Lydia Davies-Balogun
By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU
Students from Alabama State University have won two awards while attending the national S.T.E.M. conference, titled "The 50th Midwest-Southeast Photosynthesis Conference," which was recently held in Indiana.
ASU's Dr. Harvey Hou, professor of Forensic Science, announced that ASU students Ibrahim Alamin (a Ph.D. student) and Lydia Davies-Balogun (an undergraduate student) brought home awards for their outstanding participation in the conference. The event was organized in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy.
"I am most proud that our ASU students were once again at the top of those competing at this acclaimed research conference with Ibrahim winning the Best Poster Award and with Lydia winning the Travel Award," Hou said. "The committee judging them included the nation's top research professors, which was led by Dr. Josh Vermaas from Michigan State University, which adds to the importance of their accolades."
Davies-Balogun, a native of Houston, Texas, shared her excitement to be one of the two ASU winners at the conference.
"To win this award was amazing," Davies-Balogun said. "I worked all summer long on it, and it was great to be recognized at this truly incredible research conference," said the ASU junior. "Dr. Hou is an incredible professor and mentor, and I am so grateful to him for helping me excel academically.”
Professor Hou, who has had several students in recent years win significant national awards, said that all of the students' successes are attributable to the excellence of the University's faculty and the quality of its students.
"This is a truly outstanding achievement for our two ASU students who won, and especially in light of the fact that they competed with students from America's top research institutions, which included Washington University in St. Louis, Purdue University, Michigan State University, Miami University, University of Florida, Loyola University-Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Arizona State University, and Argonne National Laboratory," Hou stated. "Our two students did awesome work and are among many others enrolled here at Alabama State University that we expect to have great things happening for them."