Students present summer science research
By Deanna Durben ’25, News Editor
Hamilton’s Summer Science Collaborative Research Program held their annual Poster Session on Friday, Sept. 23, from 3:30–5:00 p.m. in the Taylor Science Center. This year, there were 70 projects conducted with professors in the fields of Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Studies, Geosciences, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology and Neuroscience.
Students presented their research topics and findings to other students, community members and other parents’ weekend visitors. The posters stayed on display throughout the Science Center all weekend, from the third floor to the ground floor.
Students conducting summer research typically stay on campus for eight to ten weeks, but the time frame depends on the goals of the project and the research supervisor’s schedule. Students must attend a departmental information session and seek a faculty sponsor, then complete an application due in March. Interested students should contact their department’s research coordinator, who is usually the department chair.
Writing an abstract, then creating and presenting a poster is required for each student receiving a Summer Science Research Fellowship. Poster presentations of this type are common at academic conferences, which students may even get the chance to present at.
There were six projects with 13 students in Archaeology. Two projects involved excavating artifacts at the Barnabas Pond House and the Reuben Long Homestead in Central New York.
The Biology department had 16 projects with 21 students. Topics included studying motor coordination in knockout mice, using eDNA water samples to classify aquatic organisms and reforestation techniques at Hamilton College.
The Chemistry department had 21 projects with 29 students. Topics included synthesizing chemicals such as melokhanine, norbornene-thiol and nor-TAT monomers and using metal-organic frameworks.
There were only two projects with six students in Computer Science, studying human-driven genetic programming and building and interpreting semantic networks.
Environmental Studies had five projects with six students, studying topics such as vegetation trends over Northeastern Siberia and effects of precipitation on soil moisture and microclimate.
The Geosciences department had five projects with 16 students. Topics included taphonomic trends and predation traces on fossils in gastropod assemblages from Florida springs and rivers and the interaction of surface and ground water in Clinton.
Three Mathematics projects with four students studied oriented stuck knots, edge determining sets and cryptographic methods applied to the boolean semigroup.
Physics research had five projects with nine students, studying fabricating molds for microfluidic devices, exoplanet detection, and the NIST solenoid.
Finally, the Psychology department had seven projects with eleven students. Topics included the effects of pretend play on the executive functioning skills of preschoolers, task complexity’s effect on implicit and explicit motor learning and the relationship between moral character and blame.
