Centenary College Announces Winners 
of 11th Annual Student Research Forum
 

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Jennifer Gipson, a French major from New Iberia, La., is the overall winner in the 11th annual Student Research Forum at Centenary College of Louisiana. Ms. Gipson's presentation, "The Stories that History Tells Us: Louisiana 19th-Century Afro-Creole Literature," focused on locating, transcribing and translating selected Afro-Creole literary works from antebellum New Orleans, especially writing that addressed racial and political issues.

Eight other students received first- or second-place awards in four categories during the forum held at the end of the spring semester.  All nine students received certificates and cash awards.   Divisional winners are:

Social Science:
First place -- G. B. Cazes, a finance major from Birmingham, Ala., for his research paper, "Determinants of Firm Performance in the Casino Gaming Industry.
Second place -- Rebekah Snider, sociology major from Baton Rouge, La., for "The Dave Matthews Band Fan Club: Empathic Solidarity or Just Plain Crazy?"

Humanities:
First place -- Stacy Shelton, museum management major from Longview, Texas, for "Mona Hatoum: Breaking Stereotypes or Good Colonial"
Second place -- Cassandria Snipe of Bossier City for her English project "Afrofuturism: A Look at Race and Cyberspace."

Natural Sciences:
First place -- Leif Sherry, chemistry major from Mansfield, La. for the project "Laser Assisted Methods of Metal Catalyst Production for Carbon Nanostructure Synthesis," based on research done at the NASA-Glenn Research Center's Mincrgravity Combustion Branch in Cleveland, Ohio, along with Dr. Randy Vander Wal, Dr. Tom Ticich and Lee Hall.
Second place -- Thomas H. Lewis, chemistry major from Arlington, Texas, for "Phosphine-Phosphite Ligands and Hydroformylation," research done with Dr. Tom Cundari and Dr. Greg Peters at the University of Memphis Department of Chemistry.

Poster Session:
First place -- Elizabeth Quillin, biology major from Alexandria, La., for "Mutations in the 3' End of the Firefly Luciferase Coding Region Result in Decreased Activity," based on research done at the LSU Health Science Center, Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology, with Svitalana Malyarchuk, Jeffrey Houghton and Lynn Harrison
Second place -- Kathryn L. Furr, biology major from Shreveport, La., for "The Effect of Heartworm Pills on the Metabolism of the American Cockroach."

The annual event allows students to present the results of their independent research before an audience of faculty and peers.  Faculty judges evaluate presentations based on style, performance, communication/organization; content, objectives, difficulty/effort, originality/creativity, results and significance.

Dr. Alfred McKinney, director of the Student Research Forum, said that student research and the presentation of results are beneficial to students in their academic careers and in their graduation studies or professional work.  "They get a capstone experience in actually doing research, analyzing and evaluating their results, plus the experience of reporting their efforts and conclusions," he said.

A total of 32 research papers and posters were presented during this year's forum, the largest number in the forum's history. For further information, contact Dr. McKinney at 318-869-5194 or amckinne@centenary.edu.

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