Category Archives: School of Natural Science News

2017 Lucian Symposium Schedule – Friday, 29 September

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From the 2017 Lucian Professor and Chair of Chemistry, Dr. Tricia Shepherd:

This week Friday, the Lucian Symposium will be held in Carter Auditorium beginning at 8:50 am.  You can find details on the Lucian Symposium website:  https://sites.stedwards.edu/lucian/.  The Lucian Symposium is an annual event, open to the public.

Lunch follows the keynote speakers.  After lunch, student research posters will be available for viewing in the halls of the John Brooks Williams North Building from 1:30 – 3:30 pm.

There will be four keynote speakers:

  • Thomas E. Cheatham, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry & Director of the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah
  • Michelle M. Francl, Professor and Chair of Chemistry at Bryn Mawr College
  • Ward Thompson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kansas
  • Garritt Tucker, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines (http://inside.mines.edu/Garritt-Tucker)

While there will be a common thread among speakers in terms of the using various computational methods in their research, the application/connections with undergraduates in each Natural Science discipline was my goal for the symposium. In particular, the presentations will be broadly applicable as follows: Cheatham: Biology/Computer Science, Francl: Mathematics, Thompson:Chemistry, Tucker:Physics/Engineering. I have advised all the speakers to include background/context appropriate for a broad audience of majors that span the Natural Sciences. Below is the schedule with tentative titles:

Friday, Sept 29th
8:50 am welcome
9:00-9:45   Garritt Tucker: Exploring the Nanoscale Mechanisms of Functional Materials with Computational Materials Science
9:45-10:30   Ward Thompson: The Big Deal about Being Small: Dynamics and Spectroscopy in Nanopores
10:30-10:45   break
10:45-11:30   Michelle Francl: Tools for predicting and understanding molecular structure from paper and pencil to Beowulf clusters
11:30-12:15   Tom Cheatham: Optimizing the use of computers to understand the complexity of biomolecular systems
12:15-1:30   lunch
1:30-3:30   poster session

I appreciate your support of this annual event for our school!
Thanks,
Tricia

Tricia Shepherd, PhD
Chemistry Professor & Dept. Chair
St. Edward’s University

2017 Lucian Symposium and Poster Session

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Dear colleagues and students,

A reminder to students that if you did research ANYWHERE this past summer and would like to present a poster on that work as part of the student poster session following this year’s Lucian Symposium (Friday, 29 September), here are the deadlines:

Students who would like to present a poster will need to submit their abstract and title by Noon, Friday, 15 September. To submit your abstract, visit https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/LS2017 and click the “Registration” tab or “Create Account” link.  Once registered, you will receive an activation link and can then access the “2017 Lucian Symposium” conference.  To enter your research information, from the home page click the “Create new submission” link.  Note: if the conference is not visible from your home page when you log in, click the “All Conferences” tab then enter “2017 Lucian Symposium” in the filter search field and click the title once it is visible.

This year, we are again using Spoonflower to print fabric posters for each student so we will need extra time to allow for the print process. Submit your poster print request in PPT or PDF format as soon as you are able but absolutely no later than 10 am on Thursday, 14 September. Submit your requests to NSCI Poster Print Request.

Each student may have one poster printed by the School of Natural Sciences each academic year.  Additional poster printing should be paid for by research grant accounts as appropriate.  Students should use the poster they print for all appropriate conference presentations during the 2017 – 2018 academic year.  The poster template can be accessed through Box:  NSCI Poster Template.

NOTE:  posters submitted after 10 am on Thursday, 14 September will not be printed by the School of Natural Sciences.  I recommend that if you need to print your poster after that date, please look for poster printing services at local area businesses (e.g., FedEx print).

We are asking students to hang their posters by 3:00 pm on Thursday, 28 September.  That afternoon, the School of Natural Sciences Advisory Board will meet.  Members of the board often enjoy reading through student posters.  They will have time to do so after their meeting concludes around 4:30 pm that afternoon.

We ask students to take their posters down by 5 pm on Friday, 29 September.

We ask students to plan to be at their posters for some portion of the time period 1.30-3.30pm on Friday, 29 September.  It is not necessary to stand at your poster for the entire period of time, but do commit to spending some portion of that period of time at your poster if at all possible.

Last year’s event was a tremendous success, and with our prestigious visitors on campus (both for the Advisory Board meeting and for the Lucian Symposium), we have a great opportunity to share what our students have been doing in the area of research and the successes you all are having in advancing the frontiers of science.

Remember, it is not essential that the research occurred at St. Edward’s— any REU or other university research program at which you did research this summer is eligible for a printing of one poster.

Finally – if you were a recipient of a Brother Romard research grant this past summer, the expectation is that you will print out and present a poster at this event.

If you have any questions, please contact NSCIdean@stedwards.edu.

Looking forward to another great student research poster session.

 

New Publication in the Journal of Chemical Education by Chemistry Faculty Member

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Dr. Santiago Toledo (Assistant professor of Chemistry at SEU) and his collaborator Dr. Justin Dubas just published an article in the most recent issue of the Journal of Chemical Education titled, “A Learner-Centered Grading Method Focused on Reaching Proficiency with Course Learning Outcomes.” This work discusses an alternative form of thinking about grading to encourage students to focus on their mastery with the course learning outcomes. This proposed method couples the use of Marzano’s Taxonomy of learning and its cognitive levels to the feedback students receive.  This approach was implemented in general chemistry courses at SEU and it is now operational in some organic chemistry and other advanced level courses.  This work is a follow-up of earlier work by Dr. Toledo on using Marzano’s Taxonomy to draft student learning outcomes for chemistry courses.

 

You can get access to the full article at the following link: http://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR-dJB9aIyKEpFDi9tiijKc

 

The article’s DOI is: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00651

The abstract is available at Dr. Toledo’s Research gate account: Research Gate

Open Office Hours with Dean Morris

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Dear NSCI Student Majors,
Dean Morris will hold office hours for the final time this semester at Jo’s (Meadow’s Coffeehouse) tomorrow, 03 May, 2.30-4.00pm.  The coffeehouse is located on the west end of the Ragsdale center.
You are encouraged to stop by and chat with Dr. Morris during this time, no appointment necessary.  Should you have any questions or if you need to schedule a private appointment with the Dean, please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Reyna.

Open Office Hours with Dean Morris

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Dear NSCI Student Majors,
Dean Morris will hold office hours at Jo’s (Meadow’s Coffeehouse) tomorrow, 05 April, 2.30-4.00pm.  The coffeehouse is located on the west end of the Ragsdale center.
You are encouraged to stop by and chat with Dr. Morris during this time, no appointment necessary.  Should you have any questions or if you need to schedule a private appointment with the Dean, please do not hesitate to contact Sarah Reyna.
 Dean Morris’ next office hour session will be held Wednesday, 03 May, 2.30-4.00 PM with confirmation to follow as we near the date.

2017 Faculty Scholarship and Creative Expression Celebration

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Held March 27, 2017, the Faculty Scholarship and Creative Expression event celebrates the hard work of faculty across St. Edward’s University who had books or peer-reviewed articles published in 2016.

Gary Morris presents the Natural Sciences portion of the presentation which honors a total of seven faculty members from the School of Natural Sciences who, in sum, published one book, one book chapter and nine peer-reviewed articles. Please join us in congratulating the following individuals on their success:

Dr. Jason Callahan: one book and two peer-reviewed articles published

Dr. Leila Mills: one book chapter and one peer-reviewed article published

Dr. Patricia Baynham:  one peer-reviewed article published

Dr. Raychelle Burks: one peer-reviewed article published

Dr. Eamonn Healy: two peer-reviewed articles published

Dr. Bilal Shebaro: one peer-reviewed article published

Dr. Santiago Toledo: one peer-reviewed article published

For a complete listing of the authors and their cited works, visit the Natural Sciences portion of the presentation online.

Last Call for Hook Fellows – Application Deadline is Friday, 10 March

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Friday, March 10 is the deadline for applying for creative research awards from the Hook Endowed Wild Basin Creative Research Fund. 

The Dr. Allan W. Hook Endowed Wild Basin Creative Research Fund offers awards up to $3,000 for creative research by students in the schools of Natural Sciences, Education, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Management and Business, and Humanities. The fund also offers research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from other institutions that are based at the university’s Wild Basin Creative Research Center and the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve system. 

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 10th, 2017 at 5pm. Applicants should review the fellowship guide and fill out the application form and submit it via email (or mail) to the Director of Wild Basin (Dr. Barbara Dugelby. Interested students should contact the Wild Basin Director or Wild Basin Research Director (Dr. Amy Belaire) if they have questions. Descriptions of past projects supported by the Endowment can be found on the Wild Basin website. We are happy to discuss project ideas and help students through the application preparation process. We look forward to receiving a diversity of project applications from many academic areas!

This opportunity is made possible by the commitment and generosity of Dr. Allan W. Hook and Rosemary Guzman Hook, who established the endowment to honor Hook’s life work and dedication to providing students with opportunities both in and outside of the classroom. His philosophy is that “one can learn more from the natural world than from the human-made world.” The fund will promote a greater understanding of and appreciation for the Wild Basin Preserve and the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve system.

Dr. Trish Baynham Promoted to Full Professor

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Next time you see Dr. Baynham, be sure to offer her congratulations!  Last week, the University announced its intention to promote her to the rank of Full Professor, effective August 2017!  The rank of Full Professor is reserved for those who have demonstrated superior teaching, important contributions to their fields, and significant service to the University over an extended period of time.

Dr. Baynham joined the Department of Biological Sciences at St. Edward’s University from Thomas More College in 2004.  She served as department chair from 2007 – 2008, 2012 – 2013, and 2014 – 2016 and as Interim Dean from 2013 – 2014.  She has been a leader in promoting study abroad opportunities, including the development of 2 – 3 week embedded study abroad experiences in biology courses.

Recognizing the value of engaging students in research, Dr. Baynham has mentored many research students and co-authored >40 conference presentations with SEU undergraduates.  She also has promoted the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) initiative in our freshman Biology labs so that all students who take Biology can have a research experience, not just those who have the chance to work with our faculty on research projects over the summer.

In 2012, she was recognized as a Fellow in the Texas Academy of Science and in 2015, as a National Academies Education Fellow in the Sciences.  Also, in 2015, Dr. Baynham received the Dean’s Excellence Award for Teaching in the School of Natural Sciences and in 2011, the School’s Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award. She has served on many important University committees during her time at St. Edward’s.

Next time you see her, please be sure to congratulate her on this significant career accomplishment!

Welcome NSCI’s New Social Media Coordinator

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We’re delighted to announce the creation of a new, part-time, student position in the School of Natural Sciences:  Social Media Coordinator.  Munday School of Business junior Lindsay Villanueva is a Digital Media Management major.  Lindsay has already re-activated our School of Natural Sciences Facebook page and is developing posts for NSCI News.  We expect to broaden our social media presence to Twitter and Instagram in the near future.  In the meantime, whether you’re a current student, alumnus/alumna, faculty, or staff member, if you have stories you’d like to submit for distribution on NSCI News, please contact seunaturalsciences@stedwards.edu.

Here’s a bit more about Lindsay, in her own words:

Hello! My name is Lindsay Villanueva and I am a Junior studying Digital Media Management here at St. Ed’s. I am originally from Houston, Texas, a city that I am proud to call home. I am passionate about both traditional and digital media, and fascinated by its ability to bring about positive social change. In my opinion, the world has never been as connected as it is now due to the ever growing array of social media platforms.

Apart from my fascination with the digital realm, I am also a health and fitness enthusiast. Ultimately, my goal is to combine my two interests into a sustainable career of some sort, but for now I am still exploring my options. During my free time, you will most likely find me at the gym, eating peanut butter by the jar, or baking banana bread.

My interest in the social media assistant position stems from my eagerness to gain experience in creating content through the various digital platforms. I will work diligently to promote any activities, opportunities, and events provided through NSCI and am looking forward to making a positive contribution to the St. Edward’s community as a whole!

Please welcome Lindsay to NSCI when you see her.

Rest in Peace Bro. Romard Barthel, SEU and NSCI Icon

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It is with great sadness that I pass along the news that Bro. Romard Barthel (CSC ’47), of the Order of the Holy Cross, passed away on Wed., 7 December at the age of 92.  Bro. Romard taught physics and life at St. Edward’s University for generations of students.

I arrived at St. Edward’s as Dean of Natural Sciences in July 2014.  It did not take long for the stories of Bro. Romard to begin making their way to me.  I quickly began meeting some of the numerous alumni and current faculty members whose lives were forever changed by Bro. Romard’s kindness, dedication, attention, and inspirational model.

Bro. Romard significantly impacted the trajectory of the School of Natural Sciences and St. Edward’s University. In the history of an institution, there are but a precious few who truly earn the distinction of being recognized as a cultural icon, and they usually do so with the greatest modesty imaginable.  I can assure you that in the case of Bro. Romard, that recognition as an icon of the Natural Sciences at St. Edward’s University is richly deserved..

His legacy will live on in the lives of those he touched, both directly and indirectly. (You can find a nice example in the Winter 2015 issue of the St. Edward’s Magazine.)

Of significance to today’s students, who did not have the honor of meeting him in person or being directly inspired by him, the Bro. Romard Barthel Scholarship and Research Fund was established by alumni in his honor to support summer research opportunities and scholarships for today’s Natural Sciences students.  Through these students and the paths they forge on their own journeys in life, his impact will continue to be felt and honored.

Please remember Bro. Romard in your prayers.  May his model and inspiration live on in those of us who benefit today from his years of servant leadership and dedication to the place he cherished, St. Edward’s University.

Obituary.

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