Two Arkansas Tech University students earned first-place awards at the 100th meeting of the Arkansas Academy of Science (AAS) during the first weekend in April.
Graduate student Bennett Grooms of Plattsburg, Mo., won first place in biology graduate oral presentation for a program entitled “Relative Wildlife Community Metrics within Arkansas State Parks.”
Sophomore Hope Schneider of Prosper, Texas, won first place in engineering undergraduate oral presentation for her speech entitled “Electrospun Poly-Ethylene Oxide Nanofibers.”
Grooms (photographed, left) and Schneider (photographed, right) were both selected as the top presenter among more than 30 students in their respective categories.
“It means a lot,” said Grooms. “I think there is always a certain level of paranoia as a researcher. You wonder if your research has meaning to others and if it is making a real contribution to science. It was nice to have confirmation that others respect what I am doing and are interested in my findings.”
Grooms’ research seeks to identify and track and population changes among species in Arkansas State Parks related to human influence. Dr. Rachael Urbanek, a former member of the Arkansas Tech faculty now teaching at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is his co-author.
“I hope to be able to use the results to identify sustainable practices and educate the public on ways they can help increase populations within our state parks,” said Grooms.
Schneider is working with Dr. Daniel Bullock, associate professor of electrical engineering, and Dr. James Steuber, associate professor of mechanical engineering, in an effort to study the electrospinning of nanofibers for energy harvesting applications.
“I hadn’t given a talk at a meeting like that before,” said Schneider. “I didn’t expect to win. I was glad to have the opportunity to present at all. It makes me feel confident that I can give these kinds of talks. Meetings such as that one are really about the scientific community sharing their work and sparking new ideas.”
Seed funding for Schneider’s research was made possible through the Arkansas Center for Energy, Natural Resources, and Environmental Studies (ACENRES), which is housed at Arkansas Tech. Dr. Jason Patton, associate professor of geology, serves as director for the ACENRES.
“I would really like to thank ACENRES for its support,” said Schneider. “We were able to acquire a brand new apparatus from scratch, and it was very important to our ability to conduct the research. I could not have done this without the grant.”
In addition to the ones made by Grooms and Schneider, two other presentations by Arkansas Tech students were recognized with top-two awards at the AAS meeting.
Hunter Newberry of Conway won second place in physics undergraduate oral presentation, while John Kreun of Russellville and Allen Snider of Dover won second place in chemistry undergraduate oral presentation.
Newberry’s co-author was Dr. Mostafa Hemmati, professor of physics and director of undergraduate research at Arkansas Tech. Dr. Mariusz P. Gajewski, assistant professor of chemistry at Arkansas Tech, served as co-author for Kreun and Snider.
