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NIU biologist Rangaswamy “Nathan” Meganathan works with Debarati Ghose, a graduate student in biology.

Rangaswamy “Nathan” Meganathan works with biology grad student Debarati Ghose.

First, the good news: Five NIU professors this summer snagged three prestigious grants that total nearly $1 million.

Now for the better news: the funding also provides cutting-edge research opportunities for NIU students, allowing them to work alongside top scientists in their disciplines.

“These are impressive research projects by an extraordinary group of faculty scientists here at NIU,” says Lesley Rigg, vice president of the Division of Research and Innovation Partnerships. “Not only are they pushing the frontier of knowledge is their research areas, but they’re also taking students along for the ride, essentially training the next generation of scientists.”

Chemistry professor Timothy Hagen is lead investigator on a project that will potentially involve dozens of student researchers. Hagen and NIU colleagues Rangaswamy “Nathan” Meganathan in biology and James Horn in chemistry won an Academic Research Enhancement Award of $356,000 over three years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The funding will be used to design and test new chemical compounds that may lead to improved drugs and other treatments for infectious disease.

NIU biologist Rangaswamy “Nathan” Meganathan and chemists Timothy Hagen and James Horn

Biologist Rangaswamy “Nathan” Meganathan and chemists Timothy Hagen and James Horn

“New drugs are desperately needed to combat the development of multi-drug resistant bacteria and other infectious diseases, such as malaria,” Hagen says. “This research makes use of a unique enzyme pathway that is found only in certain types of infectious disease-causing agents, but not in human beings.”

Students will gain experience in such areas as medicinal chemistry, protein crystal structure analysis, drug design, enzymatic assays, biophysical characterization, analytical methods and antibacterial assays. Some will even get the opportunity to use the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory to obtain high resolution images of protein crystal structures.

Two Research Rookies worked on the project before it was even funded, Hagen says.

“Currently we have five graduate students involved in the project and about eight undergraduates,” he adds. “The undergraduates are generally on a semester-by-semester basis through a senior-level research course (Chemistry 498), so this project has the potential of impacting dozens of students over the next three years.”

The two other recent grants were awarded to NIU scientists by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Mark Frank

Mark Frank

Mark Frank, a professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, will receive $271,000 over three years to conduct research on the processes responsible for the formation of copper-rich and gold-rich portions of the Earth.

Experiments will be conducted at NIU, with high tech instruments to be used to determine the concentrations of copper and gold in various fluids and minerals over a wide range of temperatures and pressures.

“The data obtained will increase our understanding on the transportation of copper and gold in hydrothermal fluids and the precipitation mechanism responsible for the formation of these ore deposits,” Frank says. “The results of this research can provide direct economic benefits by improving exploration models for copper and gold ore deposits.”

Funds from the project also will be used to support and train two graduate students and one undergraduate in economic geology, experimental geology thermodynamics and data interpretation.

“The students will be involved in all aspects of the project,” Frank says. “I have a graduate student doing some preliminary work and will have an undergraduate and Ph.D. candidate working with me in the fall. The students get hands-on training for both academic and industrial worlds.”

Zhili Xiao

Zhili Xiao

Zhili Xiao, a Board of Trustees professor of physics who also is serving as interim associate dean for research and graduate studies, has brought in more than $2 million in support of research projects at NIU. His latest $328,000 NSF grant will support his nanoscience research over the next three years.

The project aims to advance understanding of artificial ices – fabricated substances that have the arrangement of their components following the ‘ice rule’ for the hydrogen atoms in crystalline water ice. Scientists are interested in the properties of these artificial ices, including the potential for revealing the mechanism of high temperature superconductivity.

For decades, scientists have been on a quest to develop room-temperature superconductors, which could revolutionize the energy industry and lead to a wide array of applications, such as magnetically levitated superfast trains, powerful supercomputers and devices that now only exist in the imaginations of science fiction writers.

Xiao’s research will provide a foundation for understanding and manipulating the new complex and collective effects that are expected in artificial ices. The NSF grant also will provide funding for training of two Ph.D. students.

“One of them has worked for me in the field of nanoscience for about two years and the second one joined my group this past spring,” Xiao says. “Both are certified users of Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials.”

The students receive training on advanced nanofabrication tools, such as focused-ion-beam milling and electron-beam lithography. They fabricate superconductors with controlled shapes and dimensions and investigate their properties. The students also are trained in low-temperature physics and technologies and have the opportunities to participate in frontier research in materials sciences.

Date posted: August 18, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU professors earn major research grants—NIU students stand to benefit

Categories: Faculty & Staff Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Science and Technology Students

Amy Powers-xAmy Powers, an assistant professor of history at Waubonsee Community College, has been selected by NIU’s Department of History as its alumnus of the year.

Powers, of DeKalb, obtained a Ph.D. in history from NIU in 2007 and has taught classes at Waubonsee since 2003. She will be formally presented with the award this fall.

Powers was recognized for numerous academic and scholarly achievements and her continuous commitment to teaching and students.

Stephen Foster, distinguished research professor emeritus at NIU, guided Powers through her doctoral dissertation on poverty relief efforts in New York City in the early 19th Century.

Foster noted that Powers, while working hard through the years to complete the doctoral dissertation, also worked diligently on “developing a very individual and successful teaching style” at NIU and Waubonsee, as evidenced by Powers’ recognition in 2013 as the Illinois Community College Faculty Association’s Instructor of the Year.

“She had a familiar, easygoing relationship with her students that must have been based as much on out-of-classroom activities – written comments, conferences and so on – as what happened in class on any given day,” Foster said.

Vera Lind, associate professor of history at NIU, said the selection committee was “also impressed by her engagement for issues of women and gender.”

Lind further noted Powers’ involvement with the American Historical Association’s Bridging Cultures Project. It seeks to boost historical scholarship among cultures across both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and bring that scholarship into classrooms. Waubonsee has participated in the project since 2012.

Lind said the project can “serve as a guide for other community colleges to incorporate more global aspects into teaching.”

Date posted: August 8, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Waubonsee professor selected as NIU History Department’s alum of the year

Categories: Alumni Liberal Arts and Sciences

2014 McKearn Fellows-feature

The 2014 McKearn Fellows: (left to right) – Lexie Williams, Zachary Howard, Shekinah Bergmann, Rachel Lapidus and Kenneth Barnett.

Lazy days of summer? Think again.

For nearly 30 undergraduate students on campus at NIU this summer, the season provided opportunities to work alongside professors and delve deep into research projects.

Shekinah Bergmann, for example, worked with mechanical engineering professor Behrooz Fallahi and several graduate students, designing and building a robot, nicknamed “Nightwing.”

It has six legs and can move perfectly parallel to the ground while stepping over obstacles, making it an ideal vehicle for such uses as landmine detection, gathering of remote video or the transport of hazardous liquids.

“It is so amazing to imagine something that does not exist, model it on the computer, and then bring it to life,” says the 19-year-old sophomore from Sycamore, who’s simultaneously pursuing law and engineering degrees. She hopes to become a patent attorney in the future.

Bergmann was among the student summer researchers who gave presentations and displayed posters on their work during the Summer Research Symposium held today at Altgeld Hall.

Shekinah Bergmann

Shekinah Bergmann

Most of the students had participated in one of three specially focused programs designed to nurture their interests in science and artistry: Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), McKearn Summer Research Fellows and the Summer Research Opportunities Program. Each program is eight weeks in duration and provides room and board on campus along with significant participant stipends.

Other students took part in the Undergraduate Research Assistantship program, the Summer Internships in Science and Technology at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the University Honors Scholars Program and National Science Foundation grant-funded research within the Horn Lab on campus.

Regardless of the program, all of the students worked with NIU faculty on research relating to topics important to society, such as obesity, cancer therapy, prairie restoration, marine biology, water quality and energy storage.

“There are a lot of people out there who think education is only for personal advancement,” NIU Provost Lisa Freeman told symposium guests Friday. But “the inventions and the ideas and the questions that our faculty ask . . . are questions that haven’t been answered before. They’re looking for answers that will advance knowledge and disciplines and that may result in curing cancer or solving important environmental problems or understanding aspects of human behavior that haven’t been answered before.”

Bergmann, one of five McKearn Fellows this summer, found the research exciting, but she also learned about trial and error.

“This experience has shown me what the invention process is like, as well as how to handle multiple failures along the way. No inventor ever got it right on the first try. That is why this experience has been so great, because I was given room to fail, yet the tools to move on and succeed,” she said.

Ashley Rose Pales and Anthony Roberts

Ashley Rose Pales and Anthony Roberts

“If you want to see all that NIU has to offer,” she added, “get involved in research.”

Anthony Roberts of Chicago, a junior working toward a degree in biomedical engineering, was equally passionate about the value of his experience.

As a member of the Summer Research Opportunities Program, Roberts worked alongside Electrical Engineering Professor Martin Kocanda, studying ways to rapidly identify bacteria using their distinct electrical responses.

“This experience meant a lot to me as I grew not only as a scholar and researcher but as an individual as a whole,” Roberts said. “I was given the opportunity to improve not only in the research process but also in other essential skills, such as public speaking and technical writing.”

Maria Senf, a 24-year-old senior psychology major from Potsdam, Germany, wanted to deepen her scientific knowledge. She worked with professor Alecia Santuzzi on a project investigating how workers interpret supervisors’ behavior when being evaluated.

Maria Senf with NIU President Doug Baker and First Lady Dana Stover.

Maria Senf with NIU President Doug Baker and First Lady Dana Stover.

“I loved the idea of spending eight entire weeks with other students from all over the U.S. and sharing different research experiences with each other,” she says. “I now feel ready to go on to graduate school and expand my research interests on a broader scale.”

Senior Ashley Rose Pales of Oswego, who is double majoring in geology and environmental studies, also wanted to get some research experience before applying to graduate school. She found the REU program offered topics she was interested in. After applying and be accepted to the program, she worked with biological sciences professor Neil Blackstone investigating coral bleaching, a process that degrades or destroys healthy coral.

Pales is thrilled to have worked on a project that could make a difference in the future.

The issue “is important for future implications dealing with coral bleaching, climate change and potential oceanic changes,” Pales said. “As global climate change occurs, mass bleaching events are becoming more common, and coral bleaching is becoming a critical ecological and economic issue.

John McKearn

John McKearn

“Through this program, I have grown exponentially as a person, student and researcher,” Pales added, saying that she “was tested through this experience in a way that was designed to bring out my best and push it just that much more.”

That’s a sign of success, according to Julia Spears, associate vice provost for Engaged Learning.

“Participation in our intensive summer research programs challenges students to think big by doing a deep dive to answer a specific research question,” Spears said.

“Students develop a relationship with a faculty mentor, critically analyze complex issues, strengthen their communication skills, cultivate their ability to work as a member of a team and apply disciplinary knowledge to world issues,” she added. “It’s a proven recipe for student career success.”

Date posted: August 8, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU undergraduates show off their research skills

Categories: Engineering Engineering and Engineering Technology Faculty & Staff Humanities Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology Students

Giovanni Bennardo

Giovanni Bennardo

NIU anthropology professor Giovanni Bennardo has won a highly competitive Fulbright Scholar grant to teach and conduct research this coming semester in Italy.

Bennardo, who was named a Presidential Research Professor this past spring in recognition of his scholarship, is more than a little bit familiar with Italy. He was born and raised in the city of Cosenza, in the south of Italy, and earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Pisa.

“Going back as a Fulbright Scholar is very satisfying since I will have a chance to show how my graduate education in the States has contributed to my scholarship,” Bennardo says. “I am proud of what I have achieved here in the U.S.”

Beginning in September, Bennardo will conduct research and teach a graduate seminar on cultural models at the universities of Verona, Padova and Venice. Earlier this year he published a book on the topic, “Cultural Models: Genesis, Methods and Experiences,” with Oxford University Press.

He originally was invited by the Italian universities to visit, then applied for and received the semester-long Fulbright Award. Fewer than 3 percent of applicants win the prestigious grants.

Bennardo and Anna Paini, a colleague at the University of Verona, will conduct research in the Dolomite Alps, including anthropological and cognitive data collection and analysis. They hope to elucidate the cultural model of nature held by the local population there.

Last year, the National Science Foundation awarded Bennardo a $218,000 grant to lead an international team of scholars in the research project, which examines the cultural models of nature held by primary food producers in world regions affected by climate change.

The project involves 15 scholars and six graduate students from 10 universities in the United States, Europe, China and Middle East. They are conducting research at 15 different sites across five continents.

Katharine Wiegele

Katharine Wiegele

In May and June, Bennardo spent five weeks in Tonga (Polynesia) collecting data for the project. And Bennardo’s wife, NIU adjunct anthropology professor Katharine Wiegele, collected data earlier this year in the Philippines.

In late October, Bennardo will lead a three-day workshop at the University of Verona for participants in the NSF-sponsored project.

He plans to extend his stay there through July 2015 by using a semester of teaching leave awarded with his Presidential Research Professorship. “This will allow me to continue my research in the Alps and prepare a grant proposal for the NSF project’s second phase,” Bennardo says.

His wife and their two sons, Lucio and Matteo, will join him in Italy for the year. The NIU anthropology professor is not only going home to his native country, but also coming full circle in another sense. He first came to the United States years ago on a Fulbright grant from the Italian government, an experience that inspired him to pursue his graduate education here.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright program was established in 1946 to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries. Award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.

Date posted: August 6, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Anthropology professor wins prestigious Fulbright Scholar grant to Italy

Categories: Centerpiece Faculty & Staff Global Humanities Liberal Arts and Sciences Research

Dan Libman. Photo by Dan Klefstad.

Dan Libman. Photo by Dan Klefstad.

In the name of free speech and democracy, NIU English instructor Dan Libman is going bar hopping.

In anticipation of the November elections, Northern Public Radio (WNIJ and WNIU) decided to go beyond its usual in-depth coverage of the issues and candidates. So the radio station invited Libman, a Pushcart Prize-winning author, to visit places where voters are most likely to speak their minds: local taverns.

The first installment of the series aired July 7 on Morning Edition, and the second one will air at 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 4. Future episodes will continue to air the first week of every month, and with each episode, Libman is producing an essay to be posted on the Northern Public Radio website.

This isn’t Libman’s first stint with Northern Public Radio. Listeners might remember him from last year’s Pedaling Lincoln Highway series.

Date posted: August 1, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Politics on the rocks

Categories: Latest News NIU Hoffman Estates

Mike McEvoy, Aaron Epps, Mary Shenk and Professor Mike Eads stand in front of the Muon g-2 magnet during the July 26 move.

Mike McEvoy, Aaron Epps, Mary Shenk and Professor Mike Eads stand in front of the Muon g-2 magnet during the July 26 move.

An upcoming high profile experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is already proving to be a boon for Northern Illinois University students in physics and engineering.

On Saturday, July 26, Fermilab moved a 50-foot-wide superconducting electromagnet across its campus to a newly constructed experimental building. Made of steel, aluminum and superconducting wire, the magnet is easily the largest component of a machine that will be used in the Muon g-2 experiment, involving scientists and engineers from 26 institutions around the world.

PHOTO GALLERY FROM JULY 26 MOVE

The scientists aim to study the properties of the mysterious muon. A better understanding of the subatomic particle could lead to discovery of new physics and unknown particles that form the most basic building blocks of nature.

fermi-2

NIU engineering student Eric Johnson (left to right) , professor Michael Eads and physics graduate students Mary Shenk and Michael McEvoy test a sensor system for the Muon g-2 project. Credit: Scott Walstrom, NIU

“Working on the Muon g-2 project from the ground up is valuable because it has broadened and strengthened my research skills,” says Mary Shenk of Rockford, who will earn her master’s degree in physics this fall at NIU and plans to go on for a Ph.D. “I now understand how much planning and preparation goes into a project of this size.”

While most of the Muon g-2 machine was disassembled and brought to Fermilab in trucks, the 700-ton circular electromagnet had to be transported in one piece from its original home at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. It arrived last year with much fanfare, rolling down a closed-off Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), and has been in storage while its new home was constructed.

With the building now complete, scientists and engineers will reassemble and fine tune the muon machine, also known as the g-2 particle storage ring. NIU research professors and nearly 20 physics and engineering students played a significant role in preparations, and students also will be helping with the reassembly.

Michael McEvoy of St. Charles, a second-year graduate student, hopes to be part of the experiment “for a long time” as he works toward a master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics.

“I find the initial process of the rebuild very interesting,” says McEvoy, who is helping develop particle tracking and monitoring systems.

“Not only did they have to build a new temperature-controlled building with a removable wall so they can bring in the storage ring, but the sheer number of pieces the storage ring came in is incredible—and putting it back together is an enormous feat.”

Once the experiment is up and running in 2016, student researchers will help with quality control, equipment monitoring and data analyses. Some will base their master’s theses and dissertations on Muon g-2 discoveries.

While Shenk, McEvoy and several other NIU students have been stationed at Fermilab this summer, NIU senior Octavio Escalante-Aguirre of Aurora traveled to Naples, Italy. There he is working with scientists on calibration of the experiment’s calorimeters, which measure the energy of particles.

NIU graduate student Mary Shenk and physics professor Michael Eads test wire tension in a straw tube component while inside a clean room at Fermilab. Credit: Scott Walstrom, NIU

NIU graduate student Mary Shenk and physics professor Michael Eads test wire tension in a straw tube component while inside a clean room at Fermilab. Credit: Scott Walstrom, NIU

“Studying the building blocks of the universe is pretty cool, if you ask me,” says the 20-year-old Escalante-Aguirre, who has been involved in the experiment for more than a year.

“Not only have I been able to conduct invaluable research that will prepare me for graduate studies, but I have been able to step beyond my textbooks and use the physics knowledge that I’ve learned from my peers and professors,” he says.

So what are muons, anyway? And why are scientists and students so excited about the particles?

Outside of physicists, most people are unfamiliar with muons. But these particles are plentiful in the universe, says NIU Physics Professor Michael Eads, who leads NIU’s contingent on Muon g-2.

“For example, muons are created when cosmic rays strike our upper atmosphere,” Eads says. “As a result, we are hit by muons all the time—several every second.”

Like its lighter sibling the electron, the muon acts like a spinning magnet, and scientists are interested in its wobble. The parameter known as “g” indicates how strong the magnet is and the rate of its gyration. The value of g is slightly larger than 2, hence the name of the experiment.

(Left to right) Michael McEvoy, Mary Shenk, Aaron Epps and Eric Johnson at Fermilab. Credit: Scott Walstrom, NIU

(Left to right) Michael McEvoy, Mary Shenk, Aaron Epps and Eric Johnson at Fermilab. Credit: Scott Walstrom, NIU

A Brookhaven experiment that concluded in 2001 produced a surprise. Its measurement of the muon’s wobble didn’t match what is predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. That could be big news in the physics world, where mathematical precision reigns. But the margin of error for that experiment couldn’t provide definitive proof of a deviation.

“The Standard Model correctly predicts lots of things—for instance, it famously predicted the existence of the Higgs boson—but it doesn’t seem to properly predict this muon g-2 value,” Eads says. “If the theorized prediction doesn’t match the value, it’s telling us the Standard Model is somehow incomplete or incorrect.”

The Standard Model’s muon g-2 value is one of the most well defined measurements in physics — a single number that nearly every physics theory has required as a baseline. The new Muon g-2 experiment will have four times more precision than its Brookhaven counterpart. If Fermilab discovers a value different from the Standard Model prediction, it could usher in a new era of particle physics.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Eads notes that Einstein’s theory of special relativity plays a role in scientists’ ability to study the short-lived muon, which has a life span of just two microseconds, or two millionths of a second.

As Einstein’s theory predicts, when particles are traveling at nearly light speed, time dilates. So, when circulating in the superconducting storage ring at close to the speed of light, the muon appears to the observer to live much longer — about 64 microseconds. That’s enough time to allow scientists to make precise measurements of its properties.

“The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is one of the currently unexplained phenomena in physics,” says Aaron Epps of Dixon, a first-year NIU graduate student who plans to earn his Ph.D. in physics. “If this anomaly is confirmed, it points to physics that we do not presently understand and will lead to new theories to explain the phenomena.”

ElectroMagnet Crowd

Hundreds crowd around the Muon g-2 magnet last year as it arrives at Fermilab. Credit: Fermilab.

One of NIU’s main roles in g-2 is quality-control testing for a complex straw tube tracker—a type of particle detector being built in Liverpool, England. The device detects particles known as positrons, which result from the decay of muons.

Beginning as an NIU undergraduate two years ago, Epps has worked with Professor Eads on projects related to the tracking system. He designed, coded and tested a method to determine wire tensions to be used in quality control tests and is learning the simulation software used in the experiment.

“It seems as if I will be able to see it through to the end and do my doctoral thesis on the subject,” Epps says. “The experiment will be a large part of my life for the coming years.”

Physics professors Michael Fortner and David Hedin, along with mechanical engineering professor Nicholas Pohlman, are also involved in Muon g-2.

Nick Pohlman

Nicholas Pohlman

Over the past two years, Pohlman has brought in 11 undergraduates and two graduate students to work on engineering aspects of the experiment. And he and Eads recently received a $325,000 Department of Energy grant that will provide funds for more student workers on g-2.

“Essentially, we act as the engineering team helping balance the idealized physics requirements with the feasibility of manufacturing and implementation,” Pohlman says. “We get a lot of support from our collaboration colleagues at Fermilab, Boston University, the University of Liverpool and others.”

Pohlman’s students have performed a wide range of engineering tasks. For instance, they conducted three-dimensional modeling of electronics, designed aspects of the tracker modules and determined how many modules could be placed in the beam line to maximize data resolution. A new team of senior design students likely will be involved in the project next fall as well.

“Our students learn by doing, and they also benefit by speaking to and learning from practicing engineers who are managing multiple projects simultaneously,” Pohlman says. “They find out just how much they have to balance in the real world.”

 

Date posted: July 23, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Big science—big opportunities for NIU students

Categories: Centerpiece Engagement Engineering and Engineering Technology Faculty & Staff Global Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology

Swapan Chattopadhyay

Swapan Chattopadhyay

Renowned physicist Swapan Chattopadhyay, currently director of the Cockcroft Institute in England, has accepted a joint appointment to Northern Illinois University and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

The appointment is effective Sept. 1.

Chattopadhyay has helped break new ground in the fields of accelerator and beam physics, having made significant contributions to the development of accelerators worldwide for particle physics, nuclear physics and materials science.

He will join a dynamic group of leaders in advanced accelerator research and development at NIU and Fermilab.

“Professor Chattopadhyay’s appointment builds upon the strong foundation NIU has developed in particle and accelerator physics education and research, and on our continued collaborations with Fermilab, a national laboratory that for decades has been at the forefront of accelerator research,” NIU President Doug Baker said.

“We believe Dr. Chattopadhyay’s expertise in the areas of beam physics and accelerator technology will help take NIU’s physics program to the next level, placing it among the nation’s elite,” Baker added.

At Fermilab, Chattopadhyay will be a member of the senior accelerator research team, working on a variety of advanced research projects. Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer noted that Chattopadhyay’s expertise would help the laboratory align with the recently released report from the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel.

“Swapan will be a crucial component to Fermilab’s efforts to fulfill its part of the P5 vision for the future of particle physics,” Lockyer said. “We are very excited to see him join our team.”

Chattopadhyay will serve as professor and director of accelerator research at NIU.

“Dr. Chattopadhyay is one of the world’s leading accelerator physicists,” said Lesley Rigg, NIU vice president for research and innovation partnerships. “High energy and accelerator physics have been identified as targeted areas of excellence at NIU, and we intend to continue to focus on these areas while strengthening our ties to Fermilab.”

Fermi National Accelerator Lab

Fermi National Accelerator Lab

Chattopadhyay said he is impressed by NIU’s mission, history of excellence and collaborations with national laboratories.

“NIU serves and educates students from diverse financial, cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds,” Chattopadhyay said.

“At the same time, one cannot fail noticing the highest aspirations of the university in matters of global research excellence. It is evidenced by selected partners of choice, such as Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory, and by faculty members who are engaged in cutting-edge research at CERN and are influencing science and technology policy in the U.S. president’s office. This all speaks volumes about the NIU academic leadership team.”

For the past seven years, Chattopadhyay served as the inaugural director of the Cockcroft Institute, a leading international center for research, design and development of particle accelerators in UK. He also served as the Sir John Douglas Cockcroft Chair of Physics at the universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Lancaster.

At the Cockcroft Institute, Chattopadhyay spearheaded efforts to advance accelerators to drive particle, nuclear, synchrotron radiation and neutron sciences.

Prior to his post at the Cockcroft Institute, Chattopadhyay served as the associate director of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, VA (2001-2007), founder and director of the Center for Beam Physics at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1992-2001) and professor in the Graduate School at the University of California at Berkeley (1984-2001).

CERN logoRolf Heuer, director general of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, noted Chattopadhyay’s contributions to CERN and the UK in the past years.

“Seen from CERN, Professor Chattopadhyay has had considerable impact on accelerator science in the UK during his tenure at the Cockcroft Institute, and has been a key player in cementing the UK accelerator community’s links with CERN,” Heuer said. “I wish him all the best with his new challenges, and look forward to collaboration as he moves back across the pond.”

Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the UK, also remarked: “STFC has been very fortunate to benefit from Professor Chattopadhyay’s dedication in helping to re-establish a vibrant UK accelerator research program, which is today recognized as one of the leading in the world. I wish him well at Fermilab/NIU and look forward to his involvement in promoting continued strong collaboration between the U.S. and UK in accelerator science and technology.”

Born and educated in Darjeeling and Calcutta, India, Chattopadhyay earned his Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley in 1982. He spent the following two years at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland as a scientific attaché.

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Institute of Physics (UK) and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He also has mentored scientists and students from across the world, including Japan, South Korea, China, India and Taiwan.

“I have been immersed in building institutions for the past two decades at Berkeley Lab, Jefferson Lab and the Cockcroft Institute,” Chattopadhyay said. “It is now time to dedicate myself to personal research and serve the scientific community to secure the next high energy and photon facilities.”

Laurence Lurio

Laurence Lurio

Chattopadhyay said he is looking forward to working with scientists and students at both Fermilab and NIU.

“NIU has a visible presence in the field of particle physics via its recognized experimental, theoretical, accelerator and detector research programs,” he said. “With its unique accelerator test facilities and a world-class skills base, Fermilab has the distinction of being the sole institution in the U.S. responsible for the nation’s stewardship of the field of high energy physics in the global context.”

NIU physics chair Laurence Lurio believes Chattopadhyay will make a significant impact on the physics department.

“We know that Dr. Chattopadhyay, in collaboration with faculty at NIU and researchers at Fermi National Laboratory, will raise the national and international status of NIU’s graduate program in accelerator physics,” Lurio said.

“He will be working on the design of the next generation of particle accelerators,” Lurio added. “One of the most exciting research ideas he brings to NIU is the search for ways to make compact accelerators. High energy particle accelerators are typically kilometers long. Professor Chattopadhyay will investigate methods to use ultra-high power electromagnetic fields to make smaller accelerators, paving the way for the next generation of lower-cost and higher-energy machines.”

Date posted: July 11, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU, Fermilab land noted physicist in joint appointment

Categories: Faculty & Staff Global Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology

gunkel screen capture-xA book penned by Northern Illinois University professor David Gunkel provided inspiration for a new featured video on the PBS Idea Channel.

Hosted by Mike Rugnetta, the Idea Channel is a weekly web series with a focus on technology. Gunkel’s book, “The Machine Question,” helped inspire the July 2 Idea Channel episode, titled “When Will We Worry About the Well-Being of Robots?”

Rugnetta gives a shout out to Gunkel’s work beginning at 5 minutes, 20 seconds into the 13-minute video, saying the book “is so good” and “was basically was the basis for this episode.”

David Gunkel

David Gunkel

An NIU Presidential Teaching Professor in the Department of Communication, Gunkel’s 2012 book ratcheted up the debate over whether and to what extent intelligent and autonomous machines of our own making can be considered to have legitimate moral responsibilities and any legitimate claim to moral treatment.

Related:

Date posted: July 9, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Book on robots’ rights by NIU’s David Gunkel inspires PBS Idea Channel episode

Categories: Faculty & Staff Humanities Liberal Arts and Sciences Research Science and Technology

Foster bookRetirement apparently can’t stand in the way of Stephen Foster’s quest to uncover the American past.

Foster, a Distinguished Research Professor of history who retired in 2002 after an illustrious career at NIU, hasn’t slowed down a bit.

Foster this summer was a special guest lecturer at Oxford University as Oxford University Press launched his new book, “British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Foster edited and contributed to the collection of essays. The volume is part of the “Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series.”

Foster earned his doctoral degree in 1966 from Yale University, came to NIU that same year and made an international name for himself as a historian specializing in early American religious, intellectual and cultural history, as well as in British imperial history and early modern England.

All of his new book’s chapters address the twin questions of whether it made a substantial difference to the people living in North America that they were the subjects of an empire, and whether it mattered that the empire in question was British.

The work is a fulfillment of Foster’s revived interest in imperial history at a moment when the subject is undergoing a renaissance. NIU Today caught up with Foster, who lives in Chicago, for a Q&A about his latest work.

When was the book published? We came out in the UK in November of 2013. In North America, the publication date was February of this year.

How long have you been working on this book? A long time. I first signed on in 2000 with the understanding that I could do nothing about it until I retired. I reaffirmed my commitment early in 2003 and did some work on it intermittently, but I didn’t work on it flat out with no competing commitments until around 2005. Even so, we finally went to press at the very end of 2012. Works of multiple authorship often take a long time because of the number of people involved – like a naval convoy, you are only as fast as your slowest ship.

Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster

Why did you write and edit this book? In the first instance because I was asked to – by William Roger Louis, the general editor of the original five-volume “Oxford History of the British Empire.” I agreed to do it with some trepidation and considerable enthusiasm. I had never edited a work of multiple authorship, though I had some editorial experience. Apart from the inherent interest of the subject, I was drawn to the collection because it served two distinct needs for a retired but still professionally active scholar. First, having to deal with other people’s work on a great variety of topics forced me to keep current in the secondary literature outside my own rather narrow specialization (colonial New England). Second, when you retire, you lose contact with the younger members of the profession – the people you would otherwise have met as new colleagues. All of the other contributors to this collection are relatively young, at least by the standards of someone who got his doctorate almost half a century ago. Of course, we took so long that they have all had the opportunity to grow a little older. In a whimsical moment I thought of dedicating the book to the children of the contributors born since we began work on it.

Why is this book important? When I was a graduate student learning my trade in early American history, it was still mostly about British North America. In recent decades, however, the importance of non-European peoples in the Americas – the indigenous populations and the Africans whose forced migration greatly outnumbered its European equivalent – has received special emphasis.

Admitting the value of the new material and approaches does not mean that every pre-existing concept has to be thrown out whole.

The British Empire itself, as big as it was and as long enduring as it was, is barely within living memory and will soon be out of it. There is now enough distance on the title subject to see it afresh and more critically. We are just carrying on that work when it comes to early America, doing our best to see if, when and how a particular empire mattered in the lives of the people –  European, indigenous and African – who were its subjects.

Can you give us some examples of how British rule influenced the daily lives of colonial-era Americans? There are lots, but the most obvious is war. When the British and the French went to war, which they did often, so did their colonies. War was not an interruption in ordinary colonial life but a regular part of it. And it was not all destruction either, though there was quite a lot of that. Capital was poured into the colonies and consumer demand stimulated just when it could not be fully satisfied because of the dangers of transatlantic shipping. Trade routes were altered permanently. The movement of troops and naval vessels created new disease vectors. It has even been argued that the famous Salem Witchcraft episode of 1692-93 was a product of the early stages of the rather less well-known Nine Years War in America.

You’ve been retired now from NIU for more than a decade. What keeps you going on the research front? Well, it’s what we do, who we are, if you go in to our line of work. There are people older than I am who are still at it. One of the people who came to the Oxford University Press party for the volume and made some pertinent remarks was Sir John Elliott, the dean of historians of the Spanish Empire, who is in his mid-80s and still productive. My dear teacher, Ed Morgan, made the New York Times best seller list when he was 86 and brought out two collections of his previously published pieces when he was in his 90s. He put it best when he said, “It’s been fun the whole time.”

What’s next for you? I am going back to an earlier idea never fully fleshed out when I was still teaching. I am interested in the notion of “provinciality” as applied to New England in the first half of the 18th century. This means examining what it means to realize, to take for granted even, that you are part of a large empire and at the same time to maintain that you are in some sense what your grandparents and great grandparents had repeatedly proclaimed themselves to be: the most important people in the world.

Date posted: July 7, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Historian’s research doesn’t stop with retirement

Categories: Campus Highlights Faculty & Staff Humanities Liberal Arts and Sciences Research

Paula Meyer

Paula Meyer

Christopher McCord, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, recently announced several administrative changes in the college, including a new director of communications.

That post will be filled by Paula Meyer, currently a marketing communications coordinator at Indiana State University. Meyer was selected from a pool of more than 100 candidates. She has 13 years of experience in public relations and marketing communications.

McCord also tapped David Ballantine as interim associate dean for undergraduate affairs. He steps into the post vacated by Sue Doederlein, who is retiring after 45 years at NIU.

Ballantine has been the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, and he has served a number of terms on the College Curriculum Committee.

Additionally, Zhili Xiao, a Board of Trustees professor of physics, has accepted a reappointment as interim associate dean for research and graduate studies. Xiao has stepped into the role vacated by Lesley Rigg during her interim, and now permanent, appointment as vice president for research and innovation partnerships.

Professor Mark Fischer has been selected as chair of the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences following an internal search. Mark has served as assistant chair and director of graduate studies for the department, and has been active in all aspects of department life, including leading the department’s annual field school in Wyoming and South Dakota. He replaces Colin Booth, who retired May 31.

Searches for permanent appointments for both associate dean roles will begin once classes resume in the fall.

Date posted: June 27, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Paula Meyer named to coordinate CLAS communication efforts

Categories: Campus Highlights Liberal Arts and Sciences

NIU graduate student Nay Yan Oo

NIU graduate student Nay Yan Oo

About 10 years ago, Nay Yan Oo was working toward a degree in computer science at the Government Computer College in Pathein, Myanmar.

But he kept running into a major snafu – access to a computer.

“I got a degree in computer science but didn’t get many chances to use the computer lab,” says the 28-year-old Nay Yan Oo. “That’s a problem.”

He and other students also lacked personal computers. When they did schedule lab time, they had to hope the electricity would be working that day. Nay Yan Oo often would end up writing computer code and never get a chance to see it work.

“You would run the program in your brain, not in the computer,” he says.

Now a graduate student at Northern Illinois University, Nay Yan Oo believes the situation for college students is improving in Myanmar, also known as Burma. But progress is happening slowly. Resources remain in desperate want as the country attempts to rebuild its university infrastructure, devastated by a half-century of isolation from the outside world.

Kenton Clymer with pedicab driver in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Burma

NIU history professor Kenton Clymer with pedicab driver in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Burma

NIU, which specializes in Southeast Asian studies and operates the only Center for Burma Studies in the United States, is now among the American universities at the forefront of efforts to assist their counterparts in the once closed society as it emerges from decades of rule by military dictatorship.

Over the last 18 months, eight NIU faculty members, including Provost Lisa Freeman and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Chris McCord, have visited Myanmar universities and lectured in the country, with some making multiple trips.

McCord has been to Myanmar twice and was among 35 international education professionals who volunteered to participate in a recent pilot course led by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Titled “Connecting with the World,” the 20-week course sought to address a pressing need to develop international offices on university campuses in Myanmar.

The training is seen as an essential step to enable Myanmar universities to connect with institutions abroad, build institutional capacity, prepare their students to meet workforce needs and support rapid economic development.

Volunteers worked with Myanmar participants as “virtual mentors,” engaging in weekly email correspondence about course assignments. Lessons covered topics ranging from facilitating student and faculty exchange to developing institutional agreements.

McCord mentored an electrical engineering professor who was tasked with creating an international office. He had no prior experience whatsoever in international education.

Christopher McCord

Christopher McCord

“We talked about very basic concepts, such as what it means to have an international relations office and how to navigate cultural differences,” McCord says.

“It was challenging, and I think it demonstrates just how oppressed Myanmar society had been. Faculty members there don’t have these skills sets because this is something they weren’t allowed to do. I was asking my mentee to imagine things that, in the past, could have gotten him arrested.”

The “Connecting with the World” effort was in response to needs identified during a IIE-led delegation to Myanmar in February 2013.

McCord, who was among the delegates, says the need to help the country rebuild its damaged university infrastructure was driven home on that trip when he visited a chemistry class at Dagon University in Yangon, the country’s largest city.

“On the chalkboard, we saw drawings of chemical apparatus like flasks and test tubes. The drawings were there because they don’t actually have any real equipment to use in class,” McCord says. “It’s just one small detail among many that points to the tremendous need for capacity building in Myanmar higher education.”

Myanmar laboratory

Some Myanmar educators must make-do with chalkboard illustrations instead of real equipment in a chemistry lab.

Prior to the 1960s, Myanmar boasted an impressive university system. But it was undone by the military junta that viewed universities as breeding grounds for political unrest.

Following 1988 uprisings, the government shut down the country’s universities. Some reopened two years later, but with government-controlled curriculum. Universities were closed again for a 3-year period beginning in 1996, according to the Oxford Burma Alliance.

“We never had political science departments in our country starting from 1988, and they have only recently returned,” says Nay Yan Oo, who is studying political science at NIU and hopes to some day run for office in Myanmar.

Political and economic reforms began in Myanmar in 2012. And with those reforms, the country has begun to open its doors.

“The government realized our education system had fallen behind,” Nay Yan Oo says, adding that officials are interested in bringing more foreign scholars to the country.

NIU's Catherine Raymond (right) and Myanmar faculty member

NIU’s Catherine Raymond (right) and Myanmar faculty member

Catherine Raymond directs NIU’s Center for Burma Studies, which serves as the national repository for Burmese items donated to the Burma Studies Foundation.

“The most educated people in Myanmar now have been educated abroad, whereas before it used to be very different,” says Raymond, who in July will make her fifth trip to Myanmar since early 2013.

Raymond also will host six librarians from Myanmar universities visiting NIU this summer and fall to learn about library logistics. During her previous visits, she says, she found that university libraries were sorely lacking in the resources they’re known for – namely, books.

“They didn’t have access to current research or books,” Raymond says. “Some faculty members were using texts dating back 50 years, and they lacked easy access to computers and the Internet.”

Dean McCord says Myanmar faculty and students are eager to jump-start university research and international education, and he’s proud that NIU is facilitating.

Buddha statue

Buddha statue

Among the university efforts:

“We are really looking at this as a unique opportunity to make a real difference and help people who are really passionate about rebuilding their higher education system,” McCord says. “It all makes sense, since this happens to be in an area of the world where we have a high level of expertise.”

Date posted: June 26, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on Making inroads in Myanmar

Categories: Centerpiece Faculty & Staff Global Latest News Liberal Arts and Sciences Visual and Performing Arts

Sanjib Basu

Sanjib Basu

Professor Sanjib Basu, director of NIU’s Division of Statistics, has been named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, ASA President Nathaniel Schenker has announced.

To be recognized by the nation’s preeminent professional statistical society as a 2014 ASA Fellow, each honoree must make outstanding professional contributions to, and have exhibited leadership in, the field of statistical science.

Basu was honored for:

  • substantial and novel contributions to the theory, methods and applications of nonpara­metric and robust Bayesian inference;
  • innova­tive and wide-ranging statistical collaborations; and
  • outstanding service, teaching and leader­ship to promote the interests and profiles of the statistical community.

Basu will be awarded a certificate at an Aug. 5 ceremony during the annual Joint Statistical Meetings in Boston.

“I congratulate Sanjib on being honored as a new ASA Fellow,” Schenker said. “His accomplishments have contributed greatly to the advancement of statistical science and have rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of his ASA peers.”

American Statistical Association logoThe designation of ASA Fellow has been a significant honor for nearly 100 years. Under ASA bylaws, the Committee on Fellows can elect up to one-third of 1 percent of the total membership as fellows each year. Individuals are nominated by their peers in the association membership.

To be honored, nominees must have an established reputation and have made outstanding contributions in statistical science. The Committee on Fellows evaluates each candidate’s contributions to the advancement of statistical science and places due weight to published works, the position held with their employer, ASA activities, membership and accomplishments in other societies and other professional activities.

The American Statistical Association is the world’s largest community of statisticians and the second-oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare.

Date posted: June 26, 2014 | Author: | Comments Off on NIU professor Sanjib Basu named Fellow of the American Statistical Association

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