Alumnus Magazine | Summer 2020

Discoveries
Daniel Carruth, associate director for advanced vehicle systems at MSU’s Center for
Advanced Vehicular Systems, is part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization research task
group examining autonomous vehicle modeling and simulation tools. The group will
work through 2023 to determine standards for modeling and simulation tools, allowing
military and research personnel to more effectively develop algorithms that will allow
autonomous vehicles to navigate off-road and unknown terrain.
Ben Crider, an assistant professor of physics, is working
to advance his nuclear physics research and provide a
new summer school experience for Mississippi students
with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study is funded
with support from his National Science Foundation
Career Grant of more than $600,000.
Shawn P. Lambert, assistant professor in MSU’s
Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern
Cultures and research fellow at the Cobb Institute of
Archaeology, is partnering with researchers from the
Southern Arkansas University Research Station of the
Arkansas Archeological Survey and Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville seeking to combat sexual harassment during
archaeological field studies. The collaboration was awarded $300,000
from the National Science Foundation in support of research aimed at
preventing sexual harassment during undergraduate field-based courses.
Michael R. Nadorff, associate professor of psychology
and director of the Department of Psychology’s clinical
Ph.D. program, received nearly $1 million in federal
grant funds to prevent alcohol and tobacco addiction
in Oktibbeha County and prevent suicide among
college students.
K. Raja Reddy, research professor in the Department
of Plant and Soil Sciences, was honored by the
Mississippi Academy of Sciences for three decades
of scientific discoveries with the organization’s
Outstanding Contribution to Science Award.
Mark Woodrey, assistant research professor in MSU’s Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry
Experiment Station, based at the university’s Coastal Research and Extension Center in
Biloxi, has helped establish and co-lead the Gulf of Mexico Avian Monitoring Network, or
GoMAMN, a new network of more than 100 wildlife scientists and land managers from
across the U.S. to monitor and aid birds along the Gulf of Mexico. The goal of the network
is to better understand the many bird species that frequent the Gulf Coast.
Mississippi State University researchers have patented and licensed a major advancement
in split Hopkinson pressure bar technology, significantly reducing the amount of space
needed for intermediate and high-strain rate testing. While conducting research on infant
head trauma, researchers at MSU’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems needed a way
to conduct impact testing with biological materials. While a traditional Hopkinson bar
system, an apparatus commonly used for testing impact and strain on materials, would
have worked, it would have taken up hundreds of feet in length—space that was not
available at the bustling research center. However, CAVS engineer Wilburn Whittington,
with the support of colleagues Haitham El Kadiri and Hongjoo Rhee, was able to prototype
a serpentine bar that can accomplish the same task in only 20 feet of space.
Jesse Morrison, an assistant research professor, received
the Early Career Award from the American Forage and
Grassland Council. The award honors an individual
under the age of 40 who has made a significant
contribution to the forage and grassland industry.
Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security identified the wood products industry as an essential critical
infrastructure workforce. Mississippi State has the only research program
in the state dedicated to expanding the service and use of wood products,
delivering research to the state’s forest industry—the state’s secondlargest
commodity. While the way the research is being conducted may
have shifted temporarily, MSU researchers ensured the important work
marches on and the university continues supporting vital industries during
the pandemic. Forestry in combination with forest products employs a
workforce of 69,000 individuals in Mississippi across four sectors—logging,
solid wood products, pulp and paper, and wood furniture.
More than $1.3 million was awarded to two Mississippi
State chemistry assistant professors by a prestigious
National Science Foundation program supporting
early-career achievement. Xin Cui and Colleen N. Scott
are being honored with CAREER awards by the NSF’s
Faculty Early Career Development Program, which
recognizes outstanding faculty exhibiting potential as
academic role models in research and education. The
award also is given for leadership in advancement of
departmental or organizational missions.
20 SUMMER 2020
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