By Susanne Reynolds

Out of 51 countries, a Bainbridge State College physics professor and Honors’ student were among the few chosen to represent the United States.

Earlier this month, Dr. Juan Gomez of Bainbridge and Alea Simmons of Cairo presented a co-authored physics paper at The Clute Institute in as part of the 2015 International Education Conference. Out of the 1,035 submitted papers submitted, only 290 of them were scheduled to present.

“The Clute Institute only accepted 28 percent of all submitted papers—and Bainbridge State College was one of them,” said Gomez.

During the conference, the presenters were divided into groups. Gomez and Simmons were placed in a group with six other presenters, which were from the University of Tulsa, Adekunle Ajasin University (Nigeria), University of the Punjab (Pakistan), University of the Basque Country (Spain), Purdue University and Muban Chombueng University (Thailand).

At the end of the session, the group voted for the most outstanding paper. Gomez and Simmons were voted for second place.

Their paper regarded finding a numerical solution to the Lorentz Force equation by using Microsoft Excel.

Gomez said, “The winner was a group of three professors from The University of Tulsa. They have an annual budget of over $2 million, so we were ecstatic to finish second. I think we represented Bainbridge State College extremely well.”

According to Simmons who was the youngest co-presenter, it was a great honor to represent Bainbridge State College at an international conference.

“I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to present at the conference. Being able to put BSC on the same level of academia as other colleges and universities around the globe was a pretty big deal for me,” she said. “Since I was the youngest person there, I could not get over the fact that I was among some of the worldliest scholars and that I had stood up and presented in front of them. Many of scholars from the other colleges were impressed with Bainbridge State’s decision to support a sophomore doing research with a professor. Most universities do not allow research from an undergraduate at all. They typically wait until the students’ senior year. I was indeed a great honor.”

Gomez anticipates working with future physics students and BSC while promoting science education opportunities available to them.

He said, “Given the high-level of international academic research presented at the conference, I believe Alea and I made our home institution very proud. Hopefully, I can continue my research with other talented Bainbridge State physics students and promote the academic opportunities that are available through the College.”

In recognition of the paper presentation, The Clute Institute is currently reviewing Gomez and Simmons’ work for a possible journal submission.