SURF event showcases student summer research at Mount Allison

SACKVILLE, NB — Following a record summer for the number of student researchers on campus, Mount Allison University’s annual SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fair) event is slated for Friday, September 20, 2013, beginning at 3:30 p.m. in Tweedie Hall and room 130 in the Wallace McCain Student Centre.

SURF is a student-run event, giving students the chance to share and present their research to the public. Students from disciplines across campus will give presentations and will be judged by a panel made up of Mount Allison faculty and notable members of the Sackville community. Everyone is welcome to this drop-in style event and there is no admission charge.

This year students will be presenting their work in posters and using the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) format for their talks. Students must present their research in three minutes, through spoken word only. Prizes will be awarded to top presenters.

Honours philosophy student and SURF organizing committee member Kelsey Lauersen says, “We’re excited about this year’s SURF event, especially the adoption of the Three Minute Thesis. This format was selected because it emphasizes both precision and accessibility — which is definitely a new challenge for our researchers — and because it allows the general audience to have a better understanding of what’s going on in the research life at Mount Allison as a whole.”

Mount Allison University provost and vice-president, academic and research Dr. Karen Grant says, “SURF has been happening at Mount Allison for ten years now and really highlights what student research, the valuable experiences and knowledge it provides, is all about. I look forward to hearing first-hand about some of the exciting initiatives happening on campus.”

Confirmed topics to date for SURF 2013 include Searching for Entombed Diatoms: The Extraction of Microfossils from Tunisian K-Pg Boundary Sedimentary Rock, Cultural Variants Affecting Palliative Care, To B or Not to B Physics, and Cross Section Calculations for Unpolarized Compton Scattering from the Proton near Pion Threshold.

For more information e-mail surf@mta.ca or find them on Facebook. SURF is sponsored by the Mount Allison research services office.

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Laura Dillman Ripley
Media Relations Officer, Assistant Editor of the Record

Mount Allison University
65 York Street
Sackville NB  E4L 1E4

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