Contact: Robbie S. Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Academics and experts from Mexico, Italy and throughout the United States in an array of social science fields will gather at Mississippi State Oct. 14 to discuss topics that include children's health care, safety, and location related to quality of life.
The public event helps recognize the 60th anniversary of the university's Social Science Research Center, the oldest university-level research center on campus and one of the largest research operations of its kind nationwide.
Arthur G. Cosby, who has directed the SSRC for 25 years and also a William L. Giles Distinguished Professor at the university, said the research center has made strides to help bring scientifically sound information in key areas such as tobacco control, highway safety, and a variety of health aspects. The research center has led in research nationwide related to spatial analysis and visualization for many years, Cosby said.
"We've been a very innovative place," the research center director said. "We've kept up with trends and technology in the social sciences."
A panel of experts will speak from 8:50 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Bost Extension Center on topics related to current and future research at the center, Cosby said. The event involves eight separate topics.
MSU's SSRC has an annual budget of about $8 million and receives funding for about 40 research studies each year. Additionally, the center's reputation, scope, and research collaborations have expanded through the years. For example, the SSRC and the University of Catania in Italy received a grant from the European Union for "collaborative doctoral education."
Also coinciding with the SSRC's anniversary, the research center will celebrate the decade-long partnership it has shared with faculty, researchers and students at the Italian university. Many academic representatives from the European university will visit MSU next week to commemorate the partnership, which has resulted in about a half-dozen doctoral-level researchers studying at both universities, numerous Italian research graduate students studying at MSU, and faculty from the land-grant institution taking sabbaticals to research at the Italian university.
MSU researchers at the SSRC also collaborate with the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education to study immigration related issues, such as public perception.
"International education, collaboration and research are very important," Cosby said.
For more information, contact Melinda Hamby at 662-325-8587 or Melinda.hamby@ssrc.msstate.edu.