Centre College's Louesa Akin Takes Top Honors at Kentucky Academy of Science Meeting

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DANVILLE, KY (11/29/2010)(readMedia)-- Centre College junior Louesa Akin of Paducah took top honors against stiff competition at The Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) Annual Meeting, held at Western Kentucky University on Nov. 12 and 13.

The KAS meeting advances the organization's commitment to encouraging scientific research and bringing together the best minds in the Commonwealth to share scientific knowledge and interests. Other undergraduate programs represented at the annual meeting included Western Kentucky University, Berea, Morehead State University and Asbury University.

Akin earned top honors in the cellular and molecular biology undergraduate paper presentation competition for research work she did at Vanderbilt University last summer. The presentation was titled "Scoring with NOE Restraints Improves Protein Structure Results."

"I did research at Vandy in Dr. Jens Meiler's lab," Akin says. "He's designing a program to determine protein structure. My part in this research involved incorporating a way to use experimental data to help in determining a protein's structure into his program."

Akin is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Akin of Paducah and is a graduate of St. Mary High School.

Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 24th among all the nation's colleges and universities and No. 1 among all institutions of higher education in the South. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices