Georgia Southern professor wins Mathematical Association of America service award
Professor of Mathematics, Martha Abell, Ph.D., has been awarded a Certificate of Meritorious Service by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Southeastern Section.
“I never imagined I would be selected to serve on national committees or have the tremendous opportunity to serve on the MAA Instructional Practices Guide leadership team,” Abell said. “And while I never imagined these experiences happening, I am grateful that they did. I became a better faculty member, mentor and administrator because of these collaborations, and I accept this award in recognition of all who worked with me along this incredible journey.”
Each Section nominates a person for the award every five years. The sections are sorted into five groups and a different group submits their nominations each year.
Abell, who has taught math at Georgia Southern for almost 30 years and is the former Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, won the Southeastern Section Distinguished Service Award in 2016.
Department of Biology researchers host Citizen Scientist Training Workshop
Researchers from the Georgia Southern University Department of Biology hosted a Citizen Scientist Training Workshop earlier this summer in Waverly, Georgia. The workshop was funded by Georgia Southern University’s Office of the Provost through a faculty service award and was organized and led by biology professors Loren Mathews, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Sargent, Ph.D., and biology alumna Lindsey Stanfield Jones.
Mathews and Sargent are members of the interdisciplinary Satilla Science Group, whose goal is to study, restore and protect the ecologically important Satilla River estuary.
“Our hope was to give participants the knowledge and basic skills needed to collect scientific data,” Mathews said. “This will allow them to play an active role in research, conservation and restoration efforts in the Satilla River and other coastal Georgia ecosystems.”
Participants learned important measures of coastal water quality, such as temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, light, turbidity, and the types, sources and potential biological impacts of microplastics. Participants then received hands-on training on how to use field equipment to measure and record these data.
RiteCare Center golf tournament raises $14,000 for Georgia Southern University center
Georgia Southern University’s RiteCare Center for Communication Disorders will receive more than a $14,000 donation after the Valley of Savannah Scottish Rite held its annual golf tournament that benefits the center.
Eleven teams teed up at Bacon Park Golf Course in Savannah, Georgia, in June to raise money for the RiteCare Center on the Armstrong Campus. It is one of approximately 180 centers throughout the U.S. that is supported by the Scottish Rite, and it is a functioning outpatient speech-language pathology clinic, serving individuals from Savannah and the surrounding areas. The clinic also serves as a training facility for graduate students in the Communication Sciences and Disorders program.
RiteCare Centers were established in 1950 in Colorado as a philanthropic project of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Supreme Council Southern Jurisdiction to help children with speech and language disorders.
Profits from the tournament are added to a lump sum donation, which is given to the RiteCare Center each year in December.
Georgia Southern faculty has papers republished in influential paper list
An article by Charles Champ, Ph.D., professor of statistics, was republished in Technometrics, which is completing its 60th year of publication. To commemorate the occasion, Technometrics published a special 60th anniversary virtual issue that includes electronic reprints of 35 classic articles. The concepts explored in these articles are the foundation of statistical methods and tools used by practitioners in the physical, chemical, engineering and information sciences.
Champs article, “A multivariate exponentially weighted moving average control chart weighted moving average control chart,” was originally published in 1992.
Graduate student awarded scholarship for independent study in marine science
Erin Arneson, a graduate student in the James H. Oliver Jr., Institute for Coastal Plain Science (ICPS) and Department of Biology, was one of five students selected for the Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship.
The scholarship is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and provides funding for independent graduate level studies in a wide array of marine sciences. Arneson’s research revolves around the impacts of ocean acidification on corals that are abundant on the rocky hard bottoms that occur off the coast of Georgia. Ocean acidification happens when seawater absorbs carbon dioxide and increases its acidity.
Arneson, who is advised by Daniel Gleason, Ph.D., biology professor and Director of the ICPS, does research in close collaboration with the staff at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary, which is one of the largest near-shore, live-bottom reefs in the Southeastern United States.
Georgia Southern biology professor gives presentation at Critical Care Nurses Conference
Biology professor Ed Mondor, Ph.D., and his brother Eugene Mondor, who is a registered nurse, recently gave a talk at the American Association of Critical Care Nurses — National Teaching Institute & Critical Care Exposition in Orlando.
Their talk, entitled “Got the Travel Bug? When Tropical Diseases Aren’t Just Tropical,” focused on the insect-vectored tropical diseases Typhus, Chagas, Zika, Dengue and Malaria, which are showing up in critical care patients with increasing frequency in North America as international travel increases.
The presentation featured insects of medical importance, the diseases they transmit and the effects of insect transmission on human health, as well as key physical assessment findings, laboratory investigations and summarized first-line management strategies for critically-ill patients. More than 8,500 critical care nurses attended the exposition.
Biodynamics and Human Performance Center Awarded $9,965 Grant
The Biodynamics and Human Performance Center on Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus has been awarded a $9,965 internal grant from the Faculty Research Committee for a research project titled “Heart Rate Variability: A Versatile Health Biomarker.”
The project will be led by Department of Health Sciences and Kinesiology faculty members Bryan Riemann, Ph.D., Greg Grosicki, Ph.D., and Andrew Flatt, Ph.D. They will aim to optimize heart rate variability (HRV) assessment protocol and explore associations between HRV and a variety of health- and fitness-related measures.
Located in the Waters College of Health Professions, the Biodynamics and Human Performance Center is dedicated to providing high-quality education, research and service activities related to the study of human movement.
Geography faculty member receives Award for Excellence in Research/Creative Scholarly Activity for 2019-2020
Department of Geology and Geography’ Associate Professor John Van Stan, Ph.D., is one of two scholars selected to receive the Georgia Southern University Award for Excellence in Research/Creative Scholarly Activity for 2019-20.
Van Stan is a physical geographer with expertise in forest hydrology and ecohydrology. Since coming to Georgia Southern in 2012, he has established a highly collaborative research program and is now recognized as an international expert in his field.
Van Stan’s publication record includes 44 peer-reviewed papers in journals. In addition, he received a total of $1.2 million in external funding, including a prestigious National Science Foundation grant.
Van Stan is also noted for having a strong interest in mentoring undergraduate research students, which he includes in both his field and laboratory work and publication efforts.
Georgia Southern grad named Student Anaplanner of the Year
Jaymin Patel, a recent finance and information systems graduate from the Parker College of Business at Georgia Southern University, was named Student Anaplanner of the Year by Anaplan Inc., a pioneer in Connected Planning. He will be recognized in San Francisco at the company’s Connected Planning Xperience (CPX) conference June 10 through 12.
Patel earned the achievement through Anaplan University Connect, a program launched by the company that equips university students with competitive analytical and decision-making skills to address the needs of today’s global marketplace. The courses Patel took through this program helped him land a data analyst role at Equifax, a global data analytics and technology company.
The Anaplan University Connect program works closely with leading universities around the globe to develop and deliver a model building curriculum that incorporates the latest data science methods to modern business planning practices. With valuable and real-world data analysis skills, students from the program are hired to quickly contribute to the digital transformation efforts of enterprise companies.
Georgia Southern professor receives Outstanding Engineering Educator Award
Georgia Southern University Associate Professor Rami J. Haddad, Ph.D., was awarded the 2019 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Region 3 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator Award.
This prestigious award is given in recognition of an IEEE member in Region 3 who, through technical and professional abilities, has made an outstanding contribution to the electro-technology profession.
“Teaching is something I am very passionate about, so to be recognized in this area is a commendation of all the effort invested in the students’ success at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Georgia Southern University,” said Haddad.
Haddad joined the faculty in the Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing in 2011 in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been the Computer Engineering Program coordinator since fall 2018.