Research Archives - ��TV

Computer science takes flight in bird conservation effort

amandaorourke — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Computer science and environmental science may seem worlds apart, but at ��TV, one project is showing how closely connected they can be.

Students and faculty from ��TV are collaborating with the Middle ��TV Riverkeeeper to create a digital platform designed to support bird conservation research. It will organizeeverything from bird sightings to audio recordings that are currently being collected via electronic monitoring stations placed along local creeks and the ��TV River.

Anusha Veluswamy, assistant professor of math & computer science at ��TV, and two of her students are building the platform using digital tools from BirdNET, an open-source research and bioacoustics platform developed by CornellLab. They are also linking a third-party database from the BirdWeather platform.

The new platform will allow ��TV and the Middle ��TV Riverkeeper to track how bird species populations change over time, creating a centralized system for long-term environmental analysis. Users will have access to a dashboard in the fall. At the center of this effort is computer science, which is helping transform scattered observations into meaningful environmental data.

“In simple terms, we are building the technology that turns individual bird observations and recordings into a coordinated, organized conservation effort,” said Veluswamy. “The goal is to make it easier for researchers, students and the community to understand what is happening in our local ecosystems and to use that information to support environmental health.”

Ibrahim Alqassass ’28 and Jaylon Lewis ’28, both computer science majors, recently joined the development team. Alqassass interned with the Middle ��TV Riverkeeper Association last year and was immediately interested in joining the initiative.

“My work is primarily focused on building the user interface for our website in coordination with my co-worker, Jaylon,” Alqassass explained. “Currently, I am transitioning the user interface from a static design into a fully functional website. This includes developing role-based user dashboards, a function that will allow individuals to view specific bird sightings filtered by their chosen time periods.”

The project reveals how essential technology is to modern conservation work.

“E�Ա��ǲԳ��Գٲ�� research today generates too much information to manage by hand,” Veluswamy said. “Computer science helps bring order to that information, connect the pieces together and make it useful for long-term conservation planning.”

One of the biggest challenges for Lewis has been learning the programming languages he needs to create the platform.

“We’re working with a lot of different languages that I’ve never used before so there’s a learning curve,” Lewis said. “The biggest reward has been learning a new programming language and then applying it to the project and seeing the benefits.”

Another challenge is managing the wide range of data collected. Audio recordings gathered from monitoring stations often contain much more than bird calls, including wind, flowing water, insects and distant traffic. Veluswamy and her students must also organize volunteer-submitted sightings, species records and conservation information while ensuring everything remains accurate and connected within the system.

“Real-world environmental data is rarely neat or perfectly organized,” Veluswamy said. “The challenge is bringing structure, accuracy and clarity to a large and complex collection of sounds, observations and conservation records.”

The work highlights the growing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. Environmental scientists provide expertise on ecosystems, migration patterns and species behavior, while computer scientists develop systems capable of storing, organizing and analyzing large amounts of information.

“Computer science allows us to look at the bigger picture. It turns individual observations into long-term trends. It highlights changes that develop slowly and might otherwise go unnoticed,” Veluswamy said. “By organizing and analyzing environmental information on a scale, technology helps reveal insights that support better conservation decisions and a deeper understanding of ecosystem health.”

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Research reveals hidden habitat beneath solar array

amandaorourke — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 17:52:47 +0000

��TV solar array powers 30% of the campus’ operational needs. Now students are trying to determine how the 12,000 panels might be supporting the microhabitats that have grown beneath and around them — specifically for spiders.

So far, Matt Persons, Charles B. Degenstein professor of biology at ��TV, and two of his students — Andrew Pisano ’27, an ecology major from Malvern, Pennsylvania, and Kaylee Rathbone ’27, a biomedical sciences major from Mannington Township, New Jersey — have collected more than 1,000 spiders from the array. They do so in a very uniform way, Pisano said, during the day and at night.

“We’re in each plot, which is about 8 meters by 5 meters, for about an hour and we sample as much as we can either by hand or using fine mesh sweep nets,” Pisano explained. The spiders are placed into vials and then sent to Persons’ lab for official identification.

Only about half of the known spider species build webs, and the structure of the solar array gives those spiders the perfect framework to build their homes, Persons said.

“We’re trying to understand how these habitats are different than a traditional agricultural field, which is usually what [a solar array] replaces, versus a forest environment versus a golden rod habitat, so we are doing some comparisons to see what’s there,” he said. “Here we have an area of land that isn’t sprayed and can act as a nursery for a lot of arthropods that can then disperse out to surrounding agricultural systems. Nobody’s done research on this to test it, but it’s likely that there are higher populations of pollinators and spiders in these systems.”

The project is Rathbone’s first research experience.

“It really gives me an opportunity to explore what doing research here is like and use the scientific process to discover what does work and what doesn’t work,” she said. “We’ve had quite a few meetings already this summer to reevaluate our processes and it’s been a valuable learning experience.”

Solar installations have increased in Pennsylvania over the past several years, according to the Pennsylvania Utility Commission, including arrays placed on land once used for agricultural purposes, “but those two things aren’t necessarily exclusive of one another,” Persons said.

“With thoughtful design and management, these sites can support a surprising diversity of microhabitats,” he said, “creating a patchwork of conditions that can benefit a range of plant and animal species.”

Persons and his students are also using their research as an opportunity to identify various spider species that call Pennsylvania home, a study that’s never really been undertaken.

“There are over 4,000 species of spiders in the United States, but we don’t really know how many there are in Pennsylvania,” Persons said. “The last survey that was done in the state was in 1942, so we’re hoping to add to the data currently held by the State Museum of Pennsylvania.”

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It’s alive! Research reveals fog may be a habitat for bacteria that clean the air

amandaorourke — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:30:14 +0000

For decades, ��TV’s Derek Straub has studied what is suspended in fog — the microscopic particles and compounds most people never notice on their morning commute. But a recent collaboration with researchers at Arizona State University has revealed something unexpected: fog may be alive.

The discovery, published in the journal , found that bacteria inside fog droplets are not simply hitching a ride through the atmosphere. They appear to be metabolically active — growing, dividing and even consuming pollutants while suspended in the mist.

For Straub, associate professor of earth & environmental sciences, the findings build on years of atmospheric research conducted in the ��TV Valley.

“My previous work focused on inorganic compounds in fog measuring substances like sulfate, nitrate, sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium, and more recently organic acids and other organic compounds, but this collaboration allowed me to expand into a completely new area – the presence of biological material in fog and the role that it may play in atmospheric chemistry,” Straub said.

Scientists have long known that bacteria drift through the atmosphere as inactive particles, but researchers knew little about what happens when those microbes become trapped inside fog droplets. Arizona State University doctoral student and lead author Thi Thuong Thuong Cao set out to determine which bacteria are present in fog and whether they remain active there.

Researchers in Arizona faced a challenge. Fog is relatively rare in the arid Southwest; however, Central Pennsylvania offered ideal conditions. They contacted Straub, who has a long-standing research relationship with Arizona State University professor Pierre Herckes, for help.

Their study pursued two major questions: What kinds of bacteria exist in fog, and are those bacteria active while suspended in fog droplets?

Using facilities and field sites at ��TV’s Center for Environmental Education and Research Field Station, Straub and Cao collected and analyzed samples from 32 separate fog events along with aerosol particles gathered before, during and after fog formation.

Each sample required rapid preservation and analysis. Straub conducted inorganic chemistry analyses at ��TV, while collaborators at Arizona State handled biological testing and additional organic analyses.

Among the most significant findings was the identification of Methylobacterium as one of the most abundant bacteria in the samples. These microbes consume single-carbon compounds such as formaldehyde — a common air pollutant resulting from the combustion of carbon fuels that contributes to ozone smog and poses health risks.

While Methylobacterium appeared to consume significant amounts of formaldehyde, researchers found the amount exceeded what the bacteria could reasonably use simply to build biomass. Instead, researchers suspect the bacteria may also help detoxify the atmosphere by chemically altering pollutants, effectively helping to clean the air.

The findings suggest fog is more than a vehicle for transporting microbes — it may also serve as a habitat where bacteria can thrive and positively influence atmospheric chemistry, air quality and even climate processes.

“Evidence that these bacteria appear to be dividing and metabolizing formaldehyde is particularly intriguing as it suggests fog droplets can function as tiny microbial habitats,” said Sophie Charvet, assistant professor of biology at ��TV who was not involved in Straub’s research. “It raises the possibility that microbial communities in fog are affecting the fate of volatile pollutants more than previously recognized.”

The research also raises questions about harvesting fog as a drinking water source and highlights how much remains unknown about the floating microscopic ecosystems. Part of the reason for that, Straub said, is because very few scientists study fog, which is a fickle weather pattern.

“You typically need moist conditions, often after rainfall, clear skies overnight and very light winds,” Straub explained. “Here we mostly get radiation fog, where the ground cools overnight and the air near the ground surface reaches saturation.”

For Straub, whose interest in atmospheric science began after studying engineering as an undergraduate, the work underscores the surprising complexity hidden within ordinary weather phenomena.

“People think of fog as just water droplets,” he said. “But there’s a tremendous amount happening inside those droplets that we’re only beginning to understand.”

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Students present faculty-mentored research at national conference

amandaorourke — Fri, 08 May 2026 14:00:09 +0000

Twenty ��TV students recently presented faculty-mentored research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Richmond, Virginia.

Students presented research in chemistry, physics, political science, history, environmental science, ecology and computer science alongside peers from colleges and universities across the country.

Ahmed Lachhab, associate professor and co-department head of earth & environmental sciences, led the ��TV students contingent at NCUR.

“This conference gives students far more than a platform to present their research,” Lachhab said. “It immerses them in a vibrant academic community where they can exchange ideas, connect with undergraduates from colleges and universities across the country, and broaden their perspectives. Beyond gaining insight from presentations in their field, students also develop professionally through the experience of participating in a scholarly conference.”

NCUR is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity by sponsoring an annual conference for students. This conference provides students with a unique opportunity to celebrate and promote undergraduate work and develop career readiness. Each year, NCUR hosts 3,500 to 4,000 students from across the globe who present their research through posters, oral presentations, visual arts and performances. ��TV has participated in NCUR for more than 15 years.

Jack Thon, a history-secondary education major from Owings, Maryland, presented his research titled, “Sick and Tired: Farlulu’s Story in the Gambia,” a project about Liberated Africans, a subsection of enslaved individuals in Africa.

Only one other person has ever presented on this topic at NCUR, Thon said.

“I know hundreds, and probably thousands, of students will be presenting, but for even just one person to come away from my presentation feeling some emotion is a success for me,” Thon said.

Other student presenters were:

Lucy Anders ’26, biomedical sciences, The effects of chronic exposure to agrochemical residues on spiderling mortality in the wolf spider Rabidosa rabida

Eric Belfanti ’26, physics, Even Nature Likes to Flash: Predicting Stream Flashiness to Mitigate Flood Events

Ethan Bell ’26, history, Technology that Shaped the Second World War Mechanization in the U.S. Cavalry 1919-1945

Melanie Ceylan ’26, biochemistry, Determining the function of gene YPR013C in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Rebecca Cree ’26, physics and mathematics, Analyzing a Simple Mechanical Representation of ACL Injuries

Emma Dickinson ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Ixodes scapularis Larval Tick Attachment to Different Fabric Types

Emma Eberle ’26, biomedical sciences, Agrochemicals as infodisruptors on courtship and mating behavior of the wolf spider Tigrosa helluo

Ryan Flood ’26, history, Insert Coin: How the Console Wars prompted video game companies to “level up” from the ’70s to the ’90s

Cole Goodwin ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Impact of Dam Intake Depth on the Outflow water Conditions: A Case Study of Walker Lake, Snyder County, PA

Jamison Greiner ’26, political science, Aid or Ailment: The Effect of Foreign Aid on Sub-Sahara African Democracies

Paige Hepfer ’26, ecology and advertising & public relations, A Slimy Situation: Landscape effects on Slimy Sculpin (Cottus cognatus) morphology within West Branch ��TV River watersheds

Chad Lovenguth ’26, computer science, Comparing Machine Learning and Game-Theoretic Strategies in No Limit Texas Hold ’Em

Emmit Miller ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Evaluating Fog Liquid Water Content Through Capacitive Sensing to Assess Fog Harvesting Potential

Sara Motz ’26, ecology, Silk following behavior and mate competition in male Northern crab spiders Mecaphesa asperata

Isabella Parra ’26, physics, Measuring Lunar Crater Depths Using Photometric Shadow Analysis

Jordan Rosenberg ’26, history-secondary education, Sisterhood Across Seas: Pan-Africanism and International Women’s Anti-Apartheid Networks during the 1970s-1980s

Jacob Thomas ’26, ecology, The Effects of Fishing Spider Dolomedes triton Silk Cues on Defensive Behaviors and Predation of Aquatic Beetles (Peltodytes sp.)

Gabriel Torres ’26, ecology, How do Invasive Plant Density and Herbicide Application Rates Influence the Success of Riparian Buffer Restoration Over a Two-year Period?

Sami Zain ’26, physics, Revitalizing Observational Astronomy: Mastering Flat Fields

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Persons earns national award for student mentorship

amandaorourke — Mon, 04 May 2026 18:39:25 +0000

Matthew Persons, Charles B. Degenstein Professor of Biology at ��TV, has been selected by the Council on Undergraduate Research as the recipient of the 2026 Advanced Career Biology Mentor Award.

“��TV has a longstanding tradition of providing faculty-mentored undergraduate research opportunities to students as early as their first year,” said Kathy Straub, dean of ��TV’s School of Natural & Social Sciences. “Faculty members like Matt Persons are integral to making this possible. As a result of his mentorship over 25-plus years, our students have gone on to excel in careers in medicine, education, industry, and master’s and doctoral programs — outcomes tied to the hands-on experience they gained in Matt’s lab.”

Since beginning his career at ��TV in 1999, Persons has mentored 186 students on original research projects, an average of seven students per year. These collaborative projects have resulted in 28 peer-reviewed publications with student co-authors (in addition to 25 other peer-reviewed publications authored solely by Persons during this period) and five additional manuscripts with student co-authors currently in preparation. His research students have presented 231 times at conferences and professional meetings, and 23 students have won individual awards at these conferences.

“I am honored to receive this recognition from the Council on Undergraduate Research,” Persons said. “Mentoring undergraduate research students is an enlightening experience. Sometimes as a scientist, you can become a prisoner of your discipline. But then a student asks a question or comes up with an idea, and they open my eyes to a new way of thinking. I learn from them every day and that’s a large part of why I do it.”

An arachnologist and behavioral ecologist who serves as the director of ��TV’s interdisciplinary ecology program, Persons studies how animal communication and information use influences survival and reproductive success. Persons and his student collaborators use spiders as a model organism to ask questions about female mate choice, parental care, predator-prey interactions and kin-recognition, and broader questions in the areas of chemical ecology, ecotoxicology and neuroscience.

Some research examples include herbicide effects on spider parental care, the role of fishing spider silk on aquatic insect space use, projectile defecation in purseweb spiders, palatability and toxicity of spotted lanternflies to spiders, landmark navigation learning in spiders, sex pheromone identification, and documenting metal concentrations among arthropods in coal-impacted areas.

Persons and his students also study the behavior of other animals, including the relative importance of odor and infrared cues on ball python diet choice, urine-marking behavior in dogs, changes in aggressive behavior among creek chub and brook trout under shifting temperature, and herbicide-induced changes in earthworm seed-caching behavior.

Persons will receive his award at the CUR Award Celebration Ceremony in June.

Listen to Matt Persons’ conversation with Kathy Straub on ��TV’s Science Is a Story podcast.

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Students present research, music, art at Senior Scholars Day

amandaorourke — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:12:14 +0000

More than 100 students presented research, music and artwork at ��TV’s Senior Scholars Day, an event that showcases the culmination of their years of study and honors the professors who served as their mentors.

From patient to researcher

Emma Dickinson ’26, an earth & environmental sciences major from Palmyra, Pennsylvania, drew inspiration for their research from a personal encounter with Lyme disease.

“I was in treatment for Lyme disease for five years and spent a good deal of time in a wheelchair because of it,” Dickinson said. “I want to study ticks so that we can hopefully lower the incidence of these crippling diseases.”

Though they said treatment proved challenging at times, it imbued Dickinson with a desire to understand what factors influence blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, to latch onto clothing. They prepared nine fabrics to which the captured specimen larvae could attach themselves. They examined each sample and determined how many ticks it retained and recorded the properties of the material that might have factored in.

“Of the fabrics I tested, twill collected the fewest ticks with an average of three ticks out of 20 per exposure, while an artificial fur collected the most with an average of 11 ticks out of 20 per exposure,” Dickinson said. “There are several factors that mediate attachment to clothing types, such as brightness, texture and static electricity.”

Dickinson was assisted in this research by Elise Schaeffer ’29, of Cheswick, Pennsylvania, and Matthew Persons, Charles B. Degenstein Professor of Biology.

After graduation, Dickinson hopes to become a watershed specialist for a county conservation district, a position that would allow them to develop countywide educational programs and restoration projects. They credit their research with helping them make more informed clothing choices for fieldwork, revealing a path they could take to become a tick prevention consultant in parks and nature centers, and exposing procedures within tick population reporting that could benefit from refinement.

Listening to the wild

Sarah Joy ’26, of Palm Bay, Florida, wanted to explore just how big an impact humans have on the everyday lives of animals, which is how she found herself researching how human-created acoustic pollution influences animals’ food foraging patterns.

In collaboration with fellow ecology major Brodie Bard ’29, of Pittsburgh, Joy studied the phenomenon by creating research site installations near campus buildings to measure the volume and duration of sounds escaping from within. Joy found that many building and infrastructure designs make noise louder in some outside areas than others because of poor soundproofing and the loss of natural barriers. Hearing these magnified sounds causes nearby wildlife to have strong negative reactions.

“We found that herbivores are scared by peaks at high volumes,” Joy noted, “whereas omnivores and carnivores are more scared by areas that have consistently loud noise levels. However, all animal activity decreases under these added factors.”

Joy, who credits the research with making her more mindful about the noise she creates when outdoors, was mentored by Maisie MacKnight, visiting assistant professor of biology, and Matt Wilson, director of the CEER Field Station.

Wildfires and the housing price rollercoaster

Michael Jaret ’26, an economics and mathematics double major from Finksburg, Maryland, explored the intersection between wildfires and fluctuating housing prices in California.

Charting the relationship between each subject required Jaret to sift through data and “clean” it for his project, a process made easier by assistance from faculty mentors Edisanter Lo, professor of mathematics & computer science, and Katarina Keller, associate professor of economics.

“After a wildfire, housing prices rise immediately and then fall a few months later,” Jaret said. “The magnitude of these effects vary by each city’s local characteristics, such as wildland-urban interference index and fire history. Notably, cities with higher wildland-urban interference and greater extensive fire history experience more extreme post-exposure price drops. These findings suggest that risk perceptions of wildfires are continually updated and reinforced after a wildfire occurs.”

Though economic theory dictates that housing prices would rise because wildfires reduce the number of homes available for purchase, Jaret expected that prices would stay low because risk-averse homeowners wanted to leave danger as soon as possible. The actual drop in prices comes three months after a given fire has been extinguished, he said.

Jaret credits his research with piquing his interest in interpreting and analyzing data. After graduation, he hopes to work in financial consulting.

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Giving voice to the silenced histories of slavery

amandaorourke — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:39:31 +0000

Between the 16^th and 19^th centuries, approximately 12.5 million African people were enslaved, forced onto ships and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to be enslaved in the Americas.

Known today as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, it was one of the largest forced migrations in history. Only a small fraction of those individuals have been documented; their stories — their identities — lost to time.

��TV history students, under the guidance of Mégane Coulon, assistant professor of African history, are creating biographies for people who were born free in Africa and later enslaved. After being forced onto slave ships and taken across the ocean toward plantations in the Caribbean, North America or Brazil, they were intercepted by the British Royal Navy and forcibly relocated to the colony of Sierra Leone.

“When you study the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Coulon said, “it’s a lot about numbers. We know the scope of the event, but we know much less about individual experiences.”

Through digitized sources, students seek to identify a minimum of five facts about a person to draft a biography.

“It feels like putting a puzzle together — even if it’s sometimes frustrating dealing with missing or incomplete information,” said Mary Jackson ’28, of Millersburg, Pennsylvania. “I enjoy the research because it’s fulfilling to put the pieces together and understand what happened to these people.”

The work is part of the larger project, which uses an online digital repository of autobiographical testimonies and biographical data of Atlantic Africans to determine their place of origin, why they were enslaved and what happened to them. Researchers from around the world are participating in the grant-funded work. The project is directed by Erika Melek Delgado and Paul Lovejoy and is a result of a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant awarded to them in 2019. In 2020, the project migrated to Regenerated Identities, a network of digital humanities projects developed and supported by , an international operating consortium that supports social science and humanities research under the leadership of CEO Kartikay Chadha.

“I find it challenging to look at these people’s ages and see how young they were when they were going through all of these hardships,” said Madysyn Nolter ’28, of Coal Township, Pennsylvania. “It was extremely disheartening to see the harsh treatment inflicted on all of these people, especially those who were quite young.”

According to Jackson, reading and understanding the source documents can be difficult because of the handwriting or unclear terminology. But other challenges are more complicated than interpreting handwriting, Coulon said.

“In my classes we talk about Western assumptions because it’s so easy to analyze this through a Western perspective,” Coulon said. “We have to step away from those preconceived notions.”

Jack Thon ’26, a history–secondary education major from Owings, Maryland, participated in the Freedom Narratives project last year, reconstructing the life of Farlulu, a Liberated African redirected from Sierra Leone to the Gambia.

“However, before he even gets to Sierra Leone, he was enslaved by someone, though we do not know by whom, branded and somehow ended up on a slave ship in the port of Ouidah, which is in modern-day Benin,” Thon explained.

Thon also found that Farlulu likely contracted smallpox between Ouidah and Sierra Leone, drawing primarily from the Registers of Liberated Africans despite gaps in the historical record.

“This adds to the importance; so many families never heard about the people taken from them at an early age,” Thon said. “If I could explain what these people went through and bring some depth to this complex issue, even a little bit, I am satisfied.”

He credits Mégane Coulon, assistant professor of African history, with shaping his approach to interpreting those records.

“It is easy to take the notes of the clerk at face value, but Dr. Coulon showed me that the real work comes from your own interpretation and critical thinking,” he said.

The project also revealed how few scholars focus on this history. One, Kyle Prochnow of Ursinus College, informed Thon’s research.

“But I did not want to simply restate his ideas,” Thon said. “I wanted to focus more on the lived stories of the Liberated Africans in the Gambia. It was tough to do, but incredibly important. For their whole lives, these people were considered numbers or property or something sub-human. I felt obligated to tell their story as best I could.

“So many scholars who focus on enslaved African people or even Liberated Africans glance over the Gambia, but that then leaves out over 3,000 people who went through hell. That is why the research is so important.”

It’s a message that has landed with Gabriel Johnson ’28, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned is the need to take a wider perspective when looking at history,” Johnson said. “These documents and databases don’t just show a list of people; they show how the author viewed the situation at hand and how his or her society viewed slavery at large.”

To date, the Freedom Narratives project has compiled enough research to draft profiles of nearly 4,000 individuals — an impressive figure that still only hints at the vast number of lives impacted by the reach of colonialism.

“This is a project that makes me emotional,” Coulon said. “This is not just history for the sake of doing history — it’s something that makes a difference.”

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Award-winning research reframes Venezuela’s War of Independence from the ground up

amandaorourke — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Ana Vergara Sierra, assistant professor of Latin American history at ��TV, was awarded the prestigious Antoine S. Tibesar Prize from the Conference on Latin American History for her research into 19^th century Venezuelan royal notary Rafael Almarza.

At the center Sierra’s award-winning article is Almarza’s role in undermining monarchical authority among displaced enslaved communities in the central and southwestern plains region during Venezuela’s War of Independence. The last royal escribano, or notary, of Mérida in the Captaincy of Venezuela, Almarza serves as a window into how political authority shifted during the tumultuous years of 1814 to 1818.

Tracing Almarza’s fascinating life trajectory, Sierra revealed a striking transformation: from a loyal servant of the Spanish Crown to the secretary of an itinerant Republican government. Sierra’s research illuminated the surprisingly powerful role that escribanos played in the Spanish imperial system.

Research keeps curiosity alive, and that same energy inevitably flows into the classroom.
Ana Vergara Sierra, assistant professor of Latin American history, ��TV

“They were often regarded as minor officials, but in practice, notaries had significant influence because the records they produced established the legally binding truths of everyday life,” Sierra said. “Their work made them essential agents of colonial rule, especially for enslaved people seeking notarial documents to claim freedom, known as manumission.”

By examining manumission records preserved in Almarza’s notarial book, Sierra uncovered how enslaved individuals actively participated in legitimizing the leadership of José Antonio Páez and the emerging Republican project. At the same time, Almarza — drawing on his longstanding authority within these communities — helped broker a fragile pact between enslaved people and a revolutionary leader still consolidating his power.

For Sierra, this ground-level approach to history is intentional. Rather than focusing on well-known figures, her work highlights the agency of ordinary people and the institutional structures that shaped their lives.

“I have always been interested in studying independence and political transformations from the ground up,” Sierra said, “beyond the actions of leaders who have dominated most of the historical literature.”

Being an active scholar, Sierra said, makes her a better professor.

“Being active researchers prevents us from becoming sclerotic as professionals. Research keeps our curiosity alive, and that same energy inevitably flows into the classroom. It makes our teaching more open to change and helps us show students new ways of observing the world from different perspectives,” she added.

Established in 1990 to honor outstanding scholarship in Latin American history published in the peer-reviewed academic journal The Americas, the Tibesar Prize recognizes work that pushes the field in new and compelling directions.

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Using abstract mathematics to solve real-world problems

amandaorourke — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Steven Scheirer, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at ��TV, and Alessia Revelli ’27, a mathematics and data science double major from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, collaborated to explore how abstract mathematics can model real-world systems.

Alessia Revelli ’27 presents at the fall meeting of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America.

“One of the beauties of mathematics is the ability to frame real-world systems, such as moving robots throughout a factory, in an abstract setting,” Scheirer said. “By studying these systems abstractly, we can discover properties that must always hold, regardless of the specific real-world implementation.”

The duo built upon his prior research on configuration spaces.

“You can think of this as a way of mathematically modeling a system of robots that move along a set of tracks throughout a factory,” Scheirer said. “Different versions of configuration spaces depend on specific rules the robots must follow, with each configuration representing a snapshot of where the robots are at a given moment.”

In their project, Scheirer and Revelli introduced a new structure called a grouped configuration space. In this setting, the robots must follow two key rules: certain predefined locations must always be occupied by at least one robot, and the robots are divided into groups, with no two robots from the same group occupying the same location.

With this framework in place, they set out to answer a fundamental question: is it always possible to move the robots from one valid configuration to another without breaking the established rules? The answer was dependent upon the number of groups involved.

“If there are only two groups, there are certain cases in which it’s not possible to move from one configuration to another,” Scheirer said, “but we were able to show that if there are at least three groups, then it’s always possible to move between any two configurations.”

For Revelli, the project constituted a personal milestone: her first experience writing a research paper.

“Learning how to write for a mathematical audience — being precise and clear while still making the ideas accessible — was a new experience,” Revelli said. “I had to adjust to the revision process, which involved rethinking explanations, restructuring arguments and refining proofs. It was challenging at first, but it ultimately helped me grow as both a writer and a mathematician.”

Scheirer and Revelli presented their work at the fall meeting of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America at York College.

“Sharing our research and engaging with mathematicians was an amazing experience,” Revelli said. “It helped me develop confidence in communicating mathematical ideas and gave me insight into the broader research community.”

Revelli believes the skills she gained through this experience will serve her well as she pursues her dream of working at NASA. This summer, she will intern with Barrios Technology at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where she will gain hands-on experience applying mathematics and data science in a research environment.

“This research has strengthened a wide range of skills that are directly applicable to both engineering work and graduate-level research: problem solving, communication and collaboration,” Revelli said. Should Revelli choose to pursue an advanced degree, she adds that “having experience with a full research process will be extremely beneficial.”

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Students win top awards for freshwater research

amandaorourke — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:22:59 +0000

��TV students won two of the three top prizes for undergraduate research at the 20^th annual River Symposium.

Paige Hepfer ’26, an ecology and advertising & public relations major from Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, won first place for her poster presentation titled A Slimy Situation: Landscape Effects on Slimy Sculpin (Cottus Cognatus) Morphology Within West Branch ��TV River Watersheds.

Eric Belfanti ’26, a physics and environmental studies double major from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, won third place for his poster titled Even Nature Likes to Flash: Finding Correlations Between Stream Flashiness and Land Development.

“U�Ի��ܲ��ٱ� research gives students the opportunity to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-world challenges,” said Kathy Straub, dean of ��TV’s School of Natural & Social Sciences. “They build critical thinking and problem-solving skills that prepare them for professional careers, graduate study and lifelong curiosity about the world around them.”

Under the mentorship of Sara Ashcraft, an ecologist at ��TV’s Freshwater Research Institute, Hepfer studied the slimy sculpin fish in the Loyalsock, Pine and Kettle creek watersheds, examining physical traits such as fin rays and spines.

“Earlier studies show that these traits can vary from place to place, so we’re exploring whether differences in elevation or distance from the main river might explain that variation,” Hepfer explained.

Belfanti measured a stream’s proneness to flash flooding and compared that to nearby land use patterns. He found that areas with more development or farmland showed higher flashiness.

“Since not every stream can be monitored, knowing which factors drive flashiness can help predict where flash floods are most likely,” Belfanti said. He was mentored by Ashcraft and Dan Ressler, associate professor of earth & environmental sciences.

Other ��TV students presented on topics ranging from acid mine drainage and environmental influences on oriole nesting to the efficacy of stream restoration, phytoplankton and zooplankton distribution, and arachnid behavior.

Additional students who presented at the symposium were:

Jasmine Aguirre ’27, earth & environmental sciences, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Ainslee Binkley ’26, earth & environmental sciences, New Holland, Pennsylvania.
EmmaLia Ciccarello ’27, earth & environmental sciences and Spanish studies, Springfield, Virginia.
Emma Dickinson ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Palmyra, Pennsylvania.
Cadence Gandy ’26, ecology, White Plains, Maryland.
Evan Heisler ’26, ecology, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
Anna Horn ’26, ecology, Loysville, Pennsylvania.
Sylvia Kniss ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Kempton, Pennsylvania.
Anne Llewellyn ’26, ecology, West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Laura Mace ’26, biochemistry, Tamaqua, Pennsylvania.
Arthur Pounds ’26, ecology, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.
Jay Schofield ’26, earth & environmental sciences, Chalfont, Pennsylvania.
Catherine Scheidemann ’26, earth & environmental sciences, South Plainfield, New Jersey.
Joshua Simcoe ’27, earth & environmental sciences, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Gabriel Torres ’26, ecology, Trenton, New Jersey.

The River Symposium was hosted by Bucknell University.

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