Faculty and Staff Accolades October-November 2019

The following College of Science faculty have been nominated for a George Mason University 2020 Teaching Excellence Award: Tina Bell, Gwendolyne Fondufe,  Malda Kocache, Valerie Olmo,  Deborah Polayes, and Brenda Tondi, Biology.Hao Jing, Rebecca Jones, Pritha Roy, and Benoit Van Aken, Chemistry and Biochemistry. Andrew Crooksand Jason Kinser, Computational and Data Sciences. Amy Fowler, Chris Jones, Jennifer Lewis, and Jennifer Salerno, Environmental Science and Policy. Steven Burmeister and Kelly Knight, Forensic Science. Dieter Pfoser, Christine Rosenfeld, and Andreas Zufle, Geography and Geoinformation Science. Harbir Antil, Karen Crossin, Rebecca Goldin, Joanna Jauchen, Dmitri Kaznachey, Mary Nelson, Glenn Preston, Sean Lawton, Mathematical Sciences.Jane Flinnand Wendy Lewis, Neuroscience. Benjamin Dreyfus, Joseph Pesce, Joseph Weingartner, Physics and AstronomyandFrank Krueger, Systems Biology.

Karen Akerlof, Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded $266,628 for Sun Protection without Ecological Harm: Promoting Reef-Friendly Visitor Behavior in National Parks by the Resource Systems Group, Inc. Prime Sponsor: National Park Service.

Ancha Baranova, Systems Biology, co-published two papers, one describing human mRNA-miRNA interactome in Nucleic Acids Research and another on beneficial polypharmacy delaying cognitive decline in PLOS One.

Zafer Boybeyi, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, was awarded $2,500 for theAnnual GMU Conference on Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Modeling 2019 by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Arie Croitoru, Geography and Geoinformation Science, Center for Geospatial Intelligence, along with Co-PI, Andrew Crooks, Computational and Data Sciences, was awarded $199,850 for A crowdsourced gazetteer for monitoring cartel activity by the State Of Maryland. Prime Sponsor: U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Timothy Delsole, along with his Co-PIBenjamin Cash, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies, was awarded $414,800 for Collaborative Research: Physics-Based Machine Learning for Sub-Seasonal Climate Forecasting by the National Science Foundation.

Lulia Deneva, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $64,583 for Eleven Steep-Spectrum Millisecond Pulsar Candidates in the Galactic Center Bulge by the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.

Virginia Espina, Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $7,637 for Thrombus proteomic analysis by the Mayo Clinic.

Harold Geller, Physics and Astronomy, was interviewed in October by two members of the Oral History Program, Special Collection Research Center of the George Mason University Libraries about his 37 years on campus at George Mason University. He also spoke to the Exxon/Mobil Retirement Association about Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places, and spoke to Ms. Weeks' 5th grade class in Muscatine, Iowa via Skype. In November, he spoke to Ms. Latimer's 11th and 12th grade class in Ipswich, Massachusetts via Skype.

Geoffrey Gilleaudeau, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, was awarded $55,000 for Redox gradients in Lower Mississippian black shales of North America: a test case for uranium isotope behavior by the American Chemical Society – ACS.

Kerin Hilker-Balkissoon, College of Science, has been selected to receive a national award as one of the four NISTS Transfer Champion – Catalyst Award Winner. This is a very prestigious award for those who make a significant impact at all levels.

Cing-Dao (Steve) Kan, along with Co-PI Dhafer Marzougui, Physics and Astronomy, Center for Collision Safety and Analysis, was awarded $145,000 for Crash Test Stone Faced Concrete Bridge Rail by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Kan along with Co-PIs Rudolf Reichert and Chung-Kyu Park was awarded $444,178 for Crash Simulation of FMVSS No. 214 Safety Performance and $381,171 for Measuring Steering Column Motion in Frontal Rigid Barrier Test by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In addition, Kan was awarded $25,000 from Big River Steel - Transportation Safety via the George Mason University Foundation.

Kylene Kehn-Hall, Systems Biology, National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, along with Monique Van Hoek and post-doctoral fellows, presented a poster as co-authors at the 2019 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology (CBD S&T) Conference in November titled, “Innovative Magnetic Nanoparticles Preserve the Stability of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus in Blood for Laboratory Detection.” Kehn-Hall,  along with doctoral student, Bibha Dahal, and other collaborators at Mason, published a paper titled, "EGR1 upregulation following Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus infection is regulated by ERK and PERK pathways contributing to cell death” in Virology.

James Kinter, Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies was awarded $110,000 for CISESS: GMU Contributions to NOAA's Next-Generation Global Coupled System for Week-3 and Week-4 Weather Prediction by the State Of Maryland. Prime Sponsor: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Lance Liotta, Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $4,485 for Mass spectrometry analysis of protein interaction domains by the American Type Culture Collection.

Robert Meier, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $45,000 for Next generation modeling of E-region electron production by the Computational Physics, Inc. Prime Sponsor: National Science Foundation.

Emanuel (Chip) Petricoin, Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, along with Co-PI Valerie Calvert, was awarded $102,000 for RPPA analysis of Tissue Cell Samples Provided by G1 Therapeutics, Inc.

John Qu, along with Co-PI Xianjun Hao, Geography and Geoinformation Science, Center for Environmental Science and Technology, was awarded $103,704 for CISESS: GMU Supporting the NOAA Atmospheric Temperature Climate Data Record from POES Microwave Sounders to JPSS/ATMS by the State Of Maryland. Prime Sponsor: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Claudio Ricci, along with co-PI Shobita Satyapal, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $65,657 for 1ES 1927+654, the first optically-identified changing-look AGN caught in the act - Destruction and recreation of the X-ray corona by the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.

Shobita Satyapal, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $166,099 (TO 858) for Academic Fellowship Program for the U.S. Naval Observatory, US Department of the Navy. Additional awards from the same sponsor are:  $137,435, (TO 854), $166,099 (TO 811), $9,992 (TO 811), $126,221 (TO 855), and $13,000 (TO 855).

Lee Talbot, Environmental Science and Policy, was appointed to the International Jury for the 2020 Harold Jefferson Coolidge Medal of the IUCN. The IUCN is an international environmental body with over 1,300 member governments and organizations throughout the world. It awards the medal for international conservation achievement at its international meetings every three years. Talbot was himself the 2016 recipient of this prestigious award. https://esp.gmu.edu/2016/09/dr-lee-m-talbot-receives-distinguished-2016-harold-j-coolidge-medal-at-iucn/

Quansong (Daniel) Tong, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, was awarded $120,415 & $405,917 for CISESS: George Mason University: Improving Dust Weather Hazard Forecasting with JPSS aerosols and land products by the State Of Maryland. Prime Sponsor: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Monique Van Hoek, Systems Biology, gave a talk at the World Anti Microbial Resistance Congress in Washington, D.C. in November 2019, highlighting the antimicrobial peptide discovery work, titled, "Pitch and Partner: Discovery of Antimicrobial peptides from Alligator and Komodo Dragons against multi-drug resistant bacteria." Van Hoek, along with Kylene Kehn-Hall, Systems Biology, as a co-author, presented a poster at the 2019 Chemical and Biological Defense Science & Technology (CBD S&T) Conference in November titled “Nanotrap particles enhance detection of bacterial biothreat pathogens.

Chaowei (Phil) Yang, Geography and Geoinformation Science, Center for Intelligent Spatial Computing for Water/Energy Science, was awarded $100,000 for I/UCRC NASA Goddard NSF Spatiotemporal Innovation Center Membership - Planetary Defense by NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. Yangwas also awarded $100,000 for Work for Membership to the Spatiotemporal Thinking, Computing, and Applications (STC) Industry–University Cooperative Research Centers Program (I/UCRC) - Big Data Learning Platform by NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center.