E BE RLY COLL EGEOF A R T S & S C I E E N C S S P R I N G 2 0 1 2 T H E V I S I O N I S S U E
Eb E
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s p r i n g 2 0
1 2 t H E V i s i
o n i s s u E
When we talk about visionaries we usually refer to someone else a Carl Sagan, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ronald Dahl, or Marie Curie. We rarely look to ourselves. And when someone mentions an organizational vision statement, you might begin to feel disconnected, but you shouldn’t.
When you came to WVU you had a vision, a vision of yourself as a college-educated professional. While here you cultivated that vision by immersing yourself in critical thought and creative expression. You nurtured that vision by surrounding yourself with like-minded and opposing viewpoints, challenging yourself and others around you. You focused your mind on the problems of the day, and discussed their solutions. You studied, and studied, and studied some more: as the provost likes to say to incoming freshmen, “until your brains fall out.”
Today you have created careers, businesses, families, and homes; you’ve forged new paths in your work and personal lives, solving problems along the way.
Just like you, the College has a vision. And like yours, it is a carefully constructed plan.
The College is a living thing. It needs fresh ideas, new perspectives, challenges, and vistas to keep it vibrant. When we talk about mission and vision, all we are really saying is that we need to take stock of the life of the College; we need to acknowledge where we have succeeded and where we can do better. It’s a way to keep ourselves on track.
This edition expresses our vision for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. It focuses on the five pillars, or five promises, that the College is making to its students, the state, the nation, the world, and to you personally through the strategic plan.
You will see our commitment to this motto in all of the stories in this issue; whether it is a focus on emerging programs like behavioral neuroscience, outreach and service to the state by our faculty, or national attention on our excellent researchers.
We want you to stay connected. You are part of the life of the College, and you are part of our 2020 vision. That means we need you to take stock, too. What has your degree been worth to you? Where can you plug yourself into the 2020 Vision Statement? What is the College doing that really matters to you? Are you passionate about first-generation students having the means to attend college, research that may lead to new inventions and commercial opportunities, and programs that serve the state and its residents? Whatever moves you, we have a way for you to become involved and make a difference here at WVU.
We promise that with your help your College will be locally focused to meet the needs of our state and region, nationally prominent to attract excellent scholars and resources, and globally engaged to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.
Best,
Robert H. Jones, PhD Dean
Dear Alumni and Friends,
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 1
ContentsAdmINIStRAtIoNJames P. Clements, PhD, President, West Virginia University
Michele Wheatly, PhD, Provost
Robert Jones, PhD, Dean
Joan Gorham, EdD, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs
Fred King, PhD, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies
Asuntina Levelle, JD, Associate Dean, Financial Planning and Management
Katherine Karraker, PhD, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies
L. Christopher Plein, PhD, Associate Dean, School of Applied Social Sciences
Katie Stores, PhD, Interim Assistant Dean for Research
Bonnie Fisher, Director of Development
EdItoRIAl StAffRebecca Herod, Executive Editor
Devon Copeland, Co-executive Editor
Kathy Deweese, University Editor
ARt dIREctIoN & dESIGNAngela Caudill
Forrest Conroy
Graham Curry
Carly Goodman
Chris Schwer
coNtRIbutING EdItoRSSam Ameri, PhD
Jerry Carr, Jr.
Tony Dobies
Suronda Gonzalez, PhD
Jared Lathrop
Amanda McBean
Christine Schussler
Shikha Sharma, PhD
Dan Shrensky
David Welsh
Ashley Wells
PhotoGRAPhyM.G. Ellis, Senior Photojournalist
Brian Persinger, Senior Photojournalist
Jake Lambuth, Student Photographer
Scott Lituchy, Multimedia Producer
Todd Lotocha, Student Photographer
Chris Schwer, Multimedia Specialist
covER ARtForrest Conroy
chANGE of AddRESSWVU Foundation
PO Box 1650
Morgantown, WV 26507-1650
vISIt ouR wEbSItE Ateberly.wvu.edu
IN THIS ISSUE
2 Around the College
6 Vox Populi
6 Culture and Language across the Curriculum
8 Bridging the Gap between Biology and Behavior
10 A Meeting of the Minds
12 The Ten Year Plan
16 Drilling into the Issue
20 Fast and Flexible:
The Social Worker’s Network
22 Working the Scene
26 Citizen Soldier
32 New and Notable
32 Game On
34 Rinse, Reuse, ‘Precycle’
36 How do you say…forward thinking?
38 Awards and Honors
38 Cracking the Code on What Triggers Alzheimer’s
40 A Match Made in Almost Heaven
43 From Arithmatic to Compounds
WVU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.
West Virginia University is governed by the West Virginia University Board of Governors and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
Game On
32
Citizen Soldier: Transitioning from Combat to Course Work
26
Cracking the Code on What Triggers Alzheimer’s
38Look for the Research edition of Eberly in the fall. If you would like to access archival editions of the magazine, go to eberly.wvu.edu and select the Alumni link.
Look for the WiSE logo on articles and read about the women who are contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce.
To learn more, visit wisewomen.wvu.edu
2 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
generally consult only the book that is sacred
to them. What has been left out is a Jewish
perspective on the New Testament; a book
Jews do not consider holy but which,
given its influence and literary excellence,
some say no Jew should ignore.
Gale joined the Religious Studies faculty
in 2000, and has served as the program’s
coordinator since 2004. Some of his popular
courses include Introduction to World
Religions, History of
Christianity, Studies in
Christian Scriptures,
Good and Evil in the
Biblical World, and the
Faiths of Abraham.
Read the full New York Times article about The Jewish Annotated New Testament at nyti.ms/yYGXog.
Photo by Brian PersingerFifty leading Jewish scholars, including
WVU Religious Studies Professor Aaron
Gale, PhD, have collaborated on a new
edition of the Bible.
The Jewish Annotated New
Testament, which was edited by Amy-
Jill Levine, a Jewish Studies professor
at Vanderbilt University and Brandeis
University Professor Marc Zvi Brettler,
includes notes and explanatory essays.
Gale, whose research specialty is the
Gospel of Matthew and its relationship
to early Judaism, edited the Book of
Matthew for the volume.
Jewish scholars have typically been
involved only with editions of the Old
Testament, which Jews call the Hebrew
Bible or, using a Hebrew acronym, the
West Virginia University Press has
partnered with the Rural Sociological
Society to become its new publisher
of the long-running Rural
Studies Series.
The first book through
the new partnership, Rural
America in a Globalizing
World, edited by Conner
Bailey, Leif Jensen, and
Elizabeth Ransom, is set to be published. A
“decennial volume,” the book will review the
state of rural scholarship. Three such volumes
have been published so far.
“This is a great opportunity for WVU
Press to move into the social sciences
with a small but established list and an
enthusiastic sponsoring organization,”
said Carrie Mullen, director of WVU
Around the College
Tanakh. While curious Jews and Christians
consult all sorts of editions, without regard
to editor, Christian scholars produce editions
of both sacred books, while Jewish editors
Press. “I hope this series will be the
cornerstone of a broader list in sociology
and American studies.”
The Rural Sociological
Society, established in
1937, is a professional
social science association
that promotes the
generation, application, and
dissemination of sociological
knowledge. Its Rural Studies Series was
created to promote the scholarly analysis
of rural social issues.
For more than two decades, the series
has played a vital role in publishing high-
quality scholarship aimed at improving
the lives of rural populations. This series
deals with issues of community and rural
social organization; the social dimensions of
agriculture, rural populations and economies,
natural resources and the environment; rural
poverty and health; and livelihood strategies.
The books speak to a broad readership,
including scholars from various fields, policy
makers, and the general public.
The Rural Studies series editor, its
board of directors, and WVU Press pursue
book ideas, solicit book proposals, and
evaluate proposals and book manuscripts.
All book manuscripts are put through a
thorough peer review process. The series
seeks manuscripts on a wide range of
topics of interest to a broad readership.
Scholars from all social sciences are
encouraged to submit book proposals.
For more information, visit wvupressonline.com.
Rural Studies Series Comes to WVU Press
WVU Religious Studies Scholar Contributes to The Jewish Annotated New Testament
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 3
Photo by M.G. EllisRivalries in baseball are as old as the
game itself, perhaps the most famous
being the more than 100 years of vitriol
between the New York Yankees and
Boston Red Sox. Indeed, the historical
significance of both clubs, combined with
their “healthy” rivalry and major media
markets (1st and 5th, respectively), makes
for appealing television coverage.
Shift to coverage of small-market
baseball, such as the St. Louis Cardinals
and the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams
have history. They were founded in 1882
and share 15 World Series titles and 25
National League pennants between them.
Yet, they sit in small markets (18th and
27th, respectively) and as a result their
games apparently lack major television
market appeal.
Could picking a fight, or focusing on
“bad blood” be the best way to increase
baseball viewership in smaller television
markets? That is the question posed by
researcher Nicholas Bowman, PhD, assistant
professor of communication studies at West
Virginia University. In October, Bowman
and colleagues from four other universities
discussed the theme “Mediating Baseball,”
for in Media res, an online forum for
dialogue among scholars and the general
public about contemporary approaches to
how media is studied.
Bowman analyzed a video segment
of the August 2010 broadcast between
the Cardinals and the Reds, a pairing
that ESPN’s David Schoenfield declared
because we need a hero to cheer and a
villain to jeer. To this end, bad blood
absolutely boosts ratings because it
gives the action some context.”
In his mass media course,
Bowman covers a number of hot-
button issues that highlight the
importance of “teachable moments.”
An avid entertainment technology fan,
Bowman’s recent publications explore
the popularity of video games not
only as a leisure activity, but as a place
for community discourse, a training
ground for human interaction, and a
space for observational and experiential
learning.
View the full conversation on “Mediating Baseball” and watch footage of the August 2010 brawl at delivr.com/1djd8_nfc.
“baseball’s best rivalry.” During the
game, a player confrontation led to a
bench-clearing brawl, player and manager
ejections, and a concussion that ended the
career of Cardinals
catcher Jason
LaRue. Using the
video as a stepping-
off-point, Bowman’s
central question
was “might Major
League Baseball
be able to boost
sagging ratings with
bad blood?”
“There is no consensus on the
debate, but there is a general agreement
that spectator sports overall are really
a ‘media sport’—a hybrid of athletic
competition and a heavily produced
media event,” Bowman said.
“Like other forms of entertainment
media, drama is key to enjoyment
Does Bad Blood in Baseball Equal Bigger Ratings?
4 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Do moms sleep. . .as their babies
get older? A research study being
conducted by Hawley Montgomery-
Downs, PhD, and her team of students
in the Department of Psychology’s Sleep
Research Lab is examining the effects of
sleep disruption on first-time moms with
infants six months to two years old.
Montgomery-Downs’ initial study
on the sleeping habits of first-time
mothers evaluated the sleep that moms
get when their child is newborn to
12 weeks old. What she found was
that the mothers’ quality of sleep was
compromised. The women all received
about 7.2 fragmented hours of sleep,
and it took most women 10.5 hours to
get that 7.2 hours of rest.
“To get through one proper sleep
cycle, it takes about 90 minutes of
uninterrupted rest. Even though they
may technically be sleeping more hours,
mothers of newborns to 12-week-old
children are likely not having proper
sleep cycles because of interrupted
sleep,” Montgomery-Downs said.
Her research now is evaluating
whether sleep and daytime functioning
improve as children age. She is
reconducting the study, this time with
mothers of older children to determine
the impact women’s sleep cycles have on
their ability to function during the day,
and whether their sleep cycles ever fully
recover post-partum.
Lack of quality sleep cycles,
Montgomery-Downs said, cause women
to have similar reaction time impairment
as a person who is intoxicated. Poor sleep
is also more likely to cause or trigger
anxiety and mental health issues, such as
post-partum depression.
“We have to be creative in the
techniques we use to solve this. We need
to have cultural acceptance for at-risk
women who might need extra caretakers
in the home to help with the child at
night,” she said.
Around the College
“Right now, even when it’s ‘dad’s turn’
the woman is still waking up.”
Study participants’ behavior, sleep
patterns, and reaction times are monitored
in a number of ways including the use of a
wristwatch-like device called an actigraph
they wear for one week that senses
sleeping patterns and movements. After
the week is up, participants spend a day in
the WVU Sleep Lab where they take four
naps, spaced two hours apart.
Montgomery-Downs and her
researchers have found that even when
children start sleeping longer and better
and parents return to work, caretaker
functioning is actually decreasing.
“Most people consider the post-
partum phase to be about three weeks, but
it actually lasts about two years,” she said.
“Responsible science can inform public
policy. Major mental health implications
are at stake here, and the policy of when
caretakers return to work needs to be
evaluated and changed.”
Desperately Seeking. . .A Good Night’s Sleep
Hawley Montgomery-Downs, PhD, presents “Top Ten Mysteries of Sleep: Solved,” at a Science on Tap event.
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 5
Political cartoons have
the ability to educate,
persuade, and mobilize in
a unique way. That’s why
when Erin Cassese, assistant
professor of political
science, was looking for a
captivating speaker to visit
the department, she thought
of her former classmate Adam Zyglis.
Zyglis, an award-winning staff
cartoonist for the Buffalo (N.Y.) News,
visited the University in October to
discuss his work.
“I contacted Adam because he is both
an artist and a scholar,” Cassese said.
“His work offers important insights into
Award-Winning Political Cartoonist Visits WVU
media and politics, and he
provides a fresh perspective
on these topics as one of
the nation’s few full-time
political cartoonists.
“I thought his work
had the potential to interest
a wide range of students
across a variety of majors.”
Zyglis’s cartoons are internationally
syndicated and have appeared in a
number of publications around the
world, including the Washington Post,
USA Today, The New York Times, and
Los Angeles Times. In his spare time
he has done freelance work in book
illustration and storyboarding. His
work has also appeared magazines such as
The Week, Time, and MAD Magazine.
In 2004, he graduated from the
Canisius College Honors Program
summa cum laude, with a major in
computer science, a minor in math,
and a concentration in studio arts. In
2003, he was honored with a first-place
national award from the Associated
Collegiate Press and the Universal Press
Syndicate. He placed second in the
2004 John Locher Memorial Award,
and was a finalist in the 2003 Charles
M. Schulz Award. In 2006, he won
third place for editorial cartoons in the
2007 National Headliner Awards.
Adam Zyglis
6 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
You know those core requirements that all un-
dergraduates have to fulfill—the ones we all complained about? I know I’ve heard it asked, and I too have asked it more than once, “When will I ever have to use ‘X’ in my career? While most of us could easily make some jus-tification about the abstract benefits of improving our mathematical and scientific skills, or our knowledge of the “belles lettres,” it may be a bit more difficult to explain how any particular disci-plinary area or skill may be directly relevant to another subject or activity.
For more than two decades the “reading/writing across the curriculum” movement and later the “science across the curriculum” movement have attempted to integrate an undergraduate learning experience that is often obscured by disciplinary boundaries. In other words, these movements strive to underscore the interconnectedness of otherwise seemingly separate and isolated subject areas. The whole idea of a core curriculum is, after all, to produce well-rounded graduates.
Foreign language requirements, unfor-tunately, are still too often isolated from students’ majors. In fact, several institutions have done away with “foreign language” as a university-wide requirement, allowing schools or majors to determine the neces-sity for the language for their students. In essence, “foreign language” has been re-duced to a simple admissions requirement
at many institutions. In making it part of the requirements for entry (or as a necessity for high school graduation), institutions only reinforce an attitude that language study at the postsecondary level is irrelevant unless a student is majoring or minoring in a foreign language.
Language study becomes part of a checklist that, once complete, is tossed aside by students and institutions alike. Ironically, this happens despite the fact that entering students (and their parents) expect a quality education to prepare them for a global workforce and increasingly interconnected world. They may anticipate continuing the study of foreign language to achieve some degree of actual proficiency, but instead they are often neither required nor encouraged to do so.
In 1991, I departed West Virginia
to enter a doctoral program in women’s history at Binghamton University. I hadn’t realized it, but while at WVU I had always engaged in cross-disciplinary work that spanned a variety of fields. Upon entering Binghamton, I realized how “disciplined” I was becoming as I focused narrowly on his-tory as my area of specialization. I believed I had left behind my study of language as I pursued topics related to US social welfare history at the turn of the twentieth century.
Soon, however, I discovered a newly created and innovative Languages across the Curriculum program that had been embraced by my mentors. I accepted a student position with the program, and I began to learn about ways to integrate what had before seemed like disparate paths—foreign language and the study of US history. Rather than focusing on language learning, I realized I could learn by focus-ing on language use.
Today, I’m the director of the program. We boldly assert our long-term goal of establishing “a campuswide expectation that students will be able to make meaningful use of any language they know in any class at any level anywhere in the university curriculum.” We ask our colleagues and students why they aren’t making more use of their foreign language knowledge. I mean, after all, suffering through those grammar sessions about the subjunctive should be worth something, right?
Or, if you’re a heritage learner, meaning that you learned a language other than English in your home or community, we ask why you’re not finding a place for your bilingual skills in your studies. Most often, I’m met with a blank stare, so I move to questions about “meaningful use.” Do you think you could read a headline in “insert
The New INTerNaTIoNalIsm:
By Suronda Gonzalez, PhD, Photo by Jonathan Cohen
Culture and Language across the Curriculum
Suronda Gonzalez, PhD
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 7
language here?” Could you locate some newspapers from “insert country name here” through the Internet or the library’s database? Do you think it could be beneficial for you to know how various languages (and cultures) conceptualize “fill in the blank here with a key term from your area of study?”
The answer is nearly always a resound-ing “yes.” Students enter college with an attitude that understanding different lan-guages and cultures are important for their careers and for the future of the United States. Too often, academic institutions don’t capitalize on that interest. One of my colleagues from another institution argues that students don’t incorporate languages into their studies because they’re told they can’t. I argue that they’re never told that they can. Once students are encouraged to do so, they’ll often try it out. The most recent statistics from our program show that half of all students who participate would be willing to try to use their lan-guage in another class of their own accord.
At Binghamton University, we’ve had 20 years of support to develop our Languages across the Curriculum Program. I’ve worked for the program for almost 15 years. The work has done far more than encourage me to expand my language abilities. Working for Languages across the Curriculum has been the fundamental force shaping my teaching and learning philosophies.
My work, my students, and my col-leagues have taught me that the principles we espouse are not only capable of produc-ing intellectual and personal transforma-tion, but that they also can, over time, transform our institutions.
Despite the title of our program, “Languages across the Curriculum” (and the more recently created “Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum” move-ment), we are as much about encouraging critical thinking as meaningful language use. Students use their basic knowledge of a foreign language to find materials in other languages. Often, these authentic cultural sources (newspaper articles, commercials, and websites) reflect perspectives that expand knowledge of a given issue. Our methods foster engagement and curiosity
about the many layers of meaning embed-ded within a concept.
Faculty members who participate empower students to push the boundaries of even the faculty member’s knowledge. Such programs represent a “flipping of the classroom” in that they empower students to be collaborators in the production of knowledge. Those who take up the chal-lenge are those who are familiar with the unpredictability and fluidity of culture and who are comfortable mucking around in the complexity and ambiguity of a text.
By implication, the approach is cross-disciplinary. Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum-centered instructors are often innovators in their classrooms and in their research. They empower learners to become interpreters and to discover their unique voice. In this way, CLAC strate-gies can be a democratizing force in the classroom.
Exploring the globe highlights regional and local differences. Students who partici-pate begin to realize that what they see from a more international or even global perspec-tive enriches their understanding of the local and the regional. Students begin to look at their own environments with new questions.
Students carry these new questions/perspectives into new classrooms, and across their undergraduate experience. Most recent statistics show that more than 50 percent of participating students plan to use their language in another course, of their own accord. If allowed, they can transform the curriculum through their questions.
To be sure, it isn’t easy for the instruc-tor. This happened to me as I taught a 180-student course related to immigration and ethnicity in the United States. Inter-national students in the course had wildly different questions about the material than did students who had attended US schools. At times, we were able to examine the reasons behind the different questions to explore the historical and cultural forces shaping both groups. Practitioners must be flexible and responsive to such important moments. Upon graduation, these profes-sionals carry new questions/perspectives into their communities.
Students are some of the most ardent supports of these methods/programs. They often recruit new professors by describ-ing how the curriculum intersects with our goals. These programs are most well positioned to foment broader institutional change when there is strong support at both ends of the institution. Students are a vital part of growing the program.
Rather than being a specialized pro-gram, or an offshoot of the curriculum, CLAC programs are at the foundation of the curriculum. Working in a this environ-ment for the majority of my professional career has pushed me to think about the ways the entire curriculum should be able to articulate its “meaningful use” for students to connect with the power of our general education requirements.
As our programs work to bridge disci-plinary divides, there’s been a parallel move-ment to broaden meanings of “international” so that they are not the sole responsibility of the study abroad and international student and scholar offices. Internationalization of an institution must be the responsibility of every division. We are all part of the movement to globalize our campus.
Suronda Gonzalez is the director of both the Global Studies Minor Program and the Languages across the Curriculum Program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The Languages across the Curriculum Program is a world language instruction program that allows students to apply their language skills and intercultural knowledge to a wide range of academic subjects. Gonzalez began her career at SUNY Bingham-ton in 1999 as the program’s assistant director before taking over the program in 2001. She also was an instructor in the history department in 2005.
While attending WVU, Gonzalez double majored in Spanish and interna-tional studies with a concentration on Western Europe. She graduated in 1987 and went on to complete a certificate in women’s studies and a master’s degree in liberal studies in 1991. Her oral history project focused on the experiences of Spanish immigrant women in Har-rison County, West Virginia. Gonzalez received her PhD in US history in 2005 from SUNY Binghamton.
Culture and Language
8 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
During a recent visit to the Student Health office, my doctor asked what
I was studying in school. I responded by saying I was a psychology graduate student. She knew there were quite a few programs within the Department of Psychology at WVU, so I told her I was in the newest program—behavioral neuroscience. Her eyes lit up with interest and she asked more about it. I said I was in my second year, and that I was one of two graduate students who comprise the inaugural behavioral neuroscience graduate student class. Then, pleading ignorance, she wanted to verify that behavioral neuroscience meant studying both biology and behavior. When I confirmed her belief, she blurted out, “Well, isn’t that what we should have been studying all along?!”
Of course I laughed. But she was right. What good is it if we only study biology and behavior separately and have no understanding of how they interact? Behavioral neuroscience is a field with a specific intention to fill this gap. It examines the biological bases of behavior and provides a well-needed bridge between the field of neuroscience, which studies the biology of the brain, and the field of psychology, which studies the behavior of people. It was this dual mindset that appealed to me. I always enjoyed the “hard core” science, but I love painting a more complete picture by studying how this relates to human behavior.
I entered the behavioral neuroscience program in August 2010, after earning my bachelor of science degree from WVU in May. During my undergraduate studies I intended to go to medical school. I wanted to become a psychiatrist and work
with patients with sleep disorders. In fact, during my senior year, I applied to medical schools in the United States and Canada; this program was the only graduate school program to which I applied. However, the more I found out about this program, the more I realized my interests lie on the research side of sleep disorders, not on the clinical side. By the time I received my acceptance, this program had already become my top choice, and what I once thought would be a difficult decision to make became a no brainer (no pun intended).
I am in the unique position of being with the program since its 2010 inception. Many people questioned my choice to join a new, not yet fully established program. However, that was one of the aspects that drew me to it—the fact that I would play a role in the development and early success of a program still in its infancy.
Since beginning grad school, I have assumed the role of one of the “senior” students in the program. It’s a role that has not always been easy, especially in my first year when I was just learning the ropes myself. However, it’s a role I’ve embraced and ultimately enjoyed because, despite the service commitments it entails and the “guinea pig” role I sometimes play, it comes with benefits and experiences I could not have otherwise gotten so early in my training.
I have had the opportunity, as a graduate student representative of my program, to meet and dine with prestigious neuroscience researchers who are invited guest speakers at WVU. I also have served as the student representative on our training committee for the second year in a row—a spot usually reserved for third- and
fourth-year students. I have participated in training committee meetings where the direction of the program has been established, a behavioral analysis emphasis has been added, and even witnessed the creation of my preliminary exams (a slightly terrifying experience). This year is also the third consecutive year that the committee has conducted a faculty search, which means I’ve been actively involved in two of these search committees. Through this experience I have gone over countless faculty applications and been a part of meetings with current faculty where I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t—valuable information for when I go on the job market. It also means I have witnessed and contributed to the program’s growth.
When the program officially began, it consisted of just two faculty and two graduate students. It nearly doubled in size this year, and we expect continued rapid growth that will approach full capacity by the time I graduate. Our most recent faculty addition, Dr. Steven Kinsey, was hired last year and is conducting research on the effects of stress and the endocannabinoid system on behavior and the immune system. Dr. Kinsey joins Drs. Hawley Montgomery-Downs and Miranda Reed to comprise the core behavioral neuroscience faculty. Our program’s coordinator, Dr. Montgomery-Downs, is conducting research on postpartum sleep disturbances. Research in the sleep lab also has examined sleep disordered breathing in a pediatric population. I am one of three graduate students who are part of the sleep lab this year, with my own research looking at disruption of the circadian rhythm (the internal 24-hour biological clock that helps
Bridging the Gap between Biology and Behavior
BehavIoral NeuroscIeNce:
By Amanda McBean, Photo by Brian Persinger
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 9
control our sleep-wake cycle) among new mothers. Dr. Reed, who was hired in 2010, is conducting research on the molecular and behavioral basis of memory loss. The lab uses animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral analysis techniques.
One of the major strengths of this new program is its interdisciplinary nature. As the behavioral neuroscience field attempts to bridge gaps in research between disciplines, our program similarly attempts to bridge gaps in research between WVU departments. This is done through collaboration and interaction with students and faculties in departments both within and outside of psychology. All of the faculty members in our program are also members of the Center for Neuroscience, which integrates all neuroscience research across WVU. Forty WVU laboratories are members of the Center, and the members’ research falls into four main categories: sensory neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, and neural injury. The members of the Center are very interactive and participate, along with trainees, in regularly scheduled scientific meetings and social interactions where recent breakthroughs and topics in neuroscience research are discussed.
My brief stint in this program has been rich with opportunities and learning experiences. The program is much more research-oriented than other programs in the Psychology Department, which means my course load is somewhat lighter than other graduate students. This provides me with more time to spend conducting studies, securing external funding to support my research, and publishing manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. The extra time set aside for these activities is invaluable as I build my resume with the intention of pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship and a more heavily research-oriented career in academia upon graduation.
Since our program is still new and relatively small, we experience a unique sort of camaraderie and teamwork. Everyone in the program, both faculty and graduate students alike, wants it to succeed and everyone is working toward that same goal by excelling in their individual research areas. We are all playing some role in choosing who is hired and what graduate students are accepted, and it is fun to watch the program grow. I am excited to be a part of this period of growth for the next few years and see the direction we take and the research that comes out of our labs.
Amanda McBean studies circadian rhythm disruption among new mothers.
Amanda McBean was born and raised in Canada. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the WVU cross country and track and field teams. In 2007, she ran on the cross country team that won the first-ever Big East title in any women’s sport at the University—that year WVU went on to a top 10 finish at the NCAA Tournament. In 2010, McBean earned her bachelor of science in animal and veterinary sciences with a minor in psychology from WVU.
She is a second-year doctoral candidate in the behavioral neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology. She works with Hawley Montgomery-Downs, PhD, in her state-of-the-art sleep laboratory conducting research on sleep in the postpartum period. She defended her master’s thesis last spring which examined circadian rhythm disruption among new mothers and how it related to their mood, anxiety, and stress levels. She plans to continue this line of research; looking at possible ways to improve the sleep and mental health of new mothers by reducing their circadian rhythm disruption. She continues to be an avid runner, living and training with many of her former teammates.
10 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
In 2010, I had the experience
of a lifetime. I was one of 75
graduate delegates chosen from US
institutions to attend the 60th annual
Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates.
During this gathering in Germany,
59 Nobel Laureates from the fields
of chemistry, physiology, medicine,
and physics gave presentations on
current and future topics in their
respective disciplines. To be one of the
675 young researchers from 68 countries
interacting up close and personally with
these scientists, and exchanging ideas in
meetings and over dinner, was incredible.
But how did I get there?
Since the age of 14, I have engaged
in community involvement and
development through mathematics
and the sciences. I am impassioned
to increase scientific literacy in
underrepresented populations.
Before becoming a physicist, I
worked in youth development for
11 years, and I gained insight on
deficiencies within the education
system. I am especially concerned
with the disconnect between the
scientific community and students
in the populations where hands-on
influence is desperately needed. In my
experience, no one was available to talk
to youngsters about STEM professions
or the benefits and excitement of
scientific and mathematic study. I
made the decision to go back to school
when I realized that in spite of all the
good I could do as a teacher and
an organizer, I still felt as though I
lacked the full background needed to
best serve young people.
After graduating from Georgia Tech,
I was accepted as a doctoral student in
the WVU Physics Department, where
I specialize in plasma physics. I am
working toward my goals to advance
scientific discovery and to dispel
ignorance that may have impeded
progress. Using my PhD training, I want
to expose our nation’s bright minds to
experiences that will ignite passion and
lead to identification and development
of future scientists, particularly targeting
at-risk populations.
At the University, I work with helicon
plasmas, exploring double layers and ion
heating using laser induced florescence
diagnostics. A double layer is a special
region of plasma where particles undergo
acceleration from a potential field.
These parallel sheets of opposing charge
accelerate ions and electrons in opposite
directions. Using the diagnostic as our
“radar gun,” we can observe ion beams
in our laboratory reaching speeds in the
order of 20,000 mph.
I explore the science behind
controlling this phenomenon, which has
been observed in space, with the aim of
duplicating it. My research, alongside
my mentor and advisor Dr. Earl Scime,
has implications in space propulsion and
in materials processing. Some practical
applications of this research include
sterilizing medical instruments using
heat and UV radiation of a plasma and
creating computer chips with plasma
etching. I look forward to our continued
work in our newly renovated, cutting-
edge facility, White Hall.
As for the Nobel Laureates
conference, connecting and networking
with other researchers proved invaluable
to me. While I was thrilled for the
opportunity, I was concerned about a
number of self-perceived challenges.
The meeting lasted for only six days;
would there be enough time? Would
I be able to relate effectively to these
giants in their fields? Would there be
generational or even cultural gaps that
might inhibit communication?
Thankfully, my fears were quickly
allayed as I found that among the
objectives of the Lindau Meeting
is to bring science to a rebuilding
community (in this case post-World
War II Germany). By bringing
scientists to engage students, the
By Jerry Carr Jr., Photo by Brian Persinger
A Meeting of the Minds
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 11
conference organizers are able to give
locals a chance to participate and
benefit. The impact on the region itself
has been transformative. I want to be a
part of bringing a similar initiative to
some of the communities where I have
served in West Virginia; Dorchester,
Massachusetts; and my hometown of
Detroit, Michigan.
In Lindau, I shared close quarters
with three roommates and, having only
three keys for four guys, I got to know
my roommates quickly and developed
a good rapport. It’s hard to be less than
cordial when someone has control over
whether you can get into your room at
the end of the night.
Rather than remain within cramped
(but lovely) quarters, we all took the
opportunity to mingle with the hundreds
of delegates. We represent the next
generation of scientific leadership.
I have worked with the Spallation
Neutron Source, a unique accelerator-
based neutron source in Oak Ridge,
Tennessee, that provides the most
intense pulsed neutron beams in
the world for scientific research and
industrial development. I have also
worked with WVNano, the West
Virginia initiative for nanoscience and
nanotechnology research.
My experiences with both
organizations emphasize the importance
of what was reflected during my time
in Lindau—that taking the time to
leave your comfort zone and meet on
common ground with researchers from
other disciplines is critical to solving
a number of the challenges facing
humanity. I count myself lucky to have
seen firsthand the benefits of sharing
different scientific perspectives on a
national and global scale.
Jerry Carr Jr., represents the next generation of leaders in the field of physics.
Jerry Carr Jr., is a plasma physics doctoral student at WVU. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree and highest honors in physics from Georgia Tech in 2007, and studied electrical engineering, computer science and brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and plans to complete his PhD in December 2012. He would like to acknowledge the support he received from the WV Space Grant and the Southern Regional Education Board.
By Rebecca Herod
THE
YEARPLAN
LOCALLY FOCUSED, NATIONALLY PROMINENT, GLOBALLY ENGAGED
12 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 13
The Eberly College, in keeping
with WVU’s continuing rise in national
recognition, is bursting at the seams
these days. It is hard to make it through
a week without hearing about another
internationally significant
publication, grant, award,
or accolade. All this activity
is fuel for our aspirational
goals for 2020. Those goals
include five key areas in
which we will focus our
resources and energies to
create the strongest and
best Eberly College yet—a
College, not just ready
to meet the needs of the
future, but also leading and
innovating as it delivers on
the landgrant mission in the
twenty-first century.
According to “Raising
the Bar: Employers’ Views
on College Learning in
the Wake of the Economic
Downturn,” a survey of
employers conducted for
the American Association
of Colleges and Universities
and published in 2010, US
employers want universities
to place more emphasis on
essential learning outcomes.
The assets that they are looking for align
fully with Eberly’s liberal arts philosophy,
a philosophy that gives undergraduates
the tools to compete in the job markets of
today and tomorrow. We will track student
progress between the beginning and end
of degree programs to demonstrate that
our student body makes measurable gains
in their understanding of the values of a
liberal arts education, critical thinking, and
communication skills.
As the College develops new curricula
and programs, we will add course modules
and out-of-the-classroom experiences that
help students maximize the value of their
undergraduate degree and build skills
needed to invent their own career path.
We will partner with the WVU Office
of Career Services to engage students in
the career planning process early. And
we will redouble our efforts to provide
teachers the training and technologies
needed to create a first-class learning
environment. A key aspirational goal for
undergraduate education is to ensure
that every student has a hands-on, out-
of-the-classroom learning experience
such as an internship, fieldwork, study
abroad, service learning, or research.
This will require the marshaling of
resources to support research, travel,
and other costs of ensuring access to
important real-world experiences.
Scholarship will lead our charge
toward ever-higher quality and relevance
to tomorrow’s world. Key indicators
of progress include the numbers
of PhD students
completing degrees,
research grants and
contracts, publications,
and national recognition
of our faculty and student
scholarship. We also want
to continue, and indeed
grow, our success in placing
master’s and PhD graduates
in a variety of positions
across the spectrum of the
public and private sectors.
To meet these
challenges, the College
is investing in research
facilities, enriching
graduate student learning,
and increasing graduate
student enrollment. Each
year, we will invest several
million dollars to buy
new equipment, renovate
research labs, and secure
cutting-edge technologies—
including a supercomputer,
clean rooms to develop
nanotechnology, and
imaging technologies that can show us
the structure of individual molecules. We
plan to increase the number of fellowships
and assistantships, increase stipends to
levels comparable to the departments
of peer institutions, and add innovative
training programs that our graduates will
need in today’s fast-paced multitasking
world. Our efforts will ensure that we not
only increase the graduate pool, but also
compete for the best and most promising
Ensuring our students meet these essential learning outcomes will make us a go-to place for employers seeking qualified candidates.
Read more about Eberly College for Arts and Sciences’ 2020 Strategic Plan for the Future and the process and people behind it at eberly.strategicplan.wvu.edu
PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYERS WHO WANT COLLEGES TO “PLACE MORE EMPHASIS”
ON ESSENTIAL LEARNING OUTCOMES
Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World
• Science and technology.....................................................70%• Global issues.................................................................... 67%• The role of the United States in the world............................ 57%• Cultural diversity in the United States and other countries..... 57%• Civic knowledge, participation, and engagement.................. 52%
Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Written and oral communication.........................................89%• Critical thinking and analytic reasoning...............................81%• Complex problem solving...................................................75%• Teamwork skills in diverse groups.......................................71%• Creativity and innovation....................................................70%• Information literacy........................................................... 68%• Quantitative reasoning....................................................... 63%
Personal and Social Responsibility
• Ethical decision making......................................................75%• Intercultural competence (teamwork in diverse groups)......... 71%• Intercultural knowledge (global issues)................................ 67%• Civic knowledge, participation, and engagement.................. 52%
From “Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn”
14 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
graduate candidates. By 2020, we plan to
increase the number of master’s and doctoral
degrees by more than 20 percent.
The Eberly College has many
programs aimed at building a better life
for the citizens of West Virginia and our
region. In 2010, the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching
recognized the scope and success of
WVU’s impact by selecting the University
for the 2010 Community Engagement
Classification. This honor put WVU in
the six percent of all US higher education
institutions—and the only institution in
West Virginia—that Carnegie recognizes
for high-quality, high-impact engagement.
Our faculty and students are truly
transforming peoples’ lives, as can be seen
in the stories in this, and past editions
of Eberly. Just a few examples of some
of our unique community partnerships
include the Community Design Team,
the Behavior Analysis Teacher Training
Program, and the Institute for Math
Learning. We will strive to increase the
number of these partnerships, with a
specific focus on healthy communities and
healthy choices in the next ten years. And
though we have a strong local and regional
focus in our outreach programs, we aim to
expand our successes to reach a national
and international audience. Indeed, most
everything we do in outreach, research,
and teaching is aimed at building global
perspectives and connections.
Our goals cannot be reached if we
do not continue to attract and retain the
best and brightest students, faculty, and
staff, and provide them with the facilities
they need to succeed. Therefore, part of
our investments will be used to build a
welcoming, diverse, and collaborative
environment in which people can develop
successful and personally rewarding
careers. By 2020, we hope to add two
new academic buildings, and complete
major renovations to three existing
buildings, White, Chemistry Research,
and Hodges halls. We also plan to add
staffing adequate to meet the demands for
student advising, instruction, research,
outreach, and administration using
comparisons with peer institutions and
surveys of staff perceptions of the work
environment. Those surveys are one
tool that will help us be the best place to
work: providing resources, mentoring,
and continuing education opportunities
for our employees. The Eberly College is
already a vibrant community of scholars,
students, and staff but we can do more to
foster and grow a diverse culture.
In the coming decade, we will continue
to refine the things we do best. Through the
development of excellent and diverse faculty,
students, and programs, the Eberly College
of Arts and Sciences will fulfill its mission to:
• Lead West Virginia University’s
emergence as one of the nation’s
premier institutions of higher education;
• Strengthen existing successes in
learning and discovery, and build
academic programs for tomorrow; and
• Enhance the well-being of the citizens
of West Virginia, as well as our region,
nation, and world.
WVU RANKS 5TH ON AARP’S “BEST EMPLOYERS FOR WORKERS OVER 50” LIST, A MEASURABLE INDICATOR OF OUR EFFORTS TO MAKE WVU AND THE EBERLY COLLEGE THE BEST PLACE TO WORK.
KATHERINE BOMKAMP a political science major, was named one of Glamour magazine’s “21 Amazing Young Women” for developing a prosthetic device that aims to alleviate phantom pain in the world’s millions of amputees. The distinction is given to young women across the country who are changing the world through service and innovation.
ARWEN STEWART is an international studies major and participant in the Critical Language Scholarship Program offered by the US Department of State.
a biology and psychology major, is intrigued by the complex and integrated workings of the human brain. She is one of nine students chosen nationwide for the National Health Institutes Undergraduate Scholarship Program.
ELI RODGERS-MELNICKa doctoral candidate in biology, was invited to the Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany. This is an honor annually reserved for fewer than 100 graduate students worldwide. He is the second WVU student in two years to attend the event.
NAMRATHA GUDEMARANAHALLI
Faculty members in the Eberly College submitted
212 research proposals, received $15.9 million in external funding, produced 550 peer-reviewed publications, and had seven new patent applications in 2010.
Retention of students from freshman to sophomore year—83 percent in
2010—was well above the national average of 76 percent reported by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems for the latest year of complete data (2009).
The college is increasing the size of its faculty. Fourteen new positions were added
in fall 2010, and 11 more in fall 2011; nine percent of Eberly’s faculty positions are endowed.
The University was named as one of the top 20 research
institutions at which to work in 2011, according to The Scientist.
The College boasts national rankings in psychology,
forensic and investigative science, public administration, creative writing, and communication studies.
Three English faculty members received significant recognition; Pat Connor had three paper sessions at the
International Medieval Congress dedicated to him, Mary Ann Samyn received WVU’s Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing, and Mark Brazaitis received the University of Notre Dame’s Richard Sullivan Prize for his collection of short stories.
The WVU Debate Team, advised by faculty in the Department of
Political Science, finished 10th in the annual national competition.
The Eberly College implemented a new
doctoral specialization in behavioral neuroscience, a minor in Japanese studies, and a graduate program in forensic and investigative science. Additionally, gerontology and nonprofit management certificate programs are now offered entirely online.
A multidisciplinary team of faculty from the Eberly College successfully submitted and
received a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Grant in the amount of $3.2 million to promote participation and leadership by women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Justin Legleiter, assistant professor in the C. Eugene
Bennett Department of Chemistry, received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and an Alzheimer’s Association New Investigator Research Grant, one of approximately 45 internationally awarded. Read more about his work on page 38.
The first group of international dual-degree master’s
candidates in the Central and Eastern European Studies Atlantis Grant Program graduated from the program. Currently, 21 students from the three participating universities are enrolled.
The $2.5 million planetarium complex in the newly renovated White Hall will open this Summer.
The Department of Philosophy’s Ethics Bowl team qualified for
the 17th National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition. The team qualified for the national competition by placing among the top three teams in the Central States Regional Ethics Bowl Competition.
Associate Professor Jim Nolan received the 2010 Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) West Virginia Professor of the Year Award.
Chatman Neely, senior lecturer and off-campus MSW coordinator for the WVU Division of Social Work’s Wheeling
campus, was named 2011 West Virginia Social Worker of the Year.
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11.
REASONS TO BE PROUD OF THE
EBERLY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 15
Dr llinginto the
IssueIn October, West Virginia University announced its Marcellus Shale Initiative that would bring together industry experts to study development of the Marcellus shale natural gas field. Through the project, experts are examining how the Marcellus reserve can be developed with minimal environmental impact.
Eberly asked Sam Ameri, PhD, chair of the WVU Department of Natural Gas and Engineering, and Shikha Sharma, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geography, to share their Marcellus-related research and offer some insight from engineering and geochemist perspectives. Here’s what they had to say.
Marcellus Shale Offers Economic Development, Clean Energy
By Sam Ameri
West Virginia has a rich history of
oil and natural gas production. In 1771,
George Washington acquired 250 acres
in what is now West Virginia because “it
contained an oil and gas spring.” (From
Where It All Began: The Story of the People
and Places Where the Oil and Gas Industry
Began: West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio By
David McKain and Bernard L. Allen (1994).)
In 1916, the West Virginia University
School of Mines offered its first course in
petroleum engineering.
Fast-forward to 2012. The industry
is thriving, and West Virginia University
remains the only academic institution in
the state offering degrees in petroleum
and natural gas engineering.
The Department of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Engineering (PNGE)—with
which I have been affiliated for more than
30 years—furnishes industry with petroleum
and natural gas engineers, develops new
extraction technologies, and provides industry
with expert technical services.
We are entering a golden age of natural-gas
use, which is fantastic news for our state and
its people. With innovative breakthroughs in
fracturing and drilling technology, massive
homegrown natural gas reserves can be
brought to the surface. The production of
more than 100 years’ worth of inexpensive
natural gas is clearly in sight.
Shale gas is the gold rush of this
century. West Virginians are sitting right
on top of the Marcellus shale. This gas
field spans 95,000 square miles, and has
as many productive layers of gas-bearing
formations as Saudi Arabia has oil fields. I
believe that the Marcellus could potentially
be the second-largest natural gas field
in the world. It offers excellent career
opportunities to our graduates; prosperity
for our state; and abundant, affordable,
clean energy for our nation’s future.
To understand the Marcellus shale, it
is important to have a basic understanding
of its geology and the technologies that
have facilitated its development. The
Marcellus shale gas field consists of shale
formations/layers that are from 40 to
100 feet thick and located about a mile
(depending on the location) beneath the
surface. The field extends throughout
most of the Appalachian Basin, spreading
across southern New York, Pennsylvania,
eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. The
formation tapers off in the bordering
states of Maryland, Kentucky, and
Tennessee. Sweet spots and largest
concentrations of drilling production are in
the northeastern portion of the field.
Horizontal drilling and hydraulic
16 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 17
fracturing have been the prime
technological drivers for the growing
importance of shale gas, but these
technologies pose unique challenges for
determining optimum development
strategies. Research is the key to unlocking
vast quantities of natural gas that were once
considered too difficult to produce.
Consequently, every faculty member
in our department is actively engaged in
research relating to the Marcellus and other
shale formations. We recently established a
Marcellus Shale Laboratory, with state-of-
the-art equipment and technology, and are
excited about the opportunity this facility
will provide to enhance our research and
development efforts.
PNGE’s shale-related research involves
both laboratory investigations and
computer modeling to develop a better
understanding of shale and the impact of
horizontal wells with multiple hydraulic
fractures on gas recovery efficiency.
Researchers also are investigating the use
of artificial intelligence, data mining,
and smart software for modeling shale
and other unconventional hydrocarbon-
bearing formations. We also are researching
optimum techniques for extracting the
liquid-rich gas that is widely found in the
northwestern part of the Marcellus shale.
As an academic department, our primary
goal is to educate petroleum and natural
gas engineers. Due to the rapid increase
in shale gas production—not only in the
Marcellus but also all over the world—our
student enrollment has increased greatly.
Technological changes have also led us to
place special emphasis on the Marcellus shale
in our graduate research program.
As a teacher, I gain a great deal of
pleasure from working with our students,
who are some of the best and brightest
from West Virginia, the nation, and
the world. I am proud of our strong
job placement rate and know that my
colleagues are equally pleased about the
many opportunities that have opened for
our graduates in recent years.
In addition to jobs for engineering
graduates, shale gas development offers
great opportunities for other high-paying
jobs. Opportunities exist in such areas as
construction; equipment manufacturing,
service, and repair; water management;
well servicing; legal, accounting, and other
professional services; and others.
There is no doubt that the Marcellus
shale offers great promise for our long-term
economic prosperity in West Virginia.
Industry experts believe that we have
not come close to realizing the economic
potential of this resource, and won’t for many
years. As technology continues to improve,
efficiency will as well. I believe that in 20
years, natural gas will be the second-largest
fuel used to power the cars that we drive, and
that there will be natural gas vehicles and
filling stations everywhere.
In addition, several companies are
currently considering West Virginia as the
location for a multibillion-dollar ethane
cracker. These plants convert ethane, a by-
product of Marcellus shale gas drilling, into
a vital ingredient for the plastics industry.
The project would
create up to 10,000
construction
jobs, hundreds of
permanent positions,
and a major boost to the state’s economy.
The icing on the cake is the Utica shale
gas field, another huge shale formation that
is actually located beneath the Marcellus.
Many in industry believe it may offer
even greater potential for long-term
development than the Marcellus.
Natural gas is an abundant, inexpensive
energy resource that will help us fuel our
economy for decades to come, and it is exciting
to witness its growth in shale gas-rich West
Virginia. I personally believe it is a very good
thing for our state and its people. The need
for bright petroleum and natural gas engineers
and geologists to meet the energy demands of
West Virginia and the nation is on a steep rise.
It is exciting to be involved at this time of rapid
technological change, and I look forward to a
bright energy future for our state and nation.
“Natural gas is an abundant, inexpensive energy resource that will help us fuel our economy for decades to come.”
About Sam Ameri, PhDSamuel Ameri, professor & chair of the
Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering
Department at West Virginia University, has
more than 30 years of distinguished service in
both industry and academia. Ameri has in-depth
experience in fossil energy areas, particularly
natural gas and oil extraction. As a researcher, he
has developed a high-quality research program
in the area of oil and gas recovery and compiled
an outstanding record of publications across a
wide spectrum of oil and gas issues.
Ameri has been active in the Society
of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). His
participation includes being the co-general
chair of SPE Eastern Regional Conference
and Exhibition 2000, serving on the SPE
Education & Accreditation Committee,
SPE Continuing Education Committee,
and the Eastern Regional SPE Technical
Conference Program Committees.
Other roles he has held include the chair of
Department Heads of Petroleum Engineering
Schools in U.S.A. He has served on the SPE
Cedric K. Ferguson Medal Committee, and the
Northern West Virginia Section of the Society
of Petroleum Engineers. He received his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum
and natural gas engineering from WVU.
18 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Let’s Make Sure We Understand the Impact on Water Quality
By Shikha Sharma
In August 2011, the Secretary of Energy
Advisory Board’s Shale Gas Production
Subcommittee released its 90-day interim
report outlining measures that can be taken
to reduce the environmental impact and
improve the safety of shale gas production.
As a stable isotope geochemist, my
research program focuses on both those
aspects of Marcellus shale gas development
in Appalachia.
I believe with proper drilling and
monitoring practices in place, shale gas can
be produced with minimal environmental
impact and prove to be a tremendous
resource for our economy.
I have three graduate students using
stable isotopes (such as carbon, hydrogen,
and oxygen) to understand the sources and
fates of different contaminants related to
shale gas drilling. Our group is interested
in developing geochemical tools for
characterizing surface waters, coal mine
waters, groundwater aquifers, and flowback
waters in areas of shale gas drilling in West
Virginia and Pennsylvania.
As the debate over hydrofracking in
regions of Marcellus shale drilling grows, a
number of residents near drilling fields are
concerned that the process will taint their
drinking water with methane.
Some of these concerns, although
legitimate, are not necessary because
environmentally conscious drilling can
alleviate these issues. My research, which
covers the origins of methane gas in the
Monongahela River watershed and other
areas of the region, has shown that dissolved
methane gas already exists in groundwater
where there is no shale gas drilling.
The sources of methane gas can
include active or inactive deep coal mines,
landfills, gas storage fields or microbial gas
generated in a shallow subsurface. However,
all methane is not isotopically the same.
Depending on how and where methane is
formed, it can have very different carbon
and hydrogen isotope signatures. This gives
us the ability to know if it comes from
hydrofracking releases or some other source.
The preliminary results from our
ongoing studies show the promise of
our approach to understanding sources
of contaminants in groundwaters and
surface waters including dissolved
methane. One of the key factors
controlling the gas production potential
of shale deposits is determining what
type of kerogen we’re dealing with.
Kerogen is the naturally occurring,
solid, organic matter that occurs in source
rocks and can yield oil upon heating.
There are three types of kerogens; type I,
consisting of mainly algal and amorphous
kerogen and highly likely to generate
oil; type II, mixed terrestrial and marine
source material that can generate waxy
oil; and type III, woody terrestrial source
material that typically generates gas. We
can determine the type through common
laboratory and petrological tests.
However, there are a number of factors
that need to be considered when examining
the matter, particularly the environment.
As a scientist, it is my job to stay focused on
the scientific perspective of this study while
staying neutral on the political and social
issues associated with it.
It is important to understand the role
of these processes because they control how
much gas can be generated from a formation
and its quality. I am interested in using
different geochemical
approaches to
understand the
primary biological
and geochemical processes that control
the variation in type, distribution, and
concentration of total organic carbon
preserved in Marcellus shale.
It is also important to understand
exactly how much methane exists in the
groundwater now and what sources it
comes from, so that unbiased decisions
can be made regarding the potential and
real impacts of hydrofracking on our water
sources in the future.
About Shikha Sharma, PhD
“…there are a number of factors that need to be considered when examining the matter, particularly the environment.”
Shikha Sharma joined WVU’s Department
of Geology and Geography as an assistant
professor in 2010. She previously worked
for the University of Wyoming as an
associate director. Sharma completed her
studies at Lucknow University in Lucknow,
India. After graduating, she went to the
University of Erlangen in Germany for an
Academic Exchange Fellowship from 2000
to 2002. From there, she came to the United
States and joined Iowa State University as a
post-doctoral associate.
Sharma’s current research bridges the fields of
low-temperature stable isotope geochemistry,
environment, energy, water resources, and
ecology. She is interested in understanding the
environmental impact of climatic, biological, and
geochemical processes on biogeochemical
cycles of major elements using stable isotopes.
Her efforts revolve around a variety of issues
related to the “carbon-water-energy” nexus.
Sharma is part of WVU’s ADVANCE and
WiSE initiative to encourage and mentor
women in science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics. In 2011, she was one
of eight women to receive a $15,000 grant
through the University’s $3.2 million National
Science Foundation ADVANCE Grant.
Tim Carr, the Marshall Miller Professor of Geology at West Virginia University, is the president-elect of the Council of Energy Research and Education Leaders, and is the interim director of a Marcellus shale roundtable at WVU.
Prior to coming to WVU, Carr worked for the Kansas Geological Survey as chief of the Energy Research Section and as senior scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. He was also co-director of the Energy Research Center and courtesy professor in the University of Kansas
Meet Tim Carr, Eberly’s Resident ExpertDepartment of Geology.
His experience includes 13 years with Atlantic Richfield, where he worked in a number of research, operations, and management positions. At ARCO, Carr was involved in both exploration and development projects in locations including Alaska, the North Sea, East Greenland, California, and Kansas. Carr has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin, a master’s in geology from Texas Tech University and a doctorate in geology from the University of Wisconsin.
REFRESH YOUR MEMORY Read about Tim Carr’s research on geologic sequestration in the summer 2011
edition of Eberly (pg. 10). The online archive edition is at eberly.wvu.edu/alumni/publications
WVU President Jim Clements, 2011 State of the University Address
The governor and other state leaders have declared that the responsible development of shale gas in West Virginia is critical to the economic development and well-being of our state.
And so we are establishing a Marcellus Gas Shale Initiative to serve as a clearinghouse for the wide range of expertise and intellectual power that our faculty, staff, and students have to offer from many different disciplines.”
“The opportunities and challenges of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, and in the future the Utica Shale, presents one of the most significant issues West Virginia will address in our lifetimes. As a land-grant university, it is our fundamental responsibility to be part of this process through the education, research, and service expertise that we have to offer. We have many disciplines where our expertise provides objective analysis and science. We must use this expertise to help our society.
About Shikha Sharma, PhD
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 19
Englehardt is responsible for the
Division of Social Work’s Professional
and Community Education Program.
The Program offers or sponsors 60 to 70
continuing education courses each year,
along with an annual Summer Institute
on Aging Conference. Courses are offered
all over the state and are concentrated in
the fall or spring semesters.
“Our program allows us to respond
to emerging topics that our current
courses may not cover,” Englehardt said.
“It is much easier to create a continuing
education opportunity than it is to have
By Rebecca Herod, Photo by Chris Schwer
Social workers must complete
an average of 25 credits of
continuing education annually
in order to maintain their
license to practice—a tough
thing to do if you are a rural
practitioner in West Virginia.
Enter Jacki Englehardt.
fast and flexible: The Social Worker’s Social Network
a new academic course created and vetted
through the academic approval process.
Continuing education allows us to be
flexible and to respond immediately to the
needs of state practitioners.”
Based on a survey she conducted,
emerging topics of interest for practitioners
include workshops on self-care to prevent
professional burnout, veterans’ issues,
hoarding, specific clinical techniques, mental
illness, and instruction on Medicare and
Medicaid open enrollment. West Virginia
social workers also reported increasing
interest in immigration law. Englehardt is
20 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Carly Costello, MSW graduate assistant; Erica Chico-Martin, administrative secretary; Jacki Englehardt, coordinator; Danielle Graunke, Children’s Home Society mentoring and volunteer coordinator and MSW candidate; Kurt Schmidt, Children’s Home Society site manager. CHS uses Englehardt’s listserv to post positions and find qualified MSW graduates for employment.
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 21
partnering with Jim Friedberg of the West
Virginia University College of Law to offer
Immigration Law 101 for Social Workers.
A social worker is often the first
person people talk to about their
immigration issues. Friedberg will draw
on his experience
from his work
with the WVU
Immigration Law
Clinic to discuss
how the federal
immigration system is structured and
the kinds of problems social work clients
are likely to face regarding residency
status, deportation, benefits, agency
communication, domestic violence, and
other pertinent areas.
Following a workshop like this, social
workers are able to identify broad areas
of federal law that affect immigrants
and their families; define categories of
immigrant statuses; identify immigrant
eligibility for government services; identify
federal protections that are available to
immigrant victims of domestic violence;
define terminology common to immigrant
law issues; and identify resources to assist
immigrants in their communities.
While all faculty members from the
Division of Social Work share their expertise
through Englehardt’s program, a number of
the workshops’ instructors come from the
professional community and departments
across the University. For instance, Religious
Studies professor Jane Donovan teaches
an “Introduction to World Religions for
Helping Professionals;” professor James
Nolan from the Division of Sociology
and Anthropology educates social service
practitioners on how to recognize, report,
and respond to hate crimes; Jane Riffe from
WVU Extension regularly presents on
ethical practice and counseling techniques;
and Diane Williams, from WVU Center
for Excellence in Disabilities, presents
social workers with information on the
recognition, diagnoses, and treatment of
autism spectrum disorders.
Englehardt is taking advantage of
technology to keep state social service
organizations and practitioners apprised
of available course offerings and job
opportunities. Approximately 2,135 social
workers, counselors, and nurses from West
Virginia and other states are members of
her e-mail listserv network.
“When Jacki joined the faculty and took
on this program it was losing money,” said
Chris Plein, associate dean of the School of
Applied Social Sciences and interim chair
of the Division of Social Work. “It is now
solvent and we attribute that to her excellent
management, particularly her ability to
connect folks all over the state and give
them exactly what they need in terms of
continuing education opportunities.”
In addition to individual courses, the
Professional and Community Education
Program offers a nonprofit management
certificate and is developing a gerontology
certificate. Both require 100 hours of course
work. Linda Feola, director of the Literacy
Volunteers of Upshur County, was one
of the first participants to complete the
nonprofit management certificate program.
“When working, it is hard to have
large blocks of time available away from
your work site. These classes were user
friendly,” Feola said. “The programs
were within easy driving distance or were
grouped together at institutes. The lengths
of the classes were effective and concise.”
Feola is the only paid staff member
of Literacy Volunteers of Upshur County
and says the certificate program was vital
to her improved leadership skills. She
has used the board orientation materials
provided by the program extensively and
reports that the grant writing workshop
was “worth its weight in gold.”
“Since taking that class I have written
four grants and received all four,” she said.
That financial
support has allowed
Feola to expand
activities for the
program, which
serves the 19 percent
of adults—or one in five—reading below a
fourth-grade level in Upshur County. Last year
she was able to support 27 student activities.
“The more connected participants stay,
the better result they have,” Feola said.
“When you can’t read, even the simplest
tasks become impossible; shopping for
groceries, getting a prescription, helping
your children with their homework.
Having these grant resources has been
invaluable to our mission.”
Training leaders to act as administra-
tors within the social work field is another
goal of the Professional and Community
Education Program.
“During school, most social work
students take a direct practice curriculum.
They are not trained to be managers and
administrators, they are trained to be in the
field doing social work with individuals,
couples and families,” Englehardt said.
“Continuing education allows them to
gain critical management skills necessary
to lead and supervise programs.”
In the world of Facebook and Twitter, a
listserv may seem like a low-tech option, but
Englehardt’s work to connect West Virginia
social workers with education opportunities
and jobs is paying dividends to students,
alumni, practitioners, the vulnerable
populations that they serve, and social
service agencies around the state.
“It is much easier to create a continuing education opportunity than it is to have a new academic course created and vetted through the academic approval process…”
socialwork.wvu.edu/ce.For more information, visit
fast and flexible: The Social Worker’s Social Network
WorkingBy Devon Copeland, Photos courtesy of Beth Dunton/Virginia Beach Police Department
22 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Ask Dade Chisler what he does for a living and his answer sounds remarkably like a catchy tagline—“CSI, without the leather pants and stilettos.”
Those three letters have become synonymous in pop culture with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a whodunit procedural where the crimes are gruesome, the clothes are fashionably sleek, and the technology at times borders on futuristic. In reality, careers in crime scene investigation are a lot less glamorous and a lot more time consuming.
But those aren’t the only differences between the CBS
television hit that has produced two spin-offs and the decades-old
career field that CNN Money recently dubbed one of the top ten
fastest growing in the country.
While millions of viewers tune in every week to watch one
of three iterations of CSI, the hundreds of police officers who
make up the Virginia Beach Police Department know to count
on the agency’s crime scene unit to do its best to help them
catch their guy.
And with three West Virginia
University alumni in the Tidewater-
area unit as evidence, the Forensic
and Investigative Science Program
is gaining traction as a nationally
renowned program for its rigorous
and high-quality curriculum that
excels in preparing its graduates for an
increasingly competitive job market.
The trio, Dade Chisler, BS ’08;
DeAnna Wallace, BS ’08 and MS
’10; and Kayti Wildman, BS ’11,
serve as ambassadors of the Program
and exemplary examples of “what
works” by beating out dozens of
candidates in three separate national
hiring searches for their posts in
Virginia Beach.
And that suits them all just fine.
“Even my boss has joked that we’re
taking over,” said Wallace, when
talking about the three WVU grads all clocking in at the Virginia
Beach police department.
Still in the early phases of their careers the three have
already encountered “the CSI effect” and its influence on career
placements, court cases, college curriculum, laboratory loads, and
victims’ expectations.
They even admit it played a role—a small one—in guiding
them toward a career in forensic and investigative science. But
their reasons for pursuing their line
of work also reflect the strengths and
demands of the career: strong math
and science skills, a desire to help
people, and a keen attention to detail.
“My interest was kind of piqued
by CSI,” said Chisler, a Blacksville,
West Virginia native who initially
considered a career in mechanical
engineering. He joined the Virginia
Beach crime scene unit in 2009.
“It was the hit show that people
were watching and I thought it would
be the better opportunity for me to
help and interact with the public.”
The facilities, curriculum, and
faculty proved to be the perfect
trifecta of an education for the
PROMISE Scholar.
“We had so much access to
equipment and we had tons of
opportunities to get hands-on experience at WVU,” he said.
“They had high goals for all of us. They pushed us because
they knew what we were capable of.”
Student Achievement:
During the summer of 2011, 32 Forensic and Investigative Science students completed their internships at federal, state, and local forensic laboratories and crime scene units. All undergraduate students are required to have completed 420 internship hours in order to graduate. The placements of students by state are as follows:
West Virginia: 7
Maryland: 6
Pennsylvania: 6
Virginia: 4
Florida: 2
Texas: 1
New York: 1
Wisconsin: 1
Delaware: 1
North Carolina: 1
Georgia: 1
Kentucky: 1
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 23
DeAnna Wallace, Kayti Wildman, and Dade Chisler.
Since the program’s inception in 1999, its rigor has attracted
and retained students like Chisler, Wallace, and Wildman who
truly excel in math and science. Within each of the program’s
areas of emphasis is a required minimum of 53 hours of math
and science credits composed of 16 hours in chemistry, 12 hours
in biology, eight hours in physics, eight hours in calculus, three
hours in pharmacy, three hours in statistics, and three hours in
biochemistry.
When students aren’t hitting the books, they’re using
professional-level laboratory equipment, thanks to gifts from
companies including Cogent System, Nikon, and Afix Tracker;
or working through a mock case in the Crime Scene Training
Complex.
“They really have their stuff together,” said Wallace, of
Moundsville, West Virginia. “WVU has so much equipment and
it just keeps growing over the years.”
In 2010, the US Secret Service donated an infrared
spectrometer and microscope to help students analyze evidence
found at crime scene investigations, like fibers, paint chips, and
polymers and substances used in counterfeit activity, like ink.
When the Virginia Beach Police Department’s crime
scene unit supervisor and the department’s human resources
coordinator came to WVU in November 2010, Chisler said he
didn’t bother to mask his Mountaineer pride as he accompanied
the visitors along their tour of the program’s facilities.
“They were astounded,” he said. “We got an awesome
education here and the word is getting out among the forensic
science community. It couldn’t come at a better time.”
David Durham, director of the Career Services Center at
WVU, said his staff has seen an uptick in interest in forensic
science careers. He said more recruiters have expressed interest in
participating in University career fairs, with agencies from police
departments in Arizona and other states acknowledging that the
Forensic Program is on their radars.
“We send out some general feelers,” he said. “But they tend
to find us. They do their homework.”
“If you would have asked me four years ago, whether we’d see
these kind of numbers, I would have said no way.”
Wallace, a first-generation college student who’s been with the
Virginia Beach crime scene unit for a little more than a year, said
the program’s more than 400-hour internship requirement was key
to preparing her for a future in forensics. She interned for a police
department in Greensboro, North Carolina where she called her
adjustment to real-life crime scene work “seamless.”
“I feel like I really lucked out,” she said. “In Greensboro they
practically let me work a scene as if I worked there, as if I were
one of the staff.”
Wildman, a fingerprint examiner with the unit, and the
Top 10 TV Crime Lab Myths
1. Crime labs can gather, prepare, test, and have results from DNA and other forensic tests within a few hours.
2. A suspect will sit in an interrogation room wearing the same clothes he wore during the crime—and conclusive test results arrive just as you sit down to question him.
3. Crime scene investigators follow cases from start to finish and conclude investigations within a few days.
4. Crime scene investigators are directly involved with the investigation, raids, and arrests.
5. Crime scene investigators can get DNA evidence from any surface.
6. DNA analyses provide two results: Yes, he did it, or no, he didn’t do it.
7. Crime scene investigators cannot only pull up DNA, but they can tell whether it came from tears, saliva, and sweat or cremated remains.
8. Everyone is in a DNA database.
9. When a DNA match is indicated, crime lab computers flash big red letters declaring a “99 percent match,” and a driver’s license photo for good measure.
10. Crime scene investigators conduct DNA testing while munching snacks or joking with colleagues.
Source: Tim Kupferschmid, Sorenson Forensics
24 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
newest Mountaineer in Virginia Beach with less
than a year under her belt, agreed.
“My internship really opened my eyes,”
the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania native said.
You don’t have a clue until you work your
internship.”
The internships helped erase any preconceived notions they
had about the risks and rewards of working in forensic science. For
instance, while CSI investigators on television are involved in every
aspect of a case, Chisler, Wallace, and Wildman play much more
compartmentalized roles.
They also said that on CSI, investigators find the DNA match
each time, while in reality lab results can take weeks and months to
receive and it’s difficult to get a good fingerprint sample.
“We do the wide range from car larcenies to homicide,”
said Wildman. “Matching DNA and fingerprints are tricky
because if someone isn’t in our database system, we’re not
going to get a match.”
Even though on television, agents wrap up their cases neatly in
an hour and they look good while doing it, Wallace, Chisler, and
Cracking Down on Crime, One Camp at a Time
After a successful debut last summer, the Forensic and Investigative Science Program will again offer two, one-week-long day camps for middle and high school students. The camps run June 11-15 for students in 7th through 9th grades and June 18-22 for students in 10th through 12th grades. The camp fee is $280, which includes lunch daily and a T-shirt. If more than one student from a family wishes to attend, it is $280 for the first student and $260 for each additional sibling.
The deadline to register is June 1.
Visit forensics.wvu.edu/summer-camp-2012 for more information, or contact Tina Moroose at (304) 293-5346.
Cogent Systems Laboratory
The Cogent Systems Laboratory in Oglebay Hall houses a state of the art Automated Fingerprint Identification System of 24 workstations and a teaching station. Of the 24 student workstations, half are ten-print stations and the other are latent print stations. In addition there are three live-scan devices for electronically capturing ten-prints. The teaching station has both a ten-print and latent workstation. The lab was made possible by a generous gift from Ming Hsieh and his company, Cogent.
Ming Hsieh Hall
Ming Hsieh Hall consists of four general purpose classrooms fitted with the University’s new standard technology, including retractable projector screens, DVD and VHS players, and an AMX touch-screen panel that controls all the audio-visual effects in each classroom. California businessman Ming Hsieh and his company donated $5.5 million to the Program. The gift helped fund construction of the building and created the Program’s first endowed professorships.
Oglebay Hall
The LEED-certified Oglebay Hall includes a microscopy lab with several different types of microscopes, which teaches students how to analyze trace evidence, hairs, fibers, and other evidence collected from crime scenes. The building also houses a instrument lab with several analytical scientific instruments for the analysis of metals, explosives, drugs, and toxicological evidence.
Crime Scene Training Complex
With three crime scene houses and a forensic garage for vehicle processing, WVU has the largest crime scene training complex in the world. The Crime Scene Training Complex is used to prepare mock crime scenes so forensic and investigative science majors can learn processing techniques in a controlled environment. Outdoor sand beds are used for collection of shoe print evidence, and two 20’ x 10’ grave sites allow for simulated recovery of human remains. Students also have access to a fire-training facilities and a large shooting range with indoor and outdoor ranges.
Wildman say as real-life investigators, they measure their “reward”
in terms of a bigger picture.
“Every case is different. When you get a fingerprint or DNA
hit it’s rewarding,” Wallace said. “I feel very challenged and
rewarded at the same time.”
Chisler said there is one thing that the television shows do capture:
the satisfaction of giving victims and their families some peace.
“We’re seeing people in some of their worst moments,” he said.
Their houses have been broken into or one of their loved ones has
been murdered. They just want to know what happened.
“We don’t get a lot of money. We don’t get a lot of fame.
But when we can wrap a case and get that closure for a
family, that’s the reward.”
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 25
28 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
keeping with WVU’s 2020 Strategic Plan
for the Future, which emphasizes diversity
and inclusion. WVU’s goal, an initiative of
WVU President Jim Clements, is to attract
more veteran employees and recruit and
retain more veteran students.
Following a visit to Morgantown and
the WVU campus from Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen
in 2010, Clements was selected to attend
the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.
He was one of 39 participants for
the forum, a US Department of Defense
program for some of the nation’s top
leaders interested in increasing their
knowledge of the military and national
defense issues.
Guacheta-Shay acknowledges that
returning soldiers have a dramatically
different and better college experience now
than they ever have before. There are more
opportunities and services in place, which
is one of the reasons he chose to come to
responsibilities, deployment issues, and
other matters.
He said there are a number of factors,
including veterans’ sensitivity to their
surroundings, that must be considered when
helping them transition to student life.
“The problem is that soldiers overseas
are in constant danger, and that affects
their behavior and concentration once they
return,” Miller said.
There are no front lines in the war on
terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving
every deployed soldier in immediate danger
when they are in those countries, Miller
said. They are constantly on guard and
aware of everything around them. The
hypersensitivity they develop stays with
them when they return to the States, even
though it is no longer necessary.
This makes it incredibly difficult for
them to pay attention to what professors
are saying in classes, because they are so
focused on what the other students are
doing or saying and every little detail of the
surrounding environment.
“They react to each sound, movement,
who is around them (who is there to
support, who might be there to harm),”
Miller said.
The veteran-specific classes allow
soldiers to participate in smaller classes and
interact with others who understand what
they are going through.
“Giving these students the option to
attend classes with other veterans during
their first semester eliminates some of
these outside influences and allows them
to better concentrate on learning.”
The welcoming atmosphere is in
Guacheta-Shay had been stationed for
15 months in the Iraqi province of Diyala
at Forward Operating Base War Horse
before heading back to the United States.
Domestic life and matriculating into the
student population, he said, presented a
new set of difficulties.
During the spring 2010 semester
he participated in the veteran-specific
Orientation 293 and English 101 classes.
The orientation class is designed around
the needs of former soldiers, who require
specific information about how their
payments from the GI Bill work, along
with other information pertinent to
military personnel.
“That orientation gives us a much
better opportunity to network, and the
open atmosphere of the class allows us to
share relevant information and personal
experiences,” Guacheta-Shay said.
The veterans-specific English 101 course
design resonated with him. “As a 25-year-
old former Army medic, I would have been
uncomfortable taking that class with 17- and
18-year-old freshmen,” he said.
“I’m older and my world view is
different, my experiences are so different. I
don’t think I would have been able to relate
to traditional freshmen like I did to the other
veterans.”
In addition to the Orientation and
English courses, the WVU Veterans office
offers sections of Adventure WV, Theater
101, and ULib 101.
In Terry Miller, the University has
an active veterans advocate whose office
helps solve financial aid and VA education
benefit issues, class absences due to military
WVU uses several platforms to recruit prospective veteran employees. The University has partnered with the Employer Partnership of the Armed Forces to advertise jobs across the country and around the world. The next step is to develop a mobile app so that soldiers can access critical information on WVU and Morgantown, such as health care, employment opportunities, family and social networks, and education, wherever they are deployed.
Also, WVU’s Human Resources Division offers a summit each year to further make outreach to veterans a priority on campus and off. WVU has hosted “Veterans’ Summits,” which offer networking opportunities for veterans at WVU and in the community and guest speakers on a variety of topics, including WVU research related to veterans’ health.
Quick Facts
“It may sound weird, but the Army provides a very structured lifestyle. In many ways it’s easier than civilian life.”—Alex Guacheta-Shay
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 29
remain enrolled full-time and pass all of
their classes.
WVU also participates in the Yellow
Ribbon Program, which helps students with
tuition and fees associated with education
programs that may exceed the Post-9/11 GI
Bill tuition benefit.
For its efforts, in 2011 WVU earned
mention on G.I.Jobs’ list of “military friendly
schools” for the third straight year.
Jake Lambuth, a Houston native, enjoys
being part of WVU’s veterans community
as both a student and employee. A senior
majoring in chemistry, Lambuth transitioned
from active duty in the US Navy to a
sergeant’s rank in the US Army reserves.
Lambuth said many of his fraternity brothers
WVU in the first place. The University
provides many services to veterans, including
their own advisers, and attempts to make
their adjustments to university life easier.
For Guacheta-Shay, his choice was
also sentimental.
“It was just West Virginia. I wanted to be
home,” said the Beckley native.
The University provided the services
and academic programs that he needed,
and he said the cost of living is manageable
with his payouts from the GI Bill. The
Post-9/11 Bill pays directly to the school
and provides compensation for tuition,
books, some tutoring, and a $1,300
monthly stipend for living expenses. To
maintain these payouts, veterans must
in Tau Kappa Epsilon are veterans, and
he has made other connections with vets
through WVU’s Student Veterans Group
and his job as a photographer for WVU
University Relations/News.
“There’s a large community of veterans
here—more than I thought,” he said.
Lambuth said he compares notes with
veteran friends at other institutions, which
makes him appreciate being at WVU.
“I hear from several friends who have
nothing but complaints—paperwork not
getting done or transitional issues,” he said.
“I have two friends who did not transition
well—they felt there was no help for
them—and they returned to active duty.
They didn’t feel like they were meant to be
Alex Guacheta-Shay, Candice Matelski, and Jake Lambuth represent a diverse group of veterans on campus.
WVU ReseaRcheRs collaboRate on Project roVer
Man’s best friend may also be a veteran’s best therapy. Faced with statistics from a 2011 report on the needs of veterans returning to the labor force that showed a higher-than-average unemployment rate and a threefold increase in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the last decade, a team of West Virginia University researchers and an area nonprofit are partnering with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to see if dogs can help veterans both recover and return to the workforce.
“Although there is significant interest in service dogs for veterans to aid in readjustment, the focus has not been on employment,” said Matt Wilson, project leader and interim director of the Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design.
“There is a resounding lack of empirical evidence documenting whether the provision of service dogs is of therapeutic benefit for persons with PTSD—other than the generally accepted, positive effects of human-animal companionship,” Wilson continued.
The institute has provided $273,202 to allow the WVU-led team to collaborate on Project ROVER, Returning Our Veterans to Employment and Reintegration. Project ROVER is a component of a larger NIOSH initiative related to total worker health and its focus on veterans.
The Project ROVER team will examine the therapeutic benefits of service dogs that are trained to provide physical and psychological assistance to veterans, and determine the impact of this assistance on the veterans’ ability to cope with PTSD symptoms and function effectively in the workplace.
Clarksburg resident Clay Rankin, a Hearts of Gold volunteer and combat veteran of the first Gulf War who also completed multiple tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom, will help provide a personal perspective.
His own return to work was facilitated by the acquisition of Harley, a mobility and psychological assistance dog. Rankin has served as an Army Wounded Warrior liaison, has assisted in the placement of service dogs with veterans and is on the Board of Directors for Patriot Paws, the organization that provided Harley.
“Clay will be invaluable in providing perspectives on the surveys, focus groups, literature review, and the various contexts and tasks for the laboratory-based clinical case studies,” Wilson said.
WVU and Hearts of Gold are collaborat-ing with the PTSD Rehabilitation Program staff at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg on the development of the project.
Key to that collaboration has been Joseph R. Scotti, a clinical psychologist in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. Scotti has more than 30 years of research experience and clinical work with people who have a range of psychiatric disorders, primarily PTSD and developmental disabilities.
He recently completed a major survey of 1,100 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify service-related psychological, physiological, functional and social issues, and testified before the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on his findings. Scotti will provide research consultation to Project ROVER.
Richard T. Gross, a clinical psychologist in the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at the Chestnut Ridge Center, also will provide expertise in clinical psychology and behavior analysis.
Anne Foreman, a WVU doctoral candidate in psychology and certified professional dog trainer, is one of the instructors of the University’s service dog training courses. Foreman has a master of science degree in psychology from WVU. Megan Maxwell, owner of Pet Behavior Change in State College, Pennsylvania, earned her master’s and doctorate in psychology and will provide consultation in animal behavior, training procedures, and research design for the project.
The project team will work with two NIOSH scientists to conduct the research. Lindsay Parenti, MS, a board-certified behavior analyst and certified dog trainer, is a NIOSH research fellow, and Oliver Wirth, PhD, a research psychologist, is the NIOSH Project officer on the ROVER project. Both are graduates of the behavior analysis program in the WVU Department of Psychology.
“Although there is significant interest in service dogs for veterans to aid in readjustment, the focus has not been on employment.”
By David Welsh
30 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 31
there. I have absolutely no complaints.”
Though Guacheta-Shay said at times
he regrets leaving the service for his studies,
he’s working toward a medical degree so
that he can return to the military and help
his fellow soldiers on the battlefield as a
knowledgeable doctor.
“It is key to realize that an Army medic
sees and does things that most people would
not be able to handle,” he said.
Even given the difficult nature of the
job, Guacheta-Shay insists that being a
medic is the best job in the Army, because
“they can go anywhere.”
“Medics are stationed at every base
around the world, from Hawaii to the
Middle East. Being an Army medic allows
people to gain intense real-world experience
in crisis situations that often puts them on a
level with medical personnel in the United
States who have more education.”
Although Candice Matelski is still
getting used to the fact that she’s typically
the oldest student in her classes and the
only mom, she echoed the sentiment
shared by Guacheta-Shay and Lambuth.
She’s pursuing a graduate degree
in speech pathology in the College
of Human Resources and Education
and said she hopes to see WVU’s
commitment to veterans continue to
grow. The campus already has around
1,000 veteran students and employees.
“This is the third year in a row we’ve
received the G.I. Jobs designation. Other
schools are also asking the same questions
and starting their own initiatives,” she said.
“I’d like the goal at WVU not to just be a
school that supports veterans but to be the
best in supporting veterans. I want us to set
Listen to army veteran and chemistry senior Jake Lambuth discuss his military background and his experience choosing and attending WVU.
a standard for others to follow.”
Terry Miller estimates that the veteran
community at WVU brought in about
$6.8 million to the University and the local
economy in the 2009-2010 academic year.
“These classes are also attractive to
veterans who are looking at different
schools,” he said. “The fact that WVU
provides so many resources for veterans
and is continuing to expand them could
mean the difference when they are deciding
where they want to go to college.
“This group tends to be motivated.
They are leaders who have the proven
ability to work under stressful situations.
They are team oriented. They bring a
different perspective to discussion in
classrooms and across campus.”
“I’d like the goal at WVU not to just be a school that supports veterans but to be the best in supporting veterans. I want us to set a standard for others to follow.”—Candice Matelski
WVU ReseaRcheRs collaboRate on Project roVer
New &Notable
Legendary lost cities, ancient secret societies, underground tombs, and provocative plot twists—these aren’t the makings of a new Dan Brown novel, and it’s not the synopsis of an Indiana Jones film franchise reboot. It’s the premise for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, a popular Playstation 3 video game that sold more than 3.8 million copies worldwide when it was released last fall. Though reviewers hailed the visuals and technical game play, one key element sold casual and avid gamers on the action-adventure platform game.
By Jared Lathrop, Photo by M.G. Ellis
GAME ONGAME ON
Associate Professor of English Sandy Baldwin and graduate student Ben Myers.
32 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
professional and technical writing, not just gaming.” Although students do not need a technical
background for the course, they worked in groups to design a fully functioning text-based video game. Each group was responsible for one level of the game, which includes developing the narrative for both plot and character design. Students blogged about their experiences and presented progress reports every few weeks.
“If you describe your experience with a com-puter game, you’ll describe things like characters, stories, reading, writing, and dialogue,” Baldwin said when interviewed by WVUToday in the fall. “These are things people deal with in English
departments. We talk about how to tell a story and develop characters.
“Writing for a computer game can mean a lot of different things. There’s Halo and then there’s Angry Birds. There’s World of Warcraft but there’s also Tetris. It’s really diverse.”
This course has officially been added into the Professional Writing and Editing curriculum and stu-dents can choose between it and Multimedia Writing. Ballentine said so far he has every reason to believe the course will be a popular addition to the program.
For more information, visit bit.ly/I5sXP3
The story. Today’s gamers are looking for a more sub-
stantial, cinematic story—a number of best-sell-ing titles use a nonlinear storyline and subplots.
Eberly College English professors Sandy Baldwin and Brian Ballentine this past semester introduced “Humanities Computing—Narrative and Video Game Design,” a new course that taps into student interest in a growing career field as video games become more “mainstream.”
“These days the gaming industry is bigger than film,” Baldwin said. “Games like Modern Warfare and Halo find a large part of their audiences with college students, so we’re harnessing that interest and combining it with narrative theory.”
In the class, which recently finished its first run, students explored how narrative theory informs the design and play of video games. Video games, especially those that contain rich layers of storytelling, provide a dynamic context for exploring narrative frameworks. In turn, Bal-lentine said video game genres provide students a unique opportunity to design their own narratives and put theory into practice.
“Students are captivated by computer gam-ing,” he said. “This course combines their interest in gaming, with academic concepts like critical thinking and rhetorical analysis. Students create and document the overall vision of their projects and these experiences transfer well to any career in
“These days the gaming industry is bigger than film.”
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 33
New &Notable
Every movement begins with a vision. And recycling is no differ-ent. What started as a theory by Plato in 400 B.C. has since been reincarnated hundreds of times over the years, evolving based on demand through pre-industrial times, to World War II, to now.
But although “reduce, reuse, recycle” has become a common mantra, the statistics still leave much to be desired. According to Food and Water Watch, Americans spent $10.6 billion on bottled water in 2009, paying approximately 1,000 times the cost of tap water, although nearly half of all bottled water actu-ally comes from municipal tap water sources.
Moreover, manufacturing bottled water in the United States used the energy equivalent of 32 and 54 million barrels of oil re-spectively to produce and transport plastic water bottles in 2007. Approximately 75 percent of the empty plastic bottles find their way to landfills, lakes, streams, and oceans, where they may never fully decompose.
Three WVU alumni believe that it’s time to overhaul the model with a little “precycling.”
Tom Petrini and Stephen Jacob, graduates of the College of Business and Economics, and Blake Barnes, an Eberly College alum, have formed Evive Station, a free health and wellness kiosk that cleans reusable bottles and fills them with cold, filtered water in one minute.
The company, which also is led by Penn State graduate Jason Yablinsky and John Carroll University graduate Lacy Caric, employs 25 people and aims to educate the public and potential Evive Station users, about how harmful bottled water is and why Evive Station makes being sustainable convenient.
“When you recycle you are taking a high grade product and re-ducing it to a lower grade product that cannot be recycled again,” said Barnes, Evive Station’s business development manager.
By Jared Lathrop,Photos by David Lewetag II
Visit evivestation.com to learn more about Evive Station. Visit wecan.wvu.edu to learn more about the WVU Office of Sustainability.
34 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
“If you have leftover waste that cannot be created into something new then you really aren’t helping the environment. Our company is working to eliminate the wasted product before it happens.” Hence the company’s aim to “pre-cycle” by eliminating that third step.
“While complet-ing my MBA at Duquesne University in 2007, I attended a sustainability confer-ence,” said Petrini, the company’s CEO. “While waiting for my flight back home I realized an empty bottle could be carried through airport security, but an issue existed as to where someone could sanitize and fill their bottle on the go.”
Petrini began to brainstorm ways to make water available and to appeal to consumers, especially college students, who he said typi-cally have a water bottle tucked in their backpacks.
He said he realized that if he provided a free water bottle to users, it could be refilled at convenient locations with highly filtered/chilled water and daily multivitamins. The question then became how to make it profitable. The answer was advertising.
When customers receives an Evive Station “Smart Bottle,” they complete a demographic survey listing their “likes,” similar to Facebook. Evive Station maintains this information, and every time a customer fills the bottle, they view targeted advertisements on the Evive Station screen. The Smart Bottle will be integrated into social media sites, including Facebook, so that users can get coupons and share them with friends
To obtain a free double-walled stainless steel bottle, users complete a short demographic profile. This profile is used to select relevant advertisements, and helps sponsors know who is viewing the ads. Users’ personal information is not shared with sponsors. The information Evive Station shares is anonymous.
directly from an interactive touch panel at Evive Station.Evive Station officially launched in April, with the Pittsburgh-
based company choosing WVU as the pilot site for the project. Two stations are in the Mountainlair and two in the Student Recreation Center.
As the company expands, Evive Sta-tions will be located at colleges, universi-ties, businesses, and fitness centers.
Students can track their water usage through both their online profile, and on the Evive Station touch screen. Users will be informed of how many gallons of water they have consumed via the sta-tions and approximately how many plastic water bottles they have kept out of landfills across the nation.
Although Petrini’s idea took years to form from its original concept to the now fully functioning Evive Station, the idea to use West Virginia University as the location to premiere this new and innovative technology wasn’t a hard decision to make at all.
“As most of our team are graduates of WVU we wanted to give back to our alma mater,” Barnes said. “Strategically, WVU is a diverse school, dedicated to and highly recognized for its constant innovation in many of its programs.
“Clement Solomon in the WVU Sustainability Office has been a champion for Evive Station from the beginning, and the Evive Station aligns well with the waste reduction efforts led by Solomon through the WeCan program.”
When users approach the Evive Station, they scan their bottle, enter a four digit pin, and insert the bottle into the cleaning and filling chamber.
While the Evive Station is cleaning the bottle and filling it with ice-cold water, users are presented with some targeted content, ranging from product adver-tisements to job placement opportunities, which are shown on a 32” high-definition monitor. A multivita-min is dispensed when users retrieve their bottle.
how the evive station works:
1.
2.
3.
Find Evive Station on Facebook
Visit evivestation.com to learn more about Evive Station. Visit wecan.wvu.edu to learn more about the WVU Office of Sustainability.
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 35
Stephen Jacobs, Jason Yablinsky, Thomas Petrini, Lacy Caric, and Blake Barnes
Take one look around Chitwood Hall, and you’ll find what you’re looking for in Spanish, French, Chinese, and half a dozen other languages.
That’s because the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics is in the midst of its very own Renaissance.
The program’s evolution comes not on the heels of its new name announcement last September, instead pre-dating the change as the program presses on in its effort to embody what a world language department in the new millennium should be.
A community where professors fulfill their scholarly mission to their discipline, that grows based on the desires and needs of its students, and that garners national recognition for its initiatives.
A Different Type of Language Lab
Faculty members in the Department
conduct laboratory research regularly to
better understand the history of different
cultures. Their laboratories are the
expressions, civilizations, and literature of
other countries and languages.
For instance, Assistant Professor Pablo
Garcia has been researching Colonial Latin
American literature since 2003. Garcia is
a member of the Folgers Institute, a center
for advanced study and research in the
humanities, which is sponsored by the Folger
Shakespeare Library and a consortium of 40
universities in the United States. Next year he
will attend a research seminar at the institute.
“Participants in this advanced research
seminar will be reading and discussing
primary and secondary sources in the
literature of discovery,” he said.
“Then we will engage in discussions
on a number of theoretical, critical, and
historiographical reflections and philosophical
interpretations regarding the history of early
modern New World encounters.”
Janice Spleth, Armand E. and Mary
W. Singer Professor in the Humanities, has
been a member of the African Literature
Association (ALA) since 1982. She has co-
edited a volume of its annual Interdisciplinary
Dimensions of African Literature.
“Through my research I have sought
to make an academic space for an African
perspective among those world views
traditionally represented in the curriculum,”
the French professor said. “My books and
articles help draw attention to what these
truly extraordinary writers have contributed
to the human story, making their literature
more accessible to students and scholars.”
Spleth, who served as the ALA
president during the 2010-2011 year, is
still very involved in organization events.
As a past president, she helped plan the
April 2012 meeting at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, Texas, on “Human
Rights, Literature, and the Visual Arts in
Africa and the Diaspora.”
Her publications include two books
and several articles on the Senegalese poet-
statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor, and her
scholarship on Central African literature
appears in the French Literature Series,
The Literary Griot, Matatu, Research
in African Literatures, and Studies in
Twentieth Century Literature.
Kathleen McNerney’s research has
taken her deep into the works of Mercè
Rodoreda, a world-renowned Catalan
novelist. The Spanish professor has
been compiling a complete annotated
bibliography of more than 400 entries
over the past two years.
“forward thinking?”How do you say…
By Jared Lathrop, Photos by Brian Persinger & Todd Latocha
Pablo Garcia Stacy FintJanice Spleth
36 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
New &Notable
Malvisi has also developed three new
courses. We have an excellent student
organization, Circolo italiano, and many
students interested in declaring Italian
Studies as their major.
“The minor has been very successful.
There are reasonable grounds for
assuming that, once students become
aware of the major as incoming freshmen
and the program is established, ten or
more Italian Studies majors, on average,
would be graduated per year.”
In Good Company
In the fall, the University’s Intensive
English Program received national
accreditation from the Consortium
of University and College Intensive
English Programs (UCIEP).
“WVU’s program is one of only 72
institutions, public and private, whose
intensive English programs are accredited
by UCIEP, marking the 31-year-old
program as one of the best in the
country,” said Dean Robert Jones,
The program, which is housed in the
World Languages Department, originally
focused on preparing Japanese students
for enrollment at the University but has
since grown to host nearly 250 students
from 15 countries.
Once students complete the IEP
coursework and pass the Test of English as
a Foreign Language (TOEFL), they may
apply to WVU to become undergraduate
or graduate students or return, with English
skills, to universities in their home countries.
She said the Department and the
University have been very supportive
as she took on the project.
“West Virginia University awarded me a
sabbatical year to work on this bibliography,”
McNerney said. “But the staff from the
Interlibrary Loan Service at the Wise Library
also worked tirelessly to make articles and
books available to me during my preparatory
and follow-up time in Morgantown, and the
West Virginia Humanities Council gave me a
grant to help with travel expenses.”
The book, which will also include critiques
of Rodoreda’s works by other authors, as well as
unpublished papers, is due out next year.
No Minor Feat
Over the past year, the Department
has launched a new minor in Japanese
studies and a new Italian major.
With the increasing popularity of
the College’s Multidisciplinary Studies
Degree, students can round out their
degree with a Japanese Studies minor, said
Program Coordinator Asako No.
She said that enrollment in upper-
division Japanese language courses have
seen double-digit increases.
Last May, the Italian Studies program
graduated its first two students, exactly
one year after the program’s creation,
and five years after an Italian minor was
established in the Department. The
major, one of few in the country, exposes
students to business, tourism, fashion, and
design among other subjects through the
lens of Italian culture and society.
“Since I started working at WVU ten
years ago, the Italian Studies Program
has been expanding in many different
directions,” said Anastella Vester, Italian
Studies coordinator. “I have since
developed three new courses for the
program; Italian instructor Beatrice
The Consortium of University and
College Intensive English Programs
advances professional standards and
quality instruction in intensive English
programs at universities and colleges in
the United States.
“Membership in the UCIEP
demonstrates to applicants, their
parents, and other institutions that we
are concerned with issues that affect
international education,” said Stacy
Fint, IEP Director.
Member programs are committed to
the consortium’s effort to ensure that
students receive the highest quality
intensive English instruction from
trained, professional teachers.
Each program undergoes a rigorous
application process, including a site visit by
an external reviewer, before being accepted.
Fint had to submit a thorough study of
the program for it to be considered. Every
five years each program must submit a
substantial self-study document to an
evaluation committee, which reviews it to
verify that the program continues to meet
the standards of UCIEP.
The program is expected to grow with
the new accreditation showing the value
of what the IEP has to offer.
This accreditation, the University’s
IEP founder Takeko Minami said, reflects
the value of the program.
“The IEP is giving to the state of West
Virginia much needed exposure to the rest
of the world.”
“Membership in the UCIEP demonstrates to applicants, their parents, and other institutions that we are concerned with issues that affect international education.”—Stacy Fint
“forward thinking?”By Jared Lathrop, Photos by Brian Persinger & Todd Latocha
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 37
Justin Legleiter, assistant professor in the C. Eugene Bennett
Department of Chemistry, is doing his part to help turn back the
clock on the effects of a disease that robs people of their memories,
perception, and cognitive skills. He’s decoding how nanoscale
molecular mechanisms may trigger neurodegenerative disorders
such as Alzheimer’s.
In 2011, Legleiter was awarded a $400,000 grant through the
National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development
Program, and a $99,592 New Investigator Research Grant from the
Alzheimer’s Association, two prestigious awards that acknowledged the
complexity and value of the research he’s pursuing.
His work demonstrating the possible connections between
mechanical changes in cells to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s
disease, could potentially lead to therapeutic strategies.
Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United
States, killing more Americans than diabetes, and more than breast
cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to the Alzheimer’s
Association’s 2011 Facts and Figures report.
“As we age, significant alterations in our cellular structure—with
implications for cellular mechanics—occur,” Legleiter said. “Post-
mitotic cells, such as neurons, are particularly susceptible to age-
related changes, and aging is the primary risk factor associated with
Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder.”
By Christine Schussler, Photos by Brian Persinger
AN ESTIMATED 5.4 million people in the United States
are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and that figure is growing at an
alarming rate. Researchers and health providers predict that by
2050, a person will be diagnosed with the disease every 33 seconds.
Justin Legleiter
38 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 39
The National Science Foundation’s
Faculty Early Career Development
Program is its most prestigious award
supporting junior faculty who exemplify
the role of teacher-scholars through
outstanding research, excellent education
and the integration of education and
research within the context of the mission
of their organizations.
Similarly, the Alzheimer’s Association’s
New Investigator Research Grant is reserved
for researchers who have earned their
doctoral degrees within the last ten years and
whose research helps identify new treatment
strategies and further knowledge of brain
health and disease prevention.
Legleiter expects to publish some of
his research findings this spring.
Legleiter works with WVU chemistry
students to unravel information on the beta-
amyloid peptide, which is found deposited
in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. It is
composed of 39-43 amino acids.
“One of the major hallmarks of
Alzheimer’s disease is the formation of
deposits of the beta-amyloid peptide in
the brain,” Legleiter said. “These deposits
are composed of smaller beta-amyloid
peptide aggregates often termed fibrils and
oligomers, which are thought to play an
important role in Alzheimer’s.”
Legleiter believes his team’s research
could provide a detailed understanding of
how changes in cellular surface properties
associated with aging influence beta-
amyloid peptide binding to the cell, which
can lead to peptide aggregation and its
related toxicity.
“While it is unclear how beta-amyloid
peptide aggregates are toxic, the initial
interaction of it with the surface of a cell
represents a fundamental step in Alzheimer’s
disease pathology,” he said. “The goal of our
research is to try to understand the physical
changes of a cell’s surface that facilitate
this initial interaction with the beta-
amyloid peptide.”
Legleiter will incorporate the research
models that he and his lab group use into
the courses he teaches and use part of the
National Science Foundation funding to
reduce the teaching load of his graduate
students—allowing them more time
to focus on research. His proposal also
reaches out to the future teaching corps
for the region.
Legleiter has set aside funds to provide
meaningful research experience to pre-
service science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics teachers, with a
particular focus on pre-service teachers
planning on careers teaching high school
in Appalachia.
The pre-service teachers will be
recruited from among education graduate
students at WVU, who are interested in
teaching science. The students will have
the opportunity to create lesson plans
that can be translated directly into the
classroom from research activities.
“By providing this opportunity, I
believe that these teachers in training
will be able to infuse the excitement of
discovery not only in their education
but also in their future classrooms,”
he said.
Justin Legleiter earned his bachelor’s
degree in chemistry from Murray State
University and a doctoral degree from
Carnegie Mellon University. He has
conducted postdoctoral work as a fellow in
neurology/biophysics at the Gladstone Institute
of Neurological Disease, affiliated with the
University of California, San Francisco.
Legleiter joined the Chemistry Department
faculty as an assistant professor in 2008.
Legleiter studies the physical changes of a cell’s surface as it interacts with beta-amyloid peptide.
Awards & Honors
“I love faculty, staff, and students. But I am excited about the fact that I’m finally going to graduate and design my life.”—Nancy Lohmann
40 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
More than 30 years ago, Nancy Lohmann
went out on a limb and joined her husband
Roger in applying for positions at West Virginia
University’s then—School of Social Work. At the
urging of the School’s interim dean, the couple
agreed to interviews in Morgantown.
But Lohmann’s first impression of
Morgantown was anything but ideal, as a series of
errors including a flight delayed by bad weather had
her all but ready to turn back around.
By the next day, with a clearer head and
after her round of interviews, Nancy Lohmann
knew she was home.
“I liked the mix of research and teaching,”
Lohmann said. “We were expected to publish,
but teaching was valued and the environment
here provided the kind of relationship with
students you want to have.”
In December, she retired with emerita status
from WVU, satisfied with a long career that had
proven to be a perfect fit for her and her family.
“We’ve been offered positions elsewhere,” she
said. “But we’ve continued to stay here because
we know how much impact we could have here,
and it was a wonderful place to raise our children.”
Lohmann’s impact has meant wearing many
hats at WVU since joining the social work
faculty in 1977 as an associate professor. In the
early 1980s, while serving as dean of the School,
Lohmann was able to successfully navigate it
through some accreditation challenges.
It was also during that time that full-time
graduate student enrollment doubled. In addition,
external grant funding doubled and the continuing
education program expanded from serving 300
people a year to nearly 1,000 each year.
A two-time winner of a University
Outstanding Faculty Award, Lohmann
juggled administrative positions with teaching
honors courses on human diversity and
publishing more than 30 articles and books,
most of which she wrote with her husband.
She is the co-editor of Rural Social
Work Practice (2005), co-author of Social
Administration (2002) and co-editor of
Transitions of Aging(1980).
In her classroom, her colleagues and students
said, Nancy Lohmann harnessed a strong passion
for research that she used to prepare students for
life as social work practitioners.
“There are a lot of frustrations that
come with a career in social work, but there
are also a lot of rewards,” said Chris Plein,
associate dean for the School of Applied
Social Sciences. “As a teacher, Nancy deftly
guided her students in understanding that
addressing injustices in society and providing
a voice to those in need is not easy, but it
makes such a difference.”
While her former students said she
could be a “tough teacher,” ultimately they
said they recognized Lohmann wanted to
make it clear just how necessary research is
for budding practitioners.
By Christine Schussler, Photo by Jake Lambuth
Awards & Honors
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 41
42 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
“She wanted us to have a
conceptual and methodological
understanding of the social science
research process and wanted us
to see the practicality of analysis,
evaluation, and implementation of the
basic research concepts, designs, and
processes,” said Trisha Gyurke, director
of employment at WVU.
“She did this well.”
As senior advisor to the former
Provost Gerald Lang, Lohmann led the
2007 committee charged with creating
No Role Too BigNancy Lohmann has served in a number of different
capacities since coming to WVU in 1977. In addition to
being an associate professor of social work and dean of
the School of Social Work, she has worked as:
• Assistant Vice President for Faculty Development
• Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic
Affairs and Research
• Associate Provost for Academic Affairs
• Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs
• Senior Advisor to the Provost
• Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Administration
and Finance
• Director of the Division of Social Work’s Beatrice Ruth
Burgess Center
“Even when her path led her to
University-level administration, her
continued commitment to our program
and to arming future social workers
with the knowledge and skillset they’ll
need out in the world was evident,”
Plein said.
“She will always be welcome in the
classrooms of Knapp Hall.”
Roger Lohmann, who retired last
May from the Division of Social Work
and is now an emeritus professor, said
the couple has always been grateful for
their experience at the University.
“At a time when many dual-career
couples were forced to live and work
hundreds of miles apart, WVU enabled
us—and several other academic couples
here—the opportunity to pursue our
individual careers and still keep our
household and family intact,” he said.
“It’s been a real demonstration
of the West Virginia, Appalachian,
commitment to the family.”
When Nancy Lohmann visits
campus these days, she said she
pleasures in a leisurely walk to
Woodburn and watching students
bustle around.
Her retirement, she said, has been
bittersweet, but it’s time for another
chapter in her life.
“I love faculty, staff, and students. But
I am excited about the fact that I’m finally
going to graduate and design my life. As
much as I loved my time here, I’m looking
forward to the next 30 years.”
a new transportation and parking plan
for the University. The committee
recommended several strategies,
including creating a new position
to guide transportation and parking
initiatives at WVU in collaboration
with city and county transit officials.
During her tenure as the director
of the Beatrice Ruth Burgess Center,
she was vocal in supporting the
Summer Institute on Aging, an annual
conference in Morgantown that covers
aging policy and services.
eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 43
Only five West Virginia University
students are majoring in both chemistry
and math. Two of them are now Goldwater
Scholars, acknowledging their achievement
and encouraging them to keep at it.
Sophomore Tonia Ahmed and junior
Jessica Carr bring the number of WVU’s
Goldwater Scholars to 35. WVU has had at
least one Goldwater Scholar in each of the
past 20 years, except for 2008 and 2001,
and has had two 10 times.
“We are so proud of these students,”
said President Jim Clements. “Being named
a Goldwater Scholar puts them in the ranks
of the best young scientists in the nation.
Their achievement reflects their hard
work and dedication as students, as well
as excellent mentorship from exceptional
faculty and staff here at WVU.”
Ahmed and Carr are two of 282
sophomore and junior mathematics,
science and engineering majors from across
the United States selected from 1,123
applications, and the only West Virginia
residents, to win a
Goldwater Scholarship
this year.
Ahmed, a
Morgantown native,
had a jump start on her
research career. Prior
to even starting her
freshman year at WVU,
she was already working
in a University lab.
She took a WVU
organic chemistry class during her senior
year of high school and immediately fell in
love with the field. Afterwards, she asked the
professor if she could join a University lab. In
that lab, she worked to extract bio fuels from
different wood products and corn.
When she officially started at WVU,
she didn’t stay in the dorms because
she lives in town, meaning she didn’t
necessarily get the usual freshman-year
experience, but that was OK with her.
But last summer, she studied at
the California Institute of Technology,
working on research with
other students—and
lived in the dorms.
“I’ve spent a lot of
my time doing research.
Ever since the summer
after my senior year of
high school, I started
doing research at
WVU,” she said. “The
thing that helped me the
most was that I was able to take organic
chemistry at WVU in my senior year.”
More recently, she has researched carbon-
hydrogen bond activation in the fuels that
we use on a daily basis. She is trying to find
a way to break the hydrocarbon bonds and
find other products, which would be useful
in the pharmacy industry. She started this
research at Cal Tech and continued it over
the last semester and a half at WVU with
chemist Michael Shi.
When she finishes with her education,
she wants to continue in that same setting
as a research professor who teaches organic
and inorganic chemistry.
“That way, I’m conducting my own
research, it’s my own ideas and I can influence
other graduate students and guide them to do
the same thing,” she said. “Being a Goldwater
Scholar definitely gives me a leg up to get into
a better grad school, and it’s also a bit of a
confidence boost in your ability.”
Ahmed, who will begin taking graduate-
level courses in the fall, found out about
the honor online while looking at the
Goldwater website. She saw her name just
minutes before receiving the mailed package
from the organization.
“This honor really satisfied my
concerns of, ‘am I good enough?’ They
selected me from a lot of candidates. I
should be able to do it,” she said.
Carr, a Fairmont native, opened up
her mailbox on March 30 to a large white
envelope. She knew exactly what it was.
Awards & Honors
From Arithmetic to Compounds
By Tony Dobies, Photos by Brian Persinger
44 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine
Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra has spent the past 42 years at WVU immersed in the world of phys-ics, supervising and directing the research of more than 60 graduate and postdoctoral students. His former students talk about the professor whose push made them better. Profes-sor Seehra’s push continues today as he settles into his new physics research office in the renovated White Hall.
Last summer, Professor Seehra realized that though his commit-ment to research was just as strong today as ever, he and his peers were nearing retirement. But, he had an idea. To make sure
Your Legacy is Personal
Make a special gift today and plant seeds for tomorrow’s future.For more information on how you can contribute to the Eberly College through your will, living trust or IRA, contact Bonnie McBee Fisher, Director of Development, at 304.293.4611 or [email protected]
A year ago, she received a not-so-similar
smaller envelope in the mail from the Goldwater
Foundation saying she wasn’t a recipient.
This year, however, was different.
“I was so excited about it that I gave
myself a paper cut trying to open it,” Carr
said, laughing. “My first emotion was relief,
because I had so much pent up excitement
and nervousness. Everyone I talked to told me,
‘now you can go to just about any graduate
school you want,’ and that’s when I took a step
back and realized what it all meant.”
Carr started as a chemistry major with
the intention to become a pharmacist.
However, she wanted more experience in
her undergraduate classes and decided to
scrap that career path and double major
in chemistry and math. She will attend
graduate school for research.
“I have a lot of determination to succeed
in everything I do. I’m driven by finding the
most challenging thing and trying to be the
best at it,” Carr said. “Initially that’s what got
me involved most in the chemistry major.
It was challenging and takes a lot of patience.”
She hopes to work in a government
lab or private industry in the future doing
environmental chemistry, which will allow her
to lead her own research team. Currently, she
is working on researching materials that have
applications in both medicine and catalysis, the
latter of which can control pollution and the
long-term effects it has on the environment.
Last summer, Carr had a summer
internship with the National Institute
of Standards and Technology in which
she participated in a project involving
radioactivity. She worked on developing
an analytical technique for environmental
samples to try to determine what and
how much radioactive chemicals are in
environmental samples.
Carr became interested in research in the
summer prior to her sophomore year during
an internship in China. Later that year,
she joined the lab of WVU physicist James
Lewis—one that she has worked at since.
In addition, Carr is also the vice president
of the WVU Habitat for Humanity student
organization.
“I grew up on a small farm, and I’ve
always had an interest in being outdoors and
playing in the dirt. That allowed me
to start thinking of questions about
why things are the way they are. In
high school, I didn’t particularly enjoy
chemistry as a subject, but when I saw
where it could go, I think it meshed
with my interests.”
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship
is the most prestigious undergraduate award
of its type and recognizes the commitment
and potential each winner has to make a
significant contribution to science. WVU
was the only University in the state to have
a Goldwater Scholar this year.
The scholarship pays tribute to the
former Arizona senator’s 56 years of
service and leadership to the United
States as both soldier and statesman
through an endowed recognition
program that encourages outstanding
students to pursue careers as advanced
scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
Each scholarship covers the cost of
undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and
room and board up to $7,500 annually.
his dedication to the pursuit of research excellence would be instilled in future generations of WVU physics students, he created the Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra Re-search Award. This award recognizes the publishing success of a physics doctoral student each year.
Perhaps, Professor Seehra’s smartest idea though was using a distribution from his IRA to make a tax-free charitable gift to endow his fund. Individuals age 701/2 or older are required by law to take minimum distributions from their IRA and, in Professor Seehra’s case, this option was the perfect fit for taking his idea and turning it into action.
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NEW EDITION
NEW EDITION
SPRING/SUMMER 2012
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Look for the fall Research issue of Eberly in your mailbox in November 2012.
Goldwater Scholar and NSF Fellowship recipient Scott Cushing shares his excitement about the newly renovated White Hall at the April 13, 2012 celebration of the building’s completion. Cushing’s research, with Drs. Alan Bristow and Nick Wu, is focused on surface plasmon resonances and light-harvesting materials. These can be used in the creation of biological sensors, nanoscale circuitry, and other items that can be utilized in national defense, including explosives and anthrax detection.