Symposium 2024

3:00 

Introductory Remarks
Professor Brian Daly, Dean of the Faculty
Hadley Bergstrom, URSI Director

3:15 

Students’ Oral Presentations on Summer Research

Feedback Driven Magnetic Field Evolution in MW-type Simulated Circumgalactic Medium
Param Gogia ’27 and Sam Shelly ’25
(mentor: Professor Ed Buie II, Physics and Astronomy)

B. theta has a sweet tooth: Analyzing sugar uptake
Kalina Rashkov ’25 and Sean Fisher ’25
(mentor: Professor Rebecca Pollet, Chemistry)

Insect Biodiversity on the Vassar Preserve
Carter Zelenitz ’26, Fi McKenzie ’25, Jacqueline Corsilia ’25 and
Hannah Ford ’27 (mentor Professor Timothy Lampasona, Biology

4:00 

Keynote Address

Asteroids and us: how stuff from space impacts life on Earth

Katharine H. Freeman, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences and Chemistry at Penn State University. She develops and applies novel analyses to molecules from ancient life and past environments on Earth. Recently, she joined scientists supporting NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to Asteroid Bennu, which successfully delivered rock and dust samples from the asteroid to Earth last fall. These samples provide clues to sources of carbon compounds and the nature of prebiotic chemistry in the early solar system. Bennu has been full of surprises since the spacecraft first encountered it in 2018, and the speaker will share highlights from the mission, so far.

5:00 

Poster Session A

5:30 

Poster Session B

6:30 

Dinner Celebration for faculty and students