Geography Awareness Week 2018 Events

The Geography Department is hosting several events this week, November 12 – 16, for Geography Awareness Week.  Date, time, and location details on flyers below — no geography experience necessary to participate!  Please visit the Geography Department’s Facebook page for more information.

Chemistry Alumni Seminar 11/1/18

CNSM Events Week of 10/1/18

CNSM Annual Student Research Symposium on 4/20/18

The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics 24th Annual Poster Symposium will be held on April 20, 2018 in the Farris Center Gymnasium from 1 – 3 pm.  Deadlines below:

Abstract submission: Due by April 9, 2018 at noon.

Poster submission: Due by April 16, 2018 at noon.

For templates and submission guidelines, please go to the event website: https://uca.edu/cnsm/cnsm-annual-symposium/

Women in STEM Celebration 3/9/18

The Women and Minorities in STEM class is hosting a Celebration of Women in STEM on Friday, March 9 with speakers in Griffin Planetarium.  A lunch will be served at 11:30 am in Lewis Science Center 100, followed by a panel discussion with diverse STEM professional women.  Also, UCA’s STEM Institute will be hosting an event for central Arkansas high school girls in the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center.  For more details, please see UCA News.  Registration is required for the lunch at https://form.jotform.com/80445049671156

UCA Day of Giving, 3/8/18

“I will be better prepared for a future because of my research.” – Kristen Jones.

UCA’s Day of Giving is Thursday, March 8, 2018.  The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has two different funds from which donors can choose — the CNSM Advancement Undergraduate Research Fund or the CNSM Enhancement Fund.

For more details, please read the full story on UCA News.

Winners of Photo Contest Announced

Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 Jewel Moore Nature Reserve Photography contest!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more details, please go the UCA News link.

CNSM Featured in UCA Magazine

UCA Magazine’s Fall 2017 issue focuses on science, thus CNSM faculty,  students and alum are featured in several articles.  “Passing the Torch” discusses undergraduate student research in Chemistry and Geography.  “Conway Corporation Center for Sciences” shows off our brand new state of the art science building and Griffin Planetarium.  Drs. Azida Walker, Ginny Adams, Uma Garimella, Karen Thessing, Debra Burris and alum Dr. Missy Clifton are featured in “Women in STEM” for the outreach they do.  UCA’s new partnership with the Research Learning Center at Steel Creek Campground is the topic of “Preserving Arkansas’s Natural Treasures”.  Please read these great articles by Chelsea Huckabay and Fredericka Sharkey of University Relations and Creative Services to see what CNSM has been doing!  UCA Magazine Fall 2017

Micah Abrams

The University of Central Arkansas has prided itself on student research over the last decade.

With the increase in student research comes a need for an increase in funds to make that research possible. Thanks to the help of generous alumni like Dr. Micah Abrams, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics now has an endowed scholarship fund ready to offer students these opportunities.

“We have students who do undergraduate research in chemistry, and the knowledge they gain and the relationships they develop with faculty helps lay the building blocks for their future career,” Pat Desrochers, Chair of Chemistry Department said.

Abrams, a 2001 chemistry graduate, went on to receive his Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and completed his postdoctoral research at Virginia Tech. He joined the UCA chemistry faculty as a theoretical chemist beginning in the fall of 2006 and served at UCA for two years. He left UCA for a position in the private sector in the Washington, DC area in 2008.

Abrams still lives in the D.C. metro area where he is currently the CEO and CTO of Raptics, Inc. He and his business partners focus on creating and deploying analytic solutions for customers in the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Intelligence Community (IC). Though he stays very busy, he donates his time and resources to UCA’s Advancement of Undergraduate Research in the Sciences (AURS) fund. Abrams pledged $75,000 in 2016 to both grow the fund and make the fund more attractive to alumni and commercial donations.

“Will Slaton and I recognize the importance of student research to burgeoning young scientists.,” Micah Abrams said. “We want more students at UCA to have the opportunity to focus on student research and be rewarded for their achievements.”

AURS supports students in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. In 2017, the fund awarded $100 to the top student thesis from each department and two $5000 summer research stipends. Starting in 2011, the AURS fund has funded eight summer research stipends and twenty best departmental thesis awards. Some of the past recipients’ research has ranged from “Comparing Efficiency of Roundabouts to Traffic Lights in Conway, Arkansas: A Probabilistic and Simulation Approach” to “E-cadherin expression in prostate cancer cells is modulated by adhesion status.”

“The fund gives students an opportunity to work with UCA faculty in the summer, focus on a research project, and potentially publish the findings in a scientific journal,” said Abrams. “I hope the fund will have a positive and lasting impact on the students who choose to pursue science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at UCA.”

For more information on AURS: http://www.aursfund.org/home

To donate to AURS: https://uca.edu/go/giveAURS