Written by Carly Kester
The Arkansas INBRE (IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) conference was held Oct. 23-24 in Fayetteville, Ark. Harding students Sky Vanderburg and Lori Wheeler got first place in the biology competition, and Greg Lyons received second place in the physics competition.
The conference featured seminars given by faculty members, oral presentations given by faculty and student researchers and poster competitions by undergraduate students. The three categories of research presented were biology, chemistry and biochemistry and physics.
The conference mainly consisted of universities from Arkansas, but a few outside of Arkansas attended as well. Some schools that participated in the competition were University of Arkansas, Arkansas State University, Philander Smith College, Arkansas Tech University and Ouachita Baptist University.
INBRE has been held in Arkansas since 2001 and is funded by the NCRR (National Center for Research Resources). According to Lyons, the conference mainly focuses on undergraduate research.
“The oral presentations and poster sessions are delivered by undergraduate students,” Lyons said. “Graduate students may participate but do not compete.”
Wheeler said the competition was for “cold hard cash.” The prize for first place in each category was $300, second place was $200 and third place was $100.
Lyons, a physics major, placed second in the physics category for his poster on liquid crystals. “What I did was construct a module to blow bubbles of liquid crystal, and once I had a thin bubble I explained the phenomena that the bubble exhibited,” Lyons said.
Biochemistry major Wheeler placed first in the biology category for her poster.
“I worked on the characterization and cloning of a plant mutant,” Wheeler said.
Vanderburg placed first in the biology category for his oral presentation.
“My project dealt with investigating the role of trichloroethylene, a common environmental toxicant, in the promotion of autoimmune disease in mice,” Vanderburg said.
“I was really happy and excited to see Harding do that well,” Lyons said.
