ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The SUNY College at Oneonta will present Student Research Day on Tuesday, April 21, from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. in the ballroom of the Hunt College Union on campus. Eighty projects involving approximately 150 students and 60 faculty sponsors from 25 different departments will be presented. Admission is complimentary, and members of the community are invited to attend.

The event will highlight research conducted by SUNY Oneonta students with the guidance of faculty members. Student Research Day will include a keynote address entitled "Forensics: An Entity at the Triple Point" at 1 p.m. by 1983 SUNY Oneonta alumnus Dr. Michael Sikirica, who will examine the state of forensics and its identity and balance in relation to the disciplines of science, medicine, and law.

Dr. Sikirica has been the medical examiner for Rensselaer County since 2001, and he operates Forensic Medical Services as a private practice, serves as a coroner's pathologist for several upstate New York counties, and is the founder and CEO of the independent DNA testing laboratory Forensic Identification & Profiling Laboratory. Dr. Sikirica received his bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in anthropology from SUNY Oneonta and went on to the SUNY School of Medicine at Buffalo. He has written or co-authored several articles published in forensic and neuropathology journals and performed over 7,000 autopsy examinations. He served as medical morgue supervisor for the 1989 EgyptAir Flight 990 aviation disaster and forensic pathologist for the 2005 sinking of the Ethan Allen on Lake George.

From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., students will present their research projects through poster sessions, computer displays, and discussions. The student exhibits will cover a range of disciplines and topics, including the following:

• Paige Hamilton, Rebecca Kennedy, Anne Bischoff, Brittany Higgins; Faculty Sponsor: Lawrence T. Guzy (Psychology); "Unexpected Speed Changes as a Function of a Mystery Hill on West Street, Oneonta, NY"
  
• Jessica Vecchione; Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Small (Foreign Languages & Literatures); "Bienvenidos A Fleischmanns--An Immigrant Community in Rural America"
  
• Katie Fox; Faculty Sponsors: George Hovis (English), Helga Berliner (Women's & Gender Studies); "It's Elementary, My Dear Reader: Learning the Methods of Mystery Writing"
  
• Molly Reed; Faculty Sponsor: Devin Castendyk (Earth Sciences); "Quality Monitoring in the Headwaters of the Susquehanna River, Otsego County, New York"
  
• Josh Merrill; Faculty Sponsor: Joseph Chiang (Chemistry & Biochemistry); "Study of Sustainability and Sustainable Energy"

Many of the projects on display at Student Research Day were funded by SUNY Oneonta's Student/Faculty Grant Program for Research and Creative Activity, which enables students to conduct in-depth research in a major area of interest under the guidance of a faculty mentor. The grants program is funded by the College at Oneonta Foundation's unrestricted endowment and administered by the College Senate Committee on Research.

Student Research Day is made possible through gifts and grants to the College at Oneonta Foundation and is sponsored by the College Senate Committee on Research, the Division of College Advancement, and the Grants Development Office. More information about Student Research Day is available from Kathy Meeker, Director of the SUNY Oneonta Grants Development Office, at (607) 436-2632.

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