Life Sciences Week puts Mo. research on display
Life Sciences Week attempts to display complex experiments accessibly.
Published April 15, 2008
Starting with a research poster session Monday afternoon, the Life Sciences Center is holding a week of events to highlight research in Missouri.
The session, part of Life Sciences Week, includes five floors of scientists presenting their research in layman’s terms to the public.
“The whole purpose of this is to show people what we’re doing,” said Said Figueroa, a research health scientist with the Harry S. Truman Veterans Hospital’s Biomolecular Imaging Center. “We are one of the top three national micro-imaging centers in the nation and people are coming around to see what we have to offer.”
Many posters include LCD monitors and active, colorful presentation.
“We upgraded the visual components of our poster this year,” Figueroa said. “We have had more people come talk to us this year than last year.”
Sophomore biochemistry major Patrick Hyatt was at the poster session learning about the different presentations.
“A lot of this stuff is over my head, even as a science major,” Hyatt said. “But I’m learning a lot of interesting stuff.”
Life Sciences Center spokeswoman Ginny Booker said this was the purpose of the poster session.
“The poster session is the key part of the week,” Booker said. “We want to give both young and old scientists the opportunity see what’s going on in all the scientific disciplines.”
The first Life Sciences Week was held in 2003.
It evolved out of Molecular Biology Week, which debuted in 1985.
“Molecular Biology Week was incredibly revolutionary,” Booker said. “It was not the norm to promote interdisciplinary science research at that time.”
When the event was renamed Life Sciences Week, it broadened into more disciplines than before.
“We really reached out to all departments and included societal issues,” Booker said.
The Life Sciences Center uses the week to reach out to Missouri high school students.
“This year, 250 students and their teachers came to the poster session and watched a presentation in the auditorium,” Booker said. “We want to persuade students to consider studying science at the college level.”
The program has been so successful that Booker said they are considering expanding it to 500 students next year.
A new event is a state legislative panel that will discuss their experiences during the BIO Benchmarking Tour, which brought 11 lawmakers to St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia and St. Joseph in order to educate them about scientific issues.
“It’s intended to help the lawmakers understand the many scientific issues they find themselves voting on,” Booker said. “They would be the first to admit that they may not understand this complex science.”
The panel will speak at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in the Life Sciences Center.
“People are confronted with science issues every day,” Booker said. “The goal of the week is to use this as an outreach tool to provide information to the public.”