MUWinter2014

ONcaMPus
MURRAY RANKS WITH POLITICKERNJ
Polling Institute Director
Patrick Murray was a finalist in
PolitickerNJ.com’s “Winner of
the Year” competition.
The overall winner for 2013 was newly
elected Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop.
Murray shared “runner up” honors with
political powerbroker George Norcross,
Senate President Steve Sweeney, newly
elected US Senator Cory Booker, and
Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik.
“The pollster from Monmouth
University consistently called the
outcomes in the elections he monitored,
most noticeably in the general election
for the U.S. Senate and in the governor’s
contest,” PolitickerNJ noted. “Murray
by the numbers: he predicted a 20-point
CAVAIOLA FEATURED IN HR MAGAZINE
victory by Christie over Buono; Christie
won by 22 points. In the U.S. Senate
Special Election, Murray called it for
Booker by ten points. Booker won by
11 points.”
PolitickerNJ also ranked Murray #30
on The Power List 2013. This marks
the fourth year in a row that Murray has
appeared on the list.
Murray was named the founding
director of the Monmouth University
Polling Institute in 2005. Since then,
the Monmouth University Poll has
established itself as the Garden State’s
“poll of record” for its in-depth tracking
of public policy and quality of life issues.
Psychological Counseling Professor Alan Cavaiola '73 was featured in
the October issue of HR Magazine, published by the Society of Human
Resource Management. The article, “One Big, Not-So-Happy Family,”
draws on a study co-authored by Cavaiola that was published in the April 2012
issue of the Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture.
The survey explored the impact of family dynamics on the workplace,
especially in an economy where businesses often tout a “family atmosphere”
that permeates their organization.
Cavaiola notes, “Workers bring many issues with them to the office or
the plant, from what happened last night to something that dates back to
childhood. This manifests itself in distractions that interfere with their ability
to do their job.”
At the same time Cavaiola cautioned managers that “Work can take over one’s
life. Society rewards devotion to professionalism, so it is easy to lose perspective
on friendships, love relationships, leisure activities and other personal pursuits.”
To read the full article visit: http://tinyurl.com/Cavaiola.
PRATO TAKES CHEMISTRY AWARD
Senior chemistry student Gary
Prato received an award at the
22nd Conference on Current
Trends in Computational Chemistry
held in Jackson, MS, in November.
Prato, a chemistry major specializing
in biochemistry, was awarded second
place for his poster presentation:
“Rational Anti-Cancer Drug Design:
Binding of N-Methyl-Piperazine
Functionalized Naphthalene Diimides
to DNA G-Quadruplex.”
Prato performed this research
under the direction of Dr. Dmytro V.
Kosenkov, an assistant professor of
chemistry. Their research is focused
on the investigation of chemically
functionalized naphthalene diimide
ligands. The quantum mechanical
based and molecular docking computer
simulation techniques will be used to
model the low energy conformations of
the ligand and model the interactions
between the ligands and the telomere
DNA G-quadruplex.
Prato was supported as a Bristol-
Myers Squibb (BMS) Summer Research
Fellow during Monmouth’s 2013
Summer Research Program through
a grant provided by BMS. Prato plans
to continue his research until his
graduation in May, and he will then
pursue graduate school.
28 MONMOuTh uNIvERsITy MagazINE WINTER