HSU students awarded research grants

HSU students awarded research grants

Two Henderson State University students and their professors have been awarded 2015 ASSET Initiative Undergraduate Research Internship Awards. The Arkansas Science and Technology Authority presented 16 awards to seven Arkansas institutions to support undergraduate research internships in STEM fields.

Matt Taber, a sophomore from Malvern, and Dr. Shannon Clardy, associate professor of physics, were honored for their proposal entitled Promoting Student Knowledge in Electrical Forces Using the VICTER Power Box – An ASSET Initiative K-12 Outreach Program.

Oktawia Clem, a junior from Malvern, and Dr. Martin Campbell, professor of chemistry, received an award for their proposal entitled Natural Product Discovery Through Bioassay Methods in llex Decidua.

Each research intern will receive a $6,000 research stipend to explore his or her project proposals. Only a fraction of the submitted proposals receive awards, said Dr. John Hardee, dean of Henderson’s Ellis College of Arts and Sciences.

“The fact that Henderson received two of these awards speaks very highly of the quality undergraduate research and students we have here,” Hardee said. “Dr. Clardy and Dr. Campbell are to be commended for their roles as mentors to undergraduates engaged in research.”

The Arkansas ASSET Initiative is part of the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Program.

An integral component of the program is entrepreneurial training, support for commercialization of new technologies, and an educational outreach program targeting the STEM pipeline needed to support the advanced technologies workforce.