Tag: Halmos College of Arts and Sciences

NSU Receives Approval by Top University Accrediting Body

Dr. Belle Wheelan, President of SACSCOC with NSU President and CEO George L. Hanbury II

Nova Southeastern University received notification from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) that our Fifth-Year Interim Report has been successfully accepted with no additional reporting requested.

SACSCOC is the body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states. It serves as the common denominator of shared values and practices primarily among the diverse institutions in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Latin America and certain other international sites approved by the SACSCOC Board of Trustees that award associate, baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degrees.

The Commission also accepts applications for membership from domestic institutions in the other 39 states, as well as international institutions of higher education around the world.

Congratulations to all for this recognition of NSU as a preeminent university of quality and distinction!

Posted 12/05/23

Halmos Faculty, Student Participate in International Conference

What is “cold, clammy and wet all over?” Answer: most marine invertebrates.  Apart from corals, which build reefs, many marine invertebrates are often overlooked because they are not so “warm and fuzzy” like their charismatic, terrestrial counterparts.  As a group, invertebrates number in the thousands.  Although generally classified by not having backbones (vertebrate spines), most invertebrates still have complex body parts, including neurons and sensory systems. Indeed, several invertebrate species appear to be highly intelligent – e.g.  octopus and cuttlefish show the capacity to learn and appear to have sophisticated neural structures.

To illuminate more about the life and hereditary material (genomes) of these vital marine animals, the non-profit organization GIGA (for the Global invertebrate Genomics Alliance) was formed in 2013.  HCAS professor Jose V. Lopez, Ph.D., along with many academic colleagues from around world, co-founded the organization.  Lopez said, “a primary goal of GIGA is to promote invertebrate research and also expand training and education in the complex fields of bioinformatics and genomics.” Lopez served as a panel chair and gave a presentation titled, “Characterizing Whole Genomes from Photosymbiotic Organisms and Sponges: Updates from the Aquatic Symbiosis Genome (ASG) Project.”

In this context, the fifth GIGA conference was held in Cartagena, Colombia Oct 31 – Nov 3, 2023, held true to many of the core goals of the society.  The conference was held at the scenic oceanside Intercontinental Hotel along with an optional dive excursion to the nearby Rosario Islands, possessing extensive coral reefs.  By obtaining sponsorships from various quarters such as the Moore Foundation, the American Genetics Association, the UK’s Sanger Institute, and PacBio Inc, GIGA provided travel sponsorships to at least a dozen Global South students from Colombia, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Students and early career researchers had several opportunities to present their research through lightning talks and a poster session. For example, NSU Department of Biological Sciences MS student Rachel Bacaner working in Dr. Lopez’s laboratory presented a poster on Caribbean octocoral Antillogorgia americana cell cultures.  Major themes of the sessions included marine symbiosis (coral and algae) and characterizing biodiversity at the molecular level and professional development.

Over 65 students, faculty and researchers composed the GIGA V attendees representing eight different countries. The list of talks spanned detailed descriptions of individual species genomes from giant clams to golden mussels, technical talks on how to best analyze volumes of Big Sequence Data and the effects of climate change.  Attendees also heard unique talks describing JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) within the genomics sciences and the future of scientific publishing in the era of open access and artificial intelligence by Laurie Goodman (Giga Science).  Determining the whole genome sequences of non-model organisms, such as many invertebrates, contributes to their conservation and a better understanding of their evolution and ecosystem health.

For more information please see: http://www.gigacos.org/index.php/meetings/giga_v/

Posted 12/10/23

Halmos Students Compete in Annual Mathematical Contest

From left, Triet Do, Diana Dancea, Cristina Perez and Heidi Hellenbrand

Students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS) participated in the 84th Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

This is the second year we have competed in this event, the preeminent mathematics competition for undergraduate college students in the United States and Canada.  As it does each year, the competition consists of two 3-hour sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

During each session, participants work individually on 6 challenging mathematical problems.  The exam is colloquially known as the world’s most challenging math exam. While the exam has a maximum score of 120 points, in many years the median score among the more than 3000 competitors (all of whom excel in advanced mathematics) is between 0 and 3.  The exam is done individually, but a university’s highest three scores get combined to make up a team score. Awards are handed out to both individuals and teams.  The exam is underwritten and overseen by the Mathematical Association of America.

Our Putnam Exam team practiced hard for the past year under the mentorship of Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, Radleigh Santos, Ph.D. Santos taught MATH 3990 Competitive Mathematics Seminar, a one credit course students could take to prepare for the exam.

Posted 12/10/23

Halmos Dept. of Humanities and Politics Wins Cupcake Challenge

Congratulations to the Department of Humanities and Politics (DHP) in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS) for their second consecutive win of the Cupcake Challenge!

With 78% participation, they helped HCAS become the leader in the NSU Give Back Tuesday. The Dean’s Office came in second place and the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts came in third. Honorable Mentions went to the Department of Marine and Environmental Science and the Department of Mathematics.

Posted 12/10/23

Halmos Faculty, Student and Alum Present at Conference in Virginia

Katherine Sosa, Ph.D.; Neil Katz, Ph.D.; Terry Savage, Ph.D.; and Annette Taylor Spence

Neil Katz, Ph.D., and Terry Savage, 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), and DCRS alum Katherine Sosa, Ph.D., and doctoral student Annette Taylor-Spence, presented at the 2023 Association for Conflict Resolution Annual Conference held in Arlington, Virginia and virtually. The theme of the conference was “Conflict Resolution: Collaboration the New Normal?” Their presentation was titled, “Experiential Workshop Design: A Portal to Self-Awareness and Effectiveness in Group Life.”

Katz’ areas of teaching and research interests include negotiation theory and practice, group dynamics, and organizational conflict.

Savage’s areas of teaching and research interests include restorative and transitional justice, human rights, and peacebuilding.

Posted 12/10/23

FY2025 PRG and QOL Grant Cycles Now Open

The FY 2025 President’s Research Grant (PRG), formerly the Presidents Faculty Research Development Grant (PFRDG), and Quality of Life (QOL) grant cycles are now open! This year the application process will take place on Cayuse Sponsored Projects, NSU’s new grant management system. Applications are due via Cayuse no later than January 22, 2024, 5:00 p.m.. More information, as well as application instructions, can be found on the PRG and QOL websites, linked below. Through these programs, eligible faculty may apply for internal grants of up to $15,000 in support of a variety of research and scholarly activities. PRG and QOL are tremendous opportunities to obtain support for research and scholarship at NSU, and to build faculty research capacity that can be leveraged toward external funding pursuits.

For more information about how to apply and program guidelines, visit the PRG program website here and the QOL website here. For questions, please contact PRG@nova.edu or QOL@nova.edu.

Posted 12/10/23

Student Presents Research on Rapid Intensification of Hurricanes

Rapid intensification of hurricanes is a big challenge for forecasting – models cannot reliably predict rapid intensification even within 24 hours. The recent well-publicized cases include Hurricane Maria 2017 and Dora 2023 wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico and caused catastrophic fires in Maui. Nearly 75% of major hurricanes go through the phase of rapid intensification.

Kerry Emanuel (MIT) and Roger Lukas (UH) were among the first to emphasize the importance of studying the two-phase environment and microphysics at the air-sea interface under hurricanes. More recently NSU’s Physical Oceanography Laboratory (Halmos College of Arts and Sciences) in collaboration with the University of Miami, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Hawaii linked the microphysics of the air-sea interface to the phenomenon of rapid intensification of hurricanes. This research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. NSU’s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences Ph.D. student Breanna Vanderplow continues research in this new direction.

Breanna’s research focuses on the impact of surface-active materials (surfactants) on hurricane intensity and rapid intensification. She implemented a state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics model on an NSU supercomputer that allows simulation of microphysics down to scales of tens of micrometers. This model includes the effect of sea surface tension on sea spray and bubbles in up to Category 5 hurricanes.

Breanna presented her work at meetings in South Korea (organized by Korean Typhoon Center), at Heidelberg University, and at Princeton University. She received an award for the Outstanding Student Oral Presentation at the 35th American Meteorological Society Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology.

Breanna is planning to defend her dissertation work on this subject in early December 2023.

“I believe Breanna’s dissertation is on the level of the best U.S. and international oceanographic organizations. This work provides an important step toward better understanding of rapid intensification and development of a new generation of hurricane forecasting models. Breanna is a role model for the next generation of NSU students,” said Professor Alexander Soloviev, Ph.D., the physical oceanography laboratory lead and Breanna’s adviser.

Posted 11/26/23

Provost’s Research and Scholarship Award Winners

It has been 13 years since the Provost’s Research and Scholarship Award program first launched. This program expanded last year and now offers awards across two career stages and two disciplinary categories. There were many outstanding nominations this year, and from that pool of distinguished nominees, five NSU faculty were recognized on Monday, November 13 in the Levan Center. This year, an added recognition for each winner was provided by NSU Business Services; each winner received a one-year membership to the NSU Faculty Club, valued at $300.

Arts, Business, Humanities, Law, and Social Sciences

For the Assistant Professor Award, two faculty members are honored in this category.

Furiasse

Assistant Professor Award – Amanda Furiasse, Halmos College of Arts & Sciences is an Assistant Professor of Digital and Medical Humanities in the Department of Humanities and Politics. Her scholarly work is at the intersection of religion, artificial intelligence, and cybernetic medicine, with recent publications in journals of religion, social issues, and culture. Her scholarly efforts extend beyond academia in her role as senior producer and podcast director for the Political Theology Network’s Podcast and as Co-Director for the Contagion, Religion, and Cities Project at the Center for the Study of Religion and the City. A recent grant award from Florida Humanities features her podcast work again, this time to launch a futurist podcast called Florida 2100: Tales of Tomorrow.

Ellis

Assistant Professor Award – Amy Ellis, College of Psychology, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Trauma Resolution and Integration Program. She seeks to understand the impact of trauma on underserved populations in regard to health disparities, such as affectional and gender minorities, as well as Latine individuals, and male survivors of sexual abuse. Her work in collaboration with external colleagues has been funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and National Institute of Justice. In addition to academic publications, she disseminates her work through various news sources for broader audiences such as The New York Times, Psychiatric Times, Medium, and The Conversation. Her service to the NSU community includes training for campus units like the public safety department and Psychological Services Center as well as supervising students who see clients with various psychological difficulties.

Mujtaba

Professor Award – Bahaudin Mujtaba, H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, is a Professor of Human Resources and International Management. He is the author and coauthor of books dealing with diversity, ethics, and business management, and his contributions to his field are significant. During the past thirty years, he has worked with managers and human resource professionals in almost 20 countries, and this diverse exposure has provided him with many insights in cross-cultural management from the perspectives of different firms, people groups, and cultures.  With an extensive publication record and thousands of citations covering topics such as business, change, culture, ethics, diversity, and others, his work is highly collaborative with over 50 different coauthors drawn from NSU, the United States, and abroad. His books and guidance are sought and frequently used by companies, professors, and the media.  He served as a cultural consultant for the movie Kite Runner and in 2018 did pro bono training and development work in Afghanistan on topics of adult learning, leadership, and ethics.

STEM and Health/Medicine

Robison

Assistant Professor Award – Lisa Robison, College of Psychology, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and in her short time at the university already has funded collaborations with researchers in NSU’s Colleges of Pharmacy and Osteopathic Medicine. Her multidisciplinary work spans many topics, such as determining how lifestyle factors like exercise, diet, stress influence brain health and risk for mood disorders, addiction, and dementia. Since 2020, she has published 12 papers in journals with an average impact factor of 7.56. This widespread recognition can be further quantified with more than 1,000 citations of her publications and an impressive h-index of 21. Her work has garnered media attention, being featured on Newsweek and other news outlets.

Smith

Professor Award – Robert Smith, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, is an Associate Professor in the department of Medical Education and researcher in the NSU Cell Therapy Institute. His work on antibiotic resistance contributes to our understanding of how bacteria resist antibiotics as populations. He has received funding as a PI or Co-PI on projects from the Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health totaling over $2 million. One of these grants funded research equipment that has been used by over 4,000 NSU students and faculty. He has supervised over 65 undergraduate and graduate students, engaging many in his lab’s research projects and publishing with several of these students. As editor for the journal PLoS One and chair of NSU’s Faculty Research Advisory Council he helps to shape and support the research and scholarship in his field and others.

Congratulations to all the winners on their impressive achievements.

Posted 11/26/23

Halmos Faculty Serves on Distinguished National Panel

From left, Dr. Stephen O’Brien, Ph.D., and Robert Gallo, M.D.

Stephen J. O’Brien, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research Center (HCAS), was invited to serve on a distinguished symposium panel to discuss the science of human viruses at the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV).

The symposium was also an event to celebrate the scientific legacy of the eminent biomedical researcher, Robert Gallo, M.D., who co-discovered the HIV and proved it caused AIDS, as well as pioneered studies that discovered the first human RNA tumor viruses (retroviruses).

The focus of the IHV2023 Symposium was “Viruses of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow”. It was held on September 28-29, 2023, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. O’Brien, who led the research team that described the first human gene to influence HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression, served on the discussion panel addressing the virology of COVID-19 and HIV. His research interests include human genetics, comparative genomics, genetic epidemiology, molecular evolution, HIV, FIV, AIDS, Virology, forensic genetics, conservation, and bio-informatics.

The symposium featured research luminaries including Robert Gallo, MD, Director Emeritus and Co-Founder of the IHV, and Rochelle Walensky MD, MPH, and Robert Redfield Jr., MD, both recent Emeriti Directors of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Many other notable scientific and clinical researchers presented discoveries on new viruses and new insights into viral infections and pathogenesis.

Posted 11/26/23

Faculty, Students Win Awards at Microbiology Conference

There was a good contingent of NSU students and faculty attending the annual meeting of the Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (FLASM) at the Guy Harvey Resort in St. Augustine, Florida, which was held Oct. 13-15.

Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences in the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences and the Guy Harvey Oceanographic Research  Center (HCAS) serves as a Regional Planning Coordinator for the American Society for Microbiology and was one of the organizers and moderators of the event. Other faculty in attendance included Jose V. Lopez, Ph.D. and Andrew Ozga, Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences, and Robert Smith, Ph.D. and Bo-Young Hong, Ph.D., NSU MD faculty.

Trent Moulder, a student in the Masters in Biological Sciences program in HCAS mentored by Dr. Robert Smith from NSU MD, won 3rd place for “Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation.” Ashley Janke, undergraduate biology major conducting research in Dr. Julie Torruellas Garcia’s lab, presented her honors thesis research and won 2nd place for “Outstanding Undergraduate Oral Presentation.” In addition, several students received travel awards from FLASM, PanSGA or the Biology Student Award to attend the conference.

NSU faculty presenters included:

  • Andrew Ozga, Ph.D., Department of Biological Sciences, in collaborative work with the NSU College of Dental Medicine, gave an oral presentation on “Dental plaque microbiome diversity in healthy South Florida residents.”
  • Bo-Young Hong, Ph.D., NSU MD Faculty, presented a poster on “Chamomile tea decreases Porphyromonas gingivalis ”

NSU graduate student presenters included:

  • Jacqueline Chavez, MSBS student in Dr. Garcia’s lab, presented a poster on “The Search for a Phage that Targets the pCD1-Encoded Type Three Secretion System of Yersinia pestis.”
  • Trent Moulder, MSBS student in Dr. Smith’s lab presented a poster on “Carbon source preference alters inter-species interactions and modulates antibiotic efficacy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.”
  • Ariane Kalifa, MSBS student in Dr. Smith’s lab, presented a poster on “Growth productivity modulates inoculum effect in β lactamase-producing bacteria.”
  • Estefania Marin Meneses. MSBS student in Dr. Smith’s lab presented a poster on “Growth Productivity affects the Severity of Inoculum Effect in Staphylococcus aureus.”
  • Daniella Hernandez, a research assistant in NSU MD, presented her work entitled “Reducing Inoculum Effect by Modulating Growth Productivity through the Superpathway of Purine, Pyrimidine and Histidine Synthesis in Escherichia coli”

NSU undergraduate student presenters included:

  • Jose C. Padron and Kunal Poddar, biology majors in Dr. Garcia’s lab, presented a poster on “Determining the Burst Size and Optimal Infection Temperature of Four Gordonia rubripertincta ”
  • Ashley Janke, a biology major in Dr. Garcia’s lab, gave an oral presentation on “MunkgeeRoachy: A Gordonia rubripertincta Bacteriophage Isolated from Soil.”
  • Varsha Chigurupati, Adam Sadik, and Paul Paronich, biology majors conducting research with DoBS Faculty Dr. Raja and Dr. Ozga and DoMES faculty Dr. Shivji and Dr. Burkholder gave an oral presentation entitled: “Unraveling the Elasmobranch: A Look at Shark Oral Microbiomes in South Florida.”
  • Shanay Patel, a biology major working with Dr. Ozga, presented a poster on the “Impacts of pre- and pro- biotic supplements on microbial composition related to colorectal cancers.”
  • Megha Kurian, Jewel Mousa, Lewis Reid and Ritika Vonguru, research students in Dr. Garcia’s Practicum in Biology I course, presented a poster on “Comparative Analysis of Yersinia pestis Bacteriophages Using Restriction Digest.”
  • David Giordano, a biology major in the labs of Dr. Ozga and Dr. Chris Blanar, presented a poster on “Exploring the gut microbiome of invasive iguanas: Implications for ecosystems conservation.”
  • Bianca A. Gonzalez, biology major in the Introduction to Biology Research I/II courses taught by Dr. Garcia and Dr. Katie Crump, presented a poster of her class research on “Decoding Phages: Complete Genome Sequence Analysis of Two Novel Bacteriophages, Alyssamiracle and Fribs8.”
  • Kaya Olszewski, a biology major in Dr. Garcia’s lab, attended the meeting with the intention to present a poster on, “Computer Model of Yersinia pestis Type III Secretion Needle Regulation.”, but had to withdraw her presentation due to unforeseen circumstances.

Posted 11/05/23

1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 51