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18 SUMMER 2012 | ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
For many Laurentians,
lifelong learning has
taken on special meaning – as a calling and a
career.
Nearly 400 alumni teach, cre-
ate and conduct research as faculty
at colleges and universities across
the country and around the world.
Many of them are leaders in their fields,
leaning on their liberal arts educations to
cross boundaries and make breakthroughs,
from using Google Earth to uncover remote
geology, to examining the smallest corners
of our brains, to chronicling history, time and
place through photography, to name a few
examples.
These alumni share their expertise in class-
rooms and labs and through collaborative
research with students, influencing the lives
of future visionaries the same way their
St. Lawrence mentors shaped theirs.
PIONEER ANALYTICAL CHEMIST
Andrew Ewing ’79
has
focused on developing ways
to analyze brain chemistry in
ultra-small volumes and us-
ing those methods to probe
nerve cells one at a time.
Although he started in elec-
trochemistry, Ewing has made significant ad-
vances in the fields of separation science and
mass spectrometry imaging, or photograph-
ing chemicals across the surface of a living
cell. He has received nearly $25.3 million in
grant funding for a list of critical research
projects he’s led over a 28-year career.
“I’m interested in all areas of science,” he ex-
plains. “Understanding how and why things
work is the most fun thing I can think of. I like
working with students and seeing them make
discoveries, but more important, seeing them
learn to really think.”
Ewing taught at Penn State for many years.
In 2007, he was offered a Marie Curie Chair,
funded by the European Union, at the Uni-
versity of Gothenburg in Sweden. He teaches
analytical chemistry at Gothenburg and
nearby Chalmers University and directs their
new joint initiative in bioanalytical chemistry.
Ewing and his students have developed
methods used in neuroscience research to
probe how neurotransmitters are released
when cells communicate with each other,
and what regulates the communication. This
is important when developing new drugs,
when determining what works best for learn-
ing, and in understanding what goes wrong
during a degenerative disease.
“We’ve found a way to provide direct evi-
dence that cell membranes have domains
associated with their function,” he says.
“We’ve proposed some new mechanisms for
cell changes that might be related to short-
term memory and important in diseases like
Parkinson’s.”
Ewing holds several approved and pending
patents and has authored or co-authored
nearly 250 publications. The recipient of
countless prestigious awards, he was recent-
ly elected to the Swedish Royal Academy of
Sciences.
Analysis of the brains of fruit flies.
Photo of the fruit
fly,
Drosophila melanogaster,
with the enzyme choline
acetyltransferase marked with green fluorescent pro-
tein (green glow). Overset is a trace showing peaks
for chemicals detected in the fly brain.
photo courtesy of E. Carina Berglund,
University of Gothenburg.