During the academic year, 1693 Scholars orbit the program’s Jamestown Road headquarters, Murray House, to discuss coursework, learn alongside lunchtime guests, and debate global problems and possible solutions, often well into the night.
While many scatter to pursue summer opportunities elsewhere in the U.S. or abroad, several have chosen to delve deeply into research projects on campus alongside faculty mentors.
Such undergraduate summer research experiences can be life changing, according to Charles Center Director Elizabeth Harbron. A seven-to-ten-week experience frequently blossoms into something larger — a senior thesis, a pathway to graduate studies, or even a lifelong pursuit.
“There’s something so special about summer research,” Harbron said. “Because it’s not required, it’s truly driven by students’ interests, curiosity, and passion for discovery. They’re learning a lot about a particular topic and, at the same time, they’re learning about themselves, what makes them tick.”
Faculty mentorship is also an essential ingredient to summer research. “The faculty/mentee dynamic is really special and essential,” Harbron said. “Between faculty and students, there’s a sense of shared mission and a desire to do good things through research, together. You can see it in the kind of summer projects our 1693 Scholars are pursuing alongside W&M faculty.”
Among those researching on campus this summer are scholars whose work not only seeks to understand the world better but to make it better in the process.
Shalom Akolatse ’26, a Stamps 1693 Scholar from Aledo, Texas, is spending the summer in the W&M lab of mentor Tyler Meldrum, associate professor of chemistry and director of undergraduate research.
Akolatse, a mathematics and biochemistry double major, is investigating bacterial colonies called biofilms, which contribute to nearly 3 million infections in the U.S. each year.
Using nuclear magnetic resonance to reveal new understandings of the structure and growth of bacterial biofilms, Akolatse ultimately seeks to make antibiotic-resistant infections more treatable and preventable.
“The bacteria we’re looking at, P. aeruginosa, it’s a nasty pathogen that can colonize the lungs in immunocompromised patients. Understanding how variations in its genome affect its colony formation, as well as being able to better grasp what the colony is doing and producing over its formation, that has substantive implications,” Akolatse said.
Akolatse explained that his summer research lives at the intersection of several interests. “I’m in a physical chemistry lab, which means we’re studying sort of ‘bulk’ actions of chemicals and material properties, and data analysis is a first-rate feature of being part of this lab,” he said. “But I also love health-oriented biochemistry, and in fact a similar field, chemical biology, is what I want to study in graduate school.”
“Being able to marry the two in a project looking at the material and physical properties of biofilms, which are traditionally studied with biochemical methods, is really exciting,” he added.
Akolatse describes the student/mentor relationship as critical and pointed to Prof. Meldrum as inspiration. “He is a very hands-on, very present mentor, but he very strongly believes in independence. At every step of the way, he’s there to provide guidance and help frame the questions, but he doesn’t answer them for me,” he said.
The ability to work alongside a faculty mentor whose personal style and intellectual interests mesh, Akolatse said, “has been very impactful on my confidence as a researcher, knowing that what I’m doing is actually research, that what I’m going through isn’t a watered-down version of science but the real deal.”
Stamps 1693 Scholar Cedrick Dimaranan ’27, a biology major from Virginia Beach, is helping to create the next line of cancer therapeutics in the lab of Doug Young, McLeod Tyler distinguished professor of chemistry.
“When I first met Prof. Young, I was surprised to learn that more than 20 amino acids exist,” recalled Dimaranan. “I immediately began thinking about the possible applications of expanding proteins’ already diverse reactivity. His research, I thought, was the perfect opportunity to not only explore, be creative, and dream large but also apply and extend what I learned inside the classroom.”
Dimaranan is investigating protein conjugates, or special proteins attached to another chemical group or molecule, which can improve drug delivery and diagnostic imaging. Using unnatural amino acids, or those outside of the 20 naturally encoded and incorporated inside proteins, can enhance chemotherapeutics’ specificity to cancerous cells and minimize traditional treatments’ harmful side effects, such as hair loss or cardiovascular disease.
The prospect of working closely alongside his mentor over the summer was too great an opportunity to pass up. “Prof. Young has catalyzed my development as a scientist since I joined his lab in the spring of my freshman year,” Dimaranan said. “He knows exactly when and how to provide support. He never is too heavy-handed, allowing me to build my independence and confidence in lab procedures, but provides direction when appropriate or when I have a question.”
The mentorship Dimaranan receives in Young’s lab goes beyond the benchtop. “He serves as an invaluable sounding board for post-W&M career contemplations,” said Dimaranan. “He even goes as far as to tailor my projects inside the lab to my personal interests and capabilities.”
Another essential ingredient to his summer experience is complimentary summer research housing in One Tribe Place, alleviating the stress and financial burden of finding off-campus housing and allowing him to fully focus on his lab work.
Even more important, according to Dimaranan, campus housing sets the stage for a vibrant and close-knit summer research community.
“Being in the presence of other like-minded scholars with such diverse interests has also benefited me and my research so far,” he said. “Summer housing allows us to meet new people, build community, and exchange ideas that inspire new avenues of thinking inside our individual projects.”
Sarah Thomas ’26, a Stamps 1693 Scholar from Clarksburg, Maryland, is researching angiosperms—a botanical classification that includes all flowering plants—under the direction of Harmony Dalgleish, associate professor of biology.
Over the course of the summer, Thomas’s research will take several forms. She’s currently supporting fieldwork led by Dalgleish lab member Grace Parker ’26 in southern Virginia that examines ecosystems and best restoration practices of fire-loving grasses and other angiosperms.
She is also leading her own linked project in the W&M greenhouse to determine how best to grow native grasses and understory plants that compose the historically threatened long-leaf pine ecosystem of the southeastern United States. This research will directly contribute to improving conservation effort efficiency.
Thomas first became interested in plant research after taking a course with Associate Professor of Biology Josh Puzey. “As a biology major, I had lots of experience with studying human and non-human animals from the smaller levels of the cell through the larger levels of anatomy and behavior,” she said. However, this was my first in-depth look at plant hormones, cells, life cycles, evolution, and reproduction.”
The combined power of an inspiring instructor and exposure to new knowledge about the world and her relation to it had an immediate effect.
“I was instantly blown away by how significantly plants differ from the animals I was used to studying, from being able to sense the levels of darkness in their environment to guide their growth to synchronizing their own internal ‘body clocks’ with insect feeding patterns to protect themselves. I knew I wanted to investigate plants further,” she said.
Thomas reached out to Dalgleish, who conducts plant ecology research on interactions between plants, pollinators, and microbes, and sustainable practices involving plant restoration and agriculture.
“The research I’ll be contributing to this summer exemplifies how plant conservation happens at multiple spatial scales, from understanding the bacteria and fungi inside the nectar of plants to understanding the relationships between different species of native plants and the larger environment,” Thomas explained.
Dalgleish’s support, experience, and mentorship have been crucial, Thomas said, especially because this is her first time participating in fieldwork and plant research. “She accompanied my project partner and me to our first day in the field, teaching us all the tricks of the trade, and has been readily available for any questions I have about setting up petri dishes, taking care of seedlings in the greenhouse, and operating equipment.”
Interested in learning more about summer research opportunities through the Charles Center? Click here.