December 2015 Science Journal

December 2015
Thriving on
Stress:
Learning from Lizards
in Tracy Langkilde's Lab
PG 4
Transition State
PG 12
Reinventing
Statistics
Education
PG 16

Table of Contents
FEATURE STORIES:
4 Exploring the Nature of Stress
Follow Tracy Langkilde as she looks at how certain animals adapt to stress in
their environments.
12 Transition State
Learn about the change in leadership in the Department of Chemistry.
16 Reinventing Statistics Education
Discover how faculty in the Department of Statistics are transforming the way we
teach statistics.
24 Research in Action
Read short briefs about some of the amazing research projects happening now in
the college.
COLLEGE NEWS:
Doug Cavener Named Verne
M. Willaman Dean
Teaching New Pedagogy
Strategy in China
Transforming Science
Education with Tombros
Fellowships
Intellectual Property Focus
Climate & Diversity Corner
College Welcome Day
Staff Highlight
Faculty Highlight
Years of Service Recognition
DEPARTMENT NEWS
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT:
Faculty Awards and Honors
Faculty Promotions
New Faculty
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT:
Undergraduate Student Awards
and Honors
Commencement
Summer 2015 Student Marshal
Undergraduate Scientists
Above and Beyond: Focus on
Graduate Students
ALUMNI NEWS:
Weinreb Family Endows Early
Career Professorship
College Welcomes New Director
of Development
Outstanding Alumni
All Science Tailgate
Snapshot of Philanthropy
C.I. Noll Award for Excellence in
Teaching
Millennium Society
Share Your News
Upcoming Events
Editor: Tara Immel
Writers: Barbara Collins, Whittney Gould,
Carley LaVelle, Carrie Lewis, Brenda Lucas,
Joslyn Neiderer, Samantha Schwartz, Sam
Sholtis, and Bill Zimmerman. Special thanks to
all of our other contributors!
Design: Carley LaVelle, Penn State Science
Marketing Office
Printer: Watkins Printing
Dear Friends of the College,
It is with great pleasure that
I welcome you to this issue in
my new role as dean of the
Eberly College of Science.
Over the last few months, I
have had the opportunity to
immerse myself in our college
community and promote
our mission. I am struck by
the passion that our faculty and students have
for learning, discovery, and problem solving; the
dedication of our hard-working staff in keeping the
college running efficiently and in collegial manner;
and the engagement and generosity of our science
alumni.
My transition has not been the only one in recent
months; we have recruited, hired, and also shifted
some of the best faculty and staff into pivotal roles
that will help the college succeed in achieving
its strategic objectives. As you will read in this
issue, Barbara Garrison, the former head of the
Department of Chemistry, has passed the torch to
Tom Mallouk, Evan Pugh University Professor of
Chemistry. Mallouk will continue his research and
teaching while enhancing faculty development,
working on educational improvements, and
managing the daily administrative duties as head.
The college has also hired a director of
undergraduate research, Tomalei Vess. This
newly created position manages the Office of
Science Engagement and will help transform the
science undergraduate experience by providing
students with co-curricular experiences, such as
research, internships, and co-ops, that will enrich
their education by enabling them to apply and
practice what they learn in the classroom.
We also have new leadership in the alumni
relations and development office. Joyce Matthews
has joined our team as the new senior director of
development. Joyce has 15 years of fundraising
experience, most recently in the College of
Information Sciences and Technology. I look
forward to her leadership during the next capital
campaign, which begins in summer 2016.
We have a great foundation on which to build
future success in the college. As the new dean, I
will continue to reach out to our college community
as we build and shape the future of our college.
Please join me in transforming the Eberly College
of Science to achieve its full potential as a vibrant
and diverse scientific and educational community
that is internationally renowned for excellence,
and for improving the world through its discoveries
and solutions to life’s most pressing challenges.
Sincerely,
2
Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
3

Cover Story
Exploring
the Nature of
By Whittney Gould
It’s only getting more stressful in our
stressful world, particularly if you are an
animal trying to deal with a pesky invasive
species or the impacts of humans in your
environment.
Associate Professor of Biology Tracy
Langkilde’s career thrives on that
stress. Langkilde conducts research in
evolutionary ecology by studying the stress
caused by global environmental change,
and how animals are able to deal with
these stressors.
4 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
5

Cover Story
Get Twitchy With It
One of the animals Langkilde
studies is the eastern
fence lizard, a species
commonly found in
the southeastern United
States. For thousands of
years, when fence lizards
faced adversity, they had
TRACY LANGKILDE
a pretty simple approach
to survival: laying very still and blending into
their surroundings. This was quite a successful
approach for them—until fire ants invaded their
territory.
Fire ants were not deterred by frozen-in-place
eastern fence lizards, and proceeded to bite and
sting the lizards anyway. Sometimes, the lizards
died from these attacks. The survival behavior
that had worked for their species for years was
no longer protecting them from predators.
Some lizards broke from the standard approach
and started to twitch to flick off attacking
ants off or run away, which was a much more
successful way to survive. Stressing out about
survival fueled this adaptive behavior.
“Fire ants have a venomous sting and act as
both a novel predator and a novel toxic prey to
many animals, including fence lizards,” says
Langkilde. “They are predicted to eventually
occupy over 50 percent of the terrestrial surface
of the earth, so many animals are going to have
to deal with these threats.”
Langkilde noticed that in areas where fire
ants had lived for years, a higher percentage of
lizards exhibited the twitching and flicking behaviors
than in areas where fire ants had not
yet invaded.
“Getting constantly attacked by fire ants
seems like it should be stressful,” Langkilde
said. “We tested this by capturing lizards from
fire ant–invaded and uninvaded sites and tak-
ing blood samples.”
They discovered that the populations of lizards
who live among fire ants on a regular basis
were, in fact, more stressed.
Langkilde then tested whether there were
any benefits to these higher stress levels. By
applying drops of the stress hormone corticosterone
mixed with oil to the lizards’ backs, Langkilde
could mimic the stress caused by fire ant
attacks.
“We can make unresponsive lizards from uninvaded
sites very responsive to fire ants simply
by stressing them out. By being stressed out,
lizards from populations dealing with invasive
fire ants are primed for future encounters with
predators,” Langkilde said.
Her team began to monitor the health of the
lizards exposed to varying levels of stress. Their
findings showed that the duration, intensity,
and frequency of stress were key factors in determining
whether it was beneficial for the lizard
or not.
“Chronic stress, usually defined by stress occurring
over a long period, is generally thought
to be bad,” said Langkilde. But Langkilde’s
team found that this really depends on how
much stress is experienced. “A small amount of
stress every three days for nine days total was
good for the lizards,” Langkilde said, “in that it
enhanced the immune system.”
But more stress than that can be bad for the
lizards, she said. When the lizards were given
higher amounts of the stress hormone, at the
same frequency and over the same duration,
they experienced negative effects. “This higherintensity
stress caused the immune system to
crash,” Langkilde said.
“We generally expect long-term stress to produce
negative consequences, but our results
demonstrate that really intense stress can produce
a similar result," said Gail McCormick,
Person-to-person: Gail McCormick
Gail McCormick, a Ph.D.
candidate in the Langkilde lab,
works closely with Langkilde
on the stress research, focusing
on the effects of stress on the
eastern fence lizard, both
within an animal’s lifetime and
across generations, resulting from exposure to fire ant
invasion.
“What about stress produces negative consequences?
When do they occur, and how do frequency, intensity,
and duration of the stress contribute to those
consequences? And how does an animal’s previous
experience with stress affect how they respond? Those
are some of the questions I’m investigating,” she said.
Evolutionary biology and ecology research provide
room for interdisciplinary collaboration, which
McCormick is happy that Langkilde encourages. “I’ve
been able to work with other faculty members across
Penn State on topics that interest me.” McCormick and
Langkilde work closely with Alumni Professor of Biology
Katriona Shea on the application of disturbance theory
to their stress response research, and are currently
working with Associate Professor of Biobehavioral
a graduate student in the Langkilde lab who is
leading this project. “This matches up with what
we know about post-traumatic stress disorder in
humans—that a short but intense stressor can
produce lasting consequences.”
Langkilde’s team was curious about how the
high levels of stress experienced in fire ant–invaded
areas might affect the next generation.
They are currently testing the effects of stress
on both pregnant lizards and the babies they
give birth to. They want to know whether stress
Health Sonia Cavigelli from the College of Health
and Human Development on the impacts of stress on
development.
Outside of the lab, McCormick has many interests.
Her passion for science sparked an interest in science
communication and led her to an internship with Penn
State Research Communications. It has been a great fit
and she thinks science communication could be a big
part of her future career.
She also has a very creative side. She enjoys theater,
both performing on stage and being behind the scenes
as a stage manager. “Performing is a different kind
of creative outlet for me,” she said. It’s made all the
sweeter by the support of her Langkilde lab family,
including Langkilde herself, at her performances.
In addition to her theater skills, McCormick is a very
accomplished paper artist. She cuts paper by hand
and layers it to create highlights and shadows in her
pieces. “It has a photographic effect,” she said of her
work. Recently, she’s been commissioned to create this
art, both for clients with personal requests and for an
editorial spread in a magazine. You can view her paper
art at gailmccormick.wordpress.com.
during pregnancy could make the offspring better
prepared for life’s stresses.
“We are putting the offspring of lizards that
experienced high and low stress during pregnancy
into high- and low-stress field enclosures
that vary in the presence of fire ants,” Langkilde
said. “We predict that babies of stressed moms
will do better in high-stress environments.”
While Langkilde isn’t sure yet whether it’s
a behavioral reaction of the mothers to stress
or something the offspring experience during
6 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
7

Cover Story
development, pregnant lizards exposed to high
stress gave birth to bigger babies that survived
better than the offspring of pregnant lizards exposed
to lower-stress environments.
“Hormones can be important regulators of
fetal growth. High levels of stress hormones
circulating in stressed mothers could be passed
directly to their offspring. Or it may be that
high-stress moms are eating more and allocating
more nutrients to their young,” said McCormick.
Research Langkilde has conducted on “bearded
lady” fence lizards, or female lizards who
display a more masculine, colorful appearance,
could also be worth examining
in the context of
stress response. “Males
really don’t like these
bearded ladies. So they
breed later and invest
less energy in reproduction,
but their babies are
tougher, having a higher
survival rate. Bearded
ladies also sprint much faster than more feminine
lizards,” said Langkilde.
Could these adaptations make bearded ladies
or their offspring better able to deal with stress?
“In high-stress lizard populations, 90 percent
of the females are bearded, so it’s possible,” she
said.
Who Needs Noise-Canceling Headphones?
Langkilde took these questions about stress
and applied them to a different species: wood
frogs native to the northeastern United States.
Sound is very important to this species, because
they use calls to find mates and detect incoming
predators. For wood frogs that live nearer to
sound pollution like road noise from high-traffic
roads, this can complicate things and cause
stress.
“We exposed wood frogs from quiet Pennsylvania
woods to road noise,” said Langkilde,
“and found that this dramatically increased
their stress levels.”
Road noise also has effects on the immune
function of these frogs, making them less likely
to produce antimicrobial peptides, compounds
in the frog’s skin that defend against pathogen
invasion. Langkilde found that road noise also
had effects on female wood frog reproductive behavior.
Road noise impaired their ability to locate
calling males. Wood frogs have a very short
reproductive window, breeding for only a few
"WE GENERALLY EXPECT LONG-TERM STRESS
TO PRODUCE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES,
BUT OUR RESULTS DEMONSTRATE THAT
REALLY INTENSE STRESS CAN PRODUCE A
SIMILAR RESULT."
days each spring.
“This could have important implications for
their mating success,” she said.
Langkilde wanted to know whether wood
frogs could adapt to a noisy environment. “People
living near train tracks or highways often
tune this noise out over time,” Langkilde said.
“We wanted to know if frogs could do the same.”
Her team took wood frog eggs from both noisy
environments such as forests adjacent to New
York interstate highways, and quiet countryside
environments. They raised the tadpoles under
common conditions in the lab until they became
frogs. Then they compared the stress responses
of each group to prolonged exposure to high levels
of road noise.
As with their previous study, the “country
frogs” were really stressed by the road noise,
and weren’t able to tune it out over the course of
the eight-day experiment. The “city frogs,” however,
were not at all stressed by the noise.
This is very interesting because these frogs
were raised in the same environment, and the
only change was that one group of eggs was collected
in a more stressful environment than the
other, says Langkilde. “It is possible that frogs
from roadside ponds have evolved to be desensitized
to road noise, in order to avoid the costs of
being stressed.”
Langkilde’s research will continue to examine
the consequences of stress caused by environmental
change. “What is the effect of stress
within a lifetime and across generations? Can
animals adapt to high-stress environments, and
how do they do so? How can we predict when
stress will become bad? Those are questions I’m
working to investigate further,” she said.
Her findings are all the more important because
they could inform topics of stress and human
health.
Enthusiasm for Mentoring
Mentoring students is a much-loved part of
Langkilde’s job as principal investigator of her
lab.
“She's very easy to talk to and enthusiastic.
I like the freedom to ask interesting questions
and explore them in a variety of different ways,”
said Christopher Thawley, a graduate stu-
8 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
9

Cover Story
"BY BEING STRESSED OUT,
LIZARDS FROM POPULATIONS
DEALING WITH INVASIVE
FIRE ANTS ARE PRIMED FOR
FUTURE ENCOUNTERS WITH
PREDATORS."
dent in the Langkilde lab.
“She’s done a great job of creating a lab where
everyone can work to their strengths and help
each other out,” added graduate student Caty
Tylan.
Her graduate students like her commitment
to a low-stress environment.
“You never have to worry about coming to her
for help, even if it’s something you messed up
on,” said Dustin Owen, also a graduate student
in her lab. “She’s really good about helping
you and providing feedback without making you
feel stupid or uncomfortable.”
“She is conscious of the needs of students and
researchers to have a good balance between productive
work and a healthy social life,” added
graduate student Braulio Assis.
Since coming to Penn State, Langkilde has
mentored more than 50 undergraduate researchers
in addition to the graduate students
she advises.
“Their involvement is critical to the success
of my projects, and they benefit from the experience,”
Langkilde said.
“Dr. Langkilde has been by far my greatest
mentor at Penn State,” said undergraduate researcher
Mark Herr. “She doesn’t merely allow
students to act as lab technicians for the various
graduate students in the lab. From the beginning,
she’s encouraged me to conduct my own
projects.”
“She’s taught me how to write scientific papers.
She’s edited grant proposals of mine and
assisted me with funding at every step. It’s truly
incredible, especially when you consider that
she has lots of other undergraduates in the lab
and does the same for them,” he added.
In addition to field and lab work, the Langkilde
Lab works to hone their writing skills, which
postdoctoral researcher Chris Howey finds extremely
helpful.
“The members of the Langkilde Lab are very
supportive and helpful with regard to writing
manuscripts and other job-related documents.
Meeting every week to discuss these manuscripts
continually pushes each of us to make
progress on these assignments until they are
published,” Howey said.
Langkilde Lab members also use their writing
skills to write the lab blog, The Lizard Log
(thelizardlog.wordpress.com).
“We wanted to share our love of research and
the thrill of discovering new things with the
general community,” said Langkilde. “My graduate
students started the blog back in 2011 as a
way to show people what fieldwork was like. It’s
taken hold and is read by 900 people per month.”
The blog showcases posts and pictures of the
lab members with updates on their research,
travels, and even updates about past members
of the lab.
“I hope that the blog gives readers a glimpse
into how science is performed. Most people don’t
have a good understanding of the scientific process,
so hopefully readers can get a sense of how
we’re doing our research so that they can better
understand the results,” McCormick said. “And
see just how cool our research is!”
As the blog updates indicate, Langkilde’s connection
to her lab members doesn’t stop when
they graduate. A recent trip to a conference with
a few of the lab members was planned to include
a stop to visit Brad Carlson, Langkilde lab
alumnus and current assistant professor of biology
at Wabash College. Langkilde is also proud
to announce lab alumna Lindsey Swierk was
recently awarded a Gaylord Donnelly Postdoctoral
Fellowship at Yale—the same fellowship
that Langkilde herself received as a postdoc.
“I love seeing what they achieve when they
leave,” she said. “We all still stay in touch.”
10 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
11

Feature Story
Transition
State:
A Change of Leadership
in the Department
of Chemistry
By Carrie Lewis
12
Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
13

Feature Story
BARBARA GARRISON
TOM MALLOUK
The physical sciences are notorious for being
male-dominated fields, especially twenty-five
years ago, but that didn’t stop Garrison from
moving into high administrative roles. “I wasn’t
really thinking about it. I was aware that there
weren’t many women, but my department head
at the time was very supportive,” said Garrison.
Just ten years after joining the faculty at Penn
State, Garrison became one of the first women
Garrison was involved in writing the program
statement for the building, which included listing
all of the requirements for the building,
such as the number of rooms, amount of space
in each room, and utilizations and contents of
each room. She worked closely with Ken Feldman,
professor of chemistry, who meticulously
enumerated the needs of the labs and put the
whole building design in the program Chem-
still some challenges, though.”
One of the first goals that Mallouk has is to
improve the undergraduate experience. “There
is a recognition that active learning is very important
in the classroom, so we are trying to
do more of that, as well as research experience,
early on in the undergraduate experience,” said
Mallouk. He further explained that rather than
just having students learn the content of science
Passing the Torch
Tradition at Penn State is deeply rooted, and
changes in the leadership in the Department
of Chemistry are no exception. Since 1983, the
chemistry department has rotated department
heads on a regular basis, generally every threeto-five
years; earlier this year, the transition
from Barbara Garrison to Tom Mallouk
was made. Garrison is well known in the chemistry
department, and across the country, as a
well-respected leader in chemistry, as she has
held this position not once but twice, with fifteen
years between her two terms.
“Our chemistry department has a great tradition
of excellence, and we are indebted to Barbara
Garrison for her remarkable leadership of
the department that included eleven years as
department head and construction of the Chemistry
Building,” said Doug Cavener, professor
and Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly College
of Science.
Garrison, Shapiro Professor of Chemistry,
earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics, graduating
summa cum laude from Arizona State
University in 1971, and her Ph.D. in Physical
Chemistry from the University of California,
Berkeley. She then went on to complete her
postdoctoral studies in physical chemistry at
Purdue University where she met her husband,
Nick Winograd, Evan Pugh University Professor
of Chemistry, Penn State.
in the United States to be chair of a major chemistry
department at the age of 40 and served
her first term for five years, from 1989–1994.
Rather than focusing on the downsides of being
in the minority as a woman in science, Garrison
noted that she had a lot of doors opened for her
because she was a female department head—
she took part in external reviews for chemistry
departments at multiple universities and served
on various advisory committees, such as for the
National Science Foundation and the Governing
Board for the Council of Chemical Research.
In 2009, Garrison said yes to the job again because
she enjoyed it so much the first time and
knew it was a way she could contribute back to
the department. The second time around was a
bit easier, she said, which she largely credits to
those around her. “I had already learned how to
do a lot of things, like making decisions in certain
situations and supervising staff, but more
importantly, I had lots of great collegial faculty
and staff members to help out and do things,
which made delegating much easier,” said Garrison.
In addition to serving as the department head,
Garrison was instrumental in the design of the
Chemistry Building, as she chaired the planning
committee. The planning process started
in 1995, and the building was ready for occupation
in 2004. (Ironically, at the same time, Garrison
and her husband had just finished building
their own house.) As chair of the committee,
Draw. Garrison commented that she found the
process fun and enjoyable because they were
constructing a building for the future that was
for the entire department.
While fulfilling numerous administrative responsibilities,
Garrison continued to run an active
research lab, having thirty publications in
her first five years at Penn State. In fact, she
had started her research program before even
coming to Penn State by initiating collaborations.
“I collaborated a lot, especially with Nick.
I did it before it was fashionable!” said Garrison.
The Garrison Lab collaborates with numerous
other groups as they work on modeling reactions
on surfaces. One example is they create
computer simulation models to better understand
secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS),
an analytical process used to characterize the
composition of solid surfaces. These molecular
dynamic simulations mimic the ejection of molecules
in layered compounds to help determine
depth profiles and create elemental images that
interface with experimental results.
During Garrison’s first term as department
head, she hired Tom Mallouk from the University
of Texas to join the Penn State faculty, and
twenty-two years later, he has now moved into
the position himself. As associate head for the
department, the transition was obvious. “Barbara
is leaving the department in very good
shape, and its improved dramatically over the
last twenty years,” said Mallouk. “There are
to become competent for a test, it’s important
that they also learn the process of science. Other
goals Mallouk has during his term as department
head are to hire great people, build programmatic
strength in the department, and improve
diversity.
“I am very pleased that Tom Mallouk agreed
to take over the reins as department head, and
I can report that he is already immersed in
faculty development, working on educational
improvements, and tending to a myriad of administrative
responsibilities while maintaining
a cutting-edge research program,” said Cavener.
In addition to his administrative responsibilities,
Mallouk also balances his research lab and
teaching. He believes that staying active in the
lab and teaching ensure he stays connected to
the primary mission of what they as a department
are trying to do. His research group focuses
on synthesizing nanoscale inorganic materials
and understanding what they can do
with them, particular in the areas of energy,
electronics, and catalysis.
Mallouk is an Evan Pugh University Professor
of Chemistry, Physics, Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology. He graduated with his bachelor’s
degree from Brown University and a Ph.D.
from the University of California, Berkeley.
14 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
15

Feature Story
Reinventing
STATISTICS
Education
By Tara Immel
"To effectively impact all students, there must be a way
to personalize each instructor's teaching possibilities
and each student's educational experience..."
Dennis Pearl has a CAUSE, and his goal
is to improve statistics education and teaching.
CAUSE, which is the Consortium for the Advancement
of Undergraduate Statistics Education,
is a national organization whose mission is
to support and advance undergraduate statistics
education through resources, professional development,
outreach, and research. Pearl, who is a
professor of statistics at Penn State, also serves
as the director of CAUSE, where he has been
working to develop a redesigned foundation for
statistics education across the country.
“To effectively impact all students, there must
be a way to personalize each instructor's teaching
possibilities and each student's educational
experience,” Pearl said. “Support for statistics
education at Penn State and across the country
is high right now, and technology is continually
improving and becoming more accessible. These
elements are making it possible for that type of
personalized education to be feasible.”
16 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
17

Feature Story
DENNIS PEARL
KARI LOCK MORGAN
Relevant Resources
CAUSE has served as a catalyst for changing
the way educators teach statistics by providing
free resources to personalize pedagogy and content
for different learners. Through the CAUSE
website (causeweb.org), webinars, workshops,
an electronic conference, as well as an in-person
conference, the organization, and Pearl, have
been making every effort to improve the way
statistics is taught and learned.
The CAUSE website offers a multitude of resources
to statistics educators worldwide. The
resources are free to use and have everything
from recordings of webinars on teaching methods
and activities, to web app-based activities,
data sets, and fun resources, such as videos,
cartoons, and songs that can help facilitate
learning.
Webinars have served as a way to help educate
statistics educators without them needing
to leave their desks. The webinars, which
now come to dozens per year, are broken down
into three areas: activities series, teaching and
learning series, and research series. One from
each series is offered each month and is recorded
so that they can be viewed on demand any
time. Industry partners, such as Minitab, Pearson
Higher Education, W.H. Freeman Publishing,
and SAS, help to cover the cost so that educators
can access the webinars free of charge.
“Webinars offer a great way to present the newest
innovations in teaching and learning statistics
and CAUSE is grateful for the support from
volunteers and sponsors who make those efforts
a reality,” Pearl said.
CAUSE also hosts a biennial Electronic Conference
On Teaching Statistics (eCOTS), which
occurs on even number years. The next, to be
held in May 2016, will focus on “Changing with
Technology.” The conference, which is chaired
by Kari Lock Morgan, assistant professor of
statistics at Penn State, is intended to spark
new ideas for how educators can change with
technology and provide a virtual meeting space
for educators to engage with and learn from
each other. eCOTS 2016 will feature keynote
speakers, virtual panel discussions, breakout
sessions, workshops, virtual posters, and affiliated
mini-conferences taking place around the
country.
In addition, CAUSE hosts a biennial United
States Conference On Teaching Statistics (US-
COTS), which is held on odd number years, and
is well attended by the statistics educator community.
Last held in May 2015 at Penn State
and attended by about 450 people, the conference
featured plenary sessions, active breakout
sessions, poster sessions, and a dozen associated
workshops disseminating the work of NSFfunded
projects in statistics education. Both the
eCOTS and USCOTS serve as a mechanism to
invigorate the statistics education community
on a regular basis and also provide the infrastructure
for the dissemination and sharing of
information from educators on teaching experiences,
research results, and hot topics, such as
data science.
Making Statistics Fun
Pearl’s personal education research currently
focuses on the latter aspect of the available resources:
for teaching applied probability and for
A CARTOON FROM THE CAUSEWEB.ORG RESOURCES. It is suitable for a course website that makes use of a boxplot
to display an outlier and also uses the term "statistically significant" in its punch line. The cartoon is free to use in the
classroom and on course web sites under a creative commons attribution-non-commercial 2.5 license.
Credit: The cartoon is number 539 from the webcomic series at xkcd.com created by Randall Munroe.
using fun resources in teaching statistics. “Project
UPLIFT (Universal Portability of Learning
Increased by Fun Teaching) questioned whether
or not the use of cartoons and songs would improve
student learning and decrease anxiety,”
Pearl said.
CAUSEweb.org hosts the largest collection
of fun resources for college statistics teachers,
which includes cartoons, jokes, quotes, songs,
poems, word puzzles, magic tricks, and videos.
Pearl and his colleagues at University of Texas
at El Paso and Georgia Perimeter College assessed
the materials throughout the threeyear
study, by observing students in three urban
settings and interviewing them to gather
their attitudes towards introductory statistics.
In one experiment, all students took a pretest
and post-test measuring their anxiety about
statistics. Students were randomly assigned to
either the experimental group, where they were
exposed to cartoons or songs inserted into short
content items, or the control group, where they
only received the content. The researchers analyzed
the data to see if students who received
the extra fun content would perform better on
related embedded multiple-choice exam questions,
or experience a greater decrease in statistics
anxiety over a semester.
The data showed that song items had a higher
percent of correct answers among students who
viewed the lesson in conjunction with the song
compared with the control students who saw the
lesson alone. The use of cartoons did not show
any differences between groups on test item
performance – but, along with songs, may have
helped reduced student anxiety.
Building on their findings from project UP-
LIFT, Pearl and colleagues are beginning a new
project, Project SMILES (Student-Made Interactive
Learning with Educational Songs), which
was just approved for funding by the National
Science Foundation. This project will develop
and experimentally test an innovation in online
learning where students create a song by filling
in key words (like Mad Libs) associated with a
learning objective. The songs are played back
though synthetic voice technologies and can be
shared between students. “I’m really excited
18 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
19

Feature Story
A CARTOON TO TEACH ABOUT THE CAPTURE-RECAPTURE
METHOD. This is part of a three cartoon set from Dr.
Weaver that took first place in the cartoon category of
the 2007 A-Mu-sing competition. It is free to use in the
classroom and on course web sites.
Credit: Cartoon by John Landers (www.landers.co.uk) based on an idea
and sketch from Sheila O. Weaver (University of Vermont).
about how these interactive songs are being designed
to challenge students to construct examples
and/or context thereby fostering statistical
literacy and reasoning skills,” Pearl said.
While Pearl primarily focuses on cultivating
the resources, professional development, outreach,
and research available to statistics educators
across the country, Kari Lock Morgan
is specifically focusing on improving how Penn
State students learn statistics by redesigning
introductory courses and refining teaching
methods to make them more effective.
Redesigning Statistics Education
For many, statistics stirs up a mental picture
of memorizing mathematical algorithms and
computations but never really understanding
them. Students have been taught through plug
and chug type courses and retained information
long enough for an exam, then disregarded it
and moved on to the next topic. Although the
content and teaching methods have not changed
much over the last few decades, Lock Morgan is
on a mission to change the perception, as well
as the content and way that students learn statistics.
Traditionally, statistics has been taught such
that students memorize mathematical equations,
theory, and distributions. Although this
method has worked for statistics majors and
those who are very motivated and very interested
in learning about the topic, it has been
very difficult for students who need basic statistics
knowledge on their way to another degree.
Many non-statistics students develop only superficial
understanding and do not retain much
of the information learned in class. These students
can repeat theories and solve basic problems,
but most are doing it through conditioning
and memorization. Students may not actually
understand the numbers they are calculating.
Lock Morgan, who was named a 2015 Eberly
College of Science Center for Excellence in Science
Education Tombros Fellow, has dedicated
her career thus far to teaching statistics in a
more intuitive way so that students comprehend
the information and can apply it. “I am grateful
that the fellowship allows me to focus more of
my time where my passion truly lies; on making
statistics more about conceptual understanding
and solving real-world problems,” Lock Morgan
said.
For her fellowship project, Lock Morgan chose
to overhaul STAT 250: Introduction to Biostatistics.
Rather than relying on formulas and
theoretical distributions, she is introducing inference
via simulation methods, which include
bootstrap confidence intervals and randomization
hypothesis tests. With today’s technology,
statistics students are able to utilize computing
to get answers in a simpler and more intuitive
way. This provides students with a more general
way to approach statistical problem, focusing
on the big picture and helping students apply
the methods to real world problems. It also
builds conceptual understanding so students
better understand their results, and can better
interpret statistics they may encounter in other
situations. The changes she is working on are
in both content and pedagogy. “Incorporating
real-life scenarios into teaching encourages the
students to relate to the material and therefore
be more engaged in class and the learning process.
Students who have a solid understanding
of the foundational aspects of this method are
able to effectively collect data, analyze data, and
interpret conclusions drawn from data and see
the real-world value of statistics,” Lock Morgan
said.
She aims to help students develop a strong
intuitive understanding of inference through
randomization methods. Once this ground work
is established and students have a conceptual
understanding and appreciation for the results,
they can then compute using the more traditional
methods of statistics, including t-tests and
chi-square tests.
A Family Affair
Lock Morgan is not alone in her quest to improve
statistics education; her father, mother, and two
brothers are also statisticians who have a passion
for statistics and education. As a team, the
five wrote Statistics: Unlocking the Power of
Data, a textbook for introductory statistics. “It
may be unusual to write a book with your entire
family, but for us it has worked really well, probably
because we all like each other a lot. We
generally agree on big picture things, but each
bring our own unique perspectives and opinions
on the finer details, which ultimately improves
the final product,” Lock Morgan said. The book
has been heavily adopted in academia; teachers
across the county are utilizing the innovative
approaches in the text to help teach more effectively
and assist students in actually learning
and using the material.
Additionally, the Locks have developed a
website, lock5stat.com, that provides resources
to support their textbook and statistics education
as a whole. Their online software, StatKey,
a collection of web-based statistics applications,
accompanies the textbook. Their website also
provides data sets in several formats that educators
can use in their classrooms. These datasets
help teachers provide real-world examples
to help students see the practical applications of
statistics. As of July, StatKey has had 8 million
page views, with over 1,000 sessions per day,
and has been used in 138 countries.
Lock Morgan herself uses the datasets in her
A FAMILY OF STATISTICIANS. Pictured below are Patti
Frazer Lock, Robin H. Lock, Dennis F. Lock, Kari Lock
Morgan, and Eric F. Lock
Credit: Photo from lock5stat.com
20 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
21

Feature Story
classrooms and shows students how statistics
applies in real life. As part of the Tombros Fellowship,
Lock Morgan has organized each class
and lab to focus on answering a relevant scientific
question, hoping to emphasize that statistics
is an important tool in science. Several of these
datasets and questions come from researchers in
the biological sciences at Penn State, in an effort
to give students an idea for how statistics may
be used in their own departments. Additionally,
she embraces innovative teaching methods,
such as active learning and the use of learning
assistants, to get students more engaged in class
and the learning process. In STAT 250, Lock
Morgan requires
students to use the
i>clicker system.
The use of clickers
in the classroom
encourages more
class interaction
and discussion, leading to better understanding
and information retention.
Revising course content and changing pedagogical
strategies not only helps with conceptual
understanding, but improves student problemsolving
abilities and their transfer of learning.
Trying different approaches often leads to better
understanding and helps students learn better.
Teamwork Approach
Lock Morgan, Pearl, and Matt Beckman, who
will be joining the statistics faculty in January
2016, all recognize the need train high school
teachers and better prepare students to use
and understand statistics before they go to college.
“Matt will provide a terrific boost to Penn
State’s growing stature as a center for statistics
education expertise,” said David Hunter, head
of the Department of Statistics. “Even before officially
starting at Penn State, he has already
gotten involved as a co-principal investigator on
a statistics education grant proposal with Kari
and Dennis.”
Beckman is a Penn State graduate himself,
having earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics
in 2006, along with a Pennsylvania certification
in secondary mathematics teaching.
He later earned a master’s degree in statistics
“...I’M ESPECIALLY PROUD OF THE WORK WE’RE
DOING TO CONTINUALLY IMPROVE THE TEACHING
WE DO IN THE STATISTICS DEPARTMENT. ”
from the University of Minnesota, and since
that time he has been working as a practicing
biostatistician and statistical consultant, while
simultaneously completing a doctorate in statistics
education, working with two leading experts
in that field.
Together, the statistics trio is working on a
NSF proposal to improve outreach and teacher
training. Their goal is to help students be better
prepared for statistics by improving how it
is taught in high schools, while also refining
the content and taking advantage of computing
technology. The Common Core State Standards
in Mathematics recognize both the increased
importance of statistics and the intuitive benefit
of introducing inference via the simulation
methods enabled by computers, so the team
aims to prepare teachers to teach more statistics
and teach it in this conceptual way, particularly
because many teachers will not have seen
this approach, even if they have taken a statistics
courses. “It’s fantastic that high schools are
aiming to teach more statistics, and very exciting
that the Common Core is promoting the use
of simulation methods. We want to do what we
can to help make this happen!” Lock Morgan
said.
It’s no surprise that with passionate and motivated
faculty, and resourceful, dedicated staff,
the Department of Statistics is becoming a wellknown
leader in statistics education. “Statistical
literacy has always been a vital component of a
broad scientific education, and it is all the more
so in today's era of 'big data'. This fact makes
the educational mission of our department more
important than ever; and Penn State statistics
has such a huge footprint not only in Pennsylvania
but beyond the Commonwealth through
our World Campus programs that we are wellpositioned
to play a strong leadership role in the
practice of statistics education. In this context,
I’m especially proud of the work we’re doing to
continually improve the teaching we do in the
statistics department. Adding experts like Kari,
Dennis, and soon, Matt to our faculty not only
enhances our day-to-day teaching but ensures
that Penn State will remain at the cutting edge
of research in statistics education,” said Hunter.
The outstanding research, resource, and educational
improvements would not be possible
without support and collaboration. Staff members
have been essential in helping the faculty,
department, and even CAUSE function on a
daily basis. Hunter, Pearl, Lock Morgan, and
the rest of the statistics faculty recognize the
important roles that the statistics staff perform
A CARTOON SUITABLE FOR USE IN TEACHING
the idea that association does not imply
causation. Free to use in the classroom
and on course web sites under a creative
commons attribution-non-commercial 2.5
license.
Credit: The cartoon is number 552 from the webcomic
series at xkcd.com created by Randall Munroe.
in helping them to achieve their objectives and
in elevating the department stature.
“Moving CAUSE from Dennis’s previous home
of Ohio State here to Penn State in 2014 was a
highly complex task. We’ve hired two additional
staff members, half of whose time is devoted
to CAUSE-related tasks. Lorey Burghard
joined our department in December 2014 and
serves as CAUSE’s program coordinator, and
Bob Carey came on board in May 2015 to support
CAUSE’s IT presence. Meanwhile, Kathy
Smith, who was already on our staff, took on a
huge additional workload almost from the day
Dennis joined Penn State to tackle the Herculean
task of moving the web hosting for CAUSE
from Ohio State to Penn State. There’s so much
overlap now between the statistics department’s
various missions and CAUSE’s mission that our
newly enlarged staff has worked seamlessly into
the life of the department. So we have CAUSE
to thank not only for increased visibility in the
statistics education community but for some excellent
new staff hires as well!” Hunter noted.
Teamwork has a been a key compon ent for
the successes that the statistics department
has achieved. By using an inclusive approach,
the department has been able to make great
strides in improving statistics education
through collaboration in resources, teaching,
and learning.
22 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
23

Research
Briefs
Research
in Action
NIH Grant Enables Cavener Lab to Discover Mechanisms to Improve Insulin Regulation
NSF Grant Helps to Further the Search for Earthlike Exoplanets
A typical day for Doug
Cavener, the new dean
of the Eberly College of
Science, is anything but
typical. While he spends
most of his week attending
to administration
and fundraising duties
for the college, one may
also find him sitting at
a microscope looking at fluorescent pancreatic
beta cells with one of his graduate students
or analyzing giraffe genome sequences at his
computer. That’s because in addition to his administrative
responsibilities, Cavener runs a
research lab focused on the developmental and
physiological regulatory processes that are important
in the regulation of metabolic and neurological
diseases.
Recently, the Cavener lab received a fouryear,
$1.3 million grant from the National Institutes
of Health to study insulin regulation.
Maintaining a narrow range of circulating insulin
is critical to ensuring normal blood glucose
levels and preventing the onset of diabetes
and its plethora of negative downstream effects
on human health. “The regulation of insulin
has been intensely studied since its discovery
in 1921, but the molecular and cellular mechanisms
that integrate insulin synthesis, quality
control, trafficking, and secretion are poorly understood.
The goal of our work is to understand
these mechanisms and apply them to the treatment
of diabetes,” said Cavener. Barbara Mc-
Grath, senior research associate in the Cavener
lab, added, “This new award from the NIH not
only provides us funding to keep our momentum
going, but it also signals to us that many of our
peer researchers share our enthusiasm. That is
enormously gratifying!”
Cavener and McGrath, along with postdoctoral
researchers and graduate and undergraduate
students, have been studying the function
of the protein PERK, an eIF2α kinase, since
its discovery in 2001. PERK is among a small
number of genes that is so important for pancreatic
beta cell function that its absence results
in permanent neonatal diabetes in humans and
mice. Permanent neonatal diabetes appears
within the first six months of life for humans
and persists throughout the lifespan due to the
body’s inability to make enough insulin. Studies
from the Cavener lab over the last few years
have implicated PERK as a critical coordinator
of insulin folding, quality and quantity control,
trafficking, and secretion. This newly awarded
grant from the NIH will allow Cavener’s team to
reveal the mechanisms by which this important
regulation is achieved and then apply these discoveries
to the treatment diabetes. —Carrie
Lewis
A four-year grant from
the National Science
Foundation (NSF) is allowing
scientists in the
Eberly College of Science
to better search for Earthlike
planets outside of our
solar system.
Jason Wright, associate
professor of astronomy
and astrophysics and principal investigator on
the grant, is searching for exoplanets, or planets
that exist outside of our solar system and orbit
a star instead of our sun. To do this, Wright
and his team use data from some of the largest
telescopes in the world: telescopes from the W.
M Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Hobby-
Eberly Telescope in Texas.
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is a joint venture
between Penn State and three other universities,
and was designed by Larry Ramsey,
distinguished senior scholar and professor of
astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State. Because
the Hobby-Eberly Telescope was built in
the late 1990s, it is getting a series of major
hardware upgrades to make it even better at
searching for exoplanets, which in turn requires
updated software to collect the telescope’s data,
says Wright. “We are working to develop new
software for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope’s highresolution
spectrograph so that it performs at a
world-class level.”
The $356,000 grant makes the high-resolution
spectrograph software upgrade possible.
The upgraded software will increase the Hobby-
Eberly Telescope’s precision and will also take
advantage of new data analysis techniques to
retroactively improve the data from the telescope’s
former spectrograph.
To discover exoplanets, Wright and his colleagues
use Doppler spectroscopy, or the wobble
method, to find Jupiter analogs, or exoplanets
that are similar in size to Jupiter in our solar
system. Jupiter analogs are large and exhibit
some gravitational pull on their star, causing
the star to “wobble.” Using the spectrograph,
Wright can measure the radial velocity and
Doppler light shifts of a star to determine if Jupiter
analogs exist in that star’s system.
“Using this method, we can determine which
stars are likely to have planets like Earth,” he
says. “We can also find the Jupiter analogs orbiting
stars already discovered to have Earthsized
planets by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.”
Searching for Jupiter analogs is an important
step in the search to find Earthlike planets. “We
can’t find things like the Earth yet, but we are
starting to find things like Jupiter, and that’s a
game of patience, because Jupiter takes twelve
years to go around the sun,” Wright says. “The
goal of the grant is to find the Jupiter analogs
as signposts for the interior planets that might
be like Earth that we can’t detect yet.” —
Whittney Gould
24 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
25

College News
6 Things to Know
about Our New Dean
For the first time in 16 years, the Eberly College of Science has a new
dean. Dean Douglas Cavener took the position after being head of
the Department of
1
4Biology for fifteen years.
adjunct professor at the Nelson Mandela
2
5
framed on the wall in the dean’s office.
3
Chopin at home on his 1915 Steinway grand
6
One Man, Many Jobs
In addition to the hefty job of being dean,
Cavener still runs his research lab and mentors
five graduate students. He is also an
African Institute of Science and Technology
in Arusha, Tanzania.
Bountiful Harvest
Class Photographer
His BIOL 498A students are
fortunate to have his
photography skills during
the class, as he is an avid
photographer. You can
see some of his photos
Growing up on a farm introduced Cavener
to the wonders of a home garden. He now
has a bountiful tomato and peach harvest
and even grows a variety of Chinese vegetables
for his wife Lan. He can rattle off the
names of them in Chinese, but doesn’t know
much of the language otherwise: “I know
200–300 words in Chinese, but they are all
related to food.”
Diabetes and…Giraffes?
While he might be most known for
his research on diabetes, Cavener
is working with the Nelson Mandela
African Institute to sequence the giraffe
genome. “We wanted to choose an
iconic African animal,” he said. Through
this work, he may have recently isolated
the gene that gives giraffes their long
necks.
Music Man
Cavener began college
as a music major
before switching
to science. “I had the
passion for music, but it
didn’t take me long to
realize that I didn't have had enough talent,”
he said. These days he just enjoys playing
piano.
Biology of Eco-Health
His first trip to Tanzania
sparked inspiration. “After
my first trip there, I
thought this would be a
fabulous experience for
our students,” he said.
He created BIOL 498A:
The Biology of Eco-
Health, a class that involves Cavener traveling
to Tanzania with students every year.
Cavener Named New Dean of the
Eberly College of Science
At their July 17 meeting,
the University Board of
Trustees approved Douglas
R. Cavener as the
new dean of the Eberly
College of Science.
Cavener has been serving as the college’s interim
dean since January. He has been professor
and head of the Department of Biology at
Penn State since 2000 and has served as an
adjunct professor of life sciences at the Nelson
Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology
in Tanzania.
“Through strategic investments and recruitment
of outstanding faculty, staff and students,
the Eberly College of Science experienced a meteoric
rise in national ranking under the leadership
of Dan Larson, our former dean. I am
therefore deeply honored to be appointed as the
new dean of our college and truly believe that
the best is yet to come,” Cavener said. “Our college
mantra is excellence in everything we do
with emphasis on the integration of teaching
and research. As scientists and teachers, our
chief enterprise is discovery and translating
those discoveries to real life solutions. I look forward
to working with my colleagues to achieve
great success in the Eberly College of Science.”
As head of biology at Penn State, Cavener
expanded the department’s research and teaching
in neuroscience, ecology, plant biology, evolutionary
biology, infectious disease dynamics
and genomics.
His previous experience includes serving as a
faculty member at Vanderbilt University’s molecular
biology department from 1982 to 2000.
“Our process of searching for new deans is a
very comprehensive, inclusive and rigorous process,
which attracts many outstanding candidates.
However, when the outcome is that one of
our accomplished faculty leaders emerges as the
successful candidate, as in the case with Doug,
we think that speaks volumes about both him
and the depth of talent we have at Penn State.
I very much look forward to working with him
in his new role,” said Nicholas Jones, Penn
State’s executive vice president and provost.
Cavener’s research focuses on the regulation
of metabolic and neurological processes that are
particularly prone to maladaptions that lead to
diseases such as metabolic syndrome and neurodegenerative
disorders such as Alzheimer’s
disease. His work, which has received support
from a number of agencies including the National
Science Foundation and National Institutes
of Health, has direct biomedical implications
for several human diseases, including diabetes,
neurological disorders, cancer, osteoporosis and
growth defects.
In addition, Cavener is leading a team of scientists
to sequence the genome of the giraffe for
the purpose of determining the genetic basis
of the giraffe’s unique morphology and turbocharged
cardiovascular system.
He is a fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science and a recipient of
the Dobzhansky Prize from the International
Society for the Study of Evolution.
Cavener holds a bachelor of arts degree in
biology from Pasadena College, a master of science
degree in genetics from Brown University
and a doctorate in genetics from the University
of Georgia. —Bill Zimmerman
26 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
27

College News
Teaching New Pedagogy Strategy
in China
When four Penn State Science faculty members,
along with four undergraduate students,
departed for a whirlwind trip in July to teach
pedagogical concepts and practices at Fudan
University in China, they were not completely
sure of what to expect. The group, which included
faculty members Sarah Ades, associate
professor of biochemistry and molecular biology;
Wendy Hanna-Rose, associate professor
of biochemistry and molecular biology; Jackie
Bortiatynski, director of the Center for Excellence
in Science Education (CESE); and Meredith
DeFelice, senior lecturer of biochemistry
and molecular biology; along with learning assistant
(LA) students Sarah Chang, Nathan
Shugarts, Nathan Kramer, and Scott Berman,
were on a mission to help Chinese faculty
learn about the what it requires to teach
science effectively and to provide hands-on,
heads-on experience about how to implement
this knowledge. Although they were confident
in the content and workshop activities they had
organized, the team was anticipating some resistance
to the paradigm shift that they were
planning to present.
Ji Yang, associate dean
for undergraduate education
in the School of Life Sciences
at Fudan University, teamed up with the Penn
State faculty to organize the workshops and
worked diligently to recruit the best and brightest
life sciences faculty in China to engage with
the group. Faculty from the top universities
in China were invited to attend the three-day
workshop taught by the Penn State faculty and
student LAs. These Chinese faculty represented
20 universities across the country and were excited
about the opportunity to engage with Penn
State and develop more effective teaching skills.
While this trip was a first for most of the
group, this was not the college’s first experience
with Fudan University. Hanna-Rose chose to
do her sabbatical there, and has returned every
year since then.
“I did my sabbatical at Fudan University in
2013 where I taught a class for Fudan students
using active learning elements and a highly
interactive style. As faculty leader for a Penn
State Global Programs short-term experience,
I returned to teach at Fudan with Penn State
students in 2014. While my Fudan students
were responsive to my teaching style, it was
evident that they had relatively less experience
than the Penn State students with active learning
in the classroom. So I approached Dean
Yang about sharing my pedagogical expertise
with Fudan faculty in a series of workshops. He
was enthusiastic about the idea but asked me
to consider leading a workshop to target faculty
from all over China. I realized this larger objective
would require extra help and I turned to
my colleagues from CESE who share my passion
for implementing best pedagogical practices
in higher education science classrooms. They
agreed to accept the challenge and we started
planning the workshop,” Hanna-Rose said.
The goal of the workshop was to educate faculty
of a shift happening in teaching style and to
aid them in implementing new teaching strategies.
This new vision for teaching, known as active
learning, changes the way faculty teach by
engaging students; it encourages active participation
and discussion rather than just passive
listening. While it is commonly thought that
this requires more work on both the part of the
faculty member and the student, Hanna-Rose
disagrees. “For faculty these teaching methods
mean doing things differently, not necessarily
taking more time. Faculty must gain a deeper
understanding of how students learn in order to
tailor classroom activities towards things like
guided practice with feedback. And students
don’t have to spend more time either—they just
have to do things differently.”
For the students, it means actively listening
and contributing in class and doing more than
just reading course material or memorizing information
for exams. By absorbing and understanding
the material and actively participating
in class or team discussion, students are more
likely to retain information and be able to apply
it to real-life situations.
Changing years of teaching strategy isn’t
easy. Rather than asking, “How can I teach
this,” faculty are challenged to ask themselves
“how can the student learn it?” This model of
instruction changes the traditional teaching
mindset of providing information to learn material
to putting more responsibility on students
to learn through participation. This participation
includes exercises, such as engaging in case
studies, debating, and class discussions.
Active learning techniques not only help students
learn material more effectively, it also
gets them engaging with other students, allows
them receive immediate feedback from instructor
and peers, provides them with an opportunity
to talk about and process material while
still in class, and increase motivation to learn
because students know they will be actively participating
in class.
In order to more effectively present the material,
the Penn State instructors and LAs split
the faculty into small groups to learn about active
learning hands on. For three days, faculty
worked in small group sessions to discuss different
aspects of the new way of teaching and
28 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
29

College News
understand ways to apply them.
The LA students were a key component in the
sessions, providing a student perspective and offering
feedback on a student outlook of learning.
Because the four Penn State students were all
experienced LAs, they were well trained in new
pedagogical ideas and served as group facilitators.
As faculty discussed potential changes to
make to their courses, the students also acted as
sounding boards to consider how certain changes
ideas may be perceived in the classroom.
At the end of the workshop, each Chinese
faculty member left with a product and instructions;
they learned the skills necessary to
Every year, the Center for Excellence in
Science Education (CESE) selects three Tombros
Fellows. In addition, this year the Office
of Digital Learning also awarded a Tombros
Fellowship to a faculty member interested in
transforming online education. These Tombros
Fellows are interested in developing, transforming,
and creating new and innovative courses,
using new teaching methodologies, and finding
more effective ways to assess teaching success
change their way of teaching and committed to
incorporating it in a portion of their fall courses.
The resistance that the group had anticipated
never transpired; the Chinese faculty were very
accepting of the information and were excited
about making changes in their classrooms.
Due to the success and positive feedback
about the workshops, Yang hopes to host the
group again next summer to help influence
more faculty to embrace active learning and
other pedagogical activities to improve student
engagement and knowledge. —Tara Immel
Transforming Science Education with
Tombros Fellowships
Kari Lock Morgan Philip Bevilacqua Charles Anderson Louis Leblond
for classes in the Eberly College of Science.
The four Tombros Fellows for 2015 are Kari
Lock Morgan, Philip Bevilacqua, Charles
Anderson, and Louis Leblond.
Lock Morgan, an assistant professor of statistics,
is using her time as Tombros Fellow to
transform STAT 250, Introduction to Biostatistics.
The course satisfies the general education
quantification credits requirement, but generally
draws students from science majors. She is
changing the class to incorporate a simulation
methods approach to teaching, rather than using
a traditional approach that relied on heavy
background knowledge and can seem disconnected
from the concept being taught.
“This approach is visual, intuitive, intrinsically
linked to the main concepts, the same for
all statistics, generalizable to new situations,
and it requires less background knowledge,” she
said. “So it’s better for conceptual understanding
and allowing students to better focus on the
big picture.”
Bevilacqua is working to transform CHEM
110H, an honors section of the general chemistry
class CHEM 110, often a general education
requirement. Bevilacqua is infusing new technologies
like screen casting, YouTube, and the
interactive whiteboard app Doceri into the class
to better teach complex ideas.
“I am able to show a demonstration and talk
through it to my students,” he said. “It really
cuts down on time and is a good way to explain
difficult concepts.”
He is also able to assign lectures outside of
class because he has recorded them with the new
technology, allowing time to cover more content
in the class over a semester than he would have
without the use of this new technology.
Anderson is focusing on the development of
a new first-year research course titled “Fast
Farming.” Students in Anderson’s proposed
class will use real-time rainfall, temperature,
and soil data obtained from GIS platforms and
social media outlets, in particular Plant Village,
a community created by Penn State professors
David Hughes and Marcel Salathé.
Students will use this data to determine plant
tolerance for a variety of stresses that could
affect agricultural productivity and communicate
this information to agricultural producers
around the world through the Plant Village online
community.
“By empowering freshman undergraduates to
do real research, without pre-determined outcomes,
and to connect this research to tangible
challenges that they can read about in the news,
the class aims to clarify the connection between
basic scientific research and its application for
the benefit of human societies,” Anderson said.
“This connection can sometimes seem very abstract
for students who are in the early stages
of their college careers, but the connection is
always there, even if it is not immediately obvious.”
Leblond’s project is different than the other
three in that his World Campus physics students
are typically adult learners continuing their
education online from home while working and
raising a family instead of traditional-age resident
students. He is using a tool called IOLab,
which is a small portable Bluetooth-enabled device
with sensors that can measure physics data
such as force, acceleration, light, and sound.
“With the IOLab, you can do in the comfort of
your home almost all the experiments that we
currently do in our introductory physics course
sequence,” said Leblond. “The IOLab enables
quality hands-on physics labs for students taking
online courses. The quality of the data is often
even better with the IOLab and comes at a
fraction of the cost.”
All of these class transformations use real
data to show students a real-world application
for the skills being taught.
“My hope is that by using real data from the
students’ own fields, the students come to see
the class as a subject that is useful, important,
and relevant and applicable to their own lives
rather than just a requirement they have to get
through,” Lock Morgan said.
—Whittney Gould
30 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
31

College News
Climate &
Diversity Corner
Fostering a Close-Knit Academic Community with
the First Year in Science and Engineering Program
The first year of college
can be difficult and confusing
for any new student, but particularly
for those choosing to
study challenging science or
engineering curriculums. But
there is extra support for Penn
State freshmen in STEM majors
in the form of a program
called the First Year in Science
and Engineering (FISE) program.
The program puts first-year
students in science and engineering
majors—from the
Eberly College of Science, the
College of Earth and Mineral
Sciences, and the College of
Engineering—together in a
special on-campus multicultural
housing community where
they can take advantage of inhouse
tutoring and mentoring.
The mentoring takes place
through both resident assistants,
like a traditional oncampus
housing experience,
and special FISE program assistants.
FISE program assistants
are usually former FISE
participants who mentor the
first-year students and help
them get their college experiences
off to a strong start.
“The program assistants
played a significant role in
my transition to Penn State,”
said Bukola Toyobo, a current
FISE program assistant
and biology major. “They were
my role models that year and
helped me set a solid foundation
in my scholarly pursuit for
success. Because they had such
a positive influence on me, I
wanted to do the same and
more for future communities of
the FISE program.”
“The program assistants
helped me tremendously because
I was an out-of-state
student,” said Samantha Fortier,
a biobehavioral health
major who is now also a FISE
program assistant. “They guided
me through the process of
becoming a successful student
and made sure I did not make
that many mistakes.”
Toyobo, Fortier, and their
fellow program assistants plan
programs to help their students
succeed. FISE programs
cover topics ranging from academic
acclimation and leadership
development to planning
Intellectual Property Focus
Research Leading to Practical
Benefits for Society
Breast cancer survival rates have increased steadily
over the last decade. As quoted by the American
Cancer Society, on average, a stunning 100 percent
of patients with stage I breast cancer survive for at
least five years after diagnosis. However, this average
survival rate falls to 72 percent for those with stage
III and 22 percent for those diagnosed with stage IV
breast cancer.
From these statistics, it is obvious that new methods of
treatment are desperately needed to help increase
survival rates of late-stage cancer patients. What
is not readily apparent is the suffering experienced
those who undergo widely used cancer treatments
like chemotherapy and radiation.
Unfortunately, for many cancer types, including
breast cancer, cytotoxic treatments are considered
the best line of defense or are the only option available.
Two Eberly College of Science faculty researchers, Dr.
Yanming Wang and Dr. Gong Chen, seek to change
this bleak reality for the over 1.6 million Americans
diagnosed with cancer last year. Chen and Wang
developed novel intellectual property that includes
a small molecule therapeutic that allows the body to
fight cancer naturally. This exciting intellectual property
is protected under an issued U.S. Patent, granted
to the Penn State Research Foundation on behalf of
the inventors.
—Melissa Long, intellectual property and technology
transfer liaison
What if our body had a natural
switch, that when flipped,
could help reverse cancer
tumor growth?
“This switch exists,” says Wang,
who has been studying the
PAD4 enzyme for over eight
years. While the Wang lab has
discovered how PAD4 can help the body fight bacterial
infection, they have also found this enzyme to be commonly
overexpressed in cancerous tissue. When they
studied it further, Wang and his colleagues discovered
that overabundance of PAD4 results in the silencing of
tumor-suppressor genes, the body’s natural defense
against cancerous cell growth.
In collaboration with Department of Chemistry faculty
member Gong Chen, Wang developed a new small
molecule chemical inhibitor to limit the activity of the
PAD4 enzyme. When this inhibitor was tested in mouse
models, the team discovered it to be very successful
in reversing tumor growth. In fact, the PAD4 inhibitor reduced
tumor size just as effectively as the most common
chemotherapy drug with a 70 percent tumor shrinkage
rate. But unlike this chemotherapy treatment, the PAD4
inhibitor did not alter normal (noncancerous) cell development
and function.
Based on these exciting results, Chen and Wang think
that the PAD4 inhibitor may represent a new potentially
nontoxic chemotherapy treatment that helps the body to
fight cancer naturally. They are currently working to raise
the funding needed in order to move the small molecule
inhibitor into FDA-recognized clinical trials.
Gould
CANCER CELLS Photo Credit:
National Cancer Institute
—Whittney
for STEM research opportunities
and a successful career
fair visit.
Toyobo has a leadership
role in the programs covering
STEM research opportunities
and leadership development.
“The goal of the STEM research
opportunities program
is for students to know what research
looks like in their field
of interest, understand the
process of applying to research
laboratories on campus, and
interacting with graduate students
during lab tours,” Toyobo
explained.
During the leadership program,
FISE students learn to
strengthen five qualities essential
for good leadership:
delegation, confidence, communication,
commitment, and
perseverance.
Toyobo believes these programs
are valuable due to
her own experience as a FISE
student: “FISE is essential in
guiding freshmen on paths of
scholarly pursuits. I can per-
32 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
33

College News
sonally attest to it as a member
of FISE my freshman year.
The placement of program assistants
in the building to mentor
freshmen encourages them
to focus on academic goals like
finishing the year on the dean’s
list, as well as giving them opportunities
to pursue profes-
ships.”
Because the FISE students
and mentors live together in
the same special living option,
it’s easier for the students to be
successful, said Fortier. “FISE
focuses on creating an environment
where the students can
seek high levels of intellectual
growth.”
“The FISE program trains
students to balance their social
and academic lifestyles to
succeed from the start,” added
Toyobo. —Whittney Gould
work to postdocs from different
fields,” she said.
Eswara has worked hard to
build events like this in her
work with the Office of Postdoctoral
Affairs, to provide a
sense of community and also
professional career-building
events for postdocs. She is suc-
jer and Tomaszkiewic.
“The Postdoc Exhibition
gives a sense of community to
postdocs at the University as
well as an opportunity to engage
with faculty and administrators,”
said Rajtmajer.
“In the end, science is an
interdisciplinary field and we
scientific areas to be familiar
about all the studies being
performed at Penn State
to build new connections, collaborations,
and social networks,”
said Tomaszkiewic.
—Whittney Gould
sional experience like intern-
achievements and personal
ceeding, according to Rajtma-
need people from different
Annual Postdoctoral Research Exhibition:
An Exercise in Science Communication
Sarah Rajtmajer and Marta
Tomaszkiewic
Since 2008, the Office of
Postdoctoral Affairs on campus
has organized and coordinated
the Postdoctoral Research Exhibition
on campus.
This event, a showcase of research
conducted by postdocs
at the University, is an opportunity
for postdocs to present
their research in poster format
and be judged by their fellow
postdoc peers.
“The research exhibition is a
showcase of the research being
done by postdocs across University
Park, but also an exercise
of science communication,”
said Pallavi Eswara, progam
coordinator in the Office of
Postdoctoral Affairs. “Postdoc
presenters are presenting their
research to people outside their
expertise and have to learn to
communicate their science effectively.”
Postdocs help Eswara to organize
and judge the event.
This year, 27 postdocs judged
the work of 32 postdoc presenters.
For the last four years, the
exhibition has given prizes for
the top-performing postdocs at
the exhibition. The first place
winner this year took home
$500, the second-place winners
received $300, and the thirdplace
winners $100.
Two of the three third-place
winners, Sarah Rajtmajer
and Marta Tomaszkiewic,
are from the Eberly College of
Science.
Rajtmejer presented her research,
titled “An Evolutionary
Game Model for the Spread of
Noncooperative Behavior on
Social Networks and Associated
Longitudinal Effects on
Global Network Topology.”
“It was wonderful to see
what other postdocs are doing
throughout the University,
and to have the opportunity
to share my work as
well,” said Rajtmajer. “I had
some thoughtful conversations
with postdocs and faculty from
various departments about the
relationship between my research
and their own fields of
interest.”
Tomaszkiewic’s research
poster was titled “Comparative
Analysis of the Hominine Y
Chromosome Genomes.”
“It was a very enriching experience
sharing my research
with my peers at Penn State
and explaining my everyday
Welcome Day 2015
On Sunday, August 23, 2015, the Eberly College of Science welcomed more than
760 incoming freshman to Penn State. Our newest students were introduced to the
college community with a day of activity led by NEXUS (Network for EXcellence
in Undergraduate Science), a group of upperclassmen dedicated to helping new
students transition to college. The day was capped by an extravaganza hosted by
the college. Faculty and staff were encouraged to bring their families to spend time
with the new students, play icebreaker games, conduct fun science experiments
with the Office of Outreach, dress up for fun photos in a photo booth sponsored by
the Office of Develpment and Alumni Relations, and enjoy delicious Creamery ice
cream. The fun-filled festival also included an exclusive peek at the science clubs
before the whole university involvement fair.
Welcome to the science family, Class of 2019!
34
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 35

College News
Staff Highlight: Selders Provides Critical
Support
Faculty Highlight: Robinett’s Advising
Enhances the Student Experience
Department heads may hold
one of the toughest positions
in academia, but they do not
have to do their job alone thanks to excellent
administrative support coordinators like the
Department of Astronomy and Astrophyics’s
Christine Selders.
Administrative support coordinators and
department heads oversee and execute all academic
and administrative functions. Selders
has seamlessly facilitated the implementation of
both drastic and small changes for four department
heads over the past 25 years.
“Christine has been instrumental in developing
how the department works,” said Donald
Schneider, head of the department. “Her experiences
and judgment are extremely valuable.”
As the main point of contact for administration,
Selders balances a wide variety of complex
administrative and office functions. She develops
and manages various budgets, creates department
policies, advises department head and
faculty of University policies and procedures,
fills open departmental positions, trains new
employees, oversees department spa ce allocation,
and manages renovation projects.
“It’s difficult to find a part of the infrastructure
that does not depend on Christine,” said
Suvrath Mahadevan, assistant professor of
astronomy and astrophysics.
Selders has a busy schedule, yet she takes
on additional projects in times of need. For example,
when there are job searches in progress,
Selders covers some of the responsibilities of
those former staff members.
“The department was down two people at one
ning very smoothly, without any diminution in
the effectiveness of the office. I don’t think the
faculty realized the magic that was going on behind
the curtains,” Schneider said.
Schneider admitted that even he, as an assistant
department head, did not realize everything
Selders does for the department until he
became department head himself. Now he views
their working relationship as a partnership and
said that she is a tremendous asset to the department,
college, and University.
An important component of Selders’s role is
her intermediary communication between faculty
and the department head. Former Department
Head Lawrence Ramsey said he noticed
faculty feel comfortable approaching Selders
with issues so she could pass them on to him.
“Sometimes I was unaware that faculty members
were upset if I did something wrong, so
Christine was a very valuable conduit to me.
When Christine comes and talks about something,
we respect it,” Ramsey said.
Faculty members are grateful for efforts like
this from Selders. Mahadevan especially appreciates
Selders’s attentiveness to assisting with
grants, a meticulous process tasked to principle
investigators of a study.
“Faculty teach, mentor, and have service. So
without the support of very capable, competent
people like Christine, we couldn’t do our jobs,”
Mahadevan said.
“My position is always challenging, and sometimes
bordering on overwhelming. But I know
that is just a temporary state of mind,” said
Selders. “We’re a small department, but we’re
nationally and internationally recognized, and
In the Department of Physics,
each of the 160 physics
undergraduate and 25 graduate
students receives compassionate support
and excellent guidance from their one-man advising
unit, Richard Robinett, associate head
for undergraduate and graduate students and
professor of physics.
Robinett, who started at Penn State as an assistant
professor in 1986, has been a member
of the physics department administration since
1996. He has held multiple positions, and even
substituted for two associate deans during their
extended absences.
Physics Department Head Nitin Samarth
said that Robinett is “passionate, inspiring, energetic,
and completely dedicated to the welfare
of the students.”
Under Robinett’s advising over the past
15 years, physics undergraduates have won
roughly half of the major academic prizes at the
Schreyer Honors College Medals Ceremony.
Yet extraordinary students are not the only
ones receiving Robinett’s attention. Carol
Deering, the department’s graduate coordinator,
said, “He checks on the students to see how
they’re making out and make sure they’re on
track. When students are struggling, he doesn’t
dismiss them. He recommends alternatives.”
Colleagues say that Robinett’s empathetic
nature is key to his success as an adviser and
mentor. He makes a concentrated effort to get to
know his students as individuals. He recognizes
their unique potential for success and motivates
them to achieve their academic and career goals.
Robinett’s advising has contributed to the
participation in experiential learning and pedagogical
experiences in the college, according to
the past two annual graduating-seniors surveys.
Colleagues say that Robinett has a talent
for matching undergraduates seeking research
experience with researchers in the college.
Robinett has encouraged several students to
apply for highly selective internships. Five students
have participated in a first-class international
experience with CERN, the European Organization
for Nuclear Research, working with
the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest
and most powerful particle accelerator.
Robinett supports other co-curriculars by advising
the Penn State chapters of the Society of
Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma physics
honors society. Colleagues say he is heavily involved
in these clubs’ outreach activities, advocating
for their funding and giving them advice
on how to host successful events.
Although advising occupies most of Robinett’s
time, he still manages to teach two courses: PSU
016: First-year Seminar Science, a requirement
of all first-year students, and PHYS 44: Topics
in Contemporary Physics, a course designed to
help juniors and seniors plan their next steps.
Aside from working directly with students,
Robinett participates in the University Faculty
Senate, multiple committees including the Undergraduate
Education Advisory Committee,
and professional associations. He has also beenpublished
in refereed journals and textbooks.
“Richard never turns anything down,” said
Samarth. “I don’t know anyone other than him
who has the energy, passion, and empathy with
students to excel at this job.” —Samantha
point this summer, but Christine kept it run-
I’ve been a part of it."
—Samantha Schwartz
Department of Physics’s second highest rate of
Schwartz
36 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
37

College News
Years of Service Recognition We’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the years of
service that our faculty and staff have committed to Penn State. The college is fortunate to be
able to recognize the following dedicated members of the college community for their service to
Penn State in 2015.
Department
News
40 Years of Service:
Andrea Mastro
Gary Mullen
James Rosenberger
35 Years:
Ross Hardison
Sabrina Glasgow
30 Years:
Michael Akritas
G. Jogesh Babu
Daniel Durachko
Luen-Chau Li
Przemyslaw Maslak
Ming Tien
Eric Younken
25 Years:
Wenwu Cao
Robin Ciardullo
John Collins
Charles Fisher
Deborah Fisher
Svetlana Katok
Anatoly Katok
Yakov Pesin
Cathy Riemer
Christine Selders
Hope Shaffer
Traci Shimmel
Carol Thomas
Jack Wilkinson
Tara Witherite
20 Years:
Joseph Bollinger
Dmitri Burago
Leanne Crosson
Ann Daniel
James Ferry
Amy Homan
Qi Li
Dennis Lin
James Miller
Richard Ordway
Michael Troyan
Ping Xu
15 Years:
Neena Chopra
Howard Fescemyer
Dale Hoover
Paul Lammert
Runze Li
Jia Li
Anton Petrunin
Eric Post
Beatrice Sirakaya
Sergei Tabachnikov
Zachary Tseng
Edward Wagner
10 years:
John Asbury
Abraham Falcone
Derek Fox
John Fricks
Robert Geist
Yao Guo
James Hager
Melissa Hicks
Cheryl Hile
Mitchell Holland
Helge Jenssen
Michael Joyce
Andrey Krasilnikov
Maria Krasilnikova
Xiantao Li
Kevin Luhman
Megan Meinecke
Irina Mocioiu
Tracey Moore
Lynne O'cain
Kathleen Postle
Radu Roiban
Lorraine Santy
Robert Schoch
Durland Shumway
Kathleen Smith
Yanming Wang
Lance White
Krzysztof Wysocki
5 Years:
Bradley Alters
Igor Berezin
Amine Benkiran
Daniel Blankenberg
Amanda Brown
Sung Hyun Cho
Carol Deering
Meredith Defelice
Franklin Dorman
Carly Dreibelbis
Kristin Dreyer
Ana Laura Elias Arriaga
Miriam Freedman
Nathan Gemelke
Ying Gu
Steven Hair
Nestor Handzy
Megan Holmes
Jennifer Jackson
Timothy Jegla
Benjamin Lear
Shundai Li
Gabriele Monshausen
Jason Morton
Zifei Pei
Randy Penn
Nestor Perea Lopez
Kirstin Purdy Drew
Alexander Radosevich
Paula Ralph
Jan Reimann
Breanne Robinson
Megan Romer
Alham Saadat
Philip Smith
Michelle Spiering
Laura Ullrich
Kurt Vandegrift
Thank you
for your service
Astronomy and
Astrophysics
HETDEX
In 1998, everything changed. Before that, we
thought we knew the laws of the universe. The
force of the Big Bang began an expansion, while
attractive gravitational pull of every piece of
matter in the universe acted to slow the expansion
down. The question was whether this pull
was strong enough to reverse the expansion altogether
and create a Big Crunch. But then in
1998, we discovered dark energy, a component
of the universe that is causing the universe to
fly apart, as if being pushed by anti-gravity.
But how has dark energy evolved with cosmic
time? In 1917, before we knew about the motions
of the universe, Einstein added a “Cosmological
Constant” to his theory of general relativity to
“hold back gravity” and prevent the universe
from collapsing upon itself. Shortly thereafter,
he declared this constant of integration to be
his greatest blunder, as the observed dynamics
of the universe seemed to make it unnecessary.
But the formalism remained, and it makes a
clear prediction as to how dark energy should
evolve. But is this idea correct?
Penn State astronomers are about to find out.
This spring, the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark
Energy Experiment (HETDEX) will begin a
large survey, which will look 10 billion years
back in time and map out how matter was dis-
THE HETDEX TEAM AT PENN STATE. From left to right,
Professor Derek Fox, Professor Robin Ciardullo, Dr.
Nishant Agarwal, Professor Caryl Gronwall, Professor
Donghui Jeong, undergraduate Hunter Brooks,
Professor Donald Schneider, graduate student Brian
Pomerantz, Dr. Jonathan Trump, graduate student
Henry Gebhardt, and graduate student Mallory Molina.
Not pictured are graduate students Alex Hagen and
Joanna Bridge, and undergraduate Mark Barnaba, Jr.
tributed when the universe was only one-quarter
of its present size. By comparing these measurements
to those made from the universe's
baby picture (otherwise known as the cosmic
microwave background), HETDEX will be able
to measure history of universal expansion and
determine just how important Dark Energy was
at early times. Simultaneously, the millions of
spectra obtained by the HETDEX project will
enable a myriad of other projects, from the identification
of stars torn from their parent galaxies
to the measurement of star formation as a
function of galactic environment.
—Robin Ciardullo, professor of astronomy and
astrophysics
38
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 39

Faculty
Spotlight
Andrew Read Elected
as a Fellow of the Royal
Society
Andrew
F. Read,
Evan Pugh
Professor of
Biology and
Entomology
and Eberly
Professor in
Biotechnology at Penn State,
has been elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society, the leading
academy of sciences of the
United Kingdom. The Royal
Society is a self-governing fellowship
of many of the world’s
most distinguished scientists.
The stated purpose of the society
is to recognize, promote,
and support excellence in science
and to encourage the development
and use of science
for the benefit of humanity.
Each year, the Fellows of the
Royal Society elect up to 52
new fellows and up to ten new
foreign members who have
made substantial contributions
to the improvement of knowledge
in science, engineering, or
medicine.
Read is the director of Penn
State's Center for Infectious
Disease Dynamics and is leading
Penn State’s initiative in
evolutionary risk analysis and
mitigation. He perhaps is best
known for his research on how
natural selection shapes the
virulence of malaria and how
the “unnatural” selection imposed
by medicine shapes the
evolution of disease-causing
organisms.
Read’s research is aimed at
determining what can be done
to minimize the impact on human
health and well-being of
the evolution of pathogens and
of the organisms that carry
and transmit these pathogens.
Prompted by medical and
public-health measures, this
evolution can produce adaptations
in pathogens that lead to
drug and pesticide resistance,
increased virulence and infectiousness,
and the ability to
evade formerly effective vaccines.
Read is particularly interested
in the question of how
best to treat patients so as to
minimize the evolution of resistance.
His group works mostly
on malaria, myxoma viruses
in rabbits, and cancer-causing
viruses in chickens, with new
work on hospital-acquired
infections. Read's research,
which provides an improved
understanding of pathogen evolution,
can be used to inform
public-health decisions. His research
currently is supported
by the National Institutes of
Health, National Science Foundation,
Gates Foundation, and
the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council
(UK). —Sam Sholtis
Tom Mallouk Elected
as a Member of the
National Academy of
Sciences
Thomas
Mallouk,
Evan Pugh
Professor of
Chemistry,
P h y s i c s ,
and Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology at Penn
State University, has been
elected as a member of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Election to membership in the
academy is one of the highest
honors accorded to U.S. scientists
or engineers by their
peers.
Mallouk is an inorganic
chemist who is highly regarded
for his research on nanomaterials
and their application
to a broad range of scientific
and technological problems.
He and his students showed
in 1988 that inorganic crys-
tal lattices can be grown one
layer at a time on surfaces by
wet chemical techniques. He
used this approach to make
surface structures for artificial
photosynthesis, chemical
sensing, and the separation of
left-handed and right-handed
forms of the same molecule,
which is a critical step in many
applications. In 1998, he developed
an optical screening
method for simultaneously
evaluating hundreds of catalytic
materials and used it to
discover catalysts that improve
the performance of fuel cells,
water electrolysis, and glucose
sensors. This method now is
widely used for materials discovery.
Currently, his group is
developing nanoscale materials
to address problems in photochemical
energy conversion,
energy storage, electronics,
Faculty
Promotions
Congratulations to the following
faculty members on their
recent promotions in academic
rank:
catalysis, environmental remediation,
and powered movement
on the nanometer scale.
In 2004, they introduced the
concept of polymeric “delivery
vehicles” that carry reactive
nanoparticles through tens of
meters of soil and ground water
in order to destroy pollutants.
In 2007, together with
colleague Joan Redwing,
professor of materials science
and engineering and of electrical
engineering at Penn State,
Mallouk's team fabricated the
first silicon nanowire solar
cells. In 2009, Mallouk and
his students developed the first
molecule-based solar cells that
split water into hydrogen and
oxygen with visible light. Recently,
Mallouk's lab, in collaboration
with colleagues Tony
Jun Huang, professor of engineering
science and mechanics
To professor:
Michael T. Green, chemistry
at Penn State and Ayusman
Sen, Distinguished Professor
of Chemistry at Penn State,
have developed nanomotors
that, for the first time, can be
powered and controlled inside
living cells, a breakthrough
that holds promise for new
methods for the diagnosis and
treatment of cancer and other
diseases.
The National Academy of
Sciences is a private organization
of scientists and engineers
dedicated to the furtherance of
science and its use for the general
welfare. It was established
in 1863 by a congressional act
of incorporation, signed by
Abraham Lincoln, which calls
on the academy to act as an official
adviser to the federal government,
upon request, in any
matter of science or technology.
—Sam Sholtis
Kenneth C. Keiler, biochemistry and molecular biology
Katsuhiko Murakami, biochemistry and molecular biology
Aleksandra B. Slavkovic, statistics
Mathieu P. Stienon, mathematics
Ae Ja Yee, mathematics
To associate professor:
David D. Boehr, chemistry
Tomás A. Carlo-Joglar, biology
Jason T. Wright, astronomy and astrophysics
40
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 41

Faculty Spotlight
Faculty Awards and Honors
John
Badding,
professor of
chemistry and
physics, has
been selected
to receive the
2015 Penn State Faculty
Scholar Medal for
Outstanding Achievement in
the Physical Sciences.
Established in 1980, the
award recognizes scholarly or
creative excellence represented
by a single contribution or a
series of contributions around
a coherent theme. A committee
of faculty peers selects
candidates after reviewing
nominations together with
outside evaluations from peer
institutions.
Augustin
Banyaga,
professor of
mathematics,
has been
named a
Distinguished
Senior Scholar. The title
is given by Penn State's
Eberly College of Science in
recognition of a sustained
record of extraordinary
achievement in research and
education. Holders of this
position have had a profound
effect on their fields through
creative innovation and
internationally acclaimed
scientific leadership, as well as
exceptional accomplishments
in teaching and mentoring of
undergraduate and graduate
students.
Squire J.
Booker,
professor of
chemistry
and of
biochemistry
and molecular
biology, has been named
an investigator of the
Howard Hughes Medical
Institute (HHMI), a science
philanthropy whose mission
is to advance biomedical
research and science
education for the benefit of
humanity. As one of 26 new
HHMI investigators chosen
from 894 applicants, Booker
joins a group of scientists,
including 17 Nobel laureates,
widely recognized for their
creativity and research
accomplishment. The HHMI
chooses investigators based
on a “people, not projects”
philosophy allowing its
investigators the freedom to
explore creative approaches to
difficult biomedical problems.
Booker will receive flexible
support designed to enable
him to move his research
forward in creative new
directions.
Jane
Charlton,
professor of
astronomy and
astrophysics,
has been
selected to
receive the 2015 President's
Award for Excellence in
Academic Integration. The
award is given to faculty
members who excel at
integrating teaching, research,
and service to the University.
The award is presented by the
Office of the President of the
University, based on the
recommendations of the
President's Council and
academic deans.
Charlton has also been
selected to receive one of
three Penn State Teaching
Fellows Awards for 2015/2016.
The Teaching Fellow Award
was established jointly in
1986 by the Penn State
Alumni Association, the
Undergraduate Student
Government, and the
Graduate Student Association
with the purpose of honoring
distinguished teaching
and providing incentive for
teaching excellence at Penn
State.
The
International
Astronomical
Union (IAU)
announced the
election of
Eric D.
Feigelson, professor of
astronomy and astrophysics
and of statistics, as the
president of its new
Commission on
Astroinformatics and
Astrostatistics at its General
Assembly in August. The IAU
is the world’s largest scholarly
society in astronomy. Together
with G. Jogesh Babu,
professor of statistics,
Feigelson is one of the
founders of the field of
astrostatistics that endeavors
to improve applications of
sophisticated methodology to
the analysis and
interpretation of astronomical
data. Feigelson and Babu
have organized research
conferences, graduate-level
summer schools, and coauthored
a prize-winning
textbook in the field.
Charles
Fisher,
professor of
biology and
associate dean
for graduate
education in
the Eberly College of Science,
has been named a
Distinguished Senior Scholar.
The title is given by Penn
State's Eberly College of
Science in recognition of a
sustained record of
extraordinary achievement in
research and education.
Holders of this position have
had a profound effect on their
fields through creative
innovation and internationally
acclaimed scientific leadership,
as well as exceptional
accomplishments in teaching
and mentoring of
undergraduate and graduate
students.
Kin Fai Mak,
assistant
professor of
physics, has
been selected
by the U.S.
Department of
Energy's (DOE) Office of
Science to receive funding for
his research as part of the
DOE's Early Career Research
Program. With this funding,
Mak will study a new method
for transmitting information
by controlling a parameter of
electrons known as the “valley
degree of freedom” in twodimensional
crystals. The
research has potential
application in next-generation
electronic and optoelectronic
devices, such as spin and
valley transistors and
polarization-sensitive LEDs.
Gerald D.
Mahan,
distinguished
professor of
physics, has
been honored
with the 2015
Outstanding Achievement in
Thermoelectrics Award from
the International
Thermoelectric Society (ITS).
The award recognizes the
outstanding achievements of a
senior scientist for
contributions to the field of
thermoelectricity. The award
was presented at the banquet
of the 2015 International
Conference on Thermoelectrics
in Dresden, Germany, where
Mahan presented a plenary
lecture.
Jennelle L.
Malcos,
lecturer in
biology, has
received the
George W.
Atherton
42
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 43

Faculty Spotlight
Award for Excellence in
Teaching. The award honors
excellence in teaching at the
undergraduate level across all
Penn State colleges and
campuses. Malcos is one of six
awardees for 2015. Malcos
teaches introductory courses
in physiology, mammalian
anatomy, and cell biology. She
uses an innovative approach to
ensure that students are
actively engaged in learning
despite the large size of these
classes.
Mercedes
Richards,
professor of
astronomy and
astrophysics,
has been
elected as a
Councilor of the American
Astronomical Society (AAS).
The AAS was founded in 1899
and is the major organization
of professional astronomers in
North America with over
7,000 members. Richards is
one of three Councilors elected
this year from among the
membership of the AAS. She
will serve a three-year term
on the AAS Council, which is
the governing body of the AAS
and is responsible for the
management of the affairs and
property of the society.
Marylyn
Ritchie,
professor of
biochemistry
and molecular
biology, and
the director of
the Center for Systems
Genomics, has been named the
Paul Berg Professor of
Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology. The professorship was
created in 1995 by an
anonymous donor in honor of
Paul Berg, a 1948 Penn State
graduate who was named a
Distinguished Alumnus in
1974 and earned the Nobel
Prize in 1980 for developing a
method to map the structure
and function of DNA.
Song Tan,
professor of
biochemistry
and molecular
biology, has
been selected
to receive the
2015 Penn State Faculty
Scholar Medal for
Outstanding Achievement in
the Life and Health Sciences.
Established in 1980, the
award recognizes scholarly or
creative excellence represented
by a single contribution or a
series of contributions around
a coherent theme. A committee
of faculty peers selects
candidates after reviewing
nominations together with
outside evaluations from peer
institutions.
David Weiss,
professor and
associate head
of the
Department of
Physics, has
been elected
as chair of the Division of
Atomic, Molecular and Optical
Physics (DAMOP) of the
American Physical Society
(APS). DAMOP is the oldest
and third largest division of
the APS, with over 3,000
members. The chair is an
elected position with
administrative responsibility
for all the division's
operations, including the
1,100-attendee annual
meeting.
New Faculty
Jeffrey S. Case, assistant
professor of mathematics, is a
geometric analyst interested
in global problems in Riemannian,
Lorentzian, conformal,
and CR geometry. He uses
ideas from conformal geometry
to better understand CR
geometry and smooth metric
measure spaces. He applies
these ideas to study optimization
problems involving the
“shape” of manifolds and to
study inequalities important
in differential equations. Prior
to joining Penn State, Case
was a National Science Foundation
Postdoctoral Fellow
at Princeton University from
2010 to 2013 and an instructor
in mathematics at Princeton
from 2011 to 2015. He
earned master's and doctoral
degrees in mathematics at the
University of California, Santa
Barbara in 2007 and 2010,
respectively, and a bachelor’s
degree in mathematics and
computer science at Minnesota
State University in 2005.
Jack Huizenga,
assistant
professor
of mathematics,
focuses his
research on
algebraic
geometry. He studies the
geometry of curves and
surfaces, with a particular emphasis
on moduli spaces of vector
bundles and interpolationtype
problems. Prior to joining
the faculty at Penn State,
Huizenga was a research
assistant professor and
National Science Foundation
Postdoctoral Fellow at the
University of Illinois at
Chicago from 2012 to 2015. He
earned master's and doctoral
degrees in mathematics at
Harvard University in 2008
and 2012, respectively, and a
bachelor's degree in mathematics
at the University of
Chicago in 2007.
Jesse R.
Lasky,
assistant
professor of
biology,
studies the
processes that
generate and maintain biodiversity.
His research has
applications in conservation
and agriculture. He is particularly
interested in the causes
of genetic variation across the
geographical range of a
species and how this variation
changes over time. In particular,
he is interested in how
plant populations adapt to
local environmental conditions
and how that adaptation is
affected by species interactions.
Prior to joining the
faculty at Penn State, Lasky
was an Earth Institute Fellow
from 2012 to 2014 and a
postdoctoral researcher from
2014 to 2015 at Columbia
University. He earned a
doctoral degree in ecology,
evolution, and behavior at the
University of Texas at Austin
in 2012 and a bachelor's
degree in biology at Kenyon
College in 2004.
X. Lance
Lian, assistant
professor
of biomedical
engineering
and biology,
focuses his
research on understanding
human development and
disease by applying the
principles of developmental
biology to experiments with
human-derived stem cells, and
by experimentally editing the
genetic code. In addition to
gaining basic knowledge of
human development at the
cellular and- molecular level,
Lian's research has application
in the development of
therapies to treat degenerative
diseases like spinal-cord
injury, heart disease, and
diabetes. Lian also plans to
study stem-cell-derived
immunotherapy as a cancer
44
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 45

Faculty Spotlight
treatment. Before joining the
faculty at Penn State, Lian
was a postdoctoral fellow at
Harvard University from 2012
to 2014. He earned a doctoral
degree in chemical engineering
at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison in 2012
and a bachelor's degree in
bioengineering at Zhejiang
University in China in 2006.
Lynn Lin,
assistant
professor of
statistics,
develops
Bayesian
methods and
computational tools for classification,
selection of subgroups
of variables, detection of rare
events, and the visualization
of highly complex data. She
applies her research to datasets
of high-throughput singlecell
biological research on
immunology and vaccines.
Prior to joining the faculty at
Penn State, Lin was a postdoctoral
fellow at the Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center from 2012 to 2015. She
earned a doctoral degree in
statistics at Duke University
in 2012, and bachelor's and
master's degrees in statistics
at the National University of
Singapore in 2007 and 2008.
Mikael C.
Rechtsman,
assistant
professor of
physics, uses
both experimental
and
theoretical approaches to
understand photonics, the
science of light. In particular,
he is interested in the new
field of “topological photonics”
with the goal of allowing light
to be transported through
complex materials—where
normally random scattering
would massively disrupt its
flow. Rechtsman's research
can be applied to devices that
transport information using
photons and in the development
of extremely small
optical components used
across the telecommunications
industry, such as waveguides,
splitters, and optical diodes.
Prior to joining the faculty at
Penn State, Rechtsman was
an Azrieli Postdoctoral Fellow
at Technion Israel Institute of
Technology from 2010 to 2015
and Courant Instructor at
New York Univeristy's Courant
Institute of Mathematical
Sciences from 2008 to 2010.
He earned a doctoral degree in
physics at Princeton University
in 2008 and a bachelor's
degree in physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 2003.
Xin Zhang,
assistant
professor of
chemistry and
of biochemistry
and
molecular
biology, studies how the
environment of the cell influences
the folding of proteins
into their proper three-dimensional
structures. Zhang aims
to develop tools that can
monitor the stresses and
cellular machineries within
the cell that can alter the ways
in which a protein can fold.
His research also has application
in the development of
diagnoses and therapies for
human diseases rooted in
defective protein folding. Prior
to joining the faculty at Penn
State, Zhang was a research
associate at the Scripps
Research Institute, California.
He earned a doctoral degree at
the California Institute of
Technology in 2010, a master's
degree at the Dalian Institute
of Chemical Physics of the
Chinese Academy of Sciences
in 2004, and a bachelor's
degree at the University of Science
and Technology of China
in 2001.
Student
Spotlight
Undergraduate Student
Awards and Honors
Braddock Scholarship Opens Doors to New Opportunities
The Braddock Scholarship
is open to high school seniors
who have applied to both the
Schreyer Honors College scholars
and the Eberly College of
Science and intend to pursue
a major in a qualifying science
field.
The scholarship provides up
to $6,000 annually to these
students over their four years
in college, lessening the financial
burden for these ambitious
students.
For senior Braddock Scholar
Shalome Sine, receiving the
Braddock Scholarship was a financial
saving grace: “Because
of medical issues in my family,
my parents were not in a position
financially to help me pay
for school. The Braddock Scholarship
made it possible for me
to attend Penn State.”
The scholarship is a big draw
to students considering Penn
State. “The scholarship was
a major factor in choosing to
attend Penn State in the first
place,” said senior Braddock
Scholar Janine Mistrick.
The experience doesn’t end
when the students receive the
scholarship. The Braddock
Scholars become a helpful science
peer community for each
other. The scholarship program
includes events and meetings
where the scholars can share
ideas with their peers or hear
faculty and staff speakers
present on topics like fellowships,
research opportunities,
international experiences, and
career path options.
“What I really enjoy about
this scholarship are the meetings
that gather the other students
with faculty who have
super helpful insight on how
to make the most of my time
at Penn State and where I
can take my science degree,”
said senior Braddock Scholar
Sarah Chang. “Having those
small discussions as an underclassman
helped expand
and shape what kind of career
I would want to have after I
graduate, especially since I
had a narrow perspective of
the opportunities out there for
BRADDOCK SCHOLAR SARAH CHANG
PRESENTS her research findings from
her internship at the Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai, an
opportunity she was able to take in
part because of her Braddock
Scholarship.
science majors.”
Sine agreed. “The Braddock
Scholarship has allowed me
to explore all of my options as
a scientist, and has given me
the opportunity to then do research
in my chosen field.”
The weight of the reputation
of this scholarship program
also helps these students obtain
experience and opportunities
they might not have been
given a chance for without it.
46
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 47

Student Spotlight
Undergraduate Student Awards and Honors
Braddock Scholarship
The Braddock Scholarship, an award for exceptional freshman science students, was established
by the late Homer Frick Braddock, a Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania native, who earned his
bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from Penn State in 1906. The Braddock Scholarship is
available to outstanding high-school seniors who are interested in studying science at Penn State.
Since 1984, this generous gift and prestigious financial award has provided needed and helpful
funds to over 240 deserving students. The 2015 Braddock Scholars are:
Freshman:
Rebecca Brussard
Colleen Conway
Mackenzie Mauger
Rosalie Sowers
Stephen Thornton
Sophomores:
Matthew Allen
Robert Liu
Steven Makkar
“The backing of the Braddock
Scholarship helped me
show professors at a time when
I had no particular lab or field
skills that I was a dedicated
scholar who was passionate
about science and could be
counted on to perform well in
their lab,” said Mistrick.
“Being able to sign my name
as ‘Shalome Sine, Braddock
Scholar’ on my application
email for a new lab was a significant
part of what impressed
the graduate students who recruited
me,” added Sine.
The Braddock Scholarship
has allowed the scholars the financial
freedom to pursue academic
and research experiences
they are passionate about.
Mistrick, a biology major, was
accepted into an REU this past
summer that allowed her study
the ecology of the little brown
bat in Alaska. Sine’s honors
thesis research in a neuroscience
lab helped her decide to
pursue graduate school to be
a clinical pyschologist. Chang
Riddhi Patel
Mila Tamminga
Collin Van San
Juniors:
Nathan Arnett
Laura M. Beebe
Alice Y. Cai
Sarah N. Galang
Elizabeth M. Lesko
Jiang Jingyi
James L. Johnston
Michelle Lai
Joseph K. Puthenpurayil
Amanda C. Reese
Kokila Shankar
Grant T. Smith
Seniors:
Victoria A. Bertocci
Joshua T. Bram
Sarah Chang
has decided that between graduation
in May and beginning
an M.D./Ph.D. program, she’d
like to challenge herself with
an interesting biomedical research
project.
“The Braddock Scholarship
helped relieve the growing financial
pressure so that I was
completely free to explore my
interests with little limitation,”
Chang said.
—Whittney Gould
Valerie M. Lindner
Janine Mistrick
Jacqueline R. Patterson
Avik M. Sarker
Shalome L. Sine
Priyanka K. Solanki
Rachel J. Thomas
Anna K. Wing
Doris N. McKinstry Scholarship
The scholarship was established by Doris McKinstry to recognize and support outstanding female
undergraduate students enrolled in (or planning to enroll in) the Biology or Premedicine majors in
the Eberly College of Science, who have earned a grade point average of 3.0 or higher, and who are
permanent residents of Pennsylvania. Students receiving the scholarship for 2015/2016 are:
Freshmen:
Coreena Chan
Bridget Garrity
Omobolanle Odusoga
Sophomores:
Cohort #1 (2013)
Kaleb Bogale
Emily Cribas
Sachira Denagamage
David Heineman
Liyana Ido
Rebecca Plessel
Taylor Soucy
Victoria Spadafora
Phoebe Ingraham
Afsha Mumtaz
Briana Neidig
Victoria Oladipo
Huyan Tran
Millennium Scholars Program
Juniors:
Casey Graham
Victoria Spadoni
Seniors:
Maren Healey
Cohort #2 (2014) Sneha Yennawar
Tiffany Bamfo
Cohort #3 (2015)
Stephanie Brown Brian Carvajal
Connor Cassady Arthur Chinery
Patricia DeTomas Medina Phillip Clauer
Alexandra Nader Amanda Craine
Emma Price
Brandon Cruz
Gabrielle Swain
Andrea Gade
Olivia Vilella
Talayah Johnson
Inger Wang
Idan Kantor
Kayla Kisan
Joohyeong Lee
Bo Jung
Haley Randolph
Penn State’s Millennium Scholars program was established to attract, support, and retain a cadre
of high-achieving scholars whose shared expectation for academic excellence and inclusiveness will
lead to future leadership positions in a STEM field. The following students have been awarded a
scholarship:
Science Dean’s Scholarship
Juniors:
Morgan Acker
Susan Boun
Whitney Brown
Mia Casale
Dillon Costantini
Amber Delhagen
Taylor Egner
Edgar Elias
Bria-Elise Jones
Christina Kasmer
Wyatt Keck
Michael Mensah
Brandon Mouery
Ryan Mouery
Shea Myers
Mit Patel
Ruhiben Patel
Tanmay Patel
Brittany Ricardo
Steven Sebzda
Erica Sidorowicz
Alicia Tripp
Seniors:
Nicholas Borden
Brittany Boucher
Bridget Brafi
Kimberly Brafi
Megan Criswell
Matthew Downing
Anthonia George
Colleen Gross
Devina Harnita
Jonathan Kizer
Joash Lake
David Lee
Sarah Magee
Fabiola Maldonado
Ishan Phadke
Takara Richard
Olivia Richards
Ivan Yen
Madeleine Zalenski
The scholarship is for math and science students who begin their Penn State degrees at one of the
Commonwealth campuses, and who transition to University Park to complete a degree in the Eberly
College of Science. Students receiving the scholarship for 2015/2016 are:
Connie Hernandez
Marisa Madsen
Brieyanna McWilliams
Juanita Mennor
Ebone Selfridge
Tadir Shapir
Priscilla Sintim-Agyeman
Joshua Wilkins
48
Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 49

Student Spotlight
Summer 2015
Student Marshal
Meichen Bian of Hefei City, Anhui Province, China was
honored as the student marshal for the Eberly College
of Science during Penn State University's summer
commencement ceremonies on Saturday, August 15, 2015
on the University Park campus.
Bian's faculty escort
for the commencement
exercises
was Russell Cooper,
professor of economics
at Penn State.
Bian graduated
with a 3.84 grade
point average and
bachelor of science
degrees in mathematics and in economics. She
was a Schreyer Honors College Scholar and a
member of the dean's list for five semesters.
While at Penn State, Bian conducted research
with Cooper examining the regional variation
in financial return on investment in education
in China. She found that the return on investment
in education was higher in more economically
developed regions of China. As part of her
research, Bian demonstrated that the factors
that influenced the regional variation in return
on investment included the Chinese “hokou”
system of household registration, patterns of
migration, the level of parent's education, and
job opportunities.
“I am so honored and excited about this,” said
Bian.“This honor will encourage me to reach my
career and lifetime goals. I also really appreciate
the people, including my parents, teachers,
and friends, who supported me, helped me, and
inspired me no matter what happened. They
are so important to me. I also want to thank the
Penn State community, which gave me great
opportunities to challenge myself, made me feel
warmed when difficulties occurred, and helped
me to become the person that I want to be.”
“The most important lesson that I learned
at Penn State is that if you really want something,
then try your best and you can achieve
it,” said Bian. “As an economics major I started
to double major in math at the beginning of my
junior year, which is a bit late. However, I completed
the math courses within the two years
with good grades. This experience told me that
it is never too late to begin anything. If you like
it and feel it matters, then you can do it.”
Following graduation, Bian plans to attend
Duke University to pursue a master's degree in
economics. She is the daughter of Yazhou Bian
and Xiaoxia Liu. —Sam Sholtis
Undergraduate Scientists
Javier Soliván-Rivera: Making the Transition to University Park
After beginning his undergraduate career at
Penn State Behrend, Javier Soliván-Rivera,
a biology major focusing on vertebrate physiology,
decided to move to University Park to finish
his bachelor’s degree. While making the move to
a larger campus certainly has its advantages, it
didn’t come without challenges.
A variety of difficulties presented themselves
to Soliván during his first semester at University
Park. Although he had made several weekend
visits to campus, he hadn’t anticipated the huge
crowds of students filling the sidewalks between
classes. He also had not imagined how many
students could fit in one class in 100 Thomas
Building, the largest lecture hall on campus
that seats over 700 people. “When I arrived in
100 Thomas and saw the capacity it held, I began
to doubt my decision of transferring,” Soliván
said. Large classes were an anomaly at
Behrend; at University Park, they are fairly
common, especially for required courses.
Soliván also had to adjust to multiple-choice
exams. With smaller class sizes at Behrend, faculty
and instructors were able to offer open-ended
exam questions. Many required courses at
University Park are not conducive to this due to
the number of students in a class. Workload on
the two campuses was a change as well. “During
my first semester I saw myself in the need of
dropping a class to safeguard my GPA. Another
challenge I faced was managing my workload.
At Behrend, I thought of myself as an excellent
student. When I transferred I didn’t acknowledge
the fact that the transition process would
play a huge role in my performance here. I decided
it was a good idea to enroll myself in 18
credits and now I can say with confidence I wish
I hadn’t done that,” Soliván said.
Soliván knew he had to make changes to adjust
to life at a large university. Getting involved
with both academic and extracurricular activities
enabled him to meet new people and start
forming friendships. “Finding a support group
during your transition process is fundamental
for your success. A lot of students that I have
met that have transferred from other campuses
usually face the transition process alone.”
Although his family supported him, they were
nearly 2,000 miles away in Puerto Rico. Soliván
credits a friend he met during his first semester
at University Park for getting him on track and
guiding him in the right direction. “Because of
Anthony Melendez, another biology major,
I met the wonderful biology and pre-medicine
advising team. I would tell all change-of-assignment
students to go to see their academic
advisers. Academic advisers will do everything
in their power to guide you to success. I still contact
them frequently, even after being here for
two years,” Soliván said.
The learning assistant (LA) program was
another resource that Soliván regularly used
to help through his coursework. A LA is an undergraduate
student who facilitates small group
work in large group settings, such as lecture
and labs. The LA program in the Eberly College
of Science, which is facilitated by the Center
for Excellence in Science Education, offers
LA help in select biochemistry and molecular
biology, biology, chemistry, and physics courses.
“The LAs do an excellent job of helping you understand
the material. They also provide a lot
50 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
51

Student Spotlight
Undergraduate Scientists
Summer Exposure to Career Paths in Medicine
Four Eberly College of Science students were
selected to participate in the Penn State College
of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. Summer Exposure
program, which aims to prepare students for career
paths combining clinical medicine and research.
The students—Kaleb Bogale, Jenna
Mandel, Rhea Sullivan, and Andrew Tucker—are
all Schreyer scholars and were four of
of flexibility for you to attend office hours and
receive all the help you can get,” Soliván said.
After his first year at University Park, Soliván
himself became a LA so that he could help other
students, just as he was aided through various
science courses. He is now the lead LA for Biology
110 and also serves as a teaching assistant
for Introductory Physiology.
After overcoming the numerous challenges
presented to him by the transition,
Soliván began to realize how the
move had many positive changes in his life.
“I have not only changed as a student, but also
as an individual in society. I have had the opportunity
to meet people from all around the world
and learn their different cultural beliefs and
practices. I have become more empathic with
others, a quality that I developed through my
experience as a learning assistant. The Eberly
College of Science taught me how to serve society
altruistically.”
Although Soliván initially questioned his decision
to make the move, he now knows that it
was the right choice for him and has advice for
those considering a change of assignment: “If
there is something I have learned about successful
students that have transitioned, it is that
they get involved right away. Don’t be afraid to
talk to your neighbor in your first class. Don’t
be afraid to go sit down at your professor’s office
hours so that he or she can get to know you.
Approach your advisers or instructors and tell
them you want to get involved in something. But
most importantly trust in yourself and the decision
that you have made.”
After Soliván graduates in 2016, he plans
to attend medical school to become a medical
physician and specialize and either cardiology
or neurology. He also plans to use the wisdom
that he gained during his tenure at Penn State
to continue his future success: “I oftentimes get
asked how can I maintain a positive attitude
when things get rough. My answer is simple: I
have two options. The first one is to give up. The
second is that I can learn from the experience,
embrace it, and move on to seeking better opportunities.
I know I will struggle in the future,
but based on my previous experiences, I know
that there are many more positive things in my
future. All it takes is a positive attitude and a
little bit of hope.” —Tara Immel
Kaleb Bogale poses with Penn
State Hershey graduate Student
Joel Coble at the Penn State
Hershey Medical Center
research poster symposium.
the five students total selected for the program.
Each student was paired with a College of
Medicine faculty member mentor in a biomedical
laboratory for the summer, with the opportunity
to shadow a physician in a weekly clinical
exposure session.
Tucker was paired with Sean Stocker for lab
work in cellular and molecular physiology and
shadowed allergy, asthma, and immunology
specialist physician Faoud Ishmael.
Bogale worked in the lab of Steven Schiff
in the Institute of Personalized Medicine and
shadowed neurology physician Xuemei Huang.
He was able to work on a collaborative project
investigating neonatal sepsis in Uganda while
shadowing Dr. Huang in his clinic, which focused
on Parkinson’s disease.
"HAVING THIS EXPERIENCE UNDER MY
BELT HAS PROVIDED THE FOUNDATION
FOR MY FUTURE WORK IN LABS."
“My summer research project pushed me to
learn Python, a computer programming language,
in order to identify various bacteria
based on their genetic fragments in the blood
and cerebral spinal fluid of neonates,” he said.
He feels his biology coursework adequately
prepared him for this challenge. “This computational
analysis was only possible with an understanding
of molecular and cellular biology
that I learned in classes like BIOL 110H with
Dr. Steve Schaeffer and BIOL 230M with Dr.
Kimberly Nelson.”
Mandel conducted lab research with Leslie
Parent and shadowed physician Kathleen Julian,
both experts in infectious disease. Infectious
disease was a new area for her.
“I had never been exposed to this field of
medicine, and it was incredible to learn about
several new infectious diseases every week and
watch a well-regarded physician care for her patients
with the utmost respect and expertise,”
she said.
For Mandel, this experience was life changing:
“I had not previously worked in a laboratory,
so I was unsure of what to expect. At summer’s
end, I left Hershey knowing how to work
efficiently in a laboratory, and now understand
the importance of quantitation and consistency.”
She began an undergraduate research position
in the lab of Melissa Rolls this fall as a
result of her experiences. “Having this experience
under my belt has provided the foundation
for my future work in labs.”
Sullivan worked in Robert Levenson’s pharmacology
lab while shadowing family and community
medicine physician Dennis Gingrich.
She learned many new techniques in Levenson’s
neuropharmacology lab that she
wouldn’t have had the opportunity to learn
in the neurodevelopmental disease lab she
works in at the University Park campus (she
works in the lab of Santhosh Girirajan). “I
was really excited to learn all these biochemical
techniques because my laboratory back at UP
doesn’t work with any of these techniques.”
The experience has been great for her as she
considers a future career in medicine, either on
the research or clinical sides…or both.
“Programs like these are vital to a student’s
Penn State career because they offer direct experiences
that influence a future career and focus.
Before the program I was really sure that
I loved science and molecular biology, but had
no idea what to do with it. Because of the Penn
State College of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. Summer
Exposure program, I was able to see myself in
three possible career paths—M.D., Ph.D., and
M.D./Ph.D.—all in one summer.” —Whittney
Gould
52 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
53

Student Spotlight
Above&Beyond
Focus on Graduate Students
Unexpected Passion for Science Fuels Genetics
Graduate Student
When genetics graduate student
Elyse Munoz started her college
career, she was a political science
major. But then she took an
anatomy class.
“I took one class, loved it,
and changed my major,” Munoz
said.
Once she decided to pursue
biology instead of political
science and planned to attend
graduate school in that field,
Penn State was an easy choice for Munoz.
“I was really drawn to Penn State, because
the biggest thing that Penn State has to offer,
in my opinion, is a highly collaborative atmosphere,
and that's really missing from a lot of
other universities that I looked at. I thought it
was so cool that there are so many people you
could work with and that everyone wants to
work together.”
This highly collaborative environment allowed
her to conduct research in two labs as
a graduate student. She started in the lab of
Doug Cavener studying beta cell biology as
it is applied to diabetes and insulin resistance.
But that experience taught her that she wanted
to conduct research with more direct application.
That was right about the time Scott Lindner
arrived on campus. Lindner’s research combines
molecular parasitology and structural biology
to study the parasite that causes malaria.
The statistics on malaria are astounding:
more than 627,000 people died from this condition
in 2014, with over 80 percent of those
deaths being children under the age of five.
With an estimated three to four billion people
per year at risk for malaria, Lindner’s research
could have a very positive effect on a lot of lives,
and Munoz connected with that.
“Because he’s a brand-new faculty member,
his work is cutting edge, it’s very exciting. He’s
really pushing the field in directions it hasn’t
been able to go for technical reasons until now.
I’m getting exposed to so many different techniques,”
said Munoz.
As part of the Lindner lab, Munoz is now
focusing her graduate work at Penn State on
the RNA metabolism of the malaria parasite.
“I work on two different RNA binding proteins
that we believe are involved in translational repression.”
The malaria parasite is an interesting research
subject, said Munoz, because of the multiple
stages the parasite moves through: “It has
a stage in humans, which is what we’re mostly
familiar with, and there is also a stage in the
mosquito. That jump from the human host or
mammal host to the mosquito and back and
forth is really critical. There are a lot of things
physiologically happening there.”
Munoz hopes that the Lindner lab’s research
could lead to novel drug targets or the development
of a malaria vaccine, which is an aspect of
this research that she is excited about. “I wanted
to work on something with more application,
where I could see the direct result of my work.”
Her passion for her work has helped her to
win a variety of graduate-level awards, including
the American Society for Microbiology Robert
D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship,
the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences Dissertation
Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and
a Bunton Waller Graduate Award.
The Watkins and Sloan Fellowships and the
Bunton Waller Graduate Award were available
to Munoz as a result of efforts to recognize excellence
achieved by underrepresented scientists.
Munoz is proud to be a Hispanic female
scientist.
“I’m a minority student. I am a woman in science.
I want it to be clear that it doesn’t matter
where you come from, it doesn’t matter what
your race or your color is, you can be successful
in science, and I’d like to think that I’m a pretty
good example of that.”
While Munoz is gaining valuable experience
in the Lindner lab, she’s also sharing her knowledge
to help mentor an undergraduate researcher.
Munoz mentors Amanda Reese, a junior
majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Munoz also speaks to groups of underrepresented
scientists like the Millennium Scholars and
the McNair Scholars to encourage them to pursue
their dreams in science.
It all goes back to the community for Munoz.
The keys to success lie with people working together
and helping each other. “I wouldn’t be as
successful as I am today without amazing mentors,
or the support of Penn State and my fellow
Penn State genetics graduate students.”
—Whittney Gould
54 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
55

Student Spotlight
Natasha Batalha’s Research and Accomplishments are
Out of This World
Chris Li Awarded Air Products Graduate Fellowship
Natasha Batalha, a third-year Ph.D. candidate
in the dual degree Astronomy and Astrobiology
program in the Department of Astronomy
and Astrophysics, is studying all things “astro.”
Batalha’s research with James Kasting, Evan
Pugh University Professor at Penn State, which
is fully funded through an NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship awarded to her during her
second year, focuses on exoplanet studies with
an emphasis on early Martian climate.
“The idea is that there are these stark water
features on the surface of Mars from a few billion
years ago,
but we have no
idea how that is
possible,” said
Batalha. “Mars
today is a cold, dry place with a thin and tenuous
atmosphere. If Mars, early on, had a thick
atmosphere, though, then it’s possible that
greenhouses gases could have helped to keep it
warm over a prolonged period of time. We are
taking atmospheric models and trying to test
this hypothesis of: was Mars really a habitable,
wet place early on in its history?” Batalha’s
work on early Martian climate was recently
published in Icarus.
Batalha was inspired to pursue science at
a young age by Sally Ride, the first American
woman in space, and jokes that her dissertation
is just an extension of her middle school science
fair project. In addition to her work at Penn
State, she has worked with the Space Telescope
Science Institute to characterize planets outside
of our solar system, called exoplanets, with NA-
SA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Batalha said
that she hopes to use the information that they
learn about the chemistry and climate of planets
in our solar system, like Mars, and then apply
this knowledge in the future when we have
more data on these exoplanets.
Although she came from a well-educated family
in Brazil and had a great education herself,
Batalha recognized that the quality of STEM
education is not the same for everyone and that
even students at good schools can fall through
the cracks. She has taken her passion to help
others receive a good education to the next level
as the founder and president of Learn to Be @
Penn State,
a nationwide,
nonprofit organization
with
the mission of
providing free online tutoring to K-12 students
in underserved communities. In just two years,
the organization at Penn State has provided
over 33,000 minutes of tutoring and is the second-ranked
chapter in the nation. Batalha has
also served as the Girl Scout co-chair of the
Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) organization
at Penn State and has organized STEM
workshops for local middle school girls.
Batalha received her bachelor’s degree in
Physics from Cornell University, where she
also continued her lifelong hobby of dancing.
In addition to her NSF fellowship, she was also
awarded the STEM Scholar Graduate Fellowship
during her first year at Penn State. —
Carrie Lewis
"WAS MARS REALLY A HABITABLE, WET
PLACE EARLY ON IN ITS HISTORY?"
Most of the scientific research done at Penn
State University Park is considered basic research,
so opportunities for graduate students to
experience the process of product development
are rare. However, Chris Li, a third-year Ph.D.
candidate in Chemistry, had the opportunity to
do just that this past summer as part of his internship
at Air Products at their headquarters
in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Li is the recipient
of the 2015 Air Products Graduate Fellowship,
which includes the summer internship, as well
as one year of funding.
As part of his
internship, Li
worked on a research
and development
team
at Air Products making a formulation for metal
etching. “Basically, we were mixing chemical A
and chemical B trying to make a formulation
for etching targeted metal on printed circuit
boards, which have layers and layers of different
metals stacked together. I was involved in
making that and then characterizing it with
electrochemistry,” said Li. Although the process
of metal etching was new to Li, electrochemistry
is something he knows very well, so he was
able to teach others on his team how to use it as
a characterization tool.
Li’s internship was not his first experience
in industry research. After graduating from
the University of California, Davis, with a
bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, he
worked as a staff engineer at SiGNA Chemistry,
Inc. on a team that designed and built a portable
hydrogen storage battery that, when paired
with a fuel cell, can provide portable electricity
"ELECTROCHEMISTRY IS SOMETHING
HE KNOWS VERY WELL..."
at remote locations for small electronics like cell
phones and laptops. As part of this team, Li was
able to see a product go on the market that had
phenomenal performance, but he wanted to be
able to understand how it worked in terms of the
structure of the reactions that were occurring.
It was then that he decided to pursue a graduate
degree in chemistry to combine his engineering
skills with understanding the fundamentals of
physical science.
As a member of Dr. Tom Mallouk’s lab, Li
works on designing energy application related
materials, such
as sodium ion
batteries. Chris
studies the diffusion
coefficient of
sodium ions using a technique called impedance
spectroscopy, an electrochemical technique that
he uses to probe a series of different structures
of cathode material and compare the diffusion
coefficients to get a structure-property relationship.
The goal is to design a next-generation
sodium ion battery with a faster diffusion coefficient
that will make the batteries cheaper and
just as fast, if not faster, than the lithium ion
batteries we use today.
Outside the lab, Li is an avid runner, running
seven marathons and one ironman race since he
began running about four years ago. The time
management and discipline skills required for
this type of running, as well as earning a Ph.D.,
are ones that he learned as an undergraduate
student as he worked all four years to pay for his
own tuition and expenses. Li is the first member
of his family to obtain a college degree and attend
graduate school.
—Carrie Lewis
56 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
57

Alumni
News
Weinreb Family Endows Early Career
Professorship
Penn State Chemistry Professor Steven M.
Weinreb and his wife, Nancy, have endowed
the Weinreb Family Early Career Professorship
in the Eberly College of Science to support
promising young faculty members in the Department
of Chemistry.
“Our goal in establishing the professorship is
to help the Department of Chemistry to support
bright, young, faculty members at the very start
of their teaching and research careers,” Steven
Weinreb said. “We want to help assure that
Penn State will have scientists, scholars, and
educators with the greatest potential to contribute
to our students, to our University, and to
our world.”
Steven and Nancy have been part of the Penn
State community for more than 30 years, beginning
in 1978 when Steven, now the Russell and
Mildred Marker Professor of Natural Products
Chemistry, first became a faculty member in the
Department of Chemistry. Steven’s leadership
positions at Penn State include serving as both
department head and interim dean of the Eberly
College of Science in the mid-1990s.
Nancy worked for many years as a library
assistant with Penn State’s University Libraries.
Now active as a volunteer in the community,
she serves as head docent at the Palmer
Museum, vice-president and secretary of the
Schlow Library Foundation, and an active member
of the American Association of University
Women (AAUW). The Weinreb’s sons, Paul and
Michael, are Penn State alumni, and daughterin-law
Carolyn earned her Ph.D. degree at Penn
State.
The Weinrebs took advantage of the University's
Faculty Endowment Challenge—a giftmatching
program in which Penn State pays
one-third of the cost of endowing a faculty position.
“After being with the University for so
long, and now having this opportunity to enhance
our gift with matching funds from Penn
State, Nancy and I felt now was the right time
to give back,” Steven said.
Early Career Professorships rotate every
three years to a new recipient in the first ten
years of his or her academic career, providing
seed money for innovative research projects and
flexible funding for new approaches to teaching.
The endowments typically require a minimum
commitment of $500,000, but through the Faculty
Endowment Challenge, donors may establish
new Early Career Professorships for any
of the University’s colleges or campuses with a
commitment of $334,000. The University will
commit the remaining one-third of the necessary
funds, approximately $166,000, from unrestricted
endowment resources, ensuring support
for rising faculty stars.
Eberly College of Science
Welcomes Joyce Matthews,
Senior Director of Development
Penn State’s alumni and friends are invaluable
partners in fulfilling the University’s
land-grant mission of education, research, and
service. Private gifts from alumni and friends
enrich the experiences of students both in and
out of the classroom; expand the research and
teaching capacity of our faculty; enhance the
University’s ability to recruit and retain top
students and faculty; and help to ensure that
students from every economic background have
access to a Penn State education. The University’s
colleges and campuses are now enlisting
the support of alumni and friends to advance
a range of unit-specific initiatives. —Brenda
Lucas
Joyce Matthews assumed her new role as senior director of development for
the Eberly College of Science in October. Matthews brings fifteen years of
professional success in fundraising, the last five years of which were with Penn
State’s College of Information, Sciences, and Technology. She has been a
Penn State employee for twenty-eight years. Under her guidance, the IST team
exceeded their For the Future campaign goal well in advance of the campaign
closing. Matthews looks forward to bringing this same success to the Eberly
College of Science.
Matthews holds a bachelor’s degree from Shippensburg University in Public
Relations/Journalism and master’s degree in Counselor Education with an
emphasis on student personnel from Penn State.
58 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
59

Alumni News
Five Honored with Penn State’s
Outstanding Science Alumni Award
The Penn State University Eberly College of
Science has selected five alumni to be honored
with the Outstanding Science Alumni Award
for 2015. The Board of Directors of the Eberly
College of Science Alumni Society established
this award to recognize alumni who have a record
of significant professional achievements in
their field and who are outstanding role models
for students in the college. Receiving this award
are:
Donna Bortner, ’84 B.S. Microbiology
Alexa Dembek, ’91 Ph.D. Chemistry
Sudhir Kumar, ’96, Ph.D. Genetics
Caryl Russo Singer, ’82 B.S. Biology
Larry Travis, ’71 Ph.D. Astronomy
Donna Bortner is the chief executive officer
at TransViragen, Inc, a company she cofounded
in 2009. TransViragen focuses on the
generation and analysis of genetically modified
cell lines and animal models for scientific research.
The company provides a variety of custom
services to a growing list of clients in the
government, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and
academic sectors.
Prior to establishing TransViragen, Bortner
worked for nearly twenty years in the pharmaceutical
industry at GlaxoSmithKline. She
joined GlaxoSmithKline as a postdoctoral fellow
in the pharmacology department, where her
research entailed the development of animal
models to study mechanisms of cancer relevant
to human disease. She went on to hold positions
of increasing responsibility in the research division,
most recently as the head of the company’s
transgenics, viral-vectors, and sequencing operations
in the United States. In this position,
she led a team of scientists in research efforts
focused on the development and application of
genomic technologies to drug discovery and development,
with particular emphasis on genetically
modified rodent models. She also served
as the chair of the institutional-biosafety and
animal-welfare committees.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in
microbiology with honors and high distinction
from Penn State in 1984, she worked at the National
Animal Disease Center until 1987. She
went on to earn a doctoral degree in 1992 in Microbiology
and Immunology at Duke University,
where she was a National Science Foundation
graduate fellow.
Alexa Dembek is the director of Central
Research and Development at DuPont. She is
responsible for the development of opportunities
involving transformational emerging science.
Dembek joined DuPont in 1991 as a research
chemist. In 1995, she took the position of tech-
nical manager at DuPont Protection Technologies.
As her career progressed, she assumed
roles that spanned a range of areas, including
supply chain, operations, sales, marketing, and
business leadership.
In 2005, Dembek was assigned leadership
roles in DuPont Building Innovations, first as
a commercial business segment manager and
later as the North American marketing manager.
In 2006, she transferred to DuPont Performance
Polymers. In 2011, she was appointed
the regional director of the Americas region.
Most recently, Dembek was named the global
business director for Dupont’s cross-business
Energy Storage venture.
Dembek holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry
from Northern Illinois University. She completed
her Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 1991 at
Penn State.
Sudhir Kumar is the Laura H. Carnell Professor
and the director of the Institute for Genomics
and Evolutionary Medicine at Temple
University.
Kumar has developed new methods and algorithms
for big data, and has translated them
into widely used software packages and knowledge
bases, such as MEGA and TimeTree. He
uses integrative and comparative approaches to
make fundamental discoveries in the fields of
molecular evolution, functional genomics, and
biomedicine.
Kumar’s research has been cited more than
90,000 times. One of his scientific articles was
included in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science
top-100 most-cited papers of all time and
designated the top article of the decade by the
Scopus database of peer-reviewed literature.
He received an Innovation Award in Functional
Genomics from the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund
in 2000 and is a fellow of American Association
for the Advancement of Science.
In 1998, Kumar joined the Arizona State University
as an assistant professor and became the
Regents Professor in 2012. Kumar joined Temple
University in 2014 as the founding director
of the Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary
Medicine, a hub for transdisciplinary research
in medicine, informatics, and molecular evolution.
Kumar received his bachelor’s degree in electrical
and electronics engineering and master’s
degree in biology from the Birla Institute
of Technology & Science in India in 1990. He
completed his Ph.D. degree in genetics at Penn
State in 1996.
Caryl Russo Singer is the senior vice president
for Barnabas Health Corporate Care, a division
of Barnabas Health, the largest healthcare
system in New Jersey. Russo is responsible
for the workers’ compensation program and employee
health services for Barnabas Health and
its more than 22,000 employees. Russo is responsible
for the occupational-medicine services
offered through Barnabas Health Corporate
Care in six sites located throughout New Jersey.
Prior to joining Barnabas Health, Russo was
the director of marketing and communications
for First Option Health Plan, a healthcare insurance
provider in New Jersey. Additionally,
Russo was the director of strategic communications
for Enzon, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology
company.
Russo is active with numerous business and
civic organizations including the New Jersey
Self Insured Association and the Monmouth-
Ocean Development Council. She also serves
as a member of the Eberly College of Science
Biotechnology Advisory Board, the Delta Dental
Foundation Board of Directors, and the New
Jersey Chapter Board of Directors of the Arthritis
Foundation.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in
60 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
61

Alumni News
Snapshot of Philanthropy –
Funding the Future of Penn State Science
biology from Penn State in 1982, Russo received
her master’s degree from Georgetown University
and a Ph.D. in business administration from
Case Western Reserve University.
Larry Travis is a National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) emeritus
researcher at the Goddard Institute for Space
Studies (GISS) in the Earth Sciences Division
of the Science and Exploration Directorate.
Travis served as associate chief at (GISS) from
1987 until his retirement in May 2015.
Travis joined GISS in 1978. He served as
principal investigator for the Cloud Photopolarimeter
Instrument on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter
Mission and as co-investigator for the Photopolarimeter/Radiometer
Instrument on the
Galileo Orbiter Mission.
2015 All Science Tailgate
Thanks to all the science alumni and guests who braved the weather!
Travis’s research interests include exploration
of planetary atmospheres, spacecraft design,
and theoretical physics for explaining the
transfer of energy in the form of electromagnetic
radiation.
He is a member of the American Astronomical
Society, the American Geophysical Union,
and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science. Travis received the NASA Exceptional
Scientific Achievement Medal in 1980.
Travis graduated with bachelor’s degrees
with distinction in astronomy and mathematics
in 1965 and earned his master’s degree in
astronomy in 1967 at the University of Iowa.
He received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Penn
State in 1971. —Joslyn Neiderer
“Thank you to all of the staff who worked so that the All Science Tailgate could go on despite the
uncooperative weather. My family (husband, sons, and in-laws) had a great time and enjoyed
seeing the baseball field while enjoying lunch. My son is still enjoying his ‘science experiment.’
Thanks for all of the work you all do for PSU alumni. Go Lions!”
Cindy Schadder Kowalski, ’94 Premedicine
“I just wanted to say thank you for the great Saturday morning get-together. Although the weather
was a bit rough, it was a very nice time. The students I met and talked to are examples of the
great job the Eberly College of Science continues to do.”
Christopher J. Kardohely, DPM CDR MSC USN, ’85 Biology
Thank you to the alumni and friends who have committed funds for
scholarships to benefit students in the Eberly College of Science.
Below are gifts received between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015.
Meredith M. Gee
Scholarship in Science
(Non-Endowed)
Established by: Meredith Gee
(’79 B.S. CMPSC; ’85 M.S.
CMPSC)
Amount: $12,500
Purpose: Provide recognition
and financial assistance to
outstanding undergraduate
students enrolled in or
planning to enroll in the
Eberly College of Science at
Penn State University Park
who have a demonstrated
need for funds to meet their
necessary college expenses.
Paul Berg and Daniel J.
Larson Distinguished
Graduate Fellowship
in the Eberly College of
Science
Established by: Paul (’48
B.S. Ag & Bio Chemistry;
’95 Honorary Ph.D. Sci) and
Mildred Berg
Amount: $250,000
Purpose: Encourage the
establishment of endowments
to provide support for
academic excellence for
graduate students. This
fellowship shall recruit and
recognize outstanding first
year doctoral students who
exhibit academic excellence
and who plan to enroll in
The Pennsylvania State
University in a Ph.D.
program offered in the Eberly
College of Science
Weinreb Family Early
Career Professorship
Established by: Steven and
Nancy Weinreb
Amount: $334,000
Purpose: Ensure that the
University can compete for
the scientists, scholars, and
educators with the greatest
potential to contribute to our
institution, our students, and
our world.
Lee and Brenda
Heikkinen Trustee
Scholarship in the Eberly
College of Science
Established by: Lee (’71 Sci)
and Brenda Heikkinen
Amount: $100,000
Purpose: Provide financial
assistance to undergraduate
students enrolled or
planning to enroll in the
Eberly College of Science
at The Pennsylvania State
University who have a
demonstrated need for funds
to meet their necessary
college expenses.
Verne M. Willaman
Professorship in Science
VII
Established by: Estate of
Verne M. Willlaman (’51 AB
CH)
Amount: $1,000,000
Purpose: Supplement
departmental support for
outstanding University
faculty in the Eberly College
of Science in order to provide
a holder of the professorship
with the resources necessary
to continue and further
the scholar's contributions
to teaching, research, and
public service.
John Krapcho Memorial
Scholarship in the
Chemistry Department
Established by: A. Paul (’53
B.S. Chem) and Arlene F.
Krapcho
Amount: $50,000
Purpose: Provide recognition
and financial assistance to
outstanding undergraduate
students enrolled or
planning to enroll in the
Eberly College of Science,
or successor academic unit,
at The Pennsylvania State
University who are majoring
in or planning to major in
Chemistry, or successor
degree program, and who
have a demonstrated need for
funds to meet their necessary
college expenses.
J. Keith Ord Scholarship
in Statistics
Established by: Daniel A.
(’85 M.S. Stat) and Diane E.
Griffith
Amount: $100,000
Purpose: Provide
recognition and financial
assistance to outstanding
graduate students who
have been admitted to
The Pennsylvania State
University as candidates for a
graduate degree in Statistics,
or successor degree program.
Sinha Family Trustee
Scholarship in the Eberly
College of Science
Established by: Raj K. Sinha
(’87 B.S. Sci)
Amount: $100,000
Purpose: Provide financial
assistance to undergraduate
students enrolled or
planning to enroll in the
Eberly College of Science
at The Pennsylvania State
University who have a
demonstrated need for funds
to meet their necessary
college expenses.
Daniel J. Larson and
Tanya Furman Larson
International Travel
Endowment in the Eberly
College of Science
Established by: Daniel
Larson and Tanya Furman
and numerous alumni and
colleagues
Amount: $59,000
Purpose: Enrich the Eberly
College of Science at
The Pennsylvania State
University by providing
monies for international
travel for graduate and
undergraduate students.
Ronald and Susan
Friedman Endowment
Established by: Ronald M.
and Susan Comet Friedman
Amount: $50,000
Purpose: Enrich the Eberly
College of Science at
The Pennsylvania State
University by providing
unrestricted support to the
Department of Astronomy
and Astrophysics, or
successor department(s).
Peter Craig Breen
Memorial Award
for Excellence in
Undergraduate Chemistry
Research
Established by: Kevin J.
Breen (’78 B.S. EMS; ’82
M.S. EMS) and Renee
Romberger Breen (’80 B.S.
GN AG; ’82 M.S. FD SC)
Amount: $20,000
Purpose: Recognize
undergraduate students
enrolled in the Eberly
College of Science at
The Pennsylvania State
University who are majoring
in or planning to major in
Chemistry and who have
demonstrated excellence
in academics and research
focused in chemistry.
Department of Chemistry
Program Endowment in
Honor of Norman Deno
Established by: Edward
(’70 Ph.D. Chem) and Carol
Billups
Amount: $25,000
Purpose: Support and
enhance programs and
activities in the Department
of Chemistry in the Eberly
College of Science at
The Pennsylvania State
University.
62 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
63

Alumni News
Three Faculty Honored with
2015 C.I. Noll Awards
The Eberly College of Science is proud to announce
another induction into The C. I. Noll
Award list. This award is important within the
college because it offers students the opportunity
to evaluate faculty members in a positive
manner. Recipients are not selected solely on the
number of votes received. Instead, the content of
the nominations is greatly considered. The C. I.
Noll Award recognizes faculty who have taken
a special interest in students and who, through
interactions with the students, have had a positive
impact upon them. The selections were reviewed
by the Science LionPride Awards Committee,
the college’s student ambassador group.
For the first time in the history of awarding
the C. I. Noll Award, two professors will receive
joint recognition in the tenured category. Drs.
Sarah Ades and Kenneth Keiler are both assistant
professors of biochemistry and molecular
biology, and were honored as a team because
of their collaboration on the development, implementation,
and assessment of Microbiology 202
and BMB 488. Microbiology 202 had been
taught with little modification for 20 years. Drs.
Ades and Keiler transformed this course by
challenging students to formulate questions and
design experiments to learn about the world
around them, such as how the environment affects
disease to isolating bacteria and bacterophages
from their own skin to test how they interact.
Sections of BMB 488 are also organized
around research questions but shared by several
independent labs. Students perform individual
research and then meet in a weekly seminar
to cover the skills that are important for being a
scientist like how to read a scientific paper, how
to present data and how public policy impacts
science. Drs. Ades and Keiler are committed to
improving science education and they frequently
share their teaching approaches with other
faculty at Penn State and beyond the University.
Dr. Sarah Ades joined
the faculty at Penn State
in 2002 and is the recipeint
of a Faculty Early Career
Development Award from
the National Science Foundation.
Ades also received
a Tombros Faculty Fellowship
from the Center for Excellence in Science
Education in 2012, and the Tershak Teaching
Award from the Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology in 2014.
Research in her laboratory seeks to explain
the fundamental biology of cell-envelope sensing
systems and then to develop methods to identify
small molecule inhibitors of key pathways that
can serve as lead compounds for antibiotic development
and tools for basic research.
Prior to arriving at Penn State, Ades pursued
postdoctoral work at the University of California
at San Francisco and the Institute of Genetics
and Molecular and Cellular Biology in
Illkirch, France. She received her bachelor’s degree
in molecular biophysics and biochemistry
from Yale University and her Ph.D. in biology
from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Kenneth Keiler’s
research focuses on how
cells make protein, particularly
under stressful
conditions. He discovered
and characterized a protein
quality control system
that is found in all bacteria
and is required for growth or virulence in many
pathogens. His goal is to understand the fundamental
biochemistry, genetics, and cell biology
of this system and related pathways, and to use
this knowledge to develop antibiotics and tools
for basic research.
Keiler also received a Tombros Faculty Fellowship
from the Center for Excellence in Science
Education in 2012, and a Tershak Teaching
Award from the Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology in 2014. He earned his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford
University and his Ph.D. from The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology with post-doctoral
fellowships at Stanford University and the Institute
of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular
Biology in Ilkirch, France.
Dr. Meredith Defelice
is currently the director of
curricular affairs and a senior
lecturer in the Department
of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology and was
the winner of the C.I. Noll
non-tenured faculty award.
She is an alumnus of the National Institutes of
Health (NIH)-funded SPIRE postdoctoral program
at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received
training and experience in both research and
pedagogy.
Defelice came to Penn State in 2010, and
since that time she has won teaching awards
at the department level, the Paul M. Althouse
Teaching Award, as well as the highest award
for teaching excellence at the university level,
the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence
in Teaching. She has taught a variety of classes
including large lecture classes, lab classes, and
smaller elective classes. In her classes, Defelice
has developed curriculum that incorporates active
learning as well as peer instruction.
As part of her responsibilities, Defelice also
coordinates the undergraduate learning assistants
program for the BMB department and has
trained the assistants to facilitate deeper discussions
among small groups of students. During
the summers, she is involved in outreach
teaching as part of the Crime Scene Investigators
Science-U summer camp through the Office
of Science Outreach. She is currently a board
member of the Penn State Eberly College of Science
Center for Excellence in Science Education,
and was a 2013-2014 Center for Excellence
in Science Education Fellow.
64 Penn State Eberly College of Science SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015
65

Alumni News
2015
Millennium Society
Friends supporting science education, research and public service
Anonymous
Ray and Mary Evert
Anonymous
Gordon G. and Miriam Olander Fee
Donald Donald and Nancy and Nancy Abraham Abraham Gordon Maria G. Finn and Miriam Olander Fee
Harry Harry and and Noreen Noreen Allcock Allcock
Maria Barrett FinnC. and Luanne Breuer Fisher
John D. Alvarez
Neal and Phyllis Flomenberg
John Arthur D. Alvarez K. and Anne Gjesdahl Anderson Barrett Ronald C. and Susan Luanne Friedman Breuer Fisher
Arthur Jill K. Grashof and Anne Anderson Gjesdahl and Anderson Sydney H. Neal Edward and Phyllis M. Frymoyer Flomenberg
Brown
Charles G. and Ann M. Garlisi
Jill Grashof Anderson and
Ronald and Susan Friedman
George E. and Joy Andrews
Meredith Gee and Gareth Morrell
Jane Sydney L. Apple H. Brown
Edward D. David M. and Frymoyer Laura George
George Kenneth E. and R. Joy and Andrews Jennifer Arthur Charles Bruce G. L. and Diane Ann M. Gewertz Garlisi
Jeanne Atlas
Patrick L. Gianopoulos
Jane Joy L. Apple D. Atwell
Meredith Barrett E. Gee and and Michele Gareth A. Morrell Giffel
Kenneth Hee R. Chan and Bae Jennifer Arthur
D. Kathryn David and E. Glas Laura George
William C. and Christie Heritage Baird Jr. Stacey L. Gleeson
Jeanne Douglas Atlasand Susan Nitschke- Balog Bruce Joshua L. and and Diane Brooke Gewertz Goldberg
Joy D. James Atwell Balog and Alvina Bartos Balog Patrick Kolin Good L. Gianopoulos
Catherine Beath
Howard R. and Nancy P. Gordon
Hee Chan Bae
Barrett E. and Michele A. Giffel
Scott D. Beattie
Katherine Goto
William Thomas C. and P. Bem
Kathryn Rodger E. and Glas Agnes Granlund
Jeffrey Christie L. and Heritage Lorie Baird J. Benovic Jr.
Stacey Daniel L. and Gleeson Diane Griffith
Paul and Mildred Berg
Grant R. Grissom
Douglas George and E. Susan Bergey Nitschke- Balog Joshua Cada and R. and Brooke Susan Goldberg Wynn Grove
James Stephen Balog and Nancy Alvina Bartos BermanBalog
Kolin Andrew GoodP. Hackett
William and Barbara Bickel
Jeffrey W. Hamilton
Catherine Wilbur Beath E. and Carol S. Billups
Howard Marcus R. C. and and Nancy Cheryl P. L. Gordon McGrady
Scott Carolyn D. Beattie and W. Gerald* Blaney Katherine Hansen Goto
Zenas Boone*
Susan Houck and Paul E. Hardin
Thomas P. Bem
Rodger and Agnes Granlund
Rodney Boorse
Robert and Terri Harrison
Jeffrey Erik L. and and Cynthia Lorie J. Bradley Benovic
Daniel Dennis and L. Diane Headings Griffith and Virginia Lee
Paul Carter and Mildred Brooks Berg
Grant Corson R. Grissom
Stephen Korzeniowski and Deborah G. James and Diane Heald
George Brzezinski E. Bergey
Cada Alexandra R. and Susan H. and Wynn Paul Heerdt Grove
Stephen Frank and Burstein* Nancy Berman
Andrew Lee and P. Hackett Brenda Heikkinen
John W. and Susan M. Byrne
Kenneth W. Herko
William and Barbara Bickel
H. Neil Carlson
Jeffrey John W. A. Herritt Hamilton
Wilbur Douglas E. and R. Carol and Lan S. Billups Cavener Marcus William C. E. and Elsa K. Hoke
Carolyn Ta-Kung and W. Chen Gerald* Blaney
Michael Cheryl Holbert L. McGrady Hansen
Vernon and Jolene Chinchilli
Mitchell and Charity Holland
Zenas Robert Boone* A. and Lorraine Stankiewicz Susan J. Lloyd* Houck and and Dorothy Paul E. Foehr Hardin Huck*
Rodney Clare Boorse
Robert Philip and Inskeep Terri Harrison
Anita Collins
Konanur Janardan
Erik Mark and Cynthia S. and Deborah Bradley A. Connolly Dennis William L. D. Headings and Sally and Cunningham
Carter John Brooks G. and Janet M. Connor
Johnson Virginia Lee Corson
Bruce and Jackie Davey
David G. and and Susan M. Jones
Stephen Korzeniowski and
James and Diane Heald
Robert T. and Cheryl Russman Davis Boris V. Kalan and Victoria V.
Manfred Deborah Denker G. Brzezinski
Alexandra Sadovskaya H. and Paul Heerdt
Frank Mary Burstein* E. DeVries
Lee Karen and Brenda A. Kalinyak Heikkinen
John M. and Jane M. Dick
Daniel A. and Megan Clements
John Jack W. and and Susan Pauline M. Dickstein Byrne
Kenneth Kapinos W. Herko
H. Neil David Carlson and I. Michelle Diehl
John Lech A. Karubin Herritt
Eugene and Betty Dirk
Steven R. Katchur
Douglas Brian R. G. and and Lan Karen Cavener Marcavage Dixon William Andrea E. C. and Kay Elsa K. Hoke
Ta-Kung Jo Dixon Chen
Michael Eric and Holbert Tara Keiter
Suzanne R. Dubnicka and Louis M. Edwin C. Kellam III
Vernon and Jolene Chinchilli
Mitchell and Charity Holland
Wojcinski
Karen E. and Matthew S. Keller
Robert John A. W. and Dudley and Andee Aaby J. Richard Lloyd* and Dorothy Rebecca Foehr Kemmerer Huck*
Robert Lorraine Duminiak Stankiewicz Clare Philip Stuart Inskeep M. and Toni Kipilman
E. Ruth Dunning*
Robert C. Kline
Anita Christopher Collins R. Dyckman and Susan Konanur Karen Kmetik Janardan
Mark Scotto S. and Deborah A. Connolly William Robert D. M. and and Maureen Knabb
Michael C. Eaton
George M. Kosco
John Timothy G. and H. Janet Eisaman M. Connor and Johnnie L. Robert Sally A. Cunningham and Nancy K. Johnson Krall
Bruce Morgan and Jackie Davey
David Janet G. and Brian and Susan Kramer M. Jones
Edmund and Josephine Elder
Diane Krusko
Robert T. and Cheryl Russman Davis Boris V. Kalan and
Christine N. Elia and Edwin C. Kellam III Douglas M. and Jean Langietti LaBoda
Manfred Robert Denker and Ann Emery
Tanya Victoria Furman V. Sadovskaya
and Daniel J. Larson
Mary Ned E. DeVries and Kathie L. Enea
Karen Stuart A. R. Kalinyak and Karen Goldsmith Lessin
Kurt and Kelly Engleman
Richard and Patricia Neidig Lewis
John Ray M. and Mary Jane M. Evert Dick
Daniel Bruce A. K. and Lloyd
Jack and Pauline Dickstein
Megan Clements Kapinos
David
66
and I. Michelle Diehl
Lech Karubin
Eugene and Betty Dirk
Steven R. Katchur
Brian G. and Karen Marcavage Dixon Andrea C. Kay
William E. Logan
Keith V. and Sharon Fellin Rohrbach
William E. Logan
John F. and Margaret O. Robison
Harold G. and Robin U. Loomis
Keith Albert V. and J. Romanosky
Sharon Fellin Rohrbach
Stephen H. and Katherine A. Mahle
Albert James J. L. Romanosky and Gloria H. Rosenberger
Beverly E. Maleeff
James L. and Gloria H. Rosenberger
Beverly John and E. Gloria Maleeff Malone
Gregory Gregory M. M. Roszyk Roszyk and and Marnie Salisbury
John Louise and Mapstone Gloria Malone
Benjamin Marnie RoterSalisbury
Martarano
Edward M. and Janis Saylor
Louise Mapstone
Dean F. and Barbara B. Martin
Michael Benjamin J. Scheel Roter
Louis John R. Martarano Mashey and Angela M. Hey Joellen Edward Schildkraut M. and Janis and Saylor Brian Annex
Dean David F. G. and and Barbara Kathy Maskalick B. Martin
Lynda Michael Schneider J. Scheel
Steven D. and Heather A. Maslowski Stuart F. and Anne W. Seides
John Joyce R. and Mashey Charles and Mathues Angela M. Hey Kenneth Joellen Shaffer Schildkraut and Brian Annex
David Brian E. G. and Stacy Kathy L. Maskalick Mattioni
Eric Lynda SheaSchneider
Joseph J. and Suzanne H. Matunis William L. Sheats
Steven Beth A. D. Maxwell and Heather A. Maslowski J. Stuart Francis F. Shigley and Anne W. Seides
Joyce Richard and P. and Charles Lois Mathues Shiring McClain Allan Kenneth W. and Shaffer Kathleen A. Silberman
Steven M. and Sheryl L. McCrystal Richard B. and Barbara Kesner
Brian E. and Stacy L. Mattioni
Eric Shea
Richard H. McKee
Silverman
Joseph John E. J. and and Eleanor Suzanne P. McManigle H. Matunis Anthony William J. L. and Sheats Heands Johns Silvestri
Beth Edward A. Maxwell A. and Rosemary A. Mebus Donald J. Francis E. Smith Shigley
Elaine Bova Megonnell
Dwight M. and Elfi Smith
Richard Timothy P. F. and Theresa Lois Shiring M. Merkel McClain Wilbur Allan L. W. and and Flossie Kathleen Vereen A. Silberman Smith
Steven Allen E. M. and and Elizabeth Sheryl B. L. Meyer McCrystal Wendy Richard Hansen B. and Souther
Joseph A. Miller and Rachel C. Wood Theodore I. and Carol Steinman
Richard George H. H. Millman McKee
Erland P. Barbara and Ellen Kesner Mills Stevens Silverman
John Robert E. D. and and Eleanor Barbara P. McManigle
F. Minard
Mary Anthony A. Stiles J. and Heands Johns Silvestri
David R. Mizner
Donald W. Strickler
Edward A. and Rosemary A. Mebus Donald E. Smith
J. Patrick and Joanne Mooney
Donald R. and Barbara Orvis Strobach
Elaine Timothy Bova H. Eisaman Megonnell and Johnnie L. George Dwight Struble M. and Elfi Smith
Timothy Morgan F. and Theresa M. Merkel Carl Wilbur Suffredini L. and and Flossie Nancy Vereen DavisSmith
Monica Morrow
Jack F. and Laurie E. Sulger
Allen Robert E. D. and and Elizabeth Virginia B. Mulberger Meyer
Glen Wendy Sutherland Hansen Souther
Joseph Gary L. and A. Miller Beverly and B. Rachel MullenC. Wood Andrew Theodore J. and I. and Carolyn P. Steinman Thomas
Randy C. and Patricia A. Murphy
Julie Timins
George Edward H. B. Millman and Kirsten Ravn Nelson Peter Erland G. and P. and Ann Ellen C. Tombros Mills Stevens
Robert Joseph D. F. Newell and Barbara and Maureen F. Minard
David Mary C. A. and Stiles Karen Brinton Townsend
Essenthier-Newell
Larry D. Travis
David R. Mizner
Donald W. Strickler
Robert L. and Nancy Heyl Nielsen
Wei Tu
J. John Patrick A. and and Mary Joanne M. Nousek Mooney
Thomas Donald Van R. Strobach Winkle and
Timothy Frederick H. and Eisaman Florence and Oberender John G. Barbara and Barbara Orvis D. Strobach Vandenbergh
Harold C. and Nancy M. O'Connor David J. and Lydia B. Vandenbergh
Joseph Johnnie V. and L. Joan Morgan L. Olivia
Harry George Veale Struble
Monica Keith M. Morrow Olivia
Ronald Carl Suffredini D. and Michelle and Nancy A. Sincard Davis
Roy A. Olofson
Venezie
Robert D. and Virginia Mulberger
Virginia M. Olson
Winston Jack F. Walker and Laurie E. Sulger
Gary Philip L. C. and Beverly Shelly Ovadia B. Mullen
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Randy Donald C. and and Barbara Patricia Rochelle A. Murphy Owens James Andrew W. Webb J. and Carolyn P. Thomas
Lewis E. and Janice L. Patterson
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Edward Thomas B. A. and Pavlosky Kirsten Ravn Nelson Michael Julie Timins P. Weiner and Camille M.
Joseph John M. F. Pearl Newell and
Solbrig Peter G. and Ann C. Tombros
Margaret and Jeffrey Peck
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Nicholas Maureen and Gelsa Essenthier-Newell
Pelick
Peter David Weiss C. and Karen Brinton Townsend
Robert Eric and L. Seema and Nancy Peterson Heyl Nielsen Dennis Larry and D. Travis Susan Wendt
Eva Petkova
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Frederick Eric N. and and Bonnie Florence S. Prystowsky Oberender Fletcher Thomas D. Van and Winkle Ann Hottel Wicker
Harold Linda J. C. Pursell and Nancy M. O’Connor Verne John M. G. Willaman* and Barbara D. Vandenbergh
MaryAnne Rasmussen
Donna Wolk
Joseph Heather V. L. and Rayle Joan and L. Hillard Olivia I. Silman Sarah David D. J. Wright and Lydia and Gary B. Vandenbergh
J. Jones
Keith Suzanne M. Olivia Reich
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Virginia Brian E. Reiter M. Olson
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Andrej J. Zajac
Philip C. Shelly Ovadia
Winston Walker
Andrea J. Rhodes and Frederick G. Gary S. and Debra Zander
Donald Gluck and Barbara Rochelle Owens Jun Louise Zhong Wartik
Lewis F. Matthew E. and and Janice Edan L. Rhodes Patterson
Theodore James W. L. and WebbNancy Ziff
Richard W. Robinett and Sarah Q.
Thomas Malone A. Pavlosky
Owen W. and Anna M. Webster
John M. Pearl
Michael P. Weiner and
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Steven M. and Nancy V. Weinreb
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