Students participate in research conference

Five students from LSMSA competed against college students at the Undergraduate Research Conference held Friday, Nov. 17, at Louisiana State University.

Student presenters were:

Grayce Mores, a senior from Harvey, presented “Analysis of Strain Variation of the Oncogene LMP-1 of the Epstein-Barr Virus.”

Angela Fang, a senior from Mandeville, presented “Chromic Alcoholic Decreases Muscle Fiber Size After Unilateral Hind Limb Immobilization in Rats.”

Kerry Doyle, a senior from Eros, presented “The Synthesis of Water-Soluble Boron Dipyrromethene (BODIPY) Dyes for Use in Detecting Chemical Nerve Agents.”

Ruby Kharod, a senior from Opelousas, presented “Electronically Tuning N-Phenylglycine Derivatives for Use as Organometallic Catalysts.”

Nathaniel Campbell, a senior from Prairieville, presented “The Income Inequality of Manhattan Island: Trees Grow on Money.”

The LSU Undergraduate Research Conference is organized annually by the LSU Office of Strategic Initiatives. It is designed and managed by OSI as a regional single-day conference for undergraduate researchers in a broad range of disciplines, including STEM, social sciences and education.

Its goal is to provide a dynamic forum for undergraduates to present their research, interact with faculty and develop collaboration with their peers.

Students participate in three components of the conference – excite, explore and experiment. The excite component is a keynote address by renowned faculty who have been instrumental in developing undergraduate research programs; the explore component is an activity which addresses a current topic or provides a networking opportunity; and the experiment component is student research presentations in a poster or oral competition.

Speakers for the ninth annual conference were Dr. Howard Conyers, a rocket engineer at NASA; Dr. Gabriela Gonzalez, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at LSU; and Dr. LaVonda Brown, an assistant professor in the Division of Electrical and Computer Engineering at LSU.