NEWS

The Ouachita Valley Regional American Chemical Society (ACS) held a mid-April Research Mini-Symposium featuring oral presentations and posters by students from universities around the region.

Louisiana Tech Chemistry faculty and ASC regional officers Dr. Marilyn Cox (Senior Lecturer) and Dr. Elisabeth Fatila (Assistant Professor) organized the event, held on Tech’s campus.

Students made 10-minute presentations to judges and other local chemistry enthusiasts.

Tech student Spencer Stelly won first place for his research on “Investigation of Fluorinated Anions Encapsulated by Cyanostar Using NMR Spectroscopy.”

University of Louisiana-Monroe student Jenna Etheridge (“Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy for Poly(oxyphenylene)-Coated Mild Steel in 3.5% NaCl”) and Tech’s Jacqueline LaBerteaux (“Discovery of a Novel Centrifugal Thin Layer Chromatography Reversed Phase Through the Use of Silica Particles with a Silane Coupling Agent”) tied for second place.

The judges who helped give local students a platform to present their work were Tech Associate Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate School Dr. Ramu Ramachandran, Outreach Chairman of the Ouachita Valley section of the ACS Dr. Bill McLaughlin, Tech Adjunct Professor of Chemistry Dr. Michael Stephenson, Tech Lecturer of Chemistry Dr. Kristi Ruddick, and ULM Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry Dr. Siva Murru.