Whitworth University hosted the 21st iteration of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference (SIRC) on Saturday, April 20, 2024. There were participants from across eastern Washington to present their research. 

There were 190 student participants overall; 84 were poster presentations and 43 were oral presentations, with 83 Whitworth students participating in the conference, presenting on a wide range of topics based on their majors. Several Whitworth students won the Distinguished Poster Awards from the conference.  

One such recipient was Maryam Almafrachi, a senior majoring in biochemistry. Her research was titled “Investigation of the Manganese Catalyzed Bromate Malonic Acid Reaction Quenched with Various Salts,” and she was awarded the certificate and a $100 Visa gift card. Dr. Karen Stevens, a professor of chemistry at Whitworth, was the faculty sponsor for this participant.  

This was Almafrachi’s first time participating in the SIRC. “Walking around to see other people’s posters and watching the oral presentations was really nice and knowledgeable as it was from different departments that shared their research,” said Almafrachi.

Almafrachi’s research results will be used in the future, as Stevens does research with students and uses specific variations of reactions to have consistent results with the same salts.  

Several other Whitworth students were awarded the Distinguish Poster Awards, including Landon Vyhmeister with “Pulsed Electrospray Ionization Kinetics,” Temuulen Amarjargal with “Network Traffic Classification” and Grace Robinson with “Accelerating the Identification of Novel Secondary Metabolites in Bioenergy Plant Root Exudates.”  

SIRC is hosted every year, and all majors are encouraged to apply.