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Joining a professional society or organization is a clear sign that one is committed to their chosen field of study. Fortunately, for Biochemistry majors there is the Undergraduate Affiliate Network, a national organization for undergraduates and part of the renowned American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). The UAN Chapter at the UA (organized in 2004 from members of the Undergraduate Biochemistry Club) is part of the southwest region (there are five other regions across the country). Dr. James T. Hazzard is the faculty adviser for the UA Chapter. Since that time, the Chapter has hosted several nationally recognized scientists including the inventor of the automated DNA sequencer, Dr. Leroy Hood, and one of the preeminent protein structural researchers, Professor James Berger from Univervisty of California at Berkeley. In February, 2010, under the direction of Dario Pasalic, the UA Chapter organized the inaugrual southwest regional ASBMB and ACS sponsored the Biochemistry, Engineering, and Chemistry Undergraduate Research Conference (BECUR) (see Enzymatic article below). After the conference was opened by UA President Shelton 70 undergraduates from the UA and ASU and 7 area high school students presented their work in an all day poster session. Regent's Professor John Enemark (Chemistry and Biochemistry) presented the Keynote Address on his ground breaking work with sulfite oxidase. Several travel and cash awards were presented to undergraduate and high school participants. In recognition of their outstanding academic, research, and university involvment, Dario Pasalic ('10) and Sarah Edwards ('11) were honored by being the first UA students inducted into the ASBMB National Honor Society (ΧΩΛ) in 2010. In recognition of all its hard work, the UA UAN Chapter was a co-recipient of the 2010 ASBMB UAN Excellence in Science Education and Community Award with the UAN Chapter from Colorado College. In February, 2011, we held the second BECUR conference, attended by almost 60 undergraduates from a variety of different departments and 12 students from three Tucson high schools. Again, several travel and cash awards were presented following the very informative Keynote Address by Professor Indraneel Ghosh (Chemistry and Biochemistry). Meytal Shtayer, Laurel Kartchner, Jamie Moy, Troy Comi, and Alice Cai presented posters at the UAN Undergraduate Poster Competition and during the general poster sessions at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting in Washington, D.C. in April. Again, in recognition for the outreach of our Chapter, we were again awarded the UAN Excellence in Science Education and Outreach. In May, Shiana Ferng, a Biochemistry sophomore, obtained a $1000 UAN research scholarship to help fund her research in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Sherman (UA Neurology). In addition to planning BECUR 2012 (headed up by Anthony Louis and Jessica Jemmett), our chapter has two other exciting outreach program. The first is Visiting Scholars, in which upper division Biochemistry students visit area high schools and discuss their research and the benefits that they have gained from that work. The final outreach program is BLAST-OFF, a summer science summer camp for middle school students that will be held on the UA campus during summer 2012. This camp, originally developed by Mary-Helen Wanat and Nina Martin and now being organized by Michael Nelson and Jonathan Merritt, has the basic premise that the campers have crash landed on a distant planet; while planning their escape from the planet, they engage in scientific discoveries about the environment in which they find themselves. We are very excited about the activities described above for the 2011-2012 academic year. Our UAN Chapter welcomes enthusiastic and creative new members, especially incoming freshman and sophomores.. Together we can make this one of the most outstanding UAN chapters in the country! Below are links to topics of interest as well as articles written by UA students that have appeared in Enzymatic. There are many benefits that come from belonging to the ASBMB as an undergraduate student, including research and travel awards as well as developing a network of colleagues outside of the UA. For information about joining the UA UAN Chapter and the ASBMB, contact Dr. Hazzard. ASBMB homepage: http://www.asbmb.org/ UAN homepage: http://www.asbmb.org/CareersAndEducation.aspx?id=2374 UAN Travel and Research Awards: http://www.asbmb.org/CareersAndEducation.aspx?id=2372&linkidentifier=id&itemid=2372 Southwest Regional Director: Dr. Neena Grover (ngrover@coloradocollege.edu) at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO . UA Faculty adviser: Dr. James T. Hazzard (Chemistry and Biochemistry, UA) Enzymatic articles about the UA Chapter: November, 2009: Introduction to the UA UAN Chapter (pp. 9-10) March, 2010: Some members of the UAN Chapter (pp. 4-7) May, 2010: Aliquoting from the BECUR article (pp. 13-15)
Biochemistry 463a |
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