Big Ideas, Big Winners

Christy Laflamme

by Lynda F. Rysavy | Thursday, Jun 27, 2019

Christy LaFlamme, a Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College student just won the FAU Division of Research (DoR) " Big Idea Contest ," which was designed to solicit ideas on how to communicate the importance of research to broad audiences.

LaFlamme says her idea to share research was inspired by the symposium's keynote speaker , David Sun Kong, Ph.D., director of MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative.

LaFlamme recently attended the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for the National Symposium for Undergraduate Research ( NSUR ).

She is working in Matt Disney's lab as part of the FAU Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship ( SURF ), and the Scripps Biomedical Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates ( BLEU ). She is also the president of the Council for Scholarship, Inquiry, Design, and Engagement ( C-SIDE ) Jupiter.

Judges selected winners in two categories: students and faculty/staff. First place winners received an i-Pad; second, a Fitbit; and third place, a messenger swag bag.

Big Ideas, Big Winners Student winners

First – Christy LaFlamme, Wilkes Honors College

Second – Christine Erie, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

Third – Amanda Inerfeld, College of Engineering and Computer Science

Faculty/staff winners

First – Julie Lauderbaugh, assistant vice president for campaign communications, Division of Institutional Advancement

Second – Katie Hutton, office assistant, Division of Research, Office of Sponsored Programs

Third – Alethea Perez, manager of recorded sound archives, FAU Libraries