AU Chemistry Research is Recognized at the National ACS Meeting

Dr. Perry Corbin, Associate Professor of Chemistry, recently attended the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Dallas with junior chemistry major William Horn.  William presented the results of the collaborative laboratory research he has carried out with Dr. Corbin during the past year and a half.  The title of the poster presentation was “Synthesis of Resorcinarene-Core Polylactide/Polyethylene Glycol Star Block Copolymers Using Click Chemistry:  Optimizing Polymer Coupling Reactions Using No-D NMR Spectroscopy.”  This presentation was recognized as the first place winner of the POLYED Undergraduate Research Award.  Senior biochemistry major Aaron Tipton and recent biochemistry graduate Anna Falls were also co-authors.  Their work was supported, in part, from a grant from the National Science Foundation.  Dr. Corbin also gave a presentation (“From a Non-Majors Course to Undergraduate Research: Integration of NMR Spectroscopy Across the Chemistry Curriculum at Ashland University”) in which he described innovative uses of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy in the courses he teaches and in the research studies he carries out with students.

William Horn and Dr. Perry Corbin at the ACS Meeting in Dallas

Ashland Choose Ohio First Scholars volunteer at science entrepreneurship event

For the past five years students in Ashland University's Choose Ohio First Scholarship program have volunteered to register high school students, teachers and guest speakers at an annual science commercialization and entrepreneurship event held at Hudson High School.  A couple of weekends ago 10 of our current COF students and program director Mason Posner were on hand to help out and hear speakers from BioEnterprise, NASA, the Cleveland Clinic, WIL Research Laboratories and other companies making an impact in STEM across our region.  One of the goals of our COF program is to let our students know about the opportunities in the biosciences right here in Ohio

Our COF program provides scholarships to Ohio residents majoring in Biochemistry, Biology,
Environmental Science and Toxicology at Ashland University.  We have supported 24 students so far and plan to provide additional scholarships for our incoming Fall 2014 class.  Graduates from our program have been past valedictorians and salutatorians at the University, and are earning their PhDs, working in the biotech industry or preparing to attend medical and physician assistant programs.

You can read more about our COF scholarship program here.

Ashland middle schoolers spend a morning in our microbiology lab

A group of middle schoolers from the City of Ashland recently spent the morning with microbiology professor Paul Hyman staining and observing bacteria they collected at their school.  They also had the chance to look at their own cheek cells, bacteria from their mouths as well as some amoeba, paramecia and vinegar eels.  The students were accompanied by their teacher Lance Etzwiler and worked with a number of our science students: Ashley Franks, Hannah Baumann, Elizabeth Marinescu, Eryn Hobbs, Paul Honigford, Anthony Martella, Alayna Anderson and Nate Green.

Ashland Biology, Toxicology and Chemistry faculty invite Ashland middle schoolers to our Science Center for a variety of lab activities each semester.

Ashland middle schoolers working with our students

Dr. Paul Hyman (in the white lab coat), one of our programs microbiologists