academy for original research. Isaacs and his students have been conducting Alzheimer’s disease research for several years. Emily Armstrong, a graduate of Liberty’s Department of Psychology, won the PSI CHI Undergraduate Research Award, one of two undergraduate awards presented at the 2015 Association for Psychological Science Convention last May in New York City, for her work on parenting behaviors. Two Liberty University alumni received awards from the Phi Alpha Theta national history honor society’s National Paper Competition in 2014, with one, Karissa Marken (’14) winning the grand prize. Abigail Lenz (’14), who is currently
seeking her Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, received Liberty’s first graduate student award at the Virginia Academy of Science’s Annual Meeting in 2015, the year Liberty started its graduate program in biology. Working with Dr. Andrew Fabich and Dr. Jeffery Tomkins, Lenz released the university’s first draft genome sequence, mapping the DNA of a common strain of E. coli bacteria in hopes of helping to find a cure for diseases caused by the strain. The QEP seeks to organize and expand similar efforts across the campus — just the sort of activity that a national university with an emerging reputation for research and scholarship
should undertake. Yet, ultimately, this new emphasis on research, like Liberty’s ever-expanding reach around the globe, contributes to far more than the advancement of the university itself. Rather, in giving students the ability to conduct real-world research that makes a difference in people’s lives, Liberty takes another step toward fulfilling the Great Commission. — Emily Walker Heady is Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Dean of the College of General Studies, and a Professor of English.
KAI T LYN JOHNSON
Dr. Raymond Damadian, inventor of the MRI method, gives a lecture in the Science Hall on March 29, as part of Research Week.
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