SHERMAN, TEXAS—The eighth annual Austin College Science Division Undergraduate Poster Symposium will be held Thursday, February 9, from 11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in Mabee Hall of Wright Campus Center. Research presentations will be offered by 31 students on 23 projects.

The focus on research continues at 4:30 p.m. in Moody Science Room 127 with a lecture, “Modern Epidemiology—A New Computational Science Facilitating Epidemiological Research through Computational Tools,” by Armin R. Mikler. Dr. Mikler is director of the Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratory and professor of computer science and engineering at University of North Texas. Both presentations are free and open to the public. 

Many of the student research projects represented at the symposium are undertaken in conjunction with members of the Austin College faculty, including David Aiello, biology;  David Baker, physics; Lance Barton, biology; Andrew Carr, chemistry; Stephanie Gould, chemistry; Jason Luscier, biology; Karla McCain, chemistry; Bradley Smucker, chemistry; and John Richardson, chemistry.  

All the research projects have taken place at Austin College, with the exception of two at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, undertaken by students participating in its Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program; and one at the University of Oregon, completed during a National Science Foundation research experience for undergraduates, also in summer 2011.   

Professor Armin Mikler joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Texas in 1997. For several years, he has held a joint appointment in the Department of Biological Sciences. In 2011, he received the ’Fessor Graham Award, the highest honor bestowed by the student body at UNT, recognizing outstanding and unselfish service beyond the call of duty to students.

Mikler said his presentation is an invitation for scientists and researchers from different disciplines to apply their expertise to the very young interdisciplinary field of Computational Epidemiology. The talk will provide an overview of different types of research questions that have been explored in UNT's Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratory, and his comments will highlight some of the interesting research problems in this new field. Specifically, his talk will address current research in outbreak modeling and disaster response plan analysis. 

His research interests include computational epidemiology, modeling and simulating infectious disease outbreaks; the analysis and optimization of bio-emergency response plans; and the implementation of informatics in biological, health, and environmental study. 

Mikler received his undergraduate degree in Germany, then earned a master of science at Iowa State University. He completed his Ph.D. at Iowa State University, with an emphasis on communication networks, completing a dissertation on intelligent routing.  

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges that Change Lives.