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SALISBURY, MD---What was life like on the Eastern Shore during World War II? Is ultraviolet sanitization suitable to decontaminate ice hockey equipment?

These are just some of the topics examined during the 10th Salisbury University Student Research Conference from noon-7:30 p.m. Friday, April 29.

Julie Messick, a junior history major from Salisbury, has long been interested in World War II and the Lower Eastern Shore. She combined those fascinations for her research project, “Wartime Activism: Maryland’s Eastern Shore in World War II,” and discovered a lot more than she anticipated.

“There was U-boat activity along the east coast of Maryland and even up into the Chesapeake Bay,” she said. “There were several German internment camps located on the Eastern Shore, and those interned were instrumental in keeping local industries going while the main workforce was off at war.”

For Elizabeth Shelton, a senior clinical laboratory science major from Salisbury, the impetus for a study of the effectiveness of sanitizer on certain sporting equipment was not a lifelong interest, but an observation:

“My study was inspired by the treacherous odor that often accompanies ice hockey equipment,” she said. “Many of the players will tell you that the gloves hardly ever dry out because they are padded, and the insides of the gloves have limited exposure to air.”

As part of her study, “The Effectiveness of Sani Sport and the Prevalence of Staphylococcus Aureus and MRSA on Ice Hockey Gloves,” she tested ice hockey gloves at the Harrington (DE) Ice Hockey Rink before and after they were run through a Sani Sport machine. The device uses ultraviolet light to sterilize the gloves. Shelton found, however, that strains of MRSA survived on some 10 percent of the gloves, while Staphylococcus aureus remained on some 80 percent.

Shelton said the results were surprising, given the prominence of these machines in professional athletic organizations including the National Hockey League.

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Former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Diane Auer Jones joins this year’s student presenters, returning to her Alma Mater to serve as the conference’s plenary speaker.

Her talk, “Research—It’s Not Just a Job, It’s an Adventure,” is at noon in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center.

The SUSRC celebrates student scholarship, and artistic and professional achievement by giving students an opportunity to share their knowledge and developing abilities.

Student research is an international movement in higher education, broadly recognized for giving undergraduate and graduate students a chance to focus their enthusiasm for a subject into the capstone experience of an independent project.

A program of this year’s sessions and poster titles is available at the new SUSRC Web site, /susrc. Admission is free and the public is invited.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SUSRC Web site.