Faculty Present in Bloomington and Indianapolis

 

Pictured above is Grace Muna (center) with two IU Kokomo faculty members while at Bloomington’s symposium on Undergraduate Research and Capstone Experiences on September 20. The focus of the symposium was on the implementation of  Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) and panelists (Muna was one) were given about five minutes each to speak about the state of undergraduate research at their campus. Muna shared about the LSAMP and SMART programs that support our students to do research over the summer. The invited speaker, Sarah E. Brownell, from Arizona State University has done a lot of research on CUREs and she shared on the benefits students get from CUREs and ways to incorporate CUREs in courses. Muna plans to incorporate CUREs during the last three weeks of her course CHEM-C 410 Instrumental Analysis to give the students an opportunity to apply what they have learned during the semester to solve a particular analytical problem.

Just two days prior, Shahir Rizk (below) attended the IU Innovation and Commercialization Conference at IUPUI. Rizk was invited to attend based on his recent work developing a fluorescent biosensor for detecting the herbicide glyphosate. (Perhaps you've seen commercials encouraging viewers to participate in a class-action lawsuit against the company that produces Round-Up [brand name for glyphosate] alleging that the herbicide contributed to cancer.)  Rizk is currently pursing a patent for his group's biosensor.

 

 

Student Returns from Summer Research Experience

Humberto Chavarria is a chemistry major at IU South Bend who was selected to participate in a competitive, paid REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) this past summer funded by the National Science Foundation at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 research facility.  Although he will graduate at the end of this academic year as chemistry major, Chavarria intends to pursue a graduate degree in geology.  The two fields are not unrelated as the determination of the chemical composition of soils and rocks is very important and can tell scientists a great deal about the environment's geological history and future potential. Chavarria describes his research experience in the following paragraph.

"For 10 weeks, I got to spend my time in Oracle and Tucson, Arizona to do research for the University of Arizona at the Biosphere 2 facility along with 12 other students from around the country. Biosphere 2 is an earth science research facility that currently houses 7 biomes, each closed and controlled, including a tropical rainforest, mangrove wetlands, fog desert, and an ocean with a coral reef. My research project was on the soils used in the rainforest biome. The Biosphere could not get real rainforest soils due to the pricing, shipping restrictions, and disposal requirements, so the crew decided to create their own mixture of soil using local desert soil, sand, pumice, peat, and several other organic materials. My partner and I analyzed the soils to determine if they were changing to mimic real rainforest soils. We measured pH levels and electrical conductivity and finished with a cation exchange capacity procedure. We then compared the data to previous data collected to find any trends and then presented our results at the Desert Museum for the public and once again at the UROC convention for the university. My research impacts the Biosphere by giving future researchers necessary information for future projects such as a drought experiment in the rainforest biome. Other current projects that are being worked at Biosphere 2 include possibilities and strategies to revive coral reefs and agrivoltaics, and the technique of utilizing the same plots of land for both solar energy and agriculture, which is currently showing promising results."