Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

Halmos Students Present at Annual Microbiology Meeting

On February 25-27, the Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology held its 2022 annual meeting, giving Halmos students the opportunity to present their research.  The labs of Halmos faculty members Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D.; Robert Smith, Ph.D.; and Jose V. Lopez, Ph.D. attended, presented, and won awards.

From the Garcia Lab:

  • Undergraduate biology students Ashley Janke, Sri Rishitha Nannapaneni & Alyssa Gershon won 2nd place award for Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Presentation for their work, “Isolation of bacteriophages in soil that infect Gordonia rubripertincta”.
  • Chloe Barreto-Massad, American Heritage Boca/Delray High School (a high school student mentored by Garcia) won 3rd place award for outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation for “An Investigation of the Effects of Aerobic and Anaerobic Environments on Antibiotics Produced by Soil Bacteria”

From the Smith Lab:

  • Camryn Pajon, an undergraduate biology major won 1st place award for outstanding undergraduate oral presentation for her research, “Carbon source driven metabolic buffering determines the co-existence of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa”.
  • Laura Garcia-Dieguez, Masters in Biological Sciences student gave an oral presentation,

“Changes in Frequency and Amplitude of Spatial Disturbances Modulate the Expression of Quorum Sensing-Mediated Virulence Effectors in Pseudomonas aeruginosa”

She also entered the Microbiology Art Contest with the theme “Florida Microbes” and won Honorable mention.

  • Masters in Biological Sciences students Gabriela Diaz-Tang & Estefania Marin Meneses gave an oral presentation on “The Influence of Growth Efficiency on the Inoculum Effect”

From the Lopez Lab:

  • Colleen McMaken, Masters in Biological Sciences gave an oral presentation regarding

“Microbial impacts on loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtle hatching success”

The Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (FLASM) promotes microbiology education and research in Florida through meetings, discussions, and publications. Our members represent the many diverse areas of microbiology including virology, metagenomics, clinical, environmental, basic research, education, industrial, bioenergy, veterinary, and more.

Congratulations to all students presenting at this year’s meeting!

Posted 03/13/22

Halmos Faculty Co-authors Chapter in Encyclopedia of Peace History

Mary Hope Schwoebel, Ph.D.

Mary Hope Schwoebel, Ph.D., faculty in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), co-authored a chapter entitled, The Evolution of the Peace-development Nexus: Inequality and the Transformative Turn. The chapter was accepted for publication in the upcoming Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Peace History.  Schwoebel’s co-author is Erin McCandless, Ph.D. McCandless is faculty at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Schwoebel’s teaching and research interests include peacebuilding and state building, peacebuilding and development, gender and conflict, culture and conflict, and facilitation.

Posted 03/13/22

Peer Consultant Featured in Locals -Only Miami Short Film Festival

Janay Joseph

Janay Joseph, NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC) undergraduate peer consultant, was featured in the Locals Only Miami Short Film Festival, November 14, 2021. Joseph’s “She Had a Dream: Eula Johnson’s Fight to Desegregate Broward County” appeared in the documentary category. Joseph is a History and International Studies major in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences.

Joseph’s film tells the story of local civil rights leader, Eula Johnson, who led the 1961 Wade-in protests at Fort Lauderdale Beach; she was also the first woman president of the Broward chapter of the NAACP. Alongside Tara Chadwick, Joseph worked on the project during an internship with History Fort Lauderdale between January and May 2020. Joseph attributes part of her work on this project to the WCC, explaining that “while screening and promoting the film, I used a lot of writing and communication skills I gained from the Writing and Communication Center to clearly convey the message of the film. Also, during the filmmaking process, I talked with several members of the Sistrunk community who guided the messaging of this film”.

Joseph’s “She Had a Dream” debuted at the 2021 NSU Undergraduate Student Symposium, where it won first place among film projects.  Joseph also submitted the film to 16 other film festivals, both locally and globally. It was accepted by the Montreal Independent Flim Festival; Flint Youth Film Festival; Museum Talkies International Film Festival; First-Time Filmmaker Online Sessions;  MIAMI short FILM FESTIVAL; Woodstock Museum 22nd Annual Film Festival; Global Peace Film Festival; Encontro de Cinema Negro Zózimo Bulbul – Brasil, África, Caribe e Outras Diásporas 14 anos; and the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Access Joseph’s film and other films in the 2021 Locals Only category by visiting https://www.miamishortfilmfestival.com/2021-program-schedule/locals-only-volume-2/.

To learn more about the NAACP Broward Chapter, visit https://ftlaudnaacp.tripod.com/.

To learn more about the NSU Writing & Communication Center, visit https://www.nova.edu/wcc/.

Posted 03/13/22

Halmos Professor Makes Multiple Telemundo Appearances

Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., displays a growth plate of bacteria from a swabbed mattress on the Telemundo’s Al Rojo Vivo.

Last month, the “Amenaza Escondida” (“Hidden Threats”) portion of Telemundo’s Al Rojo Vivo included three segments featuring Halmos’ Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D.  The show’s producer swabbed washers/dryers, mattresses, and air ducts and brought samples to Garcia’s lab where undergraduate biology major Ashley Guillen-Tapia assisted with determining if E. coli and S. aureus were present in any of the samples.  The segments titled “Alertan sobre proliferación de bacterias en las lavadoras (Warning about the growth of bacteria in washing machines)”, “Bacterias en colchones: alertan por hongos y criaturas que podrían causar enfermedades (Bacteria on mattresses: warnings of fungus and creatures that can cause illness)”, and “Síndrome de la casa enferma podría afectar a tu familia (Sick house syndrome can affect your family)” can be viewed at the included links.

Torruellas Garcia is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Miami and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute. Research in the Garcia Lab is conducted exclusively by NSU undergraduate students and focuses on developing techniques to detect novel antibiotics that inhibit bacterial type III secretion systems, examining the efficacy of electrostatic sprayers for the delivery of disinfectants and identifying bacteria from everyday items for the news.

Posted 03/13/22

Halmos Hosts Graduate Science Research Symposium

On February 24-25, the Halmos College of Arts & Sciences (HCAS) held its 4th Biannual HCAS Graduate Science Research Symposium. The symposium included presentations from NSU graduate and postdoctoral students, faculty, & collaborators highlighting research from across the college. The event was organized by a committee from the Department of Biological Sciences in tandem with the Department of Marine & Environmental Sciences and the Student Government Association (SGA). Jose Lopez, Ph.D.; Tyler Cyronak, Ph.D; Rosanna Milligan, Ph.D.; Eben Gering, Ph.D.; Graduate SGA President, Gretchen Spencer; & librarian Keri Baker, all played an integral role in assuring the event ran smoothly both in person and online. The Graduate SGA greatly contributed to the event, organizing & providing coffee breaks, lunches, a banquet, & a post-event happy hour at the local LauderAle Brewery.

This year’s event welcomed two Keynote Speakers, Lauren Toth, Ph.D. & John K. Reed, M.S., whose research the community poured into the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center Auditorium to hear. After the presentations, attendees participated in a vote to award their favorite student presenters. This year’s awards of Barnes and Noble gift cards were donated by the Department of Biological Sciences and were awarded to:

  • First Place: Vanessa Blanchard on “Parasites of raptorial birds of South Florida” and Camryn Pajon on “Carbon source driven metabolic buffering determines the co-existence of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa”
  • Second Place: Colleen McMaken on “Microbial impacts on loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green (Chelonia mydas) sea turtle hatching success”
  • Third Place: Nick Jones on “High incidence of partial colony mortality constrains realized growth for three coral species (Montastraea cavernosa, Porites astreoides and Siderastrea siderea) in southeast Florida”

Congratulations to the winners and everyone involved for another great HCAS Graduate Science Research Symposium! There is a possibility that the event could become a yearly occurrence run by a student committee in the future. We eagerly await to see what other types of research will be shared at the next event!

Posted 03/13/22

Halmos Partners with Montachem International to Explore Global Plastics

From left, Isabelly Verissimo (Behavioral Neuroscience and Pre-Med), Jerry Murcia, CEO Montachem International Inc., Eve Fatout (Education). C. Avila, COO Montachem International Inc., Valeska Ribeiro Antunes (Political Science).

This past fall semester, the Department of Humanities and Politics (DHP) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center, partnered with Montachem International Inc. on a case competition exercise titled “Global Issues, Student Solutions.” Montachem is a leader in the distribution of thermoplastics and plastic resins to producers around the world and the initiative provided an opportunity for undergraduate students at NSU to avail of insight and expertise from Montachem personnel while exploring the role of plastics in the modern world.  “Global Issues, Student Solutions” ran as a case competition in a section of INST 1500, Global Issues, the introductory survey course in the B.A. in International Studies program.  Under the direction of course instructor  Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., students engaged in research projects addressing the challenges posed by the completing costs and benefits of global plastic usage.  Based on a review of their work by a faculty panel and feedback from officials at Montachem, three students were recognized at a recent luncheon hosted by DHP. Each student is the recipient of a cash award funded by a generous gift from Montachem International.

“We are very proud of our association with NSU on the ‘Global Issues, Global Solutions’ plastics challenge project in 2021,” said J.C. Avila, COO of Montachem International. “Waste in general, and plastics’ waste in particular, are serious issues that seem to require a philosophical change, we humans need to think differently about the waste we generate every day and how we deal with it. The work presented by the students after understanding the depth of this challenge is very encouraging as they presented interesting solutions and ideas but most importantly demonstrated the need to bring this subject up for discussion at all levels in our society to start finding solutions.”

Montachem CEO Jerry Murcia added, “Plastic waste mismanagement has created a global ecological crisis that needs to be addressed by adopting environmentally minded and balanced solutions. Montachem is proud to have supported this project, which in turn has raised awareness of this ongoing problem.  The creative solutions presented by NSU students move us towards a circular economy where intentional business decisions encompass the importance of social justice and positive environmental impact.” Both Montachem and the DHP look forward to continuing their partnership, engaging students in addressing this important challenge.

“My biggest take-away from my research is that there are many ways in which we can help alleviate our climate crisis; we just need to agree on a plan,” said competition winner Eve Fatout, a junior Education major.Joint runner up Valeska Antunes, a sophomore political science major, noted, “I dedicated myself to this project because I saw it as an opportunity to do something meaningful while in college.” The other runner up, Isabelly Verissimo, a sophomore Behavioral Neuroscience major, who recently represented her home country of Brazil at the Global Peace Summit in Turkey, said that part of the reason she took the Global Issues class was so that she could explore issues such as this one that fall at the intersection of science and public policy.

Posted 02/28/22

Halmos Alumna Co-authors New Book on Social Change

Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, J.D., Ph.D.

Jacqueline N. Font-Guzmán, J.D., Ph.D., graduate of the doctoral program in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), has co-authored a new book, “The Neutrality Trap: Disrupting and Connecting for Social Change,” with Bernard Mayer, Ph.D.  Font-Guzmán discussed her book virtually at NSU as the featured presenter at The Social Justice Roundtable on February 12, 2022.

Font-Guzmán is the first Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Eastern Mennonite University. Before starting her new position, Font-Guzmán was the Director of the Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program and faculty at Creighton University. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Carlos III University School of Law in Spain and was an NSU Distinguished Alumna. She has been a Visiting Professor at Southern Methodist University and the University of Puerto Rico Law School.

In addition to her NSU degree, she has a law degree from the Interamericana University in Puerto Rico, a Master of Health Care Administration from St. Louis University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Coe College.

For information about the Social Justice Roundtable, please contact Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D. at mckayj@nova.edu  faculty in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies in Halmos.

Learn more information about the book.

Posted 02/27/22

Halmos Hosts Talk on Alpha-Stable Integro-Differential Equations

Xiaofan Li, Ph.D.

The Halmos College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics will host guest speaker Xiaofan Li, Ph.D., as part of their Mathematics Colloquium Series.  Li will be discussing a numerical algorithm to simulate the nonlocal Fokker-Planck equations using the Toeplitz matrix structure of the time-space discretization. The algorithm utilizes first exit time, escape probability and transitional probability densities to quantify dynamical behaviors of stochastic differential equations with non-Gaussian, alpha-stable type Lévy motions.

Li received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Zhejiang University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from UCLA. He was a postdoc at UCSD and The Ohio State University. Li joined the Department of Applied Mathematics at Illinois Institute of Technology in 1999, serving as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor. He has served as the Director of Graduate Studies since 2005, was Associate Dean of the Graduate College from 2011-2013, was an Associate Dean in College of Science from 2013-2019 and has served as an Associate Dean in College of Computing since 2019. His research interests include moving boundary value problems in fluid mechanics and materials science, numerical methods for nonlocal equations, nonlinear standing waves in acoustics and transport equations in ion channels

“Numerical Schemes for Integro-Differential Equations Related to Alpha-Stable Processes,” will take place on Thursday, March 10th from 12:30 – 1:20 p.m. on Zoom.  The entire NSU community, including students at all levels of mathematics, is invited and encouraged to attend.

Posted 02/27/22

Halmos Faculty Presents on Using Dialogues for Social Justice

McKay

Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D., director of the doctoral program, and faculty in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), presented at the Association for Graduate Liberal Programs Annual Conference held virtually.  The conference theme was Unmute Yourself: Voice, Representation, Power. McKay’s presentation was entitled, “Using Dialogues to Build a Socially Just Community.”

McKay is the faculty adviser to the Social Justice Roundtable and works with students in the community through Community Resolution Services, a practicum and volunteer site for DCRS. Community Resolution Services hosts Story Café, We Love our Families series, The Women’s Roundtable, and is involved in offering workshops for the county’s Crisis Intervention Teams, and other events for community groups and organizations.

McKay’s scholarly interests include social justice, conflict coaching, strategic community planning, and violence prevention and intervention in family, neighborhood, and organizational conflicts.  For more information about Community Resolution Services or the Social Justice Roundtable, please contact McKay at mckayj@nova.edu.

Posted 02/13/22

Halmos Faculty Members Collaborate on New Book

Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D., professor and NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC) executive director; Janine Morris, Ph.D., assistant professor of writing and WCC faculty coordinator; and Cynthia Moreau, Pharm.D., BCACP, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, published “Enhancing Communication Competencies: A Model for Pharmacy and Writing and Communication Center Partnerships” in the edited collection Teaching Writing in the Health Professions (edited by Michael Madson, Routledge 2021). Dvorak and Morris are both faculty in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, and Moreau is faculty in the College of Pharmacy.

“Enhancing Communication Competencies” addresses the need for writing, verbal and nonverbal communication skills within pharmacy graduate programs and outlines the collaboration that took place between Moreau’s Pharmacy Applications graduate course and the WCC during 2019 and 2020.

“​​Collaborating with Dr. Morris and Dr. Dvorak on this chapter was a great experience. As a pharmacist working in academia, most of my collaborations tend to occur with other health professionals, but I loved the opportunity to work with faculty from an entirely different non-HPD department at NSU,” Moreau said. “I believe we were ‘pioneers’ in our collaboration between a college of pharmacy and a writing center, and I think the description of our collaboration and learning activities included in our chapter will be useful to faculty from multiple disciplines across the country.”

Read and learn more about Teaching Writing in the Health Professions.

Learn more about the NSU Writing and Communication Center.

Posted 02/13/22

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