Fall 2026: Poster Session I

This project presents a STEM and Social Science outreach initiative designed for the Spanish-speaking community in Lancaster and York. This project is produced by Professor Jenik and Lianmarie Aviles in collaboration with WLCH Radio. This program is going to be presented weekly for 5 minutes every Thursday at 8:30 a.m., starting in October. The goal of this initiative is to explain scientific concepts and research, as well as explore local and national issues using clear and accessible language. The main objectives are to inspire, educate, and connect the Hispanic community of Lancaster and York. This project was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation. 

Project Mentor: Professor Pablo Jenik, Department of Biology.

Antibacterial resistance is a rapidly evolving silent public health crisis. Among others, one solution is the development of novel classes of antibiotics. Holomycin, first isolated in 1959 from the Streptomyces griseus and later from Gram-negative marine bacteria, is a member of the dithiopyrrolone family of natural products. It is noted for its potent antibacterial activity (MIC  0.2–2 μg/mL E.coli). While the effect of altering the exo- and endo-cyclic amide positions R1 and R2 respectively have been well documented, the R3 position proximal to a redox active disulfide bond has been underexplored. Since the disulfide is key to the activity of holomycin as an antibiotic, we aim to understand more about how altering this proximal position changes the activity of holomycin. Here, we share our progress towards the synthesis of R3 derivatives in which we have been simultaneously exploring direct C–H activation of holomycin along with a diversity-oriented total synthesis This project was supported by funding from F&M's Committee on Grants Program and Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Sarah Tasker, Department of Chemistry.

This project explores the political mobilisation organisation called the " Digital Ground Game" that utilises Discord ( an online platform) as its main mode of operation. We explore the inner workings of this organisation using ethnographic participation and observation, qualitative interviews, surveys as well as by attending in person organisational events. We find that this organisation represents a new form of political mobilisation wherein by relying on its connections to the twitch streamer space, as well as through online efforts, the organisation conducts fundraising, canvassing and phone banking for liberal candidates while running independent projects aimed towards the same mission. The nature of their organisational platform, Discord, also presents both unique avenues and challenges in terms of greater participation and support from unconventional demographics.  This project was supported by funding from F&M's Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the Bolton Humanities and Social Sciences Student Exploration Fund.

Project Mentor: Professor Biko Koenig, Department of Government

Down syndrome (DS) is caused by triplication of human chromosome 21. Some infants with DS may develop transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD), resulting in overproliferation of megakaryoblasts. Some of these individuals exhibit an enlarged spleen (splenomegaly). Splenomegaly is also frequently observed in DS mouse model Dp(16)1Yey mice with a duplication of mouse chromosome 16 long arm (Dp+). To examine the number of megakaryocyte cells, flow cytometry was performed on 6-month-old Dp+ and euploid samples. Biological sex and genotype influences on spleen weight and morphology were also examined. Preliminary research showed spleens of Dp+ mice were larger and exhibit differences in morphology of the red/white pulp compared to euploid counterparts. Fluorescence was seen in the flow cytometry, suggesting tagging was a success. This research will help to examine the timing and development of splenomegaly in Dp+ mice, further strengthening the connection between TMD and the mouse model. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Clara Moore, Department of Biology.

International medical graduates (IMGs) have contributed to healthcare in Lancaster County for more than 300 years, yet many continue to face challenges entering the U.S. healthcare system. This project explored how IMGs experience welcoming and belonging in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through historical research and semi-structured interviews with three IMGs currently residing in the community. Participants discussed their educational backgrounds, pathways to Lancaster, and experiences pursuing U.S. medical licensure. All interviewees described Lancaster as a welcoming community and reported no experiences of discrimination. While adapting to conversational English presented some challenges, participants noted that medical terminology was generally familiar. Each participant balanced employment and/or family responsibilities while preparing for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1. These findings highlight the resilience of IMGs and the value of community support in helping internationally trained physicians pursue medical careers in the United States.This project was supported by funding from the Mellon Humanities for All Times: Reckoning with Lancaster Grant.

Project Mentors: Professors Giovanna Faleschini Lerner, Department of Italian Studies & Hebrew and Anne Stachura, Department of Spanish and Linguistics

In the proposed iron sulfide pathway of molybdenum sequestration, Mo sorbs to or coprecipitates with iron sulfide-containing compounds. This research aimed to understand: (1) the factors that promote sequestration of Mo under anoxic conditions, (2) the potential for Mo release to the aqueous phase during oxygen exposure for set periods of time, and (3) to understand the interplay between Mo and iron sulfides during the transformation of those iron sulfides to more stable phases. Solid iron sulfides with varying amounts of sorbed Mo were used to assess Mo’s impact on solid-state phase changes using different temperatures and oxygen exposure. The solid phase was characterized using powder X-ray diffraction. The release of Mo and Fe to the aqueous phase was quantified using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, while the speciation of tetrathiomolybdate was assessed using spectrophotometry. Results showed oxygen exposure 24-48 hours before transformation caused the highest Mo loss. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the National Science Foundation.

Project Mentor: Professor Jennifer Morford, Department of Chemistry.

Spectroscopic reporters are commonly used in biochemistry to report on local environments in the molecule of interest. NMR studies using isotopically labeled reporters provide clear results as the isotope peaks dominate the spectrum. Both unlabeled 5-cyano-2’-deoxyuridine (3a), 13% yield, and double labeled (13C15N) 5-cyano-2’-deoxyuridine (3b), 27% yield, were synthesized in one step and incorporated into a number of nitrogen and carbon NMR solvent- and temperature-dependent studies. The results revealed an interesting sigmoidal relationship for different percentages of D2O and DMSO and 50/50 D2O and DMSO variable temperature experiments against the 13C chemical shift. Ultimately, it was determined that it was solvent cluster effects causing this relationship. Lastly, the average 15N chemical shift in different percentages of D2O and DMSO revealed a linear relationship similar to previous studies done on only 15N isotopically labeled material. This work aims to further understand the relationship between the solvent environment and chemical shift. This project was supported by funding from F&M's Hackman Summer Scholars Program, and Eyler Fund.

Project Mentor: Professor Edward Fenlon, Department of Chemistry.

This summer I undertook research on three students who attended the Carlisle Indian School and were sent to Lancaster on the Outing Program. This poster will focus on William Nahongva, a member of the Hopi Nation, who was forcibly removed  to Carlisle as a prisoner of war in 1907. Although there are some archival silences on his life that remain, I was able to utilize a diverse set of archival documents to illuminate the ways settler-colonialism impacted his life and how he navigated those injustices. With the assistance of Lynette McCall (Hopi/Hualapai) the report that I prepared was sent back to the Hopi Nation in Arizona. The poster will examine his life before Carlisle, his arrival at Carlisle as a prisoner of war, his experiences at Carlisle, his outing experience in Lancaster, and how he rebuilt his life when he was discharged from Carlisle. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Mary Ann Levine, Department of Anthropology.

Cisplatin is a chemotherapeutic agent that kills cancer cells by inducing bulky DNA adducts, but chemoresistance remains a major obstacle because tumor cells activate specialized DNA damage tolerance and repair pathways. Our studies suggest that the repair protein DESI2 promotes translesion synthesis by modifying the scaffold protein REV1; however, whether DESI2 functions independently of BRCA2-mediated homology-directed repair (HDR) remains unknown. To investigate the relationship between DESI2 and the HDR pathway, we evaluated double-stranded DNA break (DSB) accumulation, cell survival, and cisplatin sensitivity upon DESI2 and BRCA2 depletion. Double depletion of DESI2 and BRCA2 increased DSBs and enhanced cisplatin sensitivity compared with DESI2 deficiency alone, supporting the hypothesis that DESI2 and BRCA2 function in distinct but complementary DNA repair pathways. These findings provide further insight into the mechanisms underlying chemoresistance and identify DESI2 as a potential therapeutic target to enhance cisplatin sensitivity in BRCA2-deficient tumors and improve treatment outcomes. This project was supported by funding from the Four Diamonds Transformative; National Institutes of Health grant. 

Project Mentor: Professor Claudia Nicolae, Penn State Health.

This project examines how Democratic and Republican members of Congress use moral language when debating major healthcare policy. Using the Stanford Hein Daily Congressional Speech Corpus, I focus on the 103rd, 110th, 111th, and 114th Congresses and build a bill-centered healthcare corpus around the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP. I apply the CARIN deservingness framework, which measures five moral dimensions: Control, Attitude, Reciprocity, Identity, and Need. To improve validity, speeches are divided into three-sentence analysis units rather than isolated sentences or full speeches, preserving enough context for human interpretation. I developed and validated a custom CARIN dictionary through manual coding, refinement, and an independent holdout test. The final dictionary captures healthcare deservingness frames with particular sensitivity to Need and Identity language, while also revealing trade-offs between precision and recall. Overall, this research shows how computational text analysis can identify partisan differences in moral framing within congressional healthcare debates. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor David Ciuk, Department of Government.

Once a photo is posted online, it's often out of your control. It can be collected and used by facial recognition systems, data brokers, and AI models without your consent. Prixel helps you take back some of that control by applying AI-resistant filters before you share your photos. To the human eye, an adversarial filter just looks like a subtle texture, an artistic overlay, or minor visual noise on a photo. However, to facial recognition systems, it can completely block or confuse what they see. It works by applying subtle pixel alterations to an image that mess with how AI models read faces while still looking normal to humans. Prixel serves as the foundation for a field research study aimed at advancing next-generation privacy defenses. This project was supported by funding from F&M’s Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Jacob Lagogiannis, Department of Computer Science.

Transfer hydrogenation is an essential chemical transformation traditionally reliant on metal catalysts. The Hantzsch ester has recently gained attention as a safer and more sustainable organic hydride donor, although it presents significant isolation challenges. This study investigates a bis-methylamido Hantzsch dihydropyridine (Hantzsch amide) as an equally sustainable alternative for the chemoselective reduction of α,β-unsaturated cyanoamides. A library of these substrates was synthesized via an aqueous, piperidine-catalyzed Knoevenagel condensation. Transfer hydrogenations confirmed that the Hantzsch amide efficiently reduces the conjugated C=C double bonds. Furthermore, the pyridine byproducts were successfully removed using a simple acidic aqueous workup, bypassing the need for chromatographic purification. However, during high-temperature (120°C) trials, a possible thermal decarboxamidation side reaction was identified, which further studies still need to be done to prevent. Ultimately, the Hantzsch amide serves as a practical, easily isolable reagent for the sustainable reduction of α,β-unsaturated cyanoamides.This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Scott Van Arman, Department of Chemistry.

Glacial loss due to climate change has important implications for aquatic systems fed by glacial meltwater because glacial flour (fine rock powder created when glaciers grind against bedrock) inputs regulate water clarity by increasing turbidity. To examine changes in the glacial signal as water flows between lakes, high-frequency turbidity sensors were deployed at three locations in two lakes in Banff National Park: the inflow of Zigadenus Lake (directly below the glacier), the middle of Zigadenus, and the middle of Myosotis Lake (a close, downstream lake). These sensors logged turbidity hourly, providing an opportunity to describe changes due to glacial melt, snowmelt, and precipitation at each location. We hypothesized that because the glacial signal is strongest closer to the glacial inflow, turbidity would be higher and more variable in Zigadenus than Myosotis. Our results lay the foundation for future investigations exploring the ecological implications of glacial loss for mountain lakes. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentors: Professors Janet Fischer and Mark Olson, Department of Biology.

Anion exchange can be an effective method to achieve nanoparticles with composition and phases that cannot be made through direct synthesis. The mechanism of how Se incorporates into copper sulfide nanorods based on the solution chemistry is not clear. This summer, we found that the prevalence of mono- and di-selenides formed through the radical-mediated reaction between elemental Se and 1-octadecene reactant produces the most phase-pure wurtzite for Se exchange, as revealed through PXRD, TEM, and SEM-EDS analysis. This is likely due to these species’ ability to more cleanly decompose into H2Se gas, which is believed to be a driving force of this exchange process. Selenium NMR analysis reveals a prevalence of monoselenides when heating selenium and octadecene to temperatures above 200 C under conditions where Ar gas is not flowed out of the reaction flask. Furthermore, the addition of AIBN seems to accelerate radical-mediated solubilization of selenium into mono-selenides. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the National Science Foundation.

Project Mentor: Professor Kate Plass, Department of Chemistry.

Our research aims to provide a possible solution for students as they try and navigate AI use at F&M while there is no institution-wide policy. More specifically, our research tries to outline how students can ethically collaborate with AI in the writing process. My literature review showed that AI can be used to complement the writing process, but it should not replace all human effort. I also conducted interviews with students and professors to hear different perspectives on how AI has impacted their educational experience. I used this information to inform my creation of three guides for brainstorming and outlining. I tested each guide and made revisions as needed to improve the quality of the interaction and output produced by AI. I used AI to create a website that presents the three guides I created, in addition to guides for more STEM-based processes created by other students. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars. Program.

Project mentor: Professor Willie Wilson, Department of Computer Science.

Fine particulate 2.5 (PM2.5) is a major air quality concern because its size allows it to penetrate deep into the respiratory system, leading to serious health effects. This research examines Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, focusing on meteorological conditions and topography may contribute to elevated particulate matter concentrations. Air quality monitoring data were analyzed along with weather conditions to determine if there are patterns in PM2.5 concentrations, leading to elevated exposure. Understanding these relationships can assist in explaining when and why air quality worsens and the conditions that place the public at risk. Ultimately, understanding air quality patterns to be able to promote community awareness and government strategies to reduce exposure. This project was supported by funding from the Clean Air Quality Board of Central PA Grant.

Project Mentor: Professor Robert Walter, Department of Earth and Environment.

Robot platforms provide various hardware and software capa-bilities, each unique combination resulting in vastly different interfaces, and requiring researchers and developers to focus their efforts on a single platform. The differences make it tedious and time consuming to implement social behaviors on another platform. To ease the development of social behaviors and simplify working with multiple social robot platforms, we propose using a novel language to facilitate LLM-based behavior generation and a modular middleware bridging the language to a robot’s API. Through a demonstration and two ablation experiments, we show that our approach can describe a range of social behaviors, adapt behaviors to a platform, and successfully execute them on two different social robot platforms. By relieving some of the challenges in implementing social behaviors across multiple platforms, our language and technology provide an approach to advancing end user development, teleoperation authoring, and autonomous social robots. This project was supported by funding from F&M’sHackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Willie Wilson, Department of Computer Science.

Groundwater temperature influences subsurface biogeochemical and ecological processes and informs drinking-water, geothermal, and other groundwater-resource assessments, yet it remains understudied relative to surface water temperature and other groundwater properties. This research investigates how groundwater temperatures are distributed and characterizes groundwater thermal regimes across the contiguous United States (CONUS). We compiled groundwater-temperature records and well metadata from the U.S. Geological Survey. We then mapped temperatures and well depths and applied k-means clustering analysis to classify distinct groundwater thermal regimes. The compiled dataset includes 318,457 temperature observations from 95,713 wells. Groundwater temperatures ranged from 0 to 49.7 °C (median = 15 °C), exhibiting a broad north-south gradient, while well depths were spatially heterogeneous. Clustering identified six thermal regimes based on median well temperatures and within-province temperature variability across well-depth groups. These findings provide a continental baseline for understanding groundwater thermal variability. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentors: Professors Shuyu Chang and Julia Carr, Department of Earth and Environment.

This research focuses on Puerto Rican women as cultural transmitters in the context of migration. Through interviews and literature reviews, I got to explore how gendered migration is and how central women’s roles are in it.

My specific research focus was women who have had leadership roles - where they had the chance to challenge and alter the status quo. One of them was the Radio Centro, where most of the employees are women, and their way of transmitting culture remains language. Nonetheless, throughout the migration processes of PR communities, it has not been easy for these women to reach leadership positions so easily. I conducted interviews with three women who have served in leadership roles, and they shared their migration stories. I also explored some historical content regarding Adela Valentin, who established the Radio Centro and challenged gender stereotypes as a Puerto Rican woman. This project was supported by funding from the Mellon Humanities for All Times: Reckoning with Lancaster Grant.

Project Mentors: Professors Giovanna Faleschini Lerner, Department of Italian Studies & Hebrew and Anne Stachura, Department of Spanish and Linguistics

This research project analyzes the contribution of businesses and organizations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to immigrant integration across two case periods, 1892 and 2026. The research used a comparative geospatial approach to examine both case studies. The goal was to identify changes in the types, locations and roles of businesses and organizations helping the immigrant population. Historical data were collected from city directories, census records, newspapers and LancasterHistory. Contemporary data were collected from local business and organization directories and government resources. A sample of businesses and organizations was also geocoded and mapped using R to discover their spatial distribution and relationship to Lancaster's downtown area. The findings concluded that businesses and organizations that contributed to immigrant integration have remained in the city center, but the nature of support has evolved. In 1892, businesses provided employment and housing, especially within religious and community organizations. By 2026, there are more specialized organizations that provide resettlement, language education, employment and entrepreneurship support. This project was supported by funding from the Mellon Humanities for All Times: Reckoning with Lancaster Grant.

Project Mentors: Professors Giovanna Faleschini Lerner, Department of Italian Studies & Hebrew and Anne Stachura, Department of Spanish and Linguistics

This summer, I researched four Indigenous students who attended the Carlisle Indian Boarding School at the height of the Indigenous assimilationist era of the United States. This poster focuses on Isabella Cornelius, an Oneida student who attended the boarding school from 1885 to 1892. Using a collection of archives, including the Carlisle, Lancaster City, and National Archives, this project aims to reconstruct the life of Isabella Cornelius, who was removed to Carlisle at the age of 13. She spent one year in Lancaster on the Outing Program, living and laboring at the home of Reverend John P. Stein, F&M Class of 1861. Isabella Cornelius became one of the first Indigenous women to receive educational training and become a teacher. Her story, like many others, reflects the broader goals of the Indian boarding school system, as she became a role model and a “success” story that other students were encouraged to follow.  This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program. 

Project Mentor: Professor Mary Ann Levine, Department of Anthropology.

The ASIL1 and ASIL2 genes are transcription factors of unknown function belonging to the SIP1 clade in Arabidopsis thaliana. In previous experiments, the Col wild type and single or double loss-of-function mutants of ASIL1 and ASIL2 were grown in either typical growth conditions or plates containing sorbitol or mannitol, both of which simulate osmotic stress conditions. The resulting growth phenotypes and a subsequent RNA-seq analysis supported the hypothesis that these genes play a role in regulating stress responses. This summer we explored the role of ASIL genes in the regulation of salinity stress and oxidative stress by measuring rosette growth and root growth. The results indicated that, in terms of root growth, the mutant plants were not differentially affected by salinity stress, but the rosette growth of the double mutant was resistant to salt treatment. More research is needed to determine the effect of oxidative stress.This project was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.

Project Mentor: Professor Pablo Jenik, Department of Biology.

By removing legacy sediment, floodplain-wetland bottom restoration reconnects incised stream channels with wetlands, floodplains, and groundwater springs to moderate stream temperatures. Stream gauge records validate this approach, showing long-term summer cooling trends at restored sites despite regional warming. This data, however, cannot capture the localized magnitude or spatial extent of individual groundwater springs, a gap that infrared imaging from thermal drone surveys can resolve.

Here, we calibrated high-resolution thermal infrared drone imagery with distributed water temperature sensors to map groundwater inputs and surface water temperature at restoration sites in Lancaster County. We found that a spring’s thermal influence depends heavily on flow velocity and hydraulic connectivity to the stream channel, allowing us to measure thermal mixing length scales across varying seasons and hydrologic conditions through repeat surveying. This work provides a framework for using local measurements to analyze reach-scale thermal variability and, ultimately, evaluate the effectiveness of floodplain reconnection restoration. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the Steinman Foundation Grant.

Project Mentor: Professor Julia Carr, Department of Earth & Environment.

Nanorods’ high surface area to volume ratio makes them great at catalysis, energy storage, binding, and photochemistry. All these chemical characteristics can be influenced by their size, shape, morphology, and stoichiometry. Ion exchange allows the tuning of materials’ properties by changing molecular composition while leaving their size, shape, and morphology practically the same. Previous experiments proved cation exchange can follow anion exchange. Can anions with a larger ionic radius be exchanged after the cations?  This project was supported by funding from the Frederick H. Suydam, PhD, Chemistry Student Research Endowed Fund.

Project Mentor: Professor Kate Plass, Department of Chemistry.

Stream discharge is a master variable of stream health. Once calculated one has the ability to measure the load of pollutants reaching critical waterways including the Chesapeake Bay. In order to calculate discharge you need two variables, the stage (depth) of the stream and its velocity across its width. Typical USGS gauge stations that measure discharge cost up to 40,000 to install in Pennsylvania, with ongoing costs in the 10s of thousands annually. Our research uses an innovative low cost methodology to calculate accurate discharge using the USGS Flow Photo Explorer. This model relies on timelapse photography and manual training data to produce an AI model which accurately determines the stage at a given monitoring location. Combined with readings from a SonTek flow tracker 2 we’ve begun to create a rating curve to translate our automated stage measurements into discharge readings. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program, and Steinman Foundation Grant.

Project Mentor: Professor Joseph Galella, Department of Earth & Environment.

Stream restorations often seek to address multiple biogeochemical impairments simultaneously. Through legacy sediment removal, floodplains are reconnected to stream channels to promote denitrification, springs are exposed to regulate temperature, soils buried for more than 200 years are exposed and native plants are replanted into their natural habitat. To accurately measure environmental uplift, multiple variables were simultaneously analyzed to paint a more clear picture of how restorations are performing over time. This research monitored eight stream and floodplain restorations in Lancaster County for soil and water health metrics along with upstream unrestored areas. These metrics included nitrate, bulk density, organic matter, temperature and pH. Restored areas generally showed significant environmental uplift, with denitrification and lower temperatures measured within restored reaches. This project was supported by funding from the Hackman Endowment Fund, and Steinman Foundation Grant.

Project Mentor: Professor Joseph Galella, Department of Earth & Environment.

Midwives have historically played a crucial role in maternal health in rural Mexico by doing deliveries and caring for mothers. The rise of biomedicine, however, set forward new ways of birthcare, such as the use of anesthetics and forceps. The introduction of such tools quickly cast a shadow over social medicine, wherein doctors with formal education advanced narratives about their own expertise as seen in clinical notes drawn from the Hospital Civil of Guadalajara’s maternity ward. As found in these medical archives, the use of these new tools were, nonetheless, prominent in complicated births. The purpose of my research was to examine whether new forms of care reduced the stillbirth rate in the state of Jalisco over time. By doing an SPSS statistical analysis, I will assess whether stillbirth rates in Mexico between the late 19th and early 20th century improved or not. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Laura Shelton, Department of History.

Stream and wetland restoration is intended to enhance carbon and nitrogen cycling by shifting sources, storage, and fluxes. We characterized this process across restored and unrestored reaches of Little Conestoga Creek, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We measured stable isotope (δ13C, δ15N) and elemental (%C, %N) composition of vegetation, soil, and flood-deposited sediment, along with CO2, CH4, and N2O soil gas fluxes. Foliar δ15N increased with restoration age, while δ13C showed no clear difference. Flood-deposited sediment also became enriched in δ15N upstream to downstream, despite stable %N. Sediment %C increased downstream along with a more depleted δ13C signature, suggesting greater organic carbon input. Soil C and N stocks did not vary substantially with restoration age, though the most saturated site had the highest, most variable stocks. Finally, N2O and CO2 flux did not differ significantly between wetland and non-wetland soils, whereas CH4 flux was higher and more variable in wetland soils. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program.

Project Mentor: Professor Christopher Williams, Department of Earth & Environment.

During the Pleistocene, the Laurentide Ice Sheet extended into northern Pennsylvania and developed permafrost with seasonally freeze-thaw active layers; this produced landforms such as solifluction lobes and blockfields still preserved across the Appalachians today. However, no one has systematically mapped or characterized these landforms in this region before, so we do not fully understand how climate and geology together shape them. Using LiDAR and ArcGIS, our team mapped over 25,000 solifluction lobes across the Pennsylvania Valley and Ridge, and we summarized solifluction lobe morphology and watershed characteristics for each mapped watershed. We found that lobes are more common toward the north and east, but with considerable local variation and no clear large-scale pattern. This suggests that the formation of landforms can be influenced by regional trends in climate, but also can be masked by local bedrock structure and hillslope morphology. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the Geoscience Founders Society Endowment.

Project Mentor: Professor Julia Carr, Department of Earth & Environment.

The Darvaza Gas Crater, usually known as the “Door to Hell,” is one of the most recognizable geological features of Turkmenistan. It is located in the Karakum Desert and has remained an active site of persistent combustion . Although the site is mainly known because of its unique appearance, it also represents an important intersection of geology, energy resources, environmental science, and human activity. This paper aims to examine the Darvaza Gas Crater through three perspectives: its geological formation, environmental significance, and cultural and economic importance. Historical and geological literature are considered alongside recent satellite-based observations of methane emissions. Moreover , recent observations provide evidence that Darvaza remains a methane-emitting site, which is making the crater relevant to questions about greenhouse-gas emissions and environmental management. This work  proposes methane-focused research as a major direction for future study, including measurement of methane emissions, investigation of atmospheric and local environmental effects, and comparison of methane release with visible combustion. Darvaza demonstrates how a localized geological disturbance can develop into a long-term environmental phenomenon with scientific, cultural, and economic significance. This project was supported by funding from the  F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program. 

Project Mentor: Professor Scott Van Arman, Department of Chemistry.

This project examines whether erosion exposure is disproportionately borne by communities in the Lower Susquehanna region, especially those with specific racial or socioeconomic characteristics, to explore whether potential patterns of erosion-related environmental injustice are present in this part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This research builds on data provided by Professor Fleming and Professor Rottman, including LiDAR estimates of streambank erosion rates of surveyed properties and demographic information about landowners. GIS is used as the primary research tool, comparing erosion patterns with demographic data from both the Census and the survey, as well as social vulnerability data, to identify potential disparities in environmental exposure. Watershed and contributing-area analyses will also be implemented to identify upstream activities correlated with erosion at particularly affected properties. Ultimately, this research aims to assess whether communities with certain characteristics are disproportionately subject to streambank erosion and its impacts and explore potential policies for addressing it. This project was supported by funding from the F&M Hackman Summer Scholars Program and the David Schuyler Urban Studies Fellowship Endowment..

Project Mentor: Professors Timothy Bechtel and Eric Hirsch, Department of Earth & Environment.