The Academic Minute for 2016.09.19-09.23

Academic Minute from 9.19 – 9.23

Monday, September 19th
Claire Vallotton – Michigan State University
Dads Mental Health Matters
Dr. Vallotton earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Simpson College, and a Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of California, Davis, mentored by Larry Harper, Linda Acredolo, and Kathy Conger. Following a year as a Faculty Fellow at UC Davis, she won a research training grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education with mentors Kurt Fischer and Catherine Ayoub. The title of her NICHD-funded study was ‘Symbol and Social Skills in Typical and At-Risk Children.’

Dr. Vallotton has been the recipient of the UC Davis Professors for the Future Fellowship and Graduate Honors Program, University of California Dissertation Year Fellowship, University of California Faculty Fellowship, the Ruth L. Kirschstein Clinical Research Service Award, the National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Fellowship, the New Investigator Award from the World Association of Infant Mental Health, the MSUE Summer Fellowship to develop a parenting education project in collaboration with MSU Extension Educators, and the 2010 Award of Distinction for Young Alumni from the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

Tuesday, September 20th
Lorraine Maxwell – Cornell University
Schools Falling Apart
I joined the Design and Environmental Analysis faculty in 1993 as my first full time academic appointment. My first graduate degree was a masters in city and regional planning. I worked as city planner for a large city in New Jersey and as a facility planner and programmer for an architectural firm in New York City.  My PhD is in psychology, specifically environmental psychology. My research interests have always been, and continue to be, related to the ways in which the physical environment relates to children’s and adolescents’ development, behavior, and well being. Noise and crowding are of particular interest to me, especially when children are exposed to these potential sources of stress in more than one setting. Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological theory guides much of my research. I am also interested in the ways in which the physical environment is related to children’s and adolescents’ development of competency and self-efficacy and self-esteem.

More recently my research interests include the role of the physical environment of home, school, and neighborhood in the development of identity, self-esteem, and self-efficacy in children and adolescents. My initial appointment at Cornell included responsibilities in Cooperative Extension. My primary program was to work with the child care industry in New York State providing training and educational materials for child care providers and parents. As of the spring semester 2005 my appointment was changed to research and teaching. I teach the department’s programming course, Problem Seeking through Programming (DEA 3590/6500) as well as DEA 4100 Diversity and Facility Design. I also teach a graduate course, DEA 6200, Studies in Human-Environment Relations.

Wednesday, September 21st
Andrew VanLoocke – Iowa State University
Perennials
Andy VanLoocke is an Agricultural Meteorologist in the department of Agronomy at Iowa State University.  He conducted his doctoral studies including significant portions of this article in the department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  His research interests are focused on assessing the impacts of land-use and crop management on carbon, water and nitrogen cycling.  His group uses a combination of agro-ecosystem and hydrology models with micrometeorology and crop physiology measurements in both perennial and annual cropping systems.

Thursday, September 22nd
Kelly Purtell – The Ohio State University
Mixed-Age Children In Pre-School
Purtell’s research focuses on understanding how contextual factors shape health and development among low-income children and adolescents, and on how policies and programs can enhance the developmental trajectories of these youth.

Friday, September 23rd
Martin Krieger – University of Southern California
Primes and Particles
Martin Krieger’s current work is on defense and military policy, and on uncertainty and ambiguity. He has done social-science informed aural and photographic documentation of Los Angeles, including storefront houses of worship and industrial Los Angeles. Professor Krieger has won three consecutive Mellon Mentoring Awards, for mentoring undergraduates, faculty, and graduate students. Professor Krieger has worked in the fields of planning and design theory, ethics and entrepreneurship, mathematical models of urban spatial processes, and has explored the role of the humanities in planning. His nine published books describe how planning, design, and science are actually done. Professor Krieger has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and at the National Humanities Center, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He has received grants from a variety of foundations, and has served as the Zell/Lurie Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at University of Michigan’s Business School. He joined the USC faculty in 1984. Professor Krieger often helps doctoral students, as well as undergraduates and masters students, focus and formulate their research projects.