College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Dear CASE alumni, faculty, staff and students,
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When my daughter shared with me last month that she had been accepted into the graduate program in early childhood education at Columbia University, my thoughts turned to the wise words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil.”
Here at S&T, we are fortunate to have many individuals and programs that embody this philosophy in both spirit and action. From our small but mighty education department to the Child Development Center, the Kummer Center for STEM Education and the South Central Regional Professional Development Center, these units serve as pillars of our commitment to nurturing students and advancing the field of education.
The past year has been especially impactful. Our education department secured $4.6 million in external funding for innovative projects and, since its establishment in 2019, has already placed more than 80 graduates into Missouri’s public schools. Among them is Madison Jolly, Education’24, now a teacher at Bland Middle School, who was recently honored with the Missouri Teacher Leaders of Tomorrow Award by the Missouri Milken Educators.
I was recently reminded of the generosity and spirit of our community during a conversation with David, EE’73, and Arlene Raterman. I happened to mention our Child Development Center’s efforts to raise funds for a new fence that would allow us to expand green space for safe play and exploration. Without hesitation, the Ratermans – longtime supporters of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education – committed to helping us make this vision a reality.
Their generosity, like that of so many others in our community, is a testament to the value we place on fostering environments where every student, from preschooler to graduate scholar, is truly respected.
In that spirit, I find it only fitting to express my gratitude to all our educators and supporters by sharing a poignant poem by Ali Asghar Hekmat (1892–1980), the esteemed Iranian professor and former Minister of Education.
The Gardener
Someone said to Socrates: "O wise man,
Why do you keep company with children again?
What wisdom do you seek from the young,
That from the elders you have turned and gone?
The knowledge of the old is yours to gain —
Is it not a shame with children to remain?"
He answered:
"This world is a garden, and I am the gardener,
Humans are trees, and I am their trainer.
Children are like saplings, fresh and small,
Rising up in search of perfection, after all.
If the gardener tends the new branch with care,
The orchard will bloom with beauty rare.
A young sapling has this noble trait —
To nurture and grow, it readily takes.
If knowledge is the adornment of this world’s face,
The heart of the youth is its fertile place.
So I nurture children from the very start,
That they may learn the ways of age with heart.
Thus teaching became my chosen role,
For the people’s betterment is my goal."
O you, the artist in the teaching profession,
Learn from the wise and heed their lesson.
In the garden of art, be the gardener true —
And straighten the young branch from growing askew.
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Nicholas Fleece, Ph.D. student in mathematics, successfully defended his dissertation titled “Introducing Triangular Groups and Further Results on Magic Groups” on July 2. His dissertation advisor was Dr. Matt Insall.
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Osiel Martinez, (pictured above) a junior in biological sciences, is spending the summer at Fort Polk, Louisiana, gaining hands-on experience as a dental technician in the U.S. Army.
Stephen Owusu, Ph.D. student in chemistry, successfully defended his dissertation titled “Tailoring Selected Aerogels to Targeted Applications” on July 11. His dissertation advisor was Dr. Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis.
Matthew Pollard, Ph.D. student in physics, successfully defended his dissertation titled “Synthesis and Analysis of Materials for Quantum Devices” on June 30. His dissertation advisor was Dr. Yew San Hor and co-advisor was Dr. Julia Medvedeva.
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The physics department’s Atomic, Molecular, and Optical group (members pictured above) made a strong showing at the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Conference held in Portland this June. Postdoctoral fellow Dr. George Bougas presented a poster titled “Dynamical Signatures of Rigidity and Second Sound Dipolar Supersolids” and delivered a talk on “Generation of Vector Rogue Waves in Repulsive Three-Component Mixtures.” Graduate student Ian Heye showcased his research with a poster titled “Exploring the Helium Spectrum and the Helium Polarizability with Simplified Fully Correlated Exponential Basis Sets: Theory and Applications.” Fellow graduate student Kyle Foster presented a poster on “Studying Few-Photon Ionization Dynamics in Continuous Pump-Probe Experiments.” Rounding out the group’s contributions, Dr. Ulrich Jentschura gave a talk titled “Three-Loop Vacuum Polarization in Muonic Atoms.”
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Dr. Margret Grebowicz, the Maxwell C. Weiner Distinguished Professor of Humanities and professor of philosophy, recently published an article titled "Feral Knowledge" in Psyche.com. On campus, she leads the Public Scholars Network, a program dedicated to helping CASE faculty bring their research to broader, public audiences. Internationally, Grebowicz served as the keynote speaker at "Fragile Environments in a Digital Age: Technologies, Aesthetics, Socialities," a conference hosted by the University of Ljubljana in Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia. An environmental philosopher, her work explores the intersection of environment and media, with a focus on both North American and Eastern European contexts. At the conference, she presented “Mushroom Media: Foraging through the Fungal Turn,” a talk she later reprised at the Central European University’s summer school in Budapest, Hungary.
Dr. Irina Ivliyeva, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Russian and chair of arts, languages, and philosophy department, participated in the 2nd International Conference “New Trends in Science: Development Strategies” in June 2025. Her article, "Structural-semantic model of the matrix table of sound verbs: toward a reconstruction of the lexical system” published in the conference proceedings, won the Best Paper Award. The study introduces an innovative lexicographic tool — a multi-modal matrix table built from web-scraped verb forms — highlighting its potential to reveal lexical gaps, generate new linguistic forms, and serve as a predictive model for word formation and morphological synthesis. This marks the tenth article in Ivliyeva’s ongoing exploration of word-formation synthesis in the Russian language.
Dr. Ulrich Jentschura received a $318,016 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Quantum Electrodynamics and Fundamental Physics.”
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Dr. Hyunsoo Kim, assistant professor of physics, led the Superconductor Quantum World summer camp (pictured above), where 19 high school students from seven states explored the fascinating world of quantum physics. Participants experimented with superconductors, built self-oscillators, and created their own quantum bits using photolithography and thin film deposition with titanium on silicon dioxide. Graduate students Agrim Gupta and Anjana Rajapaksha, along with undergraduate Pranesh Sundararajan, supported the hands-on activities. The camp was made possible by funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) award.
Jackie Marling, educational program coordinator for the South Central Regional Professional Development Center, received a $14,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for a project titled “ASM Material Camp Teachers II Advanced.”
Dr. Shelley Minteer, Director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability and professor of chemistry, has been awarded a $299,931 grant from Columbia University for a project titled “ECO-SPARK: Enzymatic Conversion of Organic Carbon into Sustainable Power through Aquatic Reactors and Kinetics.”
Dr. Simeon Mistakidis, assistant professor of physics, recently published two research articles exploring the behavior of quantum droplets. In SciPost Physics, his article “Phases and Dynamics of Quantum Droplets in the Crossover to Two Dimensions,” co-authored with collaborators from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, establishes a robust theoretical framework for simulating the quantum dynamics of ultracold experimental systems forming self-bound, correlated states of matter. In a separate study, “Energy Spectra and Fluxes of Two-Dimensional Turbulent Quantum Droplets,” published in Physical Review Fluids with collaborators from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, he examines competing wave and vortex turbulence cascades and identifies universal scaling behaviors in quantum droplets stirred by impenetrable barriers.
Dr. Ross Channing Reed, lecturer of arts, languages, and philosophy, presented a paper titled "Existential Philosophical Counseling: Clinical Observations, Part I: Circumscribed Self-Disclosure, Moral Discourse, and Moral Presence" at the 26th International Meeting of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association, held on Zoom on June 28.
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, professor of history and political science, gave an online lecture to the Egyptian Study Society, based in Denver, Colorado on July 21. The lecture was titled "Tea with King Tutankhamun at the Winter Palace Hotel" and talked about the conflict surrounding the discovery itself. To whom did it belong? Where should the artifacts go? Who gets to decide? From the tiny tomb of this ancient King in the Valley, to a luxurious suite of rooms occupied by European and American men at the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, several miles away, the fight for King Tutankhamun's future would be waged.
Dr. Pablo Sobrado, the Richard K. Vitek/FCR Endowed Chair of Biochemistry, published an article in Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics detailing the characterization of the active site of an enzyme critical to iron uptake in Acinetobacter baumannii, a pathogenic bacterium of growing clinical concern.
Aaron Zalis, director of the South Central Regional Professional Development Center, received a $3,080 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for a project entitled “FY26 Teacher of Year Facilitation.”
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We appreciate your support
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The support of our donors is instrumental in advancing CASE. Your contributions play a vital role in meeting our diverse needs. Whether it's assisting students facing challenges or investing in faculty development initiatives, your generosity significantly enriches the educational experience we provide. If you are interested in supporting us please contact the Senior Development Officer for CASE, Michelle Shults, at shultsm@mst.edu or call 573-341-4380.
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Disclaimer: CASE does not endorse the viewpoints presented in the essays featured in this section of the newsletter. We share these essays purely as "food for thought" and encourage our informed audience to independently evaluate and form their own opinions on the topics discussed.
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College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Missouri University of Science and Technology
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