NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

4/5/2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES -Northwestern State University will hold its 19th annual Research Day Tuesday, April 18 in Russell Hall and the A.A. Fredericks Center for Creative and Performing Arts. The event is sponsored by the NSU Research Council and is open to the public.

During Research Day, Northwestern faculty and students share some of their latest work with the university community. Presentations begin at 9 a.m.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. John C. Merrill, the Erbon W. and Marie Wise Endowed Chair in Journalism at NSU. Merrill will speak at 10 a.m. in Room 107 of Russell Hall.

The Mildred Hart Bailey Award and Graduate and Undergraduate Student Research Awards will be presented after Merrill's speech.

The Bailey Award is given annually to a Northwestern faculty member for outstanding research and/or distinguished artistic performance or creative work substantially completed during the past three years. Criteria for the award include: scholarly or creative significance; national, regional or local impact; originality and ingenuity of project design and critical recognition by experts in the field.

Student Research Awards will be presented to recognize outstanding research, distinguished artistic performance or creative work completed by a student or team of students while enrolled at Northwestern. The awards are sponsored by the NSU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi and the NSU Research Council.

During Research Day, 76 presentations on a wide range of topics and academic disciplines will be presented.

Merrill is professor emeritus at the University of Missouri. He has taught at various universities in the U.S. and abroad for more than 50 years. While at Northwestern, he also did college publicity and advised the student newspaper, the Current Sauce and the student yearbook, the Potpourri. Merrill was also a faculty member at Texas A&M, the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia, California State (Long Beach), and the University of North Carolina and Missouri.

He has taught internationally in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Egypt and has lectured and held workshops in at least 70 other countries. He is the author of 30 books and at least 100 journal articles.

Merrill has a bachelor's in English and history, a master's in journalism from LSU, a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Iowa and a master's in philosophy from Missouri. A veteran of World War II (Navy), he served in both the Atlantic and the Pacific theatres of operations.

The NSU Research Council advises the university's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs on matters of policy and procedure. The Council also provides guidance on the development and administration of two newly created, internally funded and competitively administered seed grant programs aimed at stimulating research, creativity and dissemination of findings. Members of the Research Council serve by appointment and are nominated based on their extensive knowledge about, and significant contributions to, the research and sponsored programs enterprise.

For more information on Research Day, call (318) 357-5222.

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