In the Spotlight: April 6, 2018

Kudos to these staff, faculty and programs

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  • Assistant professor of astronomy David Trilling, astronomer Michael Mommert and postdoc Andrew McNeill have co-authored the paper “Constraints on the Density and Internal Strength of 1l/’Oumuamua.” The paper discusses the density of interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and was recently published in the Cornell University Library.
  • Allen Reich and Galen Collins, School of Hotel and Restaurant Management professors in the W. A. Franke College of Business, had a paper entitled “Creating and Implementing an Effective Assessment of Learning Outcomes Process for Hospitality Programs” accepted for publication. The paper will be presented at the International Council of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Educators Conference in California.
  • Jiun-Yi (Jenny) Tsai, assistant professor of strategic communications, published a research paper entitled “Snowball: Extracting Causal Chains from Climate Change Text Corpora” in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Data Intelligence and Security. The paper uses novel text-mining techniques to demystify causes and consequences of climate change in online news discourse.
  • Psychology professor Ann Huffman, Nora Dunbar, senior lecturer and associate chair for the Department of Psychological Sciences, and former Northern Arizona University graduate students Victoria VanPuyvelde, Zachary Klinefelter and Kathrine Sullivan conducted a study titled “Caring for Children and Meeting Mission Needs: Experiences of Dual-Military Parents.” The study examined dual-military parents’ attitudes toward child care issues in the military and found three key issues related to the Family Care Plan and two key issues related to the available On-Post Child Care.
  • Lori Poloni-Staudinger, professor and department chair for politics and international affairs, has published “Gender and Political Violence: Women Changing the Politics of Terrorism.” The book examines the role of gender in political conflicts worldwide and the intersection between gender and terrorism while investigating how women cope with and influence violent politics.
  • Northern Arizona University Campus Health Services has earned the Spot Shot award from the Arizona Partnership for Immunization in recognition of its work to increase flu immunization rates over the past year. The award recognizes individuals or organizations that have implemented legislation, policy initiatives or media stories that helped educate and/or reduced barriers to immunizations.
  • Postdoctoral scholar Jean-François Smekens and Mathieu Gouhier have published their paper “Observation of SO2 degassing at Stromboli volcano using a hyperspectral thermal infrared imager” in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. The paper discusses a hyperspectral imaging technique that allowed them to identify and quantify ash and gas particles released during small explosions.
  • Psychology professor Michelle Miller wrote an op-ed for the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “Forget Mentors — What We Really Need Are Fans.” The article discusses benefits of fans over mentors within academe.
  • Northern Arizona University won two awards at the Frontier Set Annual Convening—recognition for being the site that was most honest about the challenges faced and providing feedback other sites needed to accelerate their projects. Additionally, Don Carter, director of Northern Arizona University’s E-Learning Center, presented “Digital Learning: Designing a Plan for Equity and Stakeholder Engagement” annual meeting.