AC
Anthony Carestia
  • chemistry
  • Leonardo, NJ

Anthony Carestia Receives Fellowship Award

2012 Jan 11

Anthony Carestia, a third-year Rochester Institute of Technology student in chemistry, has been awarded a David Pasto Co-op Fellowship Award for the 2011–2012 academic year.

The David Pasto Co-op Fellowship Award is given to chemistry students who express an interest in conducting chemistry research. Selected student researchers receive $2,500 from RIT's College of Science and spend one academic quarter working full-time on a selected research project. David Pasto, a 1958 graduate of RIT's chemistry program, went on to become a well-known physical organic chemist. He died in 1999, leaving RIT's chemistry department with $100,000.

Carestia, who graduated from Middletown High School South, spent this past summer working on a research fellowship sponsored by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

He credits his high school chemistry teacher, Anthony Shallop, for his interest in pursuing a career in chemistry. "Before taking his chemistry class, I was thinking about majoring in physics because I wanted to better understand how the world works. After taking Shallop's class, I realized I was more interested in what makes up the world and not how the world works," says Carestia.

On top of his active involvement in research, Carestia serves as vice president of RIT's Beard Enthusiasts at RIT Demonstrating Excellence club and is also a member of the Rochester Wargamers Association and Guild. In his free time, Carestia enjoys playing Magic the Gathering, a role-playing playing card game, and playing board games.

"Anthony's success is due largely to his unending patience and motivation both in the classroom and lab," says Christina Collison, associate professor of the chemistry department at RIT. "He sets a really good example to others who work in the group with him."

His research project, "Studies Toward the Total Synthesis of Trocheliophorolide A," focuses on trying to synthesize an unsaturated side chain in a butenolide compound found in soft coral from the Red Sea. Upon completion of his fellowship, Carestia will present his findings at the American Chemical Society Convention in Philadelphia, Aug. 17–21.

Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, imaging science, sustainability, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. RIT enrolls 17,500 full- and part-time students in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.

For more than two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation's leading comprehensive universities. RIT is featured in The Princeton Review's 2012 edition of The Best 376 Colleges as well as its Guide to 311 Green Colleges. The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 names RIT as a "Best Buy," and The Chronicle of Higher Education recognizes RIT among the "Great Colleges to Work For 2011."