COSAM Social Media Ambassadors offered free hugs to students during one of the most stressful times of the year—the week before finals.

The COSAM Dean’s Leadership Council met for a weekend full of events, presentations and an update on the college. During the festivities, a scholarship reception was held for COSAM scholarship donors to spend time with the students who are benefiting from their generous gifts.

The council is a worldwide network of alumni and friends who believe in enhancing and promoting the sciences and mathematics mission of COSAM.

The herbarium collection of George W. Andrews Forestry Sciences Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Agriculture, was donated to the Auburn University Museum of Natural History. Approximately 3,000 herbarium sheets representing more than five decades of work were donated to ensure the long-term care and curation of the specimens, including identification, minor repair, imaging, barcoding and data entry. The donation was arranged by James Miller, research ecologist emeritus with the United States Forest Service, in cooperation with Curtis Hansen, herbarium collections manager at the Museum of Natural History.

The collections represent important historical records from south Alabama, which is located in the Coastal Plain province, a biodiversity hotspot in North America. Once fully processed and incorporated into the Museum of Natural History’s Freeman Herbarium, the specimens will be available online and in person for researchers within the state and across the world. 

The COSAM Honors Convocation recognizes outstanding student and faculty achievement. The 2017 ceremony was dedicated to retired Professor of Biological Sciences Stephen Kempf. During ceremony, more than 250 students and faculty were honored, including all freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior students who have maintained a perfect 4.0 grade point average. Also recognized were the Dean’s Medallists, Outstanding COSAM Graduate Teaching Assistants, the Outstanding COSAM Faculty Advisor, the Outstanding COSAM Teacher, Comer Award recipients, the President’s Award recipient, the Student Government Association Award recipient, and Outstanding Juniors from each of COSAM’s five departments.

Established in 1923 by former governor Braxton Bragg Comer, the Comer Awards recognize the most outstanding students in the physical sciences, biological sciences and agriculture. The recipients represent some of the very best students Auburn has ever produced, and this year’s Comer awardees are: Abigail Bartlett, Excellence in Biological Sciences; Claire Zhang, Excellence in Physical Sciences; and Stephanie Campbell, Excellence in Agricultural Sciences.

Karen McNeal, professor in the Department of Geosciences, is using new technology to research how students learn and in what ways teaching can be improved.

The Rural Medicine Program, or RMP, is a partnership between the state of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Auburn University and the University of Alabama, with the goal of addressing the pressing need for more primary care physicians in rural areas of the state. RMP students spend a year at Auburn shadowing local physicians and completing pertinent science courses before entering medical school. RMP students come from rural areas of the state and are committed to returning to a rural area to practice after medical school. The annual Rural Medicine Program dinner celebrated and recognized the students who completed the program.

Dean Nicholas Giordano recognized several COSAM faculty and students at the 2016-2017 Dean’s Research Awards ceremony on April 19. The awards, which began in 1997, recognize outstanding achievement. A photo gallery is available to view on the COSAM Facebook page.

The Society of Women in Sciences and Mathematics is a group of alumni, faculty and friends of the college who are committed to increasing awareness of the opportunities available in sciences and mathematics for women at all stages of their careers. Catch up on the latest news from the Society of Women in Sciences and Mathematics in the spring newsletter.

Near the end of the 2017 spring semester, we stopped some COSAM upper classmen to ask them a few questions about their time at Auburn.