Maria Romero-Creel takes top honors at national science society conference

2016 Nov 11

Maria Romero-Creel of El Paso, who is studying biomedical engineering at RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering, won first place for her poster on “Assessment of complex biological samples with insulator-based dielectrophoresis” at the annual 2016 SciX Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., in October.

Romero-Creel is part of the engineering college's Microscale BioSeparations Laboratory led by Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, associate professor of biomedical engineering in RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering. The lab focuses on developing techniques in microfluidics to separate cells so that scientists and clinicians can better analyze diseases through technology such as lab-on-a-chip devices-highly sophisticated laboratories on microchips.

“There were more than 150 posters and presentations given, mostly by graduate students from top universities worldwide. It is very impressive for Maria, an undergraduate student, to obtain first place among graduate students," said Lapizco-Encinas.

The SciX conference, also called the Great Scientific Exchange, is a joint conference and national meeting of researchers, faculty and student members of societies such as the American Chemical Society, American Society for Mass Spectrometry and AES Electrophoresis Society. Research is presented in the fields of analytical chemistry and allied fields. More than 300 research projects by undergraduate students from universities across the country participated and were judged by university professors and researchers from these disciplines.