Evolution Fall 2010 v4n1

8/8/2019 Evolution Fall 2010 v4n1

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A&TS SoCiAl & bEHAVioRAl SCiENCES

RESEARCH bEYoNd

ENGiNEERiNG

>>Negtiating Tade

Eadicating Malaia

FulbRiGHT

SCHolARS:


2/15

>>featUreS

|||roM ThEViCE CHANCElloR

Crss-Patfrng Strategc Research

As I alluded t in te last issue Evolution (Sping 2010), te ceatin an Institute

Scial and Beavial Sciences is vedue and must be stategically embedded in u

eseac entepise.

In tis issue, yu will see te cuent wk sme u leading eseaces in

beavial and cgnitive sciences. ou pupse in stategically tageting tese aeas is nt

nly t incease eseac unding, but als t clse te knwledge gap wile impving

te intellectual climate u univesity and elping t impve te basic and tanslatinal

eseac u aculty.

As we ae develping stategies and identiying u capacity in te scial and beavial

sciences, aculty acss multidisciplinay and tansdisciplinay units u univesity will be

ptimally engaged in a tageted manne. S enginees, cmpute scientists, psyclgists,

nuses, animal scientists, ecnmists and s n, will be eady t wk tgete t slve

cmmn glbal and lcal pblems.

Sinceely,

CeleStINe A. NtUeN, Ph.D.

Distinguished University Proessor

Interim Vice Chancellor or Research and Economic Development

>>departmeNtS

>> RESEARCH MOVING FORWARD

4

14

22

A&T NewsAggie Research Briefs

Joint School of Nanosciene &

Nanoengineering

Faculty WatchDr. Lemuria Carter

Dr. Gregory Goins

Dr. Shengmin Sang

Dr. Perpetua Muganda

Undergraduate ResearchShauna Adams & Adrian Ambrose

2

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22

RESEARCH bEYoNENGiNEERiNGA&Ts Social & Behavioral Sciences

dEAN AlAN lETTo12 Things to Know

FulbRiGHT SCHolDr. Sarita Jackson & Dr. Syrulwa Soma

4

13

14

CELESTINE A.

NTuEN, Ph.D.INteRIM VICe ChANCellOR FOR ReSeARCh & eCONOMIC DeVelOPMeNt

TioN is publised by

sin reseac & Ecnmic Develpment

alina A&T State Univesity

st Maket Steet

, NC 27411

4-7995

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D l. MARtIN, SR., Ph.D.

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INe A. NtUeN, Ph.D.

Vice Cancell reseac &

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OND, eD.D.

nt Vice Cancell

Administatin

e SzAFRANSkI, M.S.

nt Vice Cancell outeac

nmic Develpment

ARNeke

reseac Cmmunicatins

rolina Agricultural and Technical State University is a

t, high research activity university and AA/EEO em-

C. A&T is an ADA compliant institution, and university

re designed to provide accessibility to individuals with

disabilities.

ies of this publication were printed with nonstate funds

of X$ at X cents per copy.

n (Pint)

57-1597

n (online)

57-1821

||

||

Te Aggie reseac blg: ttp://aggieeseac .wdpess.c m/

Twitte @aggieeseac ... acebk: Aggie reseac

ttp://www.ncat.edu/ ~dives/


3/15

oSCIENCE & NANoENGINEErING

60M Old School

|

NC A&T STATE UNIV

A&T NEwS

tn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD

&T and UNC-Greensboro opened a

ne-room schoolhouse this semester.

t its not as old-ashioned as Dean Jim

ans nickname makes the Joint School o

anoscience and Nanoengineering sound.

asses actually are being held in one room

the USDA research building at the South

mpus o Gateway University Researchrk. But there also are two JSNN labs

mporarily housed there, with multiple

ss spectrometers, chromatographs and

croscopes operating at the nano level. This

e-room schoolhouse is worth millions.

e $60 million JSNN building is under

nstruction next door, on time and on budget

open by the end o 2011.

ghteen students were admitted in the rst

ss, 17 doctoral students in nanoscience

d one student in the proessional master

science program. Ryan was hoping or

in the initial class. With the nanoscience

gree program not receiving UNC approval

til January, there was little time to recruit

dents. Were delighted and a little

prised at the popularity o the program,

an says.

st semester schedule: an A&T course in

thematical methods in nanoscience and

noengineering and a UNCG course in

nochemistry, plus two lab rotations and

proessional development seminar. Spring

mester brings nanobiology, nanophysics, two

ore lab rotations and another proessional

velopment seminar.

e next milestone is approval by the

NC system o A&Ts Ph.D. program in

noengineering, which could come as early

academic year 2011. The nanoscience

gree program is oered by UNCG.

SNN popular,nrollment high

Dr. Solomon Bililign, ERC bioengineeriDr. Etta Gravely and ANoted & Notable

Aggie Research Bries

Dr. Kay Dobie, Transportation Institute director, is part o a team rom ve UNC campuses conductingan economic-impact study on North Carolinas state ports. The other schools are NC State, UNCCharlotte, UNC Wilmington, and Western Carolina.

Dr. Conchita Ndege (History) has been appointed to the board o the Wake Forest University Museumo Anthropology; shell chair the board s programs committee.

Associate Dean Shirley Hymon-Parker (Agriculture & Environmental Sciences) received theDistinguished Service Award rom the American Association o Family and Consumer Sciences, thegroups highest honor.

Valerie Nieman (Journalism & Mass Communications) is poetry editor o the online quarterlyPrimeNumber(http://www.primenumbermagazine.com/).

Social media users, please note: New provost, Dr. Linda Thompson Adams, is on Facebook. And sois Aggie Research(check it out on Twitter and the Aggie Research blog, too).

Dr. Stephanie Luster-Teasley(Civil & Environmental Engineering) has been admitted to the 2010BRIDGES academic leadership program at UNC-CH.

A new bioengineering laboratory or the Engineering Research Center has been built on the third fooro the Fort IRC.

A&T alum Calvin Johnson, class o 74, led a seminar on campus on unding rom the Department oDeense. Johnson is a highly decorated retired US Army ocer and is now the deputy d irector o the US

Armys Battle Command Battle Laboratory at Fort L eavenworth, Kansas.

Dr. Abdussalam Addus (Department o Economics and Finance) published an article i n the InternationalJournal of Business and Public Administration (Financial Management o Road Maintenance Programsin Sub-Saharan Arica). Dr. George Steven Swann (Department o Management) published anarticle in the Ohio Northern University Law Review(The Law and Economics o ERISA and FiduciaryDuty: LaRue vs. DeWol, Boberg & Associates, Inc.).

NC A&T is joining with Hampton and Tennessee State to assist minority-owned IT rms in securingederal service contracts.

Three interdisciplinary graduate programs are now aligned with academic departments:Computational Science & Engineering with Engineering, Energy & Environmental Sciences with

Arts & Sciences, and Leadership & Community Development with Education.

The ECUmedical school has added A&T to its early assurance program, guaranteeing admission ortwo top Aggie grads each year (without taking the MCAT).

rESEArCh ThIS:

Three other H

are designate

high researc

universities. C

name them?

adandJacksonState.

The National Security Agencyhas designated A&T as a Center o Excellence in InormationAssurance Education. Physicist and weather researcher Dr. Solomon Bililign (Physics) hasbeen named a 2010 Alumni Fellow o the College o Liberal Arts a nd Sciences at the Universityo Iowa, his doctoral alma mater.

TheJoint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineeringand Greensboro-based chip-makerRF Micro Devices have agreed to collaborate on the development o innovative nanoelectronicstechnologies or RF amplication, lter, and switch unctions.

Honeywell hosted three Engineering aculty membersDr. Albert Esterline, Dr. MannurSundaresan, and Dr. Christopher Dossat its Kansas City plant or a day-long meeting toexplore mutual research interests.

Dr. Etta Gravely(Chemistry) has been named to the new American Chemical Society-HachPrograms Advisory Board. The ACS Hach program supports secondary chemistry educationand teachers.

Dr. Guochen Yang(Natural Resources & Environmental Design) has been elected secretar yand a member o the steering committee o the Plant Growth Regulation Society o America. On a visit to China over the summer, he chaired the thesis deense committee or eight MSstudents at Jilin Agricultural University.

Dr. Karen Smith-Gratto (Curriculum & Instruction) and Donna Eaton RN (Oce oResearch Compliance & Ethics) have been selected t o present a poster at the 2010 AdvancingEthical Research Conerence. Subject: Student Research Requirements and the Need orFaculty Training.

IBM executives Dr. Sandra Johnson and Elmer Corbin met with Chancellor Martin, researchadministrators and aculty to discu ss possible research collaborations. IBM is very interested inconnecting US universities, especially HBCUs, with schools in sub-Saharan Ar ica.

Dr. Fuabeh Fonge (History) is editor-in-chie o the Journal of International Studies andDevelopment, a new peer-reviewed scholarly journal on international studies and practice.

Dr. Harmohindar Singh (Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering) has receivedthe 2010 Regional Energy Proessional Development Award rom the Association o EnergyEngineers. The Center for Energy Research and Technology, headed by Singh, has receivedthe 2010 Community Leadership Award rom the NC Sustainable Energy Association.

A group o South A rican executives rom the energy and economic development sectors metwith the Center for Energy Research & Technologyto discuss collaborative energy researchand education projects with A&T, Bennett College and the American Association o Blacksin Engineering.


4/15

NC A&T STATE UNIV

by CeleStIN

ethics, brain and behavior,

language and culture, energy

and economics, rural sociology,

health disparities, youth and

elderly drug and alcohol abuse,

teen pregnancy, youth delinquency

and dropouts, climate change, dance and other

artistic expressions o arican-americans, hip-hop

music, and our criminal justice system.

The list goes on.


RESEARCHbEYoNd

ENGiNEERiNG

>>

AN eNGINeeRS PeRSPeCtIVe ON:

behAVIORAl &SOCIAl SCIeNCeS

PSYCHoloGY

EduCATioN

HumAN dEVEloPmENT & SERViCES

ECoNomiCS

ACAdEmiC AFFAiRS

PSYCHoloGY

OUR INteRIM VICe ChANCellOR FOR ReSeeCONOMIC DeVelOPMeNt AND DIStINGUISheD

PROFeSSOR OF INDUStRIAl eNGINeeRING URGeS

A NeW lOOk At the SOCIAl AND behAVIORAl SCAUtIONS: DONt UNDeReStIMAte theIR VAlU

In June o 2005 I was ortunateto attend the Complex Physical,Biological, and Social Systemsprogram at MIT oered by NewEngland Complex Systems Institute.As a part o the project, we had sel-orming teams o no more than veper team, each team inclusive o multi-and transdisciplinary members romengineering, health, computer science,social science, and humanities.

Thinking about that MIT summerexperience has expanded my view othe need to engage A&T aculty rom thehumanities and social and behavioralsciences in a more strategic, ocusedway in the scholarly research on ourcampus. Lets look at the HIV/AIDSproject in which I participated rom theperspective o this cohort aculty.

Our team developed a model thatincorporated issues on the impacto the spread o HIV/AIDS in a smallcommunity in the suburbs o LosAngeles. The economists addressedthe economic impact o controllingthe spread o AIDS; the sociologistswere interested in social interactionand sociological metrics o sexuality;the psychologists analyzed the impacton patients decision-making (brain/cognitive) while interacting withcaregivers and amilies, conceptso sel in relation with society, andperceptions o risky sexual behavior;anthropologists provided the team withhistorical antecedents o culture andepidemiological diseases; linguisticshighlighted surprising communicationmodalities o AIDS patients and newadaptive language patterns arising romperceived isolation rom the society andneighborhood; the healthcare expert,who happened to be a physician witha nursing degree, exposed the impacto HIV/AIDS on all aspects o thehealthcare system

Why introduce an about ve years ago? intelligence througdisciplinary teams pdiverse opportunitiproblems. Second, repolicy, especially policprograms such as theAIDS, requires opecollaboration o expesocial and behavioral

As A&T is engagedintellectual climate o major priority, the timor A&T aculty rombe more engaged. Thior aculty in the humbehavioral scienceshave historically beenin A&T research und

In reviewing A&Tand research over I discovered my cosocial and behaalready contributingto A&Ts success inThese contributionintellectual arenasresearch in ethics, brlanguage and cultueconomics, rural soCarolina, health dand elderly drug anand their impacts teen pregnancy, yoand dropouts in elemschools, problems indance and other aro Arican-Americansand our criminal julist goes on. The ollprovide an insiders locontributions our acthese elds.


5/15


mAPPiNG NEwFRoNTiERS iNRESEARCH & EduCATioN

NC A&T STATE UNIVtn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD

dr. bran SsPSYCHoloGY

In this media-driven world, what are the racial

messages we take in and how do they impact our

choices? Sims is opening our eyes and ears.

dr. Cathy Kea EduCATioN

One o our nations leaders in best practices in

teacher development, Kea uses evidence-based

instruction strategies to teach teachers how to

adapt in culturally changing communities.

dr. Stephane lsk HumAN dEVEloPmENT & S

dr. mark brkey ECoNomiCS

Where does matter. Burkey analyzes the impact

o location, location, location and its eect on

local populations.dr. Sctt Skns ACAdEmiC AFFAiRS

Leading A&Ts Academy o Teaching and

Learning, Simkins is building a resource or aculty

development and improving student learning.

dr. Terryn Carter PSYCHoloGY

hat engages teens here and abroad? A

cNair mentor, Carter nds hersel examining

e educational outcomes o rural and urban

merging adults.

kely you are aware o research and unding in engineering and agriculture. But what o

he social and behavioral sciences? Here are a group o multidisciplinary eorts that include

esearch in ethics, brain and behavior, language and culture, energy and economics, sociology,

ealth and addiction. We are proud to showcase a ew o our aculty who are improving the

ntellectual climate on our campus and in our world.

THE wHo, wHAT ANd

wHY oF A diFFERENT

KiNd oF RESEARCH

Lusks masters level students are learning howto recognize, address and treat a wide array

o addictive behavior. Her research explores

treatment with an eye toward global applications.

by D

CONTINUUM OF CHEMICAL USE

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/dependence


6/15

dr. Stephane lsk HumAN dEVEloPmENT & SERViCESCRoSSiNG EduCATioNA

TAKiNG oN AddRECENTLY LUSK RECEIVED A FIVE-YEAR $750,000 DEPARTMENT O

REHABILITATION SERVICES GRANT. SHE IS A DELIBERATE, METHODIC

AND TEACHER. IF SHE CONTINUES HER CURRENT PACE, DR. LUSK WILL . . .

RECOGNIZED AS AN AUTHORITY IN ADDICTIONS COUNSELING.

Dr. Miriam Wagner, Interim Chair, Department o Human Develo

Dr. Stephanie Lusk is beginning her th yearteaching at A&T. Her masters level studentslearn the best evidence-based practices on howto recognize, address and treat a wide arrayo addictive behavior. Ater graduation thesestudents will sit or exams to become certiedrehabilitation or licensed proessional counselors.Should they complete the certicate program theyare eligible to become licensed clinical substanceabuse counselors.

Lusk takes great pride in the success o herstudents and says they leave her program verywell prepared to ace the challenges o substanceabuse counseling.

An assistant proessor in the School oEducations Department o Human Developmentand Services, Lusk is also a member othe Institutional Review Board and has theopportunity to track many o the research projectstaking place on campus. It is easy to believe herwhen she levels her gaze in your direction and

says, There are a lot o greahere at A&T.

Im interested in human intindividuals change or move ainfuencing actors, Lusk sher oce in Proctor Hall. Abe interested in might be, Hrespond to being exposeddisabilities or some type o add

Lusk conducts her ownarea o addictions and rehaoten inds that her work educational boundaries.

I have to understand pexplains. I have to understanto understand economicstheconomic actor thats involvedrug tracking and drug us

WHOD. Stepanie Lusk

WHATExpling te w and wy addictin

WHEREAcss elds and aund te wld

WHY T develp a me cmpeensive and

cmplete teatment pcess addictin.

dr. bran Ss PSYCHoloGYTHE imPACT oF mEdiA oN idENTiTY

ARE wE wHAT wE wATCH?

NC A&T STATE UNIV

DID ARCHIE BUNKER AND BILL COSBY IMPACT OUR RACIAL IDENTITIES? DOES RAP MUSIC

DEFINE EMOTIONS LIKE HATE? ARE OUR CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEMS PRIMED BY MASS

MEDIA MESSAGES?

Dr. Brian Sims, a psychologist at A&T, isintensely involved in three studies that ask incisivequestions about how individuals receive messageso racial identity via the media. His eld o mediapsychology looks at how messages in television,radio, print media, movies and music can infuencethe decisions individuals make about their racialgroup membership.

Although there is wealth o current researchon this topic, Sims approaches it rom a dierentangle than most. The current literature tends toocus on how attitudes and belies about racerelate to other things, Sims explains. A simpleexample would be the question, How does racialidentity play into the college classroom? Does itaect students grades?

But what Im interested in is less about thethings that racial identity impacts, he says. Iam more interested in the things that impactracial identity.

One o Sims studies, to be submitted this allto theJournal of Media Psychology, looks at racialidentity themes in television sitcoms. For the study,Sims developed a coding scheme that can be usedto systematically extract racial identity messages.He chose to deconstruct The Cosby Show.

The Cosby Showwas ull o cultural ideas andmotis about what it means to be black and what itmeans to not be black in America, Sims said.

The Cosby Showdebuted on NBC in Septembero 1984, and immediately became one o the mostsuccessul, and unexpected, hit sitcoms Americantelevision had ever seen. For eight years, onThursday night, millions o people tuned in towatch the everyday events in the lives o an upper-middleclass black amily.

What is it that made the Huxtables so ber-successul compared to other examples o blackamilies that had been on television beore? Simsasks. Sims is convinced that the reason The CosbyShowwas so successulit aired on primetime onNBC or eight yearswas because o the messages

that were embedded in t he show.

Ultimately, he says, Im interested in guringout how that show, and others, delivered racialidentity messages to viewers.

Earlier attempts to depict the black Americanamily on television included Sanford and Son(1972-77), Good Times (1974-79) and TheJeffersons (1975-85). But the Huxtables, Simsbelieves, were imbued with a unique mixtureo human qualities that served as racial identity

messages that challenged the common blackstereotypes o the time.

The study is very time intensive. Developingthe coding scheme took a long time, Sims says,and then there is the time spent actually viewingthe showstwo independent raters watching200-plus episodes.

The raters have to make judgments, Simspoints out. There are interrelated liabilityconcerns and scale calibrations, so its a verycomplex, scientic endeavor designed to ask,What are the messages? What are the ideas? Whatare the concepts that have racial relevance thatwould impact the minds o the viewers?

Sims is also collaborating with Dr. GeorgeRobinson, chair o the Psychology Department,on a study complementary to the Cosby Showresearchan Event Related Potential (ERP)study, which will use brain imaging technologyto allow researchers to see electrical activity ina persons brain.

This is the next rontier or my researchprogram, Sims says. Given what we alreadyknow about the media and their ability totransmit racial identity messages, how do thosemessages speciically act on a persons centralnervous system?

Participants are placed in an experimentalsetting and exposed to sitcoms. Brain activityis measured to see i there are corollariesor relationships between the racial identitymessages in the shows and the participantsneurological activity. Sims believes that i hecan make distinctions between dierent stimulibased on something like race, then he shouldbe able to see that refected in the neurologicalactivity o the brain.

This is very exciting work because there isabsolutely nothing like this in the literature,Sims says with enthusiasm. And its a oregoneconclusion that social constructs like race andgender are not only real but meaningul.

These two studies, and another that Sims isconducting on the psychological constructso hate in contemporary rap music lyrics, arethe reasons he came to a research universitylike A&T. Research allows you to urtheryour understanding. Research gives the hopeo education as a liberating enterprise,Sims explains. The prospect o making a living byasking questions and trying to nd their answersseemed like the best job in the world to me.> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD

dr. Cathy Kea EduCATioNmiSSioN , PASSioN A

TEACHiNG THE TEA

IN MAY OF THIS YEAR, DR. CATHY KEA, ALONG WITH 19 OTHER SPEC

FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY, WAS INVITED BY THE OFFICE OF SPEC

PROGRAMS (OSEP), US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, TO OUR NATION

ADDRESS ISSUES SUCH AS BEST PRACTICES IN PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT, T

AND PREPARATION, INNOVATIVE TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS AN

AND RETENTION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS. SHE WAS THE ON

REPRESENTING A HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY.

Kea was exactly where she wanted to be. Youcant be at the table i youre not doing the workthat were doing here at A&T, Kea said recentlyrom the oces o the Division o Research inthe Fort IRC building. You cant be at the table iyoure not bringing recognition to your program,to your institution. Youre not going to be invited.It was an honor to sit at the table with well-knownresearchers and practitioners.

Kea prepares special education teachers andconducts her research rom the Department

o Curriculum and Instruction in the School oEducation. Kea has authored and/or co-authored24 reereed journal articles, monographs, andbook chapters. She is currently serving asconsulting editor or Education AdministrationQuarterly, which speaks to her reputation andsuccess as a researcher. Keas work is continuously

cited in national journals andtextbooks based on her exeresearch practitioner in cuinstruction.

Kea came to A&T in Januao the University o Kansas, her doctorate degree. She recthree years later. Since then, eshe has submitted, with the has been unded. She has benearly $3 million in sponsore

and was recently chosen as onOutstanding Senior Researche

Kea believes there are severesearcher must have. The rsecond is a driving passion

WHOD. Caty Kea

WHATCating cuiculum and guidingteaces in cultual divesity

WHERE Wasingtn, DC, t Wasingtn

Elementay

WHY S teaces can becme cultually

espnsive and be cultual bkes in [tei]

cmmunities.c

c


7/15

Carter is a sociology proessor at A&T whose

research interests are in the educational

outcomes o rural and urban emerging

adults and the civic engagement o minority

emerging adults. Recently, she returned rom

Ghanarom what she describes as a sort o

unexpected visit to the Arican nation. The

trip was sponsored by the CIEE program and

unded by a CIEE Ping Foundation Fellowship

and a aculty development grant awarded

Carter by the Academy or Teaching and

Learning at A&T.

I was serving as a McNair mentor to a social

work student who had put together a surveyon civic engagement that she wanted to look

at internationally, Carter explains. As she was

searching or resources or the student, Carter

ortuitously discovered the CIEE.

The purpose o the CIEE is to generate

aculty interest in globalizing their courses.

The program sponsors aculty development

seminars in dierent countries, allowing

research proessors to experience a oreign

environment frsthand. This can help them

make a decision about the research they might

undertake in that particular country.

I wanted to tie the research component o

the programwhat I learned in the lectures

and feld visits [in Ghana]to my population

studies course, Carter says. My hope is to

create a travel/study abroad course that will

allow students to complete a research project,

engage in civic activity in Ghana, and connect

these experiences to the course material.

The premise is that the students will take

Carters course and later, during summer or

holiday break, travel with her to Ghana where

they will participate in the experiential learning

segment o the course by engaging in civic,social or political activities that could eect

social change in a Ghanaian community. What

constitutes civic engagement? Carter adheres

to the standard outlined by the Pew Charitable

Trust: work individuals and groups do to

create positive social change in communities

or society.

Carter is currently applying or a National

Science Foundation (NSF) International

Planning Visit Grant, which allows aculty at

US institutions to visit and o

with colleagues at internat

The grant would allow her

at the University o Ghana

develop and conceptualize

that they would then bring

or unding.

Support rom the NSF

would allow Carter the un

to research emerging adu

States and Ghana, ages 18 t

engagement, or lack o it, is o

to her. Carter says these you

period o instability and coBecause o this, they may e

and commitment to their en

may limit their civic involvem

Carter acknowledges the

dierences between mem

group in the United States a

notes, there are also simila

are experiencing emotiona

psychologically. Carter poin

group is typically the most h

contribute to the workorce

o this, 40 percent o the une

are between the ages o 18

with an education are strugg

a job, she says.

Emerging adults, particu

United States, are not as com

standard o going to college

having a job, Carter says.

that anymore. Even i theyre

theyre putting o marri

o having children more t

Theyre even putting o ha

All o those choices are ch

unprecedented ways.

Maybe its the social psy

she says with a laugh, but I

in knowing more about thos

WHO D. Telyn Cate

WHAT Engaging yung adults

WHERE Ganaian cmmunities and in te US

WHY T ste civic engagement amng

yung adults intenatinally.

dr. Sctt Skns ACAdEmiC AFFAiRS

dr. mark brkey ECoNomiCSwHAT ENGAGES THEm? wH

A GlobAl ViEw oF YouNG Adr. Terryn Carter PSYCHoloGY

tn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD NC A&T STATE UNIVE

FRESH AiR FoR TEACHERS ANd TEACHiNG

ACAdEmY oF TEACHiNG & lEARNiNGERNEST BOYER WAS PRESIDENT OF THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION IN 1990 WHEN HE

AUTHORED THE REPORT SCHOLARSHIP RECONSIDERED IN WHICH HE OPINED THAT

EDUCATORS MUST MOVE BEYOND THE TIRED OLD TEACHING-VERSUS-RESEARCH DEBATE

AND GIVE THE FAMILIAR AND HONORABLE TERM SCHOLARSHIP A BROADER MEANING.

By establishing an idea such as the scholarshipo teaching, Boyer sought to bring recognition tothe proession and put it on an equal ooting withother types o scholarly work.

It is rom the seed o Boyers thoughts that A&TsAcademy o Teaching and Learning (ATL) grewto become a resource or aculty developmentand improving student learning through the useo eective teaching innovations and classroom-based research.

The academys director is Dr. Scott Simkins,himsel a man o broader meaning as hisexpertise extends well beyond his work at the ATLoces where he helps aculty members nd theresources to be more successul as proessors inthe classroom or as researchers in their choseneld. Simkins is also an accomplished researcherwho has maintained a ten-year history o undingrom the National Science Foundation (NSF).

A part o what I do is aculty development,Simkins says rom his oce in Dowdy Hall. My

interest is in helping them grow, to become betterteachers. And certainly a part o ongoing acultydevelopment, especially or new aculty, juniorand pre-tenured aculty, is doing research.

On the classroom level, the ATL providesaculty with workshops and seminars on eectiveteaching practices, assessment o studentlearning and enhancement o presentation skills.On the research level, Simkins can guide them

to resources in the division o research, wherethey learn about unding opportunities andgrant-writing skills that can assist in promotionand tenure.

The services o the ATL are available to anyaculty member on campusa denite assetor proessors who teach outside the traditionalscience, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) areas, Dr. Simkins says, as sometimes theyare less aware o unding resources.

HOD. Sctt Simkins

HAT Wite, diect, eseace

HERE Academy Teacing and Leaning

HY T pvide a esuce aculty

velpment and impving student leaning.

wHATS uP iN THE NEiGHboRHood

loCATioN. loCATioN. loCATioN.

DR. MARK BURKEY, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND

TRANSPORTATION/LOGISTICS, IS YOUR LOCATION GO-TO GUY. HE ANALYZE S THE LOCATION

OF THINGS: RED LIGHT CAMER AS USED IN TRAFFIC CONTROL; PAYDAY LENDERS IN MARGINAL

NEIGHBORHOODS; ABC STORES IN NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA. BURKEY CAN TELL YOU

WHY THOSE AND A RAFT OF OTHER THINGS ARE LOCATED WHERE THEY ARE.

SERENDIPITOUSLY, DR. TERROLYN CARTERS PERSONAL ENGAGMENT

STUDENTS RESEARCH PROVIDED HER AN OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE

ADULTS IN AFRICA THROUGH A FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM SPO

COUNCIL OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE (CIEE).

And, he can show you data on how locationchoice aects members o a local population.

Scott [Dr. Scott Simkins] and I got into thepayday lender study because a student approachedme and wanted to be considered or the RonaldMcNair program, Burkey recalls. So, I askedthe student, What is it you really want to knowsomething about? I you are going to do research,then you have to nd something youre interestedin. It cant be an assignment. You have to love it.You really have to want to know the answer.

The students reply to Burkey was that he saw

people requently making stupid decisions withtheir money by getting tied up with payday lenders.Why? Were there no banks nearby to oer loans?Were these payday olks simply taking advantageo a void in the nancial market let open bydisinterested bankers?

The research project was dened. Theresearchers obtained a list o all the payday lenderlocations. Then they identied the bank locations.They conducted a survey and compared the data.

Turns out banks are pretty much everywherebut they like to maintain an image that is up here,Burkey says, moving his hand above his head.Clean-cut, suit-wearing, dot your is and crossyour ts, whereas a payday lender says, Hey Buddyhow you doin? Come on in.

Burkey says that when a lower income individualwas asked who they elt was more trustworthy,

the answer was overwhelmingly, the paydaylender. The same people also said the lender wasriendlier, more customer-service-oriented andheld more convenient hours. People know thepayday lenders are getting them but they knowhow theyre being gotten, Burkey says. With a

HO Mak Bukey

HATMapping te lcatin

HEREWeeve lcatin mattes

HYT sw students tee is pactical

plicatin wat tey will lean in tis class.

continued on page 25

continued on page 25


8/15


CiAl & bEHAVioRAl SCiENCES

RANTS, AwARdS & moREDR. AlAN lettON ISNt the MOSt tRADItIONAl ChOICe AS INteRIM DeAN

OF GRADUAte StUDIeS. he COMeS tO NORth CAROlINA A&t WIth A DIVeRSe

CV thAt bAlANCeS hIGh-leVel ACADeMIC eXPeRIeNCe WIth CORPORAte

WORk RANGING FROM A SMAll teChNOlOGy FIRM tO the hIGh eND OF the

FORtUNe 500.

hIS ReSeARCh CAReeR hAS beeN AS DIVeRSe AS hIS eMPlOyeRS. he hAS

eXPeRIeNCe WIth PROJeCtS INVOlVING ASPhAlt, NUCleAR WARheADS,

lIPStICk, CANCeR AND MAttReSSeS.

thingsto knowaboutAlan

Letton

Dr. Alan Letton invitesyou to join him in anonline discussion at

http://aggieresearch.wordpress.com

12

1h coms rom an acadmic ami. hisar was ad o CmisrDparmn a knuc Sa Univrsi.

2h coms rom a corpora ami, oo.his ar aso srvd as a op cmis aProcr & Gam and ods pans on som

o P&Gs cnoogis.

3Ar ging is undrgradua dgr incmica nginring a MIt, wn oSandia Naiona laoraoris as a marias

psicis. t jo: anaing aging procss

o nucar warads. h wn on o rciv is

docora in pomr scinc and cmica

nginring rom Univrsi o Cincinnai.

4his corpora carr incuds rsarcand xcuiv xprinc wi AidSigna; Avon; Dow Cmica; and Pomrix

Corp., a parmacuica rm spciaiing

in rapuic pomr cnoog. Mos

rcn, was ci scinc ocr or Sa.

Sa was ooing or somon wi a divrs

acground in scinc and nginring pus

xprinc in usinss managmn, cuur

cang and innovaion, sas.

5As a oung prossor a txas A&MUnivrsi, gaind som poiica

xprinc wn govrnor namd im

o commi in carg o aocaing $40

miion o $60 miion a ar or rsarc

rom a sa ndowmn.

6A ag o 34, wn o tusgUnivrsi as on o oungsnginring dans in naion. h ad a

ponai n. tas proa no imag

wr xpcing, sas.

7As dan o enginring, arcicurand appid scinc a tusg, lonword wi n-Dan harod Marin o A&t

and or hbCU nginring dans as co-PIs

on a succssu proposa o Dparmn o

enrg o und cairs in nvironmna scinc

a scoos.

8t wo mn sad in ouc ovr ars,and lon conacd Marin a as aro congraua im on coming cancor.

t agrd o m or unc in Dcmr;

cancors scdu didn aow m o

acua g ogr uni summr.

9lon as ong oug aou comingo an hbCU as a cang agn. Ivawas oug hbCUs avn n vr

conmporar in ow run msvs

INTErIM DEAN o GrADUATESTUDIES |||GRAduAT

Id i o ar wa ou av o sa aou a m as mrging rom

convrsaions Im aving as I m mmrs o Aggi communi.

Here s the ackgrn:

basd on rcn rpors on ducaion prormanc in Arican

Amrican communi, or vr 1,000 mas orn oda, 650 wi no

ma i o ig scoo graduaion.

O rmaining 350, on 133 wi gradua cog.

O os 133 oung mn, wr an 13 wi nr gradua scoo.

tis mans a ovr 98.7 pr cn o Arican Amrican ma

popuaion wi dnid opporuniis o produc rsarc a wi n

a, conomics and gnra w-ing. t wi dnid opporuniis

o rprsn Arican Amrican communi in as

wi ac opporuniis o giv ac o communiis

ir conriuions.

So, ow dos a gradua dgr rom an hbCU impac

dos Nor Caroina A&t impac a dnamic? how can

masrs graduas impac a dnamic? how can w ma

Facu mmrs, saf, sudns, ow adminisraors

xndd Aggi communiaumni, nigors, and

Grnsoro and triad wo car aou uur o ou

m wa ou in. Com o Aggi Rsarc og (p

wordprss.com) and sar our ougs. togr, I

dvop som aciona idas o cang saus uo.

An invitation: Heres something we need to talk abo

and ow prsn ms

and Spman Cog wr

ining aou wo a co

in a vr sopisicad wa.

10t srngs ss in A $60 miion v o r rac rcord, crdiii, an

and vr rig acu ruird

11lon ivs A&ts rrom a iggr supporingngagmn o acu in

v o acivi, suc as NSF rv

govrnmn commissions; and

da poicis and procdurs.

12On a mor sragic vusion is, how do whbCU xprinc wiou sacri

uai? Wa dos i man o

hbCU, ow is i difrn?

lon as som idas aou

sard ngaging pop in discu

I in i w can gur a ou

vr compiiv program, s

THE SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES ARE THRIVING AT A&T, AND FACULTY

IN THE DEPARTMENTS IN THIS AREA HAVE PUBLISHED PROLIFICALLY AND

HAVE RECEIVED MANY PRESTIGIOUS GRANTS AND AWARDS. HERE ARE SOME

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE RECENT PAST:

$757,528 National Science Foundation grant titled Changing Societal Attitudestowards Water Scarcity: Ethanol Production and Increasing GroundwaterDepletion o the Ogallala Aquier. Awarded to Dr. Jerey A. Edwards (PI) and Dr.Lyubov Kurkalova (Co-PI) in the Department o Economics.

$140,000 National Institutes o Health grant titled Quantiying the Impact oGeographic Access Restrictions. Awarded to Dr. Mark L. Burkey in the Departmento Economics.

Three Long Term Training Grants rom the US Department o Education, totaling$2,000,000. Awarded to the Department o Human Development and Services(School o Education).

Two awards rom the Nort h Carolina Counseling Association: Dr. Patricia Bethea-Whiteld or service and Dr. Robin Liles or research (Department o Human

Development and Services).

From 2008 to 2010, the Department o Human Development and Services (Schoolo Education) has published 36 journal articles, two books, ten book chapters,produced 132 conerence presentations and submitted 71 grant proposals.

The Department o Sociology and Social Work has received major unding rom theJohn and Kathy Hairston Endowed Scholarship, the Sarah Virgo Kirk scholarship,Milton and Durcilla Pittman and Roger L. Witherspoon.

Thirty-three BSW graduates o the Department o Sociology and Social Work aremembers o Alpha Delta Mu (the National Social Work Honor Society) and 11o the sociology graduates are members o Alpha Kappa Delta (the InternationalSociology Honor Society).

To date, the leadership studies Ph.D. program boasts 29 graduates and a currentenrollment o 51 doctoral students.

Approximately 500 undergraduates are currently enrolled in the PsychologyDepartment. The department is also planning a masters degree program andpotentially a Ph.D. program. Faculty are conducting research on topics rangingrom speech perception/auditory cognition to human brain electrophysiology,memory and perceptual processes.

A ve-year, $500,000 award rom the US Department o Education Oce oSpecial Education 325T Competition was won by Dr. Cathy Kea o the Departmento Curriculum and Development (School o Education) or FIRE (Fostering InclusiveResponsive Educators).

$2.4 million our-year National Science Foundation grant titled The Relationshipamong mentoring, content, pedagogy, teacher knowledge, diversity and studentoutcomes. Awarded to Dr. David Boger (PI) and Dr. Jane Davis (Co-PI) in theDepartment o Curriculum and Development.

$37,000 award rom the Historically Minority Colleges and Universities Consortiumo North Carolina. Awarded to Dr. Anthony Graham (PI) and Dr. Ceola Ross Baber(Co-PI) in the Department o Curriculum and Instruction, or the Charles HamiltonHouston Leadership Institute or Adolescent Black Males.

$767,650 US Department o Education grant awarded or the P.R.A.P.E. (ProessionalPreparation o Adapted Physical Educators) project in the Depart ment o HumanPerormance and Leisure Studies.

Faculty rom the School o Education have published in a variety o journals,including Journal of Case Studies in Education and Tourism Review International.

COMPIleD by leIlA WeINSteIN

b


9/15

and what they do when theyre sitting atthe bargaining table. I was more interestedin the associations that represent textilemanuacturers and agricultural sub-sectorsand how much access they had to thenegotiations and how much infuence theyhad on t he negotiations.

CAFTA is a trade agreement betweenthe United States and six Central Americancountries to exchange goods and materials with minimal or no taris. El Salvador,Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaraguaimplemented the agreement in 2006 andthe Dominican Republic, the trade groupslargest economy, implemented the agreementin 2007. The nal signatory, Costa Rica,came on board in 2009.

It was while conducting preliminaryresearch in the Dominican Republic yearsearlier that Jackson decided to apply ora Fulbright Grant, proposing the privatesector/industry participation approachas her research project. Her proposal wasaccepted and she returned early this yearto initiate her research by speaking withmany o the trade representatives whoparticipated in the negotiations rom aside room where they took on the role oconsultants to the government.

Next on Jacksons interview list were thegovernment negotiators to get their input on what actually happened at the bargainingtable. In terms o satisaction, Jackson saidthe consensus o all the participants shespoke with was that the best possible dealgot brokered.

On the textile end o the negotiations,

NC A&T STATE UNIVEtn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD

TRADE NEGOTIATIONSthe give and take between public sector and industry

DR. SARItA JACkSON, AN ASSIStANtPROFeSSOR IN the DePARtMeNtOF POlItICAl SCIeNCe AND CRIMINAl

JUStICe At A&t, hAS JUSt RetURNeD

FROM the DOMINICAN RePUblIC WheRe

She WAS teAChING AND CONDUCtING

ReSeARCh AS A FUlbRIGht SChOlAR.

Jacksons area o research interest was therole o private sector participation, specicallyindustry associations, in the DominicanRepublics ree trade negotiations with theUnited States as part o the DominicanRepublic-Central America-United StatesFree Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

When we study ree trade negotiations, Jackson said recently rom her home justater returning to the United States, theocus is oten on the government negotiators

Dominican manuacturers would haveliked some less restrictive rules o origin,allowing them to purchase lower cost yarnsand abrics within the trade region so theirproducts could be more competitive againstthe ever-present Chinese imports.

On the agricultural side o the table,traditional Dominican armers, whoseproduce tends to all into the sensitivecategories o rice, milk and onions, wantedmore protection, in terms o time, beoreproducts rom the United States could comeinto the country duty-ree.

They did very well, Jackson, says. Ten,15, in some cases 20 years, but, o cour se the

USING eDUCAtION tOeRADICAte MAlARIA

Though he now lives and teaches inthe United States, Dr. Syrulwa Somah,associate proessor in the Departmento Construction Management andOccupational Saety and Health atA&T, has never orgotten his rootsin Arica.

A native o Liberia, Somah serves as the executive director o Education & Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), an organizatinational development-oriented research on a variety o mat te

He has earned the Arica Environmental Watch Humand the Liberia Image Award or his continued commitmeLiberias history and present-day achievements.

But awards and scholarships pale when compared to Somathe eradication o malaria, a disease that kills more than twevery year.

cntne n page 17

c

WANteD tO UNDeRStAND theIR INItIAl POSItIONS GOING INtO the NeGOtIAtIONS, JACkSON eXPlAINeD, AND hOW they ReSPONDeD

WhAt WAS the bACk AND FORth lIke IN ReSPONDING tO the U.S. PROPOSAlS AND hOW DID they Feel AbOUt the ReSUltS.

FulbRiGHT SCHolARS:

Fair Ngoiaions

Figing Maaria

DR. SARIt

DR. SyRU

communi

o succs

s sc

b


10/15

tactics include: enlisting the aid o tribalelders, who are trusted and obeyed;distributing radios that do not rely onbatteries, but draw power rom a tinyhand crank; and establishing a cadre otrained midwives stationed in the lesspopulated areas as a rst line o deenseagainst inection.

Yu cannt cay a sick

cild n yu back 40

50 miles in de t eac a

dct, Sma says, matte-

-actly. Tee isnt enug

time. Malaia can kill witin

24 us.

Somah presented the ideas or hisCDMC program to the Fulbrightprogram and received unding that senthim to the coastal city o Mangalore,Karnataka, India, this all. In additionto teaching classes on environmental

||| FulbRiGHTFulbRiGHTSChoLArS

NC A&T STATE UNIVEtn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD

The heartbreaking thing about malaria,mah says, is that it is preventable,

eatable and curable. It is a disease oe poor, he says. Malaria kills because

a lack o prevention, medication,ucation and sometimes a simple lacktransportation. It is our tsunami, our

omic bomb, and we must do everythingssible to eradicate it.

Somahs major weapon against theeaded disease is his program o Cultureriven Malaria Control (CDMC),hich uses the language and culture odigenous populations to make them

ware o the threat posed by malaria and

e risks associated with inection.It is critical that our people learn tocognize the symptoms, Somah says,nd yet the signs o and preventions oralaria are not taught in schools.

Somah emphasizes the need totablish communication links that willow inormation to move away rom auntrys population centers and intoore rural, interior areas. Some o the

I did no pic is ig, sas. Maaria picd is ig wi m. I is a disas o

av-nos and I am on o m. Maaria oo m sisr and r a and aso man o mcassmas. I wi a m mssag o prvnion and ramn as ar as I can or as ong

as I can.

health, occupational saety and health,occupational toxicology, environmentalassessment, re-emerging diseases andpublic health, Somah will conduct eldresearch on eliminating malaria in sub-Saharan Arica, Asia and Indonesia.

His work in India will take him intothe Orissa tribal region along the coasto the Bay o Bengal. The region has apopulation o almost 40 million peopleand also the highest rate o deaths dueto malaria in the country. It is anotherplace that is ront and center in the battleagainst the disease. Somah says the timeand the place do not matter to him.

I did not pick this ght, he says.Malaria picked this ght with me. It isa disease o the have-nots and I am oneo them. Malaria took my sister and herbaby and also many o my classmates. Iwill take my message o prevention andtreatment as ar as I can or as long asI can.

industry leaders wantedeveryone elt it was thcould get.

Now back in Greensbtake the experiences anher time in the Domiand put them into acor publication.

Oh yes, Im workingthats almost nished,obvious enthusiasm, project is a book. Im iputting together a propospublisher and eventuallyhave a book on the subje

The opportunity to another country gave Jackthat went beyond trying ood and visiting museu

Just the day-to-day to deal with in another recalls, laughing. Haviown apartment, gettinpublic transportation sour public transportatioStates] so much or gran

Now when she talks atransparency, legal comparative politics, orthe Dominican Repubshe will speak rom rsth

I eel I have denipositive way, she saythe Dominican Repubinvaluable experience. opportunity to interacrom other universitiesresearch and meet wocials. Now, when I c

classroom, and when wethe advantages o polidemocracy in other coubeen able to learn will enexperience or the stude walk away with some and better insight.

cn


11/15

Have you skipped the long lines at the Department oMotor Vehicles because you applied or your license overthe Internet? Or were you spared the rush to the post

oce to beat the April 15th tax deadline because you were ableto le electronically? Lemuria Carter researches these, and othergovernmental electronic applications, and analyzes our access toand comort with using them.

Carter is an assistant proessor o accounting in the School oBusiness and Economics, with a major research interest ine-government (electronic government). She is determined

and motivated and has been a prolic publisher o scholarly articlesin her short time on the A&T campus. Senior aculty reer to her asa topfight research scholar and Dean Quiester Craig says that herscholarly productivity is impressive.

My research is on e-government, which is conveniently a hottopic right now, she says. Its very popular and in its inancy.Consequently, there have been a lot o opportunities to publish inspecial issues o journals.

So, what constitutes e-government? According to Carter, it is theprocess o acilitating citizen access to inormation and servicesusing the internet. And its not even limited to citizens, she says,stressing that there are government-to-government and government-to-business transactions as well.

I typically look at government-to-citizen transactions, Cartersays. In particular, how actors like trust in the Internet, trust inthe government or comort with technology impacts somebodyswillingness to use an e-government service.

Carter has also turned her eye to the digital divide, which is thegap between those people who have access to technology andpossess the skills to use it, and those who do not. Typically, shesays, it is socioeconomic status that draws the line between the twogroups. And, as the government makes more and more inormationavailable over the Internet, Carter says she wants to be sure thereisnt a segment o the population thats let behind. It is a matter opersonal importance and interest to her, which, she says, is vital todoing quality research.


ucation: P.D. in business,

t a cncentatin in

cunting inmatin systems,ginia Tec

blications:Cate as

blised in tp-tie junals suc

Strategic Inormation Systems,

ormation Systems Journal and

ormation Systems Frontiers;

se is assciate edit te

International Journal o Electronic

Government Research.

Service: Cate is tack cai

te Ameicas Cneence n

Inmatin Systems.

Goals: Cate ties t submit t at

least tee cneences evey yea.

DR. LEMURIA CARTERProESSor o ACCoUNTING

FACulTYWATCh

uiCKACTS

ing Green: Dr. Carters eorts in e-goverment may someday eliminate the need or

rage rooms like the one shown above.

As our government makes moreinormation digital, Carter wantsto be sure there isnt a segment othe population thats let behind.

Biology proessor exiBLEND curriculum$240,000 NSF gran

NC A&T STATE UNIV

Education: M.S. Bilgy,

UNC-Capel hill; M.S. and

P.D. Ecpysilgy, Nt

Calina State Univesity; USDA

Pstdctal reseac Assciate,

Univesity Minnesta

Recent publications:C-auted

a Tugd Masall Cllege

und bk n a mdel success

hBCUs. Als cauted an

aticle n badening divesity in

undegaduate bimatematics,

wic was publised in te 2010

special bimat

Cell Biology Edu

Philosophy:T

mlecula c

cmpute scie

matematician

tes appa

te difeent la

only ten can u

make te explic

between tese

ppel tem in

te utue.

DR. GREGOR

D

r. Gregory Goins, Department o Biology, has received aNational Science Foundation (NSF) grant that will undhis unique approach to interdisciplinary education in

science and math through the 2013 academic year.

The Integrative Biomathematical Learning and EmpowermentNetwork or Diversity (iBLEND) is ocused on concepts andtechniques that bring together mathematical methods and biologicalsystems by ocusing undergraduate attention on the areas o criticalthinking, problem-based active learning, and research experiences.

Goins notes that the discovery and mapping o the humangenome has created a wide array o new careers that touch notjust on biology, but on all o the math and science elds. Goinsrealized early the importance o this paradigm shit in the naturalsciences and, with unding rom the NSF, he created the iBLENDproject in 2006.

There is an urgent national need to prepare undergraduates orcareers in elds at the intersection o the biological and mathematicalsciences, Goins says. Its true that nothing beats the validation oan experiment in the laboratory, but in the science o today, dataaccumulates so quickly, and in such vast quantities, that its necessaryor student researchers to be as well-versed in math and computerscience as in the basics o biology.

Goins says the iBLEND project is basically a support system orundergraduates. The project aims to help students build and sustainan interest in math and science while also encouraging them topursue postgraduate research careers. Students are teamed witha aculty member who serves as a mentor through their senioryear. They are also introduced to a wide variety o other academic

disciplines, which not only develops skills, but also enhances theirpost-graduate opportunities.

We started out as a small program, Goins says, but it has reallygrown and there is now campus-wide participationAgricultureand Engineering have become partners, too.

Less than our years old, the iBLEND project has produced someimpressive results. iBLEND students have presented research at morethan 70 national and international conerences and student-involvedresearch has produced eight peer-reviewed journal articles. Mostrecently, iBLEND was cited by the National Academy o the Sciencesas one o the most outstanding examples o a biomathematicsresearch and training program in the nation.

ASSoCIATE ProESSor o ENVIroNMENTAL BIoLoGY

FACulTYWATCh

QuiCKACTS

Dr. Goins in his laboratory where mathematical and biological sc


12/15


ucation: P.D. in oganic

emisty m te Depatment

tual Pducts at te Sangaistitute Mateia Medica te

inese Academy Sciences;

stdctal ellwsip at te

epatment d Science at

tges Univesity

reer track:Assistant reseac

ess in te Depatment

Cemical Bilgy at te Enest

Mai Scl Pamacy at

rutges Univesity; AssistantPess in te Julius L. Cambes

Bimedical/Bitecnlgy

reseac Institute at Nt

Calina Cental Univesity and

cuently Assciate Pess,

Cente Excellence Pst-

havest Tecnlgies

DR. SHENGMIN SANG

Dr. Shengmin Sang, an organic chemist and associateproessor at NC A&Ts Center o Excellence or Post-Harvest Technologies, has received a two-year, $94,000

supplemental grant rom the National Institutes o Health (NIH) toconduct a detailed study on the metabolic prole o ginger extractand its key constituents.

Not only have China and India cultivated ginger as a spice or morethan 2,500 years, Sang explains, but its use as an herbal medicine orupset stomach, diarrhea and nausea is also well documented.

More recently, ginger has become the ocus o intense interest inthe scientic community because o the antioxidant properties othe key constituents o ginger extract, [6]-gingerol and [6]-shogaol,which are collectively known as gingerols. Recent studies suggestthat ginger is a promising chemopreventive agent.

The gingerol receiving the most attention has been [6]-gingerol,but it is [6]-shogaol, according to Sangs preliminary results, that isthe stronger anti-infammatory and anti-carcinogenic agent.

Our recent results showed that [6]-shogaol has greater growthinhibitory activityby about tenoldon lung and colon cancercell lines than [6] -gingerol, Sang notes.

Based on these ndings, Sang will use the supplemental NIHunds to study the bioavailability, biotransormation and lung-cancer-preventive eect o ginger extract, with the aim o ndingthe optimal doses o those extracts or studies in mice.

In addition, Sang says he wants to develop and standardize a moreactive ginger extract preparation that will acilitate uture pre-clinicaland clinical studies on the health benet o ginger extracts.

According to Sang, bioavailability (the amount o a given dosethat the human body is able to absorb and render useul) is veryimportant in understanding the relationship between diet and cancer.While many potential mechanisms have been proposed or utilizingthe disease preventive activities o bioactive ood compounds,most o those mechanisms are based on studies that use compoundconcentrations that exceed what the body can readily absorb.

To clariy the key question o which mechanisms developed invitro are also relevant in vivo, Sang believes it is essential to makecareul correlations between eective concentrations (the amountnecessary to observe a desired eect) in vitro with those observed

in vivo. And in order to do that properly, a complete understandingo bioavailability and biotransormation is needed.

The result, Sang is sure, will be a greatly enhanced knowledge othe biological activities o ginger and its key constituents.

ASSoCIATE ProESSor, CENTEr or EXCELLENCE IN PoST-hArVEST TEChNoLoGIES

FACulTYWATCh

uiCKACTS

NIH unds Sangs study ogingerols promisingchemopreventive agents.

ng hopes to develop and standardize a more active ginger extract preparation.

Mugandas ve-year NIHstudy potential p53 targecould lead to a breakthrobreast cancer research.

NC A&T STATE UNIVE

Education: B.S. in Bilgy, Lck

haven State Cllege; M.S. in

Bicemisty, hwad Univesity

and P.D. in Bicemisty/

Mlecula Bilgy, Indiana

Univesity

Post-doctoral training: Tum

Vilgy, Linebege CrC, UNC-

Capel hill

Service:Genetics Envinmental

Mutagenesis Sciety (GEMS)

Cuncil. Te

pedminantly

students and

individuals

cpate, gv

univesity ga

pmtes te s

acts and en

tat may pse

umans, and p

discussin

amng scienti

DR. PERPETUA M

A

&T Proessor o Biology Dr. Perpetua Muganda is theprincipal investigator in a new study unded by a $419,000grant rom the National Institutes o Health (NIH). She and

her team will conduct research on novel butadiene-induced genesthey discovered which may be targets o the p53 protein (p53), aprotein in humans that can suppress tumor development. Mugandaand her team discovered the butadiene induced genes, perhaps asmany as 20, while conducting research on an earlier NIH projectthat ocused on understanding the molecular toxicity o the knownhuman carcinogen, butadiene.

Butadiene is an industrial compound released during the reningo petroleum. Butadiene is a very reactive gas, orming metabolitesin the atmosphere and in the body, Muganda explained rom herlaboratory in Hines Hall. It is highly toxic and heavily regulated,since it is classied as a human carcinogen and damages DNA.Muganda and her sta use containment to work with the most potentactive butadiene metabolite, diepoxybutane, which is a liquid and asae alternative to the gas.

As a counterpoint to the disruptive eects o diepoxybutane,the p53 tumor suppressor gene plays a central role in maintaininghealthy tissue, and is thus crit ical or cell cycle regulation, controllingcell division, stem cell renewal, DNA repair and even cell death.What p53 does is promote cell suicide i the cell is damaged, saysMuganda. Its like, kill yoursel or the good o the community soyou dont pass on bad genes t o your ospring.

When the cell senses DNA damage, levels o the p53 proteinincrease, stopping cell division so the damaged DNA can berepaired. The p53 protein cooperates with, and induces theproduction o protein rom other genes in order to accomplish itsunctions; the nature o these other proteins is dependent uponthe type o cell, as well as the type o insult causing the damage.Muganda points out that as long as the p53 gene is unctioningproperly, it is very hard or people to get tumors.

Discovered more than 30 years ago, p53 is one o the most studiedregulators o cell unction. The discovery o additional potential p53targets ater so many years o intense investigation by other scientistsis remarkable, Muganda conrms with modesty and pride.

ProESSor o BIoLoGY

FACulTYWATCh

QuiCKACTS

Dr. Mugandas research on a negative breast cancer phenotype in

women led to her discovery o the previously unidentifed p53 targ


13/15

RESEARCH FoCuS : THERmAl CoNduCTiViTYARTHRiTiS, ulTRASoNiC VibRATioN& ANTimiCRobiAl AGENTS

auna Adams and Adrian Ambrose both won

st place recognitions with their respective

esentations on longitudinal heat transport

d the eects o age on the progression o

teoarthritis.

Te symposium was sponsored by the Ofce

Undergraduate Research, which serves

the nucleus or ongoing undergraduate

search activities on campus and to improve

e intellectual climate o the university by

creasing the number o students who are

gaged in such activities.

wenty-eight students participated in two

tegories: oral presentation and poster

esentation. Adams and Ambrose took rst

ace. Matthew Stanco was named runner-

or Measurement o Ultrasonic Vibration

sing Ultra-High Frequency CCD Laser.asmine Brooks was the poster category

nner-up or Evaluation o Select Plant

sential Oils as Potential Antimicrobials.

dams, a major in mechanical engineering,

ceived the Best Oral Presentation Award

r her presentation, which was titled

ongitudinal Heat ransport as a Method or

e Determination o Termal Conductivity.

oCUS uNdERGRAduATES |||oCUSuNdERG

ouR uNdERGRAduATES AT NoRTH CARoliNA

&T STATE uNiVERSiTY wERE RECoGNiZEd AT

HE uNiVERSiTYS iNAuGuRAl uNdERGRAduATE

SEARCH SYmPoSium ComPETiTioN.

tn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD NC A&T STATE UNIVEr

Cocwis rom rig: Sauna Adams

wi r conducivi masurmn

dvic; wi r advisor, Dr. Jon

kiio; Adrian Amros.

Adams says the symposium gave her an

opportunity to try a new approach to

presenting her research, which, she hopes, will

help her later on in her academic career. Stating

that it didnt matter whether her presentations

were or classmates, symposium judges, or

at conerences like the American Society or

Mechanical Engineers, Adams says that she

learned something rom every experience at

the symposium that she could apply later to

the research grant application process.

Adams topic relates to thermo-engineering

and bioengineering, and explores ways o

identiying and measuring unknown materials

that might be discovered in space.

For Adrian Ambrose, winner o the

symposiums Best Poster Award, neurology is

the most intriguing aspect o the body because,he says, the brain controls everything.

Im ascinated by anatomy and physiology,

the junior biology major rom Roanoke,

Virginia, says. Everything in the body goes

back to the brain. Ambroses poster topic was

titled Te Efects o Age on the Progression o

Osteoarthritis and the Gene Expression in Mice,

a research topic that grew out o a summer

spent at Wake Forest University working in

the laboratory o Dr. Jacquelyn Fetrow. Tis

project was truly interdisciplinary, he says.

Students rom the math, biology, physics, bio-

physics and computer science departments

met or discussions each week. It showed me

how each person could see the same project

rom a very dierent perspective and how

important it is to be open to learning.

Ambrose says Fetrow, and his advisor at A&,

Dr. Gregory Goins, took a hands-o approach

to his poster design, allowing him to compile,

digest, arrange and, in the end, produce his

own presentation.

Both Ambrose and Adams praise the structure

and organization o the rst Undergraduate

Research Symposium, saying it was a

challenging and educational experience. Adams

particularly enjoyed that a variety o studentsparticipated, mentioning nursing students

and history majors who made convincing oral

presentations. Ambrose, too, was impressed

with the creativity and work that went into the

poster competition, saying he learned a lot just

by talking to the other presenters and learning

about their topics o interest.

The nergraate research

as rganze n cnjnct

Carna Scence Festva. Th

s a t-ay ceeratn sh

scence an techngy. Thr

actvtes, scence taks, a

experences, exhts an pe

the Festva engages a e r

pc aences he nsp

generatn f scentsts.

.ncsc

by DAVID C. WAll


14/15

tn >> RESEARCH MoVING orWArD NC A&T STATE UNIVE

Locating research unding is something Simkins has down to a science.Im an economist by background, he says, but my research is in economiceducation or the teaching and learning o economics.

Economic education is not about about economic theory or theapplication o policy, according to Simkins. Rather, its about adaptingteaching innovations developed in other STEM disciplines and using them tohelp economists step away rom uninspired, lecture-style teaching pedagogyin the classroom.

A noted textbook by Michael Watts and William Becker cites Simkinsand addresses the problem with teaching economics to undergraduates,describing the lecture-style ormat as one established by convenience,custom and inertia, instead o eciency or eective teaching practices.

Simkins economics education projects have been awarded t hreeconsecutive NSF grants. The rst was unding or a study onadapting a teaching methodJust in Time Teachingusedin physics education to economics education. The projectstarted nine years ago and led to a book, aptly namedjust-in-time teaching, co-edited by Mark B. Maker and published thislast all by Stylus Publishing.

The rst research project led to a second unded studywhich looked at the adaptability or economics education o veinnovative STEM teaching methods and assessment techniques.The current NSF grant, carrying a value o just under a hal milliondollars, is to develop a pedagogical portal or economists calledStarting Point.

Starting Point is based on a web portal that was developed or the geosciences, Simkins says. We wanted to make use o that inrastructureand [create a portal] to learn about research-based teaching methods.And it is not just or economistsits a resource that can be repurposedor lots o di erent disciplines.

bank, theyre not so sure.

With this study researchers put to rest another stereotype about militarypersonnel being targeted by the payday lending industry. Burkey says therewas no evidence to support that assumption, at least not in North Carolina.

The payday study yielded a published paper or Burkey and Simkins and aconerence presentation, which Burkey says is the normal sequence o eventsin the search or unding to urther, or complete, research on a study.

You dont necessarily have to publish anything on the subject, Burkey explains,but you have to do enough research to prove that your idea is viable.

Conerence presentations oer comparison and conversation amongcolleagues, and published articles provide peer review eedback, all o whichis poured into grant applications to unding agencies like the National ScienceFoundation or the National Institutes o Health (NIH).

My longest running project, still unpublished, is looking at the locationo liquor stores, Burkey says. Its a statistical way to look at the numbero bottles o liquor a group o people buy per year and the distance thosepeople have to drive to get to a liquor store. Then I ask the question, is there arelationship between those two things? I so, what is it and how does it aecttheir behavior?

Burkey says he began work on the idea back in 1995 and is still tweakingthe inormation, but with the support o a recent NIH grant, he hopes to nish

up the project beore the end o all semester.

TAKiNG oN AddiCTioNcntne fr page 9ACHiNG THE TEACHERS cntne fr page 9 loCATioN. loCATioN. loCATioN.cntne fr page 10

ACAdEmY oF TEACHiNG & lEARNiNGcntne fr page 10

And does his research ever nd its way into the classrothe rst day o statistics class with an armul o research my own publications, Burkey says joyully.

iS THERE A CoRRElATioN

THE NumbER oF boTTlES o

A PERSoN buYS ANd THE d

To THE liQuoR SToRE?

Another reason he uses his personal means, standard demaximums and cross tabulations is to show studentsapplication or what they will learn in this class.

I want them to know I dont just teach this, Burkey sayexample, when I bring out my red light camera paper wetickets in the mail and that accidents werent reduced atand the students will say, Yeah, I knew it, they just waIll say, Well, maybe they thought they were going to reddoesnt look like they did.

Burkey says the more he teaches the better he gets at dthe more he does research, the more he discovers new t

tools he can share with his students.


15/15

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Evolution Fall 2010 v4n1