Alcorn students and faculty participate in the annual Mississippi Academy of Sciences meeting
Alcorn State, Miss. (March 8, 2013) – Alcorn State University students and faculty participated in the annual Mississippi Academy of Sciences (MAS) meeting held February 21-22, at the Thad Cochran Center, University of Southern Mississippi.
The Department of Advanced Technologies, School of Agriculture, Research, Extension and Applied Sciences, was represented by faculty members Jermiah Billa, Dr. Steve Adzanu, and Dr. Sam Nwaneri. They supervised the students who presented the following research topics: “Radiological Assessment of Water, Sediment, and Fish Samples Collected from Alcorn State University Research Pond” by junior Innocent Tsorxe, “Qualitative Analysis of Isotopic Concentration in Sludge Samples Collected from a Water Treatment Facility” by graduate student Teneka Williams and sophomore Deborah Quaye, “Radioactivity Studies on Locally Raised Chicken and Chicken Feed” by senior Chris Franklin, “Evaluation of Natural Radioactivity Levels and Estimation of Gamma Dose from Bricks Manufactured in a Local Brick Facility” by sophomore Donatus Asowata, and “Radiometric Analysis of Milk Samples Collected from Dairy Farms Located in the Vicinity of a Nuclear Power Plant” by junior Matthew Carradine.
“Participation in events like the MAS annual meeting is beneficial for our students and faculty,” said Dr. Kwabena Agyepong, chairperson of the Department of Advanced Technologies. “Affording students an opportunity to gain research and presenting experience, and exposing them to a network of peers/researchers from other institutions is one of the priorities in our Department.”
Dr. Babu Patlolla, associate dean, School of Arts and Sciences, supervised students and represented the School.
The Department of Biological Sciences was represented by three graduate students Rosie Hopkins, Teresa Thornton and Timothy Woods, Dr. Alex Acholonu and Dr. M.S. Zaman, who served as a judge for the poster session.
Dr. Acholonu is MAS’s chair of the Healthcare Disparities Committee and a vice chair of the Zoology and Entomology Division. He said, “Our students did a great job presenting their research findings and representing the University. They also had a chance to meet with representatives of doctoral programs in the state and beyond, and talk to perspective employers.”
Dr. Acholonu and Hopkins presented on the “Preliminary Studies on Helminth Parasites of Gastrointestinal Tract of Catfish (Icralurus Punctatus) and Buffalo Fish (Ictiobus Cyprinellus) from Lower Mississippi River and Pollution Studies of the Pascagoula River”. Hopkins, together with Thornton and Woods, also held a presentation on “Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory and Immune-modulating Properties of Jobelyn Composed of a Southwestern Nigerian Sorghum Bicolor Leaf Sheaths”.
Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences faculty Dr. Tapan Tiwari and Chunmun Trivedy presented their work “Excel as a Visually Learning Tool for Calculus Concepts” to use the math functions of Excel in the classroom and discussed the limitation of the software.
Dr. Amin Haque, Department of Chemistry and Physics, submitted an abstract on the “Importance of the Higgs Boson-God Particle Discovery”.
Dr. Felicia Tardy, a 1995 graduate of Alcorn, who is now serving as assistant professor and clinical coordinator for the Medical Laboratory Sciences Program at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is on the board of directors for the Mississippi Academy of Sciences and serves as co vice-chair for the Academy’s Health Sciences Division. She stated, “It is an honor and a privilege to recognize these Alcornites who attend the MAS annual meeting. Here, researches have an excellent opportunity to not only present their work and share ideas, but to also stay current in their respective fields. Several Alcorn faculty, including Drs. Alex Acholonu, M.D. Zaman, and Amin Haque, who all taught me at Alcorn, have been very active in the Academy for many years and still continue to do so today.”
Pictured: Advanced Technologies students at the meeting.
