Numerous CNAS faculty and students attended the annual joint meeting of the Missouri and Missouri Valley Branches of the American Society for Microbiology held March 17-18 on the Missouri State campus.

Dr. Paul Schweiger and Dr. Chris Lupfer were the organizing committee hosts for the meeting, and biology faculty emeritus Dr. Jack Steiert is the current society president.

The following awards were won by Missouri State biology students:

• Marshal Blank won second place in the graduate general and environmental microbiology short talk category. His faculty adviser is Dr. Paul Schweiger.
• Angeline Rodriguez won second place in the undergraduate short talk category. Her faculty adviser is Dr. Chris Lupfer.

Several students also presented at the conference:

• Hazar Abysalamah
• Marshal Blank
• Chelsea Campbell
• Mariel Delgado Cruz
• Samantha Fredrickson
• Abbigale Mabary
• Pelin Makaraci
• Angeline Rodriguez
• John Short
• Sara Woodman
• Jared Smothers

Several additional students also attended the conference:

• John Paul
• Michael Pilkenton
• Meagan Rippee
• Ashley Prince
• Justin Valdez

Several faculty also attended the conference:

• Kyoungtae Kim
• Christopher Lupfer
• Paul Schweiger
• Jack Steiert