The fourth annual STEM Research Symposium (SRS) took place at Segerstrom Science Center on Saturday, Oct. 16, with over 85 in attendance. SRS is a showcase of undergraduate research and a celebration of the Student-to-Scholar program. This year, CLAS Interim Dean Dr. Megan Prosser offered the Welcome; Dr. Don Isaak, Executive Director, Office of Research and Grants (ORG), offered the Opening Remarks, using analogies with quotes by fictional detective Sherlock Holmes to remind us of the importance of good data when making scientific inquiries. Faculty, staff, as well as family and friends came to support 21 undergraduates and three new faculty members (Drs. Katie Fitzgerald, Elijah Roth, and Kenny Sossa) from the Departments of Biology & Chemistry, Math, Physics, & Statistics, and Engineering & Computer Science in their poster and oral presentations. Among these were undergraduate researchers from the Department of Kinesiology who participated for the first time with their poster presentations. Also new this year was the Keynote Address, given by Dr. Nancy Buckley (Cal Poly Pomona) on “Successes and Challenges in Mentoring Students in Research”. Finally, Dr. Prosser announced the presentation awards this year:

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Biology & Chemistry:

Tiffany Nakla (Biochemistry and Humanities ‘22)

An interdisciplinary strategy employing spirocyclic compounds as anti-cancer drug candidates to inhibit the p53-MDM2 interaction

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Engineering & Computer Science:

Karina Gray (Engineering ‘22)

New Alternatives for Aircraft Flight Data Recorders (Black Boxes)

Outstanding Oral Presentation in Mathematics, Physics, & Statistics:

Kathryn Tickle (Mathematics and Humanities ‘23)

The Game of Cycles on connected polygon graphs

First-place Poster Presentation:

Halina Liu (Biology ‘23)

Examining the photosynthetic capacity and light dissipation properties in Helianthus annuus, Venegasia carpesioides, and Celtis reticulata

Second-place Poster Presentation:

Amanda de Vos (Biology and Humanities ‘22)

Cloning of GFP-KAP3 fragment fusion constructs for use in cell culture and in vitro immunoprecipitation studies

Please join us in congratulating all of the award winners, and thanking all undergraduate researchers and faculty mentors for their hard work.

The F2021 SRS Program can be viewed here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rDzTwq6LgK9UL8SfVHnCYvXEk7l_974i/view?usp=sharing

Special appreciation goes to Dr. Scott Kinnes for capturing this year’s SRS through many photos and videos. Enjoy some of the photos and videos here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17vqiI3wnWxHhg9UvS8vdvhcC_puMpjs5?usp=sharing