Research Frontiers Goes Green, "Green" and Chocolate

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Luke Knox, Honors College student in art, weaves baling wire into a snarling wolf, part of project showing how animal myths have survived in our culture. His faculty mentor is art professor Kristin Musgnug.

The spring 2012 issue of Research Frontiers, now available on the Web, includes the research of Honors College students, who have worked one-on-one with faculty mentors on ambitious projects. The three students featured in the story “Hands On” by Kendall Curlee are all “green,” as in new to research.

In the case of undergraduate Ali McAtee, her project is also green, as in beneficial to the environment. Working with chemical engineering professor Jamie Hestekin, she is doing graduate-level work, developing a new method to convert algae into biofuel.

Hannah Ibrahim and Andrew Arkell were part of a team of architecture students, led by professor Korydon Smith, who designed neighborhood reconstruction in cooperation with residents of Kigali, Rwanda, and Rwandan architecture students.

Luke Knox, an art student working with professor Kristin Musgnug, explored the relationship between civilization and nature through mythic animal archetypes in a series of dramatic paintings and sculptures.

In another story, “Going Cocoa,” by Will Bryan, Honors College student Mike Norton explains his project with a cocoa cooperative in Ghana. Working with Lanier Nalley, assistant professor of agriculture economics and agribusiness, Norton provided the database and training to help cocoa farmers increase their yields and rise above the poverty line. Since then, Norton has been named to a highly competitive Harry S. Truman Scholarship for his graduate studies.