Grad News Forum

Each spring, the Dean of Graduate Studies presents the Hannah T. Croasdale Award for academic excellence to graduating PhD students. The award recognizes exemplary scholars, dedicated to research and teaching. This year, the recipients are April Daigle Lewoczko and Laurel B. Symes.

Professor Hannah T. Croasdale conducted research and taught biology for more than 40 years at Dartmouth, retiring as a full professor in 1971. She was the first woman at Dartmouth to achieve the level of full professor. Professor Croasdale’s research focus was algae, specifically freshwater algae and desmids, which are single-celled green algae. She received her BS in 1928, her MS in 1931, and her PhD in 1935 all from the University of Pennsylvania.

The two recipients of the Croasdale Award this year have successfully undertaken the many roles of a scholar during their time at Dartmouth.

April Daigle Lewoczko completed her PhD in chemistry over the winter. She worked in Professor Joseph BelBruno’s lab. Lewoczko’s dissertation research focused on the adsorption of amines with gold surfaces. These nitrogen-containing molecules undergo accelerated transformations on gold surfaces and nanoparticles. In addition, she considered the effects of magnetism in the structure of small clusters of manganese and sulfide atoms.

Lewoczko has been a productive researcher during her graduate career. In 2011, she received the Walter H. Stockmayer Graduate Fellowship and in 2009 a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Fellowship. Along with Professor Belbruno, she recently published an article entitled “Impact of surface steps and oxygen pre-coverage on the adsorption of methylamine on gold” in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Issue 13. She has also published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry and Surface Science.

Lewoczko showed dedication to teaching while at Dartmouth. She was a teaching assistant for several courses, including honors general chemistry and physical chemistry. For her work in these courses, she was chosen for the Graduate Teaching Award in 2012. About her teaching experience, Lewoczko observes, “The time I spent as a teaching assistant in the general and physical chemistry courses was defining to my time at Dartmouth. I found great joy in mentoring and working alongside undergraduates in discovering chemistry.”

Lewoczko is currently working with Stefan Bromley of the University of Barcelona on a computational project studying cosmic dust—in particular the degree of order in small magnesium-containing silicate dust particles. She is thrilled to receive the Croasdale Award, noting “It is an honor to be recognized by this award as I graduate. I have had a tremendous time as a member of the Dartmouth community and will be forever grateful to all those who have invested in me as a scholar, especially my adviser Joseph BelBruno.”

Laurel B. Symes is a PhD candidate in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. She works in Professor Mark McPeek’s lab, studying sensory ecology and animal behavior. In particular, she is researching the processes that generate new species in crickets as a way of understanding the broader processes that lead to the formation of new species.

Symes has received several research grants during her time at Dartmouth, including the Huyck Preserve Research Grant in 2011 and 2012, the Orthopterists’ Society Research Grant in 2010 and 2012, the Gilman Grant in 2010, and the Graduate Alumni Research Grant in 2010. She has recently published on her work in Current Zoology and the Journal of Orthopteran Research.

Symes has also been involved in teaching during her graduate studies. She has been a TA for biostatistics, ecology, and marine biology. She also worked for the Biology Foreign Studies Program in Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands in 2010. Symes has shown dedication to undergraduate education through mentoring as well; she has been a senior research mentor, a summer research mentor, and a Women in Science Project (WISP) mentor. In 2012, Symes was a National Science Foundation Graduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in K-12 Education (GK-12) fellow.

Reflecting on her time at Dartmouth, Symes observes, ‪”Graduate school has been a formative experience. The interpersonal interactions have been critical to my graduate education, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to interact with exceptional students and colleagues throughout my time at Dartmouth. These experiences have been central to my development as a scientist and a mentor. My approach to science has been shaped by the people in this community.”

Symes is excited and honored to receive the Croasdale Award. Following graduation, she will be starting a postdoctoral research position at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

The Graduate Studies Office wishes to congratulate both Lewoczko and Symes on their award.

Nick Tito, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry, was selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Tito has been at Dartmouth since the fall of 2008. Born and raised in Maine, he earned his Bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of New England, located in his home state. As an undergrad, Tito tutored students in chemistry, first developing his teaching skills. At Dartmouth, he’s been a teaching assistant for Physical Chemistry 2—a theoretical chemistry course based in quantum mechanics. The course matches Tito’s own interests in theoretical chemistry.

“I never really enjoyed the lab work as much,” he said. “There’s a certain creativity that theory offers. In lab, mixing and experimenting, you’re limited to working with what’s tangible and real. I’ve always enjoyed working with ideas, with the intangible side of this science. It’s very creative.”

Theoretical chemists are harder to come by than their lab-loving counterparts, which makes Tito a valuable asset to Dartmouth’s chemistry faculty.

“I was recruited to teach Physical Chem right off the bat. There’s just not as many of us in the department.”

Physical Chemistry is a course reserved for those students who are pursuing degrees in chemistry or biomedical or premed fields. It’s important that these students walk away from these classes with more than just good grades.

“For each new topic, I try to remember how I best learned the subject. I use that as a starting point, and try to encourage the students to give me a lot of feedback on the lessons. I always try to study facial expressions and body language—anything that helps me judge how well the material is sinking in.”

Tito also tries hard to bring in real-world analogies. Noting how tough it can be to fully grasp theoretical subjects, he appreciates the importance of offering easy-to-remember takeaways.

Tito’s own research focuses on polymer phase behavior. “I study the physical state of liquids and polymers (plastics) at different temperatures,” he explains. Tito works with Professor Jane E. G. Lipson, the Albert W. Smith Professor of Chemistry here at the College. Lipson’s research group attempts to add to the chemistry industry’s understanding of the microscopic structure of polymers.

Tito will be defending his thesis this summer. After five years at Dartmouth, he says he’s ready to move on, but that he’ll miss the unique “freshness” and cosmopolitan feel that Hanover offers in a small-town setting. Tito is an avid piano player and web designer, and he helped the Graduate Student Council to launch a new website this year. He hopes teaching will be part of his future too.

“I chose Dartmouth because of its emphasis on teaching. Being a teaching assistant was a very different experience from tutoring, but I learned things and got through challenges that will certainly help me in the years ahead.”

The Graduate Studies Office would like to commend Tito for his excellent work in teaching and wish him the best in his upcoming thesis defense.

by Zach Williams

Katherine M. Kinnaird, a PhD candidate in the Mathematics Department, was selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Graduate Student Teaching Award.

Kinnaird, who is originally from Bethesda, Maryland, earned a BA in mathematics from Wellesley College and an MA in mathematics from Dartmouth. Her research at Dartmouth is in applied mathematics. She uses algorithms to find versions of the same song (cover songs) in a music library without listening to the music. In order to do this, Kinnaird draws on work in network theory, machine learning, linear algebra, and statistical learning. Her research is of interest to those working on Music Information Retrieval (MIR). Kinnaird works with Scott D. Pauls and Daniel Rockmore of the Mathematics Department as well as Michael Casey in the Department of Music.

Kinnaird has been a teaching assistant for numerous classes while at Dartmouth, including Math 3, 8, 23, and 76. She has also taught her own sections of Math 1 and 8. In teaching Math 8, Kinnaird adopted the innovative pedagogical technique of “flipping” the classroom. Rather than presenting lectures each class, Kinnaird would record “pencasts” before class, using an electronic pen that would record both what she wrote and said. She would then upload these pencasts for her students to listen to prior to class. Following this, Kinnaird would engage students in class in collaborative learning, working in groups on problems related to the day’s pencast.

Kinnaird found that this method allowed her to focus on answering students’ questions in class. Watching her students work on problems enabled her to identify areas of difficulty that she needed to spend more time on. It also helped students to develop group-working skills. Those who understood concepts well could refine their understanding through explaining them to their fellow group members.

Kinnaird learned about using pencasts from attending the Active Learning Institute (ALI) in 2011 at the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL). At this two-day workshop, Dean F. Jon Kull shared with participants about his experience using pencasts in his chemistry classes. The idea appealed to Kinnaird because, she observes, “I’m a slow note taker, and it would have been useful for me to be able to slow down my professors’ lectures or listen to them multiple times.”

Having pre-recorded pencasts facilitates students engaging with lectures in whatever way works best for them. If students struggle with a concept or need help while they are working on a homework problem, they can rewind and replay parts of the lecture. Kinnaird even observed that some of her students would re-listen to all of the lectures again before an exam in order to review the material.

Kinnaird notes that students seemed to enjoy having class time to work through problems and ask questions. Her former students have since told her that they miss having pencasts in other classes. Kinnaird also feels that flipping the classroom enabled her to know exactly what each one of her students was capable of come exam time because she had spent so much time working closely with them.

As well as teaching, Kinnaird has been involved with a number of mentoring and outreach activities. She was a Graduate Advisor in undergraduate residential halls for three years, a member of the executive board of the Graduate Student Council for two years, taught middle and high school students for Sonia Kovalevsky Math Day in 2011 and 2012, and is currently involved in organizing the Women in Machine Learning Workshop (WiML) to be held in conjunction with the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) Foundation conference in December 2013. Kinnaird was an ethics trainer for first year graduate students in 2011 for the Professional Ethics Program. She has also worked to increase graduate student involvement in V-Week at Dartmouth, helping to organize the event for five years. In 2011, Kinnaird was honored for her community involvement with the Graduate Community Award.

Next year, Kinnaird plans to finish up her dissertation work and graduate in the spring. She will begin looking for postdoctoral and faculty positions. “My goal is to one day work at a small liberal arts school like Dartmouth that emphasizes the importance of teaching,” explains Kinnaird.

The Graduate Studies Office would like to commend Kinnaird for her excellent work in teaching and wish her the best in finishing up her dissertation.

Neurology professor Dr. Rand Swenson shows participants a human brain specimen at one of the activity stations.

Last weekend, over twenty high school students from around the area convened in the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center for the first Upper Valley Brain Bee. Hosted by the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth  and the Society for Neuroscience New Hampshire Chapter, this event would not have been possible without the hard work of Marie Onakomaiya and Alex Bender, the two graduate students responsible for envisioning and organizing this outreach project. Dr. Michelle Sama, coordinator of the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth, also played a key role in orchestrating the event.

The competition was advertised to high school students throughout the entire Upper Valley, and ultimately students from six different schools competed. Weeks prior to the competition, Onakomaiya and Bender visited these schools to host “Brain Boot Camps” in which students were taught basic neuroscience and neuroanatomy and provided with study materials. After many weeks of preparation, the brainy students were ready to show off their neuroscience knowledge.

In round one of the competition, participants completed a short quiz, identified brain structures on real human brains, and diagnosed “patients” played by volunteers from the Dartmouth neuroscience community. Afterwards, the students had a break for lunch and visited a variety of activity stations run by professors from the medical school. Dr. Rand Swenson showed students brain specimens, Dr. Jeff Cohen and Dr. Alissa Thomas taught participants how to conduct a neurological exam on a patient, and Dr. Olga Emery provided demonstrations illustrating various brain functions. Meanwhile, Dr. Michelle Sama ran a “Color Your Brain” station for younger attendees. These activities concluded with a talk about Parkinson’s disease from neurology professor, Dr. Stephen Lee.

Having patiently waited long enough, the top five scorers from the first round were announced and brought up to the front of the room to compete in round two. This culminating phase was structured similar to a spelling bee: competitors answered questions from three different categories and were eliminated after responding to two consecutive questions incorrectly. Questions were asked by the judges of the event, four members of the Dartmouth neuroscience community (Dr. Allan Gulledge, Dr. Barbara Jobst, Dr. Jeremy Barry, and myself).

Dr. Hermes Yeh, the MC for the event, congratulates first place winner Jane Plomp, a 9th grader from Lebanon High School.

Jane Plomp, a 9^th grader from Lebanon High School, took first place and will have the opportunity to compete in the National Brain Bee held in Washington, DC, next March. Molly Cornell, an 11^th grader from Hanover High School, won second place, and Morgan Keller, a 12^th grader from Lebanon High School, won third place.

Onakomaiya and Bender certainly accomplished their initial goal, which was “to introduce neuroscience to local high school students and provide a way for them to have fun learning about the brain,” says Bender. Based on everyone’s fantastic performance throughout the competition, it is evident that participants learned a great deal of information. Onakomaiya and Bender received a lot of positive feedback and hope that the Upper Valley Brain Bee will become a yearly tradition here at Dartmouth. Onakomaiya notes that “this year’s participants have already expressed interest in doing it again next year and will be recruiting their friends to join them.”

by Max Mehlman

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over one-third of US adults are obese, and that the medical costs associated with obesity in 2008 were estimated at $14.7 billion, with rates and costs expected to increase. The molecular and epidemiological cause of this emerging epidemic in the US and world populations was the basis of the 6^th Annual Integrative Biology Symposium, held on April 24^th. This year’s topic was “Obesity and Human Health.”

The Integrative Biology Symposium was started in 2008, with the goal to “host an interdisciplinary symposium that would help to bring the broader Dartmouth community interested in biomedical research together,” according to Professor Jason Moore. “Another important goal was to provide a forum for students to showcase their work and to interact with national and international leaders.” Past symposia topics have included “Human Microbiome in Health and Disease” (2012), “RNA and Disease: Beyond the Central Dogma” (2011), “Clinical and Translational Research” (2010), “Emerging Technology” (2009), and more generally, the inaugural event covered biostatistics, genomics, bioinformatics, and proteomics (2008).

Of the 200 registrants for this year’s symposium, 98 were students, 14 of whom presented posters at an evening poster session on April 23^rd. Winners of the poster session were graduate students Jeremy Huckins (Psychological and Brain Sciences), Corina Lesseur (Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine), and Jie Tan (Molecular and Cellular Biology, first year), as well as undergraduate students, Rachael Bornstein (Dartmouth Class of 2014) and Brad Stubenhaus (from Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire).

Speakers at the symposium consisted of three from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth: Diane Gilbert-Diamond, PhD, Richard Rothstein, MD, and Benjamin Moyer, PhD, as well as six outside speakers: Pamela Goodwin, MD (Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada), Ruth Loos, PhD (Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York), Cecilia Lindgren, PhD (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Oxford University, United Kingdom), David Allison, PhD (University of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama), Lee Kaplan, MD, PhD (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts), and the keynote speaker, Joel Hirschhorn, MD, PhD (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts).

These nine speakers discussed topics encompassing the genetics of obesity, Western diets as agents of obesity, innovative interventions for weight and diabetes management, the application of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to identify potential biomarkers for elevated obesity risk, and many others.

The Integrative Biology Symposium is sponsored by a number of Dartmouth-affiliated groups and programs, including the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center, the Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences (iQBS), the Dartmouth Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program (SRP), the Dartmouth Lung Biology Center, the Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center at Dartmouth, and the New Hampshire Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (NH-INBRE). In order to choose the symposium themes, topics are discussed and voted on by the Integrative Biology Committee, which meets monthly to plan and organize the yearly symposium. The theme for 2014 will be “Global Health.” According to Professor Moore, the group tries to pick themes which will broadly appeal to researchers across campus.

It appears that so far, the committee has been successful. Biochemistry graduate student Kelli Hvorecny stated, “I think the Integrative Biology Symposium is a great forum bringing the disparate research disciplines at Dartmouth together for discussion on a topic that touches all of their research. The exposure to techniques and fields of study that I do not encounter on a daily basis triggers outside-of-the-box ideas for my own research, often to my benefit.” When asked to provide a potential topic for a future symposium, Hvorecny suggests, “From molecules to medicine: Integrating the sciences spanning biochemistry to patient care.”

by Jeanine Amacher

photos by Carolee Crossmon

John Gartner: Using Lidar to Study Dam Removal and River Dynamics

Check out this video of recent poster session winner, John Gartner.

In the video, Gartner explains how researchers shoot lasers from a plane to map and understand the effects of dam removal on river current patterns.

The Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) held a celebratory lunch on Wednesday, April 10th to congratulate ten graduate students nominated as Outstanding Graduate Student Teachers. The nominees were selected by undergraduate students who felt that their TAs/instructors had gone above and beyond their responsibilities. The nominations and lunch were part of the annual Graduate Appreciation Week.

Working as a teaching assistant is one of the most rewarding, and oftentimes challenging, aspects of graduate school. Being a TA offers the opportunity to learn pedagogical techniques, such as lesson planning and testing strategies, from professors. TAs are in a unique position in that they act as a bridge between students and professors. TAs are therefore able to learn from undergraduates which pedagogical techniques work well.

“I think TAing is an excellent opportunity to ‘grow’ as a person. It makes me more responsible, as I am the person students refer to if they have any problems. TAing makes me see the same issue from different perspectives and appreciate that a problem may be faced and solved in different ways,” said Stefano Poggio from the Department of Chemistry, who was nominated by students from his Chemistry 6 class.

Despite the challenges, these TAs clearly excelled in their role. “He is an excellent teacher, going far beyond any other TA or professor that I have had in terms of his availability outside of class, willingness to discuss and explain the material individually to students, and quality of lectures,” said one undergrad of their TA. “[She] is one of the kindest, more enthusiastic people I know,” said another. Enthusiasm, passion for science, and patience were commonly cited as qualities of the outstanding TAs.

Dr. Cindy Tobery from DCAL hosted the lunch, at which graduate students and undergraduates were able to share classroom experiences and teaching techniques.  Because the graduate students came from very different academic backgrounds, they were able to share diverse opinions on teaching and life as a graduate student. Dr. Tobery noted, “I am always impressed that undergrads take the time to nominate a grad student for this award. Sometimes many students from a class work together to nominate their TA. I think this is a nice way to include undergraduates in Grad Student Appreciation Week.”

“Receiving this award was such unexpected news! I was so touched and honored! Mentoring students is always such a great experience for me, and it is very rewarding to know that the students think that I do a good job!” said Ramsa Chaves-Ulloa from the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program.

The 2013 nominees for Outstanding Graduate Student Teachers from an undergraduate perspective were Julia Bradley-Cook, Ramsa Chaves-Ulloa and Zak Gezon from the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program, Zeb Engberg and Zachary Evans from the Mathematics Department, Deqing Li from the Thayer School of Engineering, Stefano Poggio from the Department of Chemistry, Anna Prescott and Alex Schlegel from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Damian Sowinski from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Congratulations and keep up the good work, TAs!

by Zak Gezon

photo courtesy of Alex Schlegel

Congratulations to graduate student John Gartner, in the Department of Earth Sciences, who was one of four winners of the Graduate Poster Session held recently in Alumni Hall! (Below is a summary of Gartner’s poster.)

Poster Title: Irene Landslides and Sedimentation in Vermont Rivers:  Importance of Gradients in Transport Capacity

How do rivers transport sediment from the mountains to the sea? This question has implications for every species that lives in and near rivers, including humans. Hurricane Irene, as devastating as it was to so many people, provided an unprecedented opportunity to observe how rivers cut into and also bury the local landscape with sediment.

For decades, geomorphologists have measured stream power at spot locations along rivers to determine if the capacity at a point is high enough to transport sediment. Yet the stream power of rivers is seldom constant from the headwaters downstream, and this change should affect sediment transport dynamics. Specifically, if the stream power is decreasing downstream, going from high to low power along a given segment, then the river cannot carry the sediment load delivered from upstream and must deposit material. In contrast, if stream power increases moving downstream, then the river can entrain all sediment delivered from upstream and more, possibly exporting material from the riverbanks, undercutting the adjacent hillslopes, and inducing landslides. I hypothesized that river segments with decreasing stream power should exhibit widespread floodplain deposition and few landslides, and, conversely, segments with increasing stream power should exhibit abundant landslides and minimal floodplain deposition.

To test these ideas, landslides and floodplain deposits were mapped based on field surveys and aerial photos in two Vermont watersheds after Irene. Freely available digital elevation data were used to compute stream power and, more importantly, gradients in stream power on the two rivers. The hypotheses were supported by the preponderance of floodplain deposits occurring in reaches with decreasing stream power and an abundance of landslides in reaches with increasing stream power.

This novel approach to characterizing sediment transport dynamics shows that gradients in stream power can affect both the downstream and lateral mobility of sediment. In particular, decreasing downstream sediment transport capacity favors the movement of material from the river onto the adjacent landscape. However, reaches of increasing downstream capacity have an opposite dynamic, with material moving from adjacent areas into river channels. One critical broader implication is that maps of stream power gradients can be an important tool for protection and management of human infrastructure and riparian ecosystems.

poster summary by John Gartner

Congratulations to graduate student Alex Schlegel, in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, who was one of four winners of the Graduate Poster Session held recently in Alumni Hall! (Below is a summary of Schlegel’s poster.)

Poster Title: A Neural Network Supporting Mental Operations on Visual Imagery

Ask a bonobo what you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino, and he likely will not have the slightest clue. But if you ask me, I can vividly imagine an elephino with two tusks and horns charging through the savanna. Humans have evolved robust machinery for synthesizing new concepts that we can use for a range of pursuits including art and science. However, we know little about the neural basis of this machinery.

In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the brain’s ability to manipulate the contents of visual imagery. We developed a set of abstract visual shapes that could be assembled into 2×2 arrays to generate figures of varying complexity. Subjects performed two types of tasks: they either held the stimuli in short term memory for later recall or mentally manipulated the stimuli in working memory.

We found a network of 11 cortical and subcortical brain regions. There was differing activity between those tasks involving remembering and those involving manipulation. Multivariate pattern classification within these regions revealed a subset of frontal, parietal, and occipital areas whose informational structure could distinguish between the different mental operations. This suggests that these regions play a key role in mental operations. We also found that the pattern of functional connectivity between these regions changed depending on the task, with an area called the precuneus serving as a network hub.

Thus, a multi-region network of areas dominated by fronto-parieto-occipital connections supports the mental manipulation of visual imagery.

poster summary by Alex Schlegel

Congratulations to graduate student Marianna Kleyman, in the Department of Biochemistry, who was one of four winners of the Graduate Poster Session held recently in Alumni Hall! (Below is a summary of Kleyman’s poster.)

Poster Title: STAG2 Regulates Kinetochore-Microtubule Attachments in Human Cells

Chromosomes must be faithfully segregated during cell division to allow for normal growth and development of organisms. Errors in chromosome segregation cause birth defects and are common in many solid cancers yielding a heterogeneous population of cells. This increases the potential to resist drug treatment and metastasize, and generally leads to a poor cancer outcome for patients.

Cancer cells frequently missegregate whole chromosomes at high rates in a phenomenon called chromosomal instability, or CIN. CIN is caused by mal-attachments between chromosomes and the microtubule fibers responsible for movement of chromosomes during segregation.

The data demonstrate that loss of the chromosome-associated protein STAG2—important for chromosome cohesion—increases the frequency of mal-attachments of chromosomes to the microtubule fibers. The loss of STAG2 occurs in about 10-20% of cancers and results in the improper assembly of chromosomes. These data indicate that STAG2 plays an important role in ensuring faithful chromosome segregation in human cells.

poster summary by Marianna Kleyman