The UNT Biology Graduate Student Association (BGSA) hosted their 17th Annual BGSA Research Symposium virtually on April 8-9, 2021. This event is typically held in spring each year for UNT students, faculty, staff, and members of the community.

The free, two-day event included student oral and poster presentations, networking events, seminars, and other fun activities. Over 160 people register for the 2021 event, including UNT undergrads, master's and PhD students, professors, staff, incoming students, postdocs, and visiting scientists.

"This was the first time we held the event virtually, and we had great participation," said Rachel Leads, BGSA President. "We had participants representing every College of Science department and institute, and colleagues from the Texas Woman's University Department of Biology also attended the event."

More than 250 people attended the virtual keynote seminar given by Dr. Martin Chalfie, Professor at Columbia University and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008. The keynote seminar was sponsored by the Division of Research and Innovation, College of Science, Department of Biological Sciences, BioDiscovery Institute, and Advanced Environmental Research Institute.

Twenty-five UNT master's and PhD students presented research at the symposium, which encompassed research in Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Environmental Science. The award winners are as follows:

Oral presentations:

1st place: Neha Iyer (Dr. Pudur Jagadeeswaran) and Julia Migliore (Dr. Douglas Root) (tied for 1st place)

2nd: Fabrizio Bonatesta (Dr. Edward Mager)

3rd: Dua'a Quedan (Dr. Douglas Root)

Poster presentations:

1st: Maddy Hannappel (Dr. James Kennedy)

2nd: Jessica Shrestha (Dr. Jannon Fuchs)

3rd: Vaidehi Pusadkar (Dr. Rajeev Azad)

"We are very grateful to local businesses for sponsoring the student presentation awards," said Rachel, "including 940 Kitchen, Miss Angelines, Recycled Books, LSA Burger, Barley and Board, Bearded Monk, and Steve's Wine Bar."

To learn more about the Biology Graduate Student Association and this year's event and presentations, visit https://untbgsa.weebly.com.