Published!

Entering college, most students are unsure about things like the right major, career path, and what they want to do with their life. College is the journey that helps students discover who they are and what direction they want to take their life. Most students do not even consider things like getting published in a scientific Journal while still pursuing their undergraduate degree, but for Zackary Gregg and Waleed Ijaz it happened. Recently these two had their paper, “Complex Formation during SID and Its Effect on Proton Mobility”, published in The Journal Of Physical Chemistry Letters with their faculty member, Dr. George Barnes. Their undergraduate research has truly made an impact on their future.

Below is the abstract of their work. Full the full paper please visit: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jz402093q

Surface-induced dissociation (SID) of protonated peptides is a vibrant, active field of study. Significant focus has been placed on understanding the mechanism of dissociation, with most approaches using equilibrium thermodynamic arguments. Here, we explore the dynamics of SID using atomistic simulations. We find that it is common for complexes of peptide fragments to form following dissociation. An important consequence of complexation is that excess protons are not isolated following initial fragmentation and can participate in subsequent chemical reactions. Our work reveals an alternate mechanism for proton mobility that, to our knowledge, has not been previously observed in simulations.

Accepted for Publication: Francesca Romano '14

     In the summer of 2012, I participated in the Summer Scholars Program at Siena working as a research assistant for Dr. Bannon.  Our project examined the results of Dr. David Vella’s article, “Explicit Formulas for Bernoulli and Euler Numbers,” and extended the formulas in Vella’s article to the multivariable setting. At the end of the project, I wrote an article reporting the results of my summer research, titled “More Explicit Formulas for Bernoulli and Euler Numbers,” which was recently accepted for publication to Involve, a refereed journal of mathematics.

     This past summer, I participated in the Summer Mathematics Institute at Cornell University. I spent eight weeks at Cornell taking an advanced undergraduate course in abstract algebra, participating in daily project sessions geared towards encouraging mathematics research, and attending daily lectures from guest speakers. I was able to meet and talk with the guest speakers over dinner, many of whom are well-known in the mathematics community. The SMI program gave me the opportunity to network with professionals in my field, fine-tune my scientific writing skills, and experience the rigorous demands of graduate school.

-Francesca Romano '14

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