Academic Minute from 12.11 – 12.15
Monday, December 11th
Sebastian Deffner – University of Maryland Baltimore County
Quantum Supremacy
I was previously a Research Associate in the group of Christopher Jarzynski at the University of Maryland, College Park (2011-2014), and a Director’s Funded Postdoctoral Fellow with Wojciech H. Zurek at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (2014-2016). Since Fall 2016 I have been on the faculty of the Department of Physics at UMBC.
Tuesday, December 12th
Cindy Strong – Cornell College
Pottery and Chemistry
Cindy Strong earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and has been at Cornell College since 1989, where she teaches courses in analytical and inorganic chemistry. Strong has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Petroleum Research Fund, and other agencies to fund instrumentation and research projects with undergraduate students.
Wednesday, December 13th
Michelle Pautz – University of Dayton
Movies and Government Officials
Michelle Pautz, associate professor of political science and assistant provost for the Common Academic Program at the University of Dayton, is author of the forthcoming book, Civil Servants on the Silver Screen: Hollywood’s Depiction of Government and Bureaucrats. Along with her research on film and politics, she studies and teaches environmental policy and regulation and public administration. She co-wrote US Environmental Policy in Action: Practice and Implementation and The Lilliputians of Environmental Regulation: The Perspective of State Regulators and is the co-editor of The Intersection of Food and Public Health. And she has worked with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Thursday, December 14th
Dorothy Dunlop – Northwestern University
Older Adults, Exercise and Arthritis
Dr. Dunlop is a health services researcher with expertise in statistical methodology. Her applied research interests include the investigation of physical activity to prevent disability in older adults and to understand the consequences of arthritis and other musculoskeletal disorders. She co-authored a book on statistical methodology; she has published and applied statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal data. Dr. Dunlop is the principle investigator on an NIH-funded epidemiologic study on the relationship of physical activity to reduce disability and an NIH-funded study to evaluate the cost effectiveness of a physical activity intervention. She has served on data safety monitoring boards, on executive committees of federally funded clinical trials, and on the editorial boards of medical journals.
Friday, December 15th
Jennifer Mueller – University of San Diego
Leadership Resisting Creativity
My research examines the biases people have against creative ideas and creative people. I wrote a paper, “The Bias Against Creativity” that went viral and was downloaded more than 65,000 times. Before joining the faculty at the University of San Diego School of Business, I taught for seven years at the Wharton School. I live in the Solana Beach neighborhood of San Diego and enjoy mountain biking, backpacking, and fussing over my dachshund, Sammy.
