College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Dear CASE alumni, faculty, staff and students,
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As we close another academic year, I want to take a moment to celebrate the joyous month of May, marked by the graduation of many of our CASE students. Congratulations to all our graduates as you embark on exciting new chapters in your lives! You have truly embodied the wisdom of a sage poet who once said:
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When things seem difficult and life uphill
Don't look too far ahead
Keep plodding on.
And inch by inch the road will shorten,
Till the roughest patches will be past and gone.
And you'll look back surprised and cheered to find
That you have left so many miles behind.
And very soon the tedious climb will stop.
And you will stand triumphant at the top.
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I would be remiss if I did not express my sincere gratitude to our faculty and staff for their wonderful efforts throughout the past academic year. Their dedication and hard work have been instrumental in our successes and have not gone unnoticed.
I would also like to thank a donor who wishes to remain anonymous for their $10,000 donation in memory of our recently departed colleague, Dr. Prakash Reddy. The funds will be used to bolster scholarships for students in the chemistry department.
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Unique experiences for CASE students
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On April 23, the Rolla High School AP Psychology class visited the S&T psychological science department. They visited the smart home labs, played WAGES, learned about rationality and checked out the neuro lab.
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The arts, languages and philosophy department sent a design team to the 2024 Stage Machine Design Competition in early May and earned second place.
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CASE outstanding staff and faculty
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Several staff and faculty received awards for their work and dedication during the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education collegewide meeting in April. See the full list of honorees online.
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Physics graduate student Reece Beattie-Hauser is first author on the paper "Scalar susceptibility of a diluted classical XY model" with Dr. Thomas Vojta, which was published in Physical Review B. Reece recently defended his masters thesis and will start in a Ph.D. program at Boston University in the fall.
Jack Crewse, Ph.D. candidate in physics, defended his dissertation titled “Critical Behavior and Dynamics of the Superfluid-Mott Glass Transition” on May 3 under the supervision of Dr. Thomas Vojta.
Andrew Madsen, a junior in physics, received third prize in the 2024 Fuller Prize Competition for Undergraduate Research in the physics department. His research project was titled "Towards Understanding Dust Attenuation of Emission lines with Illustris TNG Galaxies," advised by Dr. Shun Saito. Madsen was also inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honors society along with two other physics majors, Punit Sesha Sai Turlapati and David Cleary.
Gabriel Rodriguez, a master's student in industrial-organizational psychology, received second place for a best paper award as part of the Intelligent Systems Center graduate student research showcase. His work, under the direction of Dr. Clair Kueny, discussed the complexities of modeling all community stakeholders intertwined with complex challenges of rural workforce shortages and rural opioid crises. For more information click here.
Joshua Santy, a senior in physics, won an Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience (OURE) Fellow award. Only six S&T students are chosen to become OURE Fellows each year. Santy is advised by Dr. Julia Medvedeva, and his proposal was titled “Amorphous Transparent Metal Oxide p-type Semiconductors.” Santy was also the co-winner of the 2024 Fuller Prize Competition for Undergraduate Research in physics.
Samuel Schrader, who earned a bachelor's degree in physics in 2024, was the co-winner of the first prize in the 2024 Fuller Prize Competition for Undergraduate Research in the Physics department. His project was titled "Visualization of Ultracold Atomic Samples" and advised by Dr. Daniel Fischer.
John Tubbesing, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, has been selected to participate in the NASA-Missouri Space Grant Consortium’s 2024 Summer Internship and Fellowship Program. His advisor is Dr. Jay Switzer, Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus of chemistry and senior investigator in the Materials Research Center.
Stephen Yaw Owusu, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, was awarded a summer 2024 internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. His advisor is Dr. Chariklia Sotiriou-Leventis, chair and professor of chemistry.
Shiping Zou, a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics, defended his dissertation on May 23; the dissertation is titled "Computational and Applied Math Emphasis."
Congratulations to the following psychological science undergraduate students:
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- Rebecka Cooper, Ava Berutti, Carmen Rodriguez, Sarah Shyres, and Grace Hall were inducted to the international honors society for psychology, Psi Chi. They were recently recognized at the end-of-year psychological science department dinner.
- Nova-Lee Young was recognized by the psychological science department as the outstanding senior for exemplary performance in academics, research, and as a constantly positive department citizen.
- Jessica Frame was recognized as the Suzanne Olson Research awardee for her extensive research record, presenting at multiple regional and national conferences while also serving as first author on two publications with her research mentor, Dr. Amy Belfi.
- Lexy Custer was recognized for outstanding service for serving on both the psychological science student advisory board and the CASE student advisory board.
- Akira Durbin was recognized for outstanding research for her work in helping to manage Dr. Belfi's research lab.
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Psychological science and CASE supported four undergraduate students to present their research at the Midwestern Psychological Association conference in Chicago last month. Sophia Firle, a junior in biological sciences, and Gemma Flores-Olivas, a senior in electrical engineering, presented a poster, titled "Effects of Ally Confrontation on Target Outcomes"; Nova-Lee Young presented a talk, titled "Replication Attempt of Dynamic Norms”; and Jessica Frame presented a talk, titled "The influence of sensory modality on aesthetic judgments of poetry."
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Introducing CASE's senior development officer
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Michelle Shults has worked in Missouri S&T's university advancement office for more than nine years, supporting annual giving, academic departments, and now working as CASE's senior development officer. Prior to joining S&T, she worked for Paramount Apparel International and CANTEX Inc. Shults studied business administration at Columbia College, and will complete a business and management systems degree at Missouri S&T in the fall.
“I look forward to meeting more of CASE’s wonderful alumni in this new role,” says Shults. “I also look forward to working with the college’s leadership team to increase awareness of the power of philanthropy and increase the visibility of the college through our hard work.”
If you are interested in supporting CASE, contact Michelle Shults, senior development officer for CASE, at shultsm@mst.edu or call 573-341-4380.
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Education department faculty received a $49,942 IGSET grant from S&T for a proposal to develop an education stackable certificate.
Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, CASE dean and professor of history and political science, was quoted in two articles by Wall Street Journal (see here and here) on the death of the Iranian President. He was also interviewed on the same subject by the German TV Deutsche Welle (5/21/24), and The World Radio.
Dr. Richard Dawes, adjunct professor of chemistry, received a $61,305 grant from Sandia National Laboratories for a project titled “Theoretical Prediction of Nitrogen Dioxide Potential Energy Surfaces and Absorption Spectra.” With this addition, the award totals $212,549.
Dr. Nuran Ercal, Chancellor’s Professor of chemistry, was ranked No. 3,420 in the United States among Best Scientists in the field of Chemistry for 2024 by Research.com.
Dr. Shannon Fogg, chair and professor of history and political science, presented a paper titled "Restitution Dossiers and 'Data Feminism': The Limits of Counting and Describing Material Persecution" at the conference "Quantifying the Holocaust: Classifying, Counting, Modeling: What Contribution to Holocaust History" in Paris.
Dr. Beth Kania-Gosche, chair and professor of education, received a $52,000 grant for a project titled “Retention of Child Care Staff” from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Dr. Alanna Krolikowski, assistant professor of history and political science, was interviewed by BBC Science Focus on an article she recently co-authored.
Dr. Shelley Minteer, professor of chemistry and director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability, was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The formal induction ceremony will take place on Sept. 21, 2024 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Dr. Vadym Mochalin, associate professor of chemistry, delivered an invited lecture on his work with chemistry of two-dimensional materials at the 2024 Spring Materials Research Society meeting on April 24.
Dr. Vahe Permzadian, assistant professor of psychological science, published an article titled “The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis” in the International Journal of Educational Research.
Dr. Michael Peterson, assistant professor of philosophy, published an article titled "Inheritance Indifferent to Legitimacy: A Kind of Ethical and Political First Principle", in the journal Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities (Vol 29, Numbers 1-2, Feb-Apr 2024). This is a special issue on "Ethics and Deconstruction" published to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Derrida's death. This article argues for an understanding of political inheritance and transformation informed by Derrida's own political and textual legacy.
Dr. Shun Saito, assistant professor of physics, and his cosmology group participated in the 3rd Academic Symposium at Missouri State University-West Plains which featured Astronomy in the Ozarks. He spoke about “Unveiling the Dark Energy’s identity through galaxy surveys." Cole Rischbieter, graduate student in physics, gave a talk on “Determining Optimal Weighting for Cosmological Observables in the Non-Gaussian Case.” Steven Karst, who graduated this month with his bachelor's degree, presented on “Enhancing Galaxy Surveys with Machine Learning.”
Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, professor of history and political science, gave the keynote talk on Monday, May 20, at the monthly meeting of the Egyptian Study Society of Denver. Her talk, titled "A Thousand Miles Up the Hudson: The 1889-90 United States Lecture Tour of Amelia Edwards and Kate Bradbury," detailed the lecture tour of the most well-known scientific lecturer in U.S. history at that time. The talk is based on her upcoming book, Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, which will be released in mid-July.
Dr. Robin Verble, associate professor of biological sciences, received the David L. Rice distinguished alumnus award from the University of Southern Indiana. She also delivered their May 2024 commencement address to the USI College of Science, Engineering and Education. Verble and colleagues recently published a paper in the journal Fire about impacts of the wildland fire dispatcher career field on mental health.
Dr. Dave Westenberg, Curator’s Teaching Professor of biological sciences, was appointed senior editor of the Tips and Tools section of the American Society for Microbiology's Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education.
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College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Missouri University of Science and Technology
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