“Many chain restaurants like Starbucks just dump their old coffee grounds, so I thought this would be a good way to recycle them,” Shamitko said. Experimenting with coffee grounds from the campus’ Barista Café, Shamitko first extracted oil from the grounds to use as biodiesel fuel, a process that took nearly six months to complete. She then tested the viscosity, or the flow, of the product and compared the results to other biodiesels like vegetable oil. What did she discover? “The coffee oil tested well as a biodiesel, but unfortunately, it takes a lot of coffee to make a little biodiesel, so it’s not a viable solution in the real world,” she said. While automotive companies won’t be manufacturing coffee-powered cars in the foreseeable future, the scientific research process was an invaluable learning experience for the aspiring chemist. “The professors at W&J teach you more than class work,” Shamitko said. “They encourage independent research in the labs where you’re on your own. That is where the real learning happens.” Shamitko, along with 12 other W&J students, was given the opportunity to present her findings at an American Chemical Society conference in San Francisco, where she networked with chemists and professors from across the globe. During her time at W&J, she gained additional experience as an intern at California State University Fullerton and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, giving her a head start on a promising career. “As an undergrad, I wanted to gain experience in the academic, industry and government sectors to get a feel for what I liked best,” she said. After graduating in May, Shamitko traveled to Germany to secure industry experience at Continental AG, an international tire manufacturer. Here, she put her analytical chemistry skills to use by studying the rubber particles released into the air during tire production. Shamitko, who returns to the U.S. in the fall to pursue her doctorate degree at West Virginia
University, hopes to find a job where she can combine her passion for chemistry with her love of travel. Joining Shamitko in Europe this summer was physics major Sean Maddock ’11, who spent nine weeks in Paris studying at the Institute of Optics Graduate School at École Polytechnique. As one of eight undergraduate students selected for the program, Maddock was given the opportunity to perform research with ultrafast lasers in some of the finest optics laboratories in the world. Called “Optics in the City of Light,” the program is funded by the National Science Foundation and exposes future physicists like Maddock to the collaborative efforts taking place among institutions ranging from the University of Michigan to the Louvre. Maddock, a dual citizen of the U.S. and France, applied his second major—French—to adapt to his surroundings for the summer. Not that he is any stranger to leaving his comfort zone—the pre-health student traveled 800 miles from his home in Kansas to attend W&J. Impressed by the College’s strong reputation in the sciences, he particularly appreciated the small class sizes and the personal attention given to each student. “Some of my classes have no more than seven to nine students,” he said. Maddock, who also excels on the W&J soccer field, plans to pursue a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree after graduation. The rigorous coursework combined with independent research will give him, as he put it, “the best of both worlds.” It is the same philosophy adopted by Taylor Eddens ’11, a biochemistry major who welcomes the wide range of career opportunities available to M.D./Ph.D. candidates. “I can practice medicine and be qualified to teach at any given time as well,” he said. He received parallel advice from Dr. Roy Curtiss III, a member of the prestigious U.S. National Academy of Sciences who spoke to Eddens about his future plans during the World Vaccine Congress in Beijing. As the only undergraduate student at the conference, Eddens embraced the
“Seeing research with my name on it presented to an enormous audience was such a humbling experience.” – TAYLOR EDDENS ’11
opportunity to network with Curtiss and other worldwide leaders in immunology. Research that Eddens co-authored with W&J alum Kerin Fresa-Dillon ’79 was presented at the event to nearly 100 scientists. “Seeing research with my name on it presented to an enormous audience was such a humbling experience,” he said. Eddens collected data for the research—which examined a vaccine for a major cause of pneumonia—while interning with Fresa-Dillon at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. When the World Vaccine Congress accepted Fresa-Dillon’s proposal to present the research in Beijing, Eddens was determined to go. Thanks to the College’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant and additional funding from the administration, he was able to achieve his goal. Eddens is grateful to W&J for giving him this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “When I told people how I paid for the trip, so many said, ‘my institution never would have done anything like that.’” With one year left in his W&J career, Eddens is excited to take full advantage of everything the campus’ new John A. Swanson Science Center has to offer—from its state-of-the-art laboratories to its brand-new equipment. “Before, we were limited in resources,” he said. “Now, nothing stands in our way.” – MEGAN MONAGHAN
WASHINGTON & JEFFERSON COLLEGE
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