Hampden-Sydney was pleased to host Dr. Louise Temple from James Madison University to learn about her efforts to better understand the diversity of bacteriophage, or viruses that infect bacteria, in the environment of Virginia and beyond.

Dr. Temple addresses the H-SC audience

The visit from Dr. Temple was part of Hampden-Sydney’s first semester as an associate member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science Education Alliance, a program that introduces original research work in bacteriophage biology to undergraduates at ~80 colleges and universities nationwide.  Dr. Temple was an integral part of JMU’s charter membership in the alliance and met individually with H-SC students currently working on the HHMI phage isolation project to help them refine their projects.  The year-long project at H-SC will culminate next spring in part with a meeting of undergraduates from H-SC, the College of William and Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Mary Washington, and James Madison University in which research results from the bacteriophage project will be presented by student participants.