Now in its fifth year, the annual Adelphi Research Conference was held on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. The conference featured over 60 poster presentations and 20 oral presentations by undergraduate and graduate students. The conference would not be possible without the ongoing research, creative and scholarly work of our students and their faculty mentors. Special thanks to the Provost for her continued support and encouragement.

The following students received awards for their presentations:

Awards

Robert Aluck, a sophomore majoring in biology, was awarded outstanding paper in the sciences for his research, Effects of Sex on Fast Start Response in the Ropefish (Erpetoicthys calabaricus).  Robert's research focused on locomotion in male and female ropefish has implications on the evolution of sexual dimorphism in fishes.

Carolina Cambronero is a senior majoring in art and Spanish. Her work, Nuestra Senora de los Remedios, was awarded best paper presentation in the arts.  Nuestra Senora explored the vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe to the native peoples of Cholula in Mexico during the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire.

Jennifer Cohen examined how African American male ex-slaves remembered their past in Male Ex-Slave Memories and Their Self-Image, which was awarded outstanding paper in the humanities.  Jennifer is a sophomore and history major.

Robyn Cooper is a junior majoring in art.  Her work, entitled, Glassware, received the award for outstanding contribution in the arts.  Glassware was an exploration of light and surface.

Minnie Graze, a senior majoring in psychology, was awarded outstanding paper in the social sciences for her work, The Influence of Self-Identity on Face Perception.  Minnie's paper examined the factors affecting the creation of an internal image when perceiving images of men and women expressing different emotions.

Kaitlin O'Neill is a senior STEP student majoring in physics and mathematics.  Katie plans to become a middle school math teacher.  Her presentation, Quantum Entanglements and Complementarity, was awarded outstanding poster in the physical sciences.  It explored quantum entangled photons, "which-slit" and complementarity and found that complementarity still applies. 

Jennifer Pabon's Think Before Letting Go, received the award for outstanding poster presentation in the graphic arts.  Think is a two-page editorial spread with original photographs that illustrates for children that fun and danger can be intertwined.  Jennifer is a sophomore majoring in art.

Pranay Sinha is a junior in the Honors College, a biology major who has been doing research with Dr. Lawrence Hobbie (biology) since his freshman year. Pranay plans to pursue either an M.D. or an M.D./Ph.D.  His presentation, Functional Analysis of Auxin-Resistant 4 (axr4) Mutant in Arabidopsis Thaliana, received the award for outstanding paper presentation in the sciences.  His paper highlighted two experiments to better understand auxin, a plant hormone involved in cell division, elongation and differentiation. 

Priyam Talreja is a junior in the Honors College and a psychology and economics major. Her research, Thought and Language Disorders Among Sexually Abused Children was awarded outstanding poster contribution in the social sciences.  After graduating from Adelphi, Priyam hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical psychology.

Anthony Vecchi's and Lorraine Alexis' poster, Directed Evolution as a Method to Determine the Genetic Basis of Heavy-Metal Specificity in P-type ATPases, was awarded outstanding presentation in the biological sciences.  Anthony is a junior majoring in biology and Alexis is a junior majoring in history with a minor in biology.  They have been doing bioremediation research with Dr. Coombs, and both plan to continue their studies in medical school after graduation. 

Honorable Mention

Arts – Poster
Jacqueline Laurita, Manipulations of Ceramic on the Wheel: Variations in Shades of white on an Organic Surface

Graphic Arts – Poster
Tsvetomila Mitova, Going Green
Erika Saraniero, Going Green

Biological Sciences – Poster
Mary Flauto, Variations of Vertebral Morphology and Startle Response Due to Significant Role of Temperature on Early Development and Fish Lineages

Physical Sciences – Poster
Joseph Minutillo and Brandon Lundgren, Development of TIO2 Nanoparticle-based Solar Cells

Darren Daly, Using Grain-size Distribution to Determine the Nature of Sand Ridges Along the New Jersey Shelf

Graduate Students

Jessica Litwack will be receiving her MS in Speech-Language Pathology May 2008; she received her BA from Adelphi in May 2006. Jessica plans to work with young children with speech, language, and feeding delays.  Her poster, Linguistic and Gestural Interactions of Identical Twins with Down Syndrome: A Case Study, was awarded outstanding graduate student poster in the social sciences. 

Michael Buls, will be receiving his MA in psychology   His research, Male College Students' Perception of Health, was awarded honorable mention in the graduate student poster session.