Lake Forest College Sciences

The sTudy of science and MaTh aT Lake foresT coLLege deveLops excepTionaLLy weLL-prepared, confidenT, and coMpeTiTive graduaTes.

The sciences aT

Lake foresT coLLege

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n u r s i n g p h a r m a C y p h y s i C s B i o l o g y C h e m i s t r y C o m p u t e r s C i e n C e

D i g i ta l m e D i a D e s i g n e n g i n e e r i n g e n v i r o n m e n ta l s t u D i e s m at h e m at i C s

n e u r o s C i e n C e n u r s i n g p h a r m a C y p h y s i C s B i o l o g y C h e m i s t r y C o m p u t e r

s C i e n C e D i g i ta l m e D i a D e s i g n e n g i n e e r i n g e n v i r o n m e n ta l s t u D i e s

m at h e m at i C s n e u r o s C i e n C e n u r s i n g p h a r m a C y p h y s i C s B i o l o g y

C h e m i s t r y C o m p u t e r s C i e n C e D i g i ta l m e D i a D e s i g n e n g i n e e r i n g

e n v i r o n m e n ta l s t u D i e s m at h e m at i C s n e u r o s C i e n C e n u r s i n g p h a r m a C y

p h y s i C s B i o l o g y C h e m i s t r y C o m p u t e r s C i e n C e D i g i ta l m e D i a D e s i g n



























On the cover: In her study of telomeres and how cells age, Dr. Karen Kirk, associate professor of biology, works with four of her students on research that is funded by a $250,000 National Science Foundation award. Students researching with Dr. Kirk are Nengding Wang ’09, Mithaq Vahedi ’08, Sean Davis ’09, and Daysi Vargas Gonzalez ’11. Recent graduates are now in medical school or graduate programs.

Labs are capped at 16, assuring students the opportunity to work closely with faculty members.

Robots understand their environment using sensors. By using the ultrasonic sensor, first-year students program their robot to react to hand signals.

Alumna Alexandra Charron delivers a baby while volunteering at a health clinic in Kenya. She is currently pursuing her MD at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Lake Forest prepares students for a variety of careers in the health and medical professions. Alumnus Dr. Bill Hartman conducts genome research and is an anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic.

You won’t find large lecture halls or teaching assistants at Lake Forest; professors do all the teaching, such as Professor of Physics Michael Kash who earned his BA at Lake Forest and his PhD at MIT.

In collaboration with nearby Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFUMS), the Summer Fellows Program gives Lake Forest students the opportunity to conduct original medical research. Here Dr. Michelle Hastings, mentor and professor at RFUMS, helps neuroscience major Ashley Reich ’13 analyze scientific data.

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innovaTive science aT Lake foresT coLLege

Sample Course Offerings• Analytical Mechanics

• Biochemistry

• Biodiversity and Agriculture

• Chicago’s Water: Sustainability

• Computer Architecture

• Conservation of Medicine

• Ecology and Evolution

• Electronics

• Environmental Chemistry

• Great Theorems of Mathematics

• Human Genetics

• Instrumental Analysis

• Lake Forestry

• Mechanisms of Brain Dysfunction

• Quantum Mechanics

• Molecular Neuroscience

• Robots, Termites, Bits, & Bytes

• Thermodynamics

• Tropical Ecology and Conservation

• Web Programming

• 2010 Blowout in Gulf of Mexico

The medical school acceptance rate among Lake forest graduates is 90% versus the

national average of just 40%. Lake forest college science graduates have gone on to

such medical schools as stanford university and Brown university and entered phd

programs at princeton university and university of chicago.

Majors & Programs• Pre-Health Programs (pre-med,

pre-veterinary, pre-dentistry, pre-optometry, and pre-pharmacy)

• Biology• Chemistry• Computer Science• Digital Media Design• Engineering (Dual Degree,

Washington University)• Environmental Studies• Mathematics• Neuroscience• Nursing (Affiliation, Rush School of

Nursing)• Pharmacy (Dual Degree, Rosalind

Franklin University of Medicine and Science)

• Physics• Summer Fellows Program (Rosalind

Franklin University of Medicine and Science)

Your study of science at Lake Forest College will put you at the leading edge of some of the world’s most critical issues—aging, engineering human organs, unraveling Parkinson’s disease, slowing the speed of light, the future of nuclear power, and ozone depletion. Supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation and other prestigious sources, you will be engaged in active, intense scientific work.

Consider that in Dr. Shubhik DebBurman’s lab, numerous biology students experimented with a protein that leads to Parkinson’s disease and published their results in professional science journals; others worked alongside Dr. Anne Houde who published her work about the evolution of guppies in Nature; students accompanied Dr. Lori Del Negro to Houston to analyze air quality; while others worked with Dr. DeJuran Richardson, a biostatistician, on clinical trials to study treatments for patients affected by stroke and heart disease at Rush University Medical Center of Chicago.

The strength of the sciences at Lake Forest is demonstrated by the high rate of graduate school acceptance in top programs around the country and the success of our graduates in a variety of careers. Whether you aspire to be a physician, scientist, physical therapist, engineer, physicist, computer analyst, biostatistician, teacher, or conservationist, a Lake Forest science degree will prepare you to attack the world’s big issues.

You will engage in scientific discovery working closely with faculty mentors who are nationally recognized researchers and scholars but who put teaching first. Professors are committed to both your academic and personal development and challenge you to reach your full potential. In addition to coursework, you may collaborate with professors as a summer research associate or on your senior thesis project, which may result in coauthored publications and presentations at professional conferences. You may also choose to challenge yourself by training with your professor for academic competitions such as the internationally competitive Putnam Math Competition.

In the summer after the first year, each student in the Richter Apprentice Scholars Program is employed for a ten-week period working one-on-one with a faculty member doing independent research in a particular field.

sTudenT-facuLTy coLLaBoraTion

Dr. Shubhik DebBurman, associate professor of biology, has received more than $700,000 in grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Parkinson Disease Foundation, and others to continue working with students to research Parkinson’s Disease. This emphasis on collaborative research led Katrina Brandis (pictured) to coauthor two scientific articles in the Journal of Molecular Neuroscience. She is now earning her PhD in cell and molecular biology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Science JournalsStudents have opportunities to coauthor journal articles with professors. Here is a sampling of journals in which students have been published:

• Animal Behavior• Analytical Chemistry• Chromosoma• Eukaryotic Cell• Inorganic Chemistry• Journal of Molecular Neuroscience• Nature• Organometallics• Physical Review A

• Science

ConferencesStudents attend professional conferences with faculty to present their research findings and gain valuable experience and exposure. National conferences students have attended include:

• American Chemical Society

• American Geophysical Union

• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

• American Society for Cell Biology

• American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

• Electronic Imaging Symposium

• Experimental Biology

• Society of Developmental Biology

• Society for Neuroscience

Working with Assistant Professor of Physics Nathan Mueggenburg, Zhonglin Zhao ’13 measures the angle at which x-rays scatter from an atomic crystal. From this information they will calculate the energy of the x-rays that are emitted when electrons bombard a copper target.

Instrumentation Students work with research-grade instrumentation gaining skills typically learned in graduate school.

Biology• Coulter counter• Fluorescence and

immunofluorescence microscopy• Gel electrophoresis• High speed centrifuge• Incubators• Laminar flow hoods• Multi-imaging system• PCR• Phase contrast microscopeschemistry• 400 and 60 MHz Nuclear magnetic

resonance spectrometers• Fourier transform infrared

spectrometers• GC mass spectrometers• LASER spectrometer for RAMAN

spectroscopy• Liquid chromatography-mass

spectrometer (LC-MS) • Portable spectrometers with

accompanying laptop computers• Single crystal X-ray diffractometer

and cameras• Stationary diode array visible and

ultra-violet spectrophotometersphysics• Digital oscilloscopes• Digital lock-in amplifiers• Frequency synthesizers• Germanium gamma ray detector/

spectrometer• Microwave frequency generator• Tunable diode lasers• UV, VIS, IR, X-ray spectrometers

You have access to and will routinely use state-of-the-art equipment throughout your academic career at Lake Forest. In laboratories with no more than 16 students, professors (not teaching assistants) teach you to use and understand the instrumentation, which is the same equipment found in graduate schools and professional research and industry settings.

This hands-on experience enriches your undergraduate research and provides you with invaluable skills that help you gain acceptance to top-level graduate programs or secure competitive internships and jobs.

hands-on use of Modern insTruMenTaTion

Chemistry major Gilbert Reynders ’11 is using a Liquid Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS), a research-grade instrument that combines liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry for separation and structural identification of organic molecules.

Sara Herrera conducts research using a fluorescence microscope. She received a prestigious $25,000 National Institutes of Health undergraduate research grant and is now pursuing an MD at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Research Projects Students present their research to the campus community at the annual Student Symposium. Recent research projects include:

• Analyzing Splicing Differences in Genes Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease

• Class Division within the American Environmental Movement

• Combinatorial Game Theory and the Game of Rectangle

• Dominance Hierarchies and Social Spacing in Western Lowland Gorillas

• EIT: Making Slow Light

• Electron Impact with Ultra-Cold Molecules

• Exploratory Ionothermal Synthesis

• Genetic Links to Schizophrenia

• Granular Compaction Under an Applied Force

• Lake Forest College Voting Web Application

• New Method for Sampling Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) in Chicago Air Using Solid-phase Microextraction

• Possible New Cancer Treatments: Ribosome Biogenesis as an Unexplored Target

• Synthesis of New Molecules in Ionic Liquids

Working with Dr. Lori Del Negro, associate professor of chemistry, Sharada Bean constructed an improved method for trapping trace gases in air samples. This development allowed Sharada and Professor Del Negro to travel to Houston, collecting air samples, analyzing data, and learning more about the sources and dispersal of emissions for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Sharada now works for Hall Environmental Analysis Laboratory.

Inspired by innovative and challenging courses, you are encouraged to develop and pursue your own research interests. Your faculty will mentor and work closely with you to indentify and create original opportunities. You will embark on hypothesis- driven journeys where answers are found not in textbooks, but in the lab and the field. Eukaryon, the student-run undergraduate research journal, publishes the very best of Lake Forest students’ life science scholarship, and is one of the few such journals in the country.

Active chapters of Tri Beta, Future Health Professionals, Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society, Synapse, Undergraduate Affiliates Network of the American Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and Society of Physics provide opportunities for you to share your research with peers at regional meetings. The College’s annual Student Symposium also provides an opportunity to present your research to the campus community.

high vaLue on sTudenT research

Students Michael Fiske ’10 and Alina Konnikova ’11, along with Assistant Professor of Biology Pliny Smith, attended the Society of Developmental Biology meeting in San Francisco where they were awarded first prize for the student-produced life science journal Eukaryon. Students regularly attend and present research at national conferences where they have garnered numerous awards. These academic leadership roles helped Michael get accepted to PhD programs in biology at Princeton and Johns Hopkins and Alina get accepted to several medical schools.

Our faculty are leaders in innovative teaching of undergraduate science, and have earned their PhDs from some of the most prestigious graduate programs in the country. They continually develop new ways to intellectually engage students to keep pace with technological and research advances, and publish their teaching successes in national journals and textbooks. The curriculum at Lake Forest provides a solid foundation in the major coupled with an interdisciplinary approach, assuring that you will be able to collaborate and communicate effectively across fields. Being open to new ideas and methods is crucial for problem solving, research, and discovery.

For a science major, having the exposure to several disciplines opens the doors to a wide variety of career paths. Internships and shadowing opportunities also provide you with an avenue for exploring your career interests.

forward-Thinking facuLTy use an inTerdiscipLinary approach

Internships/Shadowing

With the help of the Health Professions Advisory Committee, students pursue internships, as well as shadowing and volunteer opportunities. A sampling includes:

• Abbott Laboratories• Animal Emergency and Referral

Center• Children’s Memorial Hospital

Chicago• Highland Park Hospital• Illinois Bone and Joint Institute• Lake Forest Open Lands• Lake Forest Pediatric Dentistry• Liberty Prairie Conservancy• Lincoln Park Zoo• Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital• Palatine Heart Center• Wildlife Discovery Center

Neuroscience students study the connection between brain, mind, and behavior, combining the study of psychology with biology. Interdisciplinary training prepares students for diverse scientific professions.

Students in the Environmental Studies senior seminar, Causes and Consequences of the Deepwater Horizon Blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, traveled to New Orleans to see first-hand the issues that make New Orleans, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mississippi Delta a hotbed of important environmental issues.

American Biology Teacher

Animating Calculus: Mathematica Notebooks for the Laboratory

Journal of the American Medical Association

Journal of Chemical Education

Journal of College Science Teaching

Journal of Computing in Small Colleges

Life Science Education – Cell Biology Education

Mathematica in Education

Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology

Functional Analysis; A Short Course

The Human Body: How it Works – Cells, Tissues, and Skin

The Human Body: How it Works – Special Senses

Mathematica for Mathematic Teachers

The Mathematics of Games and Gambling

Plant Ecology

Web Applications

Journals and TextbooksFaculty regularly publish articles on new teaching strategies and methods in professional journals and also contribute to and author textbooks, including:

After Lake Forest College Graduate Schools• Columbia University• Duke University• Harvard University• Johns Hopkins University• Northwestern University• Princeton University• Stanford University• University of California- Berkeley• University of Chicago• University of Illinois• University of Pennsylvania• University of Washington-Seattle• University of Wisconsin-Madison• Washington University - St. Louis• Yale University

Medical/Health Professional Schools• Brown Medical School• Columbia University Medical School• Dartmouth Medical School• Harvard Medical School• Johns Hopkins School of Medicine• Loyola Medical School• Mayo Medical School• Northwestern University Feinberg School

of Medicine• Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine

and Science• Rush Medical College• Stanford University School of Medicine• Tufts Dental School• University of California – San Diego Medical

School• University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School• University of Illinois College of

Veterinary Medicine• Wake Forest School of Medicine

Employers• Abbott Laboratories• Americorps• Array BioPharma• Baxter Corporation• Cedars Sinai Medical Center• Johnson Wax Company• National Park Service• Northwestern Memorial Hospital• Northwestern University • Peace Corps• Roche Bioscience• Rush Medical Center• Teach for America• TAP Pharmaceuticals• 3M Company

You will be part of Lake Forest’s award-winning community of math and science student organizations, a long-time tradition at the College. The vibrant and popular student groups provide many opportunities for taking on leadership roles, allowing you to make your mark on the world before you even graduate from college.

It’s easy to get involved on campus. You can join the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society (SAACS), which has received awards from the American Chemical Society for the last ten years. You might also work with Synapse students coordinating the annual Brain Awareness Week or organize volunteer outreach programs at local elementary schools through both the SAACS and Synapse groups. You may choose to compete at national competitions, as part of our award-wining Putnam Math group, or contribute articles to the student-run life science journal Eukaryon. Whichever organization you join, your peer community will help further your interests during and beyond your academic career.

office of adMissions • 800-828-4751555 norTh sheridan road, Lake foresT, iL 60045-2338

www.lakeforest.edu

Lake foresT coLLege

Leadership skiLLs and sTudenT groups

Sarah Peluse ’13 and Spencer Sohn ’11, both of whom placed in the top 17% out of over 4,000 competitors in the annual Putnam International Math Competition, discuss the solution to a practice math problem with Professor David Yuen. Students get together weekly for a math competition practice session where they learn unusual problem-solving techniques.

Documents

Lake Forest College Sciences