Professional Notes: April 2023
04/14/2023
Professional Notes is a round-up of awards, presentations, papers, and other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members, and students.
Students
Discover BMB, the annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) national meeting, was held in Seattle in March. There were 288 undergraduate students from across the country who competed in the research poster presentation and competition.
A SLU student, Ether Dharmesh, was a winner in the competition and brought home the Honorable Mention Award in the Category, Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery.
Five SLU students, who are undergraduate members of ASBMB, presented their research results: Matthew Dovalovsky (Medical Science), Nilan Patel (Medical Science), Suhjin Lee (Health Management), Maria Mai (Biology and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology), and Ether Dharmesh (Biomedical Engineering).
Three of the students have been recipients of research scholarships from the DeNardo Education and Research Foundation, a grant awarded to Rita Heuertz, Ph.D., and that supported student research and conference attendance for Dovalovsky, Patel, and Lee.
Additional funding for conference presentations was provided by the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and SLU ASBMB chapter.
Saint Louis University’s team, Anemia Assessment in Resource-Poor Regions, took third place in the Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies’ annual Global Health Technologies Design Competition held at Rice University on April 21.
SLU competed against 27 teams from eight countries: Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and the United States. All teams presented designs for low-cost technologies that addressed global health challenges in resource-limited settings.
Team Anemia Assessment in Resource-Poor Regions is students Amogh Chariyamane (Doisy College of Health Sciences), Jake Little (Science and Engineering), Kevin Noonan (Science and Engineering), and Andrew Kotz (Science and Engineering).
The team’s faculty mentors are Tim R. Randolph, Ph.D., professor of Medical Laboratory Science, and Sridhar Condoor, Ph.D., professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering.
Honore Brewer attended the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Presidential Fellows Leadership Conference March 25-29. Brewer was selected to become a presidential fellow through the organization’s first competitive at-large call for fellows. Brewer had the opportunity to present his long term research as well as interface with renown policymakers from D.C.
Aaron M. Laxton (School of Social Work) was featured on Fox 32 Chicago regarding his approach to addiction treatment which involves taking the treatment directly to the community. This was a project that started while Laxton was working on his MSW at Saint Louis University. SLU faculty from the SLU Addiction Medicine Fellowship who work on this project are Fred Rottnek, M.D.; Amy Hilmer, M.D.; Jen Bello Kottenstette, M.D.; Sheryl Lyss, M.D.; and Kento Sonoda, M.D. Additionally, SLU alum Josh Ferrante and Mitch Ackerman are working on this project.
Faculty
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has published the first volume of a biannual mathematics magazine featuring intriguing articles on the history of mathematics, expository articles on a wide range of topics related to mathematics, research assignments in undergraduate and graduate mathematics courses, interviews with academics, math games, puzzles, art and more.
The goal of the project is to foster an awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and everyday life. The magazine can be accessed online.
Govind Rangrass, M.D. (Anesthesiology) co-authored "Addressing health disparities to improve patient safety with Lilibeth Fermin, M.D., The article was published on Feb. 13 by the American Society of Anesthesiologists. The article discusses how health disparities affect patient safety in minority and vulnerable populations and shares solutions for prioritizing health equity.
Bruce O'Neill, Ph.D. (Anthropology) published the article, “The Subject of the Underground,” in the journal Current Anthropology (64:1) 1–26.
Diana Carlin, Ph.D. (Professor Emerita of Communication) co-authored the article "Have You Come a Long Way, Baby, Since 2008?: A Major Step Forward with Missteps Along the Way," with Kelly L. Winfrey, Iowa State University, in the Winter volume of Communication Studies. Carlin also organized and moderated a series of programs for the Dole Institute of Politics Presidential Leadership Series on First Ladies as Presidential Partners which are available on the Dole Institute YouTube channel Carlin is a founding member and treasurer of the First Ladies Association for Research and Education.
Oluwatoyosi (Olu) Owoeye, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training) was recently awarded a research grant funding from the Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program (NIH sub-award through Washington University and Saint Louis University) for his new research project titled "MAP for Coaches: A Web Based Musculoskeletal Athletic Injury Prevention Training Course to Increase the Routine Use of Neuromuscular Training Warm-Up Programs."
Oluwatoyosi (Olu) Owoeye, Ph.D. (Physical Therapy and Athletic Training) presented some research findings (podium presentation) from a RICHLoad Project at the 2023 Canadian Academy of Sports and Exercise Medicine Conference in Banff, Canada.
Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D. (Doisy College of Health Sciences) collaborated with Jaclyn Schwieterman, Ed.D. (Marietta College) and Michael Welch, Ph.D. (Simmons University) to publish “Athletic Training Preceptor Perceptions of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice in Clinical Learning Experiences” in the Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. Breitbach served on dissertation committees for both Schwieterman and Welch.
Breitbach also collaborated with Schwieterman and Sarah Manspeaker, Ph.D., to present “Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice: The what, when, and how.” at the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers’ Association Annual Meeting and Symposium in Wheeling, IL on March 11.
Julie Gammack, M.D. (Geriatrics) and Angela Sanford, M.D. (Geriatrics) presented "This Year in Review," a plenary session at the annual Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Medicine conference in Tampa, Florida. Gammack and Sanford reviewed numerous major journals for submissions relating to geriatric medicine in the past year and presented the most impactful articles featuring advances in care for older adults. The conference is attended by more than 1,200 healthcare professionals annually and "This Year in Review" is always one of the highest rated sessions of the conference.
Judith Gibbons, Ph.D. (Professor Emerita of Psychology) has been named the recipient of the 2023 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology. Gibbons is the founding editor of the American Psychological Association Division 52 journal International Perspectives in Psychology, an associate editor of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, a former president of the Interamerican Society of Psychology (SIP) and the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, co-founder of the Women’s Studies Program at Saint Louis University, and a former Fulbright scholar at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.
Whitney Postman, Ph.D. (Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences) was named the editor for the National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing's Resound))) publication.
Faculty and Students
This year MAA (Mathematical Association of America) Missouri Section Meeting took place Thursday, March 30 through Saturday, April 1, 2023, at Missouri State University. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics attended this meeting with a large group of faculty, graduate and undergraduate students.
R. Lauren Miller (Mathematics & Statistics) Brody Johnson, Ph.D. (Mathematics & Statistics) and Dorsa Ghoreishi, Ph.D. (Mathematics & Statistics) all gave presentations at the event. Miller's presentation was on teaching through play. Johnson’s talk was on pull-back car modeling experience in differential equations and Dr. Ghoreishi introduced the concept of phase retrieval in frame theory.
Three graduate students, Mary Silvergate, Emily Twardy, and Jae Hyeong Lee gave presentations on the second day of the meeting.
At the event, the SLU Department of Mathematics and Statistics competed with two teams in Missouri Collegiate Mathematics Competition. This competition is a statewide contest in which teams of three undergraduate students wrestle with ten problems over a pair of 2.5-hour sessions. The event featured 21 teams.
SLU's Team A, made up of Trevor Andershock, Kieran Favazza, and Ben Schneiderheinze, ranked 5th. Team B, made up of Sruthi Ainapurapu, Anna Goranski, and Miles Wurth, ranked 8th.
On the last evening of the meeting, Özlem Ugurlu, Ph.D. received her certification from The Missouri Section NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) program. This is a program of the Missouri Section of MAA for new faculty in the mathematical sciences who are interested in improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics.