The Tennessee Academy of Science Middle Collegiate Division meeting was held on April 15, 2023 on the campus of Volunteer State Community College with awards as follows:



Cell & Molecular Biology/Chemistry

First Place – Ashton D. Cromwell, Leslie Hiatt and Anuradha L. Pathiranage Extraction and Analysis of Compounds Isolated from Chili Peppers. Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee.

Second Place - Remah Hatem, Shannon Jeffries, Chris Barton, and Darlene Panvini Developing a protocol for the isolation of lichen DNA for educators to use in DNA barcoding projects. Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee

Third Place - Ji Won Moon. The role of P38 MAP-Kinases in HBCD-induced increases in IL-6 production in human immune cells. Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Engineering & Eng. Technology/Geology and Geography/Mathematics/Computer Science/Physics and Astronomy

First Place – Jacob Neal, Esteban Parra Rodriguez. Using Machine Learning to Convert Pseudo-code to Executable Code in Industr. Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee.

Second Place - Meleah Lanier, Eugenii U.Donev. Numerical exploration of Morpho-inspired nanostructures for tunable structural color. Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee.

Third Place - Rudy Gostowski, Rachel Davies, Michael Obinna-Chukwu, Talaja Taylor, and Amber Williams. Development of a 3D Printable Hypergolic Hybrid Rocket Fuel. Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee.

On April 21st, 2018, Belmont University College of Sciences and Mathematics hosted the annual Middle Tennessee Collegiate Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science in the Janet Ayers Academic Center. This event has served as an opportunity for our students to highlight their scholarly work and has fostered collaboration with other local universities.

This year we had 24 students from Belmont University, Columbia State Community College, Tennessee State University, and Tennessee Tech University, present their research as oral presentations in one of four different sessions: 1. Chemistry 2. Cellular and Molecular Biology/Microbiology 3. Health and Medical Sciences 4. Zoology/Ecology/Environmental Sciences.<

All sessions were moderated and judged by faculty volunteers, who awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd place certificates to the top three presenters in each session.

Following are the winners from each session:

Chemistry: 1st – Christopher Hansen (BU), 2nd – Alekzander Garcia (TSU), 3rd – Avery Daniels (BU).

Cellular and Molecular Biology/Microbiology: 1st – AC Dowd (BU), 2nd – Dana Cornwell (BU), 3rd – Brandi Duke (BU), and Honorable Mention – Haley Hatfield (BU).

Health and Medical Sciences: 1st – Rebecca Derby (BU), 2nd – Elizabeth Sparks (BU), 3rd - Sargoel Rezanejad (BU), and Honorable Mention – Christian Candler (BU).

Zoology/Ecology/Environmental Sciences: 1st – Taryn Anderson (BU), 2nd – States Labrum (CSCC), 3rd – Shaoyun Yang (BU), and Honorable Mention – Terra’lexus Roberts (BU).

Faculty judges: Dr. Lori McGrew (BU Biology), Dr. Steve Murphree (BU Biology), Dr. Danny Biles (BU Math), Dr. Justin Stace (BU Chemistry), Dr. Robert Grammer (BU Biology), Dr. John Niedzwiecki (BU Biology), Dr. Karen Kendall-Fite (Columbia State Community College), and Dr. Radhika Ramjee (Columbia State Community College).

The meeting was coordinated and run by Dr. Duane Hatch, Assistant Professor of Chemistry.

Dr. Nick Ragsdale (Biology) volunteered to order and pick up food for the event.