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A Tiger Tradition
TSUAg Research on Display at University-wide Research Symposium |By Charlie Morrison
For nearly a half-century, student and faculty researchers from across the Tennessee State University (TSU) campus have come together for a seminal event in the University calendar, the Tennessee State University-wide Research Symposium. Now in its 46th year, the 2024 University-wide Research Symposium featured the work of students and faculty from five of the University’s eight colleges, who from March 25-29 delivered poster and oral presentations on their research for judging by event host the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs.
Following some opening remarks by Director of Engagement Reginald Cannon on Monday morning, the symposium kicked off with “College of Agriculture Day,” a day entirely dedicated to the research pursuits of the undergraduate and graduate students at the College (TSUAg). A total of 25 undergraduate and graduate research students delivered oral presentations throughout the day as part of the oral presentation competition, and a further 19 showed off their research work as part of the poster competition.
After three days dedicated to the research efforts of students and faculty of the Colleges of Engineering, Health Sciences, Life and Physical Sciences, and Education respectively, the TSU research community’s focus again returned to TSUAg, where the community of students and scholars descended upon the Farrell-Westbrook Auditorium for the TSU Research Symposium Awards Banquet.
Following an address by Director of Research and Sponsored Programs Dr. Quincy Quick, keynote speaker and TSU graduate Dr. James T. Brown addressed the room in anticipation of the awards.
Dr. Brown, who got his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from TSU, spent 16 years working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an experience he touched on in his remarks.
“At NASA I discovered something because it was the first time I truly applied myself,” said Dr. Brown. “And because I applied myself people I worked with who’d gone to M.I.T., Stanford, all of these big schools, they started asking me questions. This is when I discovered the beauty of engineering, of science in general, and of research in general: the problems don’t care about your race, your age, your socioeconomic background, or what school you went to... the problems just need to be solved.”
The winners of the College of Agriculture day competitions were announced first during the awards banquet. Niraj Ghimire brought home first place in the graduate oral research presentation competition for his presentation on soybean cyst nematode control. Sai Prakash Naroju took home second place for her presentation on cover crops, and Shivani Dharam brought home third for her work in identifying peptide-responsive histone modification genes.
In the graduate student poster competition, Diksha Tamang won the top prize for her poster detailing her research on urban soil management and its influence on tree growth and long-term ecosystem services. Taina McLeod’s poster on eastern hellbenders released to the wild earned her second, while third went to Niraj Ghimire, who won for the second time for his presentations of his soybean research.
TSUAg was represented in the University-wide undergraduate competition as well, as Charity McWilliams won third place in the undergraduate poster competition for her presentation on the global impact of fertilizers in agricultural intensification.
“This is an important opportunity for the College of Agriculture to be a part of a long-standing TSU research tradition,” says TSUAg Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Research Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel.
“The students gain public-speaking experience, they receive feedback regarding their research from their peers and faculty and they benefit from the practice in getting ready to deliver presentations at professional conferences. On top of that, it’s a great networking environment.”
