King University welcomed students and professors from around the region today for the 29th annual Blue Ridge Undergraduate Research Conference (BRURC).
The day-long event offered undergraduates from 15 area institutions the opportunity to present independent projects in a supportive atmosphere, providing many their first experience of sharing research with peers. This year saw a broad range of topics in health, government, nutrition, exercise, chemistry, socioeconomics, astronomy, and more represented by presenters from the University of Virginia at Wise, University of the Cumberlands, Warren Wilson, Lees-McRae, Brevard and Union Colleges, and East Tennessee State, Tusculum, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Tennessee Wesleyan, Milligan, Bluefield, and Carson-Newman Universities.
The keynote speech was offered by King alumna Demisha Porter, who graduated in 2017 and is a doctoral candidate studying neuroscience in the Translational Biology, Medicine and Health program at Virginia Tech. Her work currently focuses on using biomedical microdevices and molecular biology to better understand the process of neurogenesis.
“Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice that offers students the opportunity to creatively engage with an academic discipline, form meaningful relationships with faculty, and develop many different types of skills,” said 2023 conference organizer Kevin DeFord, Ph.D., professor of Psychology at King. “Taken together, the opportunity to conduct undergraduate research provides students with skills and experiences that are applicable in many types of educational and vocational settings.”