A team of seven scientists from UGA staffed a booth at the inaugural USA Science and Engineering Festival held in Washington, D.C., last month.
For two days, the UGA team joined representatives from hundreds of other universities and agencies in showcasing the fascinating and seldom-seen side of science and technology for elementary to college students, their parents and others curious about science.
“The thousands of people who visited our booth were fascinated to learn that microbes play a crucial role in renewable energy and that UGA scientists, bioengineers and graduate students are performing groundbreaking research on these processes,” said Anna Karls, a professor of microbiology who spearheaded UGA’s participation in the festival.
The materials and trip were funded by the President’s Venture Fund, the Office of Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the department of microbiology and the Office of STEM Education. In addition, Kelly Webb, a senior undergraduate majoring in scientific illustration, created the explanatory banner the team used to illustrate its experiments.
The crew staffing the UGA tent included Karls and fellow microbiology professor Anne Summers; microbiology graduate students Dave Samuels and Ashley Bono; College of Veterinary Medicine faculty Russ Karls, Margie Lee and John Maurer.
