NEWS

STEMAP ended last week in celebration of 11 undergraduate students’ summer research with 50+ people at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Students spent eight weeks working with NM EPSCOR researchers at UNM, NMT, and NMSU to gain valuable, in-the-field research experience their current colleges do not provide. It all culminated in a morning full of presentations to fellow researchers, faculty, NM EPSCoR staff, friends, and family.

Here are presentation titles from the students:

• Photons to Formate: Solar Driven Conversion of CO2 to Solar Fuels
  • Claudia Petr (UNM Valencia)
  • Devin Bruce (New Mexico Highlands University)
• An M.E. Chemistry Adventure
  • Lynn Weikel (Northern New Mexico College)
  • Adrianna Johnson (UNM Valencia)
• Assessing Uranium Contamination Downstream of Abandoned Mines on the Navajo Nation
  • Shaina Willie (Western New Mexico University)

• Increasing Outdoor Productivity of Algae Cultures for Biotechnology Industry
  • Tim Torres (Central New Mexico Community College)
• Achieving an Efficient Renewable Resource from Algae
  • Julian Bojorquez (Santa Fe Community College)
• Chlorophyll Fluorescence in the Dark: Effect of Encapsulation on Algal Photosynthesis
  • Nadia Mabrouk Mujynya (Santa Fe Community College)
• Visualization of Photosystem II Distribution in Encapsulated Chlamydomona reinhardtii
  • Aysha McClory (UNM Los Alamos)
• Subcellular Distribution of Photosystems in Response to High CO2 Levels in Chlamydomona reinhardtii
  • Keith Thunder (Santa Fe Community College)
• Frankenstein’s Algae
  • Saul Ruiz (New Mexico Highlands University)

For those of you who missed the presentations, keep an eye on our website as we share YouTube videos of the presentations.

In addition, Tim Torres and Saul Ruiz were invited to present posters based on their research at the upcoming Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Conference. Sending a huge thanks to everyone who attended the presentations. We are looking forward to next year!