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Science News Roundup: July 2015

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Here is the science news, relating to George Mason University and the College of Science for the month of July 2015: 

July 31
AOES’ Barry Klinger Says Flight 370 Could Have Drifted
Klinger thinks the plane could have crashed thousands of miles from the where the wing was discovered.

July 28
Students Will Soon Dig Deep in Fossil Record to Search for Clues to Future
Mason leads efforts to make international fossil database accessible to students to spur new research that could link ancient Earth to today’s changes.

Potomac Science Center going up at Belmont Bay
Construction is underway on George Mason University’s long-awaited Potomac Science Center in the Belmont Bay community of Woodbridge and is expected to be completed in the spring.

July 27
As part of the New Horizons team, Dr. Summers has commented on Pluto and the mission throughout the month

July 20
ESP adjunct Jennifer Sklarew blogs on Japan’s return to nuclear energy four years after disaster
Despite meltdowns, a tsunami and public opposition, Japan may soon restart a nuclear power plant — or several.

July 13
How, and Why, to See Tuesday’s Pluto Fly-By
Mason’s Michael Summers is on the NASA team exploring the outer dwarf planet.

Mason Professor Uses Guinea Pig to Get Kids Interested in Pluto, Space Exploration
Geller typically writes lengthy books pondering the existence of life on other planets, so he brought the same attention to detail to the info-packed “A Pluto Story,” which is aimed at middle grade readers.

Keep Watch: Pluto-bound Spacecraft Flies by the Icy Planet on Tuesday
Smaller than Earth’s moon, Pluto may hold clues to even farther-flung and perhaps even habitable planets in the universe.

July 8
Fulbright Scholars Offer Tips to Win the Prize
Mariam Waqar graduated in May with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Grant to Indonesia.

July 6
Professor, Students Study Shipwreck Microbes to Analyze Oil Spill Effects
Deepwater shipwrecks make for a watery laboratory and they’re just the place for George Mason University microbial ecologist Leila Hamdan to find tiny organisms that record how healthy the environment is.

July 5
Alumni Profile: Kirk Preiss, MS ’77 Mathematics [Video]
This year’s Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Q&A hosted alumnus Kirk A. Preiss, MS ’77 Mathematics. Mr. Preiss spoke with a small group of students during an intimate session the day prior to convocation.

Student Profile: Mezel Smith [Video]
We caught up with rising senior Mezel Smith in Johnson Center Library’s One Button Studio for a quick chat.

July 2
The Council on Accreditation of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC International) has reviewed the George Mason University laboratory animal care and use program and has officially awarded the university with full accreditation.

July 1
Re-Establishment of the Department of Computational and Data Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy
These two departments had been acting as the School of Physics, Astronomy, and Computational Sciences for several years, and this reorganization will allow them to separately build on their strengths and reputations in a changing academic environment.

Mason Researchers Discover New Way to Help Arthritis Sufferers
Mason researchers have discovered an inhibitor, or drug, that blocks the interaction of inflammatory molecules and stops the body’s reaction that leads to osteoarthritis.

News we’ve missed from the last month or more

Class Notes

Student Accolades

John Sangobovale, PhD student in Bioinformatics and Computational Computational Biology (SSB), received $700 travel fellowship to present his research at ISBRA (International Symposium on Bioinformatics Research and Applications) held on June 7-10, 2015 at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.

Have we missed your student, faculty or alumni news? This post is updated all month long. Let us know, and we’ll include it! As an alumnus/ae, use this Update Your Information form to tell us about your professional and personal activities! Faculty and students, email cosnews@gmu.edu to see your news added to the monthly news roundup, and spotlighted by COS social media accounts.