Bayer School Hosting 16th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

After spending the summer hard at work in the laboratory, nearly 100 undergraduate researchers from 33 institutions across the region will present their findings at the 16^th annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday, July 26.

Sponsored by the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, the symposium is the culmination of a 10-week intensive research program that integrates undergraduate students into high-level research teams.

Participants will hear from Dr. J. Karl Johnson, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and co-director of the Center for Simulation and Modeling at the University of Pittsburgh, who will present the keynote address, Carbon Nanotube Membranes for Water Desalination: Predictions from Simulations and Experimental Confirmation.

Johnson explained that his research is focused on the global water crisis, which threatens the lives of an estimated one billion people without access to clean water.

“Our planet has huge reserves of water in the ocean, but it’s not potable because of the salt content,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to find a cost-effective way to make ocean water safe for human consumption.”

To do so, Johnson is using computer simulations to model advances in nanotechnology that allow the development of membranes that act as gatekeepers discerning between water and salt.

The keynote will be delivered at 10 a.m. in the Pappert Lecture Hall of the Bayer Learning Center. Students will give oral presentations from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by poster presentations from 2 to 4 p.m. on the Mellon Hall patio.

The research covers a wide range of topics, such as:

• Using protein staining and microscopy to help identify new biomarkers of chronic pain, in particular, the emotional aspect of pain
• Creating and isolating a protein important to a pathogenic bacterium to better understand that protein’s role in gastroenteritis.

Dr. Philip Reeder, dean of the Bayer School, said the program has an important role in developing future scientists. “The Undergraduate Research Program offers students a unique opportunity for in-depth, hands-on research experiences that help further prepare them to be tomorrow’s scientific leaders,” he said.