How I spent my summer vacation

By Katie Williams
Collegian Editor
September 19, 2007

What is your name and major?

My name is John Riley, and I am a biology major.

How did you spend your summer?

Doing research with the Army’s Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense.

Where was the Institute located?

Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, which is about 15 or 20 miles outside of Baltimore.

How did you get involved with that program?

Dr. Gerald Ballough in the biology program used to work there, and every summer he takes a few La Salle students down with him. We didn’t work in his lab, but he got us a job in other labs.

Which other students went?

Myself, John Andrews, Sarah Dotson, Sean Wilkinson and Jake Repash (all senior biology majors). The last two actually graduated at the end of last year: Jeff Lucas and Jeff Koenig.

What did your job entail?

How scientific do you want me to get? Mine entailed testing samples for the presence of the enzyme that is inhibited by the exposure to nerve agents. So what we were doing was testing different compounds to see if they could reverse the effects of nerve agent. So the more of that enzyme that was present, the better.

So you weren’t creating nerve agent, you were trying to stop it?

Yes.

Do you think you would like to continue in this line of work in the future?

Yeah. It’s not my career goal, but I’m probably going to work there after I graduate college, while I’m going to graduate school.

What was your favorite summer memory?

The night that everyone, pretty much everyone, from our lab came over to play Cranium.

Did you win?

No. I did not win. One of my teammates betrayed us and switched teams.

Did you get any classified privileges?

Uh, don’t print that.

williamsk1@lasalle.edu