Article by Pho Vu In the beginning of the fall 2022 semester, I had the opportunity to sit down with Professor Lilian Pentecost, the newest addition to Amherst College’s Computer Science Department, for The Amherst Student’s “Fresh Faculty” article. After our initial interview, I asked to follow up with Professor Pentecost to delve deeper into…
Article by Amy Zheng Cailin Plunkett ’23 is a physics and math major from Oakland, California. She is writing her thesis with Assistant Professor of Astronomy Kate Follette on the formation of protoplanets. Since childhood, Plunkett wanted to study space and physics. Despite receiving advice to pursue computer science or engineering, Plunkett chose to follow…
Article by Amy Zheng Juan C. Vasquez Carmona is a visiting assistant professor of physics. He is the current Chair of the New England section of the American Physical Society and a full-time member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. This academic year is his first time instructing physics at Amherst College. This…
Will DeGroot ’23 is a mathematics and computer science major. His thesis works toward answering a “big open question” within the field of abstract algebra called the Galois embedding problem. In collaboration with the Amherst Student. …
Could you briefly describe your research? “Of course! Our lab research is concerned with Drosophila—a fancy name for house flies. We are using the JR neuromuscular junction of Drosophila as a model system. Every student’s research is different, [but] I was assigned to research one of the proteins called PAR-1 within the presynaptic region of…
This piece was co-authored by Amy Zheng. STEMsibs, derived from “STEM siblings,” is a student group with a mission to guide new and undeclared students throughout their STEM journey at Amherst College. The STEMsibs offer monthly informational panels hosted by upperclassmen to form a tight-knit STEM community. Tavus Atajanova, one of the group’s organizers, describes…
This year, the Amherst DeMott reading and lecture were centered around Poler Family Professor of Psychology Catherine Sanderson’s book, The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity. I sat down with her to ask a few questions inspired by the reading. Could you start by describing what your book, The Positive Shift…
Hosts: ASN E-board On May 4th, 2021, Amherst STEM Network (ASN) hosted a conversation on science communications with Apoorva Mandavilli. As the Health and Science journalist for The New York Times, Mandavilli has been key in disseminating crucial information about COVID-19 this past year. Through this podcast, she answered questions regarding the rewards and difficulties…
This article is published in collaboration with The Amherst Student. Professors Sally Kim and Marc Edwards of the Biology Department received a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant recently from the National Science Foundation for the acquisition of an integrated Zeiss 980 microscope with Airyscan 2 and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) in order to create an…
This article is published in collaboration with The Amherst Student. Assistant Professor of Biology Jeeyon Jeong was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER). The CAREER award provides faculty early in their career with five years of funding for research and educational resources. It is considered…