Hobart and William Smith Colleges

19 October 2004 William Smith Grad Receives GlaxoSmithKline Fellowship

Working with one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies, alumna aims to shorten consumer wait time for needed drugs

(Oct. 19, 2004) GENEVA, N.Y.Rebecca Splain, a 2004 William Smith graduate, recently joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the worlds leading research-based pharmaceutical companies. Her research will lead to a richer understanding of the pharmaceutical processes at GSK and shorten the time it takes to bring drugs to the patients.

Splain is spending her post-baccalaureate year exploring the use of automated parallel reaction tools to generate large datasets of chemical information. Using these datasets, she can develop statistical models of chemical reactions.

At Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Splain was a double major in English and chemistry, with a concentration in biochemistry. She did undergraduate research with Professor Carol Parish, investigating the conformational flexibility of important anti-cancer drugs, and graduated with high honors. Splain, a 2003 American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Fellow, presented her work at two national scientific meetings, and recently submitted a manuscript for publication.

While at HWS, Splain was an integral part of the William Smith lacrosse team, playing in goal. She is the William Smith record holder for most wins, with a career record of 53-8. An Intercollegiate Womens Lacrosse Coaches Association Scholar Athlete, she was named the associations Division III Goalkeeper of the Year in 2004.

Splain was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Hai Timiai and Phi Lambda Upsilon honor societies, and made the deans list each year of her undergraduate career. The recipient of the First-Year Prize in Chemistry in 2000, she also won the Ralph Hadley Bullard, Marion Harrison Green 20, Cynthia Oyler 93, Betsy Bullock Mitchell 65 and Joseph N. Abraham Memorial awards while at the Colleges.

Splain is the daughter of James and Mary Lou Splain of Middlebury, Vt. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program in chemistry in the fall of 2005.

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