LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Nov. 17, 2009) – Bellarmine University physics and biology students finished strong in competition at the annual Kentucky Academy of Science meeting Nov. 13-14 at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights.
The list of Bellarmine student presenters follows:
Ben Draper won first place in the undergraduate research oral competition in physics and astronomy for his presentation, "Mass Predictions of Charmed and Beauty Baryons."
Richard Jelsma won first place in the undergraduate research poster competition in physics and astronomy for his poster titled, "Measurement of Muon Flux and Lifetime Using a Cosmic Ray Muon Detector." Dr. Akhtar Mahmood mentored the research by both Draper and Jelsma.
Stephanie Kortyka won second place in the undergraduate research competition in agricultural sciences for her oral presentation, "An evaluation of the chemopreventative properties of different pawpaw varieties." Dr. Dave Robinson and Dr. Joann Lau, both from Bellarmine, served as mentors, along with Dr. Kirk Pomper of Kentucky State University.
Shakeeb Ahmad won second place in the undergraduate research competition in health sciences for his oral presentation, "Can two different forms of breast cancer therapy be combined to reduce cell proliferation of both female and male lung cancer cells?" Dr. Lau served as faculty mentor.
Sarah Roebker won first place in the undergraduate poster competition in botany for her poster on "A clinostat for evaluating plant response to microgravity." Dr. Lau and Dr. Robinson served as her mentors.
Catherine Brumm won second place in the undergraduate poster competition in botany for her poster titled, "Bioinformatics analysis of a thaumatin-like protein from Giant Ragweed." Dr. Robinson and Dr. Lau were mentors.
Daniel Eschenbach and Jillian Goines won first place in the undergraduate poster competition in health sciences for their poster on "An evaluation of the chemopreventative properties from Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula Ellis)." Dr. Joann Lau was mentor. Eschenbach is a biochemistry and molecular biology major.
Cristin Samuels made an oral presentation titled, "Characterization of the protein pheromones of the salamander Plethodon cinereus" in the Cellular and Molecular Biology section. Dr. Steven Wilt was mentor. This research was carried out at the University of Louisville Health Science Center during a summer internship funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Christy Read presented an oral presentation titled "Development of stable HeLa cell lines expressing FLAG-tagged Syntaxin-6" in the Cellular and Molecular Biology section. Dr. Wilt was mentor. This research also was carried out at the University of Louisville Health Science Center during a summer internship funded by the National Institutes of Health.
For more information about the Kentucky Academy of Science, visit:
http://www.kyacademyofscience.org
Bellarmine University is an independent Catholic university offering more than 50 majors, as well as graduate degree programs and a doctor of physical therapy. Forbes.com and the Princeton Review rank Bellarmine among America's best institutions for higher education, and U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks Bellarmine as a top tier university.
For more information about the biology program at Bellarmine, visit:
http://www.bellarmine.edu/cas/biology/
For information about the physics program at Bellarmine, visit:
http://www.bellarmine.edu/cas/physics/
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