Spotlight

In the Spotlight: Feb. 5, 2021

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

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  • Northern Arizona University was selected for The Princeton Review’s 2021 list of Best Online Nursing School Master’s Programs. The Princeton Review provides personalized, innovative, best-in-class private tutoring, test prep and admission products and services.
  • Michael Rulon, senior lecturer in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures, published a translation of the essay, “Notes on the Physical Form of Egyptians and of the Different Races that Live in Egypt Followed by some Reflections on the Embalming of Mummies” written by Baron Jean-Dominique Larrey. The essay is an excerpt from the Description of Egypt, a 23-volume work that marked the beginning of the modern field of Egyptology, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte following his 1798 invasion of Egypt.
  • Emergency manager Robert Church was recognized as Faculty of the Month by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education for his continued work with the organization that oversees Arizona’s School Resource Officer program. Church was a former resource officer and uses that experience to research and develop interactive lessons for the program to implement in-person and online.
  • Professor of English Laura Gray-Rosendale and former graduate student Haley Stammen co-authored the article, “Using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra with Basic Writers and in a Graduate Course Teaching Basic Writing” published in the Journal of Basic Writing. Though it was written pre-pandemic, the article has relevance for the current use of programs like Collaborate and Zoom to teach students writing.
  • Chun-Hsing (Jun) Ho, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Construction Management, and Environmental Engineering (CECMEE), co-authored the article, “The Psychological impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures in the world” published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. The study aims to establish the psychological impact that the pandemic is entailing in regards to levels of stress, anxiety, depression and the risks of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  • Assistant professors of CECMEE Brendan Russo and Amin Mohebbi co-authored the article, “Analysis of factors affecting the frequency of crashes on interstate freeways by vehicle type considering multiple weather variables” published in the Journal of Transportation Safety & Security. The findings of the study provide insights that may be useful in planning countermeasures to improve freeway safety.
  • Paul Flikkema, professor of SICCS; Bertrand Cambou, professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science; and James Palmer, interim associate dean for the College of Engineering, Informatics and Applied Sciences and professor of SICCS had a new U.S. Patent Application Publication titled, “System and method for active cyberattack defense.” Their work creates computing systems with dynamic architectures that may be used to secure against code-injection attacks and other exploits.
  • Professor Scott Goetz and assistant research professor Patrick Jantz of SICCS co-authored the article, “Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity” published in Nature Communications. The study generates a globally consistent, continuous index of forest condition as determined by the degree of anthropogenic modification.
  • Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Amirhossein Arzani co-authored the article, “Fluid-structure coupled biotransport processes in aortic valve disease” published in the Journal of Biomechanics. The study shows that blood flow physics and coherent structures regulate the flow-mediated biological processes involved in aortic valve calcification and thrombosis and could be used in the design process to optimize heart valve replacement durability.
  • Frederick DeMicco, executive director of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, was featured in the New York Times article, “Ghost Kitchens Find a Home in Empty Hotels.” The article discusses the emerging partnerships between hotels and restaurants.
  • Nancy Johnson, Regents’ professor of the School of Earth and Sustainability, and doctoral student of biology Kara Gibson co-authored the article, “Understanding Multilevel Selection May Facilitate Management of Arbuscular Mycorrhizae in Sustainable Agroecosystems” published in Frontiers in Plant Science. Johnson also published the article, “Soil biota suppress maize growth and influence root traits under continuous monoculture” published in Plant Soil with former visiting NAU scholars Lin Mao and Yongjun Liu.
  • Yuly Asencion-Delaney, professor in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures, published the article, “Writing in Spanish as a heritage language: A multidimensional analysis” in Foreign Language Annals. The study examines the lexical and grammatical variation in the academic writing at the college level of Spanish heritage learners with two levels of Spanish proficiency.
  • Professor of history Michael Amundson had his book, “Talking Machine West: A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley’s Western Recordings, 1902-1918” featured on Sirius Radio’s “Ranger Doug’s Classic Cowboy Corral.” The show, which features an hour of vintage cowboy music and comedy, played the 1906 Edison Cylinder recording “Cheyenne” and discussed the book and singer Billy Murray.
  • Kevin Gurney, professor of SICCS, had his study featured in the New York Times article, “S. Cities Are Vastly Undercounting Emissions, Researchers Find.” The study compares self-reported emission inventories published by 48 major U.S. cities to estimates from a state-of-the-art emissions information system.
  • Dierdra Bycura, chair of the Department of Health Sciences; Anthony C. Santos, a graduate student in the Department of Health Sciences; Arron Shiffer, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences; Shari Kyman with the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute; Kyle Winfree, associate director of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems;  Jay Sutliffe, professor of in the Department of Health Sciences; Talima Pearson, associate research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; Derek Sonderegger, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics; Emily Cope, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Greg Caporaso, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences authored “Impact of Different Exercise Modalities on the Human Gut Microbiome” in Sports. The article examined changes to the human gut microbiome resulting from an eight-week intervention of cardiorespiratory exercise or resistance training exercise.
  • The Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science faculty had several accomplishments.