Tufte and Kennedy each received a Partners in Science Program grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The goal of this program is to provide high school teachers with opportunities to work with college faculty members at the cutting edge of science and revitalize their teaching.

Tufte will work with Jo Ann Wadkins, a science teacher at Lincoln High School, for the next two summers in the Department of Physics. Their research, titled “Observational Investigations of Short-Period Eclipsing Binary Stars,” will be shared at two national Partners in Science conferences at the end of each summer.

Kennedy will partner with Eileen Oppelt, a science teacher at West Linn High School. Their research, “Examining Biogeographic Patterns in the Frankia-Alnus rubra Symbiosis,” will be conducted in the Department of Biology. Oppelt will also share the results of the joint research at Partners in Science conferences.

The Murdock Trust provides grants in five states of the Pacific Northwest to organizations that aim to strengthen the region’s educational base in sustainable ways.

Lochner and Scalettar coauthored a study on the postsynaptic colocalization of neuromodulatory proteins with five undergraduate students (Conor Jacobs ‘09, Mariya Chavarha ‘08, Kevin McAllister ‘08, Erika Spangler ‘07, Linnaea Schuttner ‘06) that was featured on the cover of the September issue of Developmental Neurobiology. Titled “Efficient Copackaging and Cotransport Yields Postsynaptic Colocalization of Neuromodulators Associated with Synaptic Plasticity,” their collaborative work shows how the proteins studied are known to enhance synaptic communication in the hippocampus. This research was supported by grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health and by the Rogers Summer Research Program.

Developmental Neurobiology publishes research primarily on development and plasticity in the nervous system, with an emphasis on experimental work.

Read more about Lochner and Scalettar’s collaborative research in The Chronicle.

President Thomas Hochstettler opened the conference with remarks on science research and teaching in the context of the liberal arts. Dean of the College Julio de Paula opened the final day of the conference with a review of the history of science research at Lewis & Clark. Professor of Physics Herschel Snodgrass presented his paper titled “Large-Scale Convection and the Solar Activity Cycle.”

Graduating senior Christina Ketchum shared her paper on “Correlating Vertical Velocities of Ionized Interstellar Medium To Star Formation Rates In Nearby Face-On Spiral Galaxies,” which was a collaborative effort with Associate Professor of Physics Stephen Tufte. Tufte chaired the sessions on astrophysics and biophysics with Professor of Physics Bethe Scalettar. Scalettar presented a paper at the session titled “Elucidating Molecular Events Underlying Learning with Fluorescence Microscopy,” the product of joint research undertaken with graduating senior Mariya Chavarha and Janis Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. Professor of Science. Graduating senior Adam Kowalski and junior Shelley Zhao each presented a poster at the APS conference.