Idaho State University senior Jeremy Farrell one of 74 nationally selected to present undergraduate research on Capitol Hill

Idaho State University statistics senior Jeremy Farrell, who worked in ISU chemistry Professor John Kalivas’s chemistry laboratory, is one of 74 undergraduates nationwide to be selected to present a research poster at the national Council on Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill event in April.

The Council on Undergraduate Research received more than 850 applications for this event, which will be held on Capitol Hill April 23-24. U.S. Senators and Representatives, their staffs, representatives of various agencies and possibly from the executive branch, will attend the event.

"It is a great honor to be going to present research to our nation leaders," said Farrell, a native of Salt Lake City. "Hopefully they’ll be encouraged to give more funding to research and the cycle can go around and more research can be done."

Farrell, who is 23, married, and has two children, is now a software developer at Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company of Idaho and is going to ISU part time. He is scheduled to graduate in May. He spent the last two years, until last fall, working in Kalivas's ISU chemistry laboratory.

"My research poster is about using multivariate calibrations with no reference samples," Farrell said. "It's pretty much a way to build a model for large chemistry data without going into the lab and measuring some chemicals with a ton of samples."

The title of his research presentation was "Multivariate Calibration by Updating an Analyte Pure Component Spectrum to the Current Sample Matrix," co-authored by Josh Ottoway and Kalivas.

The ISU senior said he has presented the research abstract from this study before at an oral session at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies conference in Reno, Nevada, last year.

Farrell credited his selection to present at the Posters on the Hill to his mentoring by Professor Kalivas.

"My selection speaks to the quality of research that comes out of Dr. Kalivas's lab," Farrell said. "He is notorious for recruiting students and keeping them involved in research for a couple years. He really teaches you a lot, but makes you do a lot of independent work and then consults you when you need help."

"Being involved in his class," continued Farrell, "has helped me learn and grow in ways I didn’t in other classes. He helped me to learn to think critically, and helped me in making professional demonstrations."

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