Konya L. Lafferty of Rolla, Mo., a senior in history at the University of Missouri-Rolla, presented a paper at the 49th meeting of the Midwest Junto of the History of Science Society, held April 28-30 in Madison, Wis.

In her paper, “The Establishment of the Mississippi Valley Branch of the U.S. Bureau of Mines,” Lafferty discussed the 1920 founding of the U.S. Bureau of Mines experiment station in Rolla, examining the relationship between the bureau, the university and the mining and mineral industry in Missouri. She worked under the direction of Dr. Jeff Schramm, assistant professor of history at UMR.

“It is quite an honor for an undergraduate to be accepted to the conference,” says Schramm, who attended the event with Lafferty and Aimee Rea of Lamar, Mo., a senior in psychology at UMR. “She was the only undergraduate to present and held her own with graduate students and professors from many top schools including Wisconsin, Minnesota, University of Chicago, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Indiana.”

Approximately 75 attended the conference, which was held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.