KEY TAKEAWAYS: Louisiana university students presented research projects at the State Capitol. Studies covered agriculture, wastewater analysis, coastal science and public policy. LSU research highlighted the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” monitoring project. Event aims to show lawmakers the v alue of undergraduate research programs.   Students from Louisiana’s public universities presented their research to lawmakers, lobbyists and others at the State Capitol this week to demonstrate the impact of undergraduate research. On the first day of the legislative session Monday, students gave short presentations to anyone who stopped by their poster displays between the House of Representatives and Senate chambers. The setup was reminiscent of a middle school science fair, but the research presented was far more advanced than a baking soda volcano. The science on show ranged from agricultural research impacting Louisiana farmers to what drugs were present in New Orleans‘ wastewater during its most recent Super Bowl. Lawmakers pursued the posters in between meetings. Rep. Josh Carlson, R-Lafayette was engrossed in a UL Lafayette student’s poster about the Cajun Advanced Picosatellite Experiment, a student-run organization that creates miniature observation equipment that can be launched into space. Rep. Joe Orgeron, R-Larose, who has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas, also spent about 20 minutes talking to a Nicholls student examining the interactions between oil and Vibrio vulnificus, the brackish water-borne bacteria that’s caused fatal skin infections and illnesses in Louisiana and other coastal states. Lucille Yoes, a coastal and environmental science student at LSU, detailed her work with Professor Nancy Rabalais on the school’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone” monitoring project. Yoes’ work examines what worms are able to survive in the annual low-oxygen event off the Louisiana coast. The annual deadzone cruise will cease after this year as a result federal research funding cuts. Emily Davis, a chemistry junior at Nicholls who plans to go to medical school, shared her research into how pollutants in wetlands cause environmental distress. Her goal is to create a tool that will help environmentalists and crawfish farmers determine the areas where pollutants are most severe. “That way they can have the most ample time to help crawfish farmers prevent their crawfish from getting even more damage,” Davis said. “It helps them not lose such a large batch of crawfish.” The sponsor for the event, the Louisiana Undergraduate Research Association, advocates for expanded access and opportunity for the state’s college students, Sherry Krayesky-Self, a University of Louisiana at Lafayette biology professor and president of the organization, said in a statement to the Illuminator. Not all of the researchers were future scientists. Other projects ranged across the humanities, arts and sciences. Jayda Bullard, a theater tech student at the UL Lafayette, who explained how students solved a problem long plaguing costume designers: how to have a bloody scene on stage without staining costumes. She designed a way to imitate a slashed neck by pulling red cloth from an actor’s collar. Another UL Lafayette student, Sydnee Johnson, looked into why public universities at times don’t follow all the required rules for audits into their financial practices. Johnson researched several universities across the Southeast that are out of compliance and found that staff overturn is a leading reason. “When they prove to be an issue, they fire the staff, and that creates an effect of an institutional loss of knowledge,” Johnson said. “It was a continuous cycle.” Johnson said she was asked to share her findings with administrators at UL Lafayette, which is in the midst of a budget crisis. They were excited to find that their findings were consistent with hers, she said. ...read more read less