2022-23 BTC Calendar: Deaquan Nichols

Junior Deaquan Nichols (’23) was accepted at several Ivy League schools, but he knew JMU was “the perfect place” after a summer Honors College program. “Every day on campus, I felt like I belonged,” he says. Nichols then began working alongside biophysical chemistry professor Oleksandr Kokhan (pictured with Nichols) to research the artificial acceleration of photosynthesis. “The Witherspoon Scholarship came at just the right time” for Nichols to further his promising experiments. He was invited to present his findings at the 2022 Biophysical Society Conference in San Francisco. Nichols has crafted his Independent Scholars major to focus on Neurochemistry of Trauma and is busy now applying to medical schools. The Witherspoon Scholarship supports an Honors College student pursuing immersive summer research with the JMU faculty and is funded by Margaret E. and F. Douglas Witherspoon, parents of Laura (’12) and Catherine (’17), who were members of the Honors program.