Undergrads create regional science conference

The tables will turn this weekend when professors sit in the audience and listen to their students present original research findings at the first scientific conference organized specifically for undergraduate and graduate students studying paleontology at Midwestern universities.

The two-day conference, which will begin Friday, March 5, and take place on campus, results directly from the enterprising efforts of a group of UW–Madison undergraduate students that decided to create a forum in which their peers could present and discuss research findings.

The idea came to a few of the students last spring when they talked to a graduate student in the paleontology program at the University of California-Santa Barbara. She told them about a research conference called “CalPaleo” in California that focuses just on student research, recalls Daniel Hyslop, a UW–Madison senior in the geology and geophysics department and co-chair for the Midwest symposium.

“She told us we should do something like that here,” he says. “We took her too seriously.”

The students first sent e-mail messages to nearly 130 paleontology professors at 80 institutions from across 14 Midwestern states to gauge their interest in such an effort. The group then passed out flyers at national scientific meetings that announced the conference and called for abstracts.

In the end, the group received early registration forms from about 60 students and professors, and invited 21 of the students to present their work. A variety of topics in animal, plant, microbial and ecological paleontology will be addressed. The presenters come from institutions including the University of Kansas, Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, Western Illinois University and UW–Madison.

“At national conferences, you rarely see any undergraduate talks,” says Clint Boyd, a UW–Madison senior in geology and co-chair of the event. “I think this symposium is a really good chance for students to practice their talks in front of people.”

Boyd, who will discuss his current research on duck-billed dinosaurs at the symposium, notes that this will be the first time he has formally presented his work to peers and professional paleontologists.

In addition to the talks, the symposium includes receptions, a formal dinner and a featured lecture that the symposium’s organizers hope will give participants the opportunity to network and meet potential faculty advisers at the graduate level.

The symposium also includes a special visit by Jane, an almost complete skeleton of what some scientists are debating is an example of a Nanotyrannus – a smaller version of the Tyrannosaurus rex. On loan from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill., the skeleton will be displayed in the Geology Museum throughout the two-day symposium. For information on the museum and its hours, please visit http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~museum or call (608) 262-2399.

“This effort took phenomenal initiative on the part of the undergraduate students, and they’ve put together a first-rate conference,” says Richard Slaughter, who directs the Geology Museum and oversees the students’ paleontology research. “I can’t wait to write these student recommendation letters.”

The student organizers, including co-chair geology major Shasta McGee, anticipate that the conference will take place again next year and eventually become an intercollegiate effort hosted by universities throughout the Midwest.

The event is open to the public, but registration ($60 for non-students) is required. For a schedule of events and locations, visit http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~paleoclub/msspr/main.htm.