Students in the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences organized the 26th Annual Student Research Week March 5 through 7. In addition to a poster competition and other activities, the Graduate Student Association hosted a banquet Thursday in the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center and featured a Nobel Laureate and a Harvard associate professor.

The Student Research Week Committee chose a theme of Molecular Imaging: Advancing Diagnostics to encompass all the schools within HSC, Student Research Week director Swapneeta Date said.

During the first two days of research week, students can participate in a poster competition, Date said. The students present their abstracts to faculty, peers and to the community.

The main purpose is to know what research is going on, Date said. We know what the neighboring lab is doing, but we dont know in detail how exactly we can collaborate with them. The purpose is to enhance the interdisciplinary action.

The poster feedback is a reward in itself, Date said, even if a student does not win.

Nirupama Nishtala, a fourth year graduate student from Hyderabad, India, organized the poster competition as SRW vice director of judging.

The poster presentation cannot exceed 10 minutes and teaches students how to speak concisely yet thoroughly, Nishtala said.

The week is entirely organized by graduate students, Brandt Schneider, dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, said.

Students from campuses of the Tech health sciences system in Lubbock, Amarillo, El Paso and Abilene attended and competed the weeks activities, he said.

For the last three years, each year has been the biggest research week, Schneider said. Weve had 40 percent more people presenting abstracts this year than last year. Weve managed to pull off growing, which is really cool.

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HSC hosts Research Week for students