Bridgewater College Announces 2021 Summer Research Award Winners

student takes down notes on paper and another student uses a pipet in a lab

A total of $30,730 in funding for faculty-student summer research projects has been awarded to Bridgewater College students who will conduct research under the mentorship of a faculty member throughout the summer. 

Funding was provided by the Dr. John Martin Summer Science Research Institute and The Research Experience @ Bridgewater. The awards enable students to devote their summers to research and exploration on a wide variety of projects. The award also enables students to travel to professional state and national conferences in their discipline to present their research. 

“The summer research scholarship program allows exceptional students to further strengthen their academic credentials through research and creative scholarship,” said Dr. Jill Lassiter, director of the Wade Institute for Teaching and Learning. “In a collaborative relationship with a faculty mentor, they learn discipline-specific skills, critical thinking, problem solving and other invaluable lessons that help propel them into graduate school and successful careers.” 

The Dr. John Martin Summer Science Research Institute is named for a beloved professor at Bridgewater, who taught in the chemistry department from 1961 until his retirement in 1985. 

The Research Experience @ Bridgewater is a donor-funded initiative providing support for teams of Bridgewater faculty and undergraduate students to spend the summer in collaborative research and creative, scholarly work in any discipline. 

The Dr. John W. Martin Summer Science Research Institute fully funded the following project: 

  • Youmna Moawad (with Dr. Steve Baron), a senior biochemistry major from Rockingham, Va., “Effects on polyhydroxybutyrate degradation of introducing a leucine-responsive regulator gene into wild type and bald mutant strains of Streptomyces sp. SFB5A.” 

Research Experience @ Bridgewater awards were made for the following projects: 

  • Abigail Gaver (with Dr. Eric McGregor), a junior computer science major from Hagerstown, Md., “Using-Babylonsjs.com – A Babylonjs.com Online Textbook” 
  • Seth Spire (with Dr. Janne Flory), a senior math and computer science double major from Bridgewater, Va., “Developing a New Analytice Model for Combatting CRISES” 
  • Ben Chatterton (with Dr. Brandon Marsh), a senior history and economics double major from Waynesboro, Va., “A Virginia Household’s Relationship with the British Empire” 
  • Trevor Brooks (with Dr. Tim Kreps and Dr. Sam Hamilton), a junior environmental science and political science double major from Annapolis, Md., “Educational Pavilion for the Bridgewater Food Pantry and VFIC Collaborative Heat Mapping Project” 
  • Emily Schloss (with Dr. Moshe Khurgel), a junior biology major from Chantilly, Va., “Study of Weak Electrical Fields in Axolotl Regeneration.” 

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