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Home Accolades CAS Faculty Creative Works Honors, Kudos and Presentations

2023 Faculty Kudos, Presentations and Honors

Center for Information Assurance (CfIA)

Aug - Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, director and Hill Professor of Computer Science, has been involved in developing robust AI/ML systems for cybersecurity applications and recently gave two talks as a distinguished lecturer — the IEEE CIS Distinguished Lecture on Adversarial Machine Learning and Defense Strategies at IIIT Allahabad; and Generative AI From Historical Perspectives at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Dasgupta also served as a panelist at the IEEE CAI, 2023, on Adversarial Machine Learning: Lesson Learned, Challenges & Opportunities, and has served as an Advisory Board Member of MIT GDC in Cyber Security since 2010.

July - Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, director and Hill Professor of Computer Science, served as a panelist at the IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) on June 6 in Santa Clara, California, on the technical panel "Adversarial Machine Learning: Lessons Learned, Challenges & Opportunities," which was sponsored by Google. His expert views generated interest and discussions among the attendees. He also gave a poster presentation of a research paper co-authored with Dr. Hasan Ali, associate professor of Electrical Engineering, and PhD student Nathan Farrar. Dasgupta presented a poster at the IEEE Conference on AI.

June - Drs. Dasgupta and Myounggyu Won attended the GenCyber Spring Meeting on May 15-16, held at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. During the conference, Dasgupta led a one-hour session on the Principles of Zero Trust. Dr. Won delivered a presentation regarding the progress made on the GenCyber Capacity Building Program within the Center for Information Assurance (CfIA) at the UofM. He highlighted the innovative approach of enhancing cybersecurity education using autonomous R/C cars. Aside from sharing their expertise, the professors also broadened their understanding of the GenCyber program's components and the administrative procedures for invoicing and reporting. The GenCyber program is a cybersecurity training and awareness program for students and teachers in K-12 schools and community colleges and is founded by the DoD/NSA.

May - The University of Memphis is re-designated as a National Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense. It is awarded through the 2027 academic year. Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta is the director and Dr. Hasan Ali, Dr. Myounggyu Won and Dr. Kan Yang are the associate directors of the Center for Information Assurance.

Mar - Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, Hill Professor in Cybersecurity and director of the Center for Information Assurance (CfIA), has contributed a chapter on “An Empirical Study of Algorithmic Bias” in the “Handbook on Computer Learning and Intelligence” (Vol. 2, Chapter 23).

Mar - Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, Hill Professor in Cybersecurity and Director of the Center for Information Assurance (CfIA), recently gave an invited talk on “Adversarial Machine Learning and Defense Strategies” at the University of South Carolina for the Computer Science and Engineering Department. He also toured their AI Institute and engaged in research discussions to explore collaboration opportunities.

Mar - A Research paper has been finalized under the direction of Dr. Dasgupta entitled "Insider Threat Detection and Prevention Protocol: ITDP (2021)." ITDP is a protocol utilized by authenticating a user's security questions to authenticate the user.

Mar - Center for Information Assurance (CfIA) staff member Tony Pinson recently served as a speaker at a K-12 STEM conference. He provided cybersecurity workshops on Internet Safety and Data Encryption in support of the CfIA's Community Outreach Program. The STEM conference was sponsored by the NSBE Memphis Professionals and held at the Macon Campus of Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Computer Science

Aug - Dr. Sajjan Shiva, First Horizon Foundation Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, participated in the International Conference on Educational Data Mining held in Bangalore, India, and delivered invited talks on the Development Life Cycles of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems at the Indian Institute of Science, BABA Institute of Science and Technology and APS Institute of Engineering.

Earth Sciences

Spring - Dr. Ryan Parish, associate professor is a recipient of a teaching/research award through the Fulbright Program.  Ryan will be at Universidad del Tarapaca in Northern Chile during the Fall 2023 semester.  The title of his project is: Teaching Stone Tool Sourcing Archaeological Methods Through Collaborative Research.

Spring - Dr. Ray Lombardi, assistant professor, was an invited speaker for North American Webinar as part of International Association of Geomorphologists March 2023 Webinar Geomorphology Week activities. The title of the talk: Holocene paleo-records reveal pre-conditioning factors for extreme floods

Spring - Dr. Will Jackson, assistant professor has been elected to the YBRA (Yellowstone Bighorn Research Association) board of trustees. The YBRA makes many of us think of field research and specifically of the many Geology Field Camps that operate through/in partnership with YBRA. YBRA Website

Spring - Congratulations to Jerry Bartholomew as the 2023 recipient of the Florence Bascom Geologic Mapping Award. The award acknowledges contributions in published high-quality geologic mapping that led to the publication of significant new scientific or economic-resource discoveries, and contributed to greater understanding of fundamental geologic processes and concepts. The objective of the Bascom Award is to encourage training and support toward production of excellent, accurate, detailed, and purposeful geologic maps and cross sections. Bartholomew is an emeritus professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Memphis.

Spring - Congratulations to Dr. Anzhelika Antipova on her project, "Applying Induced Travel Study in Urban Areas in Tennessee", receiving 2 years of funding from TN Department of Transportation.  The study implements methods and develops GIS-based spatial geodatabase to analyze data associated with induced travel, estimate induced travel directly and indirectly and investigate its impacts to prioritize transportation projects, support transportation planning and policy. The research team will also construct a guidebook of approaches, methods, and analytical techniques to measure induced travel and assess its impacts. The guidebook will enable local agencies, MPOs, and state DOTs to incorporate estimated induced travel into transportation planning and decision making for transportation project selection and funding.

Spring - Drs. Youngsang Kwon and Deborah Leslie received CAS funded Faculty Research Grants (FRG) (topics below)

  • Dr. Leslie: Reactive transport models to investigate hydrogeochemical interactions induced by managed aquifer recharge.
  • Dr. Kwon: Delayed tree species response to climate change: Data-driven tree species interaction model in eastern US forest using Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA).

Mar - The spring GeoMorFORUM was a success! It represents a great way to initiate interdisciplinary research teams with a common thread of geomorphology. We hope to see everyone with some new faces in the fall! Many thanks to Dr. Ray Lombardi (@paleo_ray) in the Department of Earth Sciences for organizing!

History

Aug - Dr. Cookie Woolner, associate professor of History, had her first book, which will be out Sept. 12, selected as an Editors' Pick by the Library Journal.

May - Dr. Dennis Laumann, professor in the Department of History, delivered the keynote address for Global Africa Month 2023 at the Institute for African Studies at the University of Vienna in Austria on May 25. His lecture was entitled “Pan Africanism, African Liberation, and the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale.”

Philosophy

May - Dr. Kevin Taylor, instructor and online coordinator of Philosophy and director of Religious Studies, authored an article, “Data and Growth in Education: A Deweyan Analysis,” that was published in Education and Culture: The Journal of the John Dewey Society. This marks the third and final installment with Taylor as guest editor of this special three-part special issue on Deweyan approaches to contemporary issues at the intersection of data and technology.

Political Science 

Mar - Dr. Nicole Detraz, Department of Political Science professor, has published a new book with the MIT Press titled, "Women and Climate Change: Examining Discourses from the Global North." When you think "climate change," who comes to mind? In Women and Climate Change, Detraz asks where women in the Global North figure in the picture, what that means and why it matters. Her answers fill critical gaps in what we know about the politics of climate change and gender.

Psychology

June - Dr. Roger J. Kreuz, associate dean and professor of Psychology, authored the article “How the Unabomber's unique linguistic fingerprints led to his capture” in The Conversation.
Kreuz's article about Algospeak, which originally appeared in The Conversation, was summarized in an article in The New York Times.

May - Roger J. Kreuz, associate dean and professor of Psychology, and Beth Meisinger, associate professor of Psychology, co-authored the article "What is that voice in your head when you read?" that was published by The Conversation. 

Mar - Dr. Roger Kreuz, professor of psychology and associate dean for the College of Arts & Sciences continues with his second writing for Psychology Today. The blog, "Small Talk and Big Ideas,” centers on language and communication and will be updated once a month. The second entry titled, "How We Talk When We Talk About January 6: The way we refer to an event can affect our later memory for it," can be found here.

Sociology

June  - Dr. Simranjit Khalsa, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, authored the article “Why this year's summer solstice matters so much for a new religious movement mired in controversy” in The Conversation.

World Languages and Literatures

Mar - Monika Nenon, Professor of German, served as moderator on February 20 for the first international Lessing-Workshop (on-line) organized by the Lessing-Akademie and the Lessing Society. Jonathan Blake (Brown University) discussed his new project on the public impact of the Fragments Controversy in Europe.

Mar - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, and Dr. Steven Sacco (San Diego State University) co-edited the special issue "World Languages for Specific Purposes: The Future is Blended," Global Advances in Business Communication, vol. 10 (2022). Here is the link to access the volume: https://commons.emich.edu/gabc

Mar - Melanie Conroy, Associate Professor of French, was appointed to the governance board of centerNet, an international network of digital humanities centers formed for cooperative and collaborative action to benefit digital humanities and allied fields.

Mar - Ivan Ortega-Santos, Associate Professor of Spanish, published the paper "Educational Interpreting of Spoken Languages in the U.S." in the Proceedings of the 18th International Symposium on Social Communication, Santiago de Cuba.

Mar - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, received one of the Faculty Research Grants for Academic Year 2023-2024. The title of the project is “A Social Justice Learning and Community Engagement Project Addressing Latinx Women’s Mental and Emotional Health Needs in Memphis, Tennessee”.

Mar - Ralph Albanese, Emeritus Professor of French, has an article entitled "Les Enjeux du discours oblique dans Le Misanthrope" that has been accepted for publication by Papers in French Seventeenth-Century Literature.

Mar - Melanie Conroy, Associate Professor of French, was appointed to the Editorial Board of H-France, a scholarly organization promoting the study of French and Francophone history and culture online, as Web Editor.

Mar - Errol M. O'Neill, Associate Professor of French, has written the chapter "The fine line between digital literacy and academic dishonesty in online WLI" which has been accepted for The Routledge Taylor & Francis Handbook of Research on World Language Instruction, edited by Victoria Russell, Kathryn Murphy-Judy, Francis Troyan, Ali Moeller, and Krishauna Hines-Gaither (expected publication: Summer 2024).

Mar - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, was featured on Fox 13 News on February 20, 2023 in a segment entitled "Afro-Latino Week Celebrates Black History in Hispanic Community." Access the segment by clicking here.

Mar - On Wednesday, February 22, Maika Yamaoka (Japan Outreach Initiative Coordinator) led a Japanese tea ceremony demonstration at University High School. She has been the club advisor of the Japanese Club since last year. Shinobu Watanabe (Assistant Professor of Teaching, Japanese) assisted during the club meeting, and the high school students had the opportunity to prepare and drink ceremonial matcha tea and enjoy authentic sweets.

Feb - Melanie Conroy, Associate Professor of French, was elected to a three-year term as the deputy treasurer and then treasurer of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO).

Feb - Robert Kelz, Professor of German and Department Chair, Patty Joyner, Assistant Professor of Teaching for Spanish, and Joshua Nave, Assistant Professor of Teaching for Spanish, were featured on WKNO's "Checking on the Arts" on February 15, 2023 to promote the 2023 UofM Language Fair.

Feb - Yuki Matsuda, Professor of Japanese, presented her paper, "Multimodality in the writing of NieR: Automata," at a meeting of the Association of Japanese Texts and Scripts (online) on January 28, 2023.

Feb - Joshua Nave, Assistant Professor of Teaching for Spanish, was a an invited co-presenter at the 2023 DREAM Annual Convening in Chicago, IL on February 16, 2023. The session was entitled "State-Led Effort to Support Open & Equitable Education Practices in Tennessee." His co-presenters included Rebecca Griffiths from SRI International, Richard Sebastian from Achieving the Dream, Judith Westly from Columbia State Community College, and Dustin Williams from Southwest Tennessee Community College.

Feb - Errol M. O'Neill, Associate Professor of French, gave the invited talk “Online Machine Translation in L2 Learning: The Good, The Bad, and The Unknown” via videoconference for the School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University on November 17, 2022.

Feb - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, and Wilson Chiluiza Vasquez’ s article “Eva Perón a través de las lenguas de fines específicos: Identidad, habla y corporalidad humana” has been accepted for publication at the Revista Científica Educ@ção 7.12 (2022): 1442-1452.

Feb - Will Thompson, Associate Professor of French, is the principal investigator on a grant awarded by the Tennessee Department of Education for the Governor’s School for International Studies in the amount of $238,245. The GSIS is a program for Tennessee high school students that will take place on the UofM campus in June of 2023.

Feb - Lan Zhang, Associate Professor of Chinese, and Hang Zhang co-authored and published Introducing Chinese Linguistics: A Handbook for Chinese Language Teachers and Learners, 2022. John Benjamins. https://www.benjamins.com/catalog/scld.16

Jan - Vania Barraza, Professor of Spanish, has been invited to serve on the editorial committee for Alba de América, an open-access journal hosted by California State University, Dominquez Hills, founded in 1982.

Jan - Yuki Matsuda, Professor of Japanese, has an article that has been accepted for publication: Matsuda Y (In Press) “Script-Switching” in Japanese Pop Culture: A Social Semiotic Multimodal Approach. Visual Communication.

Jan - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, Dr. Steven J. Sacco, and Dr. Martha Pereszlenyi-Pinter’s article "Any Time, Any Place, Any Path, Any Pace: A Curricular Design for the Teaching of Languages for Specific Purposes in the Pandemic Era and Beyond" has been accepted into Global Advances in Business Communication for publication on November 29th, 2022.

Jan - Vania Barraza, Professor of Spanish, published the article "Historia, cine y montaje en Rey (2017) de Niles Atallah," in Estéticas del desajuste. Cine chileno 2010-2020. Eds. Iván Pinto and Carolina Urrutia Neno. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Metales Pesados, 179-197.

Jan - Monika Nenon, Professor of German, presented the paper "Productive Reception. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Julie, ou La Nouvelle Héloїse and Sophie von La Roche’s Geschichte des Fräuleins von Sternheim" at the Women in German Conference (WIG), Portland, Oregon, November 10-13, 2022.

Jan - Robert Kelz, Professor of German, published "Fleeting Hope in Foreboding Times: The 1932 Goethe Year in Argentina," Goethe Yearbook Vol. 29 (2022): 95-117.

Jan - Heike Polster, Associate Professor of German, published the book chapter "The Heterochronic Narrative of Christa Wolf," in What Remains: Responses to the Legacy of Christa Wolf, eds. Gerald Fetz and Patricia Herminghouse (New York: Berghahn, 2022): 99-109.

Jan - Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, was featured on La hora de Sazón with Talia Palacio on WYXR on Oct. 29, 2022. In the interview, Dr. Ruggiero shared her research, her latest book, and her experiences with Día de los Muertos.

Spring 2023 Research Collaboration Lightning Talks

On May 11, the Division of Research & Innovation hosted the spring 2023 Research Collaboration Lightning Talks. The talks provided faculty from across campus with a chance to highlight their work and share information about collaboration opportunities. Link to the Talks

Arts & Sciences Presenters:

  • Dr. J. Elliott Casal, Department of English, Key terms: corpus linguistics; research literacy; second language writing - Start Time 05:50
  • Dr. Xiaohua Huang, Department of Chemistry, Key terms: cancer; liquid biopsy; Nanotechnology - Start time 09:20
  • Dr. Sajjan G. Shiva, Department of Computer Science, Key terms: explainable machine leaning systems; Trustworthy AI; edge computing security - Start Time 14:40
  • Dr. Yongmei Wang, Department of Chemistry, Key terms: computational nanomedicine; Omics data mining; biomarker discovery - Start Time 26:24
  • Dr. Tomoko Fujiwara, Department of Chemistry, Key terms: polymers; biomaterials; drug delivery system - Start Time 41:45
  • Dr. Michael Brown, Department of Chemistry - Start Time 48:35
  • Dr. Christos Kyriakopoulos, Center for Earthquake Research and Information - Start Time 55:02
  • Dr. Christopher Allan Black, Department of English - Start Time 01:01:06
  • Dr. Diana Ruggiero, World Languages and Literatures - Start Time 01:05:30