University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Little Rock Central High School Team 1 won first place in the senior high division of the Arkansas Science Olympiad hosted by UALR Saturday, April 14. LISA Academy placed first among middle school teams. The Arkansas state competition is sponsored by UALR’s College of Science and Mathematics, the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), and College of the Ouachitas.

Both winners can compete in the upcoming National Science Olympiad in Orlando, Fla., May 18 and 19, at the University of Southern Florida.

Nettleton High School won second place, and LISA Academy West Campus won third in the Arkansas senior high division. LISA Academy North Campus won second and Horace Mann Arts and Science Magnet Middle School won third in the junior high division.

Unlike science fairs, the Science Olympiad consists of two or three students working together to solve various problems at the time of the competition. Each team consists of up to 15 students who spend months preparing for various events that cover life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and technical problem solving.

“The Arkansas Science Olympiad is dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 science education, increasing male, female, and minority interest in science, creating a technology-literate workforce, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers,” said Dr. Eric Kaufmann, professor of mathematics and statistics in the UALR College of Science and Mathematics.

The students from Central High who were on the winning high school team were Abrar Matin, Farhan Kawsar, Aaron Yin, Brendon Song, Claire Schmidt, Annie Meek, Joseph Berleant, Arhita Dasgupta, Ayush Saraswat, Nimit Gandhi, Shruti Shah, Anusheh Ali, Dana Abulez, and Sana Khan.

The students from the LISA Academy winning middle school team were Anna Wolff, Chloe Beall, Evalyn Berleant, Jesse Morrison, Christopher Heredia, Mingjia Wu, Nivetha Svinivasan, Pranav Kolluru, Ryan Kaufmann, Izabelle Harville, Abhigna Penthala, and Leslie Gray.

Photos from the event

The T-Shirts

The Bottle Rockets

The Towers

Mouse Trap Vehicle

The Helicopters

The Director and The Guest of Honor

The Winners

UALR will host the Arkansas Science Olympiad Saturday, April 14, offering middle and high school students and their schools a chance to participate in the National Science Olympiad in Orlando, Fla.

The state competition is sponsored by UALR’s College of Science and Mathematics, the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), and College of the Ouachitas.

Unlike science fairs, the Science Olympiad consists of two or three students working together to solve various problems at the time of the competition. Each team consists of up to 15 students who spend months preparing for various events that cover life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and technical problem solving.

Until last year, middle school – Division B, and high school – Division C, students in Arkansas who wanted to participate in the Science Olympiad could enter contests in nearby states but were ineligible to compete at the national level.

“The Arkansas Science Olympiad is dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 science education, increasing male, female, and minority interest in science, creating a technology-literate workforce, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers,” said Dr. Eric Kaufmann, professor of mathematics and statistics in the UALR College of Science and Mathematics.

The state competition begins at 8:30 a.m. with an opening ceremony and the parade of schools and ends at 4:45 p.m.

The events will occur in four 60-minute periods with a 15-minute break in between. Check out some YouTube demonstrations from a variety of the Science Olympiad categories.

The closing ceremony, which begins at 3:45 p.m., will include a keynote speaker, presentation of medals to the winning teams in each event, and the presentation of trophies for the top three teams in each division. The top team in each division will go on to Orlando for the national Olympiad at the University of Central Florida.

Kaufmann said 137 students from 11 different schools are expected to compete at the state event:

Division C (High School):

Haas Hall Academy
Lavaca High School
LISA Academy North Campus
LISA Academy West Campus
Little Rock Central High School (2 Teams)
Nettleton High School

Division B (Middle School):

Haas Hall Academy
Horace Mann
LISA Academy North Campus
LISA Academy West Campus (2 Teams)

The College of Science & Mathematics (CSAM) congratulates the following Award Winners:

Tracy L. Thompson Scholardship Award = Corey Graham

Steven L. Mourning Scholarship Award = John Hutchison

Overall College Winners of Academic Excellence

Associate Degree = Tera Easter

Bachelor’s Degree = Ryne Ramaker

Master’s Degree = Vanessa K. Hilliard Young

Ph.D = Robin Verble

The 33rd Annual CSAM Award Ceremony will be held on April 27th, 2012 in the Donaghey Student Center from 4pm-6pm.

2012 Fribourgh Award Photos

H. Watt Gregory III, a partner in Kutak Rock LLP’s Little Rock office, was honored at the UALR College of Science and Mathematics third annual Fribourgh Award Reception on Tuesday, March 27, in The Great Hall at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

The evening began with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony to recognize Gregory as the 2012 Fribourgh Award recipient. The award is given to an individual in recognition of contributions to Arkansas through the disciplines of health, mathematics, and science found within the UALR College of Science and Mathematics (CSAM).

Contact Laura Beck, llbeck@ualr.edu or 501-569-3151, to make a donation. Proceeds from the event go to the CSAM Leadership Endowed Scholarship Fund that supports scholarships for undergraduate science and mathematics students at UALR.

Since 1969, Gregory’s practice has been concentrated in business development and finance, including handling initial public offerings and issuance of other equity and debt securities in the public markets, as well as providing lead counsel services in mergers and acquisitions of public and private companies and in handling private equity and venture capital-related financings involved in technology business development. He also provides corporate and securities guidance in the financial services and information technology industries. In the health care industry, he has been lead counsel in acquisitions and dispositions of publicly owned health care companies and private transactions involving nursing facilities, transitional hospitals, hospice and home health care agencies, institutional pharmacies and outpatient and rehabilitation therapy centers. In the biotechnology and life sciences industries, Gregory has represented emerging technology companies as well as venture capital and private equity funding sources in fields such as cancer, osteoporosis and other disease diagnostics and therapeutics, as well as in the food safety and animal husbandry industries. Additionally, he has represented issuers and broker-dealers in numerous private placements and initial public and secondary offerings of securities in many other industries.

Gregory is a member of the executive committee and immediate past chair of Accelerate Arkansas, a nonprofit initiative of business, professional, and educational leaders in Arkansas seeking to accelerate the growth of knowledge-based industries and infrastructure support in the state. Accelerate Arkansas has been responsible for the creation of several state-funded programs authorized by the Arkansas General Assembly to advance job creating research (Arkansas Research Alliance), support entrepreneurial mentorship (Innovate Arkansas) and provide early stage Arkansas technology companies with risk capital to validate and grow their businesses (Arkansas Risk Capital Matching Fund). He is a member of the executive committee of the Arkansas Venture Forum and served as co-chair of the 2004 Arkansas Venture Conference. In 2005 he was the recipient of the organization’s first Forum Award for Leadership and Support for Entrepreneurship in Arkansas.

He received an L.L.B. from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1966 and a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1963. Gregory is a member of the American, Arkansas, and Pulaski County Bar Associations. He served on the Arkansas Arts Center board from 1990 to 1998 and chaired the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Arkansas Bar Association in 2002. He lives in Little Rock with his wife Nancy and their family of rescue dogs.

Photos2012 Fribourgh Award Photos

Dr. Jim Fribourgh

Dr. Jim Fribourgh & Watt Gregory III

Chancellor Joel Anderson, Chad Fitz, and Dean Gealt

Chancellor Joel Anderson, Watt Gregory III, and Lunsford Bridges

Watt Gregory III (2012 Recipient) & Jerry Adams (2011 Recipient)

Watt Gregory III - 2012 Recipient

Watt Gregory III & Family

Clinton Presidential Center Audience

2012 Fribourgh Award Volunteers (Thanks)

2012 Fribourgh Award

The College of Science & Mathematics (CSAM) congratulates the Lady Trojans on their trip to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. For their third-straight trip to the NCAA tournament, the UALR women’s basketball team will face No. 3 seed Delaware at 4:20 p.m. Sunday, March 18, in the Jack Stephens Center.

Special CSAM congratulations goes out to the following College of Science and Mathematics majors: Kierra Clark (HS), Whitney Gaston-Loyd (Pre-Med), Taylor Gault (HS), Marian Kursh (HS). and Megan Williams (HS).

The Trojans, who received the automatic bid as the Sun Belt Conference Champions, were selected as a No. 14 seed.

No. 6 Nebraska and No. 11 Kansas will tip-off approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the UALR vs. Delaware match-up.

Apply NOW for the CSAM Leadership Endowed Scholarship,

Steven L. Mourning Science Scholarship &

Tracy L. Thompson Scholarship.

Deadline is March 1st!!

Dr. Jeff Gaffney, chair of the Department of Chemistry, has been asked to serve another term as a member of the American Chemical Society’s Committee on Chemistry and Public Affairs, a joint committee of the society’s council and board of directors.

ACS President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri and 2012 Board Chair William F. Carroll, Jr. said Gaffney’s new term would extend through 2014.

The society’s leaders ask the Chemistry and Public Affairs Committee to study and make recommendations on matters of continuing importance to the society. ACS committees also serve as clearinghouses for comments and proposals regarding the conduct of present and future programs of the society.

The College of Science and Mathematics (CSAM) won the Best College in The Forum’s Best of UALR. CSAM would like to Thank the Students for voting for us.

See The Forum’s Best of UALR article here….

Throughout October, The Forum organized a Best of UALR vote, which was created to recognize what the campus community felt were the best aspects of the university.

A polling place was set up in the Donaghey Student Center on Oct.6th where students could nominate their choice in a variety of categories. The Forum then created ballots based on the predominant nominations, which were used for the Best of UALR survey on Oct. 20th.

Other Winners were:

Dickinson Hall - Best Elevator, Best Bathrooms, Best Building Overall

Basketball - Best Sport

Advanced First Aid- - Best Class

Outside - Best Place To Relax

Taco Bell - Best Place To Eat

Mass Communication - Best Department

East Hall - Best Residence Hall

Ottenheimer Library - Best Place To Study

Lot 15 - Best Parking Lot

Dr. Lirong Zeng, an assistant professor of biology in UALR’s College of Science and Mathematics, has recently been awarded a $423,783 grant from the National Science Foundation to support his work investigating the ubiquitination, a process that plays a role in plant immunity.

Understanding the molecular mechanisms by which plants achieve immunity against pathogen attack has been a topic of interest among the plant scientific research community in recent years.

The grant will support Zeng’s research into the role of a non-classical type of ubiquitination that plays in self-protection of plants from attacks by bacterial pathogens. Ubiquitination is a highly conserved protein modification process that is found in all organisms consisting of structurally more sophisticated cells, such as plants, animals, and humans.

Plants, like animals and humans, are often under the risk of being attacked by many different pathogens. In many cases, such attack will result in disease.

“In recent years, ubiquitination has emerged as a key regulatory mechanism of plant immunity against many pathogens,” Zeng said.

Opening a new perspective on plant immunity, Zeng and his team are finding evidence of how tomato plants are protected against bacterial pathogens by activities of enzymes related to ubiquitination.

“This work will also assist in efforts to unravel biological processes and proteins that are controlled by non-classical ubiquitination, knowledge of which is very limited at present,” the professor said.

“Receiving this NSF award is a clear indication of competitiveness for Dr. Zeng’s research, and I predict he will land more awards in the years to come,” said Dr. Michael Gealt, professor of biology and dean of the College of Science and Mathematics.

Zeng’s research focuses on the identification and characterization of genes and signal transduction pathways involved in tomato and rice immunity, particularly the roles and molecular mechanism by which the ubiquitination system regulates defense responses in these plants.

The long-term goal of Zeng’s research is to gain in-depth understanding of how plants and pathogens interact at the molecular level and use the knowledge to create plants and crops with increased and durable resistance to diseases.

“This NSF award received by Dr. Zeng is a significant achievement and certainly will add to the strength of research in the department of biology at UALR,” said Dr. John Bush, chair of the department.

Zeng earned his doctorate in molecular plant pathology from Ohio State University. He did post-doctorate research at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University. For eight years, his research has focused on the molecular biology and biochemistry of plant-microbe interactions, including exploring and defining the molecular basis underlying plant resistance and susceptibility against bacterial and fungal pathogens.

Findings from his research will eventually lead to crop improvement and less pesticide usage, which is an important component of sustainable agricultural practice aimed at less energy-intensive production of food, fiber, and biofuels.

CSAM had a Great Chili Cookoff on Friday, October 21st. The entries were as follows:

Biology - Anne Cameron
Chemistry - Dr. Jeff Gaffney
Chemistry - Dr. Nancy Marley
Dean’s Office - Dr. Tom Lynch
Dean’s Office - Edna Mack-Pettigrew
Dean’s Office - Terrie Lorenson
Earth Sciences - Michael DeAngelis
Health Sciences - Khala Quarles
Mathematics - Melissa Hardeman
Mathematics - Tracy Watson
Nursing - Joan Reed
Physics - Tiffany Baker

The judges were: Chris Finlay, Stephanie Kemp, Jessica Frazier, Linda Conry, Alex Kaczenski.

Terrie Lorenson (organizer) says: “Let the Cookoff Begin”!!!

Contestant Row

Here Come Da “Judges”

From Left- Alex Kacinski (back), Jessica Frazier, Stephanie Kemp, Linda Conry, Chris Finlay

The Masses begin the “Chili Slaughter”

Ohh the Carnage!!

The Trophies

1st Place

1st Place, 2nd Place and The People’s Choice Trophies (beats a “mirrored disco ball”)

And….The Winners!!

1st Place-Edna Mack Pettigrew-Dean’s Office

Dr. Lynch (left) presenting Edna Mack-Pettigrew her 1st Place Trophy

2nd Place went to Melissa Hardeman-Math Dept.

Terrie Lorenson (right) presenting Melissa Hardeman her 2nd Place Trophy

Dr. Lynch (right) presenting Khala Quarles the People’s Choice Award - Health Sciences Dept.