Troy, N.Y. — Undergraduates of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Class of 2005 are already making their mark to help shape the future in cancer research, nanotechnology, astronomy, and environmental science. They will participate in Rensselaer's 199th Commencement on May 21, 2005.

Biochemistry and biophysics major Stephanie Guzik from Queensbury, N.Y., is using a novel approach to study how human cancerous cells spread to other parts of body.

Physics major Mitch Mailman from Pittsfield, Maine, is helping nanotechnology researchers develop a better understanding of electrical current within the laws of quantum mechanics to bring the next generation of electronics one step closer to reality.

Computer science and physics major Joseph Yasi from Fogelsville, Penn., has created a computer simulation that predicts the survival of invasive species introduced into an ecosystem. His work could help scientists develop early detection methods to prevent the encroachment of nonnative plants and animals that can wreak havoc not only on the native ecological landscape, but also on the economy and public health.

Miranda Nordhaus, a physics major from Pepperell, Mass., has applied and confirmed a theoretical method to understand major features of stars in the Milky Way without having to use additional time-consuming measurements. The technique will be used in the multimillion-dollar Sloan Extension for Galactic Underpinnings and Evolution (SEGUE) survey that will officially begin in June. SEGUE is an extension of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the biggest global effort to date by scientists to understand the structure of the universe.

“The accomplishments of these students reflect the benefits of Rensselaer’s continued efforts to expand the involvement of our undergraduate students in research,” says Rensselaer Provost G.P. “Bud” Peterson. “Their participation provides new perspectives and a wealth of ideas, while at the same time, they obtain invaluable experience as participants in hands-on, cutting-edge research working alongside professors, research scientists, postdoctoral research associates, and graduate students.”

As a global research university committed to enhancing each student’s experiences, Rensselaer offers undergraduates the opportunity to actively participate in real-world, hands-on research projects. Students participating in the university’s Undergraduate Research Program, for example, have the opportunity to work on a project  that can lead to patents and grants, and work with some of the most informed and learned professors in the world.

Stephanie Guzik, from Queensbury, N.Y., is applying a novel method to model how bone cancer cells from a primary tumor break away and spread through the body as a result of their interactions with surrounding normal cells. Although her research results are preliminary, renowned biologists Keith Burridge (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Thomas Pollard (Yale University) who came to Rensselaer as guest speakers, were impressed with her work. They said the 22-year-old’s research is a good experimental approach to get at the biochemistry of interactions between the normal and abnormal cells, according to George Edick, the laboratory supervisor who heads Rensselaer’s Cancer Cell Biology Group, a multiple-semester training and research program that allows highly motivated undergraduates to learn advanced cell biology and biochemistry techniques.

In studying how the two cell types interact in a cultured environment, Guzik has found that the cancerous cells rotate outward from their central location and then move through the normal cell culture, forming a secondary culture elsewhere in the petri dish. But the cancerous cells do not migrate without the presence of normal cells.

Guzik, who was awarded a prestigious Howard Hughes research grant in 2003, is pursuing her Ph.D. as a graduate student in a joint program between the National Institutes of Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to her research, Guzik has been involved in a number of programs and activities at Rensselaer. Last summer, she worked for Rensselaer’s PREFACE Program as a teaching resident assistant. PREFACE, managed through the university’s Office of Minority Student Affairs, is a two-week residential summer experience for talented high-school juniors from underrepresented and underserved groups interested in pursuing a career in the engineering and technological professions.

“Working for PREFACE gave me the opportunity to be on the other side of the program that had helped me make my decision to come to RPI,” Guzik said. “In high school, I spent two weeks learning about engineering through the program. When I left, I knew I didn’t want to do engineering, but I was able to learn about the biochemistry program on campus.

“During my college application process, I was torn between Johns Hopkins and RPI at the very end.  Hopkins was a great school, but it didn’t have a biochemistry program for undergraduates, and research was almost out of the question until I was in my junior year. RPI seemed to answer all of those problems,” added Guzik, who is a member of TriBeta, the national biology honor society.

Applying techniques based on quantum physics, Mitch Mailman has developed several computer models to study how electrons are transported through various nanomaterials, such as organic molecules and carbon nanotubes. The techniques could be applied to help build electronics that are thousands of times faster than today. 

The 22-year-old from Pittsfield, Maine, is one of the few undergraduate students who has been a co-author of papers in Physical Review, a pre-eminent physics journal, says his adviser, Saroj Nayak, assistant professor of physics. The first paper was published in 2003. Mailman is also an author of a second paper for the same journal scheduled to be published this year.

The forthcoming paper is based on Mailman’s research in spintronics, an emerging nanotechnology that exploits spin of the electron in its quantum state. The technology is being developed to build faster and more efficient computers and other electronics.

Mailman has received an IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) fellowship, funded by the National Science Foundation, to pursue his graduate studies in physics at Rensselaer, where he will continue to study with Nayak.

In addition to keeping up with his rigorous research schedule, Mailman spends time in the outdoors hiking, backpacking, fishing, canoeing, camping, skiing, and riding snowmobiles. His hobbies also include restoring antique sports cars.

Miranda Nordhaus has tested and calibrated a new technique that will allow astronomers to determine metal abundance and other physical traits of millions of stars in the Milky Way.

Determining the physical properties of one star, including its elements, total mass, and age, typically requires a lengthy observation in which the light from the star is spread out into a spectrum and thousands of color measurements are taken. But the method Nordhaus has tested involves using only five color measurements already available in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) databases. Her work has been conducted under the guidance of Associate Professor of Physics Heidi Newberg.

“The technique will allow us to understand some features of our galaxy’s structure without additional time-consuming measurements,” Newberg says.  “Also, it allows us to select the most interesting galactic stars for further investigation. In particular, we are able to select the stars with the fewest heavy elements for further observation. The detailed composition of these stars tells us about the way elements formed in the very early stages of our universe.”

The 21-year-old Nordhaus from Pepperell, Mass., has conducted research at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory based in Charlottesville, Va., and the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. She will pursue her Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Texas in Austin.

Nordhaus found her love of astronomy when she was 5 years old. While vacationing in Florida, she saw a space shuttle launch as she stood on the roof of her family’s vacation home.

“I remember thinking how amazing it was that the shuttle was carrying people into space, and how fantastic space must be if we were going through all that trouble to send people there,” she said.

Joseph Yasi’s computer model that predicts the survival of invasive species in an already established ecosystem confirms Gyorgy Korniss’ theoretical predictions on what happens when invasive and native species are competing for space and how the invasion process evolves over time. Korniss is assistant professor of physics and Yasi’s adviser.

Yasi contributed to Korniss’ research findings that were recently reported in a paper titled “Spatial Dynamics of Invasion: The Geometry of Introduced Species” that was published this year in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. Yasi’s model can be adapted not only to study how various species invade ecosystems, but also how mutated genes spread through plants and animals to establish new species.

Yasi, 22, who attended high school in Fogelsville, Penn., has been accepted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a physics graduate student. This summer, he will work on a large-scale simulation project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2004, he received the RPI Founders Award of Excellence and the 4.0 Award. This year, he won an Outstanding Scholar award from the 2005 Office of Greek Life.

Yasi’s family bought its first computer when he was 3 years old, and his father, who is a chemical engineer, let the young Yasi play around with it. 

“He'd even break things on purpose so that I could fix them,” Yasi said. “I also had many electronics kits and chemistry sets as a child. I was always good with mathematics, and my father always found ways to teach me new things. I was introduced to computer programming when I was 7 years old and basically have always been fascinated by science and technology.”

Contact: Theresa Bourgeois
Phone: (518) 276-2840
E-mail: bourgt@rpi.edu