Geisinger is committed to making better health easier for the more than 1 million people it serves. Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes 10 hospital campuses, a health plan with more than half a million members, a Research Institute and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. With nearly 24,000 employees and more than 1,600 employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania by billions of dollars annually. 

Geisinger also has an exciting research environment with more than 50 full-time research faculty and over 30 clinician scientists. Areas of expertise include precision health, genomics, informatics, data science, implementation science, outcomes research, health services research, bioethics, and clinical trials.

Learn more at geisinger.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sponsor contacts involved in the symposium planning:

Eric Wright, PharmD, MPH
ewright2@geisinger.edu

Melissa Kern, MPH
mskern1@geisinger.edu

Vanessa Hayduk, BS
vhayduk@geisinger.edu

Founded in 1846 along the banks of the Susquehanna River in historic Lewisburg, Pa., Bucknell University is a selective, highly ranked national university that stands at the intersection of top-ranked liberal arts, engineering and management programs. Students choose from more than 60 majors and 70 minors in the arts, engineering, humanities, management, and natural and social sciences, as well as extensive global study, service-learning and research opportunities. Bucknell’s 3,700 undergraduates enjoy a low 9:1 student-faculty ratio, and exceptional opportunities to collaborate with faculty. A variety of organizations partner with Bucknell to support upwards of 300 students who engage in mentored research, scholarship and creative projects each summer. Sponsors include a variety of endowed funds from generous donors and grant-making organizations including the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation, and federal research and public agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Energy. 

Sponsor contacts involved in the symposium planning:

Margaret Marr, JD
Margaret.Marr@bucknell.edu

Susquehanna University makes collaborative research between undergraduate students and faculty members a priority. In fact, the university has been recognized as a leader in the field by the National Conference for Undergraduate Research (NCUR). About 90 percent of our students get professional experience before they graduate, either in the form of undergraduate research, an internship or student teaching. Students can choose from a variety of research opportunities in a number of disciplines. At Susquehanna University, several research grants are awarded, and it has enabled students to work with faculty on a full‐time basis during the summer. In addition, thanks to a $950,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, students work alongside faculty to support the university's Freshwater Research Institute, which seeks to further understand the ecological issues impacting the Susquehanna River and its tributaries. Additional grants from such sources as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health provide continued funding for faculty‐student research in various disciplines. In addition to encouraging independent research and experience through internships, the university supports numerous opportunities for students to present their findings at national conferences.

Sponsor contacts involved in the symposium planning:

Jennifer Carter, PhD
carterj@susqu.edu

Building on a rich history of academic excellence as one of 14 public universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Bloomsburg University prepares and inspires students to become dynamic and confident leaders. Bloomsburg University has a long tradition of active learning through research, scholarship, and creative activities by our undergraduate students. The Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (URSCA) Program, held in the summer, supports students with financial support to conduct a project with a faculty mentor. Students receive basic undergraduate research training and engage in the scholarly community during the program. The Susquehanna Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium is an important culminating event for these students, giving them valuable experience presenting research at an interdisciplinary event involving multiple institutions. Our undergraduate research initiative would be ineffective without the broad and enthusiastic support of BU faculty, both as mentors and as members of the URSCA Advisory Group, and our administrators' innovative approaches to engaging students in the scholarly community. In Academic Affairs, Provost (Dr. Diana Rogers-Adkinson) and President (Dr. Bashar Hanna) provide remarkable administrative support for undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activities.

Sponsor contacts involved in the symposium planning:

Heather Feldhaus, Ph.D.
hfeldhau@bloomu.edu

Christine Orlando, BS.E.d., BA
corlando@bloomu.edu

Dr. Christa Lese Martin is the chief scientific officer at Geisinger, a professor and the founding director of their Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute. She is board-certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG) as a clinical genetics laboratory director. Her research focuses on using a “genetics-first” approach to characterize neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders with an ultimate goal of developing precision health-driven treatments to improve patient outcomes. Dr. Martin received her Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University and completed her doctorate in human genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. She did her postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago in the Department of Human Genetics where she remained on faculty. Before joining Geisinger, Dr. Martin was an associate professor in the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University and operations director of Emory Genetics Laboratory.

Dr. Christopher Chabris is a professor at Geisinger, where he co-founded and co-directs both the Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program and the Behavioral Insights Team (the “nudge unit”). He has previously taught at Union College and Harvard University, and he is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. His research focuses on attention, decision-making, collective intelligence, cognitive ability, and behavior genetics. Chris received his doctorate in psychology and Artium Baccalaureus in computer science from Harvard University. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller “The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us,” which has been published in 20 languages to date. He shared the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in Psychology (awarded for “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”), given for the scientific experiment that inspired the book. That “invisible gorilla experiment” has frequently been named one of the most famous studies in the history of psychology. Chris has spoken to audiences at major conferences and businesses, including PopTech, Google, Credit Suisse, and Procter & Gamble, and his work has been published in leading journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, Psychological Science, Perception, and Cognitive Science. He is a chess master, poker amateur, and games enthusiast; for three years he wrote the monthly “Game On” column in The Wall Street Journal, where he has also published essays and book reviews. He has also contributed to The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Slate and other national publications. 

• Dr. Kelly Roth, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, Bloomsburg University
• Dr. Christopher Still, Director, Obesity Institute, Geisinger
• Dr. Adam Hansell, Assistant Professor of Physics, Susquehanna University
• Dr. Karlo Malaga, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Bucknell University

• Dr. Susan Dauria, Professor of Anthropology, Bloomsburg University
  
• Dr. Lisa Bailey-Davis, Associate Professor, Obesity Institute, Geisinger
• Dr. John Monopoli, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Susquehanna University
• Dr. Katherine Faull, Presidential Professor of German and Comparative Humanities, Bucknell University

• Dr. Yucheng Chen, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, Analytics, and Business Education, Bloomsburg University
• Dr. Eric Wright, Professor and Director, Center for Pharmacy Innovation and Outcomes, Geisinger
• Dr. Michael Parra, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Susquehanna University
• Dr. Tristan Stayton, Professor of Biology, Bucknell University

• Dr. Rebecca Bourgault, Assistant Professor of Environmental, Geographical, and Geological Sciences, Bloomsburg University
• Dr. Yirui (Iris) Hu, Assistant Professor, Center for Health Research, Geisinger
• Dr. Carl Faust, Associate Professor of Physics, Susquehanna University
• Dr. Joshua Stough, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Bucknell University