SAES students brought home four awards from the April 9 -13 Association of Research Directors 16th Biennial Research Symposium in Atlanta:
• Shanequa I. Smith, a senior majoring in laboratory animal science, won first place in the Sustainable Plant and Animal Production Systems, oral presentation competition. In her presentation, entitled "Bone Morphogenetic Protein 6 Expression and Function in Ovarian Granulosa Cells in Laying Hens," Smith described her research that has added new information to science's understanding of the cellular processes involved in egg laying. Smith's faculty mentor is Dr. Abraham Woldeghebriel.
• Ashwin Devudigari, a master's student majoring in plant, soil and environmental sciences, won first place in the Renewable Resources, Bioenergy and Environmental Stewardship poster competition. His poster, entitled "Evaluation of Chlorophyll Meter Use in Sweet Sorghum Crop Yield and Leaf Nitrogen Estimation," describes his research on a technology to predict biomass yields in sweet sorghum crops. Devudigari's faculty mentor is Dr. M. R. Reddy.
• Ivy Smith, a senior majoring in food sciences, placed twice in the Human Health, Nutrition and Obesity Prevention category. She won second place for her oral presentation, "Polyphenol Profiles of Different Parts of Grape Pomace and Impacts of Drying Methods," and third place for a poster on the same topic. Smith's faculty mentor is Dr. Jianmei Yu.
All 1890 land-grant institutions were represented at the 16th Biennial Research Symposium, and from the 18 institutions came 135 presentations covering research projects (53 oral and 82 poster) by undergraduate students; 144 by graduate students (73 oral and 71 poster); and 244 by research scientists (128 oral and 116 poster).
