CONWAY, Ark. (April 7, 2014) – Hendrix students made seven research presentations at the 98th annual Arkansas Academy of Science conference at Harding University in Searcy, Ark.
These seven presentations represented the combined efforts of 29 Hendrix research students.
Youmna Moufarrej ’14 (mentored by Dr. Andrew Schurko) collaborated with Sydney L. Haldeman ’15 and Emily R. Cariker ’14 to prepare her talk titled
Evaluating the role of meiotic genes in
DNA repair using RNAi.
Charli Davis ’15 (mentored by Dr. Matthew Moran) worked with Madison J. Boone ’14, Jill delSol ’14, and Laura Klasek ’14 on the experiment Pleistocene seed dispersal of anachronistic
fruits: Using elephants to test ancient plant-animal interactions.
Alex B. (Brandon) Cox ’16 (mentored by Dr. Maureen McClung and Dr. Matthew Moran) made an oral presentation of research conducted with Rachel L. Wells ’15, Chloe Benichou ’14, and Jill de Sol ’14 titled Land use changes in the Fayetteville Shale
gas development region.
Michael Ottenlips ’14 and Natalie Skinner ’15 presented a poster with results of research conducted in the fall 2013 Biology of Algae and Fungi course in collaboration with 16 other students: Alison Harrington ’14, Adam Bigott ’14, Ben Anderson
’16, Madison J. Boone ’14, Stephen Brick ’14, Jill delSol ’14, Charles Hotchkiss ’15, Reade Huddleston ’14, Elizabeth Kasper ’15, Jill McGrady ’15, Michael McKinnie ’15, Kevin Spatz ’14, Aaron Steinberg ’15, Florence van den Broek ’15, Christina Wilson
’14, and Austin Wofford ’15 (all mentored by Dr. Ann Willyard).
Alison Harrington ’14 took the lead role in preparing their manuscript (Sampling local fungal
diversity: a method for fungal species identification using DNA barcoding), which has been submitted for peer review. If accepted, it will be published in the 2014 issue of the Journal of the
Arkansas Academy of Science.
Dakota Pouncey ’15 (Warfarin
metabolite profiles reveal the importance of factors on patient does-responses
to anticoagulant therapy) and Eugene Nyamugenda ’15 (Using machine learning algorithms to predict drug metabolism by CYP2C
enzymes) gave talks reporting the results of their summer research at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Dr. Grover P. Miller’s laboratory.
Youmna Moufarrej ’14 (mentored by Dr. Andrew Schurko) and to Charli Davis ’15 (mentored by Dr. Matthew Moran) tied for first place in the undergraduate oral life science category.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. For the sixth consecutive year, Hendrix was named one of the country’s “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by
U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix
is featured in the latest edition of Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges, as well as the 2014 Princeton Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, Forbes magazine's list of America's Top Colleges, and the 2014 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist
Church since 1884. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.