The Academic Minute for 2021.06.07-2021.06.11

The Academic Minute from 06.07 – 06.11

Monday, June 7th
Yoah Sui – University of Victoria
More Sitting is Bad, But Not All Sitting is the Same
Dr. Wuyou (Yoah) Sui received his PhD in Kinesiology at Western University in 2020. Dr. Sui’s expertise is in the broad areas of health behaviour change, digital health, and mental health and well-being. Dr. Sui is currently pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship in the Behavioural Medicine Lab at the University of Victoria. He also likes dogs.

Tuesday, June 8th
Jennifer Wollock – Texas A&M University
Wars of Chivalry
Jennifer Goodman Wollock, literary historian, daughter of a World War II Navy veteran who served on the Missouri, studies the intrepid men and women of the Middle Ages who reimagined chivalry and courtly love, and first conceived many of today’s ideals of human rights. Her work centers on Chaucer and Sir Thomas Malory, a squire and a knight, combative writers whose military experience shaped their thought, and ours. She is a professor of English at Texas A&M University. Her books include Chivalry and Exploration and Rethinking Chivalry and Courtly Love.

Wednesday, June 9th
Dimitra Atri – NYU Abu Dhabi
Space Weather, Plants and Life
Dimitra Atri is an Astrophysicist at the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Space Science where he leads the Mars Research Group along with Prof. K.R. Sreenivasan. The overarching theme of his research is investigating the astrophysical conditions that are responsible for carving out habitable conditions on planets in the Solar system (especially Mars) and beyond (extra-solar planets or exoplanets). Using a combination of space mission data and numerical models, he studies how solar and stellar activity impacts planets around them and their potential to host life. Our planetary neighbor, Mars was very Earth-like in the past with abundant liquid water on its surface and could have hosted life. He is investigating how Mars lost most of its atmosphere and water, whether ancient Mars hosted life, and is there life below the surface of the planet. He is using NASA’s MAVEN mission and plans to use UAE’s Hope mission data to answer the former, and NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance data to answer the latter questions.

Thursday, June 10th
Jenny Lenkowski – Goucher College
What Human Medicine Can Learn From Fish Eyes
After receiving her bachelor’s degree at Brown University, Dr. Lenkowski taught in China then worked as a research technician at Tufts Medical School before returning to graduate school. She completed her doctorate in biology in 2010 at Tufts University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to her arrival at Goucher in 2013, she completed post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan exploring how the vertebrate retina regenerates using zebrafish as a model organism.

Friday, June 11th
Robert Edgell – SUNY Polytechnic Institute
1962 and the First Commercial Space Firm
Dr. Edgell is currently a Professor of Technology Management and Co-Director of the Joint Center for Creativity, Design, and Venturing at SUNY Polytechnic Institute. He directs Innovation Challenge New York (ICNY), an integrated community-based experiential learning, research, and service program and has been a recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Business School in Zurich and has delivered research papers and lectures at Stanford University’s Law School, the University of California San Francisco’s School of Dentistry, the California College of the Arts, and the University of St. Gallen. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business where he was named Outstanding Faculty. Also, he has taught at San Francisco State University’s College of Business.