2021-2022 Senior Fellows

Hometown: Belmont, Massachusetts

Project title: Towards the Development of New Methods for Crosslinking Porous Molecular Crystals

Project description: The goal of this project is to study the structure of a previously synthesized covalent organic framework (COF) by synthesizing a hydrogen-bonded crosslinked organic framework (HcOF) analog. I also aim to explore the practical applications of the HcOF analog. COFs are crystalline, porous 2D or 3D polymer networks that have their monomers connected via covalent bonds, and they have many potential uses in energy storage, sensing, and drug delivery. Unfortunately, it is hard to polymerize COFs into continuous, single crystals with long-ranged structure, making it difficult to accurately determine their structures and further predict their applications, so synthesizing and crystallizing similar types of networks as analogs to COFs may be the way to study them. HcOFs are a similar class of porous materials assembled through both hydrogen- and covalent-bonding, for which single, continuous crystals are much easier to obtain. Based on this knowledge, I aim to study the structure of a previously synthesized COF by creating an HcOF analog through the combination of D2h- and C3-symmetric building blocks, analyzing that HCOF analog's structure, and using that knowledge to predict the COF's structure. I also aim to study the practical applications of that HcOF.

Extracurricular activities: In my free time, I like to play video games (especially open-world video games) and tabletop games. I also enjoy painting miniatures for these tabletop games. Oftentimes, I like to multitask in my free time, so you might find me listening to videos about the Roman Empire while exploring the world in Zelda. When I can, I also like to explore the outside world myself, particularly beaches and riversides.

Future plans: After graduation, I hope to attend graduate school to earn a PhD in chemistry. More specifically, I hope to continue work on designing functional materials on the molecular scale, understanding their properties, and exploring their applications. Because understanding functional materials' properties is integral to their applications, I want to learn more about computational chemistry in graduate school.

Hometown: Pomfret, Connecticut

Project title: This effeminate stranger: Dionysus' gender in translation and performance

Project description: This Senior Fellowship project is a two-part project that combines my work in the department of Classics with my theater experience as well as my research in translation studies and my lived experience as someone outside of the male-female gender binary. For the first portion of the project, I will translate the full text of Euripides' Bacchae from Ancient Greek into English with a focus on exploring the gendered boundary-crossing of its leads, Dionysus and Pentheus, as well as its Chorus, and on ensuring that my translation is easily performed and understood in a vocal context, rather than being intended primarily for reading. The second portion of the project will be a staged reading of my Bacchae translation which I will direct. The combination of these two parts will allow me to explore the written and spoken language and the physical embodiment of gender and boundary-crossing in the Bacchae through multiple lenses, including translation studies and theatrical direction, in order to gain a better understanding of where the Bacchae is situated in the history of gender and where nonbinary people are situated in the Bacchae.

Extracurricular activities: I'm a member of the Dartmouth Rude Mechanicals and have acted in and directed several productions of Shakespeare plays with the company. I'm also a member of the Amarna undergraduate society and I do research in the Classics department. In my free time, I enjoy testing new recipes in the kitchen, rock-climbing, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Future plans: I plan to attend graduate school to continue studying Classics, specifically Dionysus' role in Hellenistic poetry, after graduation with an eye toward ultimately going into academia or museum work.

Hometown: Naperville, IL

Project title: Psilocybin, creativity, and latent semantic analysis

Project description: The classic psychedelic psilocybin, when used in the context of psychotherapy to treat drug-resistant cases of depression and addiction, has been shown to produce profound and lasting positive effects, including changes in mood, improved social relationships, and increased overall life satisfaction. I have been working with Dr. Peter Tse and graduate student Nathan Heller of Dartmouth's Psychological and Brain Sciences department now for two years, and our group has formed a partnership with Dr. Roland Griffiths and Dr. Frederick Barrett at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at John Hopkins University (JHU). We are studying three key cognitive mechanisms that are operative in the healing outcomes of psychedelic-assisted therapy: divergent thinking, nostalgia, and meaning-making. This project is already in motion with data collection beginning this Summer and Fall (2021) at JHU and with analysis to take place beginning in the Fall (2021). During the Fellowship, I will be responsible for developing and performing computational linguistic and psycholinguistic analyses of free association responses from the novel Free Association Semantic Task (FAST) using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), which measure the flow of spontaneous thought, collected during three different experimental protocols, and finding correlations between those analyses and simultaneously collected EEG data.

Extracurricular activities: On campus, I am a proud member of the varsity Women's Rugby team. I am also involved in the Pre-Health peer mentor program, serve as a peer mentor coordinator for the Women in Science Projects (WISP) program, and work at the library and as a tutor for the Academic Skills Center. In my free time, I love spending time outdoors whether it be walking, running, rollerblading, or lounging, and I love exploring new and different types of food. I also really enjoy a good book, movie, or podcast.

Future plans: After graduation, I plan to take a gap year from education to work in an urban service-oriented project. Following, I hope to pursue a medical degree in a surgical field with considerations for applying to MD/PhD programs to continue my interest in research.