Macon Cove Campus
5983 Macon Cove
Memphis, TN 38134-7693

Union Avenue Campus
737 Union Avenue
Memphis, TN 38103-3322

Fayette Center

Gill Center

Millington Center

Southeast Center

Whitehaven Center

901/333-STCC * www.southwest.tn.edu

DATE: May 15, 2002
CONTACT: Calvin Burns, (901) 333-5338 or Marilyn Duncan (901) 333-4247

Southwest Professor Focused on Cutting-Edge Technology;
To Co-Chair National Conference on Microbiology

Dr. Indiren Pillay, associate professor of Biology and Microbiology in the Department of Natural Sciences at Southwest Tennessee Community College, will co-chair a national conference that is aimed at keeping faculty abreast of cutting-edge technology. He will co-chair the ninth American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Undergraduate Microbiology Education Conference May 17-19 in Salt Lake City.

As national co-chairperson, Dr. Pillay has worked for the past year to plan and organize the conference. The three-day event is designed to update biology and microbiology instructors about the latest trends and developments in the Allied Health arena. Topics of discussion for the conference include:

Discussing Active Learning in the Classroom
Bioterrorism and Ways to Teach It
Emerging Issues in Microbial Biodiversity
Developing a Strategy to Implement Science Teaching Reform Methods
Unseen Life on Earth

"The forum will also allow me to interact with faculty who are teaching Biotechnology courses, and serve as an excellent sounding board for Southwest's own Biotechnology program development," states Dr. Pillay.

Dr. Pillay also serves as co-director of Southwest's Bridge to the Biomedical Sciences Program. Funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Bridge initiative is aimed at increasing the number of minority students who successfully transfer from Southwest to four-year colleges and helping them establish careers in the areas of Biomedical and Natural Sciences.

This educational outreach project places qualified minority students in a faculty-mentored program where they are exposed to biomedical research experiences. Since its inception in 1995, more than 25 students at the Union Avenue Campus have completed the program and transferred to the University of Memphis to earn a Bachelor of Science degree.

Currently there are 16 students enrolled in Southwest's Bridge to the Biomedical Sciences Program. For more information about this unique project, call Southwest at (901) 333-5220.

Southwest Tennessee Community College is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution.