Spotlight

In the Spotlight: March 5, 2021

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

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  • Northern Arizona University was named to Phi Theta Kappa’s 2021 Transfer Honor Roll, which recognizes excellence in the development and support of dynamic and innovative transfer pathways for community college transfer students. NAU is considered one of the most transfer-friendly schools in the nation based on admission practices, cost, campus life and recruitment practices.
  • NAU Information Technology Services added a new WiFi hotspot location in the NAU-Yavapai parking lot. This is part of NAU’s project to provide hotspots throughout the state of Arizona since the pandemic started.
  • Jeff Jenness, geographic information systems instructor, presented a talk titled, “Distribution and Status of Colorado River Basin Springs and Springs-Dependent Species in Nevada” to the Nevada Water Resources Association (NWRA). NWRA is a nonprofit professional association that provides education, training and networking opportunities for understanding, developing, conserving and protecting Nevada’s water resources.
  • Lecturer of anthropology Nataša Garić-Humphrey was part of a three-part virtual discussion titled, “Political Action and Generations” for the Political and Legal Anthropology Review published in the Journal of Association for Political and Legal Anthropology. The series draws on ethnographic research in Bosnia-Herzegovina and explores the complex interplay of history, social movements, generational change and how anthropological theory engages with these phenomena. Listen to Part I, Part II and Part III.
  • Associate professor of anthropology Sharon Moses was awarded an RBS grant for the project titled, “Manchester Jane Doe – A Forensic Facial Reconstruction,” which is an unsolved, 40-year-old cold case of an unidentified woman whose body was found in a derelict building in Manchester, UK. The project will create a 2-D reconstruction model and article based on the medical examiner’s records, detective’s records and photos of the body.
  • Professor of forestry Yeon-Su Kim co-authored the article, “Assessing Sustainable Bamboo-Based Income Generation Using a Value Chain Approach: Case Study of Nongboua Village in Lao PDR” published in Insects. The study showed the value chains of different utilization options of bamboo and explored ways to improve rural livelihoods.
  • Assistant research professor Anita Antoninka and associate professor Matt Bowker co-authored the article, “Broader Impacts for Ecologists: Biological Soil Crust as a Model System for Education” published in Frontiers in Microbiology. The study demonstrated the utility of biocrust communities as a model system in science education.
  • Assistant professor of forestry Alark Saxena co-authored the article, “History as grounds for interdisciplinarity: promoting sustainable woodlands via an integrative ecological and socio-cultural perspective” published in One Earth. The article is a result of a highly interdisciplinary engagement across natural sciences-humanities on historical perspectives to further sustainable forest futures.
  • Chad Trujillo, associate professor of astronomy and planetary science, was featured in two articles for his discovery of Farfarout, the most distant object in space. “Astronomers Confirm Solar System’s Most Distant Known Object Is Indeed Farfarout” was published by Gemini Observatory and NOIRLab.
  • Paul Lenze, senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Affairs, published the article, “Algeria: Military Past as Prologue” in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. The article explores the military rule that has dominated Algeria, a state in the Maghreb.
  • Amit Kumar, assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, co-authored the article, “Factors associated with post-acute functional status and discharge dispositions in individuals with spinal cord injury” published in The Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine. The study examined the association between demographic, clinical and process care factors with post-acute functional status and discharge disposition in individuals with spinal cord injury.
  • Chris Hakkenberg, postdoctoral scholar in the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems (SICCS), co-authored the article, “NASA’s surface biology and geology designated observable: A perspective on surface imaging algorithms” published in Remote Sensing of Environment. The article is the result of a group of multidisciplinary researchers that reviewed and evaluated algorithms applicable to the Surface Biology and Geology Designated Targeted Observable across a wide range of Earth science disciplines.
  • Professor of SICCS Kevin Gurney co-authored the article, “The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and atmospheric composition: back to the future” published in Earth and Space Science Open Archive. The article is a discussion of the lessons learned from COVID-19 disruptions in anthropogenic activity for future mitigation strategies and the current and future ways of observing Earth.
  • Assistant professor of SICCS Morgan Vigil-Hayes co-authored the article, “A Tale of Three Datasets: Towards Characterizing Mobile Broadband Access in the United States” published in Networking and Internet Architecture. The study evaluated a criticism about a cellular coverage report released by the Federal Communications Commission in 2019.
  • Bertrand Cambou, professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science; Michael Gowanlock, assistant professor of SICCS; and Bahattin Yildiz, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics co-authored the article, “Key Distribution for Post Quantum Cryptography using Physical Unclonable Functions” published in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. The study described practical ways to generate keys from physical unclonable functions for lattice and code based cryptography.
  • Chun-Hsing (Jun) Ho, associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, Construction Management, and Environmental Engineering, co-authored the article, “Fractal characteristics of methane migration channels in inclined coal seams” published in Energy. The study included improving methane extraction techniques, exploring the fractal characteristic of channel and developing the laws governing how channels emerge.
  • Ryan Behunin, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science, co-authored the article, “Visible light photonic integrated Brillouin laser” published in Optics. The study investigated stimulated Brillouin scattering to realize highly coherent on-chip visible light laser emission and broke the barriers that existed to translate this performance to the visible.
  • From SICCS, research associate Patrick Burns, professor Scott Goetz and assistant research professor Patrick Jantz co-authored the article, “Forest quality mitigates extinction risk in humid tropical vertebrates” published in Research Square. The study used remotely-sensed measures of forest structural condition and associated human pressures across global humid tropics to provide the first estimates of the importance of forest quality in mitigating extinction risk for rainforest vertebrates worldwide.