Marquette University students to participate inaugural BIG EAST Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium

March 7, 2022

BIG EAST logoMILWAUKEE — Marquette University will be represented by seven students and their projects at the inaugural BIG EAST Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium to take place Saturday, March 12, from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. CST, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The symposium is held in conjunction with the BIG EAST Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament, which runs March 9-12. Marquette students will represent the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing and College of Health Sciences. Marquette undergraduate student research projects include:

  1. Understanding parents’ expected barriers to youth mental health treatment: The role of parent and family factors
    • Student presenters: Maia Karpinsky and Nora Wood
    • Mentor: Dr. Lindsay Holly, assistant professor of psychology
  1. Power of partnerships: An engaged approach for advancing health and well-being of the Near West Side Neighborhood
    • Student presenters: Lourdes Galido and David Chrisbaum
    • Mentor: Dr. Abiola Keller, assistant professor of nursing
  1. Rental law and the COVID-19 pandemic: How the pandemic is shifting public understanding of evictions
    • Student presenter: Emma Hudson-Mairet
    • Mentor: Dr. David Nowacek, adjunct assistant professor of social and cultural sciences
  1. Biochemical characterization of an Ewing's Sarcoma drug interaction with the human histone lysine specific demethylase-1 enzyme
    • Student Presenter: Joceline Helmbreck
    • Mentor: Dr. Nick Reiter, assistant professor of chemistry
  1. The unexplored diversity of brain-spinal neurons: implications for the treatment of spinal cord injury
    • Student Presenter: Zac Beine
    • Mentor: Dr. Murray Blackmore, associate professor of biomedical sciences

Presentation abstracts are available upon request.

As an R2 research institution, Marquette is dedicated to Research in Action, and 21% of undergraduates participate in faculty and staff-led research projects outside of class.

Each BIG EAST institution will be represented by up to five research projects, each of which may have up to two presenters. Students will give a 10-minute oral presentation on their work to judges. Participants will have a brief question and answer session with judges following their presentation. Presentations will be judged on visual quality and content, introduction, results and discussion, presentation style, and response to questions. Winners will be acknowledged on the court during the tournament’s championship game on Saturday, March 12, at 5:30 p.m. CST.

The 2021-22 academic year is the ninth since the BIG EAST Conference began a new era by returning to its basketball-centric heritage in 2013. Since then, the BIG EAST has established itself as one of the nation’s exceptional conferences and a leader in collegiate athletics, taking a proactive role on national issues. BIG EAST institutions are in eight of the nation's 36 largest media markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Hartford/New Haven, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. In addition to Marquette, BIG EAST members are Butler University, the University of Connecticut, Creighton University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, Providence College, St. John's University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University and Xavier University.