Scholars from the University of New Mexico received seven awards for their work on several posters at the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in the Sciences (SACNAS) national meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The theme of the conference, the International Polar Year, shed light on the status of Earth’s polar ice caps and included a panel discussion with elders from many Alaskan tribes (Aleut, Yupik, Inupiat, Gwich’in and Athabascan) who expressed cultural and ecological concerns about the regions.
Of the 39 students in attendance from UNM, 29 were Initiative for Minority Student Development (IMSD) scholars, 10 were Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) scholars and three were mentors and staff.
Winners included Antonio Abeyta (MARC), Billy Edelman (IMSD), Thai Lee (IMSD), Charles Sanchez (IMSD), Phillip Tapia (IMSD), Nick Santistevan (MARC) and Alex Washburne (MARC). Topics for the winning posters involved mathematical models of viral infections, DNA repair, heart muscle development, bioinformatics, evolution and functional genomics.
SACNAS encourages Chicano/Latino and Native American students to pursue graduate scholarship and acquire an advanced degree in science, research, leadership and teaching areas.
IMSD, a student research-support program funded by the National Institutes of Health, encourages minority students to pursue a doctorate in biomedical and behavioral sciences.
MARC, also funded by NIH, offers research training support to four-year minority-serving colleges and universities to increase the competitiveness of underrepresented groups in biomedical research by strengthening the science curriculum at these institutions and increasing the research training opportunities for students and faculty.
For more information, contact Maggie Werner-Washburne, UNM biology professor, at (505) 277-9338 or maggieww@unm.edu.
Media Contacts: Steve Carr, (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu or Jazmen Bradford, e-mail: jazbradford@gmail.com