TUESDAY FEB. 11, 2025
2 PM MST
LIVE FROM BENNION
STUDENT UNION IDAHO FALLS
3MT EVENT PROGRAM
MEET THE EMCEE
Jerry McMurtry
Dr. Jerry McMurtry currently serves as the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Idaho overseeing all graduate programs across the university. Orig joining Idaho as an assistant professor in the College of Educ McMurtry has worked at Montana State University and Colorado State University too, where he earned his PhD in Human Resource Development Dedicated to supporting graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, he is committed to creating a robust support system and professional development opportunities to enhance their academic and professional experiences. A native of Colorado, and raised in both Colorado and Wyoming, McMurtry feels fortunate to have remained in the West, where he continues to pursue his personal and professional interests. He is the proud father of two children, both of whom are Vandals.
A special thank you to our host location in Idaho Falls, ISU Bennion Student Union, the amazing team at U of I, Idaho Falls, and the University of Idaho, College of Graduate Studies celebrating 100 years of graduate education in Idaho.
THE UNIVERSITIES MESSAGES FROM
Idaho State University
Boise State University (Video)
University of Idaho (Video)
Marlene Tromp
Adam Bradford
C. Scott Green
GRAD DEANS MEET THE
Tracy Collum
Idaho State University
Scott Lowe
Boise State University
Jerry McMurtry
University of Idaho
JUDGES MEET THE
Janet Barton is the marketing and events coordinator at BYU-Idaho’s Career Center. In this role, she promotes the Career Center and connects students to employers, recruiters and graduate schools through events, such as career fairs, info sessions and more. With several years of industry experience, Barton previously worked on a wide range of successful events and their promotions, from community events such as the 4th of July parade in Idaho Falls, to policy-driven conferences such as the Idaho Healthcare Summit. Janet graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s degree in communications and public relations.
A serial entrepreneur who has worked in Investment Banking, Outdoor Adventure Resort Development, Venture Capital, and the development of the London 2012 Olympic Games. As the President and CEO for the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce, Paul sits on a variety of State and Local boards in the region. Paul is a passionate soccer fan and spends his spare time helping local soccer clubs create greater accessibility to the sport in the area.
Dr. Eugene Engmann is a dedicated and accomplished postdoctoral researcher at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where he specializes in battery research and the study of critical materials such as rare earth elements. He holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Idaho, with a strong foundation in electrochemistry. His academic journey began with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University-Idaho, where he focused on manufacturing. He recently won the 2024 local SLAM competition held at INL, and would represent the laboratory at the National Laboratory SLAM competition held in Washington, DC on March 2025 Outside scientific research, Eugene is a photographer and videographer He is also the vice president of his local rotary club, and loves being of service to his community He prioritizes spending time with his wife and three kids
Janet Barton
Paul Baker
Eugene Engmann
Heather Nunamaker
Heather Nunamaker is a dedicated advocate for workforce and economic development, currently serving as the Workforce Development Specialist for Workforce and Economic Development Programs at Idaho National Laboratory She holds a Master of Business Administration from Idaho State University and completed her bachelor’s degree in business at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA Heather began her career in workforce development over ten years ago, gaining invaluable experience as a lead instructor for a contractor for Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, a business specialist for the Idaho Department of Labor, in workforce training for the College of Eastern Idaho, and now with INL’s regional engagement team. Throughout her career, she has built expertise in state and federal programming, building industry partnerships, higher education/training, and workforce and economic development programs including grants, pipeline and skill development, and regional collaboration. Heather has a passion for building connections and collaborating with stakeholders on strategic initiatives that create opportunities for sustainable growth and long-term benefits for individuals, organizations, and communities
Dr Matthew Taylor currently serves as the Dean of the Health Professions at the College of Eastern Idaho, where he guides a diverse set of career and technical education programs to support student success and workforce readiness Dr Taylor holds a Ph D in Neurobiology from the University of Utah Since joining CEI in 2021 as an Anatomy and Physiology instructor, he has demonstrated a commitment to high-quality education, advocating for evidence-based instructional practices and aligning academic programming with industry and community needs A native of Idaho Falls, Dr Taylor is passionate about advancing educational opportunities in the region and strengthening partnerships that drive local workforce development
Matthew Taylor
THE WINNERS ADVANCE
TO WESTERN REGIONALS & TODAY THEY WIN
THE RULES
The presenters are judged on the following:
Communication Style:
Was the thesis topic and its significance communicated in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience?
Comprehension:
Did the presentation help the audience to understand the research?
Engagement:
Did the oration make the audience want to know more?
The 3MT competition was originally developed by the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008, and is now held in over 600 universities across the world.
Today, four graduate students from each of the Idaho graduate schools will compete to describe their research in 180 seconds or less. The top three and the People’s Choice winner have the opportunity to present their work at the Western Regional 3MT event in Denver in March. Thank you for celebrating graduate student research in the state of Idaho!
People’s Choice
Remember your favorite presenter!
The audience online may vote once using the Zoom Poll.
The audience in-person will have a paper ballot!
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE 12
Severe malaria caused by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is a major health burden throughout the world. To better treat this disease, we must first expand our understanding of the parasite’s gene expression pathways. TwinPE is a technique for deleting a small portion of a genome and replacing it with different genomic code. This technique, never before used in P. falciparum, could be used to append fluorescent tags to the end of nuclear genes, enabling the study of their expression patterns.
Dallin Stokes
Idaho State University
Microbiology
Overwriting Code: TwinPE in Malaria Parasites
Northern Idaho offers diverse outdoor recreation activities such as hiking, hunting, mountain biking, and ATV use While these activities allow people to explore the state's natural beauty, they can be disruptive to local wildlife populations White-tailed deer, in particular, play an important ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic role in Northern Idaho They contribute to a multi-billion-dollar hunting and wildlife viewing industry and serve as an essential food source for many carnivore species Nutrition has been shown to be a key factor in increasing whitetailed deer survival and growth, with access to highly nutritious plants being especially important during different reproductive stages However, access to nutritious plants is not uniform across the landscape, and external factors, such as the fear of humans, can influence where deer choose to forage My research aims to evaluate the nutritional trade-offs that white-tailed deer make in response to human activity
Amy Hilger
University of Idaho
Fish & Wildlife
The Nutritional Trade-offs that White-tail Deer Make in Response to Human Disturbance
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE
Depression is among the most common and debilitating mental health disorders. A core feature of depression is anhedonia, a particularly burdensome symptom that encompasses the decrements in the ability to derive pleasure from reward. A good understanding of the neural underpinnings of depression through anhedonia and reward sensitivity could enhance knowledge of the causes underlying depression and inform targeted prevention and treatment approaches. Thus far, research in this area has largely been focused on children and young adults, leaving out a fastgrowing demographic: the older adult population. This is problematic as late-life depression and, in particular, the presence of anhedonia is associated with severe depression outcomes among older adults (e.g., suicidal attempts). Thus, the first aim of the present study is to investigate the mechanisms of anhedonia in older adults by assessing the relationship between participants’ depression symptoms and their sensitivity to rewards. Specifically, we will measure participants’ brain activity via electroencephalography (EEG) and derive participants’ Reward Positivity (RewP), an EEG index of reward sensitivity related to anhedonia. As a second aim, we will investigate whether physical activity levels can also affect participants’ responses to rewards measured via the RewP, which will help inform whether physical activity is a viable strategy to alleviate anhedonia among older adults. We predict a negative relationship between depression symptoms and RewP amplitude and that, controlling for depression symptoms, greater levels of physical activity will be associated with a larger RewP.
In this study, we conduct a comparative analysis of several Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) tools, examining their effectiveness in detecting software components, versions, and dependencies. The study provides insights into how SBOM tools can be used more effectively to enhance software supply chain security. Our evaluation highlights both the advantages and limitations of these tools, offering a clearer understanding of their role and impact in the current cybersecurity environment.
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE
Over the past five years, Idaho State Parks has seen a 27% increase in visitation, with 7.4 million annual visitors between 2020 and 2022. This surge necessitates educating visitors to foster lasting connections with the parks, promoting environmental stewardship and advocacy. Interpretation, defined by Tilden as revealing meaning through firsthand experiences rather than just facts, is crucial for this engagement Interpretive programs enhance visitors' understanding of parks' cultural and natural resources, leading to better conservation behaviors This study will use the Delphi method to identify key interpretive themes for nine Idaho State Parks, involving expert questionnaires and focus groups, followed by a gap analysis of existing interpretive media Results will provide park management with summaries of key themes to enhance programming and visitor services and offer a model for other agencies to systematically identify and inventory interpretive themes, guided by agenda-setting and framing theories
We estimate PM2 5 concentrations from wildfire smoke by simulating how smoke travels through the atmosphere using a smoke transport model However, these transport processes are often affected by errors due to parameterization and incomplete physical representations To address these challenges, we incorporate error terms into model dynamics, observational data, and initial conditions to improve the accuracy of our predictions This approach allows us to generate PM2 5 estimates that optimally align with realworld observations To efficiently and accurately solve the equations governing smoke transport, we use adaptive mesh refinement in our model This technique enables us to focus computational resources on regions with high smoke concentrations, improving both precision and efficiency
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE
Despite claims of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) effectiveness in phishing email detection, millions still fall victim. In this study, we reassess the performance of three ML algorithms and five DL architectures across nine curated datasets. Results show a significant decrease in model performance on previously unseen and recent phishing emails, highlighting the challenge of generalizing learned patterns to novel attacks. We recommend strategies to improve the robustness of detection systems to address gaps in current approaches.
The University of Idaho is conducting research in a Mayan community in Guatemala, where 6 out of 10 children under five are stunted, and 3 out of 4 families are food insecure. Stunting is when a child is too short for their age. Stunting has irreversible consequences, affecting learning capacity and job opportunities and increasing the risk of infections and chronic diseases. The lack of affordable protein in children's meals is a contributing factor. The research has shown that children who eat one egg daily are more likely to have an appropriate height for their age, suggesting that egg consumption can prevent stunting. Providing children with eggs daily could help prevent stunting and improve their future
Improving Child Nutrition Through Household Poultry Projects in
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE
The last 4 decades have seen a global increase in vegetated biomass due to increased temperatures and a steadily lengthening growing season These changes promote a loss of ice and increase of plant cover and plant density, known as greening This greening is seen more in arctic and alpine environments than elsewhere, and current literature states that new growth consists of low-lying tundra plants, as well as encroaching shrub communities into previously uninhabited rocky slopes Global greening and upslope vegetation movement are well-documented phenomena at broad scales, but we have less understanding of greening mechanisms and spatial distributions of vegetation changes at the watershed scale This study focuses on the Nellie Juan watershed in South Central Alaska, and seeks to understand the rates and mechanisms of landcover change in this coastal watershed
Understanding the interactions between vegetation and snowpack and relating these changes to regional topography will allow us to better understand changes to water storage in alpine regions under the stress of changing climate
Sulfur depletion, which can result in the buildup of pesticides and other toxic chemicals in soil, is currently a growing problem in American agriculture. This issue has triggered a rapid increase in the development and use of sulfurbased fertilizers in the United States. Using a novel type of green sulfur chemistry, we have developed a high sulfur content hydrogel that shows promise in not only delivering sulfur to soil, but also aiding in water retention and microbial health.
PARTICIPANTS MEET THE
Effective science communication is essential for addressing global issues such as climate change and public health crises This case study investigates the impact of empathy-based applied theatrical improvisation as a pedagogical tool to enhance the communication abilities of STEM graduate students I designed a science communication curriculum and conducted an eight-week workshop where participants learned to articulate their research by adopting audience perspectives, fostering empathy, and using storytelling techniques Using qualitative measures, I collected data from surveys, reflections, and interviews, which revealed that participants enhanced their ability to engage diverse audiences and simplified intricate concepts This interdisciplinary approach not only cultivates a more relatable form of scientific discourse but also equips emerging scientists with essential skills for public engagement The findings stress the necessity of integrating science communication training into STEM education to ensure that scientific advancements are comprehensible and appreciated by broader audiences
Inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are chronic diseases that affect millions of people worldwide, and cause Americans billions of dollars in health care costs alone These diseases cause severe inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract, yet neither have effective treatments
The AB5 enterotoxin cholera toxin (CT) from Vibrio cholerae has a non-toxic B subunit (CTB) that is used as a vaccine adjuvants, with more recent studies showing CTB to promote healing and reduce inflammation in mucosal membranes, including the intestines This makes CTB a unique option for treating inflammatory bowel diseases In this research, I investigate this treatment potential of inflammatory bowel diseases with CTB by looking at dendritic cells Dendritic cells are a type of antigenpresenting immune cell that help to boost immune responses By treating dendritic cells with CTB, this immune response can be further studied with differential gene expression, creating an opportunity to pursue CTB’s treatment potential in inflammatory bowel diseases.
March 17-18, 2025 in Denver, CO at the 67th Annual Conference of the Western Association of Graduate Schools
Elevating Graduate Student Success: Summiting Peaks of Excellence
March 16–19, 2025
The 68th Annual Conference will be in Coeur d'Alene, ID. March 2026!