Junior Status, Graduate Work

Shauna Paradine Wins International Scholarship, Research Prizes
April 25, 2007
 

Story and photo by Jake Weber

Shauna Paradine is only a junior, but her Albion experiences – not to mention hard work – are already establishing her solidly in her field. The chemistry major recently won a prestigious fellowship for summer research as well as a prize for research she did in 2006.

Paradine will do research this summer in Mainz, Germany, as one of the inaugural scholars in the RISE program, an international research program sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and its German equivalent, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). RISE provides 200 American undergraduates each summer with a paid research position, travel expenses, and opportunities to participate in professional conferences.

Paradine was named one of the American Chemical Society’s 10 RISE scholars, an award given to RISE participants who show exceptional potential. “I had to apply for the RISE program, but the ACS honor was a complete surprise,” said Paradine.

In Germany, Paradine will continue the research focus she has had for the past three years, researching chemical processes involving hypervalent iodine. Many industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry, look to hypervalent iodine as a replacement for toxic substances currently used to manufacture many drugs.

Earlier this spring, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry chose Paradine as one of three outstanding poster presenters at the 2007 American Chemical Society meeting. “One of the reasons Shauna won was because her research was published in a peer-review journal, said Paradine’s academic adviser, Albion chemistry professor Andrew French. “And if things go well this summer, when she graduates she’ll have her name on two published papers, which is unheard of. She’ll be able to go to school anywhere she chooses.”

Paradine, who will graduate in 2008, will eventually pursue a doctorate in chemistry, but is not sure what she will do with it. “I know I want to perform research in organic chemistry as a career, but lately I have been considering accomplishing that goal in an academic setting as a professor rather than in industry,” she said. “Through the classes I have taken and the experience of performing research and being a chemistry teaching assistant, everything I've done has made me more passionate about chemistry.”

“The uniqueness of Shauna’s experience is not unique to Albion,” French pointed out. “Albion College’s Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (FURSCA) provides all students with the possibility of doing all manner of work, and that’s how Shauna got started. She’s realizing the fruits of FURSCA funding and how it’s served as a springboard to bigger things.”