Published: June 26, 2009 10:15 pm      

OSSM sponsors research program

Twelve students from the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics spent a portion of their summer at the Oklahoma Health Center, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Tinker Air Force Base conducting intensive research and participating in hands-on projects with scientific mentors during the Investigative Research Scholars Program, which concluded on Friday.

Local OSSM students who were accepted into the IRSP program include Jasmine Htoon, Zach Stanley, Andrew Stewart and Matthew Stewart, all of Edmond.

IRSP was started in 2005 by the Kerr Foundation and Lou Kerr, a board member of the OSSM Foundation. Kerr spearheaded the program and secured funding for the students’ research.

The program has become an extension of the OSSM Mentorship Program, which is designed to give seniors the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with scientists, physicists, biologists, doctors, researchers and this year, aeronautical engineers, as well as establish professional relationships with mentors.

The students attend lectures featuring a variety of subjects and speakers and take part in discussions about ethical and cultural issues.

Dr. Brent Richards, a biology professor at OSSM and also a graduate of the school, coordinates matching students with mentors in their areas of interest. IRSP participants are selected by the OSSM faculty.

For more information, visit the school’s Web site, www.ossm.edu.

IRSP speakers include Teresa Weber, president of Dracon Energy; Brandy Reese, senior criminalist with the OSBI Forensic Science Center and a graduate of OSSM; Hemanth Parasuram, managing director of Virgo Capital and also an OSSM graduate; Frieda Deskin, CEO and founder of Advanced Science and Technology Education Center; Art and Sandy Cotton, vice president of University Advancement and Director of Development respectively, Oklahoma City University; Reta Strubhar, a retired judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals; John Armitage, president and chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Blood Institute and a graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Math; Ben Robinson, retired Boeing executive now working with OSSM and the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute, and Ken Miller, a professor at the Oklahoma State University Medical School Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in Tulsa.