Bit o' Scot News - Edinboro University

School of Science, Management & Technology
Edinboro science and math students excel at competition
Edinboro science and math students excelled recently during the
first ever Undergraduate Research Poster Competition in the
Cooper Hall Atrium.
Organized by Dr. Nina Thumser of the Biology Department and Dr.
Lisa Unico of the Chemistry Department, judging divided the
abstract submissions into two categories: students whose research
was conducted at Edinboro University and those who conducted
their research during summer internships at research universities.
In the former category, Harris Ribic was awarded first place for his
poster, “Independent Student of Parallel Programming Languages,”
while Jeffery Thomas won second place for his submission,
“Parallelizing Code to Investigate the Geometrical Properties of
Fullerenes.”
For research done at other universities, first place went to Joey
Braymer, whose poster done at the University of Kentucky was
titled, “Synthesis, Characterization, and Reactivity of Two
Organometallic Complexes Involving Tridentate Ligands.” Joshua
Houpt took second place for work conducted at Kent State
University titled, “Characterization of Lyotropic Chromonic Liquid
Crystal Toroidal Structures.”
Edinboro Mathematics Students present research
results at Youngstown State University
On March 1, Edinboro University math students Amber Hannold,
Amanda Thomas and Jeffery L. Thomas braved winter driving
conditions to travel to Youngstown State to join with more than 50
area student mathematicians and their advisors from 15 schools to
present their research results
at the day-long NSF-funded
Regional Pi Mu Epsilon
Student Paper Conference.
Advisors Dr. Douglas Puharic
and Dr. Emily Sprague, from
the department of
Mathematics and Computer
Science, traveled with them.
Jeffery Thomas presented
“The Spiral Algorithm for
Constructing Fullerene
Isomers.” Hannold presented
Photo: Edinboro students Bethany Addis, left,
and Jill Flanagan, center, chat with Biology
Professor Nina Thumser over the students’
entry in the recent Edinboro University
Undergraduate Research Poster Competition
at Cooper Hall.
Professors Thumser and Unico said they
were extremely pleased with the
students’ efforts and participation, and
were hopeful the competition would
become an annual event at Edinboro. �
“Snell’s Law and Calculus
Methods as a General
Illustration of the
Phenomenon of Rainbows.”
Our three attendees were
very excited to meet and
exchange ideas with student
mathematicians from the
region and eagerly anticipate
the next Edinboro
mathematics voyage to the
75 th annual meeting of the
Allegheny Mountain Section
of the Mathematical
Association of America on
April 11. �
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