NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

9/23/2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES-A collection of world-renowned scientific leaders will assemble at Northwestern State University for an symposium on interdisciplinary science Oct. 6-8. The International Symposium on Interdisciplinary Science (ISIS) will host the most elite collection of interdisciplinary scientists ever to assemble in north Louisiana.

The 40 plenary speakers are all discipline-leading researchers from the fields of physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics. Among the distinguished speaker list are a Nobel Laureate in physics, the directors from several international research institutes, premier scientists from six different countries, and 14 faculty from Louisiana academe.

The conference also boasts the first regional demonstration of a new microscope technology created by Richardson Technologies, Inc., a Canadian microscope engineering company.

The group is assembling to present primary research in the context of interdisciplinary science, which is an emerging world-wide scientific trend. All major funding agencies and research corporations are facilitating interdisciplinary research in hopes of combining unique scientific perspectives to overcome the current limitations facing each individual discipline.

"An event of this stature is a major boost for research and technology-based economics in this region," said Dr. Nathan Hutchings, assistant professor of biology at NSU and co-director of the symposium. "The conference will have a positive impact on academia, economic development, and workforce training in this region by promoting new interdisciplinary research collaborations, exhibiting the latest advancements in microscope technology, and by providing students and faculty cutting-edge knowledge of discoveries from some of today's most pressing scientific questions."

The meeting is being hosted by the Interdisciplinary Experimentation and Scholarship (IDEAS) program (http://scitech.nsula.edu/ideas), an organization within the College of Science and Technology at NSU. Sponsorship for the meeting has been provided by Ted Jones, NSU, Richardson Technologies, McGraw Hill Companies, and the Natchitoches Area Chamber of Commerce. Anyone who would like to register for all or part of the conference, should visit http://scitech.nsula.edu/IDEAS/symposium.htm or email a registration request to isis@nsula.edu.

Anyone interested in sponsoring ISIS should call (318) 357-6514 for more information.

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