Faculty & Staff Accolades: September 2016

Accolades celebrate the professional achievements of the faculty and staff in the College of Science for the month of September 2016.

Natalie Burls, Atmospheric Oceanic and Earth Sciences, was awarded $267,302 by the National Science Foundation for Collaborative Research: The effect of variations in cloud versus CO2 radiative forcing on tropical SST gradients, atmospheric circulation and rainfall patterns.

Harold Geller, Physics and Astronomy, spoke about the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the geology of Sputnik Planum at The Mountain Institute near Spruce Knob, West Virginia. Geller also hosted Dr. Veselin Kostov of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Dr. Alexander van der Horst of George Washington University at the GMU Observatory. Kostov spoke about planets orbiting two stars; and, van der Horst spoke about high energy gamma ray bursts.

Andrea George, College of Science, has been selected as the Mason’s October 2016 Employee of the Month.

Paul Houser, Geography and Geoinformation Science, was awarded $638,316 by NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center for ROSES 2015/HMA-LDAS: Hyper-resolution High Mountain Asia – Land Data Assimilation System.

Cing-Dao (Steve) Kan, Physics and Astronomy and Center for Collision Safety & Analysis, was awarded $179,981 by the US Department of Transportation for TOPR 3: Development & Optimization of Effective New Anti-Ram Devices.

Lance Liotta, School of Systems Biology and Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $1,044,609 by the US Department of Health and Human Services for Protein painting identifies therapeutic targets at protein-protein interfaces.

Thomas Lovejoy, Environmental Science and Policy, is to be awarded a lifetime achievement award from the National Council for Science and the Environment. He will be honored in January at the NCSE’s National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy and the Environment at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chrystal City, VA.

Kim De Mutsert, Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded $900,000 by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration for NGOMEX 2016: User-driven tools to predict and assess effects of reduced nutrients and hypoxia on living resources in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chris Parsons, Environmental Science & Policy, was a member of the Organizing Committee, Fundraising Committee, Scientific Committee and Chair of the Publishing Committee for the 4th International Marine Conservation Congress, the largest academic conference on marine conservation that was held in St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada this summer. He was also a member of the Steering Committee of the Oceans Online conference also held in St John’s, Newfoundland. Parsons was the co-chair of the Environmental Concerns Sub-Committee during the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee meeting held in Bled, Slovenia. In addition to that, Parsons co-authored the following papers: “Forensic species identification of elasmobranch products sold in Costa Rican markets” published in Fisheries Research; “Your science conference should have a code of conduct” published in Frontiers in Marine Science; and the “State of the Cetacean Environment Report 2015” published in Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. He was the lead author on the articles “Have you got what it takes? Looking at skills and needs of the modern marine conservation practitioner” published in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences and “Recent advances in whale-watching research: 2014-2015” published in Tourism in Marine Environments.

Emanuel Petricoin, School of Systems Biology and Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $167,520 by Perthera for Perthera Contract.

Dieter Pfoser, Geography and Geoinformation Science, was awarded $507,852 by the National Science Foundation for AitF: Collaborative Research: Modeling movement on transportation networks using uncertain data.

John Qu, Geography and Geoinformation Science, was awarded $64,473 by the US Geological Survey for Establishing the Soil Properties Monitoring and Forecasting Demonstration System by Integrated Satellite Remote Sensing, in-situ Ground Measurements and Model Simulations.

Indu Satija, Physics and Astronomy, authored the book Butterfly in the Quantum World: The Story of the Most Fascinating Quantum Fractal. It was written in close partnership with Douglas Hofstadter, the internationally well know Pulitzer Prize winner who will be coming to Mason on November 3rd to speak. All proceeds from the book will be donated to support various activities in Quantum Science in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Cynthia Smith, Environmental Science and Policy, was awarded $15,000 by the Dominion Foundation for Visualizing Watershed Connections.

Cristina Stan, Atmospheric Oceanic and Earth Sciences, was awarded $255,604 by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration for Advanced Diagnostics for Tropical-Midlatitude Interactions and Teleconnections on Intraseasonal Timescales.

Lee Talbot, Environmental Science and Policy, is receiving the Defenders of Wildlife Legacy Award. The Legacy Award is the Defender’s highest award for lifetime achievements in wildlife conservation. Talbot will be presented with the award this month at their awards dinner at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC.

Ingrid Visseren-Hamakers, Environmental Science and Policy, co-authored the following academic publications: “Envisioning REDD+ in a post-Paris era: between evolving expectations and current practice” published in WIREs Climate Change; “Historical development of institutional arrangements for forest monitoring and REDD+ MRV in Peru: Discursive-institutionalist perspectives” published in Forest Policy and Economics; “Integration through interaction? Synergy between adaptation and mitigation (REDD+) in Cameroon” published in Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy and “Institutional effectiveness of REDD+ MRV: Countries progress in implementing technical guidelines and good governance requirements” published in Environmental Science & Policy. She is also a co-author of book entitled “Can Legality Verification enhance local rights to forest resources? Piloting the policy learning protocol in the Peruvian forest context” published in International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), Yale University’s Governance, and Environment and Markets (GEM) Initiative in 2016. Visseren-Hamakers was appointed as the Coordinating Lead Author.

Ruixin Yang, Geography and Geoinformation Science, was awarded $20,000 by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Improving Imputation Methodology in the ARMS Household Section, and $30,000 by US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for Enhancement of procedures and documentation of U.S. State-level Agricultural Productivity Accounts.