The Academic Minute for 2015.9.14 – 9.18

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 9.14 – 9.18

Monday, September 14
Michelle Mondoux – Holy Cross
Sugar, Sex and Aging
Michelle A. Mondoux, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the department of Biology at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. Dr. Mondoux earned her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at Smith College and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Princeton University. She began using C. elegans to model the response to a high-glucose diet during her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health.

Tuesday, September 15
Nabil Grace – Lawrence Technological University
Building Better Bridges
Dr. Nabil Grace’s specialization is structural engineering. He is the director of the Center for Innovative Materials Research (CIMR) at Lawrence Technological University, a multimillion dollar facility dedicated in 2008. This dynamic facility offers students a variety of applied research opportunities and, at this time, is primarily devoted to the investigation of the use of composite materials in concrete structural applications and for defense applications. Dr. Grace’s research interests include application of carbon fiber composites to structural engineering, assessment of dynamic behavior of composite automobile components, environmentally dependent behavior of composites, and infrastructure rehabilitation using composite materials. His research activities have attracted some $15 million in private, state, and federal grants, and have been implemented in the design and construction documents for the first CFRP prestressed highway bridge in the United States. Additional highway bridges using these unique solutions are in development. Dr. Grace received his master’s and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Windsor, Ontario, and his bachelor’s degree from Cairo University.

Wednesday, September 16
Valerio Scarani – National University of Singapore
Quantum Randomness
Dr Valerio Scarani is an expert in theoretical quantum physics, doing research that spans from abstract topics in quantum correlations to assessment of experiments. He has led a research group in Singapore since 2007and won Singapore’s National Science Award in 2008. Previously, he received his PhD in 2000 from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and worked in the group of Nicolas Gisin at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has written two introductory books on quantum physics.cs.

Thursday, September 17
Amber Watts – University of Kansas
Walkable Neighborhoods
Amber Watts is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Kansas. She studies the effect of physical activity on health and cognitive function in older adults with and without Alzheimer’s disease in cooperation with the KU Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Kansas City.

Friday, September 18
Mega Subramanian – University of Maryland
HackHealth
Mega Subramanian is currently an Associate Professor at the iSchool – College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD.  She is the Associate Director for theInformation Policy and Access Center (iPAC) at the University of Maryland.

She conducts research on the use of school libraries as effective hybrid spaces to encourage science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) interest among underserved, underrepresented and disadvantaged young adults. Specifically, she is interested in exploring and creating socio-culturally relevant STEM learning environments in school libraries, where the library programs can engage young people in scientific inquiry experiences, make connections to their interests, and facilitate the learning of new media literacy skills needed to be successful in STEM environments. Check-out two learning environments that She has co-designed – HackHealth and Sci-Dentity – where she leverages the strengths of school library programs to stimulate young adults interest in STEM.

She is also interested in examining how to facilitate the learning of new media literacy that is essential for STEM exploration. Currently, She is focusing on specific new media literacy skills: privacy, copyright/remix and credibility of information. Her goal is to extrapolate the new media literacy learning pathways of digitally excluded youth, the challenges they face in acquiring new media literacy, and the pedagogical reforms needed to facilitate new media literacy learning in schools and other environments.

She teaches courses offered through the School Library and the Information and Diverse Populations Specializations. She also serves as the co-editor of School Library Research. Dr. Subramanian lives in Ashton, Maryland, with her husband, Sivam, and my children (Subhatra and Vishvarup). She does not have much free time, but when she does, she enjoys baking for the kids.