Student Poster Takes First Prize at Florida Academy of Sciences Meeting

MELBOURNE, FLA. — A poster presentation by Florida Institute of Technology students on astronaut bone loss earned first place at the Florida Academy of
Sciences 72nd Annual Meeting in Jacksonville. Recipients were seniors Amanda Muns and Ofego Okpobrisi, doctoral student Yekaterina Lin and Shaohua Xu,
associate professor of biological sciences and faculty adviser.

Muns, a senior from Chico, Texas, is poised to graduate this May with a bachelor’s degree in pre-professional biology. She was selected in 2007 as a
NASA/Space Florida summer intern to work on the bone loss project led by Xu and has been accepted at the Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas, Texas.

Okpobrisi, from Nigeria, will also earn a bachelor’s degree in pre-professional biology this May. Named an Outstanding Senior in the Department of
Biological Sciences at Florida Tech’s Honors Convocation in April, he is applying to medical schools.

Lin is a doctoral student in chemical engineering. She completed her master’s degree in chemical engineering at Florida Tech in 2005, working under Xu on
the bone loss project at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory at Kennedy Space Center.

At Florida Tech, undergraduates and graduate students take part in research activities that support local, state and national agencies. The university is
listed among America’s best colleges in U.S. News & World Report, is among the top Southeastern colleges according to Princeton Review Rating and was
rated a top private university in Florida by the Washington Monthly College Ranking. More information is available at www.fit.edu.