Shantanu Bhatt '05

One cold winter afternoon in 1989 I sat in bed with a big fat book. It wasn't a story book or a sports magazine but a book that showed men and women with cancerous lesions of different forms from enlargement of the stomach due to a malignancy to tumor tissues in the brain. From that point onwards I knew that I was obsessed with anomalies and treatment for such anomalies. Thus, I decided that I would become a doctor just like the women from whom I had stolen the book. My mother is an HIV/AIDS specialist who not only administers drugs to patients but also looks after the well being of socially ostracized HIV+/AIDS afflicted women and children. When the AIDS epidemic hit the Indian subcontinent and there were numerous advertisements floating on TV regarding what HIV and AIDS were it was then that my curiosity of it came into being. I read books on AIDS that my mom had given me. I started asking my teachers questions on what causes AIDS?, what a virus is?, why is it so tiny and yet so powerful? and what is being done about it? When I was told that AIDS is an incurable disease caused by a dormant chemical factory called HIV, then I knew what I wanted to do.....design the elixir for AIDS. I met my first major disappointment in grade 10 when I got the news that someone had beat me to it and had designed a tiny multielemental molecule called Azidothymidine (the first Nucleoside Reverse transcriptase Inhibitor to effectively treat HIV infection) that could alter the functioning of the most important HIV enzyme, which in turn prevented the spread of HIV infection by preventing it from multiplying. This discovery enhanced my obsession of drugs, enzymes and pathogens. In college I got my first major opportunity to do research on a pulmonary pathogen called Burkholderia cenocepacia that exacerbates the immunocompromised state of cystic fibrosis patients. This bacteria further excited me because it was not a dormant chemical factory like a virus but an active one where all the essential life sustaining daily activities were being performed by ONE tiny cell. Working with it enabled me to master some of the important principles of bacteriology. Furthermore, my fondness of bacteriology enabled me to become a TA for it (besides the obvious fact that a bacteriologist sounds cooler than a virologist). It was then that I decided that I wanted to be a bacteriologist and teach in a college where I can further advance the knowledge of this crucial science to students and so here I am trying to work towards my goal.

Dan Hughes '05

Throughout my life I have always loved the outdoors and I have always had a respect for all living things. It wasn't, however, until my senior year of high school that I realized my passion for the environmental sciences and for biology. My senior year in high school I took an Ecology and Evolution class, which focused on how organisms survive within their environment. We spent a lot of class time doing hands-on work outdoors. We also took a week long field trip to Utah to explore some of the principles we were learning in class. From these experiences I decided to pursue the sciences through my college career.

At Denison I was able to deepen my interest in the sciences. By taking a variety of classes I discovered that the field of zoology grabbed me more than anything else. During the second semester of my junior year I studied abroad in Australia and took courses on Australian Vertebrate Fauna and Australian Wildlife Rehabilitation. The following summer I went to Kenya for two weeks and studied the endangered Grevy zebras. Both of these trips gave me the opportunity to expand my research experience as well as my knowledge about the zoology of two completely different habitats. This year, under the advisement of Dr. Thomas Schultz, I am doing my senior research on the roosting behaviors of the Turkey and Black Vultures found on campus. I am also the Vice President of the Denison University Biological Society and am a member of DURP, the Denison Cross Country team and Denison University Track team. In my spare time I TA in the biology department, and do volunteer work with Dr. Reiswig, an equine and small animal veterinarian in Pataskala. After graduation I plan to take some additional classes and then apply to Ohio State Veterinary College.

Lindsey Bostleman '05

While taking a hike in southern Ohio this past summer, I noticed some unusual plants along the trail. I sketched the species and took the pictures to Dr. Hauk who identified their families and explained their unusual appearances. A few weeks later, while walking out of Talbot, I found the body of a recently expired hummingbird. Not wanting the beautiful creature to be wasted, I took it up to the ecology floor where Dr. Rettig and Dr. Smith were able to send it to be preserved and displayed for educational purposes. Later in the month, while looking at my cultures, I found a most unusual yeast colony in which half of the cells were red and the other half were white, giving a ying-yang appearance. Dr. Thompson insisted that we take a picture because it was "so cool." Looking back on all of these experiences has led me to one conclusion: I love my major!

Biology has always been a part of my life. When I was young, it was the fish in my pond, the great trees growing in the woods, and the croaking frogs at night. Here at Denison, I have enjoyed observing snail habitats at the bio reserve, analyzing blood glucose levels in humans, and fertilizing sea urchin eggs. When one day I leave the halls of Talbot, I hope to go into the medical field where I can apply my knowledge from classes and research towards helping people with illnesses. In the mean time, I will continue exposing mutated yeast to UV radiation and nurture my love for biology.