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Student researchers at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh will share their artistic creations, content analyzes, scientific and social experiments, simulations and syntheses at the 26th-annual Celebration of Scholarship Thursday.

The event, which includes oral and poster presentations, art exhibits and performances, runs 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Reeve Memorial Union, followed by the Provost’s Awards Reception at 4 p.m.

Among the more than 120 students involved in showcasing their scholarly and creative efforts, a few are tackling more than one presentation.

Geography student Brianna Beseler, a junior from Cochrane, will present two research posters: Long-Term Fire History from Bass Lake Northeastern Wisconsin; and Characterizing the Geomorphology of Coastal Montane Streams in Jamaica: Implications of Land Use Change and Increased Hurricane Frequency. Beseler’s faculty mentors are Colin Long and Mark Bowen, respectively.

In the fire history project, Beseler looked at one of the deadliest wildfires in American history—the Peshtigo Fire, which burned 1.2 million acres in northeastern Wisconsin in 1871. She studied a lake sediment core from Bass Lake in Beaver.

Zel Billings, a junior art student from Oshkosh, will offer two visual art presentations: Wire Weft: A Study in Cloth and Metal with faculty mentor Allison Welsh; and Wire Woods: Inspiration by the Trees of UWO with faculty mentor Andrew Redington.

The tree project involved researching, developing and refining methods and strategies for artistically modeling various types of trees with wire through a process known as cold-joining. Each piece is modeled after one or more unique aspects of trees here on the UWO campus.

Geology major Nicole Salchert will give two poster presentations: Assessing Petroleum Reservoir Development in the Anadarko Basin with faculty mentor Eric Hiatt; and Characterizing Magma Evolution with Crystal Cargo Chemistry in Basalts of the Southernmost Cascades with faculty mentor Jennifer Werner.

In assessing the petroleum reservoir, Salchert used petrographic analysis to study ancient limestone with multiple generations of calcite and dolomite cement that restrict the rock’s porosity and permeability.

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