College of Science Accolades May 2021

The College of Science, along with the Dr. Don Kelso Learning Pier Committee (which is largely made up of his former students going back decades), hosted the Dr. Don Kelso Learning Pier Dedication Ceremony at the Potomac Science Center, in honor of Don Kelso’s years of service and dedication to science. The vision for the Dr. Don Kelso Learning Pier is that it will not only support the needs of Mason researchers, but will also allow new opportunities for partnerships, K-12 education initiatives, and for Kelso’s legacy to continue helping Mason students for decades to come.

Bok Haeng Baek, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems (CSISS), was awarded $105,260 for “Emissions: 2020 NEI Preparation” by General Dynamics. Prime Sponsor: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Natalie Burls, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, published an article entitled “Simulation Miocene Warmth: Insights From an Opportunistic Multi-Model Ensemble (MioMIP1)” in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.

Rocio Paola Caballero-Gill, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, was awarded $148,581 for “Leveraging the Geologic Record to Constrain Solar System Evolution, Earth-Moon Dynamics, Paleoclimate Change, and Geological Time Project 6: The CycloCohort ProgramProject 1b: Earth-Moon parameters and Solar System fundamental frequencies, Precambrian to” by the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Amy Fowler, Environmental Science and Policy, was chosen as a recipient for the 2021 OSCAR Mentoring Excellence Award by George Mason University’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR).

Nirmal Ghimire, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $81,003 for “Topological properties in intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides” by UChicago Argonne, LLC. Prime Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Ghimire, along with Naween Anand, Quantum Science and Engineering Center, co-published a paper entitled “High-throughput search for magnetic topological materials using spin-orbit spillage, machine learning, and experiments” in Physical Review B 103. 

Robert Hazen selected two undergraduate students, Anna Hindrichs and Kiana Eleazer, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, as summer interns to join his team at the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science to work on data-driven approaches using minerals to characterize the coevolution of the geosphere and biosphere.

Cing-dao (Steve) Kan, along with Co-PI Dhafer Marzougui, Physics and Astronomy, Center for Collision Safety and Analysis (CCSA), was awarded $620,000 for “DOT IDIQ Crash Testing of NPS Aesthetic Barriers for MASH” by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

Hamdi Kavak, Computational and Data Sciences, was chosen as a recipient for the 2021 OSCAR Mentoring Excellence Award by George Mason University’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR).

Thomas Lovejoy, Environmental Science and Policy, co-authored an article entitled “Deforestation is driven by global markets” in The Conversation. 

Laura Lukes, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, was a recipient of the 2021 Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology’s Alumni Career Achievement Award.

David Luther, Biology, was chosen as a recipient for the 2021 OSCAR Sustaining Excellence Mentor Award by George Mason University’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR).

Igor Mazin, Physics and Astronomy, co-authored a paper entitled “Magnetization Process of Atacamite: A Case of Weakly Coupled S=1/2 Sawtooth Chains” in Physical Review Letters.

Divita Mathur, College of Science, was awarded $185,760 for “Cytosolic Access and Instability of DNA nanoparticles” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

Yuri Mishin, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $354,527 for “Thermodynamics of Interfaces: Theory to Atomistic Modeling” by the National Science Foundation.

Julia Nord, Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences, along with Co-PI’s Padhu Seshaiyer, College of Science, Kerin Hilker-Balkissoon, College of Science, Tina Bell, Biology, and Andrew Gilbert, College of Education and Human Development, was awarded $306,258 for “Supporting, Mentoring and Retaining New STEM Secondary Educators Through Major Transitions from Recruitment to Highly Effective Teacher” by the National Science Foundation.

Emanuel “Chip” Petricoin, School of Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM), was awarded $800,000 for “Clinical Phase 2A Study to Treat Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Induced by Microbially Triggered Inflammation, Using a Novel Prebiotic Therapeutic, Maltosyl-Isomaltoologosaccharides (MIMO)” by the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation.

Jennifer Sklarew, Environmental Science and Policy, was chosen as a recipient for the 2021 OSCAR Mentoring Excellence Award by George Mason University’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR)