BEST Robotics program catapults high school students to presidential science fair

Three Wetumpka High School students who participated in the Auburn University-sponsored BEST Robotics outreach program were selected to travel to Washington, D.C., for the 2015 White House Presidential Science Fair as honored guests. The high school's BEST Robotics team leaders, Zena Banker, Ernald Jules Aloria and Joshuah Noel, represented the team at the White House and stood behind President Barack Obama during a broadcast address in which he elaborated on the importance of science education. The students also interacted with the president, as well as peers from across the nation, engineers, scientists like Bill Nye, high-level senior government officials, private sector representatives and others. Wetumpka High School is the only BEST Robotics team in the nation to receive an invitation to participate in the 2015 White House Presidential Science Fair. To read the full story, click here. 

COSAM presents Dean’s Research Awards

On April 1, COSAM hosted the annual Dean’s Research Awards ceremony. This year, COSAM honored Professor J.V. Ortiz from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who gave the Research Award Lecture titled, “Orbital Concepts in Chemical Discovery.” Ortiz, who served as chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry from 2006-2014, supervises a research group of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that specializes in his area of research, quantum chemistry. The field is concerned with the prediction and explanation of the properties of atoms, molecules, and solids using computers, principles of physics, and mathematical methods. His group is engaged in the derivation and programming of new quantum mechanical methods for calculating molecular spectra. A special emphasis has been the development of ab initiopropagator theories, which combine the rigor of many-body formalisms with chemically perspicuous orbital concepts. 

 

Student recipients of a Dean’s Research Award include the following:

  

Doctoral candidate Paul Zwack (top left) from the Department of Biological Sciences: Zwack is a graduate research and teaching assistant who began working with his mentor, Associate Professor Aaron Rashotte, as an undergraduate in biological sciences. Zwack’s research in plant hormones has led to the identification of a novel regulatory gene that delays leaf senescence in the model organism Arabidopsis, as well as in tomato plants. He has also demonstrated a previously unknown interaction between the plant hormone cytokinin and stress response signaling. 

Master’s student Peter Starnes (top middle) of the Department of Geosciences: Starnes area of research is arsenic sequestration.

Undergraduate student Rebecca Vaught (top right) of the Department of Biological Sciences: Vaught is a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in molecular, cell and microbial biology. Her primary research focuses on aspects of crustacean biology, particularly the shrimp species Halocaridina rubra, which is endemic to the anchialine ecosystem in the Hawaiian Islands. She works under the guidance of Associate Professor Scott Santos.

 

Also recognized at the ceremony was Orlando Acevedo who was the recipient of the 2014 COSAM Young Faculty Scholar Award. Acevedo joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University in 2006 and is currently the S. D. and Karen H. Worley Associate Professor. His research program focuses on the application and development of new computational tools that target organic and enzymatic catalyst design, alternative environmentally friendly solvent design, and drug discovery.

BP Executive and COSAM alumna to give keynote at SWSM Symposium

Arboretum to host plant sale April 18