Academe welcomes news from Â鶹´«Ă˝ faculty and staff about research, teaching and service activities. This column recognizes grants, honors, awards, presentations and publications, new appointments, new faculty, sabbaticals, retirements and deaths of our current and former colleagues.
Rajiv Bagai, associate professor, and Bin Tang, assistant professor, both of electrical engineering and computer science, received the Best Paper Award of the 25th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications in Singapore, March 2011, for their paper titled "Data Caching for Enhancing Anonymity."
Wilson Baldridge, professor, chair, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures-French, gave an invited paper, “Reprise de Jumelages,” on the work of Michel Deguy at the Regional Association of Aquitaine meeting in France. The association, in cooperation with the University of Bordeaux, awarded its annual Grand Prize for Literature to Deguy. The International Colloquium on his work, organized to celebrate this award, involved leading specialists from the Sorbonne, the University of Bordeaux, and international scholars from Japan and the United States. Baldridge is a recognized Deguy scholar.
Kate Bohn-Gettler, assistant professor, counseling, education and school psychology, has published, with D.N. Rapp, (in press), “Depending on my mood: Mood-driven influences on text comprehension” in the Journal of Educational Psychology. Bohn-Gettler also published, with D.N. Rapp, P. van den Broek, P. Kendeou and M.J. White (in press) “Adults’ and children’s monitoring of story events in the service of comprehension” in Memory & Cognition.
Misty Bruckner, associate director, Center for Urban Studies, received the Bronze Medal of Outstanding Service from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office for her work involving the new Oaklawn Activity Center in southeast Wichita.
Deema deSilva, director, Student Support Services, participated by invitation from Oxford University in London, England, to participate in a spring Oxford Round Table Discussion as a delegate in a panel of 40 women from around the globe.
Kay Gibson, associate professor; Gayla Lohfink, assistant professor; Donna Sayman, assistant professor; and Anh Tran, associate professor, all from curriculum and instruction, received a Tilford Incentive Grant from the Â鶹´«Ă˝ Office of Multicultural Affairs and will teach courses that enhance diversity-related themes and content in College of Education curricular offerings.
Barbara Hodson, professor; Trisha Self, assistant professor; Kathy Strattman, associate professor; and Terese Conrad, clinical educator, all from communication sciences and disorders, have recently published case studies cited in a pioneering new textbook, “The Communication Disorder Casebook: Learning by Example” by Shelly Chabon and Ellen Cohn. It is a first edition case-based text for the discipline’s undergraduate and graduate level courses.
Mary Liz Jameson, associate professor, biological sciences, has been invited to teach a course on scarab beetles in Peru at La Pampa Hermosa Sanctuary, a biological field station.
Jennifer Kassebaum, who has served as interim associate general counsel since September 2010, has been selected as associate general counsel for Â鶹´«Ă˝.
Maite Kilpatrick, Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures-Spanish, organized a meeting of the Mid-America Chapter of the American Translators Association for those interested in professional translation and interpretation, including a discussion of the processes for becoming certified for court or medical interpreting.
Lorraine Madway, assistant professor, curator Special Collections, Ablah Library, presented “Struggle and Resilience: Kansas During the Great Depression” in April at the Watkins Community Museum in Topeka.
Kim McDowell, associate professor, curriculum and instruction, has published, with R. Sweeney and R. Ziolkowski, “Adolescent readers: Relatedness of ability and attitudes” in Global Education.
Linda Mitchell, professor, curriculum and instruction, made a presentation at the Kansas Division for Early Childhood annual conference in February based on her publication: Mitchell, L., Perlman, L., & Mitchell, A. (2011). Family engagement: Building early learning partnerships.
Paul Rillema, professor, chemistry, served as program chair for the 45th Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society. More than 750 chemists, including students, professors and industrial chemists, attended the meeting, held in Wichita.
Christopher Rogers, associate professor, biological sciences, presented his invited paper “Season-long fecundity, brood parasitism and nest predation in the Cerulean Warbler in southwestern Michigan” at the joint meeting of the Association of Field Ornithologists, Cooper Ornithological Society and Wilson Society for Ornithology. His paper was part of a symposium session, “Our Expanding Understanding of Cerulean Warbler Breeding Biology and Migratory Behavior.”
Michael Rogers, professor, chair, human performance studies, was quoted in a Newsday article, “For a 50th birthday lift, try 300 pounds,” about weight lifting by older adults. He was also quoted in a New York Times article, “A trainer who acts your age.”
Rogers has recently published “Effects of hydraulic-resistance training on strength and power in untrained healthy older adults” in the April issue of Journal of Strength and Conditioning.
Judy Ruder, clinical supervisor, curriculum and instruction, and seven Â鶹´«Ă˝ students attended the Kansas National Educators Association—Student Program (KNEA-SP) representatives assembly in Manhattan. Gwen Mukes, assistant professor, was recognized as the Outstanding Local Advisor at the event for her support and commitment to the student organization. The group won top prize for a banner made by Maranda McArthur, Penny Blattner, Susie Kelly and Kara Yoder. The banner will go on to the national KNEA-SP meeting, where it will compete with banners from all 50 states.
Donna Sayman, assistant professor, special education, curriculum and instruction, recently presented “Contracting with Omar the Tentmaker: Masculinity and Men in Nursing” at the American Men’s Studies Association conference in Kansas City.
Nick Solomey, professor, chair, physics, gave a presentation on the Auger North Cosmic Ray Observatory project in April at Washburn University in Topeka. The internationally funded project, which may be partially located in Kansas, studies the universe’s highest energy particles.
Erach Talaty, professor, assistant chair, chemistry, was honored by his colleagues with the naming of the Erach Talaty Organic Chemistry Teaching Lab in McKinley Hall.
Lawrence E. Whitman, associate professor, director engineering education, has been elected to serve as technical vice president for the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Whitman previously served on the IIE board as computer and information systems (CIS) division president, 2008-2009; member of board of CIS, 2005-2009; and has been a member of the organization since 1996.
Shang-You Yang, associate professor, biological sciences, was the invited keynote speaker at the 2010 Jinan International Symposium on Minimal Invasive Spine Surgery in Jinan, China, and presented “Gene therapy in orthopaedic spine surgery.”
IN MEMORIAM
Jean Vincent Gillette, 80, retired personnel manager, former Campus Activities Center, died on April 11 in Wichita. She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Jack; and son-in-law Kurt Seybold. She is survived by her daughters Darla Gillette Seybold, Lori Gillette (Robert) Cunningham of Wichita and Lisa (Matt) Blaes of Olathe, Kan.; sister and brother-in-law Jan and Toke Rogers of Las Cruces, N.M.; brother C.L. (Virginia) Vincent of N.M; grandchildren Phillip (Heather) Cushman, Molly Blaes, Cavanaugh Blaes, Tim Cunningham, Stephanie (Mark) Toland; great granddaughter Kaylee Cushman; and her beloved dog, Lexi. A memorial service has been held. Memorial contributions may be made to the Kansas Humane Society, 3313 N. Hillside, Wichita, KS 67219.