Diana Diaz, Senior (Biology)
Making the Daphnia Heart Rate Lab Work: Optimizing the Use of Ethanol, Nicotine, and Caffeine.
            "Exposure to lab experimentation is a crucial part of the pedagogy of the sciences, with biology posing no exception. Experimentation teaches students proper lab conduct and elucidates how scientists have reached many of the conclusions taught in lecture components of courses. A common experiment performed by students involves the organism Daphnia magna. Daphnia is inexpensive, easy to maintain, and students may readily observe the effect of various chemicals on its heart rate. Daphnia is an excellent teaching tool for students being exposed to the nuances of lab research and experimentation. We plan to use the methods of Corotto et al to determine the effect of test agents on Daphnia's heart rate. The results of our work should be highly suitable for presentation at the Georgia Academy of Science. It may also be possible to incorporate them into a manuscript for a teaching journal."

Jesse Green, Freshman (Chemistry)
Assisting Dr. Michael McGinnis in his research work involving the synthesis of Triclosan.
Triclosan is a commonly used, but controversial, antimicrobial substance used in soaps, fabrics, plastics and other products.

Rachel Livingston, Junior (Biology)
Rachel is currently working under Dr. Nancy Dalman conducting a teratogenesis assay on Xenopus laevis embryos and the effects of bisphenyl A. -- a chemical found in many plastic products such as baby bottles that is believed to cause developmental deformities as well as be an estrogen mimicking compound. 

Corina Oltean, Sophomore (Biology)
Assisting Dr. Shanks, Dr. Lloyd, and Dr. Songer in their research project. The project involves the investigation of the neuroimmunological effects of methamphetamine on mice.

Adam Powell, Junior (Biology)
Adam is studying the effects of chemical toxins on Xenopus laevis embryos.

Levi Miller, Senior (Chemistry)
Levi is a chemistry major who joins Dr. Carole Brown in research to create photorefractive sol-gels for 3-dimensional data storage. They are incorporating organic electron acceptor/donor molecules into an inorganic matrix.

Andrew Pfeiffer, Senior (Chemistry/Physics/Math)
Andrew is majoring in chemistry, physics, and mathematics. Andrew plans on attending graduate school, performing additional research, and returning to North Georgia College as a professor of chemistry. Andrew's advisor is Aimee Tomlinson.
The topic of his research project is organic photovoltaic solar cells (PVCs). A promising alternative to conventional energy sources.

Rachel Confer, Junior (Chemistry)
"With a global push toward alternative sources of energy, it is unsurprising that research has shifted towards organic compounds as a cleaner and more environmentally friendly resource. The research into organic materials for use in solar cells has been the subject for a number of researchers. Our focus is primarily on the electron accepting member of bulk-heterojunction solar cells (BHJs). My system is the p-phenylenebenzobisthiazole (PBZT) and it is my job to run Density Functional Theory (DFT) and Time-Dependent-Density (TDDFT) computations on a variety of these core structures with different substituents. Using the results of these calculations, we can advise our collaborators on the identities of the materials which will lead to the best acceptors." Rachel's advisor is Aimee Tomlinson.