College of Arts, Sciences, and Education
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Dear CASE alumni, faculty, staff and students,
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May is a dynamic month on campus—a time of final papers and exams, commencement ceremonies, and transitions as students prepare for internships, co-ops, or new career opportunities.
To all CASE students, congratulations on your achievements throughout the 2024–25 academic year. Remember this timeless truth that relentless persistence and firm determination are the keys to soaring beyond boundaries.
I also extend heartfelt thanks to our faculty, staff, and alumni for their unwavering commitment to educating and supporting our students. Your contributions are integral to our community's success.
Wishing everyone a restful and rejuvenating summer.
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The annual First Year Research Experience (FYRE) program (pictured above) wrapped up its year-long activities with a vibrant poster session held on May 5. Thirty-two students from 11 majors successfully completed and presented their research projects. The event fostered lively discussions among students, faculty members and with a few parents in attendance who expressed genuine interest in their students’ work. The Dean’s Office sincerely appreciates the dedication and mentorship provided by the FYRE faculty mentors who play a pivotal role in shaping our students’ learning experiences. Because of their dedication, many students expressed their interest in participating int the Opportunities for the Undergraduate Research Experiences (OURE) program in the coming year. We remain committed to expanding participation in the FYRE program and supporting the next generation of researchers.
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Physics graduate student Gaurav Khairnar successfully defended his dissertation "Quantum and classical phase transitions in disordered systems." His advisor is Dr. Thomas Vojta.
Dr. Jeff Schramm, associate professor of history and political science, created an unusual assignment for his "History 4470, American Environmental History" course. Instead of a term paper or a final exam, students were to write a short Op-Ed about a contemporary environmental issue designed for a public audience. In doing so, they were to incorporate environmental history into the text to show that our contemporary environmental issues all have a past. Students were required to identify a publication for possible submission but were not required to submit the op-ed unless they wanted to. Topics ranged from dangers to national parks and forests to nuclear energy to reusable shopping bags. One topic that had local significance was tap water fluoridation which is a topic of discussion in Rolla. Student Drake O’Leary researched the history of fluoridation and had his op-ed published in the Phelps County Focus.
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Margaret Taiwo, (above, right) a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, secured a highly competitive grant from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Grants-in-Aid program. This achievement will empower her to advance her cutting-edge research on PFAS. A huge shoutout also goes to her Ph.D. mentor, Dr. Michael Eze, assistant professor of chemistry, whose expert guidance has been instrumental in this success.
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Harshit Agarwal, Jacob Harl, Jonathan House, Lana Herkenhoff, and Punit Turlapati are the winners of the 2025 Fuller Prize Competition for Undergraduate Research in physics. First prize was awarded to Harshit Agarwal for his work on Development of a Novel AC Magnetic Measurement Technique with a Transistor-Powered Colpitts Self-Oscillator for Quantum Materials Research (advisor: Dr. Hyunsoo Kim). The second prize was awarded to Jacob Harl for his project Quantum Simulation of Turbulence in Long-Range Interacting Magnetic Ultracold Atom Gases (advisor: Dr. Simeon Mistakidis). The third prize was awarded to Jonathan House for his research on Fractional Brownian Motion with Mean-Density Interaction (advisor: Dr. Thomas Vojta) and to Lana Herkenhoff and Puni Turlapati for their project Replicating and Testing the Point-Contact Transistor (advisor: Dr. Hyunsoo Kim). Fourteen projects were entered in the competition. The annual Fuller Prize Competition for Undergraduate Research honors the memory of Dr. Harold Q. Fuller, former chair of the physics department. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to the judges.
The following chemistry doctoral candidates successfully defended their dissertations:
Rajarshi Kar defended his dissertation titled “Designing Multifunctional Metal Telluride Based Electrocatalysts for Sea Water Electrolysis and Oxygen Reduction” on May 23, 2025. His dissertation advisor was Dr. Manashi Nath.
Harish Singh defended his dissertation titled “Development of Catalytic Membranes and Composites for Energy Storage Devices and Nonenzymatic Biosensors” on April 4, 2024. His advisor was Dr. Manashi Nath.
Santhoshkumar Sundaramoorthy defended his dissertation titled “Design and Synthesis of Ternary and Quaternary Chalcogenides as Cathodes and Solid Electrolyte Materials for Energy Storage Applications” on July 11, 2024. His advisor was Dr. Amitava Choudhury.
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The physics department's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) group offered presentations at the Saint Louis Science Center SciFest: The Great Outdoors Expo. Pictured are undergraduate Arpith Mysore, grad student Dishari Malakar, professor Dr. Marco Cavaglia, grad student Charlie Winborn, and postdoc Yanyan Zheng.
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Twenty four Rolla High School students from Ms. Engelke's AP psychology class came to visit the psychological science department in April 29. Students went on a tour of Dr. Daniel Shank's Smart Home labs, learned about their personality with Dr. Matthew Ng, and explored the science behind rationality and decision-making with Dr. Devin Burns, among other great presentations from faculty. The department hosts Ms. Engelke's class every April to introduce students to the wide range of disciplines in psychology.
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Lisa Pavia-Higel has joined Missouri S&T as an assistant teaching professor of English and technical communication. She brings more than 15 years of teaching experience at vocational and community colleges, most recently serving as professor of communication and theater at Jefferson College. At Missouri S&T, she primarily teaches communications and media courses.
Read more about Pavia-Higel.
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Additionally, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, pictured above at the S&T Field Station, visited Missouri S&T last month thanks to the Weiner Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of over 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction, exploring climate change, ecology, and alternative political systems.
Read more about the events.
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Chemistry and KUKA gifts support the college
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Charles E. “Charlie” Schroeder, Chem'73, and his wife Martha Schroeder have established a $25,000 scholarship for students in the chemistry department.
Recently, the Set Technology and General Entertainment (STAGE) Student design team received two KUKA 6 axis, payload carrying robots through a gift from KUKA Robotics. S&T alumnus Jack Pennuto, ME'04, is President of KUKA Robotics, North America and serves on both the Miner Athletics and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Academies. Pennuto feels that Missouri S&T is a perfect fit for KUKA Robotics to provide support for emerging initiatives like entertainment technologies.
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Dr. Andrew Behrendt, assistant teaching professor of history and political science, won the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Michael Bruening, professor of history and political science, published an article in the Swiss magazine Passé simple titled "De la cathédrale à la 'grande église'" ("From the cathedral to the great church") about the transformation of the Lausanne cathedral during the Reformation from a Catholic to a Protestant building.
Dr. Gerald Cohen, professor of German, published his latest item on the most ancient form of Greek writing called Linear B, which looks nothing like the standard Greek alphabet: "Reflections on Linear B (part 10): Linear B Sign *49 May Derive From an Egyptian Hieroglyph Denoting Sunrays."
Dr. Petra DeWitt, associate professor of history and political science, presented "The Nonferrous 'Octopus' in the Metal Trades in Australia and the United States: Metallgesellschaft and the Reaction to German Dominance in the Metal Trades during World War I" during the 49th Annual Symposium of the Society for German American Studies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 24-26.
Megan Fowler, business operations associate for the CASE dean’s office, earned an award for receiving the highest number of Miner Mentions this year. Launched in 2023 as S&T’s first campus-wide employee recognition program, a Miner Mention is a peer-submitted note of gratitude for noticing a staff member who goes above and beyond. Fowler was presented the award by Staff Success Center Manager Simone Waldon at the Missouri S&T Staff Day Opening Ceremony.
Dr. Mary Gillis, assistant teaching professor, and Dr. Beth Kania-Gosche, chair and professor, both in education, completed instructor training to offer Youth Mental Health First Aid. MHFA is skills-based training that teaches people how to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of a mental health or substance use challenges. All education faculty have been trained in MHFA, and all education graduates receive the training. Email education@mst.edu if your organization is interested in offering a training for your department or organization.
Mathew Goldberg, associate teaching professor of English and technical communication, had a book reading at Skylark on May 15 to introduce his collection of short stories, Night Watch.
As part of the Public Scholars program, led by Dr. Margret Grebowicz, Lisa Pavia-Higel, assistant teaching professor of English and technical communication, published an article in the online publication, The Conversation, about the dangers of "agreeing to disagree" in close relationships. She was also interviewed by KCBS radio in San Francisco about the article as well. The Public Scholar's program is in its first year on campus and has resulted in several pieces being placed in national and regional publications.
Dr. Irina Ivliyeva, chair of arts, languages, and philosophy and Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of Russian, participated in the round table “Teaching Russian through STEM: Topics, Approaches, and Resources" at the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) 50th Anniversary International Conference held April 25-26. Focusing on integrating STEM topics into the Russian curriculum to diversify its content and appeal to a broader range of students, Ivliyeva discussed her approaches to leveraging the ACTFL Standards (5Cs) and the ACUE Effective Practice Framework in developing curriculum for her signature course “Scientific Russian,” outlining the course structure and sharing effective pedagogical strategies in course organization and structured student feedback.
Dr. Clair Kueny, chair and associate professor of psychological science, was recently appointed as chair-in-training (1-year term) of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology's Education and Training Committee. This position will be transitioned into a 2-year term as Chair of this committee and as a member of the Society's leadership team. Kueny also won the Outstanding Faculty Award on May 21. This award recognizes a faculty member who is actively engaged in supporting staff across campus.
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Dr. Shelley Minteer, (pictured above, center) the Dr. Ken Robertson Memorial Professor in Chemistry, gave the 2025 Sir Run Run Shaw Endowed Lecture at Stonybrook University College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University on April 7 and the 2025 Novartis Lecture at Scripps Research Institute on May 2.
Dr. Simeon Mistakidis, assistant professor of physics, published an article titled "Tunable pairing with local spin-dependent Rydberg molecule potentials in an atomic Fermi superfluid" in the APS Physical Review A journal with collaborators from Harvard University and University of California-Merced. Their results unveil novel experimentally tailored pathways to induce and subsequently measure topologically protected states utilizing spin-dependent ultra long-range Rydberg molecule potentials (recently realized with ultracold atoms) across the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein condensation crossover.
Dr. Vadym Mochalin, in collaboration with Prof. Shuohan Huang (Donghua University, Shanghai, China),a former S&T student, was featured on a cover page of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Nanoscale. The cover page illustrates the work into fundamental chemistry of MXenes published in the same journal issue as research paper. The journal posted the news on LinkedIn. Mochalin and collaborators also published a paper in ACS Nano.
Dr. Vahe Permzadian, assistant professor of psychological science, published an article titled “Does Test Format Affect Learning? A Meta-Analysis Comparing the Effect of Closed-Book and Open-Book Examinations” in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.
Dr. Dan Reardon, professor of English and technical communication, was named as the college’s new associate dean for academic affairs as of July 1, 2025.
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Dr. Daniel Shank, (above) associate professor of psychological science, published The Machine Penalty: The Consequences of Seeing Artificial Intelligence as Less Than Human (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2025). This book makes the argument that comparing AI to humans leads us to diminish similar outcomes from AI across situations.
A research team led by Dr. Greg Tschumper, the Donald L. Castleman/FCR Missouri Endowed Professor of Discovery, published an article titled “Systematic characterization of the homogeneous and heterogeneous hydrogen halide dimers” in the Journal of Chemical Physics.
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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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