Chemistry

The North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) Undergraduate Research Program recognizes students across North Carolina for their outstanding work in STEM-related undergraduate research. This year, Elon University students Ali Deatsch and Kelly Giffear were among the five students recognized statewide.

Amanda Leigh Clark '11, a biochemistry major and Lumen Scholar from Skaneateles, N.Y., has received a $5,000 fellowship award from the Phi Kappa Phi national academic honor society to help fund her graduate studies at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Heart attacks and other cardiovascular conditions kill thousands of Americans every day, and as a high school student, that statistic turned personal for Elon University senior Amanda Clark. The biochemistry major focused her undergraduate research while at the university on identifying some ways that heart disease develops, which could in turn lead to better treatments, and her work is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.

More than 5.3 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia that impairs memory and behavior. Elon University senior Caroline Peckels is analyzing compounds found in walnuts that may one day lead to new treatment for patients with the degenerative condition, and her work is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on Lumen Scholars in the Class of 2011.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Elon University chemistry professor Joel Karty a three-year, $181,000 research grant to work with undergraduates assisting him in his ongoing study of two types of molecular phenomena that govern chemical stability.

Four students from the chemistry department presented their research last weekend at the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) in New Orleans.

Elon University professors Laura Roselle and Joel Karty have been selected as Senior Faculty Research Fellows for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.

Elon University senior Anthony Rizzuto has been named the recipient of a 2010 Eastern Analytical Symposium Student Research Award, a highly competitive national prize in the chemistry field given each year to six undergraduate researchers.

Since coming to Elon in 1987, professor Eugene “Gene” Grimley has focused much of his energy on helping to build a strong chemistry program. He’s now turning his attention to an even bigger stage as the new president of Phi Lambda Upsilon, the national chemistry honor society with tens of thousands of active members across the United States.

Civitan International of North Carolina this summer honored J. Earl Danieley, Elon University's president emeritus and a professor of chemistry, with its Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award.