Marshall University will host the 2nd annual research symposium sponsored by the Kentucky-West Virginia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Friday, March 3 and Saturday, March 4 in the Memorial Student Center on the university’s Huntington campus.
The KY-WV LSAMP project is a collaboration among 10 universities in the states of West Virginia and Kentucky. The goal of the project is to double the number of minority graduates in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) disciplines by the end of the five-year grant period, with the over-arching goal of increasing the success of minorities in the STEM fields, according to Dr. Girmay Berhie, director of the university’s LSAMP office.
“We have over 150 STEM faculty and student scholars attending this year’s LSAMP conference from each of our alliance schools,” Berhie said. “The symposium will consist of STEM learning opportunities, graduate school and research planning, keynote presentations and both poster and oral presentations from undergraduate research students.”
Berhie said the KY-WV Alliance members include the University of Louisville, West Virginia State University, Kentucky State University, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Centre College, West Virginia University, Western Kentucky University, the University of Kentucky and Marshall University.
Maurice Cooley, Marshall’s associate vice president for intercultural affairs, said Marshall volunteered as the host site, which allows the university to showcase its spirit of academic excellence.
“The annual research symposium is an inspiring event that advances student learning and provides opportunities for networking,” Cooley said. “We will see presentations of undergraduate research work ranging from solar cells, age differences in skeletal muscles, to optimum DNA extraction studies, and much more. The research presentations will be extremely impressive.”
Students will arrive March 3 to register and immerse themselves in the LSAMP experience with presentations by seven minority undergraduate students and several alliance representatives to take place on Saturday, March 4. Members of the media are encouraged to attend the Saturday conference sessions.