CAS CONNECT 2022

The College of Arts and Sciences had 24 of the 40 Wentz Research Scholars for the 2021-22 academic year. Students from all three pillars — arts and humanities, social sciences and math sciences — joined this community of intellectual explorers breaking new pathways of discovery in fields of study from art history to zoology. CAS launched the first cohort of OSU Center for the Humanities Research Group Fellows . This new flagship program incentivizes a cross- disciplinary team model, united under a shared research focus with a goal of envisioning new collaborative opportunities. Nine fellows will embark on development of research in three topic areas: medical/health humanities, environmental humanities and digital humanities. The groups will also consider how their projects align with the public humanities, social justice and anti-racism work. OSU’s Center for Africana Studies celebrated its grand expansion in March. Thanks to support from the College of Arts and Sciences, the center is now open daily in Life Sciences East, room 112. It offers a variety of programming for OSU students, faculty and staff, and serves as a place of rejuvenation and fellowship for Black students and the student body at large. It’s a rare honor to be published in the journal, Science . Dr. Tyrrell Conway , regents professor of microbiology, coauthored a Science research article, titled “Noninvasive assessment of gut function using transcriptional recording sentinel cells.” The reported findings, made possible by a breakthrough CRISPR- based technology called Record-Seq, proved E. coli switches to sugar acid metabolism when mice are fed near- starvation diets. Boone Pickens School of Geology professors Dr. Tracy Quan and Dr. Natascha Riedinger hosted a three-month long outreach event in collaboration with the Stillwater Public Library titled, “In Search of the Earth’s Secrets.” The interactive, hands-on exhibit includes a 40-foot long inflatable replica of the science research ship JOIDES Resolution, six learning stations and the opportunity to explore the hidden discoveries of the earth that scientists are uncovering through ocean floor core drilling. The ship and exhibit were also part of OSU’s Grandparent’s University and Summer on the Plaza. Dr. Kelley Sittner in the Department of Sociology received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to continue an ongoing longitudinal study of Indigenous young adults. “Indigenous Pathways of Substance Use Risk & Resilience across Three Generations” will include a survey on substance use, mental health risk and resilience with the young adults, but now also will include interviews with their children. This will be the 12th wave of data collected as part of the Healing Pathways Project, which originally included eight years of survey and diagnostic data collected from the youth and their caregivers starting in 2001-2002, when the target participants were 10-12. Expanding the study to include the participants’ children will result in an unparalleled multigenerational study of substance use and mental health risk and resilience. Hamed Gholizadeh, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, received a NASA New Investigator Program in Earth Science Award . This program supports outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. Gholizadeh’s research, “Leveraging Multiscale Airborne and Spaceborne Imaging Spectroscopy to Monitor Grassland Plant Diversity Under Different Management Practices,” will contribute to the development of a large-scale biodiversity monitoring system for grasslands. Communication Sciences and Disorders assistant professor Dr. Roha Kaipa received the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Pathway Award . This award is given out to promising early- career clinical scientists and assists them to be mentored by seasoned academicians to develop strong foundations for independent research careers. Political Science assistant professor Cole Harvey published, “Can Courts in Nondemocracies Deter Election Fraud? De Jure Judicial Independence, Political Competition, and Election Integrity,” in the prestigious American Political Science Review — the preeminent journal of the discipline. Harvey describes how independent courts in nondemocracies can be used by opposition camps to hold ruling parties accountable and reduce the prevalence of election fraud. Prominent Native American artists and scholars will be invited to campus more regularly beginning in Fall 2022. Donors to the Department of Art, Graphic Design and Art History recently established the new Cultural Heritage Visiting Artists Series Fund. This fund provides financial support for expenses associated with a visiting artist series celebrating Native American artists and/or scholars of Native American Art. The department is planning for a residency in October of 2022, with prominent printmaking artist, John Hitchcock, who will give open lectures and portfolio reviews for BFA students. Faculty in the Department of Mathematics attracted more than three-quarters of a million dollars in new research funding from the National Science Foundation, the Simons Foundation and other sources. These grants will play a critical role in supporting the department’s research in pure and applied mathematics and in mathematics education.