Six high school seniors and four recent high school graduates from area schools participated in Ph.D. level chemistry research at Rider University this summer.

The participants worked side-by-side with Rider faculty as a result of the American Chemical Society’s Project SEED (Science Education for the Economically Disadvantaged) program, now in its 16th year at Rider. The six-week program, which ran through August 11, allowed students to participate in summer research at college, university, governmental, or industrial laboratories. Grants of $2,275 per student were provided for first-year participants and $2,600 per student for second-year participants.

“These highly motivated individuals, from potentially high-risk groups, demonstrated keen interest and ability to conduct scientific research,” said Dr. John Sheats, professor of chemistry and Project SEED coordinator at Rider. “In my 16 years with Project SEED, we have had 80 students in the program. Many have gone on to obtain degrees in science, some have gone on to medical, law or graduate school and several have launched successful careers in the fields of business and law, as well.”

Project SEED participants gave presentations about their work on August 8 in the Cavalla Room of the Bart Luedeke Center. That day, a Delaware-New Jersey- Pennsylvania Project SEED Research Symposium and Career Conference took place in the Cavalla Room. Project SEED alumni were among the featured speakers. Greg Olsen, president of GHO Ventures, and third private citizen to travel in space, gave a keynote address. Olsen traveled to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz rocket in 2005.

Participating Rider Project SEED students were:

•Marlena Konieczynska of Lawrenceville, a 2006 graduate of Lawrence High School. She worked on the synthesis of Bis –(3-aminophenyl) phosphinic acid with Dr. John Sheats, professor of chemistry at Rider and Paul Lucuski, a chemistry teacher at Trenton Catholic Academy (formerly McCorristin Catholic High School) and associate director of Project SEED. Konieczynska will attend Rutgers University this fall.
• Diego Gonzalez of Hamilton, a 2006 graduate of Trenton Catholic Academy. He worked on a project to express a mammalian enzyme in the bacterium, E. coli, with Dr. Phil Lowrey, assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Jonathan Karp, associate professor of biology. He will attend Mercer County Community College this fall.
• Esteban Alvarado of Trenton, a 2006 graduate of Trenton Central High School. He worked on the synthesis of manganese cubic clusters with Dr. Sheats and Paul Lucuski. He will enlist in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps this fall.
• Ronald Benning Jr. of Lawrenceville, a senior at Lawrence High School. He examined the secondary deuterium isotope effects in the decomposition of substituted benzenediaznonium salts with Dr. Sheats.
• Lajhem Cambridge of Trenton, a 2006 graduate of The Lawrenceville School; Ledyitee Wheagar of Lawrenceville, a senior at Lawrence High School; and Mario Roman of Trenton, a senior at Trenton Central High School. They analyzed the effects of chemotherapy drugs on neurogenesis in the hippocampus of mice with Dr. Todd Weber, assistant professor of biology. Cambridge will attend Princeton University this fall.
• TyShaunine Harmon of Asbury Park, NJ, a senior at Asbury Park High School. She worked on the synthesis of monosubstituted diarylphosphinic acids with Dr. Sheats.
• Victoma Korgbe of Ewing, a senior at Ewing High School. She worked on expression of mammalian casein kinase I epsilon in E. coli with Dr. Phil Lowrey; and
• Bhavik Patel of Lawrenceville, a senior at Lawrence High School. He worked on the synthesis and biological evaluation of lipid-lowering pyrroles with Dr. Bruce Burnham, associate professor of chemistry at Rider.

Project SEED participants took field trips to such facilities as Sanofi-Aventis, Johanson and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford campus. Working in conjunction with local and national sections of the American Chemical Society, this year’s corporate sponsors are Firmenich Inc., Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc., FMC Corp.; Janssen Pharmaceutica, Hovione, Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, Pharmacopeia Inc., National Starch & Chemical Co. and Schering-Plough.