrystalline powder of cuprate oxide superconductor and insulator materials by solid-state reaction method in Dr. Kandel’s Applied Physics Research Laboratory at the UW-Parkside. Later, he traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and stayed there for a month with Dr. Kandel to get training in thin film deposition and characterization studies of these materials. At the Materials Science and Engineering Department of UW Madison, he learned how to perform thin film deposition of oxide superconductors and insulators through a very complex pulsed laser-based thin film deposition process. He also learned to perform x-ray diffraction and atomic microscopy measurement of the thin film materials.

The hands-on training on these cutting edge technologies will provide him background to pursue his career in semiconductor industry or on his educational goal of pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the applied physics, materials science & engineering area.

Research Accomplishment 
Based on the research, Nathan presented a scientific poster on the synthesis and fabrication of polycrystalline oxide superconductor and insulator at the Wisconsin Science and Technology Conference, UW-Stout, Menomonie, WI on the 22nd of July, 2019. Currently, he is working on his senior thesis on this topic.