College of Science Accolades: April 2021

Ali Andalibi, College of Science, National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID), was awarded $90,000 for “Collaboration Agreement with Noble Life Science” by Noble Life Sciences, Inc.

Harbir Antil, Mathematical Sciences, Center for Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence (CMAI), along with Co-PI’s Rainald Lohner, Physics and Astronomy, and Mahamadi Warma, Mathematical Sciences, was awarded $482,186 for “Optimization, Control, Networks and Learning from Data” by the U.S. Department of the Air Force (USAF).

Bok Haeng Baek, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems (CSISS), was awarded $90,379 for “Neurological Effects of Environmental Styrene and BTEX Exposure in a Gulf of Mexico Cohort” by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prime Sponsor: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Baek was also awarded $201,163 for “NAQFC Community Emission Testbed (NCET): Accelerating Emission Research to Operation (R2O) Transition through Community Collaborations” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Barney Bishop, Chemistry and Biochemistry, was awarded $11,000 for “Supporting Bioprospecting Coral Peptidome” by New England College.

Ylenia Chiari, Biology, was awarded $125,786 for “Influence of hatchery rearing on methylation and gene expression in westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi)” by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Prime Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Andre Clayborne, Chemistry and Biochemistry, was awarded $382,932 for “Collaborative Research: D3SC: CDS&E: Predictive Discovery of PorphyrinMolecules and their Response Properties using Smart Objects-Enabled Machine Learning - Participant Support” by the National Science Foundation.

Liping Di, Geography and Geoinformation Science, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems (CSISS), was awarded $20,000 for “GMU CSISS Participation in OGC Testbed 17” by Open Geospatial Consortium Inc.

Amy Fowler along with Co-PI Sarah Greenberg, Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded $2,769 for “Is there a lesser of two evils? Castrating parasites of an estuarine crab host in the Chesapeake Bay along a salinity gradient” by the Washington Biologists’ Field Club.

Ramin Hakami, School of Systems Biology, National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID), was awarded $7,980 for “In-vitro and in-vivo analysis of HB-121 efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 challenge” by Healion Bio, Inc.

Saleet Jafri, School of Systems Biology, Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, was awarded $50,000 for “I-Corps: In Silico Prediction of Cancer Drug Susceptibility” by the National Science Foundation.

William Kennedy, Computational and Data Sciences, was awarded $800 for “Analysis and Report of RAM House Data” by the Center for Social Complexity Foundation.

James Kinter, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, was recently appointed to the Priorities for Weather Research (PWR) Study Team of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The PWR Study Team reports to the Scientific Advisory Board of the NOAA.

Stephanie Lessard-Pilon, Biology, Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, was selected to receive the 2021 George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award with special recognition for High-Impact Teaching. The Teaching Excellence Awards are institutional recognition of the significant work that faculty members devote to course planning and preparation; curriculum development; and innovative teaching, advising, and undergraduate and graduate mentoring.

Thomas Lovejoy, Environmental Science and Policy, was inducted as a new member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is the first inductee from the College of Science. The National Academy of Sciences is an organization which recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and provides science policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.

David Luther, Biology, was selected to receive the 2021 George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award with special recognition for General Education Teaching. The Teaching Excellence Awards are institutional recognition of the significant work that faculty members devote to course planning and preparation; curriculum development; and innovative teaching, advising, and undergraduate and graduate mentoring.

Glenn Preston, Mathematical Sciences, was selected to receive the 2021 George Mason University Adjunct Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. The Adjunct Teaching Excellence Award recognizes and rewards excellence among adjunct faculty members for course planning and preparation; curriculum development; and innovative teaching, advising, and mentoring.

Shobita Satyapal, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded highly competitive observing time on the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, to search for intermediate mass black holes in dwarf galaxies which is crucial to our understanding of the origins of supermassive black holes. Satyapal, along with Remington Sexton, Physics and Astronomy, Jenna Cann, Physics and Astronomy Doctoral student, William Matzko, Physics and Astronomy Master’s student, and Lara Kamal, undergraduate student, co-published a paper entitled “Relics of Supermassive Black Hole Seeds: The Discovery of an Accreting Black Hole in an Optically Normal, Low Metallicity Dwarf Galaxy” in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Padhu Seshaiyer, College of Science, was the recipient of the 2021 Earle C. Williams Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Social Impact.

Jagadish Shukla, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, was a recipient of the 2021 Beck Family Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Research & Scholarship.

Cynthia Smith, Environmental Science and Policy,was selected to receive the 2021 George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award with special recognition for High-Impact Teaching. The Teaching Excellence Awards are institutional recognition of the significant work that faculty members devote to course planning and preparation; curriculum development; and innovative teaching, advising, and undergraduate and graduate mentoring.

Fadi Tahan, Center for Collision Safety and Analysis, along with Co-PI’s Cing-Dao (Steve) Kan and Dhafer Marzougui, Physics and Astronomy, Center for Collision Safety and Analysis, was awarded $18,000 for “Al Kuhaimi Bollard System Design” by Al Kuhaimi Metal Industries.

Diego Valderrama, Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded $144,010 for “Business and Economic Planning for Seaweed Aquaculture Systems in the United States” by the University of Connecticut. Prime Sponsor: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Monique Van Hoek, School of Systems Biology, was awarded $2,006,584 for “Antibacterial peptide development and non-GLP in vivo demonstration of activity and efficacy against MDR biofilm-forming wound pathogens, (ESKAPE) JW200188” by the U.S. Department of the Army.

Maria Walters, College of Science, was one of the recipients of the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Awards’ Exceptional Support Award. The Exceptional Support Award is given to employees who provide excellent support, and who provide the strength for their department and the University to grow and prosper.

Gerald Weatherspoon, Chemistry and Biochemistry, was a recipient of the 2021 United Bank Presidential Medal for Faculty Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion. 

College of Science Faculty and Staff News:

Peter Plavchan and his wife welcomed their twin sons, Theo Asher Plavchan and Grant Noam Plavchan, to their family on April 6th, 2021. Congratulations!