Spotlight Symposium Focuses on Student Research

Graduate and undergraduate students present on scores of topics
4/12/2010

Scores of ESF students had a chance to showcase their work April 13 during the College's annual Spotlight Symposium, which highlights the research and community service projects of both undergraduate and graduate students.

Outreach projects presented by undergraduates included topics such as designing an upgrade for a wastewater treatment plant in a small town and researching methods to strengthen community-based volunteering at ESF. Independent research projects presented by undergrads include aspects of willow growth, the effects of trails on salamander populations and the effect of a particular pathogen on salmon.

Class projects looked into topics such as energy use on the ESF campus, energy used by Onondaga County's transportation fleet and urban flood mitigation.

Graduate students did presentations on topics that include the success of specific conservation efforts, wilderness perception mapping in the Adirondacks, the effect of soil acidity on sugar maples, nitrogen cycling, variations of carbon dioxide at urban and residential sites in Syracuse, and questions related to the health of coral reefs.

More than 100 projects were showcased.

Undergraduate students presented posters 9 to 11 a.m. in Moon Library; graduate poster presentations were noon to 2 p.m. in Alumni Lounge, Marshall Hall. There were oral presentations by graduate students noon to 2 p.m. in Room 110, Moon Library.

The awards ceremony was set for 4 p.m. in 12 Illick Hall in conjunction with a presentation by the keynote speaker, Dr. William F. Porter, director of ESF's Adirondack Ecological Center and faculty member in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology.