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Titan Talent Showcased at John Wesley Powell Conference

March 30, 2022

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The research projects and creative endeavors of Illinois Wesleyan University students will be showcased during the John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference on Saturday, April 9. 

Over 70 students will share research content and artistic creations through posters, oral presentations or musical/dance performances.

Student presenting poster at JWP conference
A student shares findings with attendees at the 2018 John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference.

Presentations will be showcased on Saturday, April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Center for Natural Sciences (CNS) and from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the first floor of State Farm Hall. A reception and awards ceremony for the 35th Annual Student Art Exhibition will also take place from 1-3 p.m. in the Merwin and Wakeley Galleries. 

“This event is a celebration of students as creators of knowledge, art and music. Every day at IWU, professors and staff collaborate with students in STEM labs, performance spaces and classrooms. The JWP Student Research Conference is a showcase of all the interesting, ambitious projects students and faculty co-create throughout the academic year. Attendees will be impressed by the talent of the Titan community,” said Associate Professor of Educational Studies Maggie Evans, who helped organize the event. 

The keynote speaker for this year’s conference is Gabriel “Joey” Merrin. His address titled “High Stakes but Weak Effects: New Challenges for School-Based Prevention” will occur at 10 a.m. in CNS.

Merrin is an early career prevention scientist with expertise in school-based research to help improve the healthy development of young students. Merrin is also an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Syracuse University. He earned a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He also attended Illinois Wesleyan University where he studied Sociology. 

The conference is named for explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and a founder of the National Geographic Society who joined Illinois Wesleyan University’s faculty in 1865. Established in 1990, this annual event provides an opportunity for students who are pursuing individual research projects to present those projects in a public forum. 

More information on the conference is available here .