Gabriel Dunbar represents Northwestern at state-wide research day

Gabriel Dunbar, Northwestern Oklahoma State University student, was selected to represent the university at Research Day, held earlier this month at the Oklahoma Capitol.  Dunbar was one of 24 undergraduate students selected to represent 18 Oklahoma colleges and universities.

The students presented competitive scientific research posters to the state legislature, as well as the public, during this annual event sponsored by Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, and the National Science Foundation.

Dunbar presented his research on Ultraviolet Florescence of the Rattlesnake Rattle.  He presented preliminary data from this project at the Biology of the Pitviper’s conference in Tulsa as a poster in June 2014.  Since then he has added to the data set by analyzing snakes from the collections of the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma and the Texas Natural History Collections at the University of Texas-Austin.

“This is the fourth time I have taken a student to Research Day at the Capitol, and each time I have been proud to sponsor the students representing the Natural Science Department and Northwestern Oklahoma State University,” Dr. Aaron J. Place, associate professor of biology, said. 

This event is designed to raise awareness of the outstanding research taking place in Oklahoma’s colleges and universities. 

Dunbar has already earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Northwestern and currently is working on a second degree in biology with a minor in chemistry.  Prior to his education at Northwestern, Dunbar received an associate’s degree from Northern Oklahoma College.

For more information on this event or the Natural Science Department at Northwestern, contact Place at (580) 327-8673 or by email at ajplace@nwosu.edu.

-NW-