The College of Letters & Science Undergraduate Research Symposium is a great educational collaboration between professors and students. All year students work on challenging research projects and the Symposium gives them a chance to share their findings. The Symposium used to be UWSP’s golden little secret, but no longer. This year we strive for more visibility.

Here’s how the program works: A student (or group of students) submits an abstract for a research project that has been confirmed by a professor. On the day of the Symposium, students and professors alike gather in the Science Building for presentations. Each project will either be presented orally in a classroom or visually represented with a poster, with the student near-by to explain it (see picture above).

Collaboration is a critical aspect of the Research Symposium. This program gives students the chance to work with Professors outside the classroom. The L & S Research Symposium brings great minds together to share intricate knowledge and passion for their research.

The Symposium is open to the public. Anyone can sit in on an oral presentation or walk the halls and listen to students excitedly explain their posters. The Symposium will be held on the first and second floors of the Science Building between 2 pm and 5pm on Friday, April 30. For more information and pictures visit: http://www.uwsp.edu/cls/symposium_page.htm

L & S Research Symposium

&College of Letters & Science April 2010

University of Wisconsin

Stevens Point

Student poster presentations fill the halls of the Science Building during the Symposium

“The L&S Research Symposium represents our students and faculty at their best, fulfilling our goal of focusing on undergraduate education and research, and highlighting the special relationship which develops between faculty and students to bring projects to a conclusion and present them to the public.”

— Dean Chris Cirmo

Hundreds of students walk past it every day, but few actually stop to examine this historical treasure. Nestled in a doorway in the corner of the library on the first floor, with very little advertising its existence, it’s easy to see how UWSP’s Museum of Natural History might be overlooked. But it shouldn’t be.

Erik Wild, Associate Professor of Biology, chairs the Museum Research Committee. He says the importance of the Museum lies in its connection with the scientific collections scattered throughout the campus. Each collection contains an astounding number of creatures and specimens that hold great research possibilities. According to Professor Wild, “We might have the largest fish collection in Wisconsin.” Research into these collections is a continuous process.

While the Museum of Natural History seems relatively uniform on the surface, it’s actually connected to eleven scientific collections which are constantly being researched and updated (see left). On December 5, 2009, museum unveiled a Menominee hemlock dugout canoe as the latest addition to its exhibits. Research is still being done to find the date of origin for this canoe, which was found sometime before 1948 on the Menominee Reservation, according to director of the Central Wisconsin Archaeology Center, Ray Reser.

“We want to share our knowledge with the public.” Professor Wild says. Various steps are being taken to bring the attention of this hidden treasure to the public. On February 20, the Museum of Natural History had an open house to celebrate the addition of the dugout canoe and to show off its various collections. In the future, Professor Wild says, “I’d like to see an expansion of our public education program.” Public viewing of the exhibits is available throughout the academic year. For hours and information, visit www.uwsp.edu/museum or call 715-346-2858.

“We want to share our knowledge with the public.”

— Professor Erik Wild

UWSP’s Hidden Treasures

Museum Collections and their curators:Anthropology (Stephanie Aleman

and Sandhya Ganapathy

Archaeology (Ray Reser)

Geology (Kevin Hefferan and Samantha Kaplan)

Paleontology (Michael Bozek and Pat Zellmer)

Mammalogy (Chris Yahnke)

Ornithology (Chris Yahnke)

Herpetology (Erik Wild)

Ichthyology (Justine Sipiorski)

Entomology (Jamee Hubbard)

Parasitology (Todd Huspeni)

Herbarium (Emmet Judziewicz and Virginia Freire)

At the end of an uncertain (but certainly tame by most standards) Wisconsin winter, it is good to reflect upon the accomplishments of our friends, students and faculty colleagues in the College of Letters and Science at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Throughout this year I have made the case for considering our college the “College-at-the-Core” in an attempt to recognize the central role we play in delivering a liberal arts education to all students at the university, not just those in our college. Our College delivers the bulk of the General Education program to our university students, and represents most of the traditional liberal arts and sciences disciplines. It is sometimes difficult to look for an identity since we have disciplines as disparate as Physics and Philosophy, Chemistry and Sociology, and Computing and New Media Technology and Biology. It is not easy to find as common a culture as might be found in the other colleges, but one thing does bind us together; every student at UWSP must take courses in our college and demonstrate proficiencies that are used in all other aspects of university life such as reading, writing and quantitative sciences, the ability to speak in public, and the capacity to recognize theory from dogma. We have much in common within the college, and it should be our goal to celebrate these commonalities as central to our role “at the core” of a university education.

In this issue we celebrate the quintessential activity that makes us a college in the L&S Research Symposium, where students and faculty together discuss and display their research and scholarly activity, which are so much a part of our expectations of student success in all disciplines. We also recognize a college “treasure” that has flown somewhat under the radar in recent years, the Museum of Natural History. The Museum is becoming very active again with its celebration of acquisition of a native Menominee dugout canoe, and with the yearly “museum crawl” which this year was attended by over 200 participants. This activity highlights the individual curator collections that are not always associated with the “museum” that the public associates with the first floor of the Learning Resources Center. Among these collections are specimens and artifacts which are rare and of value. The collections themselves are some of the most extensive in the State of Wisconsin and include an herbarium, and collections/museums of anthropology and archaeology, geology, paleontology, mammalogy, ornithology, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, and parasitology. These collections are resources for researchers throughout the state and represent the best of what we offer as a “museum,” in addition to the dioramas and displays in the library.

We always recognize grants and receipt of recognition that have certainly been the case with the Department of Chemistry. The list of received awards and equipment this year has been very impressive. We want to take special time to honor Professor Devindar Sandhu, who had a paper published in the premier journal in his field. His work is especially noteworthy in that it involves a field crop so important to farmers. Special recognition goes to Gilbert Kaczmarak and his endowment of the special research fund which will ensure that students in biology and chemistry have the opportunity to be part of the excitement of discovery which goes with research in the sciences.

Welcome to Springfrom the desk of Dean Chris Cirmo

Book published by Cornerstone Press

Cornerstone Press, a UWSP publishing company run by students in English 349, has published a book, “Wisconsin River of Grace,” by Kyle L. White, who attended UW-Stevens Point. White describes the book as being about “the mysterious pull of God’s Country – Wisconsin.” His book can be purchased at local bookstores in Stevens Point.

Let’s stay in touch!www.uwsp.edu/cls

Big year in ChemistryUWSP hired Michael Zach, Jim

Lawrence, Jason D’Acchioli, and Nathan Bowling in 2006, which brought new energy to the Chemistry department. Recently Bowling, along with Robert Badger, John Droske, and chair of the Chemistry department, Jim Brummer, used a $255,000 grant to purchase a cutting-edge Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer for UWSP. Meanwhile Zach, assistant professor of Chemistry at UWSP, received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the funds of which will be used for student research of nanowires. Says Brummer, “Our chemistry faculty have experienced unprecedented success in obtaining competitive grants to support their teaching and research during the past four years.”

Scientific Journal Publishes Article Co-Authored by UWSP’s Sandhu

Nature, a prestigious scientific journal, has published an article co-authored by UWSP Assistant Professor of Biology Devinder Sandhu. In the article, “Genome sequence of the paleopolyploid soybean,” Sandhu and his colleagues have sequenced the soybean genome, a task that scientists started back in 2005. The U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as WiSys Technology Foundation both support Sandhu’s research.

Free Lectures to the Public Self Deception: Rational Failure or Evolutionary

Strategy? – By James Sage (Philosophy). April 8, 2010, 7:00-8:30 p.m., Room 321 Collins Classroom Center

Thinking Like a Home Owner: A new Ethic of Environmentalism – By Greg Summers (Associate Vice Chancellor). May 13, 2010, 7:00-8:30 p.m., Piney Room, Portage County Library.

The American Chemistry Society in Washington D.C. awarded assistant Professor of Chemistry Nathan Bowling a prestigious $50,000 grant for his molecular research project. Seven undergraduate students are working hands-on with him in the organic chemistry research. These students include Steve Long, Alex Burazin, Lindsey Braun, Cassandra Chilcote, Danielle Hamm, Cole Reedy, and Josh Wieting. Bowling said, “Under my supervision, my students are creating molecules from petroleum-derived chemicals that may someday be incorporated into solar cell technologies. Students involved in these projects are making molecules that have never been made before.”

News briefs

Eric Larson, associate professor of geography and geology, gave the keynote address at the annual meeting of Wisconsin Geographical Society held October 2009 at UWSP. The Wisconsin Geographical Society was founded to foster geographic education and to increase effectiveness of geography teaching in Wisconsin. Cash prizes were given to undergraduate and graduate students.

Shane Stricker, Editor

By Mark Williams

Gilbert Kaczmarek (’60 Chemistry) fondly recalls how theory, instruction and lab work from Professor Trytten and others helped forge a lifelong career as a chemist. Fifty years later he has ensured students and faculty will continue future collaborative research by establishing The Gilbert J. Kaczmarek research fund with a planned gift to UWSP. Kaczmarek had previously established student scholarships in biology and chemistry (see photo).

The future program will enable students and faculty in biology and chemistry to conduct collaborative research on campus for portions of the summer or the academic year.

Gilbert’s workforce career spanned 37 years for the city of Milwaukee Purification Plant. In 1967 he developed an amperometric titration for the determination of potassium permanganate and manganese dioxide, now used throughout the water treatment industry. By acting on a tip from his undergraduate experience with Professor Trytten here at UWSP, he developed this odor masking technique that was published in the American Chemical Society Journal and later patented by another firm. Retired since 1998, Kaczmarek is a believer in lifelong learning. He continues to attend seminars and classes on various subjects in Wisconsin and online. It is this passion for education, chemistry, water quality and undergraduate research that led to creating the future research program. And perhaps most of all, he believes in giving back and that today’s students will be tomorrow’s leaders. After meeting 2009 scholarship winner Rebecca Slattery along with the UWSP biology and chemistry faculty, Gilbert commented “The future is in great hands!”

Looking back on his experience at UWSP, Kaczmarek remembers that undergraduate chemistry classes had nine students and were conducted in Old Main. While much has changed since then, collaborative research at UWSP will certainly continue long into the future, thanks to Gilbert Kaczmarek.

Gilbert Kaczmarek and 2009 biology scholarship winner Rebecca Slattery

Future research program, thanks to alumnus

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