University of the Virgin Islands student Stephan Bitterwolf won first place in the school’s Spring Research Symposium on St. Croix for his work exploring “Coral Community Structure Change of Brewer’s Bay, St. Thomas USVI After a 30-year Period.”
His research was done at UVI under the mentorship of Marilyn Brandt and in collaboration with a professor at the University of Hawaii, according to a statement from UVI.
Bitterwolf also won an award for his presentation of the same research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students Conference in St. Louis last November, where he was in competition with students from more than 700 universities.
Second place went to Jewel Cumberbatch for her research titled “Investigation of Doping in Graphene.” Her work was conducted at both UVI and the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her UVI mentor was Wayne Archibald.
Some 30 UVI undergraduate and graduate students presented their innovative scientific research in areas such as biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physical and computer sciences.
Most of the student research was conducted while participating in programs funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.
Organizers noted all the presentations were of high quality and extended congratulations to all winners and their mentors. The symposium is a part of UVI’s continuing effort to promote excellence in learning by fostering student research and improving student communication skills in science and mathematics.
The event is organized by the Emerging Caribbean Scientists Programs office in UVI’s College of Science and Mathematics.
