The Academic Minute for 2015.9.7 – 9.11

Catch up with The Academic Minute from 9.7 – 9.11

Monday, September 7
Vicki Howard – Hartwick College
Evolution of the Department Store
Vicki Howard is Associate Professor of History at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. She is the author of From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store and also of Brides, Inc. American Weddings and the Business of Tradition, both from the University of Pennsylvania Press. She is also co-editor of the Routledge journal, History of Retailing and Consumption.

Tuesday, September 8
Karla Zadnik – Ohio State
Improving Optometry
Karla Zadnik is the Glenn A. Fry Professor of Optometry and Physiological Optics and Dean at The Ohio State University College of Optometry. She received her OD and PhD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry. She has chaired the Biomedical Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Ohio State for the last ten years. Professor Zadnik is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and served as the Academy’s President in 2011-12. She received the American Optometric Foundation’s Glenn A. Fry Award in 1995. She served on the National Advisory Eye Council of the National Eye Institute (NEI)/National Institutes of Health from 2000 to 2004. Dr. Zadnik was the Study Chairman for the NEI-funded Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Ethnicity and Refractive Error (CLEERE) Study and chaired the first-ever NEI-funded multicenter study based in optometry, the Collaborative Longitudinal Evaluation of Keratoconus (CLEK) Study from 1994 through 2007. She received a Distinguished Scholar Award from Ohio State in 2010.

Wednesday, September 9
Jennifer Itzkowitz – Seton Hall University
Alphabetical Stock Benefits
Jennifer Itzkowitz joined the Seton Hall faculty in 2009 after earning a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Florida. Her research examines contemporary problems in corporate finance, banking, and behavioral finance. Professor Itzkowitz’s work has been published in The Research Handbook on International Banking and Governance, Journal of Corporate Finance, andReview of Finance. Jennifer’s research has also been presented at a number of conferences including the annual meetings of the Financial Management Association, Western Finance Association, Midwest Finance Association, European Financial Management Association, and the INFINITI Conference on International Finance. At Seton Hall, she is responsible for the coordination and teaching of the core finance course and teaches a seminar dealing with advanced corporate finance topics.

Thursday, September 10
John Desjardins – Clemson University
Football helmet safety 
Dr. John DesJardins is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Clemson University in December 2006, and has worked for over 20 years as a biomechanical research engineer. He has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed conference or journal publications in the areas of biomechanics, biomaterials tribology, engineering education and mechanical testing. He is the director of the Laboratory of Orthopaedic Design and Engineering at Clemson University, and the Frank H. Stelling and C. Dayton Riddle Orthopaedic Education and Research Laboratory at CUBEInC. He currently leads or is a co-PI on many multi-disciplinary research teams on projects funded through NASA, DoT, NSF, the Gates Foundation, biomedical industry and other regional non-profit foundations. As an assistant professor in Bioengineering, he is the director of the senior capstone design courses, where he mentors 15+ small teams annually to develop innovative biomedical devices in partnership with local industry or clinical partners. He founded and directs the Clemson University Retrieval of Explants Program and Registry in Orthopaedics (CU-REPRO) which is a regional repository that collects and studies explanted total joint devices. Finally, he is the founder of the undergraduate bioengineering study abroad programs, and directs or assists with international programs in Spain, Singapore and Tanzania.

Friday, September 11
John Cullinan – Bard College
Voting and Math
John Cullinan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Mathematics Program at Bard College. His primary research focuses on the intersection of Number Theory and Representation Theory, and he has recently begun publishing in the Mathematics of Voting. Dr. Cullinan has been on the faculty at Bard College since 2006 after teaching for a year at Colby College. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2005.