This spring,  scifiguytr   competed for, and was selected for, a place in the St Mary's College Summer Research Program, doing original research under a faculty mentor. He spent the summer working on the SMC campus.

Last night, at the poster session that closes the  program for the year, Thomas won the McKenna Award for Best Project. The college will send him and two others to an AAAS conference to present his results.




The school website doesn't have the details on this year's winners yet, but you can see what the program is about.
Summer Research Program

If you really want to see how science works in the short term, go read his LJ.  It ain't pretty.