Biosphere 2 summit to plant seeds for science development

NAU’s Science Foundation Arizona fellows will converge with their peers from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona March 27 through 29 during the Graduate Research Fellows Grand Challenge Innovation Summit at the Biosphere 2 in Oracle.

The summit is to encourage participants to consider the grand challenges facing communications technology, sustainable systems and biomedical research.

Laura Huenneke, vice president for Research, and Paul Keim, Regents’ professor of biology and the Cowden Endowed Chair in Microbiology, will represent NAU on the academic panel at the conference.

Also attending are Lesley Cephas, coordinator for the vice president for Research and project director for NAU’s Science Foundation Arizona Graduate Fellowship Program, and NAU researcher Loretta Mayer, who will represent the Flagstaff-based biotech company SenesTech, which she co-founded. Paul Begovac, of W. L. Gore & Associates, also is attending the summit as an industry panelist at NAU’s request.

NAU graduate students presenting at Graduate Research Fellows Grand Challenge Innovation Summit at the Biosphere 2
Rui Chen and Saiyi Wang	“Energy Efficiency in Environmental Sensing Networks: Dynamic Reporting and Transmission Censoring”
Brian Cardall	“Rapid Evolution of a Native Tree (/Populus fremontii)/ in Response to Invasive Saltcedar (/Tamarix/ spp.)”
Emily Cope	“Characterization of Microbial Biofilms in Chronic Rhinosinusitis”
Luke Evans	“Comparative Gene Flow and Population Structure in a Common Plant-herbivore System”
Jeffrey Kane	“Resin Duct Production Predicts Mortality in Ponderosa Pine Forests of Northern Arizona”
Additional NAU graduate researchers participating at the event include Alicyn Gitlin, Benjamin Jaffe, Jean-Guillaume Lonjaret, Ryan Middleton, Muhammed Shamsul Arefin, Kathryn Ireland and Brian Reif.