Neat!

GAMBIER, Ohio (October 18, 2005) Science is messy, but science is also neat. Nothing illustrates this truth better than the poster session, where working scientists manage to reduce that intricate, systematic, but sometimes messy process, research, into a tidy 32-by-40-inch format, so as to succinctly explicate some new truths--and sometimes evoke the comment: "Neat."

Among the masters of the neat poster are Kenyon's Summer Science Scholars, students who spend the summer months in Gambier, conducting research under the guidance of professors and earning their spurs (along with stipends) as scientists. The students display their findings in posters that, in some cases, are selected for presentation at professional conferences.

The campus community gets to see all of the posters, and meet the young scientists, at a session held every year during Family Weekend. This year, the 32 students who participated in the Summer Science program will present their work on Friday, October 21, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Gund Commons Lounge.

Students pursued research projects in anthropology, biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and psychology. They delved into topics ranging from the Eastern bluebird (biology) to quantum cellular automata (physics). At the poster session, they will be standing by their posters, happy to tell visitors about the questions they were investigating and the results they found.

"Increasingly, posters are the way that presentations are done at conferences," says Assistant Professor of Biology Wade Powell, who regularly oversees Summer Science projects. "The poster session here is conducted in the fashion of a national meeting. We hold our students to pretty high standards."