UI graduate students show off research

More than 160 graduate students will show off their research at the University of Iowa on Saturday.

Topics at the 12th annual Jakobsen Graduate Conference will range from research on how brain damage can increase religious belief to a study about the moral implications of UI graduate student Gang Lu's shooting and suicide in 1991.

The Some of the projects take on practical, local problems like Kimberly Hoppe's presentation on whether the air in flood-damaged homes is safe after repairs are made. Other research is broader, like Dana Gravesen's examination of how 9/11 may have changed the way Americans view homosexuals.

The presentations will start at 1:30 p.m. The public is welcome, and the research is supposed to be “intelligible to all, regardless of background,” said Kate Stopa, co-chair of the Jakobsen Conference and an MFA in theater arts.

Hoppe, a Ph.D student in Occupational and Environmental Health, took air samples at 73 flood-damaged homes in Linn County in 2008 and 2009 while working with Linn County Public Health. She wanted to find out about air quality in homes that had been or were being renovated, a question that has arisen more than once since the flood.

Completed homes had significantly less mold and bacteria in the air “if homeowners took the adequate steps to remove the moisture,” she said.

That was what she expected. The findings will help health departments develop guidelines for advising residents about the effectiveness of mold remediation. Hoppe will present her research on posters at the conference, and take questions.

A conference schedule is available at

http://gss.grad.uiowa.edu/jakobsen-conference/schedule