The conference is named for explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran and a founder of the National Geographic Society who joined Illinois Wesleyan University's faculty in 1865. He was the first U.S. professor to use field work to teach science. In 1867 Powell took Illinois Wesleyan students to Colorado's mountains, the first expedition of its kind in the history of American higher education. Later, Powell was the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology.

Photo Gallery

	During the 16th annual John Wesley Powell Research Conference, Ashvin Baru '07 (left) explains his poster to keynote speaker James Gentile (center) and Michael O'Keefe '07. Baru's topic was "The Discovery Approach to Organic Chemistry Selective Reduction of Aldehydes in the Presence of Esters."
	Lindsay Sicks '06 (left) and Maura Bates '07 explain their work on "Stabilizing a (4fe-4s) Cluster to Oxygen: Effects of Amino Acid Substitutions Near the Cysteine Ligands in the FNR Transcription Factor." Sicks and Bates worked on the project along with Robin Johnson '06 and Erin Fleck '06.
	Olukayode Karunwi, a class of 2005 graduate, discussed his poster presentation, "An Interactive Approach to Optical Tweezer Control."