UF claims first place in three categories at research symposium

May 6, 2015

Thirteen University of Florida graduate students put their research up against that of some of the best and brightest of their peers from across the state of in the second annual Statewide Graduate Student Research Symposium, held at the University of Central Florida on April 24. Four of UF’s 13 entrants brought home top awards – three firsts and one second – in recognition of the high-level research done every day across the Gator Nation.

Each of the 81 participants was endorsed by the graduate dean of nine Florida universities. UF’s competitors were nominated from a pool of previous UF award winners from events like the Three Minute Thesis competition and Graduate Research Day. The participants were placed into one of eight categories, including arts and humanities, biological sciences, education, engineering, health sciences, life sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.

Each student was required to produce a poster describing their research and answer the questions of roving judges from each institution represented, including the UF Graduate School’s Tyisha Hathorn, director of the Office of Graduate Minority Programs, and Rhonda Moraca, the assistant dean for administration.

The winning UF entrants were:

Arts and Humanities

First Place:  Leslie Todd, “Realism in Moche Ceramics: Why?”

Social Sciences

First Place: Ori Baber,  “Can Urban Brownfield-to-Greenspace Redevelopment Encourage Childhood Physical Activity?”

Life Sciences

First Place: Kimberly Hawkins, “Neurovascular Protection by Post-ischemic Injections of a Lipoxin A4 Receptor Agonist, BML-111, in a Rat Model of Ischemic Stroke”

Second Place: Regina Martuscello, “Dietary Attenuation of Tumor Metabolism Diminishes Propagation of Glioblastoma”

“We continue to be justly proud of our graduate students and the quality of scholarly work they produce,” said Dr. Henry Frierson, dean of the UF Graduate School. Each of UF’s winners will be presented with a plaque by Frierson in recognition of their achievement.  

UF competitors won’t have to travel far for the third annual Statewide Graduate Student Research Symposium, as the UF Graduate School has volunteered to host the event in mid-April 2016.