College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Greetings! I’m pleased to welcome S&T alumni to our audience for this newsletter, which goes to students, faculty and staff in the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education (CASE) at Missouri S&T.
The month of April was full of wonderful news for our college. We published our first-ever annual report for CASE and it has been favorably received. Two emeritus chemistry professors, Dr. Honglan Shi and Dr. Yinfa Ma, have fully funded the newly established Shi/Ma Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research. The $1,000 awards will be given to one undergraduate student and one graduate student annually for their accomplishments in biomedical research.
Also, the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development approved our new undergraduate certificate in neuroscience, which will soon be offered by the psychological science department.
The Dean’s Leadership Council met for two days in Rolla and awarded the CASE Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Commitment to Undergraduate Student Success to Dr. Irina Ivliyeva, professor of Russian. Members of the council’s Faculty Excellence Committee surprised Irina with the award while she was teaching a class on April 13.
Finally, Dr. Klaus Woelk, associate professor of chemistry, was chosen as the next associate dean for academic affairs at CASE. He will begin his term on July 1, succeeding Dr. Shannon Fogg, who has admirably served in that role for the last four years. On behalf of the entire college, I thank Shannon for her service and welcome Klaus to the dean’s office.
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Answer: A Missouri S&T 2020 English alumnus. The correct question: Who is Brandon Broughton, a contestant on Jeopardy! Broughton was featured on the TV show on Wednesday, April 5. Read all about his adventures on television online.
Have news to share with your classmates? Submit news at the Miner Alumni Association’s website. Each month, we will try to feature a CASE-specific note or news story in this newsletter.
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Daniel Alhassan, a Ph.D. student in mathematics and statistics, was able to attend and present research at the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Spring 2023 Meeting last month in Nashville, thanks to funding from CASE and the Graduate Travel Fund.
Mahdi Gharehbaygloo and Youxin Yuan, Ph.D. students in mathematics and statistics, presented research at the 9th Annual Math and Stat Research Day at UMKC.
Nicole Moon, a graduate student in chemistry, won second place for her poster presentation, “Internal Rotation Analysis and Structural Determination of R-Carvone,” at the 28th Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure and Dynamics at Dallas in February. This is an international conference.
Shiping Zhou, a Ph.D. student in mathematics and statistics, presented “A novel and simple spectral method for nonlocal PDEs with the fractional Laplacian” at the department graduate seminar on April 6.
CASE students Carissa French, Noah Cline , Eli Card, and Brendan Pinkerton participated in DataFest at Mizzou and won the Best Use of Statistical Analysis category. All the students have chosen mathematics as their major, and Card is also majoring in computer science and English.
CASE students Braden Stillmaker, a sophomore in physics, and Landon Stephen, a senior in mathematics, participated on the team that won the 2023 Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition.
Josie Glenn, Hannah Bahn, Gabriel Riddle, Kaitlin Miles, Allison Hermelink, and Rosalee Brown, all undergraduate students in chemistry, presented their research at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Missouri Academy of Science in Joplin.
Three students of the multiparticle physics group led by Dr. Thomas Vojta, Curators' Distinguished Professor and chair of physics, presented at the American Physical Society’s March meeting:
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- Reece Beattie-Hauser, a senior in physics, spoke about “Branching fractional Brownian motion as a model of serotonergic neurons.”
- Gaurav Khairnar, a doctoral student in physics, presented “Monte Carlo Simulations of the Disordered q-state Quantum Clock model.”
- Logan Sowadski, a senior in physics, presented his research on magnetic properties of diluted hexaferrites.
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The following six CASE students traveled to Jefferson City, Missouri, on April 6 to participate in the annual Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol:
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- Erik Bergstrom,, and Molly Ripper, pictured, presented “Learning the Principles of Aging from Worms.” Both students are juniors in biological sciences. The work is directed by Dr. Andrea Scharf, assistant professor of biological sciences. Read more.
- Samuel Hackett, a sophomore in chemistry, presented “Carbon Aerogels for High Capacity and Selective Absorption of Carbon Dioxide.” The work is directed by Dr. Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, chair and professor of chemistry. Read more.
- Gabrielle Hightower, a senior in biological sciences and psychology, and Shay Pelfrey, a senior in biological sciences, presented “Generating Strains of Brady Rhizobium Japonicum for Improved Crop Yields Under Drought Conditions.” The work is directed by Dr. David Westenberg, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of biological sciences. Read more.
- Gabriel Riddle, asophomore in physics, presented “Where the Rubber Hits the Road – Asphalt Rejuvenation with Used-tire Pyrolysis Oils.” The work is directed by Dr. Klaus Woelk, associate professor of chemistry.
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The following CASE students were winners in the 18th annual Undergraduate Research Conference held on campus:
Oral Category:
Sciences:
1st Place – Shay Pelfrey (biological sciences)
2nd Place – Alexis Baiter and Kathryn Zychinski (biological sciences)
3rd Place – Samuel Hackett (chemistry)
Social Sciences:
1st Place – Jessica Frame (psychology)
2nd Place – Brileigh Cates (mathematics)
Poster Category:
Sciences – Section 1 (individual project)
1st Place – Natalie Cummins (biological sciences)
2nd Place – Samuel Schrader (physics)
3rd Place – Katharine Gray (chemistry)
Sciences – Section 2 (group project)
2nd Place – Zachary Alton and Carly Brown (physics)
3rd Place – Arrie Gamble, Rhys Timpe, Sage Wood (biological sciences)
Social Sciences
1st Place – Sophie Firle and Gemma Flores-Olivas (psychological science)
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The following students were selected for the 2023-24 OURE Fellows scholarship:
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- Megan Benkendorf (mathematics)
- Erik Bergstrom (biological sciences)
- Jessica Frame (psychological Science)
- Steven Karst (physics)
- Clare Koerkenmeier (biological sciences)
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Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi (CASE Dean) took part in two panel discussions on Iran’s foreign policy and ethnic tensions, respectively organized by UCLA and Concordia University. He also made a presentation to students at the Santa Clara University School of Law.
Dr. Petra DeWitt (associate professor, history and political science) presented “’Hitler’s American Friends’: The German American Bund in Missouri” at the 65th Annual Missouri Conference on History on March 17 in Springfield, Missouri.
Dr. Kathryn Dolan’s (associate professor, English and technical communication) book Breakfast Cereal: A Global History was published by Reaktion Books.
Dr. Shannon Fogg (professor of history and interim associate dean for academic affairs) was selected as a fellow for the Holocaust Education Foundation – Northwestern University Regional Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization hosted by Washington University in St. Louis. Fellows participated in interdisciplinary workshops on “The Year of the Holocaust: Thirty Years Later.”
A team led by Dr. Garry Grubbs II (associate professor of chemistry), and including Dr. Klaus Woelk (associate professor of chemistry), Dr. Jie Huang, the Roy A. Wilkens Telecommunications (Associate Professor of electrical and computer engineering), and Dr. Kristen Donnell (the Woodard Associate Professor of Excellence in electrical and computer engineering), received a Missouri S&T Kummer Ignition Grant for the team’s proposal, “Enantioselective State Transfer as a Method for Addressing Quantum System Challenges,” in the amount of $30,000.
Grubbs was appointed to the Board of Studies at Woxsen University in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, for the School of Sciences for two years (February 2023-February 2025). The Board of Studies is an invited position used to help shape the academic aspects of the school. Garry also gave an invited lecture, “The interesting structural outcomes of replacing carbon with a silicon atom inside and on ring molecules,” at the 28th Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure and Dynamics at Dallas in Dallas, TX in February.
Dr. Sarah Hercula (associate professor of English and technical communication), gave a presentation titled “Language ideologies in television: Analyzing prescriptive and linguistically prejudiced television dialogue and its impact on viewers,” on March 21 at the American Association for Applied Linguistics conference in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Yue-Wern Huang (professor of biological sciences and associate dean for research and external relations in CASE), received a $50,549 grant from the University of Miami for a project titled “Characterizing the physical, chemical and Toxicological properties of secondhand aerosols generated from electronic nicotine delivery systems in indoor environments.” The period of performance is from March 15, 2023, to September 30, 2023.
Dr. Tseggai Isaac (Chancellor’s Professor of political science), published an article and a book review in the Spring 2023 issue of Comparative Civilization Review.
Dr. Irina Ivliyeva (professor of Russian), received the CASE Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Commitment to Undergraduate Student Success.
Dr. John McManus’s new book, To the End of the Earth: The U.S. Army and the Downfall of Japan, 1945 is scheduled for publication on May 2. The book is the third and final volume in an award-winning trilogy about the U.S. Army in the Pacific/Asia theater during World War II.
Dr. Dan Reardon (interim vice provost of undergraduate education and associate professor of English and Technical Communication), Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, associate professor, history and political science, and Dr. Andrew Behrendt, assistant teaching professor of history and political science, formed a panel and presented at the joint meeting of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in San Antonio, Texas on April 7. Their panel was named "Representations of History in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Series." Their papers were: "Agency, Destiny, and the Fantasy of Historical Certainty in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey" by Andrew Behrendt; "Late Antiquity, Netflix-Style: Historicized Grimdark Fantasy in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla," by Daniel Reardon; and "Playing in the Accurate Past: Ptolemaic Egypt in Assassin’s Creed: Origins," by Kathleen Sheppard. Kathleen also presented a paper titled "The United States Encounters Antiquity: The 1890-91 Lecture Tour of Amelia Edwards and Kate Bradbury" at the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt in Minneapolis on April 22.
Dr. Jay Switzer (Chancellor’s Professor of chemistry), and his group had two papers accepted this month:
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- “Epitaxial Single-Domain Cu-BTC Metal−Organic Framework Thin Films and Foils by Electrochemical Conversion of Cuprous Oxide” accepted by ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
- “Epitaxial Electrodeposition of Ordered Inorganic Materials” accepted by Accounts of Chemical Research(impact factor 24.5). This was an invited paper for a special issue on “Electrosynthesis of Inorganic Materials.”
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Dr. Robin Verble (associate professor of biological sciences), published a paper in Diversity with Theo Sumnicht, assistant teaching professor of biological sciences, and Lilly Germeroth, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 2020.
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Matt Lehmann, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 2004, is currently working alongside the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education to support alumni engagement for those passionate about education, math and science, humanities, and the arts. His passion for Missouri S&T led to him serve as a student ambassador until graduation. In 2008, he returned to the university as an admissions counselor. In 2015, Matt joined the development team where he began expanding his outreach to alumni. Matt would love to hear about your Rolla experience and hopes you will share it with him at lehmannm@mst.edu.
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We also welcome the following three new staff members to CASE:
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- Trish Aston, business support specialist II in physics
- Michelle Mayhue, business support specialist I in physics
- Shayla Yoakum, business support specialist II for the college’s office of the dean
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Major Matt Burmeister, head of the Army ROTC at S&T, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army during a promotion ceremony on April 4 on campus. Congratulations to Matt for this well-deserved promotion.
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In a joint research venture between the psychological science and English and technical communication departments, the departments have set up three “living room” laboratories in Humanities and Social Sciences Building, one each with Google, Apple and Amazon smart home technologies (hub/speaker, lamps, a video doorbell, a smart door lock, a smart thermostat, a smart TV, etc.). Ongoing research in these smart home living rooms includes studies on:
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- the usability of smart homes with a range of interconnected devices.
- comparisons on user experiences and preferences across the technology brands.
- bias and differential interaction with smart home assistants based on the accent they are set to.
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Tours are available for faculty, staff and prospective students, and activity tours are given for K-12 students at STEM events. For a tour or more information, please contact Dr. Daniel B. Shank (shankd@mst.edu) in psychology or Dr. David Wright (wrightmd@mst.edu) in English and technical communication.
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College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Missouri University of Science and Technology
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