Written by John Finn 330-263-2145 Email Story | Print Story

April 23, 2004

Dena Freeman (right) and advisor, Mark Snider, share a smile in front of her award-winning poster.

WOOSTER, Ohio - Professors, parents, students, and friends gazed intently at the 30 intricate posters that adorned the hallways of the Severance chemistry building Friday afternoon during The College of Wooster's second annual James T. McFarland Senior Independent Study (I.S.) Poster Session. Each poster, carefully designed and creatively illustrated, described the results of that student's I.S. project.

"These posters provide seniors with an opportunity to share their research," said Judy Amburgey-Peters, associate professor of chemistry. "They also represent the culmination of four years of hard work."

Established in 2003, the poster session honors the late James. T. McFarland, a 1964 Wooster honors graduate in chemistry who taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1970 to 1990 before succumbing to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Judged on the basis of aesthetics, clarity, science, and how well the student was able explain and defend the project, each poster was evaluated by members of the chemistry faculty who ultimately chose Dena Freeman's "Is Creatine Kinase Catalytically Promiscuous?" as the best.

"It was a challenge to condense an entire research project onto a poster," said Freeman. "I tried to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible while making the results clear."

In addition, several other awards were distributed, including the American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry, which went to Gregory Dallinger. Also, Erin Greiner won the American Chemical Society Polymer Education Committee Award, while Lindsey Easthon received the CRC Press LLC Annual Freshman Award.

Other award winners were James Ellinger and Alex Prochazka, who shared the American Institute of Chemists Student Award, and Josh Graber, Erik Panzner, and Derek Schook, who shared the Chemistry Achievement Award.