Chemistry undergrads from across Oregon flooded Portland State’s Science Research & Teaching Center for the first undergraduate poster symposium and career fair.
Placing first in the materials category was Grant Marquart of PSU, along with his partner Thomas Miesen, a PSU alumnus. Posters submitted to the event were organized into seven categories: organic, inorganic, analytical, physical, biochemistry, polymers and materials. First place winners, Marquart and Miesen, received a monetary prize of $150.
Marquart and Miesen’s project focused on the creation of hybrid membrane lipids—compounds that form the surfaces of biological cells.
“The reason why we did this is because a normal membrane is really complex; it’s made of proteins and lipids and carbohydrates,” Marquart said.
This microscopic technology may lead to incredible medical breakthroughs in the future, even potentially leading to effective treatment methods for diseases like Alzheimer’s, according to Marquart.
“So one of the things that we wanted to use our membranes for is to test how beta amyloids interact with different kinds of membranes,” Marquart said.
After being awarded the first-place prize in the materials category for his contribution to the project, Marquart said he was pleased with the judges’ recognition of his team’s efforts.
“I think in some respects, it’s also a bit surprising,” Marquart’s poster partner, Miesen, said. “You’re sitting there, thinking. . .’if there are so many other great projects out there, how is mine going to stack up against them?’. . .It shows the interest in the field that we’re pursuing.”
Candidates in the poster contest calculated modern-day medical issues into pragmatic steps, according to Miesen.
“This is all great in concept, but until we actually nail that concept down to where it’s something that’s practical and can actually be used to target diseases like Alzheimer’s or type 2 diabetes or something like that,” Miesen said.
The symposium was spearheaded by David Reingold, a PSU adjunct chemistry professor. He said he wanted to bring the state’s academic chemistry communities together.
“There’s a bunch of students at Portland State who know each other and they’re doing chemistry research and there’s a bunch of students at Reed who know each other and they’re doing chemistry research, but they don’t know the Portland State students and you can add all of the other colleges in the Portland area.” Reingold said. “I wanted to have an event where they have a chance to meet each other [and] find out what research everybody is doing.”
The symposium and poster contest also served as a venue for up-and-coming chemistry students to get in touch with prospective employers and to survey advanced academic programs.
Reingold said he encountered a number of difficulties while trying to put the event together.
“The biggest challenge, I guess, was raising money. The largest piece turned out to be easy,” Reingold said. “I found out in January about a grant available from the American Chemical Society, so I wrote a little proposal, sent it in and within days, they said okay, fine, here’s a thousand dollars. Then I tried to contact the chemical companies that work in the Portland area and a significant number of them—I think about eight of them—have donated money, so we’re going to have enough money to run the show, but there were a number of them that just never answered. I emailed, I called, I emailed, I called, nothing. If they had said no, it would have been fine, but they just completely ignored me.”
The event was hosted at PSU, but Reingold said he was impressed by the showings of other universities.
“OSU students did well,” Reingold said. “There were eight presenters [among them] and four won awards; that is better than most other schools.”
Though this year marked the inception of the symposium, Reingold hopes to turn it into a regular event.
“This is the first and we hope it will be an annual thing,” Reingold said. “If it’s successful, we’ll keep doing it.”
PSU will host the Chemistry Alumni Seminar and Graduate Student Poster Symposium on Friday, Oct. 17 from 3:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Science Building 1, room 107 at 1025 Southwest Mill Street.
For more information on the upcoming poster showcase and contest for PSU graduates and alumni, contact Tam Rankin at tam.rankin@pdx.edu or 503-725-2310.
Watch the video interview with the recent undergraduate student winners on our You Tube channel Science and Technology playlist:
