2025 Annual Research Frontier Symposium

Alabama State University 

Montgomery, Alabama 

March 12-13, 2025

Symposium Theme: "Publication in STEM Research"

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

Images provided by Manoj Mishra and Thomas Sakmar, respectively.

Message from the Chair 

Greetings!

We are excited to announce that the 2025 Annual Research Frontier Symposium will be held in person from Wednesday, March 12 to Thursday, March 13, 2025. Yes, in-person in 2025! We also allow an online option for participants who may not be able to come in person. The theme of the Symposium this year is "Publication in STEM Research." 

Publishing in peer-reviewed journals is important for many reasons, such as quality assurance and credibility, career advancement, knowledge dissemination, field impact, ethical research practices, feedback for improvement, bibliometric importance, funding opportunities, and evidence-based practice support. It maintains research standards, enhances visibility, and contributes to academic progress across disciplines. We highly encourage the participants of the Symposium to submit their work for publication.

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. 

The Plenary Speaker and Featured Speaker will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

Last year, we were thrilled and honored to have the Plenary Speaker, Dr. Thomas Sakmar, who is Richard M. and Isabel P. Furlaud Professor at Rockefeller University in New York. Rockefeller University is the world’s leading biomedical research institution in NYC and has won a collective 26 Nobel Prizes. Dr. Sakmar is the former Acting President of Rockefeller University, the former Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and the Senior Physician of the Rockefeller University Hospital. Dr. Sakmar is passionate about the structure and function of G protein-coupled receptors to develop new technologies to advance drug discovery. He is also passionate about Covid-19 research to develop therapeutics and vaccines. The title of the Plenary Talk is "Applications of Genetic Code Expansion and Bioorthogonal Chemistry to Study Membrane Proteins."

The 2023 Featured Speaker was Dr. Michelle Foster, an Associate Professor of Mathematics. Dr. Foster is the Associate Dean of the College of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences. Dr. Foster shared her experience, research achievement, research program, and future plans from her group with the participants, especially the students of the Symposium, to inspire and motivate the next generation of researchers and leaders in the STEM fields. 

In 2025, we will continue to have an International Advising Committee to support the 2025 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 others. The service is completely volunteering to support the STEM community of the Symposium, especially the under-represented students.

We are pleased to witness that 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 with a broader audience. The Symposium will inspire the students in their future STEM endeavors and facilitate collaborations among the faculty members in their respective fields.

In 2025, we strongly 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-minute talk, poster) at the five levels (high school, undergraduate, Master's graduate, Ph.D. graduate, and postdoc) by the Symposium Award Committee. In addition, we will continue to give the Robert Villafane Award to one outstanding ASU graduate in 2025. 

We are delighted to report that the 2023 Annual Research Frontier Symposium has about 100 participants from 15 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Alabama. They are from 21 institutions, including Rockefeller University, Yale University, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Southern California, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Tulane University, Florida International University, Oklahoma State University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Boston College, Tennessee State University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, SUNY Rockland County College, University of Alabama, Troy University, Huntingdon College, LAMP high school, Northridge High School, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Alabama State University. We received 69 abstracts from 12 institutions, including LAMP High School, Northridge High School, Troy University, Huntingdon College, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Arizona College of Medicine, Rockefeller University,  SUNY Rockland County College, Tennessee State University, University of Southern California, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Alabama State University. 

We will have a student session, "Lunch Informal Student Discussion Session," which is designed for students by the Symposium Student Committee. The discussion topics of the session are the importance and challenges of obtaining publications, overcoming research bottlenecks, the industry versus academia debate, and open discussion. 

In the previous symposia, we were lucky to have  Dr. Elsa Yan, Professor of Chemistry from Yale University, who chaired a new session: "Panel Discussion Session: How to put together a strong graduate application?" The Session was very successful, and Dr. Yan will host the Panel Discussion Session again in 2025.  

In 2023, we initiated a new session, "Lunch Panel Discussion Session: Graduate Programs," which will focus on the graduate programs at diverse institutions. The inaugural Session will be co-chaired by Dr. Bruce McCord from Florida International University, Dr. Jared Allred from the University of Alabama, and Dr. Qiana Matthews from Alabama State University. The session will be open to all the participants, and it is anticipated that it will provide detailed information on the uniqueness of the different graduate programs. We will continue this session in 2025.

New: Registration fee is $50 for each participant. The registered participant will have the printed program and abstract book, coffee service, and lunch box. Non-registered participants (free of charge) have only an online program and abstract book. Financial support for registration fee is available for participants having financial issues. Please send the application letters to Dr. Hou at hhou@asu.edu for the waiver or reduction of the registration fee. 

The abstract may be one page long, including 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 graphics. 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, 2024, and end on January 31, 2025. No abstract will be accepted after January 31, 2025.

Finally, donations of a minimum of $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, is welcome to attend the 2025 Annual Research Frontier Symposium on the ASU campus on March 12-13, 2025. 

You are welcome to visit the website <https://sites.google.com/alasu.edu/arfs-2025/home> for more details.


See you in March 2025 in person!


Harvey Hou

Chair, 2025 Symposium Organizing Committee



Copyright by the 2025 Research Symposium Committee