Shedding light on the incubator

The Concord University Department of Science had a big victory this past spring. Dr. Timothy Corrigan, Professor of Physics, was awarded a grant courtesy of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and the National Science Foundation. The grant  is entitled the Study of the Florescence from Quantum Dots Coupled with Gold Nanoparticles. Dr. Corrigan was awarded $120,000 to aid in the ongoing research of this florescence.

    Dr. Corrigan explains this project in more layman terms, saying, “The quantum dots are something that, if you shine a light of one color, it basically just shines a different color back.” 

    This kind of research is currently a popular topic among the science community, putting Concord on the same level as larger universities and laboratories in terms of subject matter. “DNA origami is very popular, and also trying to control some of the light is very popular,” says Dr. Corrigan. “Really, nanotechnology is what we’re involved in.” 

    The money from the grant was used to purchase materials necessary for the project such as chemicals, glassware, and a piece of machinery called a thermocycler, which is used to amplify certain parts of DNA. 

After purchasing supplies, Dr. Corrigan has even bigger plans for the remaining grant money. “We’re planning on sending the students to national conferences to present some of the things we’ve done here,” he says. He plans to send the students to San Antonio, Maryland, or perhaps even both. 

This research isn’t something that can be easily conducted and finished in just one semester. “It’s still ongoing, yes,” explains Dr. Corrigan. “We have this grant until the end of next summer, of course one goal is to keep funded and to write another.” 

    The grant has been beneficial not only for Concord University students, but for local high school students as well. “We hired a high school student from Princeton High School over the summer to come and learn about and help with the research. This was very successful, and we plan to hire another high school student this summer,” says Dr. Corrigan. “Getting the students involved, that’s what it’s all about.” 

    Involving the high school students is Dr. Corrigan’s way of reaching out to local high school students and teaching them how to conduct real scientific research and use more advanced equipment such as the atomic force microscope. “That was my idea for an outreach, so I put that in the grant so we could get some funding for [high school participation]…we teach them out to use [the equipment] and then they can help us by looking at the samples, and it benefits us both.” 

    Due to the success of the first high school student involvement, Dr. Corrigan plans to continue this practice and even extend the invitation to more students as well as teachers. He believes that this would benefit local high schools by teaching them advanced research techniques and the best way to approach complex science. “I would like for Concord to become a resource for the students around, and for the teachers.” 

    Aside from benefitting the surrounding high schools, Dr. Corrigan says, “I think it particularly benefits the students that want to go to grad school.”

    Concord University senior Matthew Kissenger, a student who has been working on the research project since the beginning of the fall semester, agrees that the project and subsequent findings will be beneficial when it comes time to fill out graduate school applications. “If you can get published or close to publication, it looks very good on a resume,” he says. 

    Dr. Corrigan and his student crew are confident in their research and excited for the things to come. “We’ll develop more goals as we continue,” says Dr. Corrigan, “we’re already refining our research.”