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Editorial

Celebrating the STEM Research: Student Awards

Harvey J.M. Hou

Department of Physical/Forensic Sciences, Alabama State University, Alabama 36104, USA.

*Corresponding author, Harvey J.M. Hou, E-mail: hhou@alasu.edu

The STEM Students, including high school students, undergraduates, Master students, Ph.D. students, postdoctoral associates, are the key players in STEM research. Recently, the outstanding efforts of students has been recognized via high quality of the oral and poster presentations during Annual Research Symposia at Alabama State University and of the publications in the peer-reviewed journals, especially the newly established STEM journal, Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

In 2017, we are pleased to have received 76 abstracts (31 talks and 45 posters) presented by 38 research laboratories in 13 institutions from five states. These 38 presenting laboratories are composed of 23 ASU research groups and 15 external research units. (Annual Research Symposium 2017; Annual Research Symposium Program and Abstract Book 2017). We are particularly excited to receive 15 student oral presentations and 43 posters.

The Symposium Student Award Committee has selected seven students for the Outstanding Student Awards (Table 1). These winners include two oral presentations (Jengelley et al 2017, Egbo et al 2017b) and five poster presentations (Curry et al 2017, Dean et al 2017, Kumar et al 2017a, Kumar et al 2017b, Willams et al 2017).

The 2018 Annual Research Symposium has received 86 abstracts authored by over 180 authors from 29 institutions in 10 states, including Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama, and three other countries, France, Italy, and China (Annual Research Symposium 2018; Annual Research Symposium Program Book 2018; Frontiers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics 2018). In 2018, the symposium has 18 oral presentations and 39 posters from student presenters.

Table 1. Seven student awardees for the 2017 Annual Research Symposium.

We are excited to announce the eight student winners for their outstanding presentations in the 2018 Annual Research Symposium (Table 2 and Figure 1). They are from four institutions, including Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University, University of South Alabama, and Alabama State University. The winners are three oral presentations (Stokes III et al 2018; Huang et al 2018; Tolbert et al 2018) and five posters (McCaslin et al 2018; Rohani et al 2018a; Swann et al 2018; Longmire et al 2018; Claiborne et al 2018).

Table 2. Eight student awardees for the 2018 Annual Research Symposium.

Figure 1. Photo of the Student Award Ceremony of the 2018 Annual Research Symposium (photo provided by David Campbell). Left to right: Dr. Harvey Hou, William Swann (University of South Alabama), Korynn Claiborne (Alabama State University), Mashunda Longmire (Alabama State University), Leyla Rohani (Georgia State University), Tyler G. McCaslin (Georgia Institute of Technology), and Dr. Kennedy Wekesa.

Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FSTEM) was found at the Alabama State University in 2017 and publishes the outstanding and innovative research in STEM fields (Hou 2017). There is no article processing charge (APC) for the accepted manuscripts. FSTEM provides free online to all full papers from the date of publication and to all archival content to its readers.

Each year, one manuscript will be selected to be "the Best Paper of the Year" from the published manuscripts in FSTEM by the Editorial Board. As shown in Figure 2, the winning paper in 2017 is entitled "Characterization, Identification and Seasonal Evaluation of Microbes in Mercury Contaminated Soils,” written by Timothy E. Egbo, John O. Dickson, Carrie Miller, Alexander Johs, Carrie A. Sanders, and Boakai K. Robertson" (Egbo et al 2017).

Figure 2. Certificate of the “Best Paper of the Year” presented by the Editorial Board to the winning authors, Timothy E. Egbo, John O. Dickson, Carrie Miller, Alexander Johs, Carrie A. Sanders, and Boakai K. Robertson (Egbo et al 2017).

This issue of the journal provided readers five manuscripts as the research papers which are presented in the 2018 Annual Research Symposium.

Hastings et al using FTIR microscopy examined the levels of starch, lipid, and protein in microalgal cells under nutrient-stressed conditions (Hastings et al 2018). It showed a promising and easy-to-use methodology in probing the distribution of biological materials in cells.

Makita et al reported a study of carotenoid triplet states in the native and menB null photosystem I photosynthetic reaction centers in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 using nanosecond time-resolved absorption spectroscopy (Makita et al 2018). The global analysis in the 420-520 nm revealed that the carotenoid triplet state of 6 ms lifetime in the mutant photosystem is decreased to ~2.3 ms.

Rohani et al calculated the vibrational frequency of phylloquinone in the A1 site of photosystem I using computation method (Rohani et al 2018b). The authors use multi-layer ONIOM model successfully construct IR difference spectra of the quinone-protein interaction and allows a direct assessment of individual molecular groups of quinone in photosystem I.

Reynolds et al monitored the levels of trace elements in several sentinel species using ICP-OES methodology (Reynolds et al 2018). The data indicated metal and boron content in these species can be helpful as sentinels of health, nutrition, and the environment. This paper may offer valuable training opportunity for undergraduate research programs.

To encourage underrepresented students in STEM-related career, Johnson et al report a case study of independent research experiences for biology majors (Johnson et al 2018). The authors provide valuable teaching strategy in promoting students’ skills in writing, presentation and critical thinking.

We hope that FSTEM readers are pleased about the exceptional achievements and innovative projects of the students in pursuing research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We also hope that FSTEM readers may enjoy reading the insightful and informative manuscripts presented in this issue.  

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Alabama State University.

References

Annual Research Symposium (2017) https://sites.google.com/a/alasu.edu/ars-2017/ (accessed September 18, 2018)

Annual Research Symposium (2018) https://sites.google.com/a/alasu.edu/ars-2018/ (accessed September 18, 2018)

Annual Research Symposium Program and Abstract Book, pp. 1-72, Alabama State University, 2017

Annual Research Symposium Program Book, pp. 1-24, Alabama State University, 2018

Claiborne1 K, Souza A, and Swamidurai R (2018) Model of the Lorenz Attractor Through a Nonautonomous Linear System, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 40

Curry AJ, Price JS, and Matthews QL (2017) The in vitro effects of alcohol on exosome biology, Annual research symposium program book, Alabama State University, pp. 31-32

Egbo TE, Dickson JO, Miller C, Johs A, Sanders CA, and Robertson BK (2017) Characterization, identification and seasonal evaluation of microbes in mercury contaminated soils, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 1, 15-26 

Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Vol. 2, pp. 1-60, 2018

Hastings G, Thomas J, Witt K, Giarikos D, and Rhazeghifard R (2018) Starch, Lipid, and Protein Accumulation in Nutrient-Stressed Microalgal Cells Studied Using Fourier Transform Infrared Microscopy, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 121-129

Hou HJM (2017) Novel opportunities in STEM fields, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 1, 1-4

Huang H and Dean D (2018) High Resolution 3D Printing of a Polymeric Bioscaffold, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 16

Jengelley D, Tong X, Kono TM and Evans-Molina C (2017) Pro-inflammatory stress leads to down-regulation of stromal interaction molecule and altered store-operated Ca2+entry in the pancreatic _ cell, Annual research symposium program book, Alabama State University, p. 24

Johnson B, Owens L, King K, Napier A, and Jordan D (2018) Creating Relevant Independent Research Experiences for Biology Majors Beyond Laboratory and Field Experiments, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 159-164

Kumar S, Rose U, Stokes III J, and Mishra M (2017a) Association of Hsp70 and _-seminoprotein with prostate cancer progression, Annual research symposium program book, Alabama State University, p. 62

Kumar S, White N, Gunn KS, Mishra M, Manne U, and Saldanha SN (2017b) Modulation of Hsp70-mediated cytoprotection by resveratrol and staurosporine in colon cancer cells, Annual research symposium program book, Alabama State University, pp. 62-63

Longmire M, Bedi D, and Vig K (2018) Endosomal Escape of Bacteriophage in MDA-MB 231, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 35

Makita H and Hastings G (2018) Nanosecond time-resolved absorption difference spectroscopy for the study of carotenoid triplet states in photosystem I photosynthetic reaction centers, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 138-147

McCaslin TG, Pagba CV, Chi S-H, Hwang HJ, Gumbart JC, Perry JW, Oliveri C, Porcelli F, Veglia G, Guo Z, McDaniel M, and Barry BA (2018) Tryptophan-tyrosine Interactions in Photosystem II- and Ribonucleotide Reductase-inspired Beta Hairpins, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 53

Missoum B, Payne D, Robertson BK, Scissum-Gunn K, and Wu H (2017) Comparison of three assays to detect low pathogenic avian influenza viruses in wild aquatic birds, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 1, 49-55 

Reynolds JC, Burns B, Cooper C, Echols E, Hill A, Kropp C, Marchese A, Marler B, Mathews S, Parks V, Warren S, Archie A, Fike EK, Gildea L, Ison S, and Murphy MK (2018) Sentinels in Chemistry: Using ICP-OES to Unravel Nature and the Environment, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 148-158

Rohani L, Makita H, and Hastings G (2018a) Vibrational Spectroscopy: Modeling Semiquinones in the A1 Binding Site in Photosystem I, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 56

Rohani L and Hastings G (2018b) Vibrational Frequency Calculations of Phylloquinone in the A1 binding site: Layer Selection in ONIOM Methods, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 130-137

Stokes III J, Kumar S, Saldanha S, Gunn KS, Singh UP, and Mishra M (2018) Combination Therapy of Resveratrol and Microbial Metabolites Short-chain Fatty Acids Utilizes Cell Cycle Arrest to Induce Apoptosis, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 12

Swann W and Yet L (2018) Synthesis of Imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine Ligands for Use in Difficult Cross-Coupling Reactions, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 34

Tolbert M, Finley SJ, Carter J, and Javan GT (2018) Thanatotranscriptome Analysis of Prostate Tissue after Death, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 6

Williams SP, Peoples VA, and Coats MT (2017) Antibiotic nanoparticle conjugates are potentially useful against penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumonaie, Annual research symposium program book, Alabama State University, p. 57

Citation:

Harvey J.M. Hou (2018) Celebrating the STEM Research: Student Awards, Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Volume 2, Issue 3, 117-120