Gatton Research Profiles

Mara Neace
Research Department: Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project involves collecting water samples from 11 sites in the Jennings Creek/Lost River watershed, testing samples in a lab to identify pollutants, and processing/analyzing historic and modern data to identify pollution trends over time. The goal is to develop a watershed management plan to address pollution on a site-by-site and widespread basis in a geographically vulnerable karst region.

Landon Carlton
Research Department: Biology Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project explores the contributions of V-type ATPases in the wing development of Drosophila melanogaster (common fruit fly) using RNA interference in conjunction with the GAL4-UAS system to silence the genes responsible for V-type ATPases’ creation.

Daniel Berry
Research Department: Physics and Astronomy Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: Blazars are active galactic nuclei, black holes that spew out high energy gamma rays and other forms of radiation in the direction of Earth. As such, their magnitude (almost the same thing as brightness) greatly varies over time. We collect Blazar magnitude data (my Blazar is S5 0716+714) from the RCT and ZTF telescopes then compare that ground data to data from TESS, an orbiting telescope satellite. We modify magnitude measurements to match up on a plot to determine the calibration difference between ground telescopes and TESS. With magnitude data, research can go into determining more properties of the Blazar and the space around it.

Gracie Veith
Research Department: Chemistry Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This project focuses on creating polymer substrates that can act as substrates for photocatalysts. Photo catalysis is a method of water remediation and the porous polymer beads optimize the process of degradation. I specifically work with poly (methyl methacrylate) and poly glutamic acid.

Livi Ray
Research Department: Political Science Department
Location of Research: Western Kentucky University
Information about research project: This research is about dual partisanship which is the idea that a person can hold different political identities on different government levels.

Sara Nath
Research Department: Computer Science Department
Location of Research: Brown University
Information about research project: When doing research, I worked on developing machine learning models that can predict Alzheimer’s disease in single-cell datasets.

Vivianna Weaver
Research Department: Pathology and Lab Medicine Department
Location of Research: Brown University
Information about research project: I worked with Dr. Jessica Pavlick studying the effect of environmental toxins (specifically TCDD, a dioxin compound) on human neurological health using the zebrafish model. This research has been presented at the Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) and will be presenting at the American Academy of Science in February.

Braeden Patrick
Research Department: Earth and Atmospheric Pressure Department
Location of Research: Indiana University – Bloomington
Information about research project: My research focused on processing and studying the metal concentration in plants harvested from Bismarck Mine in Montana.

Laurel Patterson
Research Department: Biomedical Engineering Department
Location of Research: Purdue University
Information about research project: : During my research, I created computational models to measure neurite outgrowth.