Faculty Kudos (Fall 2022)
For more Faculty Accolades, visit the CAS Accolades website.
Biological Sciences
Comparisons of interspecies field performance of Fagaceae (Castanea and Quercus) planted in the southeastern United States with attention to soil fungal impacts on plant performance
Oct - Congratulations to Dr. Shawn Brown and collaborators on their new paper testing drivers of reforestation field performance of American Chestnut, backcrossed hybrids, and white oak in the southern Appalachian mountains. This work will help land managers improve hardwood reforestation efforts. Learn more
Oct. - Dr. Bernie Daigle and colleagues have received a grant from the Department of Defense. Led by PI Dr. Charles Marmar at NYU, and Dr. Daigle and with collaborators at UCSF, Harvard, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), and the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), the grant "Advancing Precision Psychiatry for Military Service-Related PTSD by Enhancing Knowledge of Clinical Subtypes and Their Endophenotypes” addresses the urgent need to better prevent and manage treatment-refractory PTSD. Read more about work in the Daigle lab. (link Daigle lab to https://daiglelab.org/)
From genetics to biotechnology: Synthetic biology as a flexible course-embedded research experience
Sept - Congratulations to Drs. Jaime Sabel, Judy Cole and their colleagues for their recent publication "From genetics to biotechnology: Synthetic biology as a flexible course-embedded research experience" in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. This paper describes the value of course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) courses as tools for delivering authentic research experiences to undergraduates. Take a look!
Sep- Congratulations to Dr. Tom Sutter, Professor and W. Harry Feinstone Chair of Excellence in Molecular Biology and many departmental colleagues and graduate students on their new paper, "CYP1B1 Augments the Mesenchymal, Claudin-Low, and Chemoresistant Phenotypes of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Cells" Abstract and Full Text
Sep- Congratulations to Drs. Kathryn Parsley, Bernie J. Daigle, and Jaime L. Sabel for their new paper, "Initial Development and Validation of the Plant Awareness Disparity Index." Plant awareness disparity (PAD, formerly plant blindness) is the idea that students tend not to notice or appreciate the plants in their environment. Abstract and Full Article
Center for Information Assurance
Nov- Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, director of the Center for Information Assurance at the UofM, recently attended the DoD University Consortium for Cybersecurity (UC2) Research Workshop hosted by National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. In response to the DoD-UC2 Request for Information (RFI), Dasgupta formed a team of faculty experts from 15 universities (which include Purdue, MIT, Penn-State and others) and submitted a whitepaper on implementing zero trust at the tactical warfighting edge. This research paper was ranked first by reviewers among all submissions from the national academic community. As the team lead, Dasgupta was invited to present and was well-received by attendees from different federal agencies. “This engagement and collaboration on cybersecurity will open the door for furthering our research and education,” said Dasgupta.
Nov- The UofM's Center for Information Assurance has developed a web-based course on Remote Home-Office (RHO) security that is currently undergoing pilot testing prior to the official release by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a cybersecurity training course. This six-hour web-based course covers topics and issues directly impacting remote workers including social engineering, video-conferencing platforms, organizational remote work policies, work-from-home cyber hygiene and much more. The course is funded by the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA and developed under the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium.
Nov- On Nov. 4, the UofM hosted the 12th Annual Mid-South Cybersecurity Summit at the FedEx Institute of Technology. The keynote speakers, Augustine Boateng (City of Memphis), Thomas Davis (Terminix.com) and Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta (UofM), gave excellent talks. There was also a panel discussion with a guest speaker from the FBI and the UofM faculty on cybersecurity challenges and opportunities in the age of AI.
Chemistry
Theoretical Rovibrational Spectroscopy of Magnesium Tricarbide–Multireference Character Thwarts a Full Analysis of All Isomers
Sept - Atsu's first first-author paper in Dr. Nathan DeYonker's group! No transition metals in this tetraatomic molecule. What could possibly go wrong? Everything went wrong. But that's part of the fun with inorganic electronic structure theory, right? Read the Paper / Follow Dr. DeYonker on Twitter
Prof. DeYonker will give a virtual talk about his #astrochemistry research as part of the #acs AstroCheminar series. It's tomorrow at 1PM Central. Free to register!
Computational approaches for XANES, VtC-XES, and RIXS using linear-response time-dependent density functional theory based methods
June- Check out the most recent publication by the Dr. Daniel Nascimento Group. The article is a perspective on the use of time-dependent DFT methods to simulate core-level spectroscopies. See the full release
Computer Science
Oct - Drs. Sajjan G. Shiva (First Horizon Foundation Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, UofM), Ahmed M. Mahfouz (FedEx), Abdullah Abuhussein (St Cloud State University) and Faisal S. Alsubaei (University of Jeddah) have published the article entitled "Toward A Holistic, Efficient, Stacking Ensemble Intrusion Detection System Using a Real Cloud-based Dataset" in the International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 13(9), 2022. Mahfouz, Abuhussein and Alsubaei received their PhD from the UofM under the direction of Dr. Shiva.
Sep- Drs. Dipankar Dasgupta and Myounggyu Won, Department of Computer Science professors, gave invited virtual talks at a hybrid Internet of Things Security Workshop hosted by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on Sept. 23. The faculty presented their recent work from the Center for Information Assurance, including recently developed hands-on security exercises.
Sep- Dr. Scott Fleming, Department of Computer Science professor, received the VL/HCC 2022 Most Influential Paper Award for his paper “Modeling Programmer Navigation: A head-to-head empirical evaluation of predictive models” from VL/HCC 2011. This award is given each year by the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing to one paper that was published roughly 10 years ago and that has had the most influence on VL/HCC research or commerce.
Sep- Dr. Mohd Hasan Ali, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will serve as the principal investigator on a $498,083 grant awarded by the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct research on the project titled “Cyber Resilient 5G-Enabled Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure." Dr. Dipankar Dasgupta, Director for the UofM's Center for Information Assurance (CfIA), will serve as co-PI. The project is affiliated with the CfIA, where Ali is an associate director.
History
SUPER TIGER!
Nov - Sending our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Charles Crawford, professor in the Department of History. He was awarded the UofM Career Milestone Lifetime Achievement Award for 60 years of service to the Tiger Family! Thank you, Dr. Crawford for all you have done and continue to do for the UofM! Crawford came to the UofM in 1962. He has served as the director of the University's Oral History Project since 1967.
Mathematical Sciences
Oct - George Anastassiou, professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, published the new monograph "Banach Space Valued Neural Network," which presents the generalization and modernization of approximation by neural network operators.
Sept - Irena Lasiecka, Distinguished University professor and chair in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, is one of the two Plenary Speakers at the upcoming Conference On The Trail of Women in Mathematics hosted by Gdansk University of Technology and the Polish Mathematical Society. Learn more about the conference
Political Science
The Blame Game: Public Outcry and Terrorism Within and Exported from the Sanctioned State
Nov: Congratulations to Dr. Dursun Peksen! His paper "The Blame Game: Public Outcry and Terrorism Within and Exported from the Sanctioned State,” (co-authored with Nazli Avdan, Bryan Early, Ryan Yu-Lin, and Amanda Murdie) has been accepted for publication at Foreign Policy Analysis. FPA is a refereed journal published by the International Studies Association.
Nov: Dr. Dursun Peksen's article “Economic Sanctions and Labor Rights Abuses in Target Countries,” (with Kate Perry) has been accepted for publication at the European Journal of Political Research. EJPR is considered among the top journals in Comparative Politics.
Dec: Dr. Dursun Peksen's policy paper "International Sanctions against Violent Actors" has been published with the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation: Read the Paper
World Languages and Literatures
Vania Barraza, Professor of Spanish, published the article "Carnival and iustitium in Ana María Shua’s ‘Fiestita con animación’," in the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 99.6: 569-578.
Robert Kelz, Professor of German, published the book chapter: "The Schlichter Siblings and their Artistic Triumphs in South America. With Reflections on Ruth Weiss and her Advocacy for Civil Rights in South Africa and Rhodesia," In Wandernde zwischen Welten. Festschrift für Ruth Weiss ed. Frederick Lubich (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2022): 155-165.
Monika Nenon, Professor of German, served as a commentator for the session “Uniting and Reuniting Families in East and West Germany after 1945” at the German Studies Association (GSA) Conference in Houston, Texas, September 15-18, 2022.
Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, presented virtually “Transform your course into Languages for Specific Purposes one activity at a time”, at the XXXI CILH conference, on October 22nd, 2022.
Fernando Burgos Pérez, professor of Spanish, published his book entitled "Fluencias posmodernas y vías de lo imagination," Santiago, Chile: RIL Editores, 2022, 270 pp.
Melanie Conroy, Associate Professor of French, and Hironori Nishi, Associate Professor of Japanese, presented "The Language of Reviewers: Sentiment, Ratings, and Style in Japanese-Language Amazon Reviews" at the Digital Humanities 2022 international conference in Toyko, Japan (moved fully online) in July 2022.
Cosetta Gaudenzi, Associate Professor of Italian, presented "Reframing Gender in Commedia all'Italiana: Mario Monicelli's La ragazza con la pistola and Monica Vitti” at the American Association for Italian Studies conference, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, May 29-June 1, 2022.
STUDENT COMMENT: Jennifer Johnston, Assistant Professor of Teaching, "has been a great professor and academic advisor since I majored in the World Languages department in 2020. She was my professor for 2 of my Spanish classes, and she was the best! She has been the greatest advisor to me over these last 2 years. She has been helping me stay on track for graduation and I'm proud to say that I will be graduating this December because of her help. I thank her for everything that she has done, and everything that she is continuing to do to help me!" Caia Smith, Senior, Class of 2022, World Languages and Literatures (Spanish Concentration)
Yuki Matsuda, Professor of Japanese, published a review of The Mysterious Address Term ANATA ‘you’ in Japanese by Yoko Yonezawa (2021) in the Journal of Japanese Linguistics, 38(2): 295-297.
Iván Ortega-Santos, Associate Professor of Spanish, is a coresearcher in the project "Microparameters and Networks in Romance Variation (MiNeRVa)," which has been funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain. The project includes funding for the study of language contact phenomena and the development of an online atlas of diachronic syntax, among other activities. Principal Investigators: Ángel Gallego (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Jaume Mateu (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. 90,750 euros. PID2021-123617NB-C41.
Iván Ortega-Santos, Associate Professor of Spanish, was invited by the ESL Department at Memphis Shelby County Schools to conduct a language-neutral interpreter training workshop. Workshop attendants, consisting of bilingual counselors and contract interpreters, learned about the best practices in the field, codes of ethics, and ongoing advocacy efforts.
Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, taught an invited workshop on how to implement World Languages for Specific Purposes courses in your program by the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Central Connecticut State University for the Teacher Education Program (on August 22nd).
Diana Ruggiero, Associate Professor of Spanish, was invited to present her new book “Teaching World Languages for Specific Purposes: A Practical Guide” by Georgetown University Press to The Researcher's Club (Sept 2nd). To see a recording of the interactive presentation, click here.