Perry Grant, Clayton Martin, Ramesh Nepal, Martin Hawron, and Dr. Abdel Bachri pose for a photo at the Arkansas INBRE conference.
MAGNOLIA – Five students from the College of Science and Technology at Southern Arkansas University presented their research at the Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence conference, held Oct. 14-15 at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Two of the students brought home awards.
Organizers of the INBRE conference hope to establish a statewide infrastructure network to link Arkansas’s institutions of higher education in support of growing the state’s research capacity. The event draws faculty and students from the fields of biological sciences, physics, chemistry and biochemistry. Six students in each category are invited to give oral presentations at the conference. Three of the six students selected to make presentations in the physics category were from SAU.
Giving oral and poster presentations in the physics category were Clayton Martin, a senior engineering physics major from Texarkana; Perry Grant, a senior engineering physics major from Camden; and Martin Hawron, a senior engineering physics major from New Boston, Texas. Additionally, Ramesh Nepal, a senior engineering physics major from Jackson Heights, New York, and Xi Wu, a junior chemistry major from China, gave poster presentations.
Martin received second place in best oral presentation, and Hawron received first place in best poster category. They were presented certificates and monetary awards of $500. The pair’s presentations, along with that of Grant, were based on research completed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory during summer 2010. The pair conducted their research as part of a team from SAU funded by the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Energy.
Nepal’s presentation was based on his summer research conducted at Oklahoma State University, and Wu’s presentation was based on his summer research at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Chemistry.
“I truly believe that student research and student participation at professional meetings is an important part of their training,” said Dr. Abdel Bachri, assistant professor of physics. “It was worthwhile as our students, being well prepared, excelled and clearly dominated the physics floor of the conference. I think this is the start of a new tradition as we plan to participate at INBRE every year and cultivate more awards.”
