(Posted April 30, 2007)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Meara Kauffman, a senior from Reedsville, Pa. studying chemistry at Juniata College, has been granted a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Kauffman, who will graduate in May 2007, is part of a program that sends more than 1,000 students abroad to study at foreign universities and sites. Kauffman, the daughter of Thomas and Nancy Kauffman, will start her fellowship in August. She will be working in the laboratory of Erick Carreira, a renowned organic chemist whose lab researches synthesis of natural products. Kauffman will be working on a project to identify molecules that inhibit cholesterol absorption in the small intestine. Kauffman has participated in a variety of research projects during her time at Juniata. Most recently, she worked on a project synthesizing and investigating the structure of natural marine products that was a continuation of research she was assigned during a summer lab internship at the University of Hawaii in 2006. She also worked with Richard Hark, associate professor of chemistry, during her freshman year, working on the antibacterial compound triclosan. In the summer of her sophomore year, 2005, she worked on a research team investigating conducting polymers at Carnegie Mellon University with Richard McCullough, professor of chemistry. She has presented her research on reagents for fingerprinting technology at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, and received an award for her fingerprint research at Juniata\'s Liberal Arts Research Symposium in 2006. After her Fulbright Fellowship, she plans to earn a doctoral degree in chemistry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. In 2006, she received the Goldwater Scholarship. Kauffman has worked as a lab teaching assistant for Professor Hark and also as a Juniata College tour guide. She is a member of the Juniata College Concert Choir, the Phi Alpha Service Club, the Chemistry Club and Omicron Delta Kappa, the national leadership honor society.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.