{"id":77618,"date":"2026-04-13T13:58:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=77618"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:23:54","slug":"3mrp-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/3mrp-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"One student. One research project. Three minutes."},"content":{"rendered":"

Does a root fungus hold the key to growing food on the Moon?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0a question\u00a0<\/span>Laura Lee<\/span><\/b>, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science,\u00a0asked herself as she rotated through different specialties in her department. Her research, for which she received a\u00a0<\/span>Graduate Research Fellowship\u00a0(GRFP)\u00a0from the National Science Foundation<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0focuses on water in space\u2014also a critical\u00a0part\u00a0of\u00a0putting people onto Mars and the Moon.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But water\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0enough to grow food. Lee, curious about the capabilities and difficulties of extraterrestrial crop growth,\u00a0looked into\u00a0soil ecology and mycorrhizal fungi with\u00a0<\/span>Nancy Johnson<\/span><\/b>, a\u00a0Regents\u2019\u00a0professor\u00a0in\u00a0the School of Earth and Sustainability. Using her GRFP funds, she bought soil that\u00a0simulated\u00a0the chemical make-up of soil on the Moon and Mars. Then she grew corn.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, she was one of 10 graduate students who presented their work at NAU\u2019s annual 3-Minute Research Presentation (3MRP). Lee took home first place and a $3,000 prize not only for the research\u2014as much as it is a potential\u00a0game-changer\u00a0for future space missions\u2014but\u00a0also\u00a0for her clear communication to a lay audience in the requisite three minutes, a challenge all by itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese students all took research they spent month\u2014sometimes years\u2014on and made it land in 180 seconds,\u201d said President <\/span>Jos\u00e9 Luis Cruz Rivera<\/span><\/b>\u00a0in his opening remarks. \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0not a parlor trick.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0one of the hardest things anyone in this room or anywhere will ever learn to do.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AstronautsIn her three minutes, Lee explained the challenges she faced and the\u00a0important question\u00a0her\u00a0work\u00a0answers. Sending food to the International Space Station works, but that\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0be\u00a0an option\u00a0for longer-term stays on our\u00a0celestial neighbors. Mycorrhizal\u00a0fungi\u00a0live\u00a0in\u00a0plant\u00a0roots\u00a0all over this planet. By introducing it into the simulated lunar and\u00a0Martian\u00a0soil, Lee could replicate the growing environment in NAU\u2019s greenhouses. She found the fungi contributed to improvement in biomass production, yield, overall plant\u00a0health\u00a0and the probability of survival. The result?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRoot fungus can build more sustainable, more reliable food production on the\u00a0Moon and Mars for future missions,\u201d Lee said in her presentation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This work will be folded into her\u00a0dissertation research as well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Biology Ph.D. student Lynn Bonomo<\/strong> won second place for her research into coffee berry borers, which is no\u00a0joe-ke,\u00a0and Mar\u00eda Uribe-P\u00e9rez<\/strong>,\u00a0a Ph.D. student in Earth science and environmental sustainability, won third place for her research in water engineering in Indigenous villages in Colombia. Read about the presentations below.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The judges for the final event\u00a0were\u00a0Flagstaff Mayor and NAU\u00a0alumna\u00a0<\/span>Becky Daggett<\/span><\/b>;\u00a0<\/span>Jeff Foster<\/span><\/b>, a professor of biological sciences; Vice President of Inclusive Excellence\u00a0<\/span>Justin Mallett<\/span><\/b>; General Counsel\u00a0<\/span>Michelle Parker<\/span><\/b>; and marketing manager\u00a0<\/span>Heather Weisberger<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Celsey Selland<\/span><\/b>, \u201cProtecting the Past with Presence\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can mindfulness help people\u00a0retain\u00a0their memories? Research from Selland, a\u00a0master\u2019s student in psychological sciences,\u00a0suggests\u00a0the answer is yes. Using a group of 40 older adults, Selland gave the participants either intense mindfulness meditation\u00a0or mental exercises\u00a0for five days in a row, then asked them to recall details of events from their past. Those who\u00a0participated\u00a0in mindfulness, which is a receptive awareness in the present moment, were better able to recall those details.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Protecting<\/p>\n

Rebecca\u00a0Annorbah<\/span><\/b>, \u201cSubstance Use Risk & Treatment After Jail Release\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the more than 5 million Americans who are in\u00a0jail,prison\u00a0or on parole, many have substance abuse and mental health issues\u2014concerns that often go untreated when they are released back into their communities.\u00a0Annorbah, who\u00a0graduates\u00a0in May with a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary health, used exit screenings of people leaving the system to examine their risk level of relapsing. What she found is those who were high-risk or\u00a0moderate-risk\u00a0were\u00a0actually more\u00a0likely to get connected to service to help them avoid relapse or recidivism.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n

Matthew Weiss<\/span><\/b>, \u201cUncovering the History of Relatedness and Diversity Through Types in the Genetic Code\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Every organism on the planet has an instruction manual. We just call it genetics.\u00a0\u201cTypos\u201d in that manual\u00a0contribute\u00a0to population diversity.\u00a0Weiss, a doctoral student in biology,\u00a0studies the crimson monkey flower, which is pollinated by hummingbirds. Logically, the larger a population is, the more diverse it should be. Instead, he has found that smaller and more isolated populations are more diverse because these populations act as stopover sites for migrating hummingbirds, so those flowers see their genes spread farther and wider. However, climate change and a border wall are affecting\u00a0the migration\u00a0patterns and flowering times, so the future relationship is in flux.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Erika\u00a0LaPlante<\/span><\/b>, \u201cAttraction is a Whole-Plant Strategy\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A sexy flower gets a plant more love from pollinators, right? Yes,\u00a0and,\u00a0said LaPlante, a Ph.D. student in biology. In her study of flowering plants,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not just the flower. Rather, to be successful in attracting pollinators like hummingbirds, plants\u00a0pull out all the stops\u2014stripes on leaves surrounding the flower make a pretty target;\u00a0larger flowers do better;\u00a0offering more seeds helps. Enhancing a plant\u2019s reproductive success depends on the whole plant drawing hummingbirds in\u2014that pretty flower just\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0enough.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pictures<\/p>\n

Pedro Oliveira<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0\u201cKeeping\u00a0Open Source\u00a0Communities Alive\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the\u00a0apps\u00a0people use daily use open-source software. The benefit of that is flexibility for\u00a0users and developers\u00a0and accessibility, since\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0no\u00a0for-profit company on the other side. The downside is those developers often experience burnout, leave the\u00a0project\u00a0and the project fails, leaving its community of users without a resource. Oliveira, a Ph.D. student in informatics, built AI models to assess when communities\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0doing well and to predict when burnout could be upcoming, with the goal of intervening before\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0too late and\u00a0creating\u00a0more sustainable communities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n

Lynn Bonomo<\/span><\/b>, \u201cLooking\u00a0Into\u00a0Nature to Find Solutions for Pest Control\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho can\u2019t start their day without coffee?\u201d Now that she has your attention, Bonomo, a Ph.D. student in biology, wants to talk about why the prices of coffee have risen and what\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0doing about it. In recent years, about 30% of the world\u2019s coffee beans have been destroyed by infestations of the coffee berry borer, a pest that burrows into the coffee bean, eats out the inside and lays its eggs, fueled by bacteria in its gut that allows it to digest what should be fatal levels of caffeine. Bonomo found several bacteriophages, or viruses that attack bacteria, could target\u00a0that caffeine-degrading bacteria in the beetle\u2019s gut microbiome and keep them from burrowing into the coffee beans.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n

Brooke Harris<\/span><\/b>, \u201cBrowsing the Menu: Defense and Regrowth in Arizona Willow\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The foodie tendencies of deer and elk in the Southwest\u00a0have\u00a0had a devastating effect on the Arizona willow, a rare shrub species that is an indicator of ecosystem health and provides habitat for other wildlife. Harris, a master\u2019s student in biology, studied willows in Arizona and New Mexico to\u00a0determine\u00a0how\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0responding to being eaten. She found that shrubs in\u00a0different places\u00a0respond differently: The willows in Arizona are more likely to produce a chemical compound that makes them less tasty for ruminants, while the shrubs in New Mexico are\u00a0allocating\u00a0more resources to regrowth to compensate for\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0eaten. Understanding how plants respond to browsing can help\u00a0researchers better\u00a0develop ways to protect them.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n

Shelby Hagemann<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0\u201cCommunity-Informed Broadband Advocacy Game Platform\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you get people to take regular measurements\u00a0of\u00a0their\u00a0internet coverage? You make it a game:\u00a0one measurement\u00a0equals\u00a0one swing of the sword in Dragon Slayer or one zombie healed in Zombie Apocalypse.\u00a0The reason to collect these data, said Hagemann, a Ph.D. student in informatics and computing, is to help inform the Federal Communication Commission\u2019s crowd-sourced speed test app with the aim of demonstrating how poor broadband coverage is\u00a0in\u00a0many rural areas in the Southwest so the government will help improve\u00a0it. But to challenge the maps, they need consistently collected measures across a given\u00a0time\u00a0period.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0hard to do\u2014unless you make it fun.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Uribe-P\u00e9rez<\/span><\/b>, \u201cWhy Should We Believe\u00a0You? Bridging Engineering and Community Knowledge for Water Security\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should we believe you, if our water has never made us sick?\u201d This question changed how\u00a0Uribe-P\u00e9rez, a Ph.D. student in Earth science and environmental sustainability, addressed her work as a water engineer for the Colombian government. What she was facing\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0an engineering problem so much as it was a disconnect. She stopped telling Indigenous Colombians what was wrong and started listening. What she learned was that what she considered sick\u2014regular diarrhea and stomachaches\u2014they considered\u00a0normal, so they\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0even speaking the same language.\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0more, she realized\u00a0<\/span>E. coli<\/span><\/i>\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0entering the water at its source but rather in storage sites, which changed the problem she needed to fix.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Graphic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does a root fungus hold the key to growing food on the Moon?\u00a0 That\u2019s\u00a0a question\u00a0Laura Lee, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science,\u00a0asked herself as she rotated through different specialties in her department. Her research, for which she received a\u00a0Graduate Research Fellowship\u00a0(GRFP)\u00a0from the National Science Foundation,\u00a0focuses on water in space\u2014also a…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":77639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}