Grad, professional students present research while honing communication skills during annual event

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Anna Hood (right), a Chancellor’s Graduate Fellow in psychology in Arts & Sciences, explains her work to judge Taryn Marashi, a graduate student in Islamic studies, also in Arts & Sciences. Hood’s research examines Phenylketonuria (PKU), a metabolic genetic disorder, and how variability (fluctuations) in Phenylalanine (Phe), an essential amino acid, predicts lower intelligence and poorer executive abilities in children with PKU. (Credit: Sid Hastings/WUSTL Photos)

All three event co-sponsors are celebrating their 20th anniversaries this academic year. GSS commemorated its milestone by debuting a new GSS logo at the symposium after holding a university-wide logo contest.

Chen Po-Jung, a graduate student studying architecture and urban design, won for his logo design. Parajuli and Pobst said the research symposium has become a model for similar events at colleges and universities across the country.

“Events such as this become particularly important as we enter a new world of data and expertise sharing between what we traditionally called ‘different backgrounds,’” said Parajuli, a doctoral candidate in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences at the Medical Campus working in cell biology and biochemistry.

“As we are discovering, one cannot get a complete grasp of the world by only being an expert in one field. One field’s expertise needs that of the other.”