2009 CSL Undergraduate Summer Research Stipend Report
Aram Apyan | Evan Estola | Erik Harpstead | Jae Kwan Lee | Ryan McClure | Jesse Reinhardt | Peter Schemmel | Andrew Yates
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Peter Schemmel
Second-year undergraduate, Physics
Thomas Irving
Professor of Biology and Physics
EXPERIMENTAL X-RAY DIFFRACTION EQUIPMENT DESIGN, MACHINING, AND FABRICATION
Peter is from Brandon, SD, where he worked on the Supernova Survey at Badlands Observatory (and independently discovered Supernova SN2008A, NGC634) and among other things built motorcycles and airplanes as a hobby.
His science orientation and mechanical aptitude were perfect for Professor Irving, who needed a student to design and fabricate muscle physiology setups for Irving's work.
He also noticed Peter's commitment. "I have come along only a small handful of students that compare to Peter," said Irving. "He has a passion for science that is truly remarkable."
Irving is internationally known for his use of small-angle x-ray diffraction to study the ordered structure of muscles on the nm length scale (one billionth of a meter), work that helps us better understand things like heart disease. He directs the Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT) x-ray diffraction, scattering, and spectroscopy facility at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. This National Institutes of Health-funded facility is probably one of the best in the world for muscle studies of non-crystalline biological systems such as muscle and proteins in solution.
This summer, Peter finished building a laser diffraction system for combined X-ray diffraction and physiological measurements from intact cardiac muscle. "We are still testing and making tweaks to the setup, but we intend to use it at the synchrotron," said Irving. Peter also helped to build a rig for combined laser light diffraction and muscle mechanics for the flight muscles of the Hawkmoth Manduca sexta, with a prototype setup assembled and used in an experiment at Argonne (where, said Peter, "I always feel like James Bond").
"Working with Professor Irving has dramatically increased my desire to become a scientist," noted Peter, who wants to earn a Ph.D. in physics and teach. "There is no longer any doubt as to where I want my future to end up."
Download the 2009 Undergraduate Summer Research Stipend report. (1 MB .pdf)
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