Armando Mireles, a participant in Argonne’s 2012 Visiting Faculty Program (VFP), has received a Second Place award in the category of Biology Undergraduate Poster at the 2013 Illinois’ Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) conference in Lisle, Ill. on February 16, 2013. His poster, ​“Arthropod Biodiversity of Urban Prairies and Turf Landscapes,” described the results of work performed during his VFP term. Mireles is in the Biology program at Chicago State University.

The Visiting Faculty Program seeks to increase the research competitiveness of faculty members and their students at institutions historically underrepresented in the research community in order to expand the workforce vital to the Department of Energy (DOE) mission areas. As part of the program, selected university/college faculty members collaborate with DOE laboratory research staff on a research project of mutual interest. The Visiting Faculty Program is sponsored and managed by the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists in collaboration with the DOE laboratories.

The LSAMP program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students successfully completing high quality degree programs in STEM disciplines.