Two undergrads are recipients of inaugural ACC fellowships

Two Florida State University students have been awarded the university’s first Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Fellowships for Undergraduate Research. Juniors Al Heartley, a theater major from Stone Mountain, Ga., and Andrew Attar, a chemistry major from Sarasota, Fla., were awarded $5,000 each to further their ongoing research. They join their counterparts at the other 11 ACC universities, all of which are showcasing and promoting cutting-edge research and innovative creative work by undergraduates.

Heartley and Attar’s fellowships, awarded by Florida State’s Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors in the Division of Undergraduate Studies, are the largest awards for undergraduate research at the university and are funded by the ACC International Academic Collaborative with revenue from the ACC football championship.

“Andrew and Al were selected from a large pool of candidates after a rigorous application and interview process,” said Cathy Levenson, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors. “These students are undergraduates, but the work they are doing at FSU promises to have a national, and even international, impact.”

Attar is engaged in research that he hopes will revolutionize the way solar energy is captured. His work, which is being conducted under the direction of Assistant Professor Kenneth Knappenberger Jr. in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, takes advantage of the most recent advances in research areas known as nanotechnology, femtosecond transient absorption and time-correlated single photon counting to study how light energy is collected and redistributed through the structure of semiconducting nanomaterials.

Attar hopes to eventually use these sophisticated techniques to design very small, highly specialized quantum dots to collect and redistribute light energy and ultimately lead to the development of nanomaterials-based solar voltaic cells. He expressed ambitious plans for his ACC Fellowship and beyond, saying he hopes to “perform research that may play some part in the world’s efforts to produce safe, affordable, efficient and renewable energy.”

Heartley, meanwhile, sees his fellowship as an opportunity to advance the public’s awareness and appreciation of an important African-American playwright. As an actor, director and researcher while working toward his bachelor’s degree in Florida State’s School of Theatre, Heartley said he became familiar with the play “The Brothers Size” when working as a casting intern for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago. He felt that Tarell Alvin McCraney, the play’s author, had a unique writing style and represented a new, distinguished voice in African-American theater.

This discovery launched Heartley’s current project, which is being conducted under the direction of Assistant Professor Irma Mayorga in Florida State’s School of Theatre.

“I’m very excited. It’s a wonderful honor,” said Heartley, who plans to use his award not only to research how McCraney incorporates traditional Yoruba religion and its oral traditions into his plays but also to produce and stage “The Brothers Size” on April 1-4 at the Augusta Conradi Theatre at Florida State. (Visit www.leaveyourmarkproductions.com for more information on the production.) In advance of the Tallahassee performances, McCraney, the 2009 winner of The New York Times’ Outstanding Playwright Award, will visit Florida State to discuss his play, which is part of his trilogy “The Brother/Sister Plays.” Both the performance and the discussion with McCraney will be open to the public.

“Al’s project is a unique combination of theater research and creative performance, and is an excellent example of the kind of mentoring that undergraduate students are getting at FSU,” Levenson said. “At many universities, the opportunity that Al and Andrew are getting to work one-on-one with a professor is reserved for graduate students. The value of research experience to their education is immense.

“The creation of this prestigious fellowship program shows the commitment of the ACC and its member schools to academic excellence,” she said.