HT Student Takes First Place in National Competition
Wednesday Jul, 20 2011
During a recent conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, Sikhongi Solomon Phungwayo captured first place in the chemistry category during the 68th Annual Joint Meeting of Beta Kappa Chi Scientific Honor Society and the National Science Institute competition. The society encourages the advancement of scientific education through original investigations; the dissemination of scientific knowledge; and the stimulation of high scholarship in the pure and applied sciences.
Phungwayo, originally from Soweto, South Africa, is a Huston-Tillotson University senior chemistry and biology major. He completed extensive research in neutron activation analysis while working in an internship at the J.J Pickle Research Campus Nuclear Engineering Laboratory. He is one of two undergraduate research assistants in Austin working under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) grant administered through the University of Texas at Austin in partnership with Huston-Tillotson University.
Among the 16 institutions competing at the institute, HT’s Sammy Mudede received second place in the “Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics and Earth Science” poster competition for this poster entitled, “Design and Control of A Quad-Rotor System.” Akilah James and Stefan Spears received second place in the “Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics and Earth Science” oral competition for their presentation entitled, “Cryptography Evolution.” Finally, Aaron Sampson, a first-year computer science major, was elected vice-president for the Southwest Region. Dr. Carolyn Golden, HT’s assistant professor of computer science, serves as the Beta Kappa Chi advisor.
Phungwayo’s interest in the area was piqued when we joined the collaborative undergraduate educational effort supported by the ONR to attract students into fields of nuclear science and engineering. Huston-Tillotson University, Florida Memorial University, and Texas Southern University comprise the partnership with UT. He and other HT students attended nuclear science seminars, participated in field trips to the UT nuclear reactor, and presented papers during HT’s Dr. Joseph Jones, Jr. Research Day.
Current world events such as the earthquake in Japan that impacted the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and unrest in countries such as Pakistan with nuclear reactors and weapons make Phungwayo’s work critical. He collected samples for study purposes and trace elements in order to determine fluctuations, what happens to isoptopes, how the reactions would impact the public, and the consequences once exposed. “To me it’s groundbreaking (research) and exciting.”
The upgrades to the Dickey-Lawless Science Building enabled Phungwayo to conduct his own research for his award winning paper. His paper “Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Neutron Activation Analysis for Local, Regional and International Students” has been accepted for publication. “HT has everything I need” in its nuclear laboratory.
Phungwayo earned the Anthony and Louise Viaer Scholarship after studying one year at a California community college. He always dreamed of studying in the United States and had a plan that included making top grades in order to secure numerous scholarships. The money from his father’s death funded his college for one year while waiting for scholarship offers. A chance meeting with a recruiter at a community college recruitment fair guided him to Huston-Tillotson. The recruiter, Helen C. Ingram, actively involved in recruiting as a member of the alumni chapter, was a HT graduate. He left the community college after one year and will graduate from HT in May 2012.
An exhaustive college life includes shadowing Timothy Merrill George, M.D., Medical Director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery, Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, while preparing to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and Graduate Record Examination (GRE). The first plan is medical school, but, again, financing it is an issue. The second plan is to build upon the work from the internships to secure a master’s degree in nuclear engineering in order to earn the funds to pay for medical school.
Phungwayo is president of three campus organizations: International Students Association, Beta Kappa Chi, and the junior class. He is a mathematics, chemistry, biology, and English tutor and academic coach. He is the National Black Engineers Association (NBEA) Huston-Tillotson University Chapter program planning chair and associate editor of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Delta Chapter Sphinx magazine.
“It’s obviously not possible to do what I do,” Phungwayo said. “God’s grace, prayer, and an intense passion” sustain Phungwayo.
