October 18, 2004

Rebecca Splain '04

GENEVA, N.Y.—Former William Smith College lacrosse goalie Rebecca Splain ’04 recently joined GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical companies. Her research will lead to a richer understanding of the pharmaceutical processes at GSK and shorten the time it takes to bring drugs to the patients.

Splain is spending her post-baccalaureate year exploring the use of automated parallel reaction tools to generate large datasets of chemical information. Using these datasets, she can develop statistical models of chemical reactions.

At William Smith, Splain was a double major in English and chemistry, with a concentration in biochemistry. She did undergraduate research with Professor Carol Parish, investigating the conformational flexibility of important anti-cancer drugs, and graduated with high honors. Splain, a 2003 American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Fellow, presented her work at two national scientific meetings, and recently submitted a manuscript for publication.

Splain was also an integral part of the William Smith lacrosse team. She is the Heron record holder for most wins, with a career record of 53-8. The 2004 Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she was named the IWLCA’s Division III Goalkeeper of the Year in 2004.

Splain was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, Hai Timiai and Phi Lambda Upsilon honor societies, and made the dean’s list each year of her undergraduate career. The recipient of the Collaborative Research in Chemistry’s First-Year Prize in 2000, she also won the Ralph Hadley Bullard, Marion Harrison Green ’20, Cynthia Oyler ’93, Betsy Bullock Mitchell ’65 and Joseph N. Abraham Memorial awards while at the College.

Splain is the daughter of James and Mary Lou Splain of Middlebury, Vt. She plans to enter a Ph.D. program in chemistry in the fall of 2005.

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