Mississippi Junior Academy of Sciences

Let me introduce myself to the MAS members that I have not had the pleasure of meeting personally. I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a doctorate in Biochemistry and am currently an instructor in the Science Department at Jones County Junior College. Dr. Burnette Hamil, from Mississippi State University, will be the new co-director of the youth activities. Dr. Hamil is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with her doctorate in Science Education. Presently, Burnette is a faculty member in the College of Education at Mississippi State University. The Mississippi Junior Academy of Sciences is looking forward to a very productive year, with further promotion of programs started by the former director, Susan Nordruft. Under Susan's leadership the Junior Academy had offers of academic scholarships for the first and second place overall winners of the MJAS paper competition from the following institutions. These institutions are:

Coahoma Community College

Delta State University

East Central Community College

Jones County Junior College

Meridian Community College

Mississippi College

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

Mississippi State University

Mississippi University for Women

Pearl River Community College

Rust College

Southwest Mississippi Community College

University of Southern Mississippi

University of Mississippi

Due to the work by MAS members, especially board member Dr. Rosalina Hairston, the following corporate sponsors have agreed to underwrite the page charges incurred in publishing the research of MJAS overall first and second place winners in the Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. These sponsors include:

Chevron

First Chemical

Georgia Pacific

Mississippi Power

Mississippi Chemical

First Chemical

MJAS first-place overall winner and Westinghouse finalist, Adam Friedman, will attend Princeton University this fall majoring in molecular biology. In addition to his Westinghouse Scholarship, Adam has also received a National Merit Scholarship and a Robert C. Byrd Honor Scholarship. The second place winner, Laura Eichhorn, is continuing her studies at St. Andrew's High in Jackson. Rachel Hutchins, last year's Clyde Sheely winner and a Westinghouse semi-finalist, has received the Carrier scholarship to attend the University of Mississippi. Members of the 1997­98 MJAS board will be a the MJAS booth at the Mississippi Science Teachers Association (MSTA) meeting in November. At that meeting, MAS members will make a presentation on methods for encouraging pre-college students to become involved in science related research. MJAS depends directly on these instructors to mentor tomorrow's scientists.

A call for papers for the annual MJAS competition will go out in October, with December 1 deadline for submission. The MJAS board will be meeting in September to determine among other things the site of the annual competition. Please notify me if your institution would like to host this annual competition on their campus. Contact me at 601-477-4066 (work phone).

The focus of MJAS in the coming year will be in recruiting more student paper contributions. To achieve this goal, we will work to offer more academic scholarships to MJAS competition winners. All MAS members are asked to assist in soliciting businesses and/or industries that would publicly promote science in Mississippi through the funding of these scholarships. Any MAS members with industry contacts, please contact me for more information (work phone­601-477-4066).--Joan Messer