FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Leah Gibbons

lgibbons@asmusa.org

Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Health Research by Students Shines at National

Biomedical and Behavioral Research Conference

Washington, D.C. (January 20, 2015). The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) congratulates 23 students who received awards for social and behavioral sciences and public health research presented at the 2014 conference, held November 12-15 in San Antonio, Texas. ABRCMS, one of the largest professional conferences of its kind in the nation, is designed to encourage underrepresented minority students and students with disabilities to pursue advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, including STEM disciplines; it also provides faculty with resources for facilitating student success. Approximately 3,600 people attended ABRCMS in 2014, including 2,270 students, 510 faculty and program directors, and 610 recruiters for graduate and summer research programs. Over 1,700 of the attending students participated in poster and oral presentations in 12 subdisciplines of the biomedical and behavioral sciences. All undergraduate and postbaccalaureate presentations were evaluated by active-researcher scientists, and the students with the highest scores in each scientific discipline and for each educational level received monetary awards. Twenty-one organizations contributed to awards of $250 each to 210 students for outstanding research, and the awards for the social and behavioral sciences and public health discipline — sponsored by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science — were presented to the students listed below. Oral Presentations

• Temitope Adeoye, Senior, Morgan State University

• Diane Kogan, Senior, CUNY Hunter College

• Nadiyah Rahaman, Sophomore, CUNY Hunter College

Poster Presentations

• Jason Alipio, Senior, California State University, San Bernardino

• Jenny Brown, Senior, California State University, Monterey Bay

• Brittany Demmings, Senior, Tuskegee University

• Sarai Finks, Postbaccalaureate, University of California, Irvine

• Laura Fonseca, Senior, CUNY Hunter College

• Ayanna Fredericks, Senior, University of the Virgin Islands

• Orangel Gutierrez Fugon, Junior, University of California, Irvine

• Damion Haynes, Senior, Howard University

• Kyle Kisor, Junior, University of California, Irvine

• Taylar Peoples, Senior, University of Central Florida

• Nadrienne Pinnock, Senior, Brooklyn College

• Jamon Pulliam, Senior, Tuskegeee University

• Andrea Ramirez, Senior, Georgia State University

• DeAndre Robbins, Sophomore, Wayne State University

• Mya Roberson, Junior, Brown University • Carlos Rosas, Senior, California State

University, San Marcos • Pragyashree Sharma Basyal, Senior,

Cornell University • Cyril Soliman, Sophomore, University of

California, Irvine • Martin Underwood, Senior, Albany State

University • Tyler Wright, Postbaccalaureate, Bennett

College

“I’m extremely proud of the way that the students at ABRCMS are able to explain and defend their research,” says conference chair Clifford W. Houston, Associate Vice President for Educational Outreach and holder of the Herman Barnett Distinguished Professorship in Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas Medical Branch. “By meriting recognition for research excellence, it is especially apparent that these presentation awardees are already on the road to successful careers in science.” ABRCMS is managed by the American Society for Microbiology with support (grant no. 2T36GM073777) from the Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. ABRCMS 2015 will be held November 11-14 in Seattle, Washington. For more information, please visit www.abrcms.org.

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Sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences Division of Training, Workforce Development and Diversity