Several University of Vermont College of Medicine graduate students participated in UVM’s recent Student Research Conference, which took place April 19 in the Davis Center and attracted a record 365 students – including 205 undergraduates and 160 graduate students. 

Students delivered oral presentations or displayed research posters at the conference, which saw a 44 percent increase over last year’s attendance and a more than 10-fold increase in attendance since 2007, the first year of the conference. A total of sixty-four academic programs were represented from all 10 of UVM’s colleges and schools, as well as from UVM’s Continuing Education program.

According to Abu Rizvi, dean of UVM’s Honors College, a co-sponsor of the conference, the number of participants rises rapidly every year because of “the growing realization by students and faculty that mentored research and creative activity are an ideal way to apply and extend the content knowledge that students acquire in the classroom.”

Domenico Grasso, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College, the conference’s other co-sponsor, said “It’s mind boggling seeing what our students, in partnership with their faculty mentors, are accomplishing,” he says. “Their work is on the cutting edge. Some of it seems like science fiction.”

Participants from the College of Medicine at UVM’s Student Research Conference included: Iwan Nyotowidjojo, medical student, Class of 2013; Geoffrey Schaubhut, neuroscience graduate student; Carolyn Roman, neuroscience graduate student; Sarah Abdalla, biochemistry graduate student; Francis Ayombil, biochemistry graduate student; Leah Novinger, M.D.-Ph.D. student in cell and molecular biology; Krithika Rao, cell and molecular biology graduate student; Sarah Gillet, M.D.-Ph.D. student in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science; Joshua Pothen, M.D.-Ph.D. student in bioengineering; Pamela Lescault, graduate student in microbiology and molecular genetics.