HADLEY, Mass. -- Bates College's Amelia Wilhelm has been nominated for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year Award by the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. The award has been given annually since 1991.
A 2018 graduate, Wilhelm (Charlotte, N.C.) helped Bates win three NCAA Rowing Championships in four years and graduated with an honors degree in chemistry. A four-year dean's list student, she was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, the scientific research society Sigma Xi, and Bates' College Key. She received the Mary Brushwein Award from the Bates chemistry department and the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete Award, and was named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team three times.
"Amelia is perhaps one of the most positive, thoughtful, and welcoming members of our team," rowing head coach Peter Steenstra said. "Her primary goal was always fixed on the success of the team as a whole, but like any good athlete she used this to motivate herself as well."
On the strength of her academic promise, Wilhelm was invited by the Bates chemistry department to conduct an honors thesis in her senior year. Her completed thesis is titled Investigating the Relationship between Osmotic Stress and mRNA Degradation Rates in Borrelia burgdorferi, the Causative Agent of Lyme Disease.
"Amelia is a superb and truly exceptional student, and I am thrilled that she is receiving this honor," Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Paula Schlax said. "In terms of pure talent, understanding, and potential as a scientist, she is among the top students, of more than 90, that I have collaborated with in my research laboratory."
In her lab at Bates, Schlax and students explore the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, and how it moves from tick to mammal. In joining the research, Wilhelm "quickly became an expert, both in conducting and troubleshooting experiments," Schlax said. "More importantly, she quickly gained understanding in how environmental factors regulate gene expression in bacteria."
