April 13, 2010

Contact:   Bill Giduz

Among other identifiers, spring is the season of recognition for Davidson students. Academic departments announce student prize winners, agencies on campus and off announce winners of scholarships, and professional associations present honors to students whose research work proves worthy of acclaim.

Below are brief write-ups to provide public recognition for those honored, and provide readers an idea of the breadth of subjects in which Davidson students excel. Check back throughout the rest of the school year as more announcements are added to those below!

Outstanding Air Force ROTC Student

Iain Addleton '12

Iain Addleton '12, the only Davidson student enrolled in Air Force ROTC at UNC Charlotte, won several awards recently from that program. Addleton won an Academic Honors award for achieving a 3.0 average in general classes and a 3.5 in aerospace studies, and won the Commandant's Award for physical fitness. The National Society of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America presented him with its single sophomore award for "dependability, character, military discipline, leadership, and patriotism." Finally, Addleton was also the single sophomore out of the 47 enrolled to receive the department's Paul Wayne Anthony Scholarship Award for exceptional leadership. Addleton has been selected to attend field training this summer.

(l-r) Vaughan, Read and Hampton with their awards

Davidson Goes Three-for-Three at International Physics Conference

Physics students (l-r) Caroline Vaughan ‘10, Mac Read ‘10 and Dan Hampton ‘11 all won awards for their presentations at the American Physical Society March Meeting in Portland, Ore. They all have been conducting research at Davidson with Associate Professor Tim Gfroerer in his investigation of defects in solar cell material. Gfroerer accompanied the students to the meeting, which is the largest physics conference in the world, with approximately 10,000 attendees.

While the overwhelming majority of presenters were professional physicists and graduate students, the Society for Physics Students hosted a small oral presentation and poster sessions with about 40 undergraduate presenters. Hampton gave an oral presentation, and Read and Caroline presented their posters. At the conclusion of the session, the SPS gave 10 awards for superior work, and all three Davidson students were winners.

Funding for the Davidson participation in the event came from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund and the college's Davidson Research Initiative.

Inquiry into Mill Town Evolution Wins Prize for Historian

Elinor Landess '10

Elinor Landess '10 won first prize for undergraduate papers at a history symposium at UNC Charlotte. Landess, a history major, presented her research on the small North Carolina town of Glencoe in a paper titled "Forgetting History: The Restoration and Romanticization of a Southern Mill Village."

One of many towns whose economy formerly was based on textiles, Glencoe has been forced to find another identity since its last mill closed in 1954. Landess' paper asserts that Glencoe today celebrates a post-industrial identity that romanticizes mill life, with little questioning of its environmental effects and harsh work conditions. "It's depicted as a tight, family-centered rural community, romanticizing the better aspects and glossing over the industrial failure," said Landess.

Landess chose to profile Glencoe because a textile museum and historical society there provided her with ample original source material about the town. She visited the town five times in the course of her four months of research, and also did research in the county seat of Graham and state archives in Raleigh.

She wrote the 22-page as her senior thesis. Babcock Professor Sally McMcMillen, who graded the work, was impressed to the point of urging Landess to present it at the annual UNC Charlotte history forum.

While she has not decided upon a career course beyond commencement, the recent honor has led Landess to seriously consider graduate studies in history.

Student Scientists Win Goldwater Scholarships

Goldwater Scholarship winner Matt De Niear and Erin Feeney

Two Davidson juniors have received Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, which will provide $7,500 to support their senior year of studies. Both Matt De Niear of Mahwah, N.J., and Erin Feeney of Wilbraham, Mass., are neuroscience majors through the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.

De Niear became interested in the neuroplasticity research of Dickson Professor Julio Ramirez when he visited Davidson as a high school junior, and has assisted in that research through funding from the Davidson Research Initiative. 

He also conducted research for the past four summers with the Stress and Motivated Behavior Institute of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey,  worked on projects for the Veterans Administration, and had the opportunity to shoot TASERS while conducting a study  for the National Institute of Justice. He will  spend the coming summer conducting additional research with Professor Ramirez.

De Niear eventually hopes to earn an M.D./Ph.D. degree in neuroscience and conduct research on neuroplasticity and neuroprosthetics as a university professor. He commented, "Whether shooting TASERS or taking physiological recordings from within the brains of rats, the process of pursuing scientific problems has always been exciting for me."

Feeney came to Davidson interested in both genomics and neuroscience. She spent a summer working in the genomics lab of Martin Professor Malcolm Campbell, and last summer she did neuroscience research with Professor Ramirez. She will work this summer in a Princeton University lab researching molecular biology. She hopes to pursue a M.D./Ph.D. degree in neurobiology or neurogenetics, and has a special interest in Alzheimer's research. She was proud to receive the scholarship. "It builds my confidence as a scientist to know that there are people willing to invest in my career," she said.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater. The foundation seeks to provide the country with a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.

Leily Kleinbard '10

Kleinbard '10 Guest Edits Poetry Journal
Senior English major Leily Kleinbard and Professor Alan Michael Parker, director of the college's creative writing program, collaborated as special guest editors of the April edition of the online poetry journal Connotation Press. Initially through happenstance, then through choice, Parker has been Kleinbard's adviser throughout her years at Davidson. She took three of his courses, then asked if he would direct her in an independent study project. He had recently secured a guest editorship of the journal, and recognized it as an opportunity for her as well.

She agreed, and began work last November. Her first step was to develop a long list of contemporary poets for consideration. She then worked with Parker to whittle down the list, researching the poets' work and contacting each of them with an appeal to submit unpublished work. They eventually contracted for nine to appear in the journal. Kleinbard said, "I had followed the work of some of them for years, and it was so cool to receive personalized letters back from them!"

Kleinbard also interviewed the issue's "spotlight" poet, Crystal Williams, and published her story in the journal, along with a recording of Williams reading several of her works. Williams offered 13 poems to Kleinbard, who had to select just three for publication. Her instincts were good, because two of those three by Williams have subsequently been selected to appear in the Norton Anthology of African American Literature.

Kleinbard, a Taiwanese-American student from New York City, is proud that the poets selected represent a wide variety of ethnicities, and that she and Parker were selected to present the journal's National Poetry Month edition. The experience further convinced Kleinbard that she wants to make a career writing and editing literary arts. She placed second in the college's Vereen Bell poetry and fiction competition her sophomore year, and was an honorable mention this year. After graduation, she plans to return to New York City and seek work in a publishing house. Then, with the context of a greater life experience, she hopes to earn a master's in fine arts degree for poetry.

2010 Vereen Bell Prize winners with contest judge Victoria Redel.

Writing Prize Winners

Winners of this year's Vereen Bell Memorial Award for Creative Writing are pictured with poet and novelist Victoria Redel, who judged the competition, awarded the prizes, and spent three days on campus meeting with students and classes. (Front, l-r) Jessica Malordy '11 (second place in poetry), Redel, Laura VanOudenaren '10 (first place in poetry), and (back, l-r) Lena Smith '10 (first place in fiction) and Michael Mellody '11 (second place in poetry). Redel also presented honorable mention awards in poetry to Andy Knauss ‘10, Leily Kleinbard '10 and Becky Whitten ‘11, and honorable mention awards in fiction to Bill Warren ‘10, Cristina Wilson ‘10, and Caroline Wood ‘10.

Ell  Wins State Department Scholarship
Brittany Ell '10 has won a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study Chinese in Beijing during the summer of 2010. She is among 575 undergraduate and graduate students nationwide selected from 5,300 applicants to study about a dozen languages through intensive institutes abroad in 15 countries. The scholarship program was launched in 2006 as part of a U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans mastering critical-need languages.

French was Ell's favorite class in high school in Stuart, Fla. But she was fascinated by the Chinese character system, and eager for a more challenging language when she enrolled at Davidson. She created a Chinese studies program in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, and has taken every Chinese language course in the Davidson curriculum. She also spent her entire junior year abroad in Beijing, and is finishing her Davidson career with an independent study course in Chinese. The Critical Language Scholarship will send her back to China with all expenses paid to study with other scholarship winners. Her plans beyond this summer are undetermined, but she eventually would like to use her Chinese literacy on behalf of the U.S. government in Washington.