Grad News Forum

Professor Cottingham, President Folt, Professor Hawley, and Dean Kull

This year’s recipients of the Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award are Professor Kathryn Cottingham and Professor Robert Hawley. Each year the Graduate Student Council (GSC) gives out two Graduate Faculty Mentoring Awards to recognize the exceptional mentoring activities of faculty advisors at Dartmouth. Award recipients are honored for their commitment to fostering the academic and professional pursuits of graduate students and receive $500 to support further mentoring activities. This year the selection committee consisted of Julia Bradley-Cook, the president of GSC, Rich Lopez, the academic chair, and Daniel Durcan, the activities coordinator. President Carol Folt announced this year’s recipients on Wednesday, April 10, at the Graduate Poster Session.

Professor Kathryn Cottingham

Professor Kathryn Cottingham is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) program. She joined Dartmouth faculty in 1998 and currently mentors two graduate students. Her research focuses on aquatic ecology, in particular the reasons for and results of cyanobacterial blooms in lakes and factors affecting the accumulation of mercury by fish and invertebrates in streams. Her lab has also been involved in examining dietary exposure to arsenic in pregnant women and infants.

In nominating her for this award, graduate students observed that Cottingham plays an important role as a mentor in her department as a whole. A member of the Cottingham lab observed that when she interviewed at Dartmouth “the most common response I received from other graduate students about the Cottingham Lab, was that Kathy may be the ‘official advisor’ to her own graduate students, but she ‘unofficially’ advises all the graduate students.”

Another aspect of Cottingham’s mentoring style that her graduate students appreciated was her ability to balance letting her students work independently, while also providing enough support and guidance to facilitate success in their research. One of Cottingham’s current students observed that her mentoring style “strikes a nice balance between letting me work independently to the extent that I want to” while always being available “to help troubleshoot, design experiments, and address any problems that arise.” Discussing the importance of building research skills in graduate school, several students expressed their appreciation of Cottingham’s guidance in data analysis and in improving their writing skills. One student explained, “I especially appreciate how her mentoring with me has changed through time as I have developed as a scientist, and has focused on everything from scientific writing, how to work in groups, [and] data analysis.”

Professor Robert Hawley

Professor Robert Hawley is an assistant professor of Earth Sciences. He came to Dartmouth in 2008. Hawley leads the Glaciology Research Group at Dartmouth, mentoring five graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher. The group studies the formation and make-up of polar ice sheets to explore issues related to sea level rise and climate change. Hawley developed a new technique for studying polar firn, called Borehole Optical Stratigraphy, which involves lowering a video camera into a borehole in the ice. The camera records patterns of light and dark in the walls of the borehole, which reflect differences in ice grain size and density and facilitate the studying of annual layers.

In their nominations, Professor Hawley’s students expressed an appreciation for his enthusiasm and patience. They observed that his excitement and creativity in his research were inspiring, and these were balanced with his calm and practical approach to problem solving and project management. One of Hawley’s students explained that Hawley’s “ability to bring both perspective and calm is incredible. I cannot recall a challenging ‘moment’ or issue that I could not bring to [his] attention.”

As well as developing his mentees’ skills in academic and proposal writing and teaching techniques, Hawley also encouraged students to engage in service. A member of the Glaciology Research Group wrote, “With regard to citizen-science, [Hawley’s] work with outreach (e.g., Science Pubs at Salt hill) has been an example that I hope to emulate in my own work.” In addition, Hawley encouraged his students to pursue outside learning opportunities, such as participation in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Ice Core Project. Finally, Hawley’s students also appreciated his willingness to prioritize their ideas and goals. A student described him as “an undeniable exemplification of a masterful mentor-extraordinaire.”

Reflecting on the process of choosing this year’s recipients, Bradley-Cook observed, “We had an impressive collection of nominees—faculty who go above and beyond to challenge, support, and motivate graduate students. Professors Cottingham and Hawley are inspiring role models with mentoring styles that genuinely support graduate students. We are grateful for the opportunity to acknowledge their extraordinary mentorship.”

The Graduate Studies Office congratulates Professors Cottingham and Hawley on their receipt of this award and thanks them for their dedication to supporting graduate students at Dartmouth.

Invasive human breast cancer

Each year, graduate students in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine (PEMM) invite a leader in their field to Dartmouth to give a seminar talk. This year, students chose between several candidates, finally selecting Dr. Robert Weinberg.

Dr. Weinberg is a founding member and current faculty of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an internationally recognized authority on the genetic basis of human cancer. His lab is credited for discovery of the first oncogene (cancer-causing gene) and the first

tumor suppressor gene. He is the author of more than 390 scientific peer-reviewed articles and of the renowned textbook The Biology of Cancer. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recent recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

Twenty-five pharmacology and toxicology graduate students had the honor of dining with Dr. Weinberg at the Norwich Inn on Thursday, March 28th. They had the chance to converse with him about various topics ranging from science to the cultural diversity of the graduate department. The students commented on his modest nature and genuine interest in getting to know all who attended the dinner. He circled the room multiple times throughout the evening in order to interact with all of the students.

On Friday, March 29th, Dr. Weinberg met with various members within the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, as well as the dean of the Geisel School of Medicine, Dean Wiley Souba. That afternoon, Dr. Weinberg presented his work to a very packed audience in Chilcott Auditorium. Students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty within the Geisel School of Medicine and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center were in attendance. He spoke on his latest findings, which describe how a breast cancer cell can metastasize (spread) to different organs within the body.

Dr. Weinberg’s current research interests are primarily involved in determining the molecular mechanisms by which breast cancer cells acquire an aggressive phenotype, most notably through the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). EMT is defined as the reversible switch of epithelial cells to a more migratory mesenchymal cell morphology. This process allows cells to exit the primary tumor site and enter the circulation where they can then spread to a distant site and colonize another organ. EMT is thought to be the master regulator of metastasis, which is the primary cause of mortality in breast cancer patients.

The audience was captivated by Dr. Weinberg’s energetic and humorous personality. Those who attended ranked it as one of the best talks they have heard in their time at Dartmouth. Fourth-year PEMM student, Andrew DeCastro, remarked, “I was extremely impressed with Dr. Weinberg’s breadth of knowledge and world class research, but more importantly, I was struck by his modesty and willingness to interact with all of the students within our department.”  Overall the event was a great success!

by Amanda Balboni and Andrew DeCastro

photos Whitehead Institute/Chris Sanchez Photography 

About forty students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program gathered on Wednesday, March 27, to hear the Works in Progress presentations from four students working on their theses. The Works in Progress presentations occur once or twice each academic year. The program was proposed five years ago by MALS alumna Lyn Lord as an alternative to a thesis defense, and it has been gathering momentum with each event. The gathering took place in the Paganucci Lounge in the Class of 1953 Commons and included food and drinks for all in attendance.

First to present his work was Raul Rillo, representing the Liberal Studies track of MALS. His thesis, titled “The Genealogy of Indigenous Sovereignty,” examines the issue of domestic sovereignty in America by studying the history of the United States government’s policies towards “Indian nations.” By looking closely at the Marshall Trilogy cases and other landmark rulings, Rillo reveals the unclear stance and oppressive effects of the federal government on Native American tribes in terms of self-rule, land rights, and recognition. He hopes to continue his work after Dartmouth by comparing tribal sovereignty of native peoples in North and South America.

Niusha Shodja represented the Creative Writing track and spoke next. Shodja is writing “Persian Blue,” a collection of fictional short stories that portrays everyday life for young people in modern Tehran, Iran. She was born in America and moved to Iran’s capital when she was eleven years old, living there for several years. She stated that contrary to the perception of outsiders, most youths in Iran distance themselves from the government. Twenty-five-year-olds in Iran, Shodja told the audience, are like twenty-five-year-olds anywhere. The only difference is that they must deal with a theocratic government that forbids many “western” practices such as consuming alcohol or certain interactions between males and females. She read from her story “Detention” and showed how the authorities in Tehran are often harsh with their own citizens.

The third presenter was Cultural Studies student Chelsea Tremblay. Her as yet untitled thesis examines the relationship between nature and culture, known as the nature-culture dialectic, through Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory and Donna Haraway’s concepts of companion species and cyborgs. Using food systems as a lens, Tremblay explores the implications of their theories and how they may help us foster a new relationship to the environment.

Globalization student Keri Wolfe gave the evening’s final talk. Her thesis, “The Democratization of the Medical Profession,” reveals a national trend in recent decades, moving away from giving unquestioned authority to caregivers and toward a more constituency-based system. Wolfe studied a community health center in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and a feminist health center in Concord, New Hampshire.  By comparing them, she found that their increased emphasis on experiential knowledge and consumer participation improved the quality of care and represented a broader movement across the United States.

The event also included a brief ceremony honoring four veterans in the MALS program.  MALS Director Donald Pease presented Stoney Portis, Ron Bucca, Michael Rodriguez, and Robert Sedgley with gifts and thanked them for their service and their efforts to bring more recognition to veterans at the college.

by Chris Abell

photo by Zach Williams

Congratulations to Julia Bradley-Cook for being awarded an honorable mention for the 2013 American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award!

Each year, AIBS recognizes graduate students in the biological sciences who have demonstrated an interest in and ability to contribute to science and public policy. This year competition for the award was especially fierce; AIBS awarded two students the top prize, in addition to recognizing three students, including Bradley-Cook, with honorable mentions.

Bradley-Cook is a fourth-year PhD student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology working with Dr. Ross Virginia on carbon dynamics in Greenland soils. Bradley-Cook has been interested in the intersection of science and policy ever since an undergraduate course got her thinking about the role of science in resource management. Two years working for sustainable development NGOs in Namibia after college confirmed her interest and exposed her to the challenges of bringing science and policy together.

Since coming to Dartmouth, Bradley-Cook has continued her commitment to policy while working to complete her biology degree. Her research addresses the critical issue of how much carbon currently locked in arctic permafrost will be released as the climate warms. As Dr. Virginia says, “Julia’s work connects basic science to the information needs of the policy world. No small task, and essential work.”

As president of the Graduate Student Council, Bradley-Cook works closely with the Dartmouth administration to advocate for graduate student rights. As a fellow in Dartmouth’s Polar Environmental Change Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), she has been able to pair her scientific research of Greenland’s soils with a study of Greenlandic policy, meeting with Greenlandic national leaders during her field seasons and on Dartmouth’s campus. Bradley-Cook says that her “understanding of the social and political context has enriched [her] connection to Greenland, and has made [her] research all the more worthwhile.”

Bradley-Cook is honored to be recognized by AIBS and says that it will encourage her to pursue science-policy positions in the future. With such pressing issues as global warming and water shortages, we need leaders like Bradley-Cook to bring science and policy together.

by Ruth Heindel

Graduate Student Appreciation Week, commencing April 6, is an annual celebration of the contributions that graduate students bring to Dartmouth. The week combines a wide range of scholarly and social activities.

Graduate students work hard.  Each one knows late nights and early mornings. However, all being said, you will have to look hard to find the graduate student who does not think this is all worthwhile. Graduate students’ dedication to their research and to the education of undergraduates is an invaluable contribution to Dartmouth. The research undertaken in both our PhD and Master’s programs, in both arts and sciences, reinforces Dartmouth as a world-class educational institution. TA-ships see graduate students burning the midnight oil, grading papers and then taking time away from their own work to spend time with students. Those who have done it know how much students benefit from the support of a TA, as a mentor and a role model. Despite the heavy workload and stressful life, graduate student’s community outreach and volunteer work is award-renowned, both in the local community and abroad.

Preparations for the poster session in Alumni Hall on Wednesday 10th April, 5pm-7:30pm.

So every year by the time it gets to spring term, some appreciation is due.

The idea for Graduate Appreciation Week came from the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS). In 1993, NAGPS established Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week (GPSAW) as a mechanism to support and appreciate graduate and professional students. Dartmouth proudly sponsors this decade-long tradition.

F. Jon Kull, dean of Graduate Studies, commented on Graduate Appreciation Week:

“I really think it is crucial for the work of graduate students at Dartmouth to be highlighted and appreciated. Being a graduate student is a fantastic thing; it shows a true dedication to learning and advancing in a field or discipline. Dartmouth as an institution is fortunate to have so many enthusiastic and talented graduate students. Their contribution is felt everyday.”

The full range of events can be found here. Keep an eye out for the Graduate Poster Session. The Poster Session displays the best of graduate student talent. There you will see the range of research undertaken and all the hard work paying off. President Carol L. Folt will announce the winners of the Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award at the session. In short, the poster session really brings together many aspects of the graduate student experience.

“Graduate Appreciation Week gives the wider community the opportunity to take stock of their valuable contributions,” says Kull, “The schedule of events shows students they are valued, and the poster session allows their work to be displayed. The poster session is a great opportunity to learn more about Dartmouth Graduate Studies and some of the fantastic things achieved here.”

After the poster session is Pub Night at Molly’s Restaurant and Bar—we all need a break once in a while.

For more information about some of the achievements of Dartmouth’s graduate students, keep posted to the Grad News Forum and our Facebook and Twitter streams.

by Dan Durcan

On Saturday, May 11, members of the Graduate Relief Team will participate in the Dartmouth/Hanover/Lebanon Relay for Life event through the American Cancer Society. Relay for Life is the world’s largest fundraising effort to create a world with more birthdays by eliminating cancer from our lives.

The event held at Dartmouth is just one of over 5,000 events held in the United States, and the United States is just one of 20 participating countries. Each year, participants raise over $3.5 million dollars to be used in support of the American Cancer Society’s mission goals: patient support, prevention, research, and detection/treatment. Through these fundraising efforts, the American Cancer Society has been able to build Hope Lodge facilities across the country to provide free accommodations to patients and caregivers, develop the Road to Recovery program to provide free transportation to patients, and provide unbiased information to constituents 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to help in making informed decisions about cancer treatments.

Like all Relay for Life events, the Dartmouth/Hanover/Lebanon event will have several key moments to recognize the goals of Relay for Life. There will be a Survivor’s Lap, the first lap at every event, to celebrate the strength of the survivors and their caregivers. The Luminaria will be lit in a candlelight ceremony later in the night to remember those who fought cancer in the past and support those who are battling it now. And finally, there will be a Fight Back Ceremony to inspire all Relayers to continue their effort to raise money and awareness and to remind everyone of why we Relay.

Amanda Balboni, Stela Celaj, and Andrew DeCastro at Leverone Field House during last year’s Relay for Life.

Marie Onakomaiya, a member of both the 2012 and 2013 Relay for Life Graduate Relief Teams, described her experience at last year’s event as “amazing.”  She added, ”I think the event showed, in the best way possible, the support and strength within our community to fight back and never give up in trying to overcome the far-reaching effects of cancer. I was especially moved by the Luminaria ceremony where we remembered and honored those who were battling or were lost to cancer.”

Last year, the members of the Graduate Relief Team (Adina Fischer, Amanda Balboni, Andrew DeCastro, Anna Hatch, Fadzai Chinyengetere, Lan Guo, Lisa Marie Mustachio, Marie Onakomaiya, Sondra Downey and Stela Celaj) were able to raise over $1,700 for the Relay for Life event, and with $1,235 raised so far, we are well on our way to surpassing that amount this year.

If you are interested in joining the Relay for Life Graduate Relief Team or supporting our fundraising efforts with a donation, please visit our webpage and look out for future fundraisers happening on campus!

by Erin O’Malley

With spring fast approaching, the snow stomp has begun to give way to the mud shake. Several weeks ago, however, a group of twenty intrepid and snow-loving graduate students made the trip to Smugglers’ Notch Resort for the first annual Graduate Student Winter Weekend. The group contained students from nearly every graduate program on campus, and so the diversity of conversations and interests made the weekend all the more promising.

The event, marvelously coordinated by James Peck, a student in the program in Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Marcus Welker, a student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program, took place from March 1-3. The participants, energized by anticipated snowfall for the weekend, carpooled from Hanover to “Smuggs” on the Friday evening—welcomed by three cozy and comfortable condominiums. As among the first to arrive, my group unloaded the groceries and got started on a delicious dinner that set the tone for the rest of the weekend!

Not simply a skiers’ or snowboarders’ trip, Smugglers’ Notch also offered access to tubing, snowshoeing, ice-skating, and cross-country skiing. Located in Cambridge, Vermont, Smuggs made good on its promise of snow from the first night. Light dustings turned into heavy flakes overnight, and by the time everyone had arrived and settled in on the first night, it was clear a good snowfall was underway.

Everyone was up early on Saturday morning, buzzing with excitement at the fresh powder that clung to the mountainsides. Despite the cloudy conditions on the hill, the terrain was well-groomed and provided hours of fun for the first of many “sessions.” Some were on the mountain all day, some finished at lunch, but everyone took advantage of the new snow.

Later that evening, there was a pizza party and birthday celebration held at one of the lodges in the Smugglers’ Resort Village. Welker’s birthday was celebrated with a combination chocolate and vanilla cake. All the while, the snow kept falling.

On Sunday, everyone was, once again, on the mountain early. With the low-lying clouds of Saturday long gone, conditions were perfect. Cautious estimates claim that around eight inches of snow fell during the duration of the trip.

People made their own way back to Hanover throughout the course of Sunday, but most tried to stay as long as they could to enjoy the snow and the activities. The first Dartmouth Graduate Winter Weekend can be qualified as a fantastic success. Here’s to many more in the future!

by Laurie Laker

photos by Lisa Jackson

In late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast, bringing severe damage to several states. New York was hit especially hard. The hurricane created billions of dollars in damage, destroyed thousands of homes, and caused 72 deaths, 48 of which were New York inhabitants.  The outpouring of support immediately following Sandy was impressive. The dedication some groups have shown, remaining in the effected area for months and dedicating themselves to those hit hardest, is moving.

Occupy Sandy is one of these groups. Occupy Sandy was organized as a relief effort by members of Occupy Wall Street to help the victims of the hurricane. The group has broken into teams, which cover different effected areas.

On March 14, four Dartmouth graduate students, Daniel Jantos, Ron Bucca, and Zach Williams, all students in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program, and Amanda Balboni, a student in the Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine, traveled down to Staten Island to volunteer with the Yellow Team of Occupy Sandy and provide relief to the hurricane victims.

Over St. Patrick’s Day weekend, the group helped rebuild a home that had been destroyed by the hurricane. The family that lived in the home consisted of a mother, father, two children, and a baby boy, born just a few months after the hurricane hit. The family had recently re-finished their basement to make room for their new addition. The water level had reached three feet on the first floor, completely submerging the basement and destroying almost all of the family’s appliances and possessions. The graduate students worked throughout the weekend to re-insulate the house and put up sheetrock, so that the family could soon move into their home and out of the apartment they are paying for in addition to their mortgage payments. The father worked with the team of graduate students, and remarked that he is thankful for the health and safety of his family, and for his brother’s family, who lives down the street from him and whose home was also destroyed by the storm. This man had neighbors who had lost their lives in the hurricane and was grateful to have only lost his possessions. Numerous volunteers have come from all over the country to team up with Occupy Sandy and provide much needed relief to these families.

Unfortunately, there is still much damage to be repaired from the hurricane. The recovery effort is just getting started. If you would like to volunteer in areas that were affected by Sandy, or would like to donate money, please visit the Occupy Sandy site.

by Amanda Balboni

photos by Zach Williams

The Graduate Forum would like to congratulate Morgan Thompson on her recent publication in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Volume 20, Issue 1. Thompson, who defended her dissertation this fall in biochemistry, collaborated on the article with Ernest Heimsath, Timothy Gauvin, and Professor Henry Higgs, all of the Department of Biochemistry, and Dean Jon Kull of both the Department of Biochemistry and the Department of Chemistry.

At Dartmouth, Thompson conducted research on proteins related to cell structure. She used a technique called X-ray crystallography to generate images of protein structures that are too small to see with even the most powerful microscope. Specifically, Thompson was interested in interactions between actin and formins, two proteins involved in facilitating cell movement. Actin molecules combine to form rigid filaments that give shape to cells, and formin molecules interact with actin to control actin filament growth.

In their recent article, Thompson and her collaborators investigated how formins promote actin filament elongation. Their work represents only the second example of a formin bound to actin visualized through crystallography, and the structure they modeled was probably closer to the way the proteins interact in nature than what has previously been observed. The process of crystallizing proteins to create structural images can cause them to act in ways that they would not naturally, explains Thompson, so it can be complicated to get images of physiological interactions. Research on the interaction of these proteins is significant because it increases our understanding of how cells change shape to move throughout the body, which is important for understanding various diseases, such as cancer.

One of Thompson’s main interests while at Dartmouth was in teaching, both undergraduates and younger students. She was a teaching assistant for four terms, for which she won the Graduate Teaching Award. Thompson also taught science to sixth graders in Enfield, New Hampshire, as part of a National Science Foundation Graduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in K-12 Education (GK-12) fellowship. In addition, Thompson led labs in several local fourth grade classrooms on the importance of hand washing, after her mother, a local fourth grade teacher, asked for her help in explaining germs to her students.

Thompson found spending time in the classroom especially rewarding—she recalls the thank you notes that she received from students after she had visited their classes. “One student even wrote me that it was the best day of his life!” she recalls. While she found her work in the lab very interesting, it was this time working with students and witnessing their developing interest in science that Thompson found particularly meaningful. She also feels that it is extremely important for Dartmouth, an institution with such a variety of resources, to contribute to the surrounding community.

As a result of her experiences, Thompson decided to pursue a career in teaching. She now works as a high school teacher at the Pingry School in New Jersey, where she teaches biology to students in ninth and tenth grade and a course in molecular biology methods to eleventh and twelfth graders. She enjoys her job, and, in particular, is excited that she can teach complex molecular methods to her students. Thompson notes that the methods she is teaching her juniors and seniors are “the same ones I used in my lab at Dartmouth.”

Thompson feels that her experiences as a graduate student at Dartmouth prepared her well for her new position in that she was able to develop her teaching skills as well as work on her research. She is grateful to the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) for the teaching support that they provided, as well as to her advisor, Dean Kull, who always encouraged her in all of her teaching and outreach endeavors. Having her dissertation work published in Nature is a satisfying culmination to her graduate career, and Thompson is eager to continue working with students to encourage others to be excited about science.

by Elizabeth Molina-Markham

Guo in Jinhua, China.

Congratulations to Bingqian Guo, winner of this year’s Karen E. Wetterhahn Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry!

The Wetterhahn Graduate Fellowship is given each year to an advanced graduate student in chemistry. It honors the memory of Professor Karen E. Wetterhahn, a former chemistry professor at Dartmouth, well-known for her research on toxic metals and how they cause cancer. She was the founding director of Dartmouth’s Toxic Metals Research Program. Professor Wetterhahn was also known for her strong support of women in science and was a co-founder of Dartmouth’s Women in Science Project.

Guo grew up in Jinhua, China. She was inspired by a high school chemistry teacher to pursue a degree in science. Guo studied at the University of Science and Technology of China, earning a BS in physical chemistry and winning several scholarships. While she considered attending graduate school at different universities in Canada and the United States, Guo chose Dartmouth because of the research possibilities here. She wanted to concentrate her research on applications of physical chemistry to biological systems. She was also impressed with the beauty of the surrounding region when she came to Dartmouth.

Guo is a member of Professor Dale F. Mierke’s lab. Her research focuses on the interaction of proteins, specifically NEMO and IKKβ, which play a role in the body’s immune response. Guo is researching the possibility of finding a molecule or peptide that can bind to NEMO in order to block it from binding to IKKβ in cases in which individuals have certain types of autoimmune diseases or cancer. In such cases, the proteins constitutively bind together when they should not. Preventing this binding will hopefully improve the life quality of sufferers of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, and some kinds of cancer. Guo recently presented a poster about her work at the 2012 Signaling Pathways in Cancer Symposium at MIT’s David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. She has also been a teaching assistant during three terms for general chemistry and during two terms for physical chemistry.

As well as conducting research, Guo likes to spend time outdoors hiking and snowboarding. She really enjoys the White Mountain area. Guo also draws, and she is working on illustrations for a children’s book with a lab colleague. In addition, she has participated in the local COVER home repair projects in White River Junction, Vermont.

Guo plans to pursue a career in research after graduation, and she hopes to remain in the New England area. She says that she likes being in a smaller town, and she appreciates the close-knit Dartmouth community. She is excited to have been chosen for the Wetterhahn Fellowship and observes that it will help support her research on protein binding in order to hopefully help those affected by autoimmune diseases or cancer.

In supporting the work of young chemists such as Guo, the Dartmouth community honors Professor Wetterhahn’s dedication to her field and her encouragement of women in science.

by Elizabeth Molina-Markham