2007 Winners
Tristan Kerry O'Connor
Best Overall Paper Presentation

Vivek Singh
Best Overall Paper Presentation and Best Paper in the Sciences

Camilo Malagon
Best Paper in the Sciences

Candace Thompson
Best Paper in the Humanities

Michelle Quaglietta
Best Paper in the Social Sciences

Chinyere Enyinna
Best Overall Poster and Best Poster in the Social Sciences

Jacqueline Laurita
Best Poster in the Arts

Velizar Petrov
Best Poster in the Sciences

2006 Winners
The Third Annual Research Conference held on Wednesday, April 23, 2006, featured research submissions from Adelphi University undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professors. There were three overall winners: Tanya Spellman and Jessica Tannenbaum tied for first place in the poster presentation and Linda Sapanski received first place for her paper/oral presentation.

Tanya Spellman, an undergraduate biology major, was awarded best overall poster presentation for her research poster, "Atrazine Exposure Results in Estrogen-Like Alteration of Spatial Distribution in Freshwater Mussels". Ms. Spellman's research involved exposing freshwater mussels to the common herbicide, atrazine, which is suspected to alter estrogen-like activity. Spatial distribution was evaluated upon exposure and compared to a control group. All of her treatments resulted in a decrease in mussel distribution compared to the controls. The results of her study suggested that in freshwater mussels, temporary exposure to ecologically-relevant concentrations of atrazine results in estrogen-like decrease in the number of animals per unit area.  Ms. Spellman's faculty advisor is Dr. Katherine Flynn.

Jessica Tannenbaum, an undergraduate psychology student, was also awarded best overall poster presentation for her research poster, "Emotion Regulation and Coping with Bereavement". Ms. Tannenbaum research explored the emotional experience of the bereaved and their coping styles. Specifically, the study explored the respondents' emotions as well as their emotional regulatory style in the context of Kubler-Ross's five stage theory of the grief process. Ms. Tannenbaum used questionnaire responses of ten undergraduate students that measured their emotional style and psychological well-being. The results of the study have implications for counseling with bereaved individuals.  Ms. Tannenbaum's faculty advisor is Dr. Francine Conway.

Linda Sapanski, an undergraduate psychology major hypothesized that a left-handed person would perceive emotion on the right side of the visual field more often than on the left, revealing a reverse effect of hemispherical processing for left-handed individuals. Her study involved forty-seven participants (26 right-handed and 21 left-handed), and exposed them to twelve stimuli created as "chimeric" faces in which the left side of the face expressed one emotion, and the right side expressed a different emotion. In her research, "Laterality and the Perception of Emotion in Chimeric Faces", Ms. Sapanski found that left-handed participants reported perceiving emotional quality projected to the RVF significantly more than the emotion projected to the LVF.  Ms. Sapanski's outstanding study earned her best overall paper presentation; Linda's faculty advisor is Dr. Susan Petry. 

The following students were chosen as the best in their disciplines:

• Molly Mann, "Manet, Olympia, and the Bourgeoisie" (Humanities, Best Paper Presentation)
• Stephanie Matyszczyk, "The Alamo as a Pyrrhic Victory: The Mexican Experience in the Battle of the Alamo" (Humanities, Best Paper Presentation)
• Charles Anderson, "Nonlinear Optical Properties of CdSe Quantum Dots" (Sciences, Best Paper Presentation)
• Tanya Spellman, "Atrazine Exposure Results in Estrogen-Like Alteration of Spatial Distribution on Freshwater Mussels" (Sciences, Best Poster Presentation)
• Linda Sapanski, "Laterality and the Perception of Emotion in Chimeric Faces" (Social Sciences, Best Paper Presentation)
• Jessica Tannenbaum, "Emotion Regulation and Coping with Bereavement" (Social Sciences, Best Poster Presentation)

2005 Winners
Congratulations to the students whose research received top recognition at Adelphi's second annual Undergraduate Research Conference on April 18, 2005. Larisa Belau and Mary Andrea Uggadan tied for first place in the paper/oral presentation and Iskra Smiljanic received first place in the poster category.

Larisa Belau's research paper, "The Effect of Attachment Style on Perception of Emotions," rated the emotion seen and felt by 49 female undergraduates in response to photographs of faces expressing emotions. She found that although attachment style had little effect on how much emotion was seen, highly anxious participants felt more emotion in response to the stimuli.

Mary Andrea Uggadan, a nursing student, studied the implications of maternal diet in her research, "The Nutritional Implications of the Diet Method of Natural Preconception Sex Selection Method." Theory suggests that the egg environment predisposes which type of sperm attracts and fertilizes the egg. Accordingly, a diet high in sodium and potassium and low in calcium and magnesium is recommended for conceiving a male, while the opposite is advised for conceiving a girl. However, the dietary levels for male conception far exceed recommended dietary levels for a healthy diet.

Iskra Smiljanic's poster displayed her research in "Gender Differences in Verbal and Physical Aggression in Dreams." Her study looked at expressions of verbal and physical aggression in dreams for 185 men and 185 women. She found that significantly more males than females had dreams indicating physical aggression against another. Her results correlate with gender differences in society, with many more males being the aggressor than females.

The following students' works were chosen as the best in their disciplines:

• Alero Akuya, for her paper, "The Existence of Afro-Pessimism in American Media" (Arts)
• Marie Chesaniuk, for her paper, "Duende: Performance in Selected Literature" (Humanities)
• Jennifer Hill, for her paper, "Chinese Women and Marriage" (Humanities)
• Deanna Nohs, for her poster, "Uncertainties of Quantum Entangled Photons" (Sciences)
• Lin Sapanski, for her poster, "Differences in the Perception of Emotion in Faces by Left and Right-Handed Individuals" (Social Sciences)
• Neil Testa, for his poster, "Genocide: The Coerced Sterilization of Native American Women, 1973-1976" (Humanities)