AAAS 2013

By Sean Cohmer

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, or triple-A-S) yearly conference features a student poster competition. This year the annual conference was held in Boston, Massachusetts. Each year the Center for Biology and Society in collaboration with Barrett, the Honors College supports travel, lodging, and registration costs for selected students who have been doing individual research projects and want to present their research on the national stage.

Besides their experience at the poster competition, students also had the opportunity to attend talks from researchers doing cutting-edge work in fields ranging from Anthropology, to Biology, to Physics. When the science talks ended for the day, our ASU students went out to experience the lively streets of Boston’s Back Bay. The cold temperatures and snow meant little to this enthusiastic group of explorers, many visiting Boston for the first time.

This year’s annual conference was especially important to our group here at ASU. First, our students presented the results of their research at the student poster competition, an exciting opportunity for any young researcher. Two students, Elizabeth Brito and Christopher Luna, presented posters that won the competition in their respective categories. Second, Michael Crow and Stuart Newfeld became newly elected fellows to the AAAS. This is a high honor for each of them and speaks well for ASU, which now has a total of 67 AAAS fellows.