student publications

After working on a controlled environment aquaponics farming project at The Pomfret School, Brinton Thomas ’23 was a full-on believer in the concept. He thought it was the next phase in sustainable farming and he had planned to write his senior thesis on its benefits. Then something changed. After a few days of research on the rapidly-growing farming practice while preparing an investment memo for an asset management company he interned at last summer, Thomas realized that these systems are not developed enough to be impactful on a large scale. He thought it was the future of farming, and it…

Gabe Snashall '21 and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Helen Poulos are the co-authors of "Oreos Versus Orangutans: The Need for Sustainability Transformations and Nonhierarchical Polycentric Governance in the Global Palm Oil Industry," published in the Feb. 22 issue of Forests. According to the paper's abstract, "While the myriad benefits of palm oil as a food, makeup, and cleaning product additive drive its demand, globally, the palm oil industry remains largely unsustainable and unregulated. The negative externalities of palm oil production are diverse and devastating to tropical ecosystem integrity and human livelihoods in palm oil nations. Given the current…

As part of the BIO 173: Global Change and Infectious Disease course, Professor Fred Cohan assigns students to write an essay persuading others to prevent future and mitigate present infectious diseases. If students submit their essay to a news outlet—and it's published—Cohan awards them with extra credit. As a result of this assignment, more than 25 students have had their work published in newspapers across the United States. Many of these essays cite and applaud the University's Keep Wes Safe campaign and its COVID-19 testing protocols. Cohan, professor of biology and Huffington Foundation Professor in the College of the Environment…

Lack of reliable transportation can prevent patients from making it to medical appointments or accessing other health care services. In a recently published paper, lead author Eli Solomon '20 explored and analyzed existing research on nonemergency medical transportation interventions. The article, titled "Impact of Transportation Interventions on Health Care Outcomes: A Systematic Review," was published in the American Public Health Association journal Medical Care. Solomon, a neuroscience and behavior major on a pre-med path, wrote the paper based on research he conducted in summer 2018 with peers at the University of California, San Francisco. While at UCSF, Solomon worked for…

The second publication by students in Genomics Analysis (BIOL 310) has been accepted by the well-known journal G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics. This adds 26 Wesleyan students to the ranks of more than 40 students who have become published authors through the course's research on Drosophila sechellia, a type of fruit fly evolved to eat a plant that is toxic to most insects. The recent paper, "Genomics Analysis of L-DOPA Exposure in Drosophila sechellia,” is coauthored by all 20 students in Assistant Professor of Biology Joseph Coolon's class, and six students in his lab. "I created my Genomics Analysis course as a…

College-aged individuals are at an increased risk for mental health issues, as well as poor sleep. There is a rich body of research on the negative consequences of poor sleep for cognitive, physical, and mental functioning. Furthermore, several studies provide support for the importance of three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) for optimal mental well-being. Less well understood, however, is the issue of “directionality” between basic psychological needs and sleep as students transition across semesters. “In other words, it is not clear whether an individual’s perceived fulfillment of these basic psychological needs predicts improvements in sleep later on;…

A paper by Zhaoyu Sun '20 was published in the April 2019 issue of The Yale Review of International Studies. The article, titled “Critical Comments Among Chinese Netizens – Before and After the Cyber Security Law" is based on a research paper he wrote for his CEAS 385/GOVT 391 Legacies of Authoritarian Politics course last fall. The class was taught by Joan Cho, assistant professor of East Asian studies; assistant professor, government. Sun, a College of East Asian Studies and government double major, explained that despite the growing availability of information within China and the country’s increased linkage to the West, the coercive actions…

Four former students who enrolled in the service-learning course AMST 250: Decolonizing Indigenous Middletown: Native Histories of the Wangunk Indian People—taught in fall 2015—are now co-authors of articles published in the Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut, No. 79, 2017. Iryelis Lopez ’17, Tiana Quinones '17, Abigail Cunniff ’17 and Yael Horowitz ’17 partnered with the Middlesex County Historical Society and spent their semester examining 17th- and 18th-century Middletown records that focused on the Algonquian peoples of the lower Connecticut River known as Wangunks. The Wangunks lived near the Connecticut River primarily in present-day Middletown and Portland, Conn. In February 2016, self-selected students…

Christina Othon and Erika Taylor, along with physics graduate student Nimesh Shukla, Lee Chen ’15, Inha Cho ’15 and Erin Cohn ’15, are the co-authors of a paper titled “Sucralose Destabilization of Protein Structure” published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, March 2015. Othon is assistant professor of physics and was PI on the paper. Taylor is assistant professor of chemistry, assistant professor of environmental studies. Sucralose is a commonly employed artificial sweetener that behaves very differently than its natural disaccharide counterpart, sucrose, in terms of its interaction with biomolecules. This research suggests that people may need to think about the impact…

Government, Russian and East European Studies major Elizabeth Trammell ’10 is the author of "Deep Trouble: Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, loses some of its hard-won protection," published in the Feb. 10 edition of Transitions Online and the Feb. 12 edition of Business Week. Trammell is writing an honor's thesis on Russian environmental policy under Peter Rutland, co-chair of the College of Social Studies, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, professor of government and tutor in the College of Social Studies. She interned last year for Great Baikal Trail, a sister environmental organization to BaikalWave in…

Daniela Ivanova ’10, a CSS senior, has published an article on "Velvet cinema" in the web-based publication Transitions Online, for their 20 years after the Berlin wall special.

Ernest Heau P’12 and his son, Noah Heau ’12, are the authors of a novel-length fantasy adventure for young teens called The Lost Rubies of Fennwann. Ernest and Noah wrote the book together while Noah was in middle and high school. The father and son self-published the 268-page book through iUniverse, Inc. in 2009. According to the website, "Co-authors Ernest and Noah Heau are father and son. Their story-telling career began when Noah was 4, when they made up stories on the spot. Over the years they created many hand-written and hand-illustrated stories. The Lost Rubies of Fennwann is their…

Senior Thesis: Thomas ’23 Believes in Regenerative Agriculture

Study by Snashall ’21, Poulos Published in Forests

Students’ Essays on Infectious Disease Prevention, COVID-19 Published Nationwide

Solomon ’20 is Lead Author on Paper Published in Medical Journal

Genomics Analysis Students Collaborate on Second Published Article

Study by Dubar, Students Published in Sleep Health Journal

Paper by Sun ’20 Published in Yale Review of International Studies

Research by Service-Learning Class Published in Archaeological Society Bulletin

Othon, Taylor Students Published in Physical Chemistry Letters

Trammell ’10 Writes Article on Trouble in Lake Baikal

Ivanova ’10 Authors Article on Velvet Cinema

Heau ’12, Heau P’12 Co-Author Fantasy Adventure Book