College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Dear CASE students, faculty, and staff,
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2022 was an exciting year for our college. We adopted a new name change (from CASB to CASE), opened a brand new Child Development Center, installed a new dean, brought South Central Regional Professional Development Center under the umbrella of our teacher education and certification department, and launched two brand-new bachelor’s degrees (BS in Environmental Science, and BA in Multidisciplinary Studies emphasis areas in French Language and Culture, Spanish Language and Culture, and Global Engineering). Other firsts included setting a record in research awards ($5.4 million), launching a collegewide internal monthly newsletter, new LinkedIn page, and receiving authorization to offer four new certificates: undergraduate certificate in education of young children; undergraduate certificate in Medicinal Chemistry; graduate certificate in Human Factors; and graduate certificate in Professional Communication. Of course, we also graduated new alumni and welcomed new students.
As we start 2023, the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education (CASE) hums with even more energy. Based on the results of a survey we conducted, we have adopted a new leading message as part of our branding efforts: “Making the CASE for change.” We have a new associate dean for research and external relations in the person of Dr. Yue-Wern Huang. More than ten faculty hiring searches are concurrently under way, and a new graduate track pathway in chemistry has just been approved. Numerous other exciting initiatives are also underway which we will inform you about in the upcoming months.
Furthermore, in 2023, we will celebrate the 130th anniversary of the foundation of our chemistry department and the 40th anniversaries of our biological sciences, English, history and political science, and psychological science departments.
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Four physics graduate students (Jose Nicasio, Gaurav Khairnar, Yanyan Zheng and Ali Sarikhani) are winners of the 29th annual Schearer Prize for graduate research.
Kaleb Bryan (English and technical communication major) published his poem “We will keep you alive in us” in Washington University’s Journal Spires: Intercollegiate Arts & Literary Magazine.”
Emily Pearson (psychological science alumni, 2022), Jenna Graff (biological sciences alumni, 2021), plus two other authors (one student and one external faculty collaborator) and Dr. Amy Belfi published a paper in the journal Memory in which Emily was the lead author.
Jessi Schoolcraft (multidisciplinary studies) won second place in the Center for Science, Technology, and Society 2022 Student Research Symposium for her presentation “Divining a Better Future: Technology and Methods of Divination in the 18th Century.”
Two teams of undergraduate students in biological sciences finished in second and third place in the Start-Up Challenge, sponsored by Kummer student programs and career opportunities and employer relations in November.
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- In second place, Aiden Armstrong (junior in biological sciences), Madison Husereau (senior in biological sciences) and Abigail Knoesel (junior in chemical engineering) placed second and won $3,000 for their startup, Foliagraft. Foliagraft proposes the use of spinach leaves and stem cells to help burn victims and others with wounds and conditions that require a skin graft.
- Kayla Cashion (senior in biological sciences) and Sophia Straatmann (senior in biological sciences) finished third in the competition and won $1,000 for their startup, Stroller Puller. The puller will attach to strollers so they can be more easily pulled over sand, gravel, grass, hills and other surfaces difficult for people taking care of kids with disabilities. The Stroller Puller was developed in the BioDesign class taught by Dr. Julie Semon. The idea came from Sophie Straatman whose little sister has cerebral palsy. Because most families they interviewed purchased used strollers, they knew they wanted to make it as affordable as possible and make it adaptable to as many brands of strollers as possible. They received such wonderful feedback, and now Sophie is looking at careers in patent law. She even started working for Tech Transfer on campus this semester.
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Dr. Andrew Behrendt (assistant teaching professor, history and political science) presented a poster, “Using Video Games to Teach the Philosophy of Video Games; or, Hayden White Rides a Digital Trojan Horse” about his course Historical Representation in Video Games at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in Philadelphia.
Dr. Amy Belfi (assistant professor, psychological sciences) was cited in a Popular Science article titled “This is your brain on Christmas music.”
Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi (CASE dean) was interviewed by BBC World News Program's Newshour and quoted in two separate articles related to political turmoil in Iran by Agence France-Presse.
Dr. Devin Burns (associate professor of psychological science) starred in a play at Fine Linen Theatre, titled “The Play that Goes Wrong.”
Dr. Jerry Cohen (professor of arts, languages, and philosophy) co-authored the recently published book, Origin of the Term “Dude”.
Dr. Petra DeWitt (associate professor, history and political science) published The Missouri Home Guard: Protecting the Home Front during the Great War (University of Missouri Press, 2023). She was interviewed on St. Louis Public Radio about this book.
Dr. Kathryn Dolan (associate professor, English and technical communication) shared a paper at the Modern Language Association Conference in San Francisco in early January and a paper titled, “Uncanny Consumption in Parable of the Sower” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago, IL in October.
Dr. Shane Epting (assistant professor of philosophy) was interviewed by Daily Philosophy on the Philosophy of cities. He also presented his paper “What is Urban Enlightenment?” at a conference in Italy, his research in New Orleans, and participated in an author-meets-critics panel at the University of Milan’s Culinary Mind Center for Philosophy of Food in Milan, Italy.
Dr. Karen Head (professor of English and Director of Arts & Innovation) published “Two Experiments in Technologically Mediated Education: 2012 and 2020” in Negotiating the Intersections of Writing and Writing Instruction.
Dr. Rainer Glaser (professor of chemistry and interim vice provost for graduate education) and Sara C. McCauley (Ph.D. candidate, chemistry) published an article in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, which was highlighted on the journal cover. Read more here.
Dr. Garry Grubbs (associate professor and associate chair of chemistry) published an article in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics titled: “Accuracy of Quantum Chemistry Structures of Chiral Tag Complexes and the Assignment of Absolute Configuration.” It was selected as 2022 HOT PCCP article.
Taylor Gruenloh’s (assistant teaching professor of arts, languages, and philosophy) short film The Unwritten Rule, written with Kareem Spann and directed by Spann, continues to receive accolades, including official selection into:
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- the Denton Black Film Festival
- the California International Shorts Festival
- The Winter Film Awards International Film Festival NYC
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Ashok Karra (lecturer in arts, languages, and philosophy) presented his paper “Nietzsche and Lawfulness: On the Opening of Genealogy’s Second Essay,” and served as a discussant in the session “Foucault, Kierkegaard, and Blumenberg: Muddling Through After Modernity” at the Northeastern Political Science Association Conference in Boston.
Dr. Alanna Krolikowski (assistant professor of political science) published an article on China's Belt and Road Initiative in International Studies Review.
Dr. Jossalyn Larson (assistant professor of English and technical communication) presented a paper, “Nuns in Horror: Women’s Movements and the Resurgence of Nunsploitation” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago.
Dr. John C. McManus (Curators’ Distinguished Professor of history) created a new online video-based class on the Vietnam War offered as part of the “The Great Courses” website. He is the first S&T professor to earn this distinction. John also joined Al Murray and James Holland for a series of podcasts related to the Second World War from a US perspective. Check out the USA episodes of We Have Ways of Making you Talk. Episodes with Dr. McManus include “Eichelberger,” “A Standing Start,” and “Salerno.”
Dr. Julia Medvedeva (professor of physics and senior investigator of the Materials Research Center) participated in a two-day workshop at the University of Chicago, titled “Materials Research Laboratories of the Future” initiated by the Division of Materials Research of the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Audra Merfeld-Langston (chair and associate professor of arts, languages, and philosophy) presented “Bèlè, Baskets, and Rum: The French-Speaking Caribbean in Your Class(r/z)oom” at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Boston, MA. She also served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Humanities for the Humanities Connections Program grant competition.
Dr. Vadym Mochalin (associate professor of chemistry) was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He also published an article in Advanced Materials. Vadym also delivered an invited talk at Materials Research Society Fall 2022 meeting in Boston.
Dr. Dan Reardon (associate professor of English and technical communication and interim vice provost for undergraduate education) presented a paper, “You’re Wrong about This Game Until You’re Right: Unshackled Resistance in Christine Love’s Analogue: A Hate Story” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago.
Dr. Ross Reed (lecturer, department of arts, languages and philosophy) published an article on philosophical counseling in the International Journal of Philosophical Practice, titled "A Psychotherapist Seeks Philosophical Counseling: A Dialogue."
Dr. Rachel Schneider (associate teaching professor of English and technical communication) presented a paper, “Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster” at the Midwest Popular Culture Association conference in Chicago.
Dr. Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis (professor and chair of chemistry) published an article on a new class of polymers in Chemistry of Materials titled: “Polybenzodiazine Aerogels: All-nitrogen Analogues of Polybenzoxazines - Synthesis, Characterization, and high-yield Conversion to Nanoporous Carbons.
Dr. Robin Verble (associate professor of biological sciences) chaired a society-wide symposium on diversity, inclusion, equity and safety in field work at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in Austin, Texas.
Dr. Agnes Vojta (teaching professor, physics) is one of nine authors who contributed to Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry.
Dr. Risheng Wang (associate professor of chemistry) and her research group published an article titled, “Enhancement of Electricity Production of Microbial Fuel Cells by Using DNA Nanostructures as Electron Mediator Carriers.” The publication was featured as the journal’s front cover article.
Dr. Dave Westenberg (Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor, biological sciences) was named Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor by the University of Missouri System and inducted into the S&T Academy of Miner Athletics.
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The following CASE faculty and staff received awards at the 2022 Faculty Awards Ceremony held on campus on December 8:
Experiential Learning Award: Courtney Jones (Kummer Center for STEM Education)
Faculty Achievement Award: Kendrea James (English and technical communication), Niranjana Krishnan (biological sciences)
Faculty Excellence Award: Kathleen Sheppard (history and political science), Marco Cavaglia (physics), Xiaoming He (mathematics & statistics)
Faculty Research Award: Amy Belfi (psychological science), Daniel Fischer (physics), Eric Bryan (English & technical communication), Shane Epting (arts, languages, and philosophy)
Faculty Service Award: Clair Kueny (psychological science), Devin Burns (psychological science)
Faculty Teaching Award: Amber Henslee (psychological science), Dev Niyogi (biological sciences), Jossalyn Larson (English and technical communication), Katie Shannon (biological sciences), Merilee Krueger (psychological science), Petra DeWitt (history and political science)
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Jordan Stevens, a senior in physics, was one of only 36 women students at this year’s recent FUTURE of Physics 2022 Conference. Not one of 36 from Missouri S&T, but one of 36 total women student attendees from across the nation. As intimidating as those numbers sound, Stevens says she believes going there and participating could be pivotal to her future education. Read her full story here.
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Dr. Xiaoming Wang, the Gary Havener Endowed Chair of mathematics and statistics, joined us in November 2022.
Wang discovered his passion for mathematics early on. He enjoyed making word problems for his classmates while in elementary school. After completing high school ahead of schedule, Wang entered Fudan University in his hometown of Shanghai, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics. Then, he came to the United States to pursue doctoral training and obtained his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Indiana University - Bloomington. Wang was a postdoctoral fellow/Courant Instructor at the Courant Institute before joining Iowa State University, where he was quickly promoted to associate professor with tenure. Next, he moved to Florida State University in the early 2000s, where he was a tenured professor in the department of mathematics. Wang returned to his ancestral land in 2017, where he worked as a Distinguished Professor at his alma mater and a chair professor at Southern University of Science and Technology, an up-and-coming international university in China's high-tech hub of Shenzhen. His previous administrative experiences include serving as the chair of the department of mathematics at Florida State University and Southern University of Science and Technology.
Wang's current research focuses on modern applied mathematics, especially problems related to fluid dynamics, groundwater research, geophysical fluid dynamics, and turbulence. He develops and utilizes tools from partial differential equations, dynamical systems, stochastic analysis, numerical analysis, scientific computing, and machine learning in his research. A distinctive feature of his work is the combination of rigorous mathematics with genuine physical applications. Wang has received more than one dozen grants from external funding agencies such as the US National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China to support his research. Besides a research monograph published by the Cambridge University Press, his papers appeared in mathematics journals such as Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics and applied discipline journals such as the Journal of Fluid Mechanics. In addition, he is on the editorial board of five international journals in mathematics.
Wang enjoys working with students in and out of the classroom. He has developed eight new courses and supervised nine doctoral dissertations and numerous master's theses. His former students have found success in higher education institutions and financial and other industries.
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College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Missouri University of Science and Technology
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