National Science Leaders to Speak at 2020 Annual Research Frontier Symposium

The 2020 Annual Research Frontier Symposium will be held at the John Garrick Hardy Student Center on Wednesday, March 11 to Thursday, March 12, 2020. The theme of the Symposium is "Strong Curiosity in STEM Research."

Dr. Isiah Warner, who is the Boyd Professor of the LSU System, Philip W. West Professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Louisiana State University, will serve as the Plenary Speaker. Warner has been recognized as the SEC Professor of the Year, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Nature Mentor of the Year.

Dr. Qiana Matthews, Associate Professor of Microbiology for the Ph.D. program in Microbiology at Alabama State University, also will serve as a featured speaker. Matthews has won Charles Barkley Young Investigator Award and Infectious Diseases Unsung Hero Award. She has received an NIH R01 grant on HIV vaccination using adenoviral vectors and an NIH R15 grant to explore HIV progression and drug abuse. In addition, Matthews has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the common cold virus and extracellular vesicles.

Last year, the Symposium received more than 70 abstracts, by authors from 13 States (Oklahoma, Washington, New Mexico, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, Montana, and Alabama) and two other countries/regions (Taiwan and Cameroon). The Symposium is increasingly becoming a regional conference and provides an excellent platform for undergraduate, graduate, and research scholars at ASU as well as other institutions to share their research experience to broader audience.

In 2020, we highly encourage (1) high school students to participate the Symposium by presenting posters or oral talks and (2) more students to participate the 3-min talk competition.  

The student winners (about 10% of total participants) will be selected in three categories (talk, 3-min talk, poster) at the five levels (high school, undergraduate, Master graduate, Ph.D. graduate and postdoc) by the Symposium Student Award Committee.

The registration of the Symposium is required for each participant. One form per person. The registration fee is $20 per participant. Students are free to register the Symposium. The registered participants will receive the program and abstract book and free-lunch boxes. No books and lunch boxes are provided for non-registered participants.

Abstract may include one figure, 0-5 references, and should have about 250 words. The figure should highlight the work and help reader to understand the results. The figure may be data, instrumental setup, model, or other graphic. The abstract should be sent in MS word to Dr. Hou by email (hhou@alasu.edu). The date of abstract submission is started on December 1, 2019, and ended on January 31, 2020. No abstract will be accepted after January 31, 2020.

Finally, donations of minimum $10 per person to the Symposium are welcome. The names of the contributing individuals will be appeared in the program book, on the conference website, and through out the Symposium.

The previous participants and newcomers, are truly welcome to attend in the 2020 Annual Research Frontier Symposium. The participants are especially welcome to give talks or poster presentations about the recent stimulating results, ongoing innovative projects, and future exciting plans. One of the most important goals of the Symposium is to celebrate the outstanding quality and diversity of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research.

About Isiah Warner

Dr. Isiah Warner is Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Philip W. West Professor of Chemistry, and a Boyd Professor of the Louisiana State University system. He has more than 350 refereed publications in a variety of journals relevant to the general areas of analytical and materials chemistry. His particular expertise is in the area of fluorescence spectroscopy, where his research has focused for more than 40 years. Over the past 20 years, he has also maintained a strong research effort in the areas of organized media, separation science, and more recently in the area of ionic liquid chemistry, particularly as applied to solid phase materials for applications in materials science and nanomaterials. He has also conducted educational research that focuses on mechanisms for maintaining and enhancing student education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), with a particular focus on encouraging under-represented students (women and minorities) to pursue terminal degrees in STEM. Dr. Warner has been recognized as 2016 SEC Professor of the Year, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016), Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2017), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2017), and Nature Mentor of the Year (2019). He has chaired sixty-seven doctoral theses and is currently supervising four others. More than half of his doctoral students are women and more than a third are under-represented minorities.

For more information, contact Harvey Hou (phone: 334-229-5121, email: hhou@alasu.edu) and visit the website < https://sites.google.com/a/alasu.edu/arfs-2020/>