Students from Wichita State University’s Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences got the opportunity to demonstrate their expertise in their fields at the annual Kansas Academy of Science (KAS) and Central States Entomological Society (CSES) meetings April 4-5 at Friends University.

Among the students who presented, two groups were awarded first place honors for their research:

• Brooks Hartsock — graduate student in physics with Dr. Nick Solomey, professor of physics — gave an oral presentation on his research, “Designing a Low-Background Solar Neutrino Detector,” and was awarded $300 for best oral presentation by a grad student.
• Vee Disbro, junior; Syd Downey, junior; Melissa Hernández, senior; and Leónidas Reyes, senior — with Dr. Mary Liz Jameson, professor of biological sciences — presented their poster, “Antennae Up! Can Nitrogen Addition Help Reverse Insect Herbivore Declines?” and were awarded $150 for best poster presentation from CSES.

Additionally, the following students presented their research at the annual meeting:

• Mason Moore — senior with Dr. Leland Russell, professor of biological sciences — presented on, “The Influence of Above Ground Resources Versus Below Ground Resources in Limiting Post Oak Seedling Growth in Kansas Cross Timbers Woodlands”
• Tiffany Bass, graduate student with Russell, presented on, “Browsed and Confused: Relationships Between Deer Browsing Intensity, Slope Aspect and Understory Plant Communities in the Kansas Cross Timbers Woodlands”
• Jonathan Folkerts, graduate student in physics, presented on, “Neutrino Solar Orbiting Laboratory: From Underground to the Stars”

• Daniel Reichart, senior with Solomey, presented “Simulation of Solar Wind Charged Particle Energy Deposited and Particle Identification by Delta-E Discrimination in SNAPPY Cubsat Detector”
• Theophilus Eshun — graduate student with Dr. Mark Schneegurt, professor of biological sciences — presented “Survival of Bacteria from Spacecraft Assembly Facilities in Brines at Eutectic Conditions Relevant to Mars”
• Ethan Higginbotham, a recent graduate in physics and mathematics, presented “Simulating the Shielding Needed for a Dark Matter Detector Inside of an Asteroid”

Students and faculty from colleges across Kansas showcased their research at the event and were able to network with professionals in their industries.

“Presenting their research at a conference like the Kansas Academy of Sciences is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and caps the applied learning experience in an impactful fashion,” said Dr. David Eichhorn, interim dean of the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “This takes their work with WSU faculty and students and allows them to interact with professionals outside the university. I congratulate all the students from Fairmount College for representing WSU at this event.”

The KAS annual meeting is held at a different college in Kansas every year. The last time Wichita State hosted the annual meeting was in 2012.

Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 23,000 students between its main campus and WSU Tech, including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student centered and innovation driven.

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.

The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.

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