The SACNAS’ Diversity in STEM conference, the largest multidisciplinary and multicultural STEM diversity event in the country, was held two weeks ago in Phoenix. As a group, NAU was able to send than 70 people (15 people were affiliated with the School of Forestry directly, and there were many more through funded training programs), which included staff, students, Dean Haro, VPR Wilder, and Assoc. Dean Elder. NAU had a wonderful booth that was at the center of the expo hall and was full of visitors constantly. Dr. Amanda de la Torre, Dr. Anita Antoninka, and several students were there to represent NAU Forestry!
NAU students gave 30+ presentations out of a conference total of ~1100 student presentations and 5,000 participants. Eight of our students won presentation awards (!!!) two were from Forestry, and both advised by Professor Antoninka. (Amber Born, MS student studying diet and habitat changes of the Jemez Mountains Salamander after wildfire, and Ryan Yazzie, post-bacc student working on MS student Ember Saville’s project (MS in Chemistry student, co advised by Dr. Antoninka and Dr. Jani Ingram), on a pilot study on bioremediation of uranium contaminated soils with biological soil crust.) Cat Alberts, a PhD student in the MITSI program and alum of the NSF RaMP program, won an award for her poster. Alberts is advised by Dr. Cathy Propper and is working on eDNA methods to identify the Endangered Northern Leopard Frog on Navajo Nation.
We learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and are so proud of our NAU community!