Quarterly Crossroads – Spring/Summer 2022
Spotlight on…
Spring 2022 Capstone & Symposium
Senior students showcased their undergraduate research projects this past Friday. Finally back on campus, more than 425 people participated and the energy was electric. More than 200 students from across all of the divisions participated in oral presentations, poster sessions and demo presentations over the course of the day. Included were discussions of internships, faculty-led research projects, and industry-sponsored projects like a Muscle Strength testing device, moon rover, unmanned aerial vehicle, and smart asthma inhaler. Industry sponsors included BRIOTech, Nasa, Farmer Frog and Optimum Performance Living among others.
We are excited to see these amazing students take their next steps starting with Commencement this coming Wednesday.
Strategic Goals
The School of STEM has recently ratified five strategic goals to focus on for the next five years. We are excited to be able to share them with you:
Enhancing the Student Experience
Imbedding Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)
Supporting Faculty & Staff Wellbeing and Professional Development
Sustaining Fiscal Health and Philanthropic Giving
Expanding Community and Industry Partnerships
These five goals will be help achieve the vision and mission of the School of STEM:
Vision: The School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) will be an indispensable partner in the region, leading in accessible, innovative, and effective education and research to create a diverse workforce that engages ethically and inclusively with our world and society.
Mission: The School of STEM will provide equitable access to exceptional programs that integrate teaching and research to prepare our students to solve the problems and confront the challenges facing our communities, the region, the nation, and the world.
Research: Dr. Kristina Hillesland
Winner of the 2015 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program, Kristine Hillesland studies what can’t be seen with the naked eye. Centered in the Hillesland lab, her research focuses on understanding how evolution affects, and is affected by interactions between species. Working with microorganisms, microscopic single-celled organisms, she can track changes over generations of cells in a much shorter time frame. Through this, she works to determine the general understandings of evolution and whether or not these current understandings can be verified through data.
Testing the general ideas of the evolutionary cycle and interactions whether antagonistic or cooperative gives the community a deeper understanding of evolutionary behavior and the repercussions of change. Utilizing microorganisms allows Dr. Hillesland to observe thousands of generations of evolution in the laboratory, in controlled environments, and to directly compare the genes and traits of ancestors and evolved populations in the same experiment.
Whether testing broad hypotheses on predator-prey interaction evolution or going deeper and focusing on what happens in early stages of evolution, she seeks to answer questions like: “Do cooperative interactions between species evolve similarly to antagonistic interactions? What kinds of adaptations do microbes acquire in response to other species? How repeatable is the evolution?”
Her main studies center on two organisms and their interactions: a bacterium, Desulfovibrio vulgaris and an archaeon, Methanococcus maripaludis. She describes the experiements as follows: both species are capable of growing alone, but we put them together in an environment where they must cooperate to survive. The bacteria provide food to the archaea as a byproduct of their metabolism. This byproduct can inhibit the bacteria if it accumulates to high concentrations. By eating the byproduct, the archaea ensure that this toxic situation never occurs, allowing both species to flourish in conditions where neither could on their own.
In all of these studies, she most enjoys mentoring undergraduatestudents, providing opportunites for hands-on research. Eleven students mentored by Dr. Hillesland presented their findings at the recent Capstone & Symposium. Her amazing work can be seen in 15 publications, one book chapter and a magazine article. We are looking forward to what comes next.
Faculty Promotions
Congratulations to the recently promoted faculty:
- Dr. Rejoice Akapame, Associate Professor
- Dr. Ariana Dundon, Associate Teaching Professor
- Dr. Matt Gliboff, Associate Teaching Professor
- Dr. Thomas Humphries, Associate Professor
- Dr. Joey Key, Associate Professor
- Dr. Thelma Madzima, Associate Professor
- Dr. Alex Musselman, Associate Teaching Professor
- Dr. Clark Musselman, Associate Teaching Professor
- Dr. Yang Peng, Associate Professor
- Dr. Lori Robins, Professor
- Dr. Jesse Zaneveld, Associate Professor