MARCUS symposium is Saturday, Oct. 6

Posted on October 03, 2007 by Staff Writer

On Saturday, Oct. 6, more than 40 students from eight different colleges and universities, including Sweet Briar College, will participate in the ninth annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference of Undergraduate Scholarship, also known as MARCUS.

The annual symposium is an opportunity for students to present research they’ve conducted for summer research projects, independent studies and Research Experiences for Undergraduates or REUs.

The conference will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the Florence Elston Inn and Conference Center. Oral presentations will be made on the lower level and the poster session, where students’ work is displayed on large foam boards, will be held in the Wailes Lounge.

The keynote address will be delivered by Barbara Spellman, a professor from the University of Virginia’s department of psychology. Her lecture is titled “Truth and Lies, Courts and Spies: Decisions Relying on Questionable Informants.”

The cost to attend the conference is $7, which does not include lunch or the keynote address. Reservations are no longer available for lunch.

The following Sweet Briar College students will participate in either the oral presentations or the poster session:

  • Alison Carr ’08: Effect of Number of Trials on Acquisition of Conditioned Responding in Rattus Norvegicus

  • Mary Dance ’08: The Actor, the Advocate, and their Words: A Study of Drama and Rhetoric in Ancient Rome

  • Brittany Deane ’08 and Briana Deane ’08: The Global Phenomenon of Identical Twins Throughout History

  • Alexandra DiFeliceantonio ’08: Stress and Sensitivity: Factors Influencing Ethanol Consumption in Adolescent and Adult Rats

  • Jessica Echols ’08: A Computational Chemistry Study of Eumelanin Monomers

  • Ashley Figueiredo ’08: Microscopy and Phase Transition Analysis of POSS-MA

  • Doreen McVeigh ’09: Tall Meadow Rue on Sweet Briar’s Campus: Differences between Males and Females

  • Emma Meador ’09: Masks of Madness: Contextualizing Euripides’ Bacchae

  • Stephanie Nance ’09: Yeast Cell Synchronization

  • Brittany Patterson ’09: The Construction of Value in the West African Art Market

  • Jana D. Pfoutz ’09: Synthesis of b-4 and b-5 Analogues of DHPs as Potential Anti-thrombin Agent Development

  • Michelle Tillie Sanchez ’08: Uncovering Morality

  • Laurel Sanders ’08: Energy Gaps between Cyclobutene and Butadiene for Both Excited and Ground States

  • Kathleen Thomas ’10: Wolgemut’s Circe and Ulysses: The Journey from Goddess to Witch

  • Amanda Wisz ’08: Isolation and Characterization of Novel 5-inch Splice Variants of Neuronal Nitric-oxide Synthase mRNA from Rat PC12 Cells


MARCUS is devoted exclusively to the scholarship and research activities of undergraduate students. The conference was originally developed to provide the opportunity for Sweet Briar Honors Summer Research students to present their work in a formal setting with an audience of their peers.

Unlike many conferences, MARCUS is purposely interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on the intersection of disciplines across the liberal arts spectrum.

Since its inception in 1999, MARCUS has attracted students from colleges throughout Virginia and surrounding states. In addition to Sweet Briar, this year’s conference includes students from Roanoke College, Washington & Lee University, Christopher Newport University, Marymount University, Virginia Tech, Mary Baldwin College and the Virginia Military Institute.

For more information and a complete schedule, visit the conference Web site.