Author Profiles

About our Authors

Neil Fitzharris

Neil Fitzharris is a senior Biology major at DePauw University who recently finished his final fall semester at the school. He’s worked with several different professors throughout his undergraduate career in
a range of subjects. The first was a highly-involved geologic project using the software program ArcGIS to map stream patterns across mountain ranges. The second and most extensive investigated the regenerative
processes of local salamander populations. Since, he has studied abroad in the Turks and Caicos Islands of the Eastern Caribbean, studying the diversity of local reef fish populations, tagging hawksbill turtles, and
doing population surveys of the heavily fished gastropod, Queen Conch. Upon his return to DePauw, he continued research on aquatic organisms examining the regenerative capacity of goldfish heart cells. His passion is to teach what he has learned and share his passion for the
environment.

Jamie Grivas

Jamie Grivas is a senior Biology and Sociology double major at DePauw University.  She is a member of the Science Research Fellows program at DePauw. She has spent two and half years working with Dr. Pascal
Lafonant studying cardiac cell regeneration in goldfish, giant danio, and zebrafish. In addition to her research, Jamie is a volunteer soccer coach for Putnam County Youth Soccer Association, a member of the DePauw
Information Technology Associates Program, and a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma fraternity. After graduation she plans on traveling for a year and then applying to graduate school for marine biology or tropical ecology.

Andrew Porter

Andrew Porter is a senior at DePauw University double majoring in music and computer science. As a member of DePauw’s Science Research Fellows program, he has conducted computer science research in the areas of wireless sensor networks, evolutionary computation, and radio frequency location estimation. In addition, he plays clarinet as an active member in the DePauw University Symphonic Orchestra. As a 2010 graduate of DePauw, Andrew hopes to find a job in the area of web design, software development, or technology consulting.

Amanda Meyer

Amanda Meyer is a senior Biochemistry major, Spanish minor at DePauw. She performed research on salamander HOX genes for two summers with Dr. Chester Fornari at DePauw. She spent the spring semester and summer of her junior year researching the role of the apurinic apyrimidinic endonuclease redox effector factor-1 (Ape1/Ref-1) in cancer in Dr. Mark Kelley’s lab at the IU School of Medicine. Amanda runs on DePauw’s Cross-Country and Track teams. She is also involved in Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, DePauw InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and is a member of the board of the United Way of Putnam County. After graduation, Amanda plans to begin graduate study in order to become a PhD scientist and perform original Molecular Biology research.

Jessica Kendziorski

Jessica Kendziorski is a senior Biochemistry major at DePauw University. She has been involved in three summer research projects as an undergraduate student, two of them taking place at the University of Cincinnati. Her first project dealt with measuring solar cell power output at various temperatures and altitudes by launching them with weather balloons. Her second project looked at the effects of dopamine on adipose tissue and found that dopamine and several of its agonists lead to the lipolysis of fatty tissue. Her most recent project focused on medulloblastoma and seeing how the breast cancer drug Faslodex arrested the growth of this brain tumor. After graduation, she plans on attending graduate school and obtaining a PhD in Pharmacology. Her long term plans include drug development research at a pharmaceutical company.

Aside from science, Jessica is highly involved in her school’s ultimate frisbee team and APO, a national service fraternity.

Darrin Hinkel

Science, as I see it, is our only hope for exposing the truths that lay hidden beneath superstitions and fears, for sifting through the fictions perpetuated by rumor and apocrypha, and for separating a patch of order from the grand tapestry.  The desire to see what’s never been seen and know what’s never been known is what makes scientific research interesting and captivating.  Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to pair the theoretical knowledge of biochemistry that I gained in the classroom with actual, lived research experiences.  In doing so, I have accumulated an appreciation for the intellectual rigor that governs the scientific process and a reverence for the discoveries of science’s past.  I will graduate in May 2010 with degrees in biochemistry and Classical civilization from DePauw University.  I have performed research in evolutionary biology and neurobiological psychology at DePauw, and I have spent a summer at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School examining phospholipase expression in lung epithelial cells.

Ian Boyd

Ian Boyd is a Senior Chemistry Major at DePauw University.  Throughout his time at DePauw University, Ian has been involved with researching the Enantioselective Epoxidation Reactions with Professor Jeffrey Hansen and fellow blogger Brad Riley.  He has presented his findings at the National American Chemical Society Conference in 2009.  Ian enjoys doing Tae Kwon Do (where he is currently working on getting his black belt before graduating in the spring), Ultimate Frisbee, and being involved with his Fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta.  Upon graduating, Ian hopes to attend Medical School at the University of Cincinnati.

Tia Malcolm (tiamalcolm)

My name is Tia Malcom, and I am a senior at DePauw University. I am graduating May of 2010 with a major in biochemistry. I have worked in a lab on campus for a summer studying gene sequencing of HOX genes. The following summer I spent at California Institute of Technology researching cell migration. I have also interned at Riley Children’s Hospital and Dr. Ebanja’s Rural Clinic in Cameroon. I hope to pursue a career in medicine. I am very passionate about ensuring social justice. As the founder of The Ashia Project (www.theashiaproject.org) , I hope to correct health inequalities among international and national communities. Being that there are so many injustices in African countries, I have always been interested in the major issues among the continent, some of which including HIV/AIDS and child soldiers.

Kasey Aderhold (kaderhold)

Kasey Aderhold is a senior at DePauw University majoring in Computer Science and Environmental Science with a minor in Mathematics. While studying in Dunedin, New Zealand, she rekindled a love of marine mammals and is now working on a year-long project examining the details of Killer Whale habitat use and distribution using ArcGIS software. She has always fostered a fondness for nature and often daydreams about living sustainably in a tree house somewhere in the boonies of Homer, Alaska.

Brad Riley (bradleyriley2010)

My name is Brad Riley and I am currently a member of the Science Research Fellows and a senior Biochemistry and Philosophy double major at DePauw University. Throughout my time here I have spent three years working collaboratively with Ian Boyd and Dr. Jeff Hansen on an organic chemistry research project centered around entioselectively producing epoxide products through the use of chiral sulfur reagents. In other words, we have been trying to create a useful tool that could potentially be used in the pharmaceutical industry that could be used to make safer drugs that are better at targeting a specific condition without as many risks of interfering with other bodily processes. It has been a very rewarding project, of which the pinnacle was a set of presentations we gave at the American Chemical Society Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although I have a sincere interest in biochemistry, I feel that my philosophy major has been a critical component of my education. These two majors have provided a stark contrast in the types of material presented, and have helped keep my mind active in both narrow, analytical and open, free-thinking models of thought.

Elizabeth Newell (enewell)

I am a senior biology major at DePauw University and joined the Science Research Fellows program as a freshman. My research has been varied. In my freshman year I studied crypsis in swallowtail butterfly pupae in response to bird predation. Subsequent research delved into the realm of physics where I studied the “little a” correlation coefficient in neutron decay – part of the Weak Force of the universe, and Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with regard to time dilation in the decay of an atmospheric particle known as the muon. Most recently, I was involved in a project studying the breeding biology and nestling thermoregulation of tree swallows. My general areas of interest include evolution and development, physiology, anatomy, and ornithology. In my free time I enjoy reading, drawing, enjoying nature, participating in Destination Imagination (creative problem solving), playing the French horn, and playing the occasional computer game.

Kate Mittendorf (ktbug)

I am a senior biochemistry major at DePauw University.  I joined the Science Research Fellows program as an entering freshman and have loved it ever since! I did my first-semester SRF project with Dr. Wade Hazel in the Biology Department.  In this project, we focused on pupal color as potential factor in predation of swallowtail butterflies. I completed my second semester and summer project with Dr. Henning Schneider, also of the Biology Department, doing research on the expression of a particular type of serotonin receptor in larval zebrafish.  I continued this project into the summer after my sophomore year.  I was funded by the Faculty Development Committee to continue the project, and this was my internship for SRF.

In addition to biochemistry, I am interested in psychology, and that is my minor here at DePauw.  I also enjoy longboarding, martial arts (I am a red belt in Hapkido and the treasurer of Hapkido Club at DePauw), hiking, and horseback riding.