Montana Western Invites Community To 18th Annual Student Research Symposium

The University of Montana Western invites the campus and local communities to the 18th Annual Student Research Symposium, to be held Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, 2025, in the Swysgood Technology Center Great Room on the UMW campus.

Organized and funded by the Montana Western Biology Club, the symposium showcases undergraduate research, theses, internships, projects, and other scholarly and artistic work from all academic disciplines, highlighting authentic experiential learning.

Attendance is free and open to all. The program will begin with oral presentation sessions on Friday afternoon, followed by a keynote address and a poster session with hors d’oeuvres. Saturday will feature additional oral and poster sessions, concluding in the mid-afternoon. To view the full symposium schedule, click here.

This year’s keynote speaker, UMW Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Steven Perry, will present “Endocannabinoids, Inflammation, and Bacterial Sabotage.” Dr. Perry earned a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. During his studies, he conducted research on the social behavior of golden-crowned sparrows in Dr. Bruce Lyon’s lab and investigated transcription elongation in yeast in Dr. Grant Hartzog’s lab. Dr. Perry then carried out post-baccalaureate research on retinal neuronal axon guidance in the lab of Dr. Woj Wojtowicz at UC Berkeley. Dr Perry obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Ted Holman to understand the structure of human lipoxygenases and their role in immune signaling.

For more information, contact Dr. Michael Morrow, Professor of Biology, at michael.morrow@umwestern.edu or 406-683-7254.