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JMU Research, Scholarship & Creative Endeavors
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*Please let this version serve as our March newsletter, as we have made a content correction.*
Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley!
The spring semester is flying by, and it is hard to believe that spring break is already here. Thank you for taking a few minutes to peruse the March edition of JMU Research, Scholarship & Creative Endeavors. We have expanded the content to include upcoming events and scholarly talks, as well as highlights of recent funding awards. Most campus scholarly talks are open to the public, and please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you are interested in attending a JMU event.
I am excited to announce two significant staffing changes. Dr. Nicholas Swartz, faculty in the Political Science Department, recently joined the Research & Scholarship team as the Associate Vice Provost for Research & Scholarship (more on Nick's new duties below). Additionally, long-time Associate Director of Sponsored Programs, Tamara Hatch, is now
the Interim Director of Sponsored Programs. I'd like to thank former OSP Director John Hulvey for his many years of service to our organization, and wish him the best of luck as he transitions to a new role in the Provost's Office.
Sincerely,
Yvonne Harris, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Research & Scholarship
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The JMU Drone Project
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| The JMU Drone Project is an innovative course, team-taught by two volunteers/entrepreneurs at NOVALabs (a community makerspace) in Northern Virginia and four JMU professors from different disciplines. Launched during the fall semester, 42 students from seven majors across the arts, humanities, and sciences worked on real-world challenges with faculty and outside mentors on six teams: Air Pollution, River Mussel Populations, Telemedicine, Traffic Monitoring, Landmine Detection, and Landmine Disarmament. Read more |
Students Access Cutting-edge Spectrometer Technology
JMU faculty and students have added a hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzer to their research tool-kit. The XRF enables Integrated Science and Technology Associate Professor Carole Nash and her students to study the movements of Native Americans along the Blue Ridge Mountains by analyzing stone tools. Speaking on the benefits of students learning to use this technology, Nash stated, "This is something that is very specialized. Typically when you get something like this, you're very careful about who gets to use it and we want our students to train on it because this is an emerging technology. Read more
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Shenandoah Valley Angel Investors (SVAI) Network Forms
Shenandoah Valley Angel Investors (SVAI) is a network of private investors that help launch entrepreneurial ventures located in the region. Comprised of over twenty accredited investors with a combined investing pool in excess of a million dollars (and growing), SVAI is looking to help fund Start-Up / Early Stage business ventures that leverage technology to create a new product or service. Primarily a community effort and led entirely by the investors themselves, JMU Director of Technology Innovation and Economic Development, Mary Lou Bourne, served a crucial role bringing investors and technology together, thereby facilitating the SVAI's formation.
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Physics Professor Wins SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award
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Dr. Chris Hughes is one of 13 recipients of the 2016 Outstanding Faculty Awards. Presented by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), this award is the Commonwealth's highest honor for faculty. Dr. Hughes has been a faculty member in the Physics & Astronomy Department since 1997, and also serves as the Director of the JMU Center for Materials Science.
Read more
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A hands-on weekend supporting new ventures and entrepreneurs
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National Institute on Aging Speaker
March 22
Dr. Chyren Hunter will present on NIA research priorities and program initiatives
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Department of Energy Speaker March 23
Mr. Scott Minos will present on DOE's clean energy programs and funding priorities
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Visiting Scholar Lecture
March 28
Ami Radunskaya will deliver her talk "Using Mathematics and the Immune System to Fight Cancer" more
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$445,500 from the National Institutes of Health to determine the role of the protein interleukin-3 in the immune response to the protozoan parasite Plasmodium.
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Dr. Ekaterina Koubek
Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities
$79,412 from FHI 360 for the 2016 English Access Micro-scholarship Teacher Trainer Workshop to develop the teacher trainers' technical skills and capacity to train current and future Access teachers.
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Kimberlee Hartzler-Weakley
Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services
$17,981 and $146,479 from the Virginia Department of Education to support the Shenandoah Valley Migrant Education Program.
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Virginia Clean Cities (VCC)
We will profile Alleyn Harned, Executive Director of VCC, on alternative fuel vehicles and clean energy news.
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Art History Faculty Awarded Fulbright to France
The research grant from the Fulbright Foundation will support a four-month stay for Dr. Maureen Shanahan, Professor of Art History, in Paris during the spring of 2017. Dr. Shanahan will collaborate with French and Indian colleagues in planning a bilingual conference on the colonial subject during and after World War I. The grant will also support Dr. Shanahan's archival research into the psychiatric and photographic work of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault (1872-1934), a veteran of the war and chief psychiatrist for the Parisian police during the interwar years. Both projects are expected to result in book publications and in furthering knowledge about the war, colonial relations, and their psychological conditions.
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Taking on Tomorrow
Taking on Tomorrow was created to showcase the expertise, scholarship, and research of faculty in all disciplines at Madison. In this installment, Assistant Professor of English Dr. Paul Bogard embraces environmental literature in and outside the classroom, as well as through his teaching and scholarship.
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