Julie Leiston, a graduate of Churchville-Chili High School, is spending winter quarter researching the kinetics of emulsion polymerization as the first recipient of Rochester Institute of Technology's Daniel Pasto Co-op Fellowship Award.

A well-known physical organic chemist and author of several textbooks, Pasto was a professor at the University of Notre Dame. He died in 1999, leaving $100,000 to RIT's chemistry department. The fellowship provides an unusual opportunity for an undergraduate, who normally would not have this kind of intense, hands-on learning experience. Leiston, a fourth-year polymer chemistry major from Spencerport, is working with Professor Andreas Langner.

Leiston credits her Churchville-Chili chemistry teacher, John Prouty, with fostering an interest in the subject. She's a member of Alpha Chi Sigma professional chemistry fraternity and received the chemistry department's physical chemistry and polymer chemistry awards.

Leiston has done research work with RIT Professor Marvin Illingsworth since her freshman year and, last summer, she worked at the University of Akron conducting research with a faculty member there. After graduation in May, Leiston plans to go on to graduate school and, ultimately, to become a professor of chemistry/polymer science.

"I'm not looking to win a Nobel prize," she said, "I'm just looking to educate and fuel others' interest in chemistry."