Call for Applications for 2025 Undergraduate Student Research Awards
Submissions due Monday, April 7, 2025
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) invites applications for the 2025 Mid-Hudson ACS Undergraduate Student Research Awards from student researchers who plan to present their work at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS). Outstanding submissions will be selected to receive a monetary award. This is a separate application and is not required of all students presenting posters. Only students who wish to be considered for this prestigious award need apply.
Rationale The Mid-Hudson Section wishes to reward undergraduate students who choose to write a short summary about their research and scholarship activities. The paper is to be written for a general scientific audience with a background in the chemical sciences without familiarity of the specific research effort.
Criteria Research work should be completed by a student currently enrolled (2024-2025 academic year) as an undergraduate student at one of the colleges in the Mid-Hudson ACS area. Students must also present their work at the 2025 Mid-Hudson ACS URS held at State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz on April 25, 2025.
Application Format and Procedure: All papers submitted must be primarily chemistry, not biology or physics.
Format: The paper must be written in Microsoft Word with a font type of New Times Roman and a font size of 12. Margins should be set to the Narrow setting under page layout/margins in Word. The description part of the paper may not be longer than two pages. Acknowledgments and references sections may exceed the two page limit. Papers longer than two pages will not be considered.
In writing the research paper, it is very important to consider that your paper will be evaluated by chemists who may not have a background in your specific area of research. Therefore, you need to communicate your research in terms that can be understood by a broad scientific audience. This is the most important aspect of the paper for reviewers.
The paper should be written in a scientific format and divided into sections in the following order:
1) Title with authors: The title of the paper should be at the top of the paper with the authors' names underneath. The student submitting the paper for the award must be clearly indicated by bolding and underlining the author's name. 2) Introduction: In communicating the research to an audience from a range of chemical backgrounds, you will want to clearly communicate what you studied and the reason or motivation for studying the topic. 3) Experimental: Provide a brief review of your experimental design and data. 4) Results and Discussion: This is your chance to "wow" the reviewers with your fabulous work. Remember that reviewers will not be familiar with your work, so you must educate them. After years of learning and studying, this is your opportunity to educate others. Make sure you include all relevant chemical structures, equations and reactions. Although you have spent hours dedicated to your research and are familiar with the reactions and chemicals involved, this information is new to the reviewers. The better the reviewers understand what you are doing and what you have accomplished, the better your chances of being recognized. 5) Conclusion: This needs to be consistent with the previous sections of the paper and should summarize what your research has accomplished and if applicable, address future research efforts. 6) Acknowledgments and References: These sections may exceed the two page limit and should be as extensive and comprehensive as needed. In summary, it is important to remember that reviewers are not experts in your area of research. Your job is to educate them on your research and impress upon them how exciting and interesting your research is. This does not mean you have to be overly technical in your writing. You should include all the relevant chemistry involved in the project (e.g. important chemical structures and reactions), while making sure that the paper is readable, and the information is cohesive. Reviewers must be able to understand what you have accomplished.
Submission procedure: Submissions should be sent by e-mail as an attached Word document to Dr. Chi Nguyen at [email protected] by Monday, April 7, 2025. The subject line of the e-mail should clearly indicate that you are submitting an application for the URS Student Research Award.
Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2024 Undergraduate Student Research Awards
Julie Geller and Professor Leah Isseroff Bendavid, Vassar College, “Boronic Acid Adsorption on a Hydrated Titanium Dioxide Rutile (110) Surface: A DFT+U-D3”
Nicole Porcaro†, Matthew L. Gettings†*, Chris Absil§, Nicholas Thomas†, Katherine Verrill†, Eileen Kowalski†, and Jesse Sabatini‡, United States Military Academy, “Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Energetic Stabilizers”
Breille Irahoza and Dr. Alison Keimowitz, Vassar College, “Novel Fluid Additives for Enhanced Uranium Immobilization in Hydraulic Fracking” Kayleigh Mason and Dr. Zachary Donhauser, Vassar College, “Tau Aggregation is Altered by Mutations in the Projection Domain
From left to right: LTC Chi Nguyen, PhD; Breille Irahoza; Julie Gellner; Kayleigh Mason; Nicole Porcaro; LTC Matthew Gettings, PhD Photo Credit: Lynn Robinson
Congratulations to the Recipients of the 2023 Undergraduate Student Research Awards
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to announce the recipients for the 2023 Mid-Hudson valley ACS Undergraduate Student Research Awards from student researchers who presented their work at the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Research work was completed by students currently enrolled (2022-2023 academic year) as an undergraduate at one of the colleges in the Mid-Hudson ACS area. These Outstanding submissions were selected and each student received a monetary award.
Authors: Edward Chen, Jorden D. Corpuz, Tyler S. Semon Institution: United States Military Title: Layer-By-Layer Assembly of Graphene Films with Platinum (II) Complexes for Electrochemical Applications
Authors: Abigail Whittington, Alison Keimowitz Institution: Vassar College Title: All About U: Creating Novel Fracking Fluids to Decrease Uranium Pollution Resulting from Fracking
Authors: Abigail W. Wilson, Emily McLaughlin Institution: Bard College Title: Synthesis of a Vinylogous Amide Photosubstrate for Visible Light-Mediated [2 + 2] Photocycloaddition
Authors: Sophie Anderson, IIona Neale, Sarjit Kaur Institution: Vassar College Title: Synthesis of an Amino-Acid-Based Polyanhydride for Improved Drug Delivery Systems
Left to right: Edward Chen, Abigail Whittington, Abigail Wilson; Not pictured: Sophie Anderson Photo Credit: Gwen Malick, Bard College
2022 Undergraduate Student Research Paper Awards
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to announce the recipients for the 2022 Mid-Hudson valley ACS Undergraduate Student Research Awards from student researchers who presented their work at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Research work was completed by students currently enrolled (2021-2022 academic year) as an undergraduate at one of the colleges in the Mid-Hudson ACS area. These Outstanding submissions were selected and each student received a monetary award.
Brianna Flood, SUNY New Paltz, Correlating D8-BPA Retention in Regenerating Planaria with Phenotypic Effects Justus Gabriel, USMA, Therapeutic Strategies to Mitigate the Toxicity of Biothreats, Ranging from Misfolded Protein Oligomers to Pore-Forming Toxins Melissa Hernandez, Vassar, Antioxidant properties of bee propolis and an important component, galangin, described by X-ray crystal structure, DFT-D and Hydrodynamic Voltammetry Sandra Yu, Vassar, Formononetin - A Potential Antidiabetic Compound with Antioxidant Activity
2021 Undergraduate Student Research Paper Awards
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to announce the recipients for the 2021 Mid-Hudson valley ACS Undergraduate Student Research Awards from student researchers who presented their work at the 2021 Undergraduate Research Symposium (virtual). Research work should be completed by a student currently enrolled (2020-2021 academic year) as an undergraduate at one of the colleges in the Mid-Hudson ACS area. Outstanding submissions will be selected to each receive a monetary award.
X-RAY, ANTIOXIDANT, AND COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF TWO NATURAL PRODUCTS TO EXAMINE THEIR ANTIMALARIAL ACTIVITY BY BINDING TO FALCIPAIN-2, A KEY ENZYME IN THE PARASITE HEMOGLOBIN DEGRADATION PATHWAY Ijeoma Okoye*, Francesco Caruso, Miriam Rossi Department of Chemistry, Vassar College --------------------------------- Mechanistic insights into the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 main protease by a natural phenolic compound found in Theobroma Cacao L.: Can chocolate assist in treatments of COVID-19? Naike Ye, Francesco Caruso, Miriam Rossi* Department of Chemistry, Vassar College -------------------------------- Comparison of Porous and Nonporous Silica Nanoparticles for Biomedical Application Abigail Graham, Brooke Finnessy, and Chi Nguyen Department of Chemistry and Life Science, United States Military Academy, WestPoint, NY --------------------------------- Synthesis of organometallic chromophores to investigate novel materials for reverse saturable absorption Nanki Verma,1 Danielle Cross,1 Jack Harrison,1 Thomas N. Rohrabaugh Jr,2 Ryan M. O’Donnell,2 William M. Shensky,2 Victor A. Jaffett,1 Chi K. Nguyen1 1. Department of Chemistry and Life Science, United States Military Academy, WestPoint, NY 2. U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD
2020 Undergraduate Student Research Paper Award Recipients
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to present the following Mid-Hudson ACS Undergraduate Research Paper Awards to local student researchers who submitted research papers on their current work. A panel of judges from the Section determined these to be of the highest caliber. The student's name, college and paper title are listed below.
Henry Liu, Vassar College Synthesis, Characterization and in vitro Anticancer Screening of (O-isopropyldithiocarbonato-S)-triphenylphosphine-gold(I)
Thomas Alvermann, United States Military Academy at West Point Conductive Noble Metal/Silk Fibroin Films for Bioelectronics Applications
Ryan Kreiser, United States Military Academy at West Point Development of preventative Measures to Counteract the Cytotoxicity of Protein Misfolded Oligomers
Payton Boylston, United States Military Academy at West Point Rheology of CHOCOLATE
Eunice Koh, United States Military Academy at West Point Synthesis and Characterization of Conductive Nonporous Silica
Recipients of 2019 Undergraduate Research Paper Awards
Undergraduate Research Awards were presented to student researchers during the 2019 Undergraduate Research Symposium
Mark H. Jaskot (United States Military Academy at West Point): 3D Layer-by-Layer Electrostatic Assembly of Graphene-Noble Metal Thin Films for Energy Storage and Conversion Applications
Grant R. Hall (United States Military Academy at West Point): Viability of a Rhodamine-B Derivative as a "Turn-on" Chemosensor for GX Agents
Ross Poulin (United States Military Academy at West Point): Chemical Crosslinking Graphene Oxide with Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Protein Reaction Centers to Create Aerogels for Use in Biosensors
2018 Undergraduate Student Research Awards Paper Submissions
The Mid-Hudson Section of the American Chemical Society presented four 2018 Mid-Hudson valley ACS Undergraduate Research Awards to local student researchers who presented their work at the 2018 undergraduate poster symposium. The Mid-Hudson Section rewarded undergraduate students who wrote a short summary about their research and scholarship activities. The following students received a monetary award and were recognized at the symposium for their outstanding submissions:
Aakriti Ramayani "Efficient Synthesis of Iodo-Alcohols"
Aron Sulovari "Synthesis, Characterization and Computational Analysis of Ruthenium-p-cymene Metal Complexes with Hispolon Derivatives"
Kelly Wen "Structural Characterization and Investigation of Antioxidant Properties of Emodin and Osthole, Constituents found in Goji Berries and C. Monnieri and used in Traditional Chinese Medicine"
Madeleine D. Breshears "Synthesis of carbon nanotube-DNA hybrid molecules and characterization of DNA-drug interactions using Raman spectroscopy"
