Research

5-Minute Fast Track Competition Winners Crowned

(Winners from L to R) Emily Keaton, Frances Salisbury and Malik Appleton.
Winners on front row, left to right: Emily Keaton, Frances Salisbury and Malik Appleton.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov 13, 2019) — Ten undergraduate student finalists recently competed in the final round of the 5-Minute Fast Track Research Oral Competition.

The competition included two preliminary rounds, with the top five students from each preliminary round advancing to the final championship competition.

Cultivating students’ presentation and research communication skills, competitors were challenged to present their research in five minutes, using only one static slide, in front of a panel of five judges and a live audience.

The top three winners are as follows: 

  • 1st place: Frances Salisbury — biology major, junior | Research area: Sleep and Alzheimer’s Disease | Faculty mentor: Bruce O’Hara (Department of Biology)
  • 2nd place: Malik Appleton — pre-pharmacy major, senior | Research area: Neuropharmacology | Faculty mentor: Keith Pennypacker (Center for Advanced and Translational Stroke Science)
  • 3rd place: Emily Keaton — sociology, philosophy and English major, senior | Research area: Sociology and Appalachian Studies | Faculty mentor: Edward Morris (Department of Sociology)

Other finalists included: 

  • Katelyn Cox — agricultural and medical biotechnology major, senior | Research area: Dance, Biology, Philosophy | Faculty mentor: Susie Thiel (Department of Theatre and Dance)
  • Mercedes Haley — chemical engineering major, senior | Research area: Biotechnology | Faculty mentor: Derek Englert (Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering)
  • Rollie Mills — chemical engineering major, senior | Research area: Water Filtration, Chemical Engineering | Faculty mentor: Dibakar Bhattacharyya (Department of Chemical Engineering)
  • Urooj Nasim — biology and political science major, junior | Research area: Family and Community Medicine | Faculty mentor: Lars Peterson (Departmet of Family and Community Medicine)
  • Binit Singh — mechanical engineering major, junior | Research area: Mechanical Engineering | Faculty mentor: Nelson Akafuah (Department of Mechanical Engineering)
  • Jack Stewart — mechanical engineering major, junior | Research area: Mechanical Engineering 
  • Kara Tauer — agricultural and medical biotechnology major, senior | Research area: Neuroscience | Faculty mentor: Luke Bradley (College of Medicine/ College of Arts and Sciences - Neuroscience)

The 2019 5-Minute Fast Track Oral Research Competition is sponsored by the UK Office of Undergraduate Research and the Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence. For more information on the competition, click here.   

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.