Students Gain Interdisciplinary Exposure at Annual Conference

Published June 6, 2013 This content is archived.

Story by Alexandra Edelblute

Eleven master’s students from the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences presented research at a conference featuring scholars from a wide range of fields, including biology, environmental science, pharmacoeconomics and engineering.

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The second annual Master’s Level Graduate Research Conference, which took place at the College at Brockport, drew more than 350 graduate students from at least 30 universities in the United States and Canada.

The student contingent from the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Laboratory Sciences was one of the largest to participate in the conference, says Stephen T. Koury, PhD, research assistant professor in the department.

Participating in Poster Sessions, Oral Presentations

At the April 20 event, poster sessions and oral presentations were delivered by the following UB students:

  • Dhruv Chachad
  • Sherin David
  • Evelyn Esteves
  • Vignesh Iyer
  • Jeremy Kiripolsky
  • Rajani Marthappa Shenoy
  • Rohini Narayanaswamy
  • Ashlesha Odak
  • Trevor Packer
  • Praneet Sandhu
  • Sarthak Sawarkar

First–year master’s students presented research findings involving pathway genome annotations and second–year students presented the results of their ongoing thesis projects.

“The student presentations were well received,” says Koury. The conference gave students the extra benefit of interacting with scholars from other disciplines, he adds.

In addition to sharing original research, students had opportunities to attend workshops on career development and doctoral education.

Faculty-Student Collaboration

Along with Koury, Patricia A. Masso-Welch, PhD, assistant professor, and Richard W. Browne, PhD, associate professor, supported the students at the conference.

Masso-Welch and Browne, both from the biotechnical and clinical laboratory sciences department, moderated a biotechnology speaker session. Koury took part in a panel presentation about master’s students preparing for doctoral study.