Samantha Parks received two presentation awards at the Southeastern Branch regional ASM meeting (November 6-7, 2009). Samantha won second place for the presentation of her poster "Identification and characterization of denA, a novel HNPA denitrase integral to 3-nitrotyrosine degradation in Variovorax sp. JS669". She also won first place for graduate speaker awards for her talk entitled "Biodegradation of 2-nitropropyl-benzene, a synthetic analog of 1-nitro-2-phenylethane by Burkholderia sp. JS670".

Samantha Parks received her dual Bachelors degree in Biology and Psychology from Emory University. She received her Masters in Science Education degree from Georgia State University. Samantha entered the PhD program at Georgia Tech in the fall of 2005 and is currently completing her work with Jim Spain. Samantha's thesis project involves the study of the biodegradation of natural nitro compounds. Specifically, she has isolated bacteria that grow on either 3-nitrotyrosine or 1-nitro-2-phenylethane and Samantha investigates the biochemical pathways for biodegradation as well as the molecular biology that enables the novel catabolic abilities of the microorganisms.