It’s the first Friday afternoon of the fall semester at Amherst College, and the Science Center lobby is buzzing with activity. Students and faculty alike are meandering on multiple floors of the Science Center between over 140 colorful posters, driven by a thirst for learning that links the curious minds on campus. The presenters are engaged in lively conversation, answering questions and sharing the highlights of their summer research experiences.
In addition to the posters, a four-legged robot named Daisy walks back and forth — a demonstration from Professor Alfeld’s AI Lab — and people converge on the Schupf Patio to enjoy some catered delicacies. The atmosphere is one of excitement, celebration and collective passion of people drawn together by STEM.
Amongst the presenters is Tiffany Sun ‘28, who worked with Professor Elizabeth T. Kneeland from the Psychology Department in the Wellbeing & Emotional Change Lab over the summer as part of Amherst’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. After weeks of “running lab sessions, performing statistical analyses, [and] conducting literature reviews” for her project, Tiffany assembled her results and conclusions, and compiled the fruits of her labor on a 4’x3’ poster.
Her research centered on the impact of beliefs about emotions on symptoms of mania. Specifically, the team hypothesized that a mindset of “once you feel an emotion, you can’t do anything to change it” is linked to more severe mania symptoms, as are repeated negative thoughts. Both hypotheses were confirmed by the research, and she suggested that future research could be improved by not just measuring mania symptoms once at the start of the study (called a baseline measurement), but by tracking how symptoms change over time at different time intervals as well as utilizing an expanded, clinical sample.
Free from “the usual academic stress” on campus, Tiffany had an unforgettable summer. She loved both the rigorous research experience she gained through SURF and precious moments of downtime with friends, enjoying outings like “exploring restaurants in downtown Amherst” and “biking along the Norwottuck Trail.”
On the other side of the room, Bonnie Li ‘28, who spent her summer in Boston, presented research from outside the SURF program. She worked at the Joslin Diabetes Center under the lead of Dr. Thomas Serwold, studying potential treatments that could prevent Type 1 Diabetes. She specifically researched chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) systems, which help to stop immune cells from attacking insulin-producing cells.
Bonnie’s team tested two types of CAR systems, a 1-module CAR and a 5-module CAR. To test these, they used two kinds of lab-grown cells. First, they used 58a-b hybridoma cells, which are a type of immune cell often used in experiments. Second, they used M12 B-cell lymphoma cells, which are cancer cells that the CARs were designed to detect. The team successfully created three different cell lines (which just means groups of cells that can grow continuously in the lab) to act like immune cells carrying the CARs. They also made two types of target ‘bad’ cell lines. These models can be used in future experiments to help develop “therapies that halt the autoimmune attack that causes Type 1 Diabetes”.
Her favorite part of the research was “learning about flow cytometry, which is a technique used in immunology to count and sort different types of cells.” She says, “The graphs generated by the flow cytometer were very cool to look at and read.” Further, she really values the opportunity she had to grow this summer. “Research can be unpredictable at times, so this experience taught me how to be flexible and how to adapt or change my plans if an experiment didn’t work as expected.”
Both students were very passionate about their work, eagerly answering questions from the swarming audience at the poster session. Their inspiring experiences showcase the great diversity supported by Amherst’s summer research opportunities, spanning topics from psychology and astronomy to geology and cutting-edge biomedical science. Beyond the data and discoveries, their stories highlight the excitement of scientific inquiry and the joy of building community. As the poster session wound down, the energy in the Science Center made clear that all the spectacular students involved are not only contributing to the spirit of the school, but also shaping their own journeys as future scholars and innovators.
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