College Provides Students with Research Experience

 

Oakland University student Christina Egle and Chemistry professor Dr. Maria Bryant

Christina Egle, an OU senior double majoring in Chemistry and Mathematics, was one of 17 participants in this year’s Oakland University Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program. For 12 weeks, select OU students were provided the opportunity to conduct their own research projects in a laboratory setting under the guidance of an OU faculty mentor.

Egle spent her time working with chemistry professor Dr. Maria Bryant to investigate the interactions between coinage metal nanoclusters and HCN to understand their energy and its dependence upon the number of metal atoms in the clusters. “I learned a lot from this that I couldn’t get out of a text book,” Egle said. “This program was a good experience that helped me to understand what is involved with research and how a real laboratory is run.”

From a young age, Egle was interested in the sciences. She experimented with astronomy as a child, but turned her attention to chemistry in high school. “I picked up on the subject very quickly and decided that it was a field that definitely interested me,” Egle explained.

Along with Egle, Bryant mentored biochemistry major Ryan Malek during this summer’s program. “The students were working on separate research topics, but I would overhear them talking and exchanging ideas,” noted Bryant. “They were teaching each other. It was wonderful.” 

The program is funded by a variety of grants, donor contributions and the university. Both Egle’s and Malek’s summer research projects were funded by the National Science Foundation from a grant Bryant received for her research on clusters. Other contributors to this program include Dr. Jean Holland; the Bennett Scholarship; the Dershwitz Award; the Foster-Miller Research Fellowship; the Kelly Biomedical Award; the Thompson Scholarship; and the NIH American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Initiative. 

Egle is looking forward to graduating in the spring and intends to continue on to graduate school to study physical chemistry. Egle explains, “I love the hands-on experience involved with chemistry and the diversity of possible career fields involving chemistry.”