The symposium takes place from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19, featuring the works of undergraduate students, and from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, showcasing the works of graduate students. Poster displays will be in the Atrium and in Room 1201of the Weisberg Applied Engineering Complex and. Oral presentations will be in rooms 1101, 1103 and 1105 of the Weisberg Applied Engineering Complex. The receptions and the guest speaker presentations will be respectively in the Atrium and Room 101 of the Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center.
“During the symposium, more than 100 students from all disciplines will present their research and creative work. Each student will be an ambassador for their department and will showcase the best work of the university,” said Dr. Philippe Georgel, director of Marshall’s Office of Undergraduate Research. “Students’ presentations will build their confidence and help motivate and inspire their peers, as well as high school students in attendance. The event will impact Marshall by demonstrating the breadth of our students’ achievements to the community, business leaders and governmental representatives.”
The symposium’s list of guest speakers includes the following presenters, who will speak in Room 101 of the Byrd Biotechnology Science Center:
Tuesday, April 19
- Jillian Howell, production coordinator at Walt Disney Animation Studio, 8:45 a.m.
- Dr. Gordon Hager, National Institutes of Health, chief of Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression NCI, 3:45 p.m.
Wednesday, April 20
- Dr. Astrid Suarez, Ph.D., Meteorological Modeling, U.S. Air Force, 9:00 a.m.
- Dr. James Davie, Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and in the Royal Society of Canada, 3:45 p.m.
Each day of the symposium also will have a panel lunch discussion:
- The April 19 panel discussion on Truth and Facts will include Dr. Clay Marsh, vice president and executive dean for health sciences, West Virginia University; Dr. Mridul Gautam, vice president for research and innovation and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno; and Dr. Dibyendu Sarkar, a professor of civil, environmental and ocean engineering in the School of Engineering and Science at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey.
- The April 20 panel discussion on Ethics and Creativity will include: Thomas Taylor, copy editor for USA Today; Jan Rader, a member of the 2018 TIME 100 List, former Huntington fire chief and current director of the Mayor’s Council on Public Health and Drug Control Policy for the city of Huntington; Huntington attorney Michael J. Farrell, founding and managing member of Farrell, White & Legg PLLC, former interim president of Marshall University; and Sheryl Webb, director of personnel for the State of West Virginia.
The panel sessions will be held in the Don Morris Room on the second floor of the Memorial Student Center. From these discussions, organizers expect to have the community reflect on less obvious elements of research and creativity.
This symposium is sponsored by the Marshall University Research Corporation, the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Erickson Foundation.