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CORVALLIS - Three Oregon State University graduate students will present their original research and discuss the future of biotechnology at the university's annual Graduate Student Conference on April 10.

The students will form a scientific panel and will discuss their research at the conference awards ceremony to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom on campus. Sen. Cliff Trow, D-Corvallis, Rep. Betsy Close, R-Albany, and others will present the awards.

The daylong conference, which will be held in the Memorial Union, will feature more than 90 students offering oral and poster presentations discussing their research. Faculty volunteers will judge the presentations and the winners will receive cash prizes at the evening awards ceremony. Poster presentations will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the MU Ballroom and oral presentations will be 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. upstairs in the MU.

The entire conference is free and open to the public.

"This is the biggest event of the year for graduate students at OSU," said Isaiah Flair, a graduate student who is organizing the conference. "It's the one opportunity each year when graduate students can present their original research."

The three graduate students forming the scientific panel include:

• Jennifer Pitrak, a doctoral student in genetics who is researching the development of apple trees and grapevines to be resistant to certain types of diseases.

   

• Maureen Mathias, a master's student in engineering who is researching a model for degradation of chlorinated solvents by natural methods.

   

• Kristin Skinner, a doctoral student in botany and plant pathology who is studying genetically engineered poplar trees.

Sally Francis, dean of the Graduate School, said the student research presented at the conference will cover all of the colleges at the university but is heavily weighted toward the sciences.

"This is an opportunity for the public to see first-hand the type of research that is being done at the university," Francis said. "This is cutting-edge research."

Francis said the conference helps kick off Graduate Student Appreciation Week at the university, which will be held April 15-19. The week-long celebration includes a variety of speakers addressing academic issues.