First-ever Summer Research Celebration highlights RU undergraduate research efforts

Twelve Radford University undergraduates who conducted research during the summer will present their work at the first-ever Summer Research Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 24, from noon to 5 p.m. in the Hurlburt Student Center Auditorium.

The symposium will feature work done this summer by the 2013 class of Undergraduate Research Scholars in biology, chemistry, geology, mathematics, archaeology, business and education.  The RU undergraduate researchers will make nine symposium presentations and six poster presentations. The celebration will be a showcase of the breadth of research possibilities available to RU undergraduates on and off campus, according to Joe Wirgau, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship.

"The research process and the projects can transform the students, and their research, in time, can transform our communities locally and society itself," said Wirgau, who said the symposium will feature projects done on the local, national and international levels into a variety of topics like medical research, theoretical mathematics, Civil War archaeology and investment risk and protection among others.

 

laken cooper researches house sparrows

The summer research project by Laken Cooper, a senior biology major, will be among the projects featured at the first-ever Summer Research Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 24 in the Hurlburt Student Center Auditorium.

The first symposium session will begin at noon and feature the following presentations by RU undergraduates:

  • "Mutagenic analysis of the active site of bacterial beta‐glucuronidase" ‐ Skye Hickling
  • "Impacts of daily corticosterone administration on nestling eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) fledging and parental behavior and corticosterone" ‐ Fionna Surette
  • "Geophysical and archaeological investigations of Civil War sites near Radford" ‐ Sarah
    Montgomery
  • "Examining the reproductive and immunological underpinnings of invasive species expansion in the Kenyan house sparrow" ‐ Laken Cooper
  • "An expository proof of Bezout’s Theorem" ‐ James Grenier

During the poster session that begins at 2 p.m., the following research projects will be introduced:

  • "Examining the reproductive and immunological underpinnings of invasive species expansion in the Kenyan house sparrow" ‐ Laken Cooper
  • "Developing curriculum materials for Vocabulary intervention" ‐Jarrod Hobson
  • "The utility of pokeweed antiviral protein against mosquito‐borne viruses" ‐Jessica Irvin
  • "Design, synthesis and screening of cyclic sulfonimidamides for the potential use as antiepileptic drugs" ‐ Brandon Johnson
  • "Development of molecular tools for the detection of echinostoma trivolvis in environmental samples" ‐ Daniel Metz
  • "Effects of royal jelly-derived hormones on growth and development of a Holometabolous insect, Manduca sexta" ‐ Stephanie Nicholas
  • "Impacts of daily corticosterone administration on nestling Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) fledging and parental behavior and corticosterone" ‐ Fionna Surette

The final symposium session, beginning at 3:30 p.m., will include the following presentations:

  • "Investigating an ancient volcanic terrain through field mapping and geochemistry of conglomerate clasts" ‐ Melissa Brett
  • A tree‐ring analysis of Eastern Hemlock in New England" ‐ Will Dowd
  • "Semi‐variance decomposition, downside systematic risk, investor protection, and the global financial crisis" ‐ Trang Nguyen
  • "In vitro cultivation of the parasitic flatworm Echinostoma trivolvis" ‐ Daniel Metz

For more information, visit the OURS website.

Oct 15, 2013
Don Bowman
(540) 831-7523
dbowman@radford.edu