Senior Integrated Project

Biochemistry Beats Biceps

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A beefcake pose doesn’t always a great male model make. Sometimes it takes a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins. Two photos of Tanav Popli ’11 are featured on the video advertisement for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting (Tanav is pictured in slides 18 and 19, wearing a gray sweater with an argyle pattern).

The photos are from last year’s meeting in Washington, D.C., at which Tanav presented the results of his Senior Individualized Project work completed at University of California-San Francisco. His poster was titled: “Tmtc4 interacts with C3G, Wntless, and Zfhx4: a yeast two-hybrid trap for proteins associated with development of the corpus callosum.”

“I think he has returned to that USCF lab as a technician while he applies to medical school,” says Laura Furge, associate professor of chemistry. “There are three students that have just this week submitted abstracts to attend the 2012 meeting in San Diego,” she added.

They are: Mara Livezey ’13, Sandrine Zilikana ’12, and Lindsey Gaston ’12. Travel for students to this meeting is provided by a grant to Kalamazoo College from the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation.

The Binary Strip

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Lillian Anderson ArboretumWhen it comes to the Senior Individualized Project, sculptor Daedalian Derks ’12 thinks BIG—as in the kind of installation measured by “chain” (a forestry metric of 66 and one-half feet), as in a three-dimensional sculpture stronger than the urge to procreate. No kidding!

“The Binary Strip,” the fourth and largest sculpture in Derks’ SIP quartet (the other works are called “The Purple Pieces,” “Primary Shapes Weather Vane,” and “Fractal Reflections”), was installed for one week only at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum “Magnificent Pines” trail (see photo). Any longer and it might have affected spring mating rituals of local fauna (who says art’s not stronger than sex?). The piece includes 228 freely spinning black-and-white square panels made from aluminum roofing flashing and grouped into sections of eight, like the binary language in computer science. Conceived at first as a way to “see the wind,” the project evolved into a deeper exploration of the way art interacts with a specific natural setting.

Said Derks (an art-major- classics-minor convert from a history-and-art double major from, originally, a biology major): “I wanted to install it as a flat plane, but the swaying of the pines would have destroyed anything other than a catenary,” a long architectural curve that, in the case of “The Binary Strip,” changes its arc as the trees move. What an interesting way to learn architecture from the natural world! (Derks one day hopes to do graduate work in a program that combines art, culture, technology, and architecture.)

Still, for many, one week was too short to see the piece. If you missed it at the Arb, you can see it at the Light Fine Arts Building on Thursday, April 26, at 4 P.M. when Derks will share his entire SIP sculpture project during an artist presentation open to the public.

Student Researches American Volley Ball Coaches Association

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Colleen Leonard class of 2012
Colleen Leonard ’12

Colleen Leonard ’12 examines results from the first-ever salary survey conducted by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) in the February/March 2012 issue of Coaching Volleyball, an AVCA publication.

She drew valuable conclusions from coaches at all levels of NCAA competition for “Money Talks: AVCA Salary Survey Analysis,” an article she researched and wrote as part of her Senior Individualized Project at K.

Colleen is an economics major with minors in math and art from Mason, Mich. who studied abroad in Strasbourg, France and interned with AFLAC in East Lansing. She was an outside hitter on the Hornet volleyball team for four years, earning All-MIAA First Team honors as a junior and senior, Second Team as a sophomore. She also traveled to China with her Hornet team in 2009. Well done, Colleen!

SIPs into Published Works: Alumni Collaborate in Research

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When alumni mentor seniors doing their Senior Individualized Projects it can lead to co-authorship of published papers. The proof: Rebecca (Becky) Tonietto ’05 and Katherine (Katie) Ellis ’09. The two are coauthors of the paper “A comparison of bee communities of Chicago green roofs, parks and prairies,” which appeared in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning 103 (2011) 102-108.

Tonietto was a mentor for Ellis during the latter’s SIP, and the published article includes results from Katie’s senior research. Tonietto is working on a Ph.D. in plant biology and conservation at Northwestern University. According to Associate Professor of Biology Ann Fraser, the biology department has many examples of alumni serving as SIP mentors for seniors, “and entomology has been an especially fruitful area for this kind of collaboration,” she added.

SIPs Presented at 59th Annual Spectroscopy Meeting

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Aidan Klobuchar
Niclas West ’12

Seniors Aidan Klobuchar and Niclas West presented posters describing their Senior Individualized Project research at the 59th annual Western Spectroscopy Association Meeting at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California, in January.

Klobuchar worked on the project “Revealing Orientation Using Circularly Polarized Light” with Associate Professor of Chemistry Jeff Bartz. West based his poster, “Revealing Molecular Dynamics Through DC Slice Ion Imaging,” on his research with Professor Simon North at Texas A&M University. Both students have worked with Professor Bartz on laser-based research since Summer 2008. Klobuchar and West will attend graduate school in physical chemistry this fall.