Mount Allison hosts 2006 APICS/CIC Student Chemistry Conference
2006-06-12 08:40:22
SACKVILLE, NB — Over 140 chemistry students, professors and researchers converged on Mount Allison University from May 18-20 for the 31st APICS/CIC Student Chemistry Conference. The student-organized event is held each spring at a different institution in Atlantic Canada, the future location of which is voted on by the conference attendees. A delegation of students from Mount Allison who attended the 2004 meeting (with financial support from Leadership Mount Allison) won the bid to host the conference this year. The organizing committee, which was headed up by students Dan Beach, Amy Rand, and Leslie Rutledge, worked diligently over the past 12 months to raise funding, secure guest speakers, and finalize the academic and social program for the meeting. “This is the first time that Mount Allison has hosted the event since 1990,”says Dan, “so it was a great opportunity for us to show the rest of Atlantic Canada what great things are happening here in Sackville.”
The conference featured 23 oral and 35 poster presentations from undergraduate and graduate students from eleven institutions across Atlantic Canada. Over $3,000 in prizes was awarded for outstanding presentations, with the following Mount Allison students receiving awards: Dan Beach (Analytical - Oral), Amy Rand (Biological or Medicinal - Oral), Emily Drake (Biological or Medicinal - Poster), Matt Zamora (Organic - Oral), Ian McKelvey (Inorganic - Poster), Christian Garon (Inorganic - Oral), Colleen Muir (Theoretical - Poster) and Patricia MacLean (Graduate - Poster).
In addition to the student presentations, the event featured lectures from keynote speakers Drs. Rik Tykwinski (University of Alberta) and David Shoesmith (University of Western Ontario). Also, lunchtime ‘hot topic’ discussion sessions were headed by Drs. David Jakeman (Dalhousie), Alex Jurgens (Sepracor Canada Ltd.), Celiné Surette (Moncton), Russell Boyd (Dalhousie), James Nyangulu (St. Francis Xavier) and our very own Dr. Ross Barclay (Mount Allison).
The meeting was a huge success, and the organizers would like to thank the Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences (APICS), the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and the other financial sponsors, as well as the many student volunteers, for helping make the event possible.
APICS has been promoting science education, research in science, science literacy and public awareness of science throughout the Atlantic region since 1962. Twenty universities, colleges and research institutes across Atlantic Canada have APICS representatives in 10 different science discipline committees. For more information, visit www.apics.dal.ca.
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Photo caption: Mount Allison student organizers and keynote speakers (l-r) Dan Beach, Dr. Rik Tykwinski of the University of Alberta, Leslie Rutledge and Dr. David Shoesmith of the University of Western Ontario.