Institute’s second year features variety of student and faculty research collaborations

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Several Thiel College faculty and student research teams have begun work on summer research projects that will examine such varied topics as “damage control” health habits, amphibian population decline and political gender bias. The research is a part of the second year of the Greenville Neuromodulation Center (GNC) Faculty/Student Research Institute.

Research projects from Assistant Professor of Biology and Director of the GNC Faculty/Student Research Institute Delbert Abi Abdallah, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor of Performing Arts Pete Rydberg, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor of Psychology Kristel Gallagher, Ph.D.; and Assistant Professor of Political Science and Department Chair Marie Courtemanche, Ph.D., have been selected for the institute. New to the institute this year are team research efforts. The team of Assistant Professor of Psychology and Department Chair Laura Pickens, Ph.D. ’06 and Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Department Chair Greg Butcher, Ph.D., are working together on a project, while Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Ronald Anderson ’07 and Assistant Professor of Physics Eugene Torigoe, Ph.D., collaborated on another project

Biology majors Alana Callahan ’17, a 2013 graduate of Austintown-Fitch High School and a resident of Austintown, Ohio, and Amber Martin ’17, a 2013 graduate of Shaler Area High School and a resident of Allison Park, Pa., will conduct research with Assistant Professor of Biology Christopher Fonner, Ph.D. Student researchers are involved in various stages of many of the research institute’s projects.

About the GNC Faculty/Student Research Institute

In 2015, Thiel College alumni Fred Haer ’65 and his wife, Jill (Shackett) ’66, pledged more than $400,000 to fund the institute from 2015-2017. It is open to all Thiel College faculty members and focuses on connecting science and the liberal arts. In 1970, the Haers founded FHC, Inc. The company’s microelectrode recording and stimulation technology serves neuroscientific research and neurosurgical operating rooms with more than 7,000 unique metal microelectrodes and a broad range of research and clinical instruments. Greenville Neuromodulation Services (GNS), a wholly owned subsidiary of FHC, Inc., supports the neuroscience industry with a full range of services for medical professionals involved in the treatment of movement disorders. It is located in Greenville, Pa. with the nonprofit GNC.

Related Stories

• Assistant Professor of Biology named director of GNC Faculty/Student Research Institute (Feb. 24, 2016)
• Haer family donation will fund interdisciplinary science research at Thiel College (May 18, 2015)