Graduate Students Take Top Prizes at Federation Graduate Student Research Symposium
On April 26, 2014, Texas Woman's University hosted the 5th annual Federation Graduate Student Research Symposium. For the category of Math, Science and Technology, graduate students of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences won first, second and third prizes out of six of the prizes awarded.
Ms. Anne Davenport's studies on the neurodegenerative disease, Mast Syndrome, won first place, Ms. Megan Miller's research on breast cancer epigenetics won second place and Ms. Lalitha Gaddipati's investigation of breast cancer metastasis won third place. All three graduate students are pursuing master's degrees and are working on their research under the guidance of Dr. Venu Cheriyath, assistant professor in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences.
“We are extremely proud of the outstanding research conducted by Anne, Megan, and Lalitha under Dr. Cheriyath's expert tutelage,” said Dr. Larry Lemanski, distinguished research professor and head of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. “It is great to have this kind of cutting-edge, award-winning research taking place in our department at A&M-Commerce.”
Davenport recently defended her thesis work—funded by a National Science Foundation Research grant—to Dr. Lemanski.
“We are exceedingly impressed with the research that these students have been able to conduct. It is top-of-the-line research and will likely aid them in their future educational careers. We also congratulate and are grateful to Dr. Cheriyath for his continuing commitment to educating graduate students in research,” said Dr. Arlene Horne, vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies.
Forty-five graduate students represented the University of North Texas, Texas Woman's University and A&M-Commerce, respectively. 18 students were from A&M-Commerce. Entries were judged by representatives from each participating university for various criteria including clarity of abstract, originality of methodology and results, knowledge of the topic, and the quality of presentation.