The Academic Minute for 2016.3.7-3.11

Academic Minute from 3.7 – 3.11

Monday, March 7
Prashant Kumta – University of Pittsburgh
Biodegradable Parts for Fixing Complex Fractures
Professor Kumta obtained his Bachelor of Technology (with Honors) in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India in 1984. He then obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1987 and 1990, respectively. He joined Carnegie Mellon University soon after graduation where he was instrumental in setting up the materials program in ceramic systems in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and was involved in spear heading the tissue engineering initiative which launched the bone tissue engineering center culminating in the creation of the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2004. He joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2007 where he is currently the Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering and the School of Dental Medicine with appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Oral Biology. His main research interests are in the synthesis, structure and properties of nanostructured functional systems for electrochemical electronic, bone tissue engineering, biomineralization, stem cell engineering, and non-viral gene delivery applications. Professor Kumta is the recipient of the NSF Research Initiation Award (RIA), Fellow of the American Ceramic Society (ACerS), and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE). He has edited/co-edited 9 books, given more than 120 invited presentations and is the author and co-author of more than 230 refereed publications with an average citations exceeding 7400 and an h-index of 44. He is currently the Editor in Chief of Materials Science and Engineering, B, Advanced Functional Solid-State Materials, an International Journal by Elsevier.

Tuesday, March 8
Sara Goldrick-Rab – University of Wisconsin
Hungry for Knowledge
Sara Goldrick-Rab is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is also Senior Scholar at the Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education and an affiliate of the Center for Financial Security, Institute for Research on Poverty, and the Consortium for Chicago School Research. Goldrick-Rab’s commitment to scholar-activism is evidenced by her broad profile of research and writing dissecting the intended and unintended consequences of the college-for-all movement in the United States. In more than a dozen experimental, longitudinal, and mixed-methods research projects, she has examined the efficacy and distributional implications of financial aid policies, welfare reform, transfer practices, and a range of interventions aimed at increasing college attainment among marginalized populations. Her academic articles have appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Sociology of Education, Review of Educational Research, and Teachers College Record among other peer-reviewed outlets, and she also publishes regularly for broader audiences in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed, as well as on her blog The Education Optimists. This year the University of Chicago Press is releasing her latest book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream.” In 2006, Goldrick-Rab was named a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation postdoctoral fellow, and in 2010 she received the five-year Faculty Scholars Award from the William T. Grant Foundation for her project, “Rethinking College Choice in America.” In 2014, the American Educational Research Association honored Goldrick-Rab with its Early Career Award. She provides extensive service to local, state, and national communities, working directly with governors and state legislators to craft policies to make college more affordable, collaborating with non-profit organizations seeking to examine the effects of their practices, and providing technical assistance to Congressional staff, think tanks, and membership organizations throughout Washington, DC. In spring 2013, Goldrick-Rab testified about her work on college affordability before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Senators Tom Harkin and Lamar Alexander. In May of 2014, Goldrick-Rab became the founding director of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, the nation’s first translational research laboratory aimed at identifying new and effective ways to minimize barriers to college completion so that more students can reach their full potential.

Wednesday, March 9
Derek Gatherer –  Lancaster University
History of Influenza
Dr Gatherer works  in bioinformatics, which he defines very generally as anything that can be done on a computer and which is relevant to the biological sciences.  In practice, however, most of his work over the years has been on sequence analysis with a minor component of network analysis.  Viruses, as well as being fascinating in their own right, are ideal subjects for bioinformatics.  He has had the opportunity over the years to work on a variety of viruses (herpesviruses, papillomaviruses, adenoviruses, polyomaviruses, hepaciviruses, parvoviruses, influenza viruses, filoviruses, enteroviruses, deltaviruses and paramyxoviruses) from many different bioinformatics research angles.

Thursday, March 10
David Carrier – University of Utah
Punching with Cadavers
My research is focused on understanding the ways in which biomechanics has influenced the evolution of vertebrates. I have longstanding and continuing interests in the ontogeny of the musculoskeletal system; integration of locomotion and ventilation; ventilatory mechanisms; and limb biomechanics. Recently, I have become increasingly interested in anatomical specialization for aggressive behavior. My emphasis has been on

1. understanding functional tradeoffs between specialization for rapid and economical running versus specialization for aggressive behavior, and
2. the role that aggressive behavior has played in the evolution of the musculoskeletal system of great apes and hominins.

Friday, March 11
Stacey Hust – Washington State University
Popular Crime Shows Influence Behavior
Stacey J.T. Hust (Ph.D., 2005, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an associate professor of communication and Director of the Strategic Communication Sequence in The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University.  She is nationally ranked by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship for her health communication research focused on media and children, gender, conflict (sexual assault reduction), and substance abuse prevention.  Her research identifies effective health communication messaging that can be used to reduce sexual assault and promote healthy sexual relationships among young people.

She also investigates the media’s effects on youths’ romantic and sexual relationships.  She and Kathleen Boyce Rodgers received the 2014 Mary Ann Yodelis Smith Award for Feminist Research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.  Hust and Rodgers also earned one of two National Council on Family Relations Innovation Grants in 2014. Dr. Hust is ranked 28th out of 3,091 national and international authors for the number of top conference papers (source: AEJMC).

Hust’s research has been published in the Journal of Sex Research, Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Mass Communication & Society, and others. Her research has been sponsored by the United States Department of Education, the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and the Washington State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Program.