Three students attend AAPA meeting
Kara Keeton, Nick Short and Allison Mann presented posters of their research at the 2012 American Association of Physical Anthropology meeting in Portland, OR. Here's what they had to say about the experience
Nick Short, Kara Keeton, and Dr. Fabian Crespo in front of the poster presented at the AAPAs Undergraduate Symposium
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Kara:
- This April I was lucky enough to receive the opportunity to attend the American Association of Physical Anthropologist's 81st annual meeting. The first night there, Nick Short and I presented our poster "Differential immune responses in human populations: searching for evolutionary clues" at the undergraduate symposium. This was a great experience as I got to talk to and meet many different people, from other undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors or other universities that were genuinely interested in learning more about what we are doing. The rest of the meeting was spent visiting other people's poster presentations, attending podium presentations, and getting to talk to a vast range of people that all shared the same passion that I do for anthropology. I highly recommend any other students joining a professional organization that fits their interests. The connections that you make through these meetings are life long and open up many doors. AND if anyone is interested in attending the AAPA meeting next April it is in Knoxville, TN, a close enough trip to get more UofL students there! Regardless of whether or not you have research to present during the meeting, there are a lot of other opportunities to get involved in the association and meet people, such as volunteering on different committees.
- Nick:
- I had a fantastic time attending the 2012 AAPA meeting in Portland, Oregon. We received lots of postive feedback from our poster presentation that will assist in navigating future directions for our research. All of the symposiums that I attended were incredibly interested and were, overall, quite heterogeneous in nature. The program is available on their website if you are interested in what sorts of presentations are given. Everyone there was friendly and open to discussion. I found myself nonchalantly speaking with some well-established scientists who were very approachable and delighted to share a converstation. i enjoyed the networking aspect of the meeting and plan to keep in contact with several people within the field at large, from graduate students to journal editors. My favorite part of the conference was how we were all united, as scientists, to share knowledge with one another. The only problem that I had with the experience was having to choose one presentation over another! Portland was a beautiful city with lots of diversity and phenomenal food. I am looking forward to Knoxville, Tennessee, 2012.
- Allison:
- This was my second AAPA meeting and I've had the chance to be both a presenter and an observer. I recommend the experience to everyone who is interested in physical anthropology, bioarchaeolgy, primatology, or population genetics. There are also plenty of funding opportunities from the department, UofL, and the organization itself that you can take advantage of to help you get to a meeting, especially if you plan on presenting. The meetings are a great way to learn about the latest research in your field as well as meet people that share your interests. Since the next conference is close, we should push for a larger UofL presence at the 2013 AAPA meeting.
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