Faculty/Staff News of Note
December 2005
Michelle Previte, assistant professor of mathematics, and Joseph Previte, associate professor of mathematics, recently submitted their proposal, “RUI Program in Vertex Replacement Rules,” to the National Science Foundation, to the National Science Foundation. The amount of the proposal is $120,659 for two years. The proposal is in response to the NSF’s increasing interest in funding mathematics.
Yi-Hong Wang, assistant professor of biology, recently submitted two proposals for external funding. The first, “Characterization and Screening of Tomato Mutants with Altered Fertility under Normal and Elevated Temperatures,” to the National Science Foundation. The amount of the proposal is $ 583,952 for four years. This proposed research involves plant response to the effects of global warming, and offers opportunities for student research. The second proposal, “Phenotypic Analysis of Tomato Plants with Altered Expression of Non-symbiotic Hemoglobin Genes,” was submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The amount of this proposal is $340,176 for four years.
Professor of Psychology Clare Porac presented the paper “The Poggendorff Illusion: Rectangle Fill Patterns Alter Illusion Magnitude” at the meetings of the Psychonomic Society held recently in Toronto. Her co-author was Alan Searleman, professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.
At the same meeting, Dawn Blasko and Victoria Kazmerski, associate professors of psychology, and psychology major Sandra Grgic presented a poster of a project titled “Lawyers are Sharks but are Sharks Lawyers?: Directionality in Metaphor Processing.”
Jennifer Trich Kremer, lecturer in psychology, presented her usability and performance evaluation work on personal response systems (“clickers”) at the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP) meeting that also was held in Toronto. Her paper, “Evaluation of Student/Personal Response Systems in the College Classroom,” was co-authored by Dawn Blasko.
Penn State Behrend men’s basketball head coach Dave Niland earned coaching victory number 200 in Behrend's 77-75 win over Wesley (DE) on Saturday. The Behrend Lions now stand at 3-0 on the young season. Niland is the all-time leader in men's basketball coaching victories at Behrend and has led the Behrend Lions to 11 straight winning seasons.
James Sonnenmeier, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, attended the 2005 American Society of Mechanical Engineers International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition held last month in Orlando to present two papers: “Teaching Courses for an Engineering Student Abroad in Iraq,” which was written with Elisa Wu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and “The Aerodynamics of an Actively Twisted Wing.” The latter was co-authored with Oladipo Onipede, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and engineering students Andrew Detar and Heather Myers.
Wen-Li Wang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented the paper “A Software Design Template for Swarm Intelligence Systems Development” at the Ninth International Association of Science and Technology for Development International Conference in Phoenix, Ariz.
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has funded a proposal by Robert Weissbach, associate professor of engineering, James Sonnenmeier, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Lola Deets, lecturer in biology. Their project, “Protocol for Determining Feasibility of Installing Dedicated Wind Energy in Pennsylvania Rural Communities,” will receive $49,966 over the next 14 months.
Yi-Hong Wang, assistant professor of biology, has requested a four-year, $340,176 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “Phenotypic Analysis of Tomato Plants with Altered Expression of Non-Symbiotic Hemoglobin Genes.”
Ronald DelPorto, lecturer in computer science, attended workshops on teaching and learning at the 2005 Lilly Conference held Nov. 17-20 at Miami University of Ohio, Oxford.
Brad Comann, lecturer in English, was given special mention for his essay “Last Making” in the 2006 Pushcart Prizes, an annual reader of the best work published by small presses.
Amy Lewis, lecturer in English, presented “Between the Baby and the Bathwater: Navigating Parenthood in Academia” at the Midwest Modern Language Association’s 2005 annual meeting held last month in Milwaukee, Wis.
Leigh-Ann Bedal, lecturer in anthropology, gave a report on the fifth season of excavation at the Petra Garden and Pool Complex in Jordan during the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research held in November in Philadelphia.
David Hunnicutt, assistant professor of biology, has had the proposal "Pathogenesis of Flavobacteria in Fish" funded through the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture. Dave will receive $32,100 over three years to investigate how certain bacteria cause disease in fish, an important question for state and local fisheries and for aquaculture. The grant includes summer funding for undergraduate researchers.
Qi Dunsworth, instructional designer, Thomas Wortman, senior project associate for research, Carla Torgerson, director of the Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies, and Lisa Mangel, lecturer in biology, have submitted a proposal to Microsoft Corp. requesting $144,182 to fund the project “Improving Biology Learning with Tablet PC Technologies.” On a related note, Lisa, Carla, and Tom were selected by Hewlett Packard to present at the HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference to be held in Monterey, Calif., in February. Their presentation, “A Simple Equation: Tablet PCs + Interactive Design = Better Biology Learning” was one of just six selected from 404 eligible schools. The trio received a $73,500 HP Technology for Teaching grant last March.
A $5,905 proposal to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Regional Summer Schools of Excellence has been submitted by Tracy Halmi, lecturer in chemistry, and Martin Kociolek, associate professor of chemistry, for the course “Introduction to Organic Chemistry.”
Jennifer Holt, assistant professor of chemistry, has submitted the proposal “Spectroscopic Investigation of Novel Host-Guest Materials Using Brooker’s Merocyanine Dyes in Zeolite Host Materials” to the American Chemical Society’s Petroleum Research Fund. She requested $35,000 over two years.
Liz McMahon, assistant professor of history, gave two presentations last month: "Quranic Education and Culture Brokers: Colonial Intervention and Islamic Hegemony on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, 1920-1960” at the African Studies Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C., and "Social Responsibility, Culture and the Quran: Colonial Intervention and Generational Divides in Muslim Education on Pemba Island, Zanzibar" at the Social Science History Association annual meeting held in Portland, Ore.
John T. Roth, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has received the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. This award is given to engineers 35 years and younger who have demonstrated significant achievements and leadership in the field of manufacturing engineering. John was nominated for the award by his peers in the manufacturing community and reviewed by the International Honor Awards Committee of SME. John’s research interest is exploring methods for extending manufacturing tool life.
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