A team of scientists from the Biotechnology High Performance Computing Software Applications Institute, Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, received a Silver Award for Excellence for their poster presentation at the 2014 Military Health System Research Symposium Aug. 21.

The team's presentation that won the award, titled "Can Mathematical Models Help Diagnose Lower-airway Lung Diseases," described the scientists' research on developing a three-dimensional computer model that can accurately characterize obstructions in the lower airways of the lungs using airflow patterns in the upper airways, potentially enabling medical teams to avoid the invasive procedures currently used to detect lower-lung abnormalities.

Scientists on the team include Dr. Anders Wallqvist, Dr. Jaques Reifman, Dr. Vineet Rakesh, Dr. Michael Morris and Dr. Bora Sul, who presented the poster.

Dr. Vineet Rakesh accepted the award on behalf of the research team. 400 posters were presented this year, twice as many as in 2013. They were evaluated based on their content, visual presentation and the scientist's oral presentation. The Symposium named just three award recipients and seven honorable mentions.