UC Clermont Students Participate in Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Research Experience

UC Clermont College students Melissa Howard and Mary Warmin worked full-time in the college’s laboratory as part of the 12-week Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) research experience this past summer. Offered to undergraduate women in any of UC’s major programs—particularly mathematics, science and engineering—WISE seeks to expose students to various aspects of scientific and experimental research as a potential career path. They recently presented their research projects at UC’s campus alongside 18 other women.

Both Howard and Warmin specifically requested to work with UC Clermont’s Associate Professor of Chemistry Cliff Larrabee, who was participating in the program for the second time. Larrabee’s project involves the synthesis and characterization of a class of clathrate-forming surfactants.

“My role is that of mentor,” explained Larrabee. “I act as a role model, teacher and research director, picking out the project and the type of experiments. A large part of the program is built in the instructor/student relationship, and how to do actual research which differs from the work students would do in a normal lab course.”

Warmin, who just completed her first year at UC Clermont, has been working with surfactant molecules that form micelles, which can be used for targeted drug delivery—such as sending chemotherapy drugs directly to an affected organ, rather than distributing them throughout a cancer patient’s entire body. 

“The program and the project have been a good fit for my interests, as my long-term goal is to go to veterinary school,” said Warmin, who already holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from The University of Notre Dame. “I’m not sure if I want to go into veterinary practice or research, although I’m loving being in the lab and getting so much professional experience by working on a real research project, instead of just the lab section of a class. It’s been a really good experience.”

Howard, a second-year chemistry major with a forensics minor, is working on a project involving a different application for the same molecules. “I’m studying ionic clathrate stability,” she explained. “Basically, I’m looking at ways to make ice stable at high temperatures so that it can trap small molecules like hydrogen and methane in nano-sized cavities. This has implications for future energy storage and transportation technologies.”

Both projects are based on research for which Larrabee has been awarded a provisional patent, meaning he’s shown proof of concept, but the process is many years away from being commercially viable.

“I like these projects for undergraduates because the work has real potential for changing the world by establishing the fundamental scientific principles that might lead to change in a few years,” he said. “It’s something that students can do here at UC Clermont that might one day have a real impact globally.”

“I had a phenomenal experience when I first mentored a student through the WISE program two years ago,” Larrabee continued. “I may be getting spoiled a bit because both Melissa and Mary have been so great and they’ve had remarkable success in their work!”

So remarkable, in fact, that Larrabee has asked Howard and Warmin to author papers explaining their research and its outcomes for publication in three different scientific journals. It’s an opportunity for which Howard and Warmin are extremely grateful.

“Authoring a paper for scientific publication is a really unusual opportunity for undergrads, particularly first and second year,” noted Howard.

Warmin agreed: “I’m really grateful for the opportunity to write a paper. It certainly can’t hurt my academic and professional career going forward.”

In addition to working directly with Larrabee, Howard and Warmin meet with all of the other undergraduates in the program at UC’s Clifton Campus for weekly workshops and discussions. Guest speakers present a variety of topics including decisions about graduate work, giving professional talks, reading scientific journals, developing leadership skills, and other skills related to being a professional scientist.

“Many different UC department heads have been featured speakers in these workshops, so it’s been really nice to get so know some of the professors that I’ll have when I get to main campus,” noted Howard.

At the conclusion of the WISE program, all participants—including Howard and Warmin—will give a final presentation of their work and its outcomes at a professional research conference hosted at UC’s Uptown Campus.

“One of the things I love about being at UC Clermont is you have all the resources of a large university—like the WISE program—but class sizes are smaller, so all my professors knew my name within the first week, which is pretty amazing,” Warmin concluded. “I have the best parts of being in a small school and part of a major university.”