"The 16th Annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum"

What prevents women in eastern Africa from getting medical care during pregnancy and childbirth? Adrienne Strong asked that question as an undergraduate student at Ohio State; then she went to Tanzania three times to find answers.

As a Presidential scholar, Strong, who will graduate in June, already had a full scholarship to Ohio State. Financial aid for undergraduate research paid for her to study in Tanzania.

Strong, who tied for first place in her research area, was one of 540 students who presented work at the Denman Forum for Undergraduate Research, now in its fifteenth year. (See the full list of Denman winners.)

"Just a few years ago we had only 300, so we're seeing it grow really rapidly," said Allison Snow, director of the Undergraduate Research Office at Ohio State.

"This is one of the biggest and one of the oldest undergraduate forums in the entire country."

A highlight of the Denman is its diversity; the presentations reflect the wide range of opportunities available at a university with more than 160 academic programs.

"Some of them are in arts and humanities, they're in business, education, sociology, health science, engineering, all the areas represented at Ohio State," Snow said.

At the forum, students present their research to faculty and industry judges.

"I've been doing this for several years," said judge Bruce Lavash of Procter & Gamble. "It's actually one of the high points of my year."

"When I leave here, I leave with a lot more positive feeling about the future of our country and the future of Ohio."

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JUROS is Ohio State's student-edited, peer-reviewed research journal. The best manuscripts of the year have been compiled in Oculus, Ohio State's first printed research journal for students; it can be downloaded from the JUROS site.