Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

Halmos Faculty Present Juneteenth-inspired Panel Discussion

In June, Halmos College of Arts and Sciences writing, arts and politics faculty members joined together to present an interdisciplinary Juneteenth-inspired panel discussion for the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale titled “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Freedom, Afrofuturism and Reflections on Juneteenth.” The free virtual event took place on Saturday, June 19, and featured three Halmos College faculty members: Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., assistant professor of politics for the Department of Humanities and Politics; Kandy Lopez-Moreno, associate professor of art + design for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts; and Rachel Panton, Ph.D., assistant professor of writing for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.

The event launched “Community Voices,” NSU Art Museum’s new initiative supported by the Community Foundation of Broward that focuses on exploring social and racial inequalities and challenging social structures, including representation in museums. “Looking Forward, Looking Back: Freedom, Afrofuturism and Reflections on Juneteenth” kicked off the series and examined the historical context of emancipation, as well as the ongoing tension between the rhetoric of recovery and an imagined and unenslaveable Black future in art, literature, and pop culture.

Learn more about the panel discussion and future “Community Voices” events for the NSU Art Museum by viewing WLRN’s news story here.

Wild Connection Interviews Halmos Environmental Faculty

Hoch researches barnacles in the lab.

This September, Halmos College environmental faculty member J. Matthew Hoch, Ph.D. was interviewed by Jennifer Verdolin’s “Wild Connection” Podcast. This podcast focuses on relationships and family dynamics of the animal kingdom and how that can apply to people.

Hoch spoke about his research on his current research: genital evolution and reproduction in fish and barnacles.

Verdolin is the author of two popular nonfiction science books, “Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tell Us About Human Relationships” and “Raised by Animals: The Surprising New Science of Animal Family Dynamics.” She draws on animal behavior to reveal how much we can learn from other species to improve our relationships, families, and lives. Her writing has appeared in Scientific American, Slate Magazine, The Washington Post, and National Geographic.

Halmos Faculty Interviewed on Afghanistan Evacuation

Dustin Berna, Ph.D.

Dustin Berna, Ph.D., associate professor of Conflict Resolution and Political Science in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), was interviewed on the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan by Stephen Loiaconi of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and appearing on ABC6. The is article is titled “As allies push Biden to extend Aug. 31 deadline, Taliban warns of consequences.”

Berna is a Middle East expert and his academic interests include Islamic fundamentalism, Middle Eastern politics, Islam, religious extremism, terrorism, suicide terrorism, anti-system extremism, political institutions, social movements, Islamic politics, and international conflict.

Access the article.

Halmos Faculty Co-Authors Article with Fischler Faculty

Santanu De, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Santanu De, M.Sc., Ph.D., faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), authored an article in The Quarterly Review of Distance Education with Vanaja Nethi, Ph.D., faculty in the Department of Education in the Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice.  The article is entitled, Impact of Science Mobile Applications on Interest and Learning among Undergraduate Science Students.

One of the challenges facing undergraduate science programs is keeping students interested in science and minimizing attrition from their discipline. Prior research shows that showcasing real-life applicability of science is one way to keep students interested. In this exploratory study using secondary data from two undergraduate science courses, we examined the impact of science mobile apps on students’ interest and learning. The results show empirically that students think science mobile apps do help increase their interest in science. Furthermore, the ubiquitous mobile phone allows 24/7 access to these science apps, enabling enhanced learning and mastery of scientific concepts.

De’s research interests include STEM education, pedagogy, reproductive physiology, developmental biology, cell biology, and protein biology. He is a member of  the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS), an editorial board member of several journals including The American Journal of BioScience, and faculty adviser of  NSU’s Med-ED student medical organization.

For more information about the article

Halmos Faculty Provides Training on Verbal De-escalation

Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D.

Judith McKay, J.D., Ph.D., director of the doctoral program, and associate professor in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies (DCRS) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), provided training to therapeutic staff at the Jewish Community Services of South Florida, Miami. McKay was invited to provide virtual training in July on verbal de-escalation. She focused on skills, strategies, and responses, particularly when dealing with clients and others in high conflict and crisis.

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. Conflict resolution Studies hosts Story Café, We Love our Families series, The Women’s Roundtable, and is involved in offering workshops, training for the county’s Crisis Intervention Teams, and other events for community groups and organizations.

McKay’s scholarly interests include conflict coaching, strategic community planning, and prevention and intervention in family, neighborhood, and organizational conflict and violence.  For more information about Conflict Resolution Studies events and how we can partner with your group, free to contact McKay at mckayj@nova.edu.

 

Halmos Researcher’s Efforts Focus on Visualizing Virus Variants

Associate Professor Louis R. Nemzer, Ph.D.

NSU Associate Professor Louis R. Nemzer, Ph.D., in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, developed a new method for visualizing amino acid substitutions in which changes in the physical and chemical properties are represented by vectors in a 3D space. While applicable to a wide range of biological applications, such as rational protein design, this work is particularly useful for understanding the behavior of COVID-19 variants and even predicting future threats.

Proteins are long chains of amino acids, and the most infamous today is certainly the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. Random mutations cause changes to its amino acid sequence, which leads to variants that may spread more easily or more effectively evade the human immune system.

As part of his research on amino acid properties, Nemzer created a new way to visualize changes in novel variants, utilizing recently available data on SARS-CoV-2 immune escape, which measures how well they can hide from the host’s antibodies. In addition, results were used from site-saturation mutagenesis experiments, in which all possible amino acid substitutions at a particular site in the spike protein were tested for their impact on binding affinity with ACE2 receptors.

“We live in the era of big data in biology, and the key now is finding new ways to visualize this vast amount of information to make the best use of it,” Nemzer said.

In some diagrams, the colors of the vectors show the impact of the substitution, while dashed lines indicate changes that require at least two nucleotide mutations to happen. He showed that sometimes clusters of chemically similar amino acids can have similar effects, but in other situations, only a specific change – such as swapping a charged amino acid in place of a neutral one – significantly reduces the virulence. The work is available now as a bioRxiv preprint.

REFERENCES:

Nemzer, Louis R. “Visualizing Amino Acid Substitutions in a Physicochemical Vector Space.” bioRxiv (2021).

3 Grants Target Students with Innovative Oceanic Solutions

Ocean Exchange™ is looking for undergraduate and graduate students who are adept in developing innovative solutions that have a beneficial impact on the ocean. The organization – which is affiliated with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation – is offering three monetary awards this year.

The Ocean Exchange Collegiate Award 2021 will give a $25,000 grant to a solution that advances the decarbonization of the maritime shipping industry, either while underway or while in port. The solution should be globally scalable and applicable to any segment, including commercial ocean carriers, ferries, and coastal transportation, large recreational yachts, towing and barge vessels, the cruise industry, and defense/security maritime sectors.

The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation Award 2021 will give a $10,000 grant to a solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and that helps minimize our impact on these resources, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.

The Broward College Innovation Award 2021 will give a $10,000 grant to a solution that advances our understanding of the ocean and that helps minimize our impact on these resources, resulting in more resilient bodies of water including healthy marine life and coastlines.

Eligibility requirements

  • Teams or individual innovators are invited to register
  • Applicants must be undergraduate or graduate student with active student status within one year
  • Solution must be student-led.
  • Teams must pitch in person
  • Delegates representing business, academia, government, and non-profits will select winners at the event in Fort Lauderdale

Important Dates

  • Submit registrations by 11:59 p.m. GMT Monday September 20, 2021
  • Finalists will be selected by our Solutions Review Team to travel to Fort Lauderdale (expenses paid) to present at Ocean Exchange Oct 24-26, 2021
  • Collegiate pitches will be conducted Sunday, Oct 24 and Monday Oct 25

Ocean Exchange™ is an international platform for accelerating the adoption of and the transfer of solutions across industries that positively impact environments, economies and health while respecting cultures around the world.

Students can register their solutions here.

NSU Undergraduates Take on Chocolate Bark Challenge

During the Winter 2021 semester, eight undergraduate students from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the H.Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship were selected to participate in a special topics communications course partnering with Hoffman’s Chocolates and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation. The eight-week online course, offered through the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, gave students the opportunity to work closely with leadership, chocolatiers, and marketing and design professionals from Hoffman’s Chocolates and the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation and develop a new chocolate bark product.

Now in its third year, the special topics course partnering with Hoffman’s Chocolates took on a new challenge by also partnering with the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation to design a new chocolate bark and marketing campaign focused on conservation of Florida’s coastal and Everglades ecosystems. Selected students represented a variety of majors — Art + Design, Communication, Marine Biology and Marketing — and worked in two teams to develop their chocolate bark products, packaging and marketing campaigns featuring paintings by Guy Harvey.

“I’m especially proud of this year’s cohort of dedicated, ambitious students,” said Miriam Ahmed, Ph.D., assistant professor of graphic design for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, who taught the course. “They weren’t afraid to push beyond their comfort zones, and they pursued avenues for achieving the tougher goal of centering sustainability within their communication strategies, marketing, and product packaging.”

An advantage of the course’s online format, Ahmed said, was that it allowed students the chance to collaborate remotely with team members from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation who are located in the Cayman Islands.

On April 20, the student teams pitched their proposed flavor profiles to leadership and representatives from Hoffman’s Chocolates, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, NSU and its Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts. During the final presentation, students showcased “Spiced Paradise” featuring a spiced-ginger rum and dark chocolate bark and “Citrus Coast” featuring a Key Lime Bay white chocolate bark. Both flavors were selected for upcoming production by Hoffman’s Chocolates.

The flavors will be paired with the 2020 Orange Blossom chocolate bark developed by students from last year’s special topics course. The product’s launch was postponed because of COVID-19, and the bark is now set to launch this summer along with this year’s winner.

“Hoffman’s and the GHOF were excellent partners, providing students with exciting interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities,” said Shanti Bruce, Ph.D., chair and professor for the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts.

For more information about the special topics course and its “Battle of the Barks,” click here.

Halmos Partners with Montachem to Explore Global Plastics

This coming fall, the Department of Humanities and Politics in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center will launch a new experiential opportunity for students in partnership with Montachem International Inc.  Montachem is a leader in the distribution of thermoplastics and plastic resins to producers around the world. 

The “Global Issues, Student Solutions” initiative will provide an opportunity for undergraduate students at NSU to explore the role of plastics in the modern world, develop an understanding of the challenges posed by plastics pollution, and provide solutions that might be implemented in individual communities around the world.  “Global Issues, Student Solutions” will run as a case competition in a section of Global Issues, the introductory survey course in the B.A. in International Studies program.

Students in this course will have the opportunity to engage in a team research project on plastics as a global issue and the results of this research will be disseminated at the end of the semester.  Montachem International will provide insight and access to resources for the student teams working on this challenge, in addition to making a generous donation to support undergraduate research in the DHP.

“Plastics are essential to everyday life around the world, these materials are used in simple and very complex applications from can liners (trash bags) all the way to interior components in airplanes to medical instruments and even body parts” according to J. C. Avila, Chief Operating Officer of Montachem International.

According to Ransford Edwards, Ph.D., assistant professor in DHP and instructor for Global Issues, the section in which the “Global Issues, Student Solutions” case competition will take place, “tackling global issues often starts with local solutions.”  He notes that “this problem-solving course will tap into the curiosity and ingenuity of our students as we explore aspects of sustainable development. Students will have an opportunity to investigate, get a little hands-on, and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders to address this issue related to our use of plastics.”

Alumna Publishes Article on Human Resources Development

Suzette Henry-Campbell

Suzette Henry-Campbell, Ph.D., doctoral graduate in the Department of Conflict Resolution Studies in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center was the co-author of an article published in the journal New Horizons in Adult Development and Human Resources Development. The article, titled “Expatriate Experiences and the Role HRD plays in Cultural Awareness in International Companies,” was co-authored with Selma A. Hadeen.

In addition to her doctoral degree, Henry-Campbell received an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution and an M.S. in Human Resource Management from NSU. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of the West Indies and is an adjunct lecturer there. She has extensive experience in human resources.

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