From the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and GHORC…
Paul Baldauf, Ph.D.
Paul Baldauf, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Marine & Environmental Science at the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences conducting research focused on determining a timeline for prehistoric periods of extreme drought in southwestern South Dakota, northern Great Plains. Similar timing of dune formation in this and other dune fields on the Great Plains supports fluctuations in water availability, on a regional or global scale, as the drivers for wind erosion and dune formation in this area. Likely global climate shifts include the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950 to 1250 A.D.) and the Little Ice Age (1400 to 1850 A.D.). The Badlands Working Group is research collaborative that includes faculty and undergraduate students from NSU, Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, Colorado Mesa University, and Clarkson University in New York.
“Holocene evolution of parabolic dunes, White River Badlands, South Dakota, USA, revealed by high-resolution mapping.” Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2023. Quaternary Research, First View , pp. 1 – 12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2022.69
Dr. Baldauf at Sheep Mountain Table, Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Rachel Panton, Ph.D.
Rachel Panton, Ph.D. is a Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media,& The Arts. Dr. Panton’s article/chapter on her teaching experience at the start of the pandemic was recently published by the National Council of Teachers of English as part of the CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series, co-published with the WAC Clearinghouse.
“I was supposed to be at the 4Cs conference in March of 2020 as a Documentarian interviewing other faculty, but quarantine forced us to pivot and record what was happening in our own teaching lives at that moment. I still think of my Spring semester students from 2020 fondly, and I often wonder if they pulled through mentally, physically, and spiritually whole. What we experienced together changed me personally and professionally. The opportunity to reflect on that journey as a Documentarian for 4Cs grounded me and gave me a fresh perspective for teaching. For this, I am forever grateful.”
Here is a link to the book:
https://store.ncte.org/book/recollections-uncommon-time-4c20-documentarian-tales
The open access version with chapter titles and links:
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/swr/documentarian/
And direct link to the article:
https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/books/documentarian/chapter21.pdf
Bernard Riegl, Ph.D.
Bernard Riegl, Ph.D. is the Chair and a Professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences who published a paper in Ecological Applications showing that the Galapagos tree daisy, and endemic and rare plant forming the cloud forests in the central Galapagos, is potentially only 2 decades away from extinction due to competition with an invasive blackberry. The work uses 8 years of monitoring done together with Dr. Jaeger of the Charles Darwin Research Station and with the National Park Directorate.
The link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2846
Yvain Desplat, M.S.
Yvain Desplat, M.S. is a NSU Alumni tho earned a MS in Biological Sciences. Recently, Yvain wa the first author of an article published in the high impact journal Science of the Total Environment. The project was partially supported by an NSU PFRDG grant to Desplat and advisor Dr. Joe Lopez. This project hopes to help elevate a local sponge species as an experimental marine organism which can alert us to the effects of pollution and water quality:
Desplat, Y., Warner, J. F., Blake, E. J., Vijayan, N., Cuvelier, M., Blackwelder, P., & Lopez, J. V. (2023). Morphological and transcriptional effects of crude oil and dispersant exposure on the marine sponge Cinachyrella alloclada. Science of The Total Environment, 878, 162832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162832
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723014481
Ricardo Carrera, Ph.D.
Ricardo Carrera, Ph.D., from the Department of Mathematics, recently published a peer-reviewed publication in the Applied Categorical Structures journal titled, “Some Modifications of Hull Operators in Archimedean Lattice-Ordered Groups with Weak Unit.”
Overview: W is the category of Archimedean l-groups with weak unit and lattice homomorphisms that preserve the unit. By considering various modifications of a W hull operator, this work generates new hull classes and hull operators. Our results are then applied to address various open questions about the collection of all hull classes in W, hcW.
ShareIt link to this article: https://rdcu.be/c6BTH
Santanu, De, Ph.D.
Santanu De, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences who recently co-authored a research article, based on his interdisciplinary collaboration with faculty and students from NSU’s College of Nursing. The project involved designing a structured Virtual Classroom, and showing its effectiveness in contributing significantly to learning and engagement among undergraduate as well as graduate students of healthcare sciences, especially during unprecedented challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic:
Cavanaugh, G., Condry, H. M., Afable, C. F., Morris, M., De, S., Madison, H. E., Marshall, J., Victor, C. P., & Weiner, M. (2023). Immersive Learning and Participatory Engagement: Connecting in the Online Classroom Through Virtual Reality. International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET), 21(1), 1-19. http://doi.org/10.4018/IJDET.317364
On February 2, 2023, Dr. De presented research virtually at the Florida Distance Learning Association/FDLA Conference 2023 (https://eventee.co/event/29089). The presentation was based on an interdisciplinary project conducted in collaboration with Dr. De’s mentee, Ms. Yumna Indorewala, from NSU’s Farquhar Honors College and currently a D.O. student at NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine. The topic of this presentation was “Review of Case Studies on Education and Research in Global Healthcare and STEM During COVID-19”. More information about FDLA can be found here: http://www.fdla.com/.
Vehbi Paksoy, Ph.D.
Vehbi Paksoy, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics who recently published an article in the Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra.
A permanent inequality for positive semidefinite matrices, Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra, Volume 39, pp. 71-77, February 2023
Overview: Matrix permanent is used in several areas including the graph theory and Boson sampling problem in quantum physics. It gives the number of perfect matchings in a bipartite graph, which makes it useful in computer science and scheduling (airplane routes, competitions etc.). It is very hard to compute, and this paper includes some certain upper bounds for a special type of matrices.
The link is https://journals.uwyo.edu/index.php/ela/article/view/7701/6111
Dimitri Giarikos, Ph.D.
Amy Hirons, Ph.D.
Dimitri Giarikos, Ph.D., PI and professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics, and Co-PI, Amy Hirons, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences, were awarded Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) funding (~$500K for 6 months; requested another $5000K for FY24) to examine potential contaminant exposure of nearshore coral reefs around Port Everglades.
The pending dredging of Port Everglades will release sediment into the water column that preliminary research shows has varying concentrations of heavy metals. These metals pose potential health risks to the nearshore coral reef tracts. The extent of the heavy metals concentrations and associated sediment distribution are being studied as well as the associated microbiome in the sediment.
Tamara Frank, Ph.D.
Tamara Frank, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Marine and Environmental Science who recently was awarded an NSF grant on Visual adaptation in hydrothermal vent shrimp and the role in feeding modalities and habitat selection.
Benthic traps – used for collecting adults from around the vents.
Results from this study will significantly advance the fields of vent biology and visual ecology, potentially transforming our current understanding of how light is generated at vent sites and how animals use this light to survive.
Midwater Tucker Trawl – used for collecting juveniles from the water column.
Dr. Alex Soloviev & Lab:
Alexander Soloviev, Ph.D., Professor and Lead of Physical Oceanography Laboratory (DMES/HCAS), received a $670K Award from the Office of Naval Research to continue NSU’s collaborative work with the US Navy.
Dr. Alex Soloviev, NSU team of professionals and students, Jon Wood (Ocean Data Technologies, Inc), and the crew of the research vessel “Richard L. Becker” during a past field cruise on the Navy project in the Straits of Florida.
The long-term goal of this Navy-NSU joint activity is to support the development of a magnetohydrodynamic model that will be useful for US Navy applications.
Website of Physical Oceanography Laboratory: https://www.novaoceanlab.com/