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Two SUNY Fredonia students will dramatically expand their investigative experience this summer through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs.

Isabelle “Belle” Price, a junior Biochemistry major from the Rochester, NY, area, and  Sydney Hawkins, a junior Biology major from Ripley, NY, will spend this summer conducting research at elite universities.

Both REU recipients began lab research as first-year students, so those experiences have been an integral part of their studies, and they credit faculty in their respective departments for strong support of their REU scholarship applications.

While REU programs vary across universities where they take place, they share similar goals: expose highly qualified students to advanced research techniques in their respective fields of interest, prepare them for graduate school through a myriad of professional development and provide networking opportunities. 

REU programs are funded by the National Science Foundation. Students receive a stipend and living expenses on the host campuses are covered.

The CorGGLE (Cornell Geopaths Geoscience Learning Ecosystem) program at Cornell University is the destination of Ms. Price. A graduate of Hilton (NY) Central High School, she is one of only five students accepted nationwide into Cornell’s Experimental Geochemistry Lab program.

At Cornell, Price will execute experiments utilizing hydraulic presses and high-temperature furnaces that are designed to lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the conditions and timescales of geologic processes on Earth and other planets. She will work alongside Dr. Megan Holycross, a geochemistry professor.

All students in the Cornell REU compile a final report at the conclusion of the comprehensive nine-week program, participate in project meetings and complete evaluations. They will also share their research, both through poster and oral presentations, at the concluding symposium.

Harvard University is the site of Ms. Hawkins’ REU program, where she will join the Nutritional & Microbial Ecology Lab.
Hawkins is part of the upcoming GEO (Genes, Ecosystems, Organisms) REU student cohort, and will work specifically with Dr. Rachel Carmody, one of the program's participating research mentors. There are 10 students joining the program this summer, all of whom are working with different faculty across the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

“The goal is to observe how the microbial community in the gut affects an organism’s ability to acquire and utilize energy, where mice are a model organism to improve our understanding of humans. This includes investigating the energetic trade-offs that humans have made in our own evolutionary journey,” Hawkins explained.

“I feel prepared to take on my REU at Cornell thanks to the amazing research mentors I have had throughout college,” Price said. “Thanks to Dr. [Allan Jay] Cardenas, I feel confident in presenting my research through posters, as I presented three times under his guidance during my sophomore year.”

REU research dovetails with Price’s planned transition to the study of geochemistry in a master’s or doctoral program. She’s already begun looking at nine schools, including three located outside of the United States.

“I’ve been in a research group since freshman year, spring semester, which has been instrumental in allowing me to gain the skills needed to achieve high-level research opportunities like this,” Price explained.

Price, whose major has a chemical emphasis, has done research with Dr. Cardenas and Professor Michael Milligan, her research mentor, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, with support from Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences Associate Professor Thomas Hegna. 

“Dr. Thomas Hegna helped me to prepare my essay and make sure it sounded right and included all of my accomplishments thus far. Dr. Michael Milligan was also instrumental in winning this internship experience,” Price said.

Hawkins sought out Harvard’s GEO REU program due to research and coursework at SUNY Fredonia that helped her realize she had a strong interest in using molecular techniques to answer ecological questions. In previous research, Hawkins focused on aquatic ecology by studying benthic and pelagic algae in Chautauqua Lake, while courses that include Molecular Genetics revealed in her a passion for molecular biology.

“Now, Dr. Carmody’s research brings me one step closer towards the Molecular Ecology blend that I would like to pursue in graduate school,” Hawkins explained. “I am eager to immerse myself in a project that differs from my prior experiences.”

Current research by Price involves a comparative study of elemental composition and shales in the Lake Erie basin. That research reflects her lateral shift to geochemistry. She’ll present findings from that research at the Geological Society of America’s National Conference this fall in San Antonio, TX, which she and Dr. Hegna plan to attend.

Price has worked with the scanning electron microscope with electron dispersive spectroscopy with Hegna as well as the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer with Dr. Milligan and the x-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

“Since I got involved with research so early, I have had the opportunity to work with different professors which exposed me to a multitude of analytical instrumentation. This helped me build a more diverse knowledge of chemistry and research,” Price explained.

Last summer, Price joined two students and Cardenas at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) as part of the Visiting Faculty Program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. She met many geochemists and developed a strong interest in that discipline.

Price described research there as a “cool project” that involved working with rhodium catalysts to facilitate hydrogenation reactions that would convert biomass waste into biofuel. Further research is in order, she said, “but we contributed significantly to the project.”

Hawkins, as a first-year student, began shadowing graduate student Kameron Finch in Department of Biology Associate Professor Courtney Wigdahl-Perry’s aquatic research lab in the fall semester and officially joined the lab the following spring. She later assisted Mr. Finch with his thesis on road salt tolerance of Daphnia zooplankton.

Two successful summer internships were conducted at Chautauqua Lake under the mentorship of Visiting Assistant Professor Allison Hrycik. 

The first research, through the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Jefferson Project, investigated the relationship between benthic and pelagic algae. She was offered a co-authorship on Dr. Hrycik's pending publication for this study. The second calculated the biovolume of a prominent harmful algal bloom component in the lake. She presented those findings in a poster at the SUNY Fredonia Student Creativity and Research Expo.

Hawkins is currently synthesizing a report based on the data collected for both research topics as a member of Dr. Wigdahl-Perry's lab.
Hrycik wrote letters of recommendation for all four REU applications Hawkins submitted. Recommendations were also written by SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Ted Lee, Associate Professor Scott Ferguson and Professor William Brown, who helped Hawkins navigate the REU decision-making process. Wigdahl-Perry gave advice to make the application for each program more competitive.

Additionally, Dr. Ferguson encouraged Hawkins to reach out to the Harvard REU program before accepting alternate offers from the Plant Genomics REU at Cornell or the Microbiology of Low Oxygen Ecosystems REU at Montana State University. 

“Dr. Wigdahl-Perry was huge; she made herself available at late hours in the evening, helping me to adapt to fluctuating circumstances,” Hawkins explained, referring to the vulnerability of NSF-funded university research to cuts at the federal level. Wigdahl-Perry is Hawkins’ research adviser.

“The Fredonia biology department has altered the trajectory of my future, and I look forward one day to returning the investment that they have placed in me,” said Hawkins, who plans to enroll in a doctoral program with the goal of becoming a research scientist at a university also teach at that level.

“The department as a whole – even if [faculty] were not my research or general adviser – were very invested and engaged in the situation,” Hawkins reflected.

The culture of the biology department is such that every faculty member knows the students, cares about their aspirations and is invested in helping them reach their milestones, Hawkins said.