The Newman Lab recently moved into a newly renovated and much larger lab space in Carson-Taylor Hall. This new space better fits the 15 current students in the group and our equipment. In addition, the new space has a cell culture room and a student office space!! Looking forward to lots of great work in this new lab!!!!
Congratulations to Matt Busby who was admitted to the School of Medicine at LSU Health Shreveport as part of the Fall 2018 incoming class. Matt has been in the lab for the past year and in that time has presented his work at the Louisiana Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting, the Louisiana Tech Research Symposium, and the College of Applied and Natural Sciences annual research day. In addition, Matt and his research colleagues were selected as one of only 10 student research groups to represent the University at the University of Louisiana Academic Summit this past spring. Matt demonstrates his dedication and hard work in the classroom, in his extracurricular activities, and in the lab. I am very proud of his accomplishments! Congratulations Matt! Congratulations to undergraduate, Rachel Eddy, for being awarded a Louisiana Space Consortium Undergraduate Research Assistantship. The award provides Rachel with a $5,000 stipend to continue her research in the lab along with $1,000 in travel money to aid in her attendance at a conference where she will present her research. Previously Cam Tran and Katie Whitehead have also received funding form LaSPACE for their work on a related tissue engineering project. Congratulations Rachel! Award information: Optimization and Characterization of the Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Tailorable Hydrogel Scaffolds | $6,000 Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE) Undergraduate Research Assistantship 2017-2018 Rachel Eddy On Saturday we celebrated the graduation of Louisiana Tech's 2017 Spring Graduates. It was the largest graduating class in the school's history with over 900 graduating students. Among them were Marcus Kety (BS, Biomedical Engineering), Justin Philobos (BS, Biological Sciences) and Katie Whitehead (MS, MSNT). Marcus will be staying on to complete his Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering under my supervision, so we don't have to say goodbye just yet. Justin is heading back home to California where he will be applying for medical school. Katie will also be taking the year off to apply to medical school (and help us write a few manuscripts on the work she did in the lab over the last three years). All of these students have been a joy to have in the lab! We will miss Katie's dedication and generosity in helping to train and mentor so many of the students who are now in the group and we will definitely miss Justin's cheerful spirit and infectious lab, but we are excited to see what the next chapter of their life holds. Congratulations Marcus, Justin, and Katie!! I am so proud to have been a part of your time at Louisiana Tech!!!
This has been a hard week and it has taken me some time to figure out what to do to honor Ngozi, an amazing student, friend, mentor, and role model. Today we begin celebrating those who are graduating, including Katie, Justin, and Marcus, and I wanted to make sure in remembering Ngozi we remember how proud she would have been of these three students who she worked so closely with in the lab. She would want to make sure they got the celebration and recognition they deserved and in writing this today I hope to let them know how proud Ngozi would be of them.
Sadly, Ngozi passed away on Sunday, May 14, 2017, in New Orleans where she was pursuing a PhD in Genetics. Ngozi was a member of the lab from 2015-2017 . She worked on the Notch project and completed her master's thesis in May 2017. When I met Ngozi she barely knew how to search for literature, but she worked hard to learn how to not only find relevant papers, but learned quickly how to read, understand, present, and write about the literature in her field. Ngozi took all opportunities afforded to her, presenting at local and international conferences and participated in the LBRN summer program where she first met her PhD advisor, Dr. Lucio Miele. Ngozi was awarded ANS minigrants, was an ANS Featured Student, and was a GA for our introductory biology labs where she interacted with over 200 of our undergraduates in the two years she spent at Louisiana Tech. Although she was an excellent student, Ngozi was so much more to so many of us. The lab is really a family and Ngozi was always there for those around her. She mentored younger students in the lab, not just with their lab work, but their course work and was there for them when they needed a friend, encouragement, or support. As the PI I'm sure I only know half of the friend Ngozi was to those in the lab and in the department, but her love for those students was obvious. Ngozi graduated in May and moved to New Orleans over the summer where she quickly found another lab family who was there for her to the end. It was easy to love Ngozi and it is no surprise to hear how much she impacted those around her in such a short period of time. There are no words to describe the sadness we are feeling with this loss in our Newman Lab family. Ngozi will be remembered for her warmth, compassion, and loving spirit. We love you and miss you! Today was the College of Applied and Natural Sciences Research Day where students present on their research in oral and poster presentations. The lab represented in both categories doing a great job! For the first time in many years, awards were given for poster and oral presentations and Justin, Rachel, and India were recognized with 2nd place for their poster presentation. Congratulations to everyone who participated in this annual event. It is always a fun day sharing research with colleagues and students around the college and learning about what they are doing in areas of forestry, agriculture science, human ecology, nursing, and health informatics and information management.
Faculty are also recognized for their accomplishments in teaching, research, and service. I was awarded the Scholarly Activity Award this year. I missed the presentation, but my husband picked up my award for me. Two undergraduates in the lab were among 20 students selected to participate in the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network Summer Research Program. Rachel Eddy, a junior in Biological Sciences will be working with Dr. Gus Kousoulas, Professor of Virology at LSU and PI of the LBRN grant funded through the NIH. Rachel participated in the program last year, working with Dr. Bruce Bunnell at Tulane. This will be a great opportunity for Rachel to see another lab and learn about a different area of biomedical research. Matthew Busby, a junior in Biological Sciences will be working with Dr. John Vanchiere at LSUHSC in Shreveport, an MD/PhD who specializes in pediatric infectious disease. Matt is interested in pursuing medical school and so this will be a great opportunity to see how a physician works both in the clinic and in the lab. The LBRN program provides students with the opportunity to work at another university in Louisiana over 10 weeks to gain research experience not only in the lab, but also in communicating science. Students from the lab have been participating in this summer program for the past 3 years and come back with more skills, knowledge, and enthusiasm for research. Congratulations Matt and Rachel!!
One of the undergraduates in the lab, Jacob Cambre, was recently elected to Student Senate as part of the Student Government. Jacob will be one of 4 students who represent the College of Applied and Natural Sciences. In this role he will advocate for the needs of students in the College, writing grants and bills to support students. Jacob will serve as a Senator for the 2017-2018 academic year. Congratulations Jacob!
Today the winners of the Louisiana Tech Research Symposium were honored in a reception hosted by Dr. Stan Napper, the Vice President for Research and Development, and Dr. Les Guice, University President. It is a great opportunity for the students to be recognized for their hard work and accomplishments in conducting and presenting research. People got a little tired of hearing the Newman Lab be called up for an award, but these students worked hard and deserved the honor. Below are the students receiving their awards with Dr. Guice. Dr. Guice invited the students into his office following the reception so that they could see the view from the 16th floor and get a picture with the bulldog.
Today was the 91st Annual Louisiana Academy of Sciences Meeting hosted by Louisiana Tech University. This was an exciting day not only for members of the lab, but we also presented on the digital painting and medical illustration collaboration. I gave an oral presentation along with Dr. Mary Caldorera-Moore and Mr. Nicholas Bustamante, and 2 students from the class presented posters with Kaitlin Maloy winning 1st place in the undergraduate poster competition for the social sciences and humanities division. In addition, Joseph and Katie gave oral presentations in the graduate oral presentation competition where Katie was awarded 1st place, and all of the undergraduates participated in the poster presentations with Justin, India, and Rachel awarded 1st place in that category. Marcus, Natalee, and Jacob presented on the Notch project and Matt and Mike presented on the Mediator project. Once again a great job by everyone in the lab!! I continue to be so proud of this group and how they represent the lab every where they go.
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Dr. Jamie NewmanAssociate Professor of Biological Sciences Archives
May 2021
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