(Posted November 24, 2008)

HUNTINGDON Pa. -- Travis Hull, a senior from Summerhill, Pa. at Juniata College studying biology, received the 2009 Raymond W. Sarber Award for Scientific Achievement from the American Society for Microbiology.

Hull, the son of David and Janet Hull, will receive a $1,500 financial award and a certificate at the meeting. He will be recognized for his achievement at the society's May 18 meeting in Philadelphia.
The Raymond W. Sarber Awards recognize students at the undergraduate and predoctoral levels for research excellence and potential. Up to two awards per year are presented in honor of Raymond W. Sarber and his contributions to the growth and advancement of American Society for Microbiology.

"The connection between research and medicine is relevant to being a good doctor and a well-informed doctor."

Travis Hull, senior, Summerhill, Pa.


Hull has focused his studies and research on microbiology and is currently considering medical schools that have an M.D./Ph.D. dual degree program. "The connection between research and medicine is relevant to being a good doctor and a well-informed doctor," Hull says.

Hull has worked on a research project for three years at Juniata that isolates genes within a microbial bacterium that has pharmaceutical implications in antimicrobial drug development and the study of prokaryotic cell division. He has worked as summer research assistant for Jennifer Bennett, von Liebig Postdoctoral Fellow in biology, and received a fellowship from the American Society of Microbiology to support his project.

This past summer, he worked on a research team at Harvard University Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. in the laboratory of Gregory Stahl, principal investigator in the Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Reperfusion Injury.

Although relatively few undergraduate students get to present their research at professional meetings, Hull presented a poster at the national meeting of the American Society of Microbiology in Toronto in 2007 and was an invited student speaker at the society's national meeting in Boston in June. He also has made presentations at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pa., Swarthmore College, Undergraduate Research at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., and Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

He has been elected president of the Health Occupations Students of America for the 2008-2009 academic year and is treasurer of the Juniata chapter of the American Society of Microbiologists. He also is president of Tri-Beta, the national biology honor society.


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