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WIU Students Honored at Annual Illinois State Academy of Sciences Meeting

April 16, 2019

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MACOMB, IL – Numerous students in the Western Illinois University Departments of physics, chemistry, computer science and biology were honored over the weekend at the Illinois State Academy of Sciences annual meeting in Peoria.

Each year, the academy awards grants and makes presentation awards to student members in support of developing science achievement. During the meeting, WIU Professor T.K. Vinod received the ISAS Fellows recognition. He was nominated for the award by his peers.

At Western, Vinod teaches organic chemistry, safety practices in chemistry research, advanced organic chemistry and environmental chemistry.

WIU students who were honored at the event include:

• Student Research Grants

- April Franco, a biology graduate student from Aurora, IL, for "Identification of Natural Compounds that Induce Immunogenic Cell Death Using a Novel Calreticulin Reporter."

- Rebecca Bocian, a biology graduate student, from Lake in the Hills, IL, for "Identification of Chemotherapeutic Drugs that Induce Immunogenic Cell Death Using a Novel Calreticulin Reporter."


• Student Presentation Awards

• Agriculture Division – Oral Presentations

- First place: Opeyemi Oduniyi, a biology graduate student from Macomb, IL, for "Growth and Gene Expression of Soybean During Germination under High Salinity Stress and Salicylic Acid."

• Botany Division – Oral Presentations

- First place: Nicholas Emory, a biology graduate student from Davenport, IA, for "Gene Expression of Soybeans (Glycine max) in Response to Inoculation with Trichoderma Fungi."

• Chemistry Division – Undergraduate Posters

- First place: Dalton Moss, a senior forensic chemistry major from Pekin, IL, for "Total Flavonoid Concentration in Tea."

• Chemistry Division – Graduate Posters

- First place: Tiwalola Ogunleye, a chemistry graduate student from Nigeria for "Quantification of Naproxen in Equine Plasma for Doping Control in Horse Racing Using High Performance Liquid Chromatography with UV Detection Coupled with Strong Anion Solid Phase."

- Second Place: Rebecca Haughey, a chemistry graduate student from Algonquin, IL, for Determination of Phosphate and Nitrate Concentration in Soil and Water Samples."

• Computer Science Division – Oral Presentations

- First place: Justin Doty, a computer science graduate student from Tremont, IL, for "Virtualizing and Visualizing Social Interactions for Teaching Social Skills."

• Microbiology Division – Graduate Posters

- First place: Xiomy Pinchi-Davila, a biology graduate student from Peru for "Description of Novel Endophytic Taxa within the Pleosporales and Evaluation of their Role on Plant Growth."

• Environmental Science Division

- First place: Maria-Jose Romero-Jimenex, a biology graduate student from Macomb for "Multigene Characterization of Darsidea Isolates and Description of a New Species."

• Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy Division – Undergraduate Poster Presentations

- Second place: Clara Barclay, a Macomb High School student taking classes at WIU, for "Compositional Dependence of Flourescense Properties in Rare-Earth Ion-Doped Bismuth Borate Glasses."

• Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy Division – Graduate Poster Presentations

- First place: Michael Adetunji, a physics graduate student from Nigeria for "Optical Properties of Samarium (SM) and Europium (Eu) Co-Doped Bismuth Telluro-Borate Glasses."

For more information about the WIU College of Arts and Sciences, visit wiu.edu/cas.





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