Spotlight: Alicia Mitchell

A licia Mitchell is a Biology Major at Augusta State University and she is currently involved in research in the field of food microbiology. Her research has a real-life application in that she is surveying beverages from local area restaurants and quantifying the amount of coliform and fecal coliforms that are present in the beverages.

Fecal coliforms would be a subset of coliforms found mainly in the intestinal tract of mammals with Escherichia coli being the model organism.

Additionally, Alicia is asking whether beverages such as sweet tea can actually support the growth of E. coli as well.

She has presented her data at the Phi Kappa Phi Student Research and Fine Arts Conference at Augusta State University, and will be presenting at the Association of Southeastern Biologists Annual meeting in April.

Dr. Chris Bates, Assistant Professor of Biology, is her faculty advisor.