Adelphi's First Annual Undergraduate Research Conference

by Mary Cortina

On Monday, April 19th, the university held its first annual undergraduate research conference celebrating the outstanding accomplishments of our students and their faculty mentors. The day was a great success and featured poster presentations from twenty students representing the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The subjects of their research were rich and varied with students exploring the meaning of concepts in literature, quantum teleportation, plant cell genetics, attachment theory, infant cognitive development, and burial customs during the Bronze Age, to name just some of the projects on display. The keynote speaker was Dr. Steve Watkins, a faculty member at the University of Missouri, Rolla, who is currently a congressional fellow in Washington. Dr. Watkins discussed current science and technology issues in Congress, and how we can influence some of these issues and decisions.

An awards committee of five faculty and five students reviewed each of the poster presentations. Listed below are the students and projects that were noted for their distinction.

First place ($300) went to Richard Brancaccio and Staci Scianablo for their work on infants' understanding of hand-held tool use. With their faculty mentor, Dr. Sarah Berger, Rich and Staci conducted studies to demonstrate infants' understanding and abilities regarding spatial distances and objects. Their study, Insightful Infants: Spatial Understanding of Tool Use also won best in the social sciences.

Larisa Belau was awarded second place ($200) for her study of the perception of emotion and attachment style in college-age women. Larisa and her faculty mentor, Dr. Susan Petry, explored the responses of young women to photos of males and females expressing happiness, sadness, and anger. She notes that as attachment theory predicts, one's perception of the emotional state of others is related to your attachment style.

Third place ($100) went to Shelly Kate Balgobin for her studies of auxin, a plant hormone that plays an important role in growth and embryo development. Shelly Kate and Dr. Hobbie, her faculty mentor, identified the effects of a mutant gene on the expression of specific tissues in transgenic plants. Shelly's project was also nominated as the best in the sciences.

Geisha Rodriguez's project was recognized as the best in the humanities. Her study, The Struggle for Peace in the Far East: 1914-1922, looked at the role of Japan, China and the United States during World War I, and the effects of these relations upon Asia, especially China. Geisha's faculty mentor is Dr. Cristina Zaccarini.

The university is committed to fostering the knowledge and skills of its students and to hosting undergraduate research day which will be held each year in April.

Adelphi Grant News and Updates

Adelphi faculty have been busy preparing and receiving new grants and should be commended for their efforts over the past five years. The university had approximately $855,435 in external funding in the 1998-1999 academic year, with over $300,000 awarded to the breast cancer hotline and support program. However, a year later, the university experienced an increase in grant support of 88% or $1,614,411, which included four new grants to the School of Education and one in nursing. During the 2000-2001 academic year, the university received a large information technology grant ($925,000) and the total amount of grant awards doubled to $3,227,136. But even without the technology award, the amount of new funding continued to increase by 12% from the previous academic year. Steady increases in both the number of new submissions and awards continued, so that by the end of the 2002-2003 academic year, the university had almost $3,000,000 in grant support. At this point in the 2003-2004 academic year, the university has approximately $2.9 million in outside funding.

As always, please let the Office of Sponsored Programs (ext. 3259) know what types of services and information you find most helpful to support your efforts in the future.