FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS
Dr. Jay Austin, Professor and Department Head in Physics & Astronomy was awarded an NSF grant to evaluate the role of wind and convection on Lake Superior.
Dr. Jing Bai, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering presented an invited keynote speech at the 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics (ICBEB) held in Tianjin, China in September, 2018.
Dr. Manik Barman in the Department of Civil Engineering was a corresponding author of a conference paper “Post-Crack Performance of Synthetic Structural Reinforced Concrete” at the 13th International Symposium on Concrete Roads, EUPAVE in Berlin, Germany in June and a co-author of “Use of Intelligent Compaction in Detecting and Remediating Under-Compacted Spots during Compaction of Asphalt Layers" for the 5th GeoChina International Conference in HangZhou, China in July. Co-edited Transportation and Geotechniques: Materials, Sustainability and Climate proceedings for the previously mentioned GeoChina conference along with Musharraf Zaman and Jia-Ruey Chang. Dr. Barman was invited to speak at the 2018 Mid-year Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Madison, WI and presented "Benefits of Using Structural Fibers in Concrete Pavement/Overlay" and gave a similar presentation to the Minnesota Local Road Research Board in St. Cloud, MN. He also was invited to present a workshop entitled “Evaluation of the Benefits from Structural Fibers in Thin Concrete Pavements” for the National Road Research Alliance in Minneapolis, MN.
Rachel Breckenridge, Instructor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics presented at the American Indian Science & Engineering Society National Conference in Oklahoma City, OK on Increasing Retention Through a College Bridge Program for Underrepresented Students in STEM.
Dr. Ben Dymond, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering published a conference paper with ASEE entitled "The Influence of Grading Bias on Reinforced Concrete Exam Scores at Three Different Universities.” In collaboration with former graduate student Connor Mills, Dr. Dymond presented research conducted for MnDOT “Anchorage of Epoxy-Coated Rebar Using Chemical Adhesives” at the American Concrete Institute. Dr. Dymond also received a grant from WSP and MnDOT and instrumentation for a project on Duluth’s Blatnik Bridge.
Dr. Chanlan Chun, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering co-authored “Spatial and Temporal Characterization of Epiphytic Microbial Communities Associated with Eurasian Watermilfoil: a Highly Invasive Macrophyte in North America” published in the academic Journal FEMS Microbiology Ecology. Presented on Sulfide Capture by Iron-Bearing Mining Byproducts in Northern Minnesota research conducted in partnership with Jeanette Voelz (speaker), Jacob Daire, William Arnold, Nathan Johnson and R. Lee Penn, at the Minnesota Water Resources Conference in St. Paul, MN in October. Multiple posters were also presented at this conference from Dr. Chun’s research group. Also presented A Novel Electrode-Integrated Bioreactor to Treat Sulfate research conducted in partnership with Daniel Takaki, Tobin Deen, and Daniel Jones at the Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Science: Water in Holderness, NH.
Dr. Emmanuel Enemuoh, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering secured $25,000 funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory Center for Rapid Innovation University Design Challenge for Aug. 2018 – Aug. 2019. Presented two papers at the Midwest American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Regional Conference at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, MO in September: “Characterization of Maraging Steel Fabricated with Metal Laser Sintering Hybrid Milling” co-authored with Jose Carrillo, Joseph Klein, Austin Cash, and Drew Dergstrom and “Multi-Disciplinary Capstone Design and Implementation of Orbital Debris Removal System” co-authored with Jose Carrillo, Jong Lee and Scott Norr. Led a senior design project involving 18 MIE students to second place with a Space Debris Mitigation System - Lower Earth Orbit Active Debris Removal System as part of the Air Force Research Design Challenge on Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee.
Dr. Julie Etterson, Professor in the Department of Biology started a new position in July as the Campus Lead for the newly established Institute on the Environment at UMD, a branch of the U of M Twin Cities based IonE. Dr. Etterson co-authored a paper entitled “Natural Selection and Neutral Evolutionary Processes Contribute to Genetic Divergence in Leaf Traits Across a Precipitation Gradient in the Tropical Oak Quercus oleoides” in Molecular Ecology. Dr. Etterson secured a $1500 grant from the Montana Native Plant Society in collaboration with undergraduate student S. Green and graduate student R. Pizza to conduct research on whether cultivation of Montana wildflower species on native seed farms cause unintended evolution. She also received an $8,000 grant from the Garden Club of America with R. Pizza to study whether restoration seed pools are evolving under commercial propagation. Dr. Etterson was invited to present seminars at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, at the 103rd Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in New Orleans, Louisiana and at the Nature Conservancy in Minneapolis.
Dr. Vicki Hansen, Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences co-authored “Mapping of Geologic Structures in the NiobeAphrodite Map Area of Venus: Unraveling the History of Tectonic Regime Change” in the Journal of Geophysical Research with I. Lopez. Published an invited paper “Global Tectonic Evolution of Venus, from Exogenic to Endogenic Over Time, and Implications for Early Earth Processes” in Philosophical Transactions Royal Society A.
Dr. Imran Hayee, Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering received a patent for DSRC equipped portable changeable sign in partnership with Eil Kwon in July, 2018. Published “Real-Time Relative Lane and Position Identification of Surrounding Vehicles Using GPS and DSRC Based Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication” in 2018 IEEE International Conference on Communications proceedings in Kansas City, MO. Received a $133,600 grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation and LRRB for Lane Departure and Advanced Curve Speed Warning System using DSRC bases V2V communication for July 1, 2018 to February 28, 2021. Presented an invited talk at the Towards Zero Death 2018 Conference in Mankato, MN in October entitled Lane Departure and Advanced Curve Speed Warning System.
Dr. Zhuangyi Liu, Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics served on the thesis committee of three Ph.D. students in Donghua University, Tianjin University, and the Lebanese University, and participated in their thesis defense in China and Lebanon. Dr. Liu gave invited talks at the Joint Conference of American Mathematics Society and Chinese Mathematics Society in Shanghai, and at the Conference on Control Theory at Fudan University in June, 2018. He was a plenary speaker at the XVII WPDE in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of his papers, co-authored with two Ph.D. students, appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Control and Related Fields. His paper with Q. Zhang "The Stability and Regularity of Solutions to the Timoshenko Beam Equation with Local Kelvin-Voigt Damping" was accepted for publication by SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization in July. Another paper, co-authored with visiting scholar Z. Han, was accepted by ESAIM COCV.
Dr. Allen Mensinger, Professor in the Department of Biology published “Barking Mad: The Vocalization of the John Dory, Zeus Faber” with co-authors Craig Radford and Rosalyn Putland in PLOS ONE.
Dr. Liz Minor from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and LLO recently served on the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility Advisory and Planning Board for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Dr. Juming Pan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics finished a project with Minnesota Power to optimize the relationship between frequency of tree trimming and the reliability of power distribution.
Dr. Peter Peterson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science received an NSF award on computer security.
Dr. Prashanth Poddutoori, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry co-authored an article “Reversible Solution π‐Dimerization and Long Multicenter Bonding in a Stable Phenoxyl Radical in Chemistry - A European Journal, corresponding-authored an article published in Nanoscale - “Charge-Separation in Panchromatic, Vertically Positioned Bis (donorstyryl)BODIPY – Aluminum (III) Porphyrin – Fullerene Supramolecular Triads” and first-authored an article entitled “Triplet Electron Transfer and Spin Polarization in a Palladium Porphyrin-Fullerene Conjugate in Phy. Chem. Chem. Phys. Dr. Poddutoori also spoke at the ACS Midwest Regional Meeting in Ames, Iowa.
Dr. Jessica Savage, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology presented a seminar at Cornell University entitled “A sweet journey: Structural and Physiological Constraints on Phloem Transport.”
Aaron Shepanik, Instructor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics co-authored a paper with Professor Dalibor Froncek entitled “Regular Handicap Graphs of Order n = 0 (mod 8)”published in the Electronic Journal of Graph Theory and Applications.
Dr. Erin Sheets, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry was elected secretary for the Biophysical Society an international society in her field.
Dr. Viktor Zhdankin from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry recently gave an invited talk at the international Organic Chemistry congress in Turkey. He is working on novel catalytic and recyclable systems based on iodine.
Dr. Debao Zhou, Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, co-authoring with the MS students he supervised, published a paper entitled “Numerical Prediction of Patient Pain during Colonoscopy: Influence of Colonoscope Properties” in the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (Taylor & Francis, SCI indexed with Impact Factor 1.974). He also served as an invited reviewer for two journals: Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing (Springer, SCI) and Sensors and Actuators: A Physical (Elsevier, SCI). And was a review for the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
Dr. Amy Kireta, Communications Specialist presented on the 2019 Lake Superior Youth Symposium at the State of Lake Superior Conference in Houghton, Michigan on September 12 with Joan Shumaker-Chadde from Michigan Technological University.
Micaella Penning, Research Assistant at the Geospatial Analysis Center presented a talk entitled “Visualizing Hazus Flood Analysis Results with Story Maps” at the Esri User Conference in July, 2018.
James Rock, Planetarium Program Director Published an article “Indigenous Riverscapes and Mounds: The Feminine Relationship of Earth, Sky and Water” co-authored with Dr. Roxanne Gould from UMD’s Indigenous and Environmental Education Department. Presented at the Southeastern Iowa Astronomy Club as well as the Stillwater, MN High School astronomy class. Presented a lecture entitled "Re-Indigenizing Relationships Between Sky and Earth" at the Bell Planetarium for the Engaged Scholar Critical Community Engagement Roundtable hosted by Dr. Sara Axtell. Presented at the Carlson School of Management’s Department of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship at the U of M Twin Cities. Hosted a visiting Italian astronomer at UMD in August and hosted an International Group and a Lower Sioux (Dakota) high school student group on two separate occasions at the Dakota Wakan Tipi Stellar Origin Cave in St. Paul in August and July respectively.
Stacey Stark, Director of the Geospatial Analysis Center received the 2018 MN GIS/LIS Polaris Leadership Award in October. Stark presented a talk entitled “Growing the GIS Professional” at the Esri Education Summit in July, 2018 and presented on Hazard Mitigation Planning in MN: Telling the Story with Geospatial Data at the National States Geographic Information Council in October, 2018.
Zachary Vavra, GIS Specialist at the Geospatial Analysis Center presented a talk entitled“Using ArcGIS Online for Collaborative Teaching, Research, and Service at UMD” at the MN GIS/LIS Conference in October, 2018.
TEAM EFFORTS
Students and faculty at the Large Lakes Observatory made many contributions to the State of Lake Superior conference in Houghton, MI Oct 9-12. Contributors to papers presented there were: Jay Austin, Sandra Brovold, Ellen Cooney, Chris Filstrup, Erica Green, Sergei Katsev, Sam Kelly, Jiying Li, Roselynd Lin, Gustavo Merten, Elizabeth Minor, Ted Ozersky, Kait Reinl, Kirsten Rhude, Kathryn Schreiner, Kirill Shchapov, Byron Steinman, Robert Sterner, and Kathryn Vall.
Dr. Sergei Katsev, Dr. Katie Schreiner, and Dr. Cody Sheik with the Large Lakes Observatory have been awarded a $521,957 NSF grant to study the geochemistry of organic sulfur in lakes including Lake Superior.
Dr. David Saftner from Civil Engineering and Dr. Brian Gute from Chemistry and Biochemistry are featured on the Center for Educational Innovation's website and YouTube channel for their expertise in teaching in an active learning classroom.
The Geospatial Analysis Center received a $500 grant for “Teaching Students How to Tell Stories Using Maps in JOUR 2300 Visual Journalism” from the College of Liberal Arts in cooperation with Communications Assistant Professor Jennifer Moore. The Center also was awarded $3,100 by UMII UpDraft for a project with Laura Palombi and Heather Blue in the College of Pharmacy for a project entitled, “Geospatial Analysis to Identify Opportunities to Reduce Opioid Overdose and Hepatitis C Infection in Minnesota.” Staff members Stacey Stark and Micaella Penning participated in a panel on “State Geoinquiries” at the Esri Education Summit in July, 2018.
The Department of Mathematics & Statistics hosted the 32nd annual Midwest Conference on Combinatorics and Combinatorial Computing in October. Dr. Dalibor Froncek was the conference chair and led a group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students in hosting the event.
The Department of Physics & Astronomy hosted a public lecture with Planetary Scientist Roger Wiens called "Discovering a 'Great Freshwater Lake’ on Mars with Curiosity.” Approximately 150 people attended the free event.
CONTACT
If you would like to share news of an award, research, publication, presentation or successful funding proposal, contact Valerie Coit, Communications Specialist at [email protected] to be added to the next update. These stories will be shared at the beginning of each month during the fall and spring semesters.