University of the Virgin Islands students recently returned from two national conferences where they won top prizes.

Biology major Jacinthia Greaux won the "best poster" award in the Behavioral Sciences category of the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. The conference was held Nov. 7-10, in Austin, Texas. Greaux was among 1,100 students from more than 700 universities at the conference. Her poster was titled "Changes in mound size of the lugworm Arenicola cristata over time in the United States Virgin Islands." It examined the biocomplexity of coral reefs associated with the lugworm. Greaux's research is supported by a National Institutes of Health program. She was mentored by UVI Marine Biology Professor Dr. Steve Ratchford.

Eighteen UVI students attended the conference and 15 presented research posters. The conference's speakers included UVI alumna Dr. Triscia Wharton Hendrickson, who is an assistant professor of biology at Morehouse College. The keynote speaker was author, talk show host and activist Tavis Smiley.

In October, UVI students Trevis Baker and Duvane Hodge won second and third place respectively at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) National Research Conference in Washington, D.C. Fourteen UVI students attended and presented research.

Baker won a second place award in the Computer Sciences and Management Information category for his study: "A sequence mining approach for predicting normal and abnormal environmental conditions that induce coral reef stress and contribute to its recovery." Duvane Hodge won third place in the Ecology, Environmental and Earth Sciences category for her study: "Species diversity of fish and shrimp in gut streams is related to land development and human activities on St. Thomas, USVI."

The three winning research studies examined Virgin Islands related issues and were conducted in the Virgin Islands. Baker, a computer science major, was mentored by UVI Computer Science Professor Dr. Marc Boumedine. Marine biology major Hodge was mentored by UVI Biology Professor Dr. Donna Nemeth.

"At these kinds of events you realize the level of performance of our students," Dr. Boumedine said of the national conferences in which UVI students participate and win prizes. "We know that the performances of our students are at the national level."

Professors in UVI's Science and Mathematics Division know that attending national conferences is necessary to the students' academic development and attempt to have each student attend a conference at least once a year, once resources are available, Dr. Boumedine said. While the UVI-hosted Fall and Spring Research Symposiums provide good opportunities for students to present their research, national conferences offer a point of reference for the students and professors that is usually not available in the territory. "We need to go outside to see how we're performing nationally," he said. There is a win-win effect when UVI students win national competitions. Students know that the quality of research they do meets national standards and it raises their self-confidence and improves morale, Dr. Boumedine said. "They are more willing now, in the classroom, to learn."