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Fourteen undergraduates took the stage at Robsham Theater on the nights of November 13 and 14 to describe their recent research projects for an audience of fellow students and faculty. The presentations constituted the first BCTalks, a program begun by Lisa Piccirillo ’13 and Conor Sullivan ’13 to provide a non-classroom forum for students engaging in original research. Topics on the two nights ranged from Italian Renaissance artists’ depictions of Old Testament scenes (“The Downfall of Synagoga,” a paper and PowerPoint delivered by Rosemary Chandler ’13) to community forestry (“saving our forests, one town at a time,” as presenter Margaret Lister ’12 put it). The event was co-sponsored by the Undergraduate Government of Boston College and Education for Students by Students, a new student-led organization that plans to publish the 20-minute lectures online in January and to host another BCTalks event in the spring semester.
On Monday November 14, Christopher Sheridan ’12 (above), a biochemistry and philosophy major and recent recipient of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for study in the sciences, gave a talk titled, “Light It Up: The Way Forward in Psychiatry,” which examined the “political, commercial, and academic pressures” on research.