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BSC senior wins first-place award at Alabama Academy of Science annual meeting
BSC senior wins first-place award at Alabama Academy of Science annual meeting
For Immediate Release
Mar. 23, 2018
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—BSC biology major Sarah Catherine Murphy won the top undergraduate paper award in the Anthropology section of the 95th annual meeting of the Alabama Academy of Science. The event was held March 14-16 at Samford University.
Murphy’s 20-minute paper presentation, “Can gorilla dental wear scores be used among fossil hominids?,” was drawn from her BSC senior research project. Her faculty advisor, Dr. Jason Heaton, an anthropologist and associate professor of biology at BSC who is helping analyze the groundbreaking fossil of a pre-human species discovered in a cave in South Africa, said her findings could advance the field.
“Her work may provide a unique way to associate isolated fossil tooth fragments (i.e., determining if they belonged to the same individual) from fossil sites,” said Heaton. “We are currently working to apply her research to fossils from the site of Swartkrans, South Africa.”
The Alabama Academy of Science was organized in Mobile in 1924 with 40 charter members representing academic and governmental interests in science. The annual meeting for scientists—as well as graduate, undergraduate, and high school students who are aspiring scientists—is designed to promote scholarly interaction, the exchange of scientific information, and scientific research within Alabama.
As the Anthropology section winner, Murphy received a certificate and monetary award. She is the daughter of Pam Anderson and Greg Murphy of Madison, Miss.