New! 2023 Symposium Website

2022 Virtual Annual Research Frontier Symposium

Symposium Theme: "Innovation in STEM Research"

2022 Annual Research Frontier Symposium Program Book cover (left) and Abstract Book cover (right).

Images provided by Vida Dennis and Jian-Ren Shen, respectively.

Message from the Symposium Committee

Greetings!

On behalf of the 2022 Symposium Organizing Committee, I am delighted to inform you that the 2022 Virtual Annual Research Frontier Symposium will be held via Google Meet and Zoom on Wednesday, March 9 to Thursday, March 10, 2022. The theme of the Symposium is "Innovation in STEM Research."

This year, we have an International Advising Committee to support the 2022 Virtual Annual Research Frontier Symposium. The advisors are expected to provide advice as needed. The activity may include student award selection, abstract review, session chairs, speakers and among others. The service is completely volunteering to support the STEM community of the Symposium, especially on the under-represented students.

The Advising Committee members are distinguished world experts and active leading scientists from famous institutions world-wide, including Japan, Canada, UK, Russia, China and the United States. The advising members are from prestigious institutions, including Yale University, UC Berkeley, Rockefeller University, Washington University in St. Louis, Boston College, and George Institute of Technology.

We are honored to have some of the well-known world leaders in the Symposium Advising Committee. Dr. Thomas Sakmar is Richard M. and Isabel P. Furlaud Professor at Rockefeller University and passionate about neurobiology. Dr. Gary Brudvig is Benjamin Silliman Professor of Chemistry at Yale University and working on energy science. Dr. Robert Blankenship is Lucille P. Markey Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis and interested in synthetic biology. Dr. Donald Ort is Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois and seeks to understand and improve plant growth and photosynthetic performance in changing environmental conditions. Dr. Krishna K. Niyogi is Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley, a Member of National Academy of Sciences, an HHMI investigator and is a world leader in plant biology.

Over 100 participants of the Symposium were from 15 institutions of 8 States and two foreign countries, including Yale University, Rockefeller University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Georgia State University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, University of Houston Downtown, the University of Alabama, Troy University, University of Alabama Birmingham, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Okayama University in Japan, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, LAMP high school, and Alabama State University.

This year, we are excited and honored to have the 2012 Asahi Award winner Dr. Jian-Ren Shen as the Plenary Speaker. The Asahi Prize is an extremely distinguished award in Japan and many of its past winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. Dr. Shen is a Professor of Biology at Okayama University in Japan, and his research focuses on elucidation of the structures and mechanisms of photosynthetic membrane-protein complexes involved in water oxidation. He and his colleagues have made outstanding contributions in the field of photosynthesis research during the recent years (Nature 2011, Science 2015, Nature 2016, Nature 2017, Nature 2018, Science 2019, Science 2020, Cell 2020, Nature 2021). In 2020, Dr. Shen received the international award, the Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. His research achievement in 2011 was recognized as one of the Top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year by AAAS Science. The title of the plenary speech by Dr. Shen is "Structure of Photosystem and the Mechanism of Photosynthetic Water Oxidation."

We are delighted to announce that the Featured Speaker of the Symposium is Dr. Vida Dennis, a Professor of Microbiology and Associate Director at the Center for NanoBiotechnology Research (CNBR) at Alabama State University. Dr. Dennis has devoted over 30 years of her scientific career to studying immunological aspects of microbial infectious diseases, including pathogenesis, therapeutics, and vaccines. The current research of Dr. Dennis' laboratory is focused on nanotechnology to develop novel nanotherapeutics and nanovaccines against viral and bacterial pathogens and to understand the mechanisms of antimicrobial peptides prevention of bacteria and viral infections. Dr. Dennis will delivered a talk on her own research achievements to inspire the students in the fields of STEM. The title of the Featured talk is "Exploiting Nanotechnology in Pursuit of a Chlamydia Mucosal Subunit Vaccine."

As the National Science Foundation recommended, a broader definition of STEM fields includes chemistry, computer and information technology science, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physics and astronomy, social sciences (anthropology, economics, psychology and sociology), and STEM education and learning research. Once again, let us celebrate and share some of the recent world-class breakthroughs and achievements during the last 12 months in the fields of STEM.

Over the years, the Symposium has increasingly become a regional conference and provides an excellent platform for undergraduate, graduate, and research scholars at Alabama State University as well as other institutions to share their research experience to a broader audience. The Symposium will inspire the students in their future STEM endeavors and facilitate the collaborations among the faculty members in their respective fields.

In 2022, we highly encourage students to participate in the Symposium by presenting posters, oral talks, and the 3-minute talk competition. The student winners (about 10% of total participants) will be selected in three categories (talk, 3-min talk, poster) at the five levels (high school, undergraduate, Master graduate, Ph.D. graduate and postdoc) by the Symposium Student Award Committee.

Last year we introduced an informal student discussion session, which is primarily designed to students by the Symposium Student Committee. The discussion topics of the session are importance and challenges of obtaining publications, overcoming research bottlenecks, the industry versus academia debate, and open discussion. This year the advising member Dr. Elsa Yan, Professor of Chemistry from Yale University, will chair a new Lunch Panel Discussion Session on "How to put together a strong graduate application?" The plan is to invite some of faculty members from Yale as panelists to give advice and answer any questions that the students may have.

We are very pleased to received 60 abstracts and warmly congratulate the 11 student winners from 6 institutions, including LAMP High School, Yale University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, the University of Alabama, and Alabama State University. Six student winner received outstanding awards in oral Presentation, and five students received outstanding awards in poster presentations. The Oral Presentation Award to: Atindrah Harishankar (LAMP High School), Kiersten McCalpine (Alabama State University), Stephanie Monge (Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica and University of Tennessee Knoxville), Kelci Lawrence (Alabama State University), Md Ashaduzzaman (University of Alabama), and Christopher J. Gisriel (Yale University). The Poster Presentation Award to: Vanella Tadjuidje (Alabama State University), Corrigan Murry and Asia Turner (Alabama State University), Jordan-Haley McWilliams (Alabama State University), and Sree Kavya Penneru (University of Tennessee Knoxville)

We greatly appreciate Dr. Thomas Sakmar, Richard M. and Isabel P. Furlaud Professor at Rockefeller University in New York, for his special offering to the student award winners this year. Each of the 2022 Symposium winners will have a free lunch with Dr. Sakmar at Rockefeller University and a campus tour when the winner is visiting New York City. Dr. Sakmar is the formal Acting President of Rockefeller University, the formal Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and is passionate about structure and function of G protein-coupled receptors. Rockefeller University is the world’s leading biomedical research institution in NYC and has won a collective 26 Nobel Prizes.

To cover the expense of student award, the registration fee ($20) per participant is required. Students are free to register for the Symposium.

Abstract may include one figure, 0-5 references, and should have about 250 words. The figure should highlight the work and help readers to understand the results. The figure may be data, instrumental setup, model, or other graphic. The abstract in MS word should be sent to Dr. Hou by email (hhou@alasu.edu). The date of abstract submission will start on December 1, 2021, and end on January 31, 2022. No abstract will be accepted after January 31, 2022.

Finally, donations of minimum $10 per person to the Symposium are welcome. The names of the contributing individuals will appear in the program book, on the conference website, and throughout the Symposium.

Your participation is vital for the success of the Symposium.Each of you, including previous participants and newcomers, are truly welcome to attend the 2022 Annual Research Frontier Symposium on ASU campus on March 9-10, 2022.

You are welcome to visit the website <https://sites.google.com/alasu.edu/2022/home> for more details.

See you in 2022!

Harvey Hou

On behalf of the 2022 Symposium Organizing Committee

• Conference Website: https://sites.google.com/alasu.edu/2022/home

• Journal Website: https://sites.google.com/a/alasu.edu/fstem/

• Contact: Phone: 334-604-9183, Email: hhou@alasu.edu

Copyright by the 2022 Research Symposium Committee