RELEASED: August 8, 2001

DANVILLE, KY — Several Centre students and professors are pursuing a wide variety of research this summer. Each researcher has received a stipend for six to ten weeks of collaborative work. Following is a list of student researchers, mentors and their topics.

Michelle Broaddus of Lexington, Ashley Vinsel of Louisville and Nate Olson of Owensboro are working with Mykol Hamilton, associate professor of psychology, and David Anderson, associate professor of economics, examining the 210 best-selling and/or award-winning children’s picture books and how they represent the sexes. They are examining the representation of male vs. female in the number of characters, their behavior, and at the portrayal of mother and father figures.

Sara Dade of Hopkinsville and Preston Miles, professor of chemistry, are developing gas chromatography/mass spectrometry procedures to determine synthetic fragrances in water.

Darron Hudson of Lost Creek and Marshall Wilt, professor of physics, are building equipment for optical pumping, an experimental technique for studying the energies of atoms. They also hope to be able to use this to measure minute details or the energies of Rubidium atoms and possibly even use this to study some of the details about how magnetic forces are propagated from one magnetic center to another.

Ryan Dawson of Danville and math and computer science professor, Christine Shannon, are developing several laboratory exercises to make use of programmable Lego robots in the introductory course in computer science. Students will use a high level language, NQC (Not Quite C), to program robots made of Lego blocks

Ben Moss of Glasgow and Steve Asmus, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, are studying brain development. They are using a combination of biochemical and microscopic techniques and examining the neurotransmitter chemicals produced by neurons that are undergoing apoptosis, a naturally-occurring type of cell death.

Karen Trowbridge of Potomac, Md., and Anne Lubbers, assistant professor of biology, are studying two populations of wild ginseng. The goal of their research is to determine how quickly populations of ginseng grow so that reasonable guidelines for legal harvesting can be set.

Brian VanDerPloeg of London and Danny Henderson, visiting assistant professor of biology, are studying the effect of mental activity on ventilatory control at rest and during mild exercise.

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