Michael Longmire, junior year Chemistry major, received the Sigma Xi award at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in November 2012.

Michael presented his work on the synthesis of Distamycin A, a DNA-binding agent. The award is given to recognize a collaborative research project. Michael is a chemistry and biology double major working in the lab of Dr. David E. Graves to develop a method of directing drug-DNA binding events. The synthesis of Distamycin A has been a collaboration with Dr. Sadanandan E. Velu.

Michael's work in both labs is the result of the Beckman Scholarship, an award given to a small number of institutions each year to promote undergraduate research, which he received in April, 2012.