Research celebration gets a reboot, draws a crowd

About 60 people attended a celebration of research Wednesday evening, Feb. 21, at the Tanimura & Antle Family Memorial Library. 

Such events have been held in past years, said Cindy Juntnunen, associate provost and dean of graduate studies and research. This year, however, she said she wanted to do something different.

“We really wanted to facilitate interest in all different aspects of research all over the university,” Juntunen said, adding that it worked. “We had people appreciating and learning about each other’s work. We had folks from across the campus talking about different kinds of topics.”

She said she was happy to see the interaction between those attending. 

Four researchers, including Arun Jani, an assistant professor in the biology and chemistry department, gave half-hour presentations on their work.

“I think it’s really important to get the work out there and that other people know about it,” Jani said after detailing his work on investigating efficient nitrogen and water use in local farming. “This lets administrators and others see what people are working on.”

In addition to the four main talks, there were a number of shorter presentations. Research ranged from the use of fog as a water source to examining graduation rates among male Black athletes. In addition to poster displays, papers were laid out on several tables and videos played on a large television.

Amy McClintock, an administrative support coordinator who helped run the event, said she and other organizers were pleased with the new format.

“I feel for a first run,” she said, “this went really well.”