College of Sciences E-Newsletter
- Health Care Headliner 2009
- Faculty Promotion and Tenure News
- “Behind the Research: Study of a Model Hot Spring,” Research Channel, Video Library
- National Science Foundation Supplemental Grant
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Race
- Faculty Awards
- “Radiochemistry Program at UNLV,” Las Vegas Sun, April 24, 2009
- “Small beginnings, big hopes: Radiochemistry program spotlights promise of UNLV — as well as obstacles to progress,” Las Vegas Sun, April 27, 2009, by Charlotte Hsu “
- “Comparative Planetology: Investigating Geologic Processes on Earth, Mars, and the Moon,” Friday, May 8, 2009
- Mathematical Sciences Colloquium
- Physics Forum
- Chemistry Seminar
- Science Seminars – Upcoming Presentations
- Submit Your News Items
- Email Subscription
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Joseph “Nick” Nika was selected as a 2009 Health Care Headliner for his educational efforts on behalf of UNLV students and high school students in the region. Nick
teaches a variety of premed courses at UNLV and he administers the preprofessional advising program. His advising work focuses solely on our students interested in careers in medicine, dentistry, and the health professions The UNLV College of Sciences is one of the few schools west of the Mississippi to offer such dedicate advising services to preprofessional students. His tireless and creative work with his students yields impressive results, with UNLV students now entering medical school, dental school, etc. in unprecedented numbers. In addition to enrollments at UNR and Touro, UNLV students are entering the nation’s best medical schools, including programs at Duke, Johns Hopkins, Washington University (St. Louis), and many others. Nick also works with the Clark County School District, speaking regularly to high school students and parents in order to communicate the expectations and requirements for acceptance to UNLV and, subsequently, to medical schools. He hosts recruiters from health science professional schools including admissions officers from medical, dental, pharmacy, veterinary, optometry, and physical therapy programs. During these visits, UNLV students have the opportunity to go meet admissions officers and make a favorable impression prior to entry into the application cycle.
He also coordinates a number of services that allow students to procure all the non-curricular requirements for admission to medical school, dental school, and other programs including clinical experience and community service. He coordinates the local chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED), a pre-health honor society that has both dental and physician shadowing committees. These committees arrange medical and dental shadowing experiences for students, thus affording students the opportunity to acquire clinical experience and secure a letter of recommendation from a healthcare provider in one fell swoop. In addition to this, students need to acquire humanitarian service experience. AED also has a humanitarian service committee that maintains contact with many organizations in the greater Las Vegas Area. Students participate in a number of volunteer functions through AED including but not limited to service with Opportunity Village, Shade Tree, and the Polycistic Kidney Disease Foundation, and the Candle Lighters Foundation. They also work with Habitat for Humanity and assist with building houses for those in need.
Left to Right: EMBARQ’s Sales Manager, Mark Roblee, Nick Nika, and SouthwestUSA Bank Senior Vice President, Mike Di Asio.
Attached is the In Business Las Vegas announcement of Nick Nika as the 2009 health care educator of the year. The College of Sciences is understandably proud of Nick's work and this recognition. Nick joins an impressive list of community leaders in the health care field recognized by In Business for their contributions in education, research, business, medicine, administration, dentistry, emergency services, innovation, community outreach, and volunteer efforts. The announcement and the reception last week are generating important contacts in the business and health care community.
In Business Las Vegas (Power Point)
Faculty Promotion and Tenure News
The College of Sciences is proud to announce the award of tenure, effective July 1, 2009, to the following faculty members:
Michelle Elekonich, School of Life Sciences
Brian Hedlund, School of Life Sciences
Matthew Lachniet, Geoscience Department
Daniel Proga, Physics and Astronomy
The College of Sciences is proud to announce the award of promotion to full professor, effective July 1, 2009, to the following faculty members:
Dennis Bazylinski, School of Life Sciences
Zhongbo Yu, Geoscience Department
Clemens Heske, Chemistry Department
Ebrahim Salehi, Mathematics Department
Executive Vice President and Provost Neal Smatresk commented, "I am pleased with our continuing growth as a research university. This year as I reviewed the recommendations for promotion and tenure the College of Sciences was a real standout. Science faculty in this unit publish extensively, had competitive federal funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and other great federal funding sources, and demonstrated strong teaching achievements - in short they made me proud to be at UNLV. Their achievements set the standard to the rest of the university, and offer great hope for major progress in the sciences here at UNLV.”
“Behind the Research: Study of a Model Hot Spring,” ResearchChannel, Video Library (28 min., 30 sec.)
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=19646&fID=4539
Produced by: The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Executive Producer, Laurel Fruth, August 30, 2007
Description: This program follows microbiologist Brian Hedlund, associate professor in the UNLV School of Life Sciences, on a six-day scientific field trip to northern Nevada and northeastern California. Hedlund and his team are investigating microorganisms that thrive in the geothermally heated region known as the Great Basin. Students and teachers from Pyramid Lake High School on the Northern Pauite Indian Reservation join Hedlund and his team in the field.
Research Channel was founded by a consortium of leading research and academic institutions to share the valuable work of their researchers with the public. Research Channel is now available to nearly 38 million satellite and cable television subscribers and our Web site is visited by 2 million visitors each year. The channel is also available on more than 80 university-and school-based cable systems in the United States and in other countries.
Remarkable speakers, researchers and scholars present revolutionary thoughts and discoveries on ResearchChannel. The University of Michigan, the George Mason University and the National Science Foundation are just a few of the world-renowned institutions that participate and whose programs are featured.
These distinguished research universities and institutes also actively participate in testing and developing next- generation technologies to distribute video and interactive media content worldwide. ResearchChannel uses advanced streaming and broadband technologies and is working with partners from around the world to test new methods of global video distribution and interaction. New technologies are essential for enhancing collaboration, reaching a wider audience and providing alternative, high-speed exchanges of video resources.
Programs on Research Channel appeal to a wide variety of general and niche audiences. Many medical and technology professionals regard ResearchChannel as a critical source of new information in their fields. Other viewers are excited by the opportunity to delve deeply into topics that have captured their interest.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Supplemental Grant
Professor Michelle M. Elekonich and Stephen P. Roberts have received a supplemental grant of $23,486 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support undergraduate research opportunities for the project, "An Experimental Test of Senescence and Aging Mechanisms in a Free-living Organism."
Elekonich and Roberts previously received an award of $550,668 for this research project.
UNLV hosted the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car Race, and some 15 Middle School H2 fuel cell car teams competed for a top prize of $1,000 for the winning school’s science program. The designs were impressive and it was clear that the teams invested a great deal of time in their designs. The Grant Sawyer Middle School team was selected as the winner. The team’s design consistently ran in world-class times and would have been a serious competitor in a national event. All cars were impressive and the students worked very hard during the competition to increase their car’s effectiveness. The cars with the top four times in the qualifying heats advanced to the “final four”. The results were as follows:
First Place $1,000 Grant Sawyer Team 3
Second Place 500 Garrett Team 1
Third Place 300 Faith Lutheran Team 2
Fourth Place 200 St. Viator
Chuck Russell of Desert Research Institute deserves our recognition for his creativity, and the effort he devotes to this event.
We want to thank the many volunteers who are the backbone for this event and the major sponsors, DOE/Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, UNLV Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies, and the Desert Research Institute. Special thanks to Steven Curtis for this organizational and reporting efforts.
I am delighted to announce the 2009 recipients of our UNLV and College of Sciences faculty and staff awards. Our colleagues honored this year have made outstanding contributions to the teaching, research, and community service activities of the college. They are, of course, fine representatives of the work that so many faculty and staff contribute to our campus, our profession, and our community. I wish to thank the members of the awards committees who reviewed nominations and selected this year's recipients.
UNLV Awards
Regents Rising Researcher
Frank van Breukelen, School of Life Sciences
Alex G. Spanos and Faye Spanos Distinguished Teaching Award
Mary Kay Orgill, Chemistry
Barrick Distinguished Scholar Award
Lars Walker, School of Life Sciences
Barrick Scholar Award
Jichun Li, Mathematics
Division of Educational Outreach
Dieudonne Phanord, Mathematics
CSUN Faculty Award
Helen Wing, School of Life Sciences
Regents Rising Researcher
Frank van Breukelen, School of Life Sciences
Left to right: Regent Cedric Crear, Frank van Breukelen, President David Ashley, Regent Michael Wixom.
Alex G. Spanos and Faye Spanos Distinguished Teaching Award
Mary Kay Orgill, Chemistry
Left to right: Provost Neal Smatresk, Mary Kay Orgill, and President David Ashley.
Barrick Scholar Award
Jichun Li, Mathematics
Left to right: Vice President for Research Ron Smith; Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Christopher Hudgin, Jichun Li, and President David Ashley.
Division of Educational Outreach
Dieudonne Phanord, Mathematics
Left to right: President David Ashley and Dieudonne Phanord
CSUN Faculty Award
Helen Wing, School of Life Sciences
Fourth from left: Helen Wing.
College of Sciences Awards
Distinguished Service Award
Michelle Elekonich, School of Life Sciences
Distinguished Teaching Award
Steve Rowland, Geoscience
Distinguished Research Award
Bing Zhang, Physics and Astronomy
Distinguished Professional Staff Award
Janet Reiber, Advising Center
Donna Weistrop Career Achievement Award
David Emerson, Chemistry
“Radiochemistry Program at UNLV,” Las Vegas Sun, April 24, 2009
http://www.lasvegassun.com/photos/galleries/2009/apr/24/unlv-radiochemistry/
The April 24, 2009 edition of the Las Vegas Sun includes an article and digital slideshow of images relating to the Radiochemistry Program at UNLV. Photographs of associate professor Ken Czerwinski, graduate students Julie and Ken Gostic, and colleagues illustrate the teaching and research activities underway at UNLV.
UNLV's radiochemistry program, including a research center, was established using federal earmarks, but is working toward financial independence and has already won more than $1 million in funding from industry and sources that require researchers to compete for money. The program collaborates with Los Alamos and other national laboratories, and is generating research that could lead to patents and, eventually, marketable products that could bring revenue to the university.
“Small beginnings, big hopes: Radiochemistry program spotlights promise of UNLV — as well as obstacles to progress,” Las Vegas Sun, April 27, 2009, by Charlotte Hsu
Steve Marcus photographer
Julie Gostic, a radiochemistry graduate student, holds a radioactive sample (the black speck) at a UNLV lab Tuesday. Radiochemistry is the study of the chemical and physical properties of radioactive elements. Among the subjects of research in the program are various aspects of nuclear waste. The multimillion-dollar cache of laboratory equipment is impressive enough to excite some of the country’s top scientists. The cutting-edge research could lead to better ways to combat cancer and improve national security.
UNLV’s radiochemistry program, though only 5 years old, is partnering with national lab researchers and drawing students from universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Administrators say this is the type of program they want to grow: research-intensive and sustainable with limited state funding. And radiochemistry, the study of the chemical and physical properties of radioactive elements, is particularly relevant in a region that is home to a 60-year-old nuclear test site, a proposed nuclear waste repository and a fledgling cancer research institute.
UNLV’s program, one of few in the nation, offers a doctoral degree and serves about 20 students who work with faculty to study topics including emergency response and how nuclear waste spreads. As UNLV looks to launch itself into the ranks of top research universities, the radiochemistry program’s metamorphosis from no-name to nationally recognized is instructive.
It demonstrates that the caliber of founding faculty members can have a profound effect on the success and growth of top-shelf academic programs. And it hints that if UNLV is ever to undergo its own transformation into a research powerhouse, the university may need to offer budding superstars more support.
The story behind the rise of radiochemistry at UNLV begins in the 2002-03 academic year — in Cambridge, Mass., when MIT denied tenure to Ken Czerwinski, a chemist in its nuclear engineering department. He knew he would have opportunities elsewhere. The MIT post was his first full-time professorship, but before taking that position in late 1996, he had spent several years in Europe studying topics including the way nuclear waste behaved in repositories. He had completed his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1992. Glenn Seaborg, a Nobel Prize-winning Berkeley researcher who co-discovered elements including plutonium, was a co-author on Czerwinski’s first major publication. According to Czerwinski, MIT wanted him to stay on as a nontenured faculty member, but he refused. “I was like, ‘You want to be friends? Is that it?’ I said no. I wanted to do the tenure-track professor thing.”
Czerwinski had connections at UNLV, which was launching a radiochemistry program. Tony Hechanova and Gary Cerefice, researchers there, were MIT alumni, and Cerefice had studied under Czerwinski. Czerwinski had an offer from the University of Florida. But UNLV won out. Like many academics who take a chance on the young school, Czerwinski liked the idea of creating a program. From the start, his goals were bold — the type that, in someone else’s hands, might have died as nothing more than grandiose dreams. What he wanted, he said, was to build “the best place at an American university to do radiochemistry.”
In 2003, Czerwinski got to work by tapping the network of professional contacts he had cultivated over the years. UNLV’s first radiochemistry students included Julie and Rich Gostic, a husband-and-wife team who knew Czerwinski from MIT, where Rich Gostic had earned a master’s in nuclear engineering. “We knew it would be fun because it would be crazy,” Rich Gostic said of the decision to enroll at UNLV in 2005. Julie Gostic called Czerwinski a “mover and shaker” and praised him for accepting students from fields ranging from chemistry to biology and engineering.
“Other programs (at other universities) do not think outside of the box like that,” she wrote in an e-mail. “They have the mind-set that you can never be a good radiochemist without having a strong chemistry background.” A visit with Czerwinski sheds light on why the Gostics and others were willing to join a program that had no history, no track record. With immaculate posture, a strong, square jaw and brilliant blue eyes, the professor has charisma, a commanding presence.
The man is a human whirlwind. While sitting for interviews in his office, he checks e-mail, takes phone calls and chats with doctoral candidates who drop in with questions. His love for teaching is evident. His office door is plastered with student work — graphs, charts, calculations — that would boggle the average person. He lists “radiochemical education of undergraduate and graduate students” as an area of interest on his curriculum vitae. His activities outside UNLV include consulting for private companies and teaching at an Energy Department radiochemistry summer school.
Last year, he said, he didn’t have time to apply for promotion because he “just had so much other stuff to do.” State support for the program has been limited, and Czerwinski has not been able to hire an administrative assistant to help with such tasks as processing student applications — not a trivial issue, he said, “because I’m getting exhausted.” His fatigue, though partly a product of his own tall ambitions, is also a symptom of what many faculty members consider a problem at UNLV: a lack of adequate support in building programs and conducting research. Czerwinski said although higher-ups such as the dean of sciences have shown enthusiasm for radiochemistry, he wonders how his program corresponds with UNLV’s goals: “Somehow, I still don’t know how what I’m doing here fits into what the university wants to become.”
“By a number of metrics, I can say, ‘Yeah. I think we’re succeeding,’ ” he said. “But if the administration doesn’t know how to place us or if we don’t fit into the vision of what’s here, then how logical is it to have it here?” Figuring out which administrators to contact about the program’s needs can be difficult, Czerwinski said. Radiochemistry was established by the chemistry and health physics departments, which are housed in different colleges within the university, he said. Czerwinski’s office and much of the program’s lab space are in the Harry Reid Center, separate from both departments.
In a $113 million science and engineering building the university is opening this year, half of the work space in the core laboratory reserved for radiochemistry is not equipped to handle high-level radioactive materials. The placement of radiochemistry work stations in the same room as work stations for other disciplines makes it more difficult to ensure safety and prevent radioactive contamination of areas where researchers are not using radioactive materials. Help from outside the university has been crucial to the radiochemistry program’s success.
Since coming to UNLV, Czerwinski has been named a principal investigator on projects that should bring in more than $6 million from external agencies such as the Energy Department. Ralf Sudowe, a radiochemistry faculty member who joined UNLV in 2006, has pulled in more than $1.5 million in outside funding, primarily federal earmarks.
This money, along with additional earmarks, has helped the radiochemistry program acquire the high-tech tools it needed, all purchased since Czerwinski arrived. The collection caught the eye of Al Sattelberger, now associate laboratory director for energy sciences and engineering at Argonne National Laboratory, one of the Energy Department’s oldest and largest science and engineering research labs.
Sattelberger joined the UNLV program as a visiting scientist a few years ago, drawn by the university’s equipment and by Czerwinski, whom Sattelberger had interviewed years before for a job at another national lab. External funding also covers stipends for doctoral students conducting research. They get $22,500 in their first year, with raises later. The program also pays for tuition, fees and health care. Such compensation would be impossible if the program relied, as many others do, on state money.
Together, students and faculty research a wide range of subjects. They are studying the chemical properties, such as the physical structure, of a compound of technetium, an element used in some cancer radiation treatments. The Gostics are analyzing soil from a New Jersey Air Force base where a nuclear warhead was destroyed in a fire in 1960. Their research will provide insight into the behavior of nuclear waste — how it travels, for instance, when it comes into contact with water. Sudowe, formerly a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist, is exploring ways labs could analyze debris samples from nuclear accident or attack sites more quickly to determine how widely radioactive material has spread and where the material might have originated.
Such research has helped the program gain prestige. At conferences, Julie Gostic said, fellow attendees say, “Oh, you’re at UNLV. Wow.” And although Czerwinski is uncertain about how his program fits into UNLV’s goals, some of his colleagues have a clear understanding. Sudowe, for one, says radiochemistry is “a good example of where the university wants to go.” Executive Vice President and Provost Neal Smatresk called the program “a nexus of quality that we should build around.” When UNLV emerges from “this fiscal mess,” he said in an e-mail, the university will prioritize hiring in “strategic areas like rad chem.”
“Comparative Planetology: Investigating Geologic Processes on Earth, Mars, and the Moon,” Friday, May 8, 2009
Attention: Planetary Geology, Geomorphology, and Astronomy buffs!
If you are interested in the latest work being done on Earth, Mars, and the Moon you don’t want to miss this!
The UNLV Geoscience Department Planetary Geology Group presents:
Dr. James R. Zimbelman and Dr. Brent Garry of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C. will present a talk, “Comparative Planetology: Investigating Geologic Processes on Earth, Mars, and the Moon.”
The presentation and will take place on Friday, May 8, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. in the Lily Fong Geoscience Building, Room 102.
Dr. Zimbelman will discuss his recent researchsurveying Nevada paleoshorelines as a way to evaluate possible shorelines in crater basins on Mars. Get the latest research information about yardangs and sinuous ridges on Mars examined using the newest high resolution images, months before publication. Dr. Brent Garry will discuss his recent research on upcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and his involvement on the science team for the LROC camera.
For more information contact lora.griffin@unlv.edu
Mathematical Sciences Colloquium
On April 17, 2009 Dr. Qing Nie of UC-Irvine, offered a talk about cell signaling through the integration of mathematical and experimental viewpoints, entitled, “Systems Biology of Cell Signaling.
Abstract: The proper growth, development, and survival of an organism requires
extensive and accurate communication among the cells of the organism. Hence, cells sense and react to a wide variety of stimuli, which convey information such as nutrients, harmful insults, and the state of neighboring cells. Using a systems biology approach that integrates modeling and experimentation, we study two cell signaling systems: 1) robust sensing and signal transduction during mating of yeast cells, and 2) robust dorsal-ventral patterning in Zebrafish embryo development.
On April 24, 2009 Dr. Charles Davis of Environmetrics and Statistics Ltd. Presented a talk, “A Model for Measurements of Lognormally Distributed Environmental
Contaminants.”
Abstract: Lognormal (LN) distributions are often assumed for environmental contaminants, with perhaps some justification. But decisions are made from measurements, not the unobservable concentrations themselves. These often do not have LN distributions. Rather, at fixed concentrations distributions of measurements are often normally distributed, and if low-level measurements are unbiased one has negative values; standard LN inference techniques fail in this setting. This reality is universally ignored; measurement values are censored at a Reporting Limit, the negative values are never seen, and we continue to develop (and publish) methods for left-censored LN environmental data. A mixture model for such data is presented. The motivating application involves Upper Tolerance Limits (UTLs = upper confidence limits for upper percentiles) which arise in facility surveys for worker protection. We are dealing with ICP-AES measurements for beryllium surface contamination, and have obtained large quantities of uncensored data. We discuss the model and its five physically meaningful parameters in terms of the measurement process. We show that conventional censored-data LN methods provide conservative UTLs that, paradoxically, become more (not less) conservative as the RL decreases. We pay some attention to maximum likelihood estimation using uncensored data, and then present attractive alternate approaches.
On Friday, April 17th, Dr. Huirong Yan, TAP Fellow at the University of Arizona, presented a talk, "Atomic Alignment- A New Diagnostics of Astrophysical Magnetic Field."
Abstract: I would like to present a new technique of studying magnetic fields in nterstellar and intergalactic gas/plasma. This technique is based on the alignment (in terms of their angular momentum in the ground state) of atoms and ions with fine or hyperfine splitting of the ground state. A unique feature of this technique is that the properties of the polarized radiation (both absorption and emission) depend on the 3D geometry of the magnetic field as well as the direction and anisotropy of incident radiation. I shall outline the prospects of the technique and its possible application to studies magnetic fields within circumstellar regions, interplanetary medium, interstellar medium, intergalactic medium. Both spatial and temporal variations of turbulent magnetic field can be traced with this technique as well. In addition, I shall demonstrate that atomic alignment induced by anisotropic radiation can cause polarization of the radio/far-infrared magnetic dipole transitions within the ground state, thus providing a possible way to study magnetic fields, e.g. at the epoch of Universe reionization.
On Friday, April 24, 2009, Dr. Myungkook James Jee, LSST fellow, department of physics, UC Davis, offered a talk, “
Title: "Dark Matter Substructures in Galaxy Clusters Revealed by HST/
ACS Gravitational Lensing"
Abstract: Gravitational lensing analysis of galaxy clusters with HST/ACS
provides an unique opportunity to paint invisible dark matter with unprecedented resolution. After a brief review on the methodology, I will talk about peculiar dark matter substructures revealed in merging clusters, which together with galaxies and X-ray gas distribution enable us to study the dynamical history of the clusters and perhaps
the properties of dark matter. In addition, I will brief on our recent weak-lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster XMM2235 at z=1.4, the most distant cluster yet measured with lensing. Because the mass turns out to be surprisingly high for a cluster at such a high redshift, the likelihood of finding such a massive cluster in the survey and cosmological implications will be discussed. Finally, if time allows, I will give an introduction on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project and where it stands now.
Professor Ron Fiscus, Nevada Cancer Institute, and adjunct professor in the departmentof chemistry offered a seminar, “Nitric oxide/cyclic GMP/protein kinase G signaling pathway: Established role in developing drugs for treating heart disease and erectile dysfunction and emerging role in cancer/stem cell biology,”onFriday, May 1st.
Science Seminars – Upcoming Presentations
The Center for Math and Science Education (CMSE) maintains a website of upcoming UNLV science seminars. Please visit this site and sign up for our announcements.
The website can be found at http://cmse.unlv.edu/seminar/.
Approximately once a week, an email is sent out to subscribers of a listserv, announcing that week's upcoming seminars.
The College of Sciences E-Newsletter is published on or about the first of each month. Please submit news items via email by the fifteenth of each month, for consideration. You may send your submissions to: Bill Brown, Director of Planning and Communication (william.brown@unlv.edu).
If you wish to be added to the email distribution list for the College of Sciences E-newsletter, please send a request to: william.brown@unlv.edu.
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