$70K Chemistry Grant Puts Students to Work

When Aaron Trail, who graduated from Penn State Behrend in May of 2021 with a degree in Biology and a minor in Chemistry, went to job interviews after graduation, there was one thing that every potential employer wanted to talk about: his research experience with Dr. Mary Grace Galinato, associate professor of chemistry.

“They seemed extremely excited about my research and lab work, because it isn’t common for undergraduate students to have that experience and even more rare for a biology major to have worked in a chemistry research lab,” said Trail, who won first place in the Chemistry division at Behrend’s 2021 Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research and Creative Accomplishment Conference for his work with Galinato.

Galinato received a three-year, $70,000 grant from the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund to develop an artificial manganese protein catalyst that can remove sulfur from petroleum-based substances. At least 40 percent of those funds are to be used to pay students—a win-win since they not only gain valuable lab experience, but get a paycheck, too. Seven students have benefited so far.

Crude oil naturally contains sulfur, which has several adverse effects: It corrodes parts of internal combustion engines, generates pollution, and promotes the formation of acid rain.

“We would like to develop an artificial manganese protein catalyst that can effectively remove sulfur from petroleumbased substances,” Galinato said. “The catalyst would be eco-friendly, more stable than a traditional water-based protein, and potentially reusable. This can be achieved by encasing the catalyst in a gel material made of silica.”

The student researchers help Galinato by preparing and purifying the artificial proteins and creating experimental conditions to optimize their encapsulation.

“It’s a great learning experience that is completely different from coursework labs,” Trail said. “Sometimes, problems aren’t easily fixed, and nobody has an answer. That’s when you must use the skills and knowledge you learned in class to figure them out. Research work really pushes you, and it’s probably the most rewarding and enlightening experience I had at Behrend.”

Olivia Steinbeck, a junior Chemistry major, worked full time on the project last summer.

“It helped me build my lab skills and learn how to use the different instruments that are available to chemistry students,” Steinbeck said. “It also gave me the opportunity to learn about biomolecules and how they affect chemical processes.”

Most of the student researchers have been Chemistry majors, but Galinato said the project is interdisciplinary, not limited to chemistry alone. It encompasses biochemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and spectroscopy, and even extends to engineering as well as materials and polymer science.

“I want students to realize that collaborative efforts across disciplines are sometimes necessary for success,” Galinato said. “Research work also helps students apply what they have learned in the classroom and forces them to think critically and discover new concepts.”

Galinato is happy to put so many students to work, and she’s excited about the potential outcome and how it might lead to positive change.

“I hope to raise awareness of utilizing environmentally-friendly catalysts and provide the scientific community with an alternative means for studying desulfurization reactions,” Galinato said. “This research paves the way for generating structurally tunable catalysts that may be employed under different reaction conditions.”

When you see her long list of activities and accomplishments, you may think junior Environmental Science major Olivia Hodgson is one of those rare, gifted students cruising right along on a combination of endless energy, superb organizational skills, picture-perfect memory, and charisma.

Hodgson is vice president of Greener Behrend, a Schreyer Honors scholar, director of communications for the Alternative Spring Break program, vice president of the Behrend Honors Student Association, and a peer tutor in the Learning Resource Center.

The reality, though, is more complex. She has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease.

“It’s a chronic condition that is challenging to live with at times,” Hodgson said. “It affects my sleep, energy, and memory.”

And, yet, in November, Hodgson won first place in the undergraduate student poster presentation at the Regional Science Consortium’s 17th Annual Research Symposium in Erie for her work with Dr. Sam Nutile, assistant professor of biology, evaluating polychlorinated biphenyls (non-biodegradable industrial compounds) in the tissues of Lake Erie fish to estimate possible dietary exposure to humans who consume them.

“It was a long semester, and I was very tired the day that I presented, so winning first place really made me feel that my hard work was acknowledged,” she said. “I work hard and I’m proud of what I have accomplished.”

It’s a labor of love for Hodgson, who is also minoring in Chemistry and Biology. “I chose my major because I have always loved the outdoors, and I picked my minors because they were my favorite subjects in high school,” she said. “Environmental Science is a way to bring it all together.”

Between her classes, studying, and club activities, she is also working on her Schreyer Honors project extracting organic pesticides from the soil and sediment from locations around campus. “I hope to be able to find a relationship between chemicals and the teratogenesis (malformed limbs) we have been seeing in some salamanders in the area,” Hodgson said.

Despite her full slate of commitments, Hodgson makes time to help others. “I’m passionate about kindness, and it’s important to me to serve a cause greater than myself,” she said.

To that end, she offers this advice to fellow students, but especially to firstyear students: Take your mental health seriously.

“College is hard and you’re going to be faced with a lot of stress and new challenges, so it’s important to manage that stress and anxiety,” Hodgson said.

“Get enough sleep, eat healthy food as much as possible, make time for some exercise every day, pick up an easy hobby that relaxes you, and take advantage of the college’s Personal Counseling office! It’s free and they want to help you be successful. If you take care of your mental health, your physical health and grades will improve, too.”

Hodgson offers this advice to fellow students: Get enough sleep, eat healthy food, make time for exercise, pick up an easy hobby that relaxes you, and take advantage of the college’s Personal Counseling office.

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Passing notes in school used to mean folding a sheet of paper into a triangle and flicking it to a friend in the next row.

Students in the School of Science at Penn State Behrend have developed a more engaging method: When they want to share a joke or, for finals week, some words of encouragement, they leave a personalized Post-It note in the breezeway at the east end of Otto Behrend Science Building. The glass walls have become an “attaboy” and “attagirl” bulletin board, crowded with colorful, science-joke notes.

“At our first Science Ambassadors meeting of the year, we discussed doing something fun to brighten up the science buildings,” said Lauren Barmore, a senior majoring in Biology, who helped spearhead the project.

The students who wrote the initial notes—Barmore, Taylor Romania, Briona Bargerstock, and Jacob Kessler—penned notes that reflected on the material taught in the School of Science.

“A lot of our professors put jokes and memes into their learning materials,” Barmore said. “We were sort of influenced by them.”

A similar display of sticky notes can be found in a stairwell at Behrend’s Reed Union Building. That project, which began several years ago, is maintained by students in the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) club. A box with blank notes and pens is an invitation for others to add sentiments, jokes, and quotes to the wall.

“I love taking notes from the RAK stairwell and giving them to my friends before exams, if they were having a rough day, or needed a laugh,” Barmore said. “I’ve found that the smallest acts of empathy or service can have a big effect on people. We wanted to bring some of that color and joy to our side of campus.” 3M, the original creator of the Post-It note, saw a story about the science note wall online and sent the Science Ambassadors a care package of Post-It notes so they have plenty more to continue spreading kindness.

Science News is published annually and provided free to alumni and friends of the Penn State Behrend School of Science by the Office of Strategic Communications, William V. Gonda, wvg2@psu.edu, senior director. Editor: Heather Cass, hjc13@psu.edu. Designer: Martha Ansley Campbell, mac30@psu.edu. This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. U.Ed. EBO 22-228