Student researchers traveled to Long Beach, Calif. Nov. 9-13 to compete in the International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE). The third annual IFoRE competition had over 200 students in attendance, competing with high school, undergraduate and graduate students sharing their research in presentation sessions. Out of the 17 Heritage students that attended, three came home with awards. 

There were two main presentation categories: speaker and poster. Speaker presenters were limited to only 25 students, selected randomly, so the  majority of students gave disciplinary poster presentations, based on their research category. The conference also offered interdisciplinary awards, which were geared towards much broader scientific fields, such as “Body and Mind” and “Human Health”. These awards were open to all students, no matter their presentation type or education level, to apply for. 

In addition to student presentations, the conference hosted banquets to honor outstanding research professors and directors in the science field. Graduate award recipients included Dr. John A. Rodgers and Dr. Xin Zhang, professors at Northwestern University and Boston University, respectively. These banquets not only offered food, but also an opportunity for the winners to discuss their research in their laboratories to the students. The keynote speaker was Dr. Frances Arnold of California Institute of Technology, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in chemistry for developing an evolutionary method to make enzymes more applicable worldwide.