Twelfth Annual Research Symposium

On Monday, September 26, students, faculty, staff, and guests gathered at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education for the Class of 2025 to present their research findings for the Medical Partnership’s 12th annual Research Symposium.

The Medical Scholars Program is an opportunity for students to expand their scholarly experiences and learn how medical knowledge is derived. They also learn how to frame a testable hypothesis, write a research proposal, carry out a project, evaluate scientific and medical data, and write up their results. It provides them with an opportunity to communicate their findings through presentations at local, regional, and sometimes national scientific meetings.

Their findings are then presented at the annual Research Symposium in the fall. The majority of participants are second year medical students who complete research in the summer between first and second year.

This year’s MSP saw the largest number of students conducting research—53 members of the class (88%) took part in the program. The Class of 2025 tied the Class of 2024 for the highest level of participation since the program’s inception in 2015.

“As the director of the Medical Scholars Program I think it’s terrific that so many students chose to pursue a research project this summer,” said Dr. Leslie Lee. This is the second year in a row that we have had over 80% of the class participate in the program, and I believe most, if not all, have found it to be a valuable learning experience. I’m always impressed by how much the students accomplish and learn in just 10 weeks, and the outstanding quality of their presentations, so I’m thrilled that once again we had so many students who took advantage of this opportunity.”

The event had three portions—poster presentations, elevator pitches, and oral presentations. This was the first year that awards were presented to participants—awards were given for the top submissions in both the poster presentation and elevator pitch categories.

“Giving awards allows us more opportunities to recognize their work in ways we haven’t before,” said Lee. “And it makes the day more fun and more interactive.”

Will Evans, Christie Taylor, and Erik Rosas were all recognized for their elevator pitches, and Grace Snuggs and Shivani Patel won first prize for their poster Determining Barriers to Nutrition for Low-Income Patients in the Athens Area.

The Class of 2025 traveled across the country partaking in many different specialties for the research:

Locations: 

18 institutions across 11 states including the Medical Partnership, UGA and MCG, as well as Harvard, Emory, Vanderbilt, BU, NYU, UAB, Yale, UT Austin, Baylor, Mount Sinai, University of Southern California, Rush University, MUSC, University of Utah and Duke.

Specialties represented: 

Clinical specialties represented included surgery, radiology, pediatrics, dermatology, OB/GYN, hematology/oncology, internal medicine, psychiatry, neurology, ophthalmology. Other biomedical disciplines included biomedical engineering, biochemistry, kinesiology, and public health.

Award Winners

Posters:

1. Grace Snuggs, Shivani Patel

2. Harris Jamal

3. Andrew Cheng, Farris Sabir

Elevator Pitch:

Will Evans

Christie Taylor

Erik Rosas

For a full list of presentations and abstracts, click here.