A Message From the Organizers

Few activities are as rewarding as research to the motivated students as well as faculty mentors. In addition to the acquisition of invaluable research skills, students learn how knowledge is created and experience the excitement of the “eureka moment”. To celebrate undergraduate achievements, a research symposium has been held since 2007 on the WPUNJ campus for students in biological, chemical and environmental sciences. This symposium provides an opportunity to the students to showcase their talents and share their research achievements with their peers from about 16 universities from the tri-state area.

We would like to welcome all of you to an exciting 17th year of the Undergraduate Research Symposium at William Paterson University of New Jersey. This is an example of a budding community of undergraduate researchers. We want to thank all the students from past and current who participated in the symposium and shared their research with us. We also want to thank all the research mentors who have made it possible by investing their time, knowledge, resources and energy, so that the undergraduates gain their first-hand research experiences.

We express our gratitude to all our student volunteers who show great enthusiasm and worked very hard to make this symposium a success.

We are very much obliged to Professor David Gracias of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, for accepting our invitation as our keynote speaker and investing his valuable time to be with us.

This symposium cold not have been successful without the moral and continuous support from our Dean, Dr. Sharma, and Associate Dean, Dr. Zeleke, who worked very diligently with us so that everything is put together in a professional manner.

We also want to thank Dr. Michael Peek and Dr. Bhanu P. S. Chauhan, (Chairs of the Biology and Chemistry Departments) for their continued support. As well as the Office of Institutional Advancement and the Alumni Association for contributing financially to the event in various capacities.

Finally, we extend our gratitude to Provost Joshua Powers and President Richard Helldobler for their leadership and encouragement to make this symposium a great success.

ORGANIZERS:
Dr. Emily Monroe
Dr. Bhanu P. S. Chauhan