Luther College News

The electric guitar is rarely heard in chamber ensembles, but new-age composers are working to expand the instrument’s role within the Western classical tradition. This summer, Andrew Murray, Luther College senior of North Mankato, Minnesota, is researching different styles and unique arrangements in compositions for the electric guitar.

The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, transferring billions of dollars’ worth of foreign currencies between countries. Hakam Abdul El Mitshu, Luther College senior of Tripoli, Libya, is researching and building opening and closing strategies for foreign exchange traders for his summer research project at the college.

Messier 23, also known as M23, is an open cluster in the constellation Sagittarius. Torger Jystad, Luther College junior of St. Charles, Minnesota, is researching and observing eclipsing binary stars in M23 as part of his summer research at the college.

Move out week at Luther College has historically been the week in which Luther sends the most waste to the landfill of any week throughout the year. Students worked more than 400 hours over the course of nine days to assist with move out waste diversion by educating their peers about recycling and donation processes.

Human serum albumin is the most abundant protein found in human blood plasma. Emily Starman, Luther College senior of Coralville, Iowa, is using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy to research how curcuminoids, a major component of the spice turmeric, bind with HSA for her summer research project at the college.

Quarks are among the smallest things that science has discovered, shown experimentally to be about a million billion times smaller than a grain of sand. Joshua Jackson, Luther College senior of East Dubuque, Illinois, is researching the physics of quarks and the forces which bind them together into composite objects for his summer research project at the college.

Latin America possesses some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws and also some of the highest maternal mortality rates. Rebecca Buse, Luther College junior of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, is researching the possible connections between these two phenomena for her summer student-faculty collaborative research project at the college.

In 1967, Luther College’s Nordic Choir went on its first tour of Europe; Norway, West Germany and East Germany, led by Luther Professor Emeritus of Music Weston Noble. Fifty years later, Aidan Spencer, Luther College senior of Decorah, Iowa, is creating a documentary of the historic first tour for her summer research project at the college.