In the Spotlight: April 27, 2012

Kudos to these faculty, staff and students

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  • The NAU/NASA Space Grant program sent a record 21 interns to the 21st annual Arizona/NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Internship Program Statewide Symposium at the University of Arizona in Tucson on April 21. They were accompanied by 11 mentors from NAU, USGS, the Arizona Daily Sun and Lowell Observatory. Nadine Barlow, associate professor and associate department chair in physics and astronomy, is director of the NAU/NASA Space Grant and an associate director of the Arizona Space Grant Consortium.Students and their presentations are listed below:

    • Savannah Bachman (junior, geophysics): “A Geomorphic Analysis of Minerals on Martian Sand Dunes”
    • Andrew Belus (senior, microbiology): “Comparing the Effects of Water Limitation on Soil Communities Across the C. Hart Merriam Elevation Gradient”
    • Kevin Bertram (junior, journalism/history): “Writing about Science for the Arizona Daily Sun
    • Hannah Brower (senior, physics and astronomy): “Surface Changes on Mars”
    • John Crockett (junior, physics and astronomy): “Data Mining the Cataline Sky Survey Archive”
    • Christine Cunningham (senior, physics and astronomy): “Gyrochronology: Aging Nearby, Debris Disk Candidate Stars”
    • Leticia Delgado (senior, civil and environmental engineering): “STEM Education and Outreach: Indoor Air Quality in Schools”
    • Hunter England (senior, geology/geochemistry): “Chemical and Thermal Analysis of Zircons from the Cerro Toledo Rhyolite, New Mexico”
    • Paula Johns (junior, physics and astronomy): “A Study of Accretion Disks around Young Binary Star Systems”
    • Simon Kelow (junior, physics and astronomy): “Particular Solutions to the Time-Fractional Heat Equation”
    • Geoffrey Kie (sophomore, applied indigenous studies/journalism): “Indigenous Environmental Justice”
    • Danielle Klaas (sophomore, forestry): “Climate-Fire Relationships in a Rare High Elevation Forest”
    • Eric Kortenhoeven (senior, environmental science/biology): “Ecological Snapshot of Beetle Distribution on an Elevation Gradient to be used as Preliminary Dataset for Species Distribution Modeling”
    • Nicholas Kutsop (sophomore, physics and astronomy): “Lobateness of Martian Ejecta Craters using Thermal Imaging”
    • Tara Llewellyn (junior, environmental science management): “Heritability of Pinyon Pine Stomata”
    • Kelsey Morales (sophomore, environmental science and policy administration): “Wind for Schools”
    • Courtney Pulido (senior, geophysics): “The Process of Cinder Cone Construction and Dismantling, Strawberry Crater, Arizona”
    • Chris Simpson (junior, mechanical engineering): “Development of a Composite Material with Structural and Power Storage Capabilities”
    • Jeremy Stone (senior, physics and astronomy): “Effectiveness of Phase Dispersion Minimization in Gyrochronology”
    • Steven Tallas (junior, environmental engineering): “Renewable Energy Outreach”
    • Carmen Winn (senior, geology): “Melt Source Lithology of the Zuni Bandera Volcanic Field Determined by Zn/Fe Ratios of In-Situ Olivine”
  • Dennis C. Tanner, professor of health sciences, published two invited essays in the book Translational Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology: Essays in Honor of Dr. Sadanand Singh. “Defense Mechanisms and Coping Styles in Aphasia” addresses verbal and nonverbal psychological defense mechanisms and coping styles in aphasia. The second essay, with health sciences professor William Culbertson, is titled “Observations on Speech and Swallowing.” It addresses the neurological substrates and anatomical and physiological similarities between the motor acts of speech production and deglutition. Information is here.
  • ccc2nau adviser
    Advisers for the CCC2NAU program, from left, Tamara Sullivan, Ryan Wessel and Robin Long, are celebrating the program’s recent award from the National Academic Advising Association.

    The CCC2NAU program recently was selected to receive the National Academic Advising Association’s Outstanding Advising Program Award. CCC2NAU was recognized as an innovative and exemplary program that improves academic advising practices. The award will be presented at the association’s annual conference in the fall.

  • NAU alums Greg Glau, director of the University Writing Program and associate professor of English, and Tracy Glau, specialist at Cline Library, will host their third annual father/daughter art show, featuring their photography, watercolor and recycled art, May 2 through June 25 at La Bellavia Restaurant, 18 S. Beaver Street in Flagstaff.