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Presenting Your Research

The Annual Spring Research Forum is an opportunity for undergraduates from all majors and backgrounds to present their work to the general public and to fellow undergraduates. The 24th annual forum was held April 15, 2009, Duffield Hall, 5:00 - 8:30 pm. The featured keynote speaker was Francis X. Diebold, the J.M. Cohen Professor of Economics, Professor of Finance and Statistics, and Co-Director of the Financial Institutions Center at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass.

The forum included poster and oral presentations and concluded with a keynote speech and an award ceremony [download Proceedings].

Faculty and students attending the event voted for the top three presentations.
And the winners were:

  • First place: Nicholas Colangelo '09, "Solid Freeform Fabrication of Mechanically Heterogeneous Cell-Seeded Hydrogels: Towards Living Anatomical Valvular Replacements"
  • Second place: Alexandra Sonis '09, "Fiber Science and Apparel Design, "Green Composites: Recycled Paper Products Reinforced with Starch-Based Resin"
  • Third place: Ryan Walter '09, Civil and Environmental Engineering Double Major, "Band of Upwelling form Interaction of a Cyclonic Ocean Eddy with the Floria Ref Tract"

The following individuals were recognized for their inspiring commitment to undergraduate research:

  • 2009 Marilyn Emmons Williams Award (MEWA) to Professor Lara Estroff, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Marilyn Emmons Williams Lifetime Committment Award to Brenda Bricker, College of Human Ecology

Several hundred Cornell undergraduates have presented works ranging from forensic science to discourses on Kant in the past twenty years of the forum. The Forum includes both evening oral presentations and an afternoon poster session and keynote address. Former speakers include Hans Bethe, Bill Nye, Sir Michael Berry, NSF Director Rita Colwell, Dr. Todd Rosengart, Artemio Castro, Associate Director of Procter & Gamble’s Product Development division for Febreze, and Jorge Cham, research associate at Caltech, and creator of the comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper. Each has shared his or her own perspective on the importance of pursuing a passion through research.

Use the links in the left column to nominate keynote speaker ideas for upcoming Spring Forums, register your presentation for the spring forum, or to view proceedings of previous forums.