Phi Beta Chi, the national scientific honor society, will hold its 72nd joint annual meeting with the National Institute of Science at Jackson State University starting Wednesday.
The conference will host top students in STEM studies from the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), said Dr. Terrence Wright of the JSU Biology Department and national pre-health advisor for BKX.
Beta Kappa Chi was founded in 1923 by a biologist, a chemist and a mathematician at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Today it has 55 chapters and more than 11,000 members. Only top students scholastically in science are initiated.
“We activated a chapter in 2013 and went to the national conference in 2014,” Wright said. Almost 200 students joined the local chapter, and from 11 students who went to the 2013 conference in Houston, Texas, three were elected to the national board.
The conference will “offer a platform for students to present their scientific information,” said Deadra James, BKX executive secretary.
“We have students coming from across America,” she said. About 300-400 are expected to attend.
It’s the first time the group has held its national meeting at JSU, Wright said, and it offers “a great networking opportunity for our students.” They will be meeting with some of the top researchers in the earth and environmental sciences, biology, math, physics, chemistry, engineering and other fields.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase not only our student talent in technology but our campus,” he said. Since both undergraduate and graduate students will be attending, some might want to attend JSU, he said.
Registration begins at noon at the Hilton Garden Inn with an address by Mayor Tony Yarber that night. The conference continues Thursday and Friday with talks by Dr. Agnes A. Day, chairman and associate professor of Microbiology at Howard University; Dr. George Mbata, chair of biology at Fort Valley State University; Dr. Raphael Luna of Harvard Medical School; Dr. Marcus B. Jones, New York University School of Medicine; and Dr. Isiah Warner, vice chancellor, Louisiana State University.