Chapter website: https://charlestonsigmaxi.org/

2023 Award and New Membership Banquet

Student Awards:

2022-2023 Sigma Xi Award Winners:

Ahmed Sean Alford, Jr., Sigma Xi Best Oral Presentation, MUSC Perry V. Halushka Research Day

Jessica Taylor Wenclawiak, First Place, Best Oral Presentation Award, Marine Research Colloquium, College of Charleston

Ian Rolfe, Second Place, Best Oral Presentation Award winner, Marine Research Colloquium College of Charleston

Evans Banks, Undergraduate Research Award 1st Place, Student Excellence Day, Department of Chemistry, The Citadel, title “Development of a Corn-Fiber Filter for Cleaner Water”

Faculty advisor: Dr. Megan Moyer

Slateon Frederick, Undergraduate Research Award 2nd Place, Student Excellence Day, Department of Cyber and Computer Sciences, The Citadel, title “Context-Aware Access Control for

Internet of Things (IoT) Networks”

Faculty advisor: Dr. Shankar Banik

Evan Stravolo, Undergraduate Research Award 3rd Student Excellence Day Award, Department of Chemistry, The Citadel, title: “Targeted Drug Delivery Using ZIF-8 MOFs”

Faculty advisor: Megan Moyer

Lili Boss, Best-of-the-Best Sigma Xi Communicating Science Award, EXPO 2023, School of Sciences and Mathematics, College of Charleston.

New Members:

2022-2023 New Student Associate Members:

Colin Perkins-Taylor, Graduate Program in Marine Biology, College of Charleston

Leah Marie DiMaggio, Graduate Program in Marine Biology, College of Charleston

Ian Rolfe, Graduate Program in Marine Biology, College of Charleston

Ahmed Sean Alford, Jr., Medical University of South Carolina

Tracy Dawn-Gene Dubin, Medical University of South Carolina

Slateon Frederick, Cyber and Computer Sciences, The Citadel

Evans Banks, Chemistry, The Citadel

Evan Stravolo, Chemistry, The Citadel

Dalton Hazelwood, Cyber and Computer Sciences, The Citadel

2022-2023 South Carolina Academy of Science Awards

Undergraduate Platform Award Winners

95th Annual Meeting of the South Carolina Academy of Science

March 25, 2023

ORAL SESSION 1: ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS

Filippo Savoia, College of Charleston

savoiaf@g.cofc.edu

TILTED ACCRETION DISKS IN ULTRA-LUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCES

Mentor: Chris Fragile (fragilep@cofc.edu)

ORAL SESSION 2: CELL BIOLOGY AND HEALTH

Owen R. Smith, Coastal Carolina University

orsmith1@coastal.edu

DEVELOPING A SAFE AND EFFECTIVE PAPILLOMAVIRUS SCREEN TO BE USED ON

COLLEGE STUDENTS

Mentor: Paul E. Richardson (prichar@coastal.edu)

ORAL SESSION 3: FIELD BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Catherine Waggoner, College of Charleston

waggonercr@g.cofc.edu

GROWTH, ALLOMETRY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLIGHT PERFORMANCE IN THE

ADULT STALK-EYED FLY, Teleopsis dalmanni

Mentor: Jason Vance (vancejt@cofc.edu)

ORAL SESSION 4: COMPUTER SCIENCE

Matthew Russell, Christopher Teelon, Joseph Johnson, and Andrew Reed mar16@usca.edu, cteelon@usca.edu, jmj18@usca.edu,

University of South Carolina Aiken

INTRODUCING THE ISOTOPE DISCOVERY ACTIVITY

Mentor: Bethany Fralick (bethanyf@usca.edu)

ORAL SESSION 5: ENGINEERING

Maggie Marte, Clemson University

mmarte@g.clemson.edu

RAPID CRYOGENIC CHARACTERIZATION OF THIN-FILM MATERIALS FOR QUANTUM

COMPUTING APPLICATIONS

Mentor: Kasra Sardashti (ksardas@clemson.edu)

POSTER SESSION: MATH AND STATISTICS

Jensen Meade, Coastal Carolina University

jrmeade@coastal.edu

AN ANALYSIS OF THE SEQUENCE X(N+2) = IMX(N+1) + X(N)

Mentor: David Duncan (dduncan@coastal.edu)

POSTER SESSION: ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS

Lili Boss, College of Charleston

bosslf@g.cofc.edu

USING LIQUID NITROGEN CAPTURE METHODS TO ASSESS DROP-SIZE-DISTRIBUTIONS

ACROSS MULTIPLE NATURAL RAIN EVENTS

Mentor: Michael Larsen (larsenml@cofc.edu)

POSTER SESSION: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Kyla Thomas, Matthew Defreitas and Jackie Gould, Coastal Carolina University kjthoma3@coastal.edu, jzgould@coastal.edu, mjdefreit@coastal.edu

SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF BACTERIOPHAGE GENE TOXICITY

Mentor: Daniel Williams (dwilliams@coastal.edu)

POSTER SESSION: FIELD BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Hailey Oldfield, Coastal Carolina University

hroldfiel@coastal.edu

ENVIRONMENTAL BACTERIOPHAGE PRESENCE IN THE DRAINAGE PONDS AT COASTAL

CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

Mentor: Paul E. Richardson (prichar@coastal.edu)

POSTER SESSION: CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

Zarah Fowler, Finn Rose and Gabriela Pérez Alvarado, Coastal Carolina University

Sasha Bronovitskiy, Georgia Institute of Technology zmfowler@coastal.edu, ikrose@coastal.edu, gperezal@coastal.edu

sbronovitskiy3@gatech.edu

IDENTIFICATION OF A SMALL REGULATORY RNA USPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE

UNIVERSAL STRESS PROTEIN IN Lactobacillus SPECIES

Mentor: Brian Lee (brianlee@coastal.edu)

POSTER SESSION: PHYSIOLOGY, HEALTH, AND EXERCISE SCIENCE

McKinley Antley, College of Charleston

antleymh@g.cofc.edu

DIMENSIONS OF MUDDY BROWN GRANULAR CASTS AND ANTHROPOMETRICS IN

PATIENTS WITH ACUTE TUBULAR INJURY

Mentor: Michael Janech (janechmg@cofc.edu)

POSTER SESSION: CELL BIOLOGY

Zara Lacera, University of South Carolina Aiken

zlacera@usca.edu

HOMOLOGY-BASED OPTIMIZATION OF THE PONG TRANSPOSASE PROTEIN

Mentor: C. Nathan Hancock (nathanh@usca.edu)

2023 Darwin Week - Feb 16, 2023:

Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Reyco Henning gave the following three lectures at

(1) College of Charleston Physics Department Colloquium

(2) College of Charleston: Public lecture

(3) Citadel Public lecture: DarwinWeek_Speaker_2023.pdf

Zoom recording:

Reyco Henning - Darwin Week 2023 - Dark Matter.mp4

Sigma Xi Awards and New Membership Banquet, April 22, 2022

New Members:

Full Members

Citadel

Associate Members:

GPMB:

Citadel

Sigma Xi Awards

MUSC Student Research Day

Best Oral Presentation Award

2020-2021

Joy Kirkpatrick

Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, MUSC.

2021-2022

Catherine Maria Mills

Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, MUSC

Marine Research Colloquium, College of Charleston

First Place, Best Oral Presentation Award

Michael Thienes

Second Place, Best Oral Presentation Award

Josiah Waters

Sigma Xi Communication Science Award, EXPO 2022, April 8

Zachary Smith - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Chris Fragil

School of Sciences and Mathematics, College of Charleston

"GRRMHD Simulations of ULX Sources"

2022 Citadel Excellence Day, April 8

Sigma Xi Student Presentation Awards:

Dalton Hazekwood, Cyber and Computer Sciences - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Deepti Joshi

"Multiattribute Deduplication of the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone"

Eric Lilling, Mathematical Sciences - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Bo Li

"Statistical Analysis of the Effect of Music on Human Brain Activities"

Alexander Stensland, Physics - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kaelyn Leake and Dr. Hank Yochum

"Characterizing 3D Electrochromic LBL Self-Assembled Polymer Films"

SCAS

Zachary Smith - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Chris Fragil

School of Sciences and Mathematics, College of Charleston

"GRRMHD Simulations of ULX Sources"

Alexander Stensland, Physics - Faculty Advisor: Dr. Kaelyn Leake and Dr. Hank Yochum

"Characterizing 3D Electrochromic LBL Self-Assembled Polymer Films"

-----------------------

2022 Darwin Speaker at The Citadel

"Life imitating life: evolution of mimicry"

by Dr. David Pfennig
Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Zoom recording:

6:45 – 7:45 pm on Thursday, February 17, 2022
The Greater Issues Room, Mark Clark Hall
Refreshments available at 6:15pm

Abstract

Many dangerous species have evolved conspicuous signals that warn predators to avoid them, and, unsurprisingly, many harmless species have evolved to resemble these dangerous species. These ‘mimics’ thereby receive protection from predation, just like their toxic ‘models.’ This phenomenon––known as Batesian mimicry after the explorer and naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who first described it––has fascinated evolutionary biologists since Darwin. In this talk, we will explore Batesian mimicry among deadly coral and their harmless lookalikes and ask: how does mimicry evolve? How do we test for mimicry in natural populations? Why is mimicry imprecise? Can we observe mimicry’s evolution? As we will see, Batesian mimicry provides powerful proof of the power of natural selection to produce remarkable adaptations.

Biography:

Dr. David Pfennig is a professor of biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer. He studies how the interplay between evolution, ecology, and development shapes biodiversity. He has published 150 scientific papers and is the author of Evolution’s Wedge (2012, with Karin Pfennig) and editor of Phenotypic Plasticity and Evolution (2021). His work has been featured on The National Geographic Channel, on the BBC/PBS’s Nature series, and in The New York Times, Newsweek, National Geographic, Scientific American, New Scientist, and Discover, among other publications.

Flyer: DaiwanWeek_Speaker_2022-1.pdf