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Sarah Luchansky Wins $5,000 Pfizer Grant

Sarah Luchansky works in her Wesleyan University chemistry lab.

-Photo Courtesy Kirstin Fearnley

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

Sandy Hook resident Sarah Luchansky, a 1994 graduate of Newtown High School

and currently a junior chemistry major at Wesleyan University in Middletown,

recently won a $5,000 grant from Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company in Groton.

Every year, the Pfizer Company awards monetary grants to national winners. The

grant money includes a ten-week summer stipend and funds to cover experimental

equipment.

Sarah's research focuses on a small piece of RNA associated with the control

of cellular activities. The grant will allow her to pursue a thesis on RNA and

protein interactions. Her thesis adviser is Anne Michelle Baranger, assistant

professor of chemistry at Wesleyan.

"She is taking a lot of initiative," stated Dr Baranger in a Wesleyan

University press release, explaining that she and Sarah had begun discussing

the chemistry project before Sarah decided to expand it to a thesis.

Since Pfizer grant applicants must submit an in-depth outline of their theses

plans, Sarah found that in the process of drafting her eight-page proposal,

her thesis ideas became further solidified.

"The proposal ties together everything that my adviser and I have talked

about. It gives the student something to aim for," according to Sarah.

At the end of the summer, grant winners will meet for a poster session and

will present their projects through posters and speeches.