![\"Ariel](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Ariel-Gale-Geo-Shields.jpg\")
<\/a>Ariel Gale ’20 meets with George Shields, chemistry professor, in the computational chemistry lab. Gale was a Goldwater and Beckman scholar and went on to a PhD program at Emory.<\/p><\/div>\n
Gale, a Goldwater Scholar<\/a> and a Beckman Scholar<\/a>, each award given to outstanding undergraduate science majors, started working in Shields\u2019 lab the summer before her junior year helping explore the beginning of life on Earth.<\/p>\n Their fundamental question was how proteins first appeared. Proteins are the \u201cbuilding blocks of life.\u201d Made up of long chains of amino acids called polypeptides, proteins are present in every living thing. But where did proteins come from?<\/p>\n Shield\u2019s lab specializes in computational chemistry, basically creating computer models of chemical reactions to test various hypotheses. Gale and other students were trying to determine if amino acids could come together in the \u201cprebiotic earth,\u201d before all the ingredients for life existed in abundance, to create proteins, which might later form into cells and, eventually, living organisms.<\/p>\n Shields was talking with his research group one day and, he says, \u201cI had this idea that maybe amino acids helped form small aerosols. I wondered if amino acids could form a small peptide in these aerosol particles.\u201d<\/p>\n Shields asked his chemistry colleague Greg Springsteen, \u201cwho does this origins-of-life work,\u201d if amino acids in an aerosol cloud \u201cmight be oriented so that they could actually spontaneously form the peptide bond.<\/p>\n The notion, if proved, could establish a new way of understanding how life on earth began.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can establish a specific property, that could be a whole new way to understand the atmosphere, both in prebiotic chemistry terms and for global warming and climate change, which is something the group historically has been interested in,\u201d Gale says.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a chance that understanding this new chemistry could lead to understanding other interactions. \u201cOnce you analyze (the data), sometimes you can find the properties of a system,\u201d Gale says. \u201cThat\u2019s what is really exciting, when you have something specific that happens that can be generalized.\u201d<\/p>\n Over two and a half years, Gale, her fellow chemistry classmate at the time, Tyler Ball \u201920 (now a Furman graduate student in chemistry), and postdoc Tuguldur Odbadrakh worked out how to conduct simulations, then used high-performance computers to model the reactions. The papers \u2013 they\u2019re all authors \u2013 explains how they did it, and, to a certain extent, that it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n The process led Gale to realize that she found her niche, and that her Furman experience was also foundational to her career.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really lucky that I stumbled into a group that I enjoyed and that really fits my intellectual pursuits,\u201d Gale said in a pre-pandemic interview in February 2020. \u201cI realized through my work in this lab that I enjoy physical and theoretical chemistry and the idea of fundamental research and basic science is really interesting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Shields says Gale\u2019s creative input to the research set her apart from most students he\u2019s taught.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018I\u2019m not quite sure how we should do this particular calculation.\u2019 And she\u2019d say, \u2018Huh. Well, why don\u2019t we do such-and-such?\u2019 And I\u2019d think, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s a great idea!\u201d<\/p>\n By her second summer in the lab, he says Gale \u201chad all sorts of ideas about ways to do things.<\/p>\n In fact, I had her working on four different projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Gale credits Shields, who made her feel like an equal in conversations with the group about their work, which would sometimes go on for several hours.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would ask, \u2018What do you think we should do?\u2019 Then he genuinely stopped and listened to my answer. When I realized that he was looking to me to decide what we were going to do \u2013 to see that he had that faith in me \u2013 encouraged me to take more ownership in my work and to really see myself as someone who was doing my own work instead of work for Dr. Shields,\u201d Gale says. \u201cTo have him see me and the rest of the group as competent peers kind of has a self-fulfilling prophecy. When a mentor treats you like you know what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re going to step up. Also, just being held in that regard, of having someone in his position seeing my thoughts as valuable, really changed how I viewed myself.\u201d<\/p>\n The Goldwater and Beckman scholarships gave Gale the recognition to help get her foot in the door. Having them attached to her name \u201csays I know what I\u2019m doing, or that I\u2019m working as hard as I can to know what I\u2019m doing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Gale knew she wanted to be a scientist while growing up in Knoxville. When she was growing up, her father was an engineer and her mother was a nurse (they both work in the landscaping industry now). The nearby Oak Ridge National Lab helped permeate the region with science. \u201cI grew up excited about science,\u201d she says. \u201cBy the time I was in middle school I was planning on getting a Ph.D.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the liberal arts education at Furman, especially the opportunity to explore music, helped mold her into a well-rounded person, adding insight and perspectives to her sense of purpose.<\/p>\n \u201cI absolutely think that both the Furman liberal arts curriculum and my personal interest in the arts and humanities along with science influences how I view my research.\u201d<\/p>\n Her minor in Women\u2019s, Gender and Sexuality Studies \u201chelped give me an academic\u00a0perspective in which problems and solutions are about people and how they live their lives\u201d and gave her \u201ca sense of urgency and a concrete reason to be clear and concise with my writing and really make a connection with my audience.\u201d<\/p>\n