May 29, 2026
This summer, students and faculty and staff members are actively participating in research presentations and professional development programs across campus. Through the support of Hampden-Sydney’s Office of Undergraduate Research, students are sharing projects in a broad range of academic areas, including biology, chemistry, economics, computer science, and history. Faculty members are also presenting their own research, strengthening collaboration and engagement within the campus community.
Alongside these research presentations, Hampden-Sydney community members are building valuable professional skills through development sessions focused on topics such as navigating conferences effectively, writing strong resumes and cover letters, sharpening analytical abilities, and utilizing elevator pitches.
All sessions are scheduled for noon unless otherwise indicated and can be accessed via Zoom. Those interested in attending should contact Michael Wolyniak at mwolyniak@hsc.edu to receive the Zoom link.
Summer Schedule
Tuesday, June 2—Professional Development
- Effective Research Communication: Mark Celeste, Elliott Assistant Professor of English
Wednesday, June 3—Student Seminar
- Dylan Evans ’27 (Late Antique Economic Transformations at Stobi)
- Alexander Albright ’27 (Data or Death: Local Decision-Making in the Construction of Data Centers)
- Satchel Bowling ’27 (Permissibility of Nudge Policies in Legitimate Governance)
Monday, June 8—Professional Development
- Internship and Graduate School 101: Emilee Fairbaugh, Assistant Director for Programming and Partnerships; and Ashley Crute, Assistant Director of Career Services
Tuesday, June 9—Student Seminar
- Will Gravely ’28 (Water Quality of Lake Monticello)
- Seaborn Barker ’27 (Understanding and Calculating Building Energy Efficiency)
- Anthony Cortez ’28 (Frame Theory: Investigation of Globally Injectivity of Activation Layers in Neural Networks)
- Gyabaah Kyere Gyebaour ’27 (A Fusion Remote Sensing Data for Accurate Classification of Rubus chamaemorus)
Wednesday, June 10—Professional Development
- Making the most of conferences: Hope Willard, Visiting Assistant Professor of History
Thursday, June 11—Student Seminar
- Ben Taylor ’29 (Overview of Challenges for Computing in Space: Feasibility and Emerging Concepts in Orbital Data Centers)
- Jonathan Deluna ’28 (Coordination chemistry of main group metal complexes with N-heterocyclic chalcogenones)
- Emmanuel Wognim ’27 (Computational Analysis of Melanoma Aggressiveness Using Machine Learning)
Monday, June 15—Professional Development
- Resume and Cover Letter Best Practices: Emilee Fairbaugh, Assistant Director for Programming and Partnerships; and Ashley Crute, Assistant Director of Career Services
Tuesday, June 16—Student Seminar
- Levi James ’28 (Experimental Comparison of Thermal Conductivity and Heat Flux in Aluminum, PVC, and Carbon Fiber in Epoxy Using the Transient Plane Source Method)
- Kamal Iqbal ’27 (Engineering Bacillus subtilisto Overproduce Eucalyptus Isoprene Synthase for Enhancing Soybean Stress Tolerance)
- Ashford Reyes ’28 (Using Computer Vision to Classify Blowing Snow)
- Everett Morse ’29 (Controlled Mobile Network Experiments: Information-Theoretic Analysis of Encrypted Traffic in Infrastructure-Level Environments)
Wednesday, June 17—Professional Development (1 pm)
- A crash course in analysis: Analytical skills in different professional settings: Abigail Horne, Associate Professor of English
Thursday, June 18—Student Seminar
- Kavin Wood ’27 (Examining Outcome Bias and Trust in an Ethnic Diversity Context)
- Lucas Ramos ’28 (The Effects of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on Oviparous Embryo Cardiac Development and Physiology)
- Will Robinson ’27 (The Effect of Elevated Ambient Water Temperature on Recovery Time in Catch and Release of Speckled Trout and Red Drum)
- Spencer Schneider ’28 (Simultaneous Wide-Field Imaging Upgrade for the College Observatory/Beta-Testing Skynode and Skynet II at the Hampden-Sydney College Observatory)
Tuesday, June 23—Student Seminar
- Ellison McDow ’29 (Creating and Testing a Python Program to Manipulate and Interpret ESR Spectral Data)
- Brendan Kittner ’28 (The Comparative Effects of Commercial Pea Protein and Whey Protein Isolates on C2C12 Skeletal Muscle Cell Proliferation and Maturation)
- Clay Topping ’27 (Solvent Optimization for Electrospinning Poly(ε-caprolactone))
- Haden VonCanon ’27 (AI and Smart Glasses for Public Speaking)
Wednesday, June 24—Faculty Research
- Creativity across domains: Examining the role of imagination and self-regulation in early childhood creativity: Rebecca Bauer, Elliott Assistant Professor of Psychology
Thursday, June 25—Student Seminar
- Lily Bauer ’29 (Imaginative Children and Prosocial Behavior, Internalizing Symptoms, and Peer Victimization)
- Nur Wasi ’28 (Branched Chain Amino Acids For Skeletal Muscle Maturation)
- Jacob Wilson ’27 (Princeton in Time: How did Princeton Change and What Does that Change Mean Today?)
- Joseph Carbone ’28 (The Birthplace, Memorial Gate, and Bell Tower as Historic American Buildings)
Monday, June 29—Professional Development
- Networking session: Scott Crawford, Director of the Ferguson Career Center
Tuesday, June 30—Student Seminar
- Jackson Ray ’28 (Generation of a FOXC2-overexpressing Murine Melanoma Cell Line)
- Adam Cochran ’28 (Optimization of FOXC2Western Blotting Conditions and Analysis of Foxc2 CRISPR-Cas9 Gene-Edited Murine Melanoma Clones)
- Charlie Pearson ’28 (Analyzing Modern Structures Through Roman Literature)
- Rowan Warren ’28 (The Legacy of Rome in American Neoclassicism)
Wednesday, July 1—Professional Development
- Foundational Excel Skills That Everyone Should Know: Hunter DiPaolo ’13, Assistant Director of Institutional Effectiveness
Thursday, July 2—Student Seminar
- Easton Crockett ’28 (Investigating Invertibility in Non-ReLU Activated Neural Networks)
- Zeke Barron ’28 (Functional Analysis of a Conserved Phosphorylation Motif in Cytosolic Malate Dehydrogenase)
- Steven Goudes ’27 (Sex-Related Differences in both hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) and hEDS)
- Zach Smith ’28 (Biodiversity of Native Bee Species in Central Virginia)
Tuesday, July 7, and Thursday, July 9—Professional Development
- I Don't Know What You Did Last Summer: Help Putting Your Research Into Words for a Resume or Cover Letter: Dr. Jake Euteneuer, Elliott Associate Professor of Rhetoric
Wednesday, July 8—Student Seminar
- Joshua Ferreira ’27 (A Biochemical and Biophysical Analysis of Yeast Prion Aggregation and Proteolytic Resistance)
- Damien Kerseborn ’29 (Electron Spin Resonance Investigation of Biochemically Generated Curcumin Radicals and Related Compounds Using a Hemoglobin Mediated Oxidation System)
- Charlie Redding ’27 (Collaborative Organic Synthesis Research)
- Ethan Whiteowl ’28 (Fluorogenic Probe for Detection and Tracking of Neuropeptide Y)
Wednesday, July 8—Professional Development (2 pm)
- Delivering an effective elevator pitch: Miranda Rouse, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Director of the Rhetoric Studio
Wednesday, July 15—Student Seminar
- Jackson Cofer ’27 (Exploring the coordination chemistry of a series of main group metal halide complexes featuring N-heterocyclic chalcogenone ligands)
- Kevin Nova Euceda ’28 (An Examination of Forensic Methods in Honey Quality Control and the Identification of Unknown Samples)
- Colin Mason ’28 (Near-Infrared Fluorogenic Probe for Detection and Tracking of Galanin)
- Grant Collins ’27 (Fermi-Dirac Intergrals)