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Undergraduate Student Research Award

Sponsored by Dr. Donald Nelson Nasca

The Undergraduate Student Research Award, sponsored by Dr. Donald Nelson Nasca, supports undergraduate student research and creativity at the State University of New York at Fredonia. The goal of the award is to promote excellence in student research and creativity and to enhance the dissemination of that work. Through an endowment, Dr. Nasca has provided funding to support student research projects at SUNY Fredonia. The Nasca Award will be provided to at least two students each academic year and a maximum of $5,000 will be distributed among at least two student projects.

Students selected for the award must be enrolled full time at Fredonia and incoming sophomores, juniors, or seniors for the following year. Awardees are required to present their work at the annual OSCAR Student Research and Creativity Exposition. Projects selected in the Spring will receive funding the following Fall semester and must be able to fulfill their objectives by the following Spring to share their work at the OSCAR Exposition.

Deadline for applications is March 25th, 2025. 

Questions? Contact OSCAR@fredonia.edu

Dr. Donald Nelson-Nasca was an educator, scholar, writer, and mentor who was passionate about science, research, and people. He grew up in Laona, NY and graduated from Fredonia High School (‘50) and The State University of New York at Fredonia (‘54, Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education). He later earned his Masters in Science at Cornell University and his doctorate from the University at Buffalo ('65, Education, Ed.D.). Donald touched the lives of countless people of all ages through his love for science, exploration, creativity, inquiry, and problem solving. He was a respected researcher who published a number of articles in professional journals and magazines. However, he masterfully distilled that knowledge in an accessible manner for young scientists through hands-on science kits for Instructor magazine (a publication for teachers now called Scholastic Teacher magazine) and his books about science for children: The Science Discovery Series.

Dr. Nasca’s career included 48 years as a professor at Brockport College (earning a Chancellor Award for Teaching in 1994 and a Distinguished Professor title in 1995), Director of Research at SUNY Brockport, and Chair Department of Education Administration at SUNY Brockport. He was a lifelong learner with an insatiable curiosity and thirst for new knowledge and skills which resulted in the cultivation of numerous creative hobbies over the years. His impact on emerging researchers and artists continues through the Undergraduate Student Research Award sponsored by Dr. Donald Nelson Nasca.

Dr. Donald Nasca
Dr. Donald Nasca

 

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Trinity Choice Project Title: Isolating Mytilus Edulis Foot Protein 3 Through Recombinant Techniques

TRINITY CHOICE

Name: Trinity Choice

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mark Even

Major: Molecular Genetics

Project Summary: This project aims to look closely at one MAP in particular, mefp-3, which has unique adhesive properties that make it a prime candidate for developing a bio-inspired adhesive resistant to biofouling (Even et al., 2008). This protein is found secreted into the byssal threads (the site of attachment) which helps resist harsh conditions. By isolating mefp-3 to understand both its adhesive mechanisms and molecular structure, this would provide insight into the design of a synthetic adhesive that is non-toxic, yet efficient. Compared to previously used processes (Castillo et al., 2017), this experiment could reduce extraction time to one week and produce a purer sample of protein.

 

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Noah Barber Project Title: Mate Reconnection Strategies

NOAH BARBER

Name: Noah Barber

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Mahar

Major: Molecular Genetics

Project Summary: There is anecdotal evidence that many people engage in mate reconnection behaviors when they are being broken up with (Naftulin, 2022). Nevertheless, it is unknown what tactics people use to thwart breakups, whether individual personality traits differentially affect a person's response to a breakup, and whether the tactics differ by gender. The current study aims to use an experimental design and exploratory factor analysis to examine these gaps in the literature. Specifically, I am interested in 1) the specific techniques that people immediately use to attempt to stop an unwanted breakup from occurring and 2) whether these responses differ by gender and the tone of the breakup conservation.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Shirley Smit Project Title: Impact of Cough Strengthening Treatments on Vocal Health in Parkinson's Disease

SHIRLEY SMIT

Name: Shirley Smit

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bridget Russell

Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences

Project Summary: Improving swallowing through cough strengthening remains an especially important aspect of treatment for Parkinson’s Disease patients. In patients with Parkinson’s Disease, aspiration pneumonia is the leading cause of death (Troche et al., 2022). While both Expiratory Muscle Strength Training (EMST) and sensorimotor training for airway protection (smTAP)(smTAP) have demonstrated improvements in cough efficacy, their impact on vocal health remains under explored. This study aims to understand the relationship between these cough strengthening treatments and vocal health in patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Gavin Kaminski Project Title: The Archaeology of Climate Change II: Further Exploration of a Potential Paleo-drought in Western New York

GAVIN KAMINSKI

Name: Gavin Kaminski

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Matthew Purtill

Major: Environmental Science

Project Summary: Research in paleoclimatology is demonstrating that the Holocene period, was far from uniform, but instead had experienced dramatic swings in temperature and moisture which led to several megadroughts. Soil units in Cattaraugus Creek Valley appear to represent wind-blown loess similar to McKendry. At one such location, loess deposits are thick (over 1 m) and likely represent drought. Importantly, the age of these loess sediments is unknown. However, much of the loess deposition throughout the valley may be related to the same climatic drought. The purpose of this proposal is to determine the age of loess sediments in the Cattaraugus Creek Valley. Furthermore, if these soils all date to the same period (5.5 ka), there is significant evidence to support that Native Americans survived arid conditions in western New York during the middle Holocene.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Sawyer Oppenneer Project Title: Spectroscopic Determination of Solvent Mixtures Using Merocyanine Dyes

SAWYER OPPENNEER

Name: Sawyer Oppenneer

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Allan Cardenas

Major: Chemistry

Project Summary: Recently my colleagues and I develop a method that can determine the amount of ethanol in water by taking advantaged of the color changing capability of the dye. The limitation with the Brooker’s merocyanine is that it’s only soluble in polar solvents, such as water, ethanol and isopropyl alcohol. I aim to expand the range of solvents to include nonpolar solvents, specifically ones found in gasoline like benzene, toluene, and octane. This would be possible by modifying the molecular structure of dye, by adding nonpolar groups. In chemistry, we have a rule of thumb about solubility, “like dissolves like,” which means that if we want the dye to be soluble in a nonpolar solvent such as octane, we also have to make it nonpolar. This new dye could possibly be used to easily determine octane ratings in petrochemical samples, streamlining the process of analyzing fuel.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Colleen Tytler Project Title: An Investigation of the Novel Use of Creatine as an Antioxidant

COLLEEN TYTLER

Name: Colleen Tytler

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Todd Backes

Major: Molecular Genetics

Project Summary: Creatine has been previously investigated as an energy buffering supplement that can replenish high-energy phosphates, however an unexplored benefit of creatine may be its cytoprotective role as an antioxidant. This project will investigate the antioxidant capacity of creatine in both in vitro and in vivo methodologies. This project will also look at its possible antidiabetic and antihypertensive benefits in a non-diseased population. This novel approach of running the nearly identical experiment in the controlled environment of a cell culture and at the organismal level in humans may help to shed light on the exact mechanism of antioxidant protection.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Gavin Monaghan Project Title: shRNA Knockdown of NuMA Expression in Oral Cancer Cells to Block Mitotic Progression and Centrosome Multipolarity

GAVIN MONAGHAN

Name: Gavin Monaghan

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Quintyne

Major: Molecular Biology

Project Summary: The Nuclear Mitotic Apparatus (NuMA) protein serves a variety of functions throughout the cell cycle depending on its location within the cell. I will be examining the problem of abnormal increased expression of NuMA in human cancers. Upregulation of NuMA and other spindle proteins is common among cancers and shown to cause defects in cell division. These defects can induce large scale genomic mutations and contribute to tumor progression in cells. Decreased expression or complete loss of NuMA could potentially block progression through mitosis, which would lower the division rate of cancers and inhibit tumor progression. This possibility has applications in the treatment of cancer.

2024 Nasca Undergraduate Research Award Winner Name: Pedro Martinez Project Title: What's Your Type? Resemblance of Pornography Preference to an Actual Romantic Partner and Relationship Satisfaction

PEDRO MARTINEZ

Name: Pedro Martinez

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Mahar

Major: Psychology

Project Summary: Researchers suggest that people tend to have higher levels of relationship quality when their current romantic partner closely matches their ideal partner (Driebe et al., 2023). Thus, discrepancies between one’s ideal relationship partner and actual partner predict lower levels of relationship quality. One recent study of heterosexual men found that when their actual sexual experiences with a partner differed from what is typically shown in contemporary pornography, this was associated with lower levels of sexual satisfaction (Kuan et al., 2022). Of note, this study did not examine the similarity between the pornography that people are actually consuming and their actual partnered sex life. The proposed research aims to expand on the current literature and identify whether pornography preferences resemble one’s romantic partner (ethnicity, physical appearance, body type, and/or sexual activities that they may engage in) and whether dissimilarity is associated with lower levels of relationship quality.

Office of Student Creative Activity and Research (OSCAR)

  • 134 Reed Library State University of New York at Fredonia Fredonia, NY 14063

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