Chemistry student receives state science awards

Public Relations | 04/25/2008

Rachel Stephens, an applied biochemistry major from Nashville, presented her undergraduate research project at the spring 2008 meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science.

Her research involved developing a method to determine the amount of histidine produced by the enzyme histidine carboxylase. In this project she used capillary electrophoresis under different pH conditions for the determination.

Rachel received the top award in the chemistry and physics section of the meeting. Fisk University and Vanderbilt University students also presented in this section.

Rachel’s work is being prepared for submission in the scientific journal Analytical Biochemistry.

This marks the second year in a row for this award to be received by a Lipscomb chemistry student. Last year Derek Allison, chemistry major from Knoxville, presented his work analyzing for salicylic acid in aspirin samples prepared by nursing students in Chemistry for Health Sciences course. His work enables the use of instrumental applications in the chemistry training of nursing students.

At that meeting 10 of the 18 presentations in the chemistry and biology section were made by Lipscomb University students.

Rachel and Derek worked with chemistry faculty mentors Drs. Kent Clinger and Bill Tallon, respectively.