Faculty & Staff Accolades September 2019
College of Science Accolades
September 2019
Alonso Aguirre, along with co-PI Joris van der Ham, Environmental Science & Policy, was awarded $47,000 for Enhancing Scientific Data Collection and Management of Natural Resources in the National Capital Region through Student Internships by the National Park Service.
Robert Axtell, Computational and Data Sciences, was awarded $32,000 for Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program for Joseph Shaheen by Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Prime Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy.
Ancha Baranova, School of Systems Biology, co-published two papers, one on the Quality metrics for Next-Gen Sequencing in Nucleic Acids Research and another on Pan-schizophrenia gene collection analysis in Scientific Reports.
Barney Bishop, Chemistry and Biochemistry, was awarded $4,533 for New Hampshire IDEA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence by New England College. Prime sponsor: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Bishop also, along with Monique Van Hoek, School of Systems Biology have released their findings on sequencing the Komodo dragon genome, revealing multiple clusters of antimicrobial peptide genes that could prove instrumental in the fight against multi-drug resistant bacteria.
Natalie Burls, Atmospheric, Oceanic & Earth Sciences, along with Benjamin Cash,Erik Swenson, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies,andDavid Straus, and Abdullah al Fahad (Climate Dynamics PhD student), published a paper titled “The Cape Town ‘Day Zero’ drought and Hadley cell expansion” in Npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Center for Advancement of Human-Machine Partnership (CAHMP) and Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities (CRASC) were the winners of George Mason University’s 2019 Center for Advanced Study Competition. College of Science faculty are participating in both these centers.
Benjamin Cash, Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies was appointed to lead the NOAA UFS Public Release Workflow Focus Team.
Susan Crate, Environmental Science and Policy, was among the more than 100 authors from 30 countries to produce the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC).” Crate contributed as a lead author on Chapter One of SROCC which framed the rest of the report.
https://esp.gmu.edu/2019/09/dr-susan-crate-part-of-a-u-n-special-report-that-warns-of-dire-consequences-if-global-climate-change-goes-unchecked/https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/home/. https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/home/
Tiange Cui, School of Systems Biology PhD alumni, was one of the four winners of theNF (Neurofibromatosis) Hackathon challenge for his PreDist software developed for his Thesis.https://www.ctf.org/news/nf-hackathon-san-francisco
Kim de Mutsert, Environmental Science and Policy,was selected as the 2019 recipient of the Gulf Research Program’s Early-Career Fellowship. She was one of 20 scientists selected from around the nation for this year’s fellowship. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/579266
Ben Dreyfus, Physics and Astronomy, co-published a paper titled "Splits in students’ beliefs about learning classical and quantum physics," in the International Journal of STEM Education. https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-019-0187-y
Harold Geller, Physics and Astronomy, spoke at the City of Fairfax Regional Library on 19 September 2019 about "Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places."
Amanda Haymond, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, is the lead author of the study of Protein-Painting Technology which is funded by the National Cancer Institute’s Innovative Molecular Analysis Technology. This work on protein-painting technology was featured in a variety of news articles. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/580066
Kathleen Hunt, Biology, was awarded $142,954 for Collaborative Research: A New Baseline for Antarctic Blue and Fin Whales by the National Science Foundation.
Lance Liotta, School of Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $130,000 for a Mass Spectrometry by Life Diagnostics, LLC. (MOU agreement)
Thomas Lovejoy, Environmental Science and Policy, is the recipient of the 2019 Virginia Outstanding Award for being one of the founders of the thriving scientific field of conservation biology and discovering the potentially devastating effects of global warming on biodiversity. He is the first George Mason University faculty member to receive this honor. https://www2.gmu.edu/news/579781
David Luther, Biology, co-published the following papers: “Incorporating local habitat heterogeneity and productivity measures when modeling vertebrate richness” in Environmental Conservation, “Evidence for differing trajectories of song in urban and rural populations” in Behavioral Ecology, and “ Effects of habitat management on overwintering grassland bird communities” in Journal of Wildlife Management and Wildlife Monographs.
Emanuel Petricoin, School of Systems Biology, Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $63,587 for Novel Degraders of the Androgen Receptor (AR) and AR Splice Variants (AR-SVs) by the University of Tennessee. Prime Sponsor: US Dept. of Health and Human Services. Petricoin was also awarded$50,000 for Effectively map the signaling architecture of Clear Cell Ovarian Cancer by the University of Arizona.
V. Alaric Sample, Environmental Science and Policy, was appointed to the National Academy of Sciences, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. His participation is related to his work on the role of forest ecosystems in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Karen Sauer, Physics and Astronomy, was awarded $183,988 for Magnetometers for detection of explosives in car portals by Manufacturing Techniques Inclusion. Prime Sponsor: US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Direct.
Timothy Sauer, Mathematical Sciences, was awarded $459,053 for Spiking Neural Networks with Delay Learning by the U.S. Department of the Army.
Cynthia Smith, Environmental Science and Policy, received the Prince William Conservation Alliance's 2019 Wildlife Champion award. "Honoring Dr. Smith's leadership in creating outdoor wildlife and watershed education programs that have reached over 100,000 youth. A talented visual storyteller who inspires people to take a close look at nature."
Lee Talbot, Environmental Science and Policy, received the 2019 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
