Return of In-person Symposium Allows Students to Showcase Research

The sounds of students excitedly explaining their research projects filled the PUB’s NCR Wednesday, as the annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium made a successful comeback after a pandemic hiatus.

Symposium Poster Presentation

Billed as one of one of Eastern’s largest campus-wide academic events, the symposium is a chance to celebrate student achievement. Participants present their research or creative work—via oral/poster presentations, interactive exhibits, or artistic displays—in a formal, professional setting.

Student projects touched on a broad range of topics, from the social sciences, philosophy and English to biology and engineering.

Grad student Autumn Holley explains her research project to another student.

Autumn Holley, a graduate student studying biology, couldn’t wait to educate visitors about her unique amphibian research. “I want to protect frogs from a fungus that’s killing them, with bacteria that kill the fungus,” says Holley. To do this, she’s expanding on existing research by giving frogs a “bacteria bath” with probiotics that she hopes will be effective in countering fungal infection.

Holley hopes the symposium is just the first step in a career dedicated to protecting this species.

“Everyone likes frogs when they’re a kid, and I just never grew out of it,” says Holley. “I think if you told my six-year-old self that I would get to work with frogs — and ask questions for a living — I would have been so psyched.”

Overall, there were 190 students like Holley who participated in this year’s symposium with the help of 63 faculty mentors.

Poster Presentations in the NCR

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