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r l yC o l lE g E o fA r t s & sC i E En C s

s p r i n g 2 0

1 2 t H E V i s i

o n i s s u E

When we talk about visionaries we usually refer to someone else a Carl Sagan, Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ronald Dahl, or Marie Curie. We rarely look to ourselves. And when someone mentions an organizational vision statement, you might begin to feel disconnected, but you shouldn’t.

When you came to WVU you had a vision, a vision of yourself as a college-educated professional. While here you cultivated that vision by immersing yourself in critical thought and creative expression. You nurtured that vision by surrounding yourself with like-minded and opposing viewpoints, challenging yourself and others around you. You focused your mind on the problems of the day, and discussed their solutions. You studied, and studied, and studied some more: as the provost likes to say to incoming freshmen, “until your brains fall out.”

Today you have created careers, businesses, families, and homes; you’ve forged new paths in your work and personal lives, solving problems along the way.

Just like you, the College has a vision. And like yours, it is a carefully constructed plan.

The College is a living thing. It needs fresh ideas, new perspectives, challenges, and vistas to keep it vibrant. When we talk about mission and vision, all we are really saying is that we need to take stock of the life of the College; we need to acknowledge where we have succeeded and where we can do better. It’s a way to keep ourselves on track.

This edition expresses our vision for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. It focuses on the five pillars, or five promises, that the College is making to its students, the state, the nation, the world, and to you personally through the strategic plan.

You will see our commitment to this motto in all of the stories in this issue; whether it is a focus on emerging programs like behavioral neuroscience, outreach and service to the state by our faculty, or national attention on our excellent researchers.

We want you to stay connected. You are part of the life of the College, and you are part of our 2020 vision. That means we need you to take stock, too. What has your degree been worth to you? Where can you plug yourself into the 2020 Vision Statement? What is the College doing that really matters to you? Are you passionate about first-generation students having the means to attend college, research that may lead to new inventions and commercial opportunities, and programs that serve the state and its residents? Whatever moves you, we have a way for you to become involved and make a difference here at WVU.

We promise that with your help your College will be locally focused to meet the needs of our state and region, nationally prominent to attract excellent scholars and resources, and globally engaged to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Best,

Robert H. Jones, PhD Dean

Dear Alumni and Friends,

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 1

ContentsAdmINIStRAtIoNJames P. Clements, PhD, President, West Virginia University

Michele Wheatly, PhD, Provost

Robert Jones, PhD, Dean

Joan Gorham, EdD, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs

Fred King, PhD, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies

Asuntina Levelle, JD, Associate Dean, Financial Planning and Management

Katherine Karraker, PhD, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies

L. Christopher Plein, PhD, Associate Dean, School of Applied Social Sciences

Katie Stores, PhD, Interim Assistant Dean for Research

Bonnie Fisher, Director of Development

EdItoRIAl StAffRebecca Herod, Executive Editor

Devon Copeland, Co-executive Editor

Kathy Deweese, University Editor

ARt dIREctIoN & dESIGNAngela Caudill

Forrest Conroy

Graham Curry

Carly Goodman

Chris Schwer

coNtRIbutING EdItoRSSam Ameri, PhD

Jerry Carr, Jr.

Tony Dobies

Suronda Gonzalez, PhD

Jared Lathrop

Amanda McBean

Christine Schussler

Shikha Sharma, PhD

Dan Shrensky

David Welsh

Ashley Wells

PhotoGRAPhyM.G. Ellis, Senior Photojournalist

Brian Persinger, Senior Photojournalist

Jake Lambuth, Student Photographer

Scott Lituchy, Multimedia Producer

Todd Lotocha, Student Photographer

Chris Schwer, Multimedia Specialist

covER ARtForrest Conroy

chANGE of AddRESSWVU Foundation

PO Box 1650

Morgantown, WV 26507-1650

wvuf@wvuf.org

vISIt ouR wEbSItE Ateberly.wvu.edu

IN THIS ISSUE

2 Around the College

6 Vox Populi

6 Culture and Language across the Curriculum

8 Bridging the Gap between Biology and Behavior

10 A Meeting of the Minds

12 The Ten Year Plan

16 Drilling into the Issue

20 Fast and Flexible:

The Social Worker’s Network

22 Working the Scene

26 Citizen Soldier

32 New and Notable

32 Game On

34 Rinse, Reuse, ‘Precycle’

36 How do you say…forward thinking?

38 Awards and Honors

38 Cracking the Code on What Triggers Alzheimer’s

40 A Match Made in Almost Heaven

43 From Arithmatic to Compounds

WVU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action institution.

West Virginia University is governed by the West Virginia University Board of Governors and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Game On

32

Citizen Soldier: Transitioning from Combat to Course Work

26

Cracking the Code on What Triggers Alzheimer’s

38Look for the Research edition of Eberly in the fall. If you would like to access archival editions of the magazine, go to eberly.wvu.edu and select the Alumni link.

Look for the WiSE logo on articles and read about the women who are contributing to the development of a more diverse science and engineering workforce.

To learn more, visit wisewomen.wvu.edu

2 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

generally consult only the book that is sacred

to them. What has been left out is a Jewish

perspective on the New Testament; a book

Jews do not consider holy but which,

given its influence and literary excellence,

some say no Jew should ignore.

Gale joined the Religious Studies faculty

in 2000, and has served as the program’s

coordinator since 2004. Some of his popular

courses include Introduction to World

Religions, History of

Christianity, Studies in

Christian Scriptures,

Good and Evil in the

Biblical World, and the

Faiths of Abraham.

Read the full New York Times article about The Jewish Annotated New Testament at nyti.ms/yYGXog.

Photo by Brian PersingerFifty leading Jewish scholars, including

WVU Religious Studies Professor Aaron

Gale, PhD, have collaborated on a new

edition of the Bible.

The Jewish Annotated New

Testament, which was edited by Amy-

Jill Levine, a Jewish Studies professor

at Vanderbilt University and Brandeis

University Professor Marc Zvi Brettler,

includes notes and explanatory essays.

Gale, whose research specialty is the

Gospel of Matthew and its relationship

to early Judaism, edited the Book of

Matthew for the volume.

Jewish scholars have typically been

involved only with editions of the Old

Testament, which Jews call the Hebrew

Bible or, using a Hebrew acronym, the

West Virginia University Press has

partnered with the Rural Sociological

Society to become its new publisher

of the long-running Rural

Studies Series.

The first book through

the new partnership, Rural

America in a Globalizing

World, edited by Conner

Bailey, Leif Jensen, and

Elizabeth Ransom, is set to be published. A

“decennial volume,” the book will review the

state of rural scholarship. Three such volumes

have been published so far.

“This is a great opportunity for WVU

Press to move into the social sciences

with a small but established list and an

enthusiastic sponsoring organization,”

said Carrie Mullen, director of WVU

Around the College

Tanakh. While curious Jews and Christians

consult all sorts of editions, without regard

to editor, Christian scholars produce editions

of both sacred books, while Jewish editors

Press. “I hope this series will be the

cornerstone of a broader list in sociology

and American studies.”

The Rural Sociological

Society, established in

1937, is a professional

social science association

that promotes the

generation, application, and

dissemination of sociological

knowledge. Its Rural Studies Series was

created to promote the scholarly analysis

of rural social issues.

For more than two decades, the series

has played a vital role in publishing high-

quality scholarship aimed at improving

the lives of rural populations. This series

deals with issues of community and rural

social organization; the social dimensions of

agriculture, rural populations and economies,

natural resources and the environment; rural

poverty and health; and livelihood strategies.

The books speak to a broad readership,

including scholars from various fields, policy

makers, and the general public.

The Rural Studies series editor, its

board of directors, and WVU Press pursue

book ideas, solicit book proposals, and

evaluate proposals and book manuscripts.

All book manuscripts are put through a

thorough peer review process. The series

seeks manuscripts on a wide range of

topics of interest to a broad readership.

Scholars from all social sciences are

encouraged to submit book proposals.

For more information, visit wvupressonline.com.

Rural Studies Series Comes to WVU Press

WVU Religious Studies Scholar Contributes to The Jewish Annotated New Testament

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 3

Photo by M.G. EllisRivalries in baseball are as old as the

game itself, perhaps the most famous

being the more than 100 years of vitriol

between the New York Yankees and

Boston Red Sox. Indeed, the historical

significance of both clubs, combined with

their “healthy” rivalry and major media

markets (1st and 5th, respectively), makes

for appealing television coverage.

Shift to coverage of small-market

baseball, such as the St. Louis Cardinals

and the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams

have history. They were founded in 1882

and share 15 World Series titles and 25

National League pennants between them.

Yet, they sit in small markets (18th and

27th, respectively) and as a result their

games apparently lack major television

market appeal.

Could picking a fight, or focusing on

“bad blood” be the best way to increase

baseball viewership in smaller television

markets? That is the question posed by

researcher Nicholas Bowman, PhD, assistant

professor of communication studies at West

Virginia University. In October, Bowman

and colleagues from four other universities

discussed the theme “Mediating Baseball,”

for in Media res, an online forum for

dialogue among scholars and the general

public about contemporary approaches to

how media is studied.

Bowman analyzed a video segment

of the August 2010 broadcast between

the Cardinals and the Reds, a pairing

that ESPN’s David Schoenfield declared

because we need a hero to cheer and a

villain to jeer. To this end, bad blood

absolutely boosts ratings because it

gives the action some context.”

In his mass media course,

Bowman covers a number of hot-

button issues that highlight the

importance of “teachable moments.”

An avid entertainment technology fan,

Bowman’s recent publications explore

the popularity of video games not

only as a leisure activity, but as a place

for community discourse, a training

ground for human interaction, and a

space for observational and experiential

learning.

View the full conversation on “Mediating Baseball” and watch footage of the August 2010 brawl at delivr.com/1djd8_nfc.

“baseball’s best rivalry.” During the

game, a player confrontation led to a

bench-clearing brawl, player and manager

ejections, and a concussion that ended the

career of Cardinals

catcher Jason

LaRue. Using the

video as a stepping-

off-point, Bowman’s

central question

was “might Major

League Baseball

be able to boost

sagging ratings with

bad blood?”

“There is no consensus on the

debate, but there is a general agreement

that spectator sports overall are really

a ‘media sport’—a hybrid of athletic

competition and a heavily produced

media event,” Bowman said.

“Like other forms of entertainment

media, drama is key to enjoyment

Does Bad Blood in Baseball Equal Bigger Ratings?

4 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Do moms sleep. . .as their babies

get older? A research study being

conducted by Hawley Montgomery-

Downs, PhD, and her team of students

in the Department of Psychology’s Sleep

Research Lab is examining the effects of

sleep disruption on first-time moms with

infants six months to two years old.

Montgomery-Downs’ initial study

on the sleeping habits of first-time

mothers evaluated the sleep that moms

get when their child is newborn to

12 weeks old. What she found was

that the mothers’ quality of sleep was

compromised. The women all received

about 7.2 fragmented hours of sleep,

and it took most women 10.5 hours to

get that 7.2 hours of rest.

“To get through one proper sleep

cycle, it takes about 90 minutes of

uninterrupted rest. Even though they

may technically be sleeping more hours,

mothers of newborns to 12-week-old

children are likely not having proper

sleep cycles because of interrupted

sleep,” Montgomery-Downs said.

Her research now is evaluating

whether sleep and daytime functioning

improve as children age. She is

reconducting the study, this time with

mothers of older children to determine

the impact women’s sleep cycles have on

their ability to function during the day,

and whether their sleep cycles ever fully

recover post-partum.

Lack of quality sleep cycles,

Montgomery-Downs said, cause women

to have similar reaction time impairment

as a person who is intoxicated. Poor sleep

is also more likely to cause or trigger

anxiety and mental health issues, such as

post-partum depression.

“We have to be creative in the

techniques we use to solve this. We need

to have cultural acceptance for at-risk

women who might need extra caretakers

in the home to help with the child at

night,” she said.

Around the College

“Right now, even when it’s ‘dad’s turn’

the woman is still waking up.”

Study participants’ behavior, sleep

patterns, and reaction times are monitored

in a number of ways including the use of a

wristwatch-like device called an actigraph

they wear for one week that senses

sleeping patterns and movements. After

the week is up, participants spend a day in

the WVU Sleep Lab where they take four

naps, spaced two hours apart.

Montgomery-Downs and her

researchers have found that even when

children start sleeping longer and better

and parents return to work, caretaker

functioning is actually decreasing.

“Most people consider the post-

partum phase to be about three weeks, but

it actually lasts about two years,” she said.

“Responsible science can inform public

policy. Major mental health implications

are at stake here, and the policy of when

caretakers return to work needs to be

evaluated and changed.”

Desperately Seeking. . .A Good Night’s Sleep

Hawley Montgomery-Downs, PhD, presents “Top Ten Mysteries of Sleep: Solved,” at a Science on Tap event.

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 5

Political cartoons have

the ability to educate,

persuade, and mobilize in

a unique way. That’s why

when Erin Cassese, assistant

professor of political

science, was looking for a

captivating speaker to visit

the department, she thought

of her former classmate Adam Zyglis.

Zyglis, an award-winning staff

cartoonist for the Buffalo (N.Y.) News,

visited the University in October to

discuss his work.

“I contacted Adam because he is both

an artist and a scholar,” Cassese said.

“His work offers important insights into

Award-Winning Political Cartoonist Visits WVU

media and politics, and he

provides a fresh perspective

on these topics as one of

the nation’s few full-time

political cartoonists.

“I thought his work

had the potential to interest

a wide range of students

across a variety of majors.”

Zyglis’s cartoons are internationally

syndicated and have appeared in a

number of publications around the

world, including the Washington Post,

USA Today, The New York Times, and

Los Angeles Times. In his spare time

he has done freelance work in book

illustration and storyboarding. His

work has also appeared magazines such as

The Week, Time, and MAD Magazine.

In 2004, he graduated from the

Canisius College Honors Program

summa cum laude, with a major in

computer science, a minor in math,

and a concentration in studio arts. In

2003, he was honored with a first-place

national award from the Associated

Collegiate Press and the Universal Press

Syndicate. He placed second in the

2004 John Locher Memorial Award,

and was a finalist in the 2003 Charles

M. Schulz Award. In 2006, he won

third place for editorial cartoons in the

2007 National Headliner Awards.

Adam Zyglis

6 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

You know those core requirements that all un-

dergraduates have to fulfill—the ones we all complained about? I know I’ve heard it asked, and I too have asked it more than once, “When will I ever have to use ‘X’ in my career? While most of us could easily make some jus-tification about the abstract benefits of improving our mathematical and scientific skills, or our knowledge of the “belles lettres,” it may be a bit more difficult to explain how any particular disci-plinary area or skill may be directly relevant to another subject or activity.

For more than two decades the “reading/writing across the curriculum” movement and later the “science across the curriculum” movement have attempted to integrate an undergraduate learning experience that is often obscured by disciplinary boundaries. In other words, these movements strive to underscore the interconnectedness of otherwise seemingly separate and isolated subject areas. The whole idea of a core curriculum is, after all, to produce well-rounded graduates.

Foreign language requirements, unfor-tunately, are still too often isolated from students’ majors. In fact, several institutions have done away with “foreign language” as a university-wide requirement, allowing schools or majors to determine the neces-sity for the language for their students. In essence, “foreign language” has been re-duced to a simple admissions requirement

at many institutions. In making it part of the requirements for entry (or as a necessity for high school graduation), institutions only reinforce an attitude that language study at the postsecondary level is irrelevant unless a student is majoring or minoring in a foreign language.

Language study becomes part of a checklist that, once complete, is tossed aside by students and institutions alike. Ironically, this happens despite the fact that entering students (and their parents) expect a quality education to prepare them for a global workforce and increasingly interconnected world. They may anticipate continuing the study of foreign language to achieve some degree of actual proficiency, but instead they are often neither required nor encouraged to do so.

In 1991, I departed West Virginia

to enter a doctoral program in women’s history at Binghamton University. I hadn’t realized it, but while at WVU I had always engaged in cross-disciplinary work that spanned a variety of fields. Upon entering Binghamton, I realized how “disciplined” I was becoming as I focused narrowly on his-tory as my area of specialization. I believed I had left behind my study of language as I pursued topics related to US social welfare history at the turn of the twentieth century.

Soon, however, I discovered a newly created and innovative Languages across the Curriculum program that had been embraced by my mentors. I accepted a student position with the program, and I began to learn about ways to integrate what had before seemed like disparate paths—foreign language and the study of US history. Rather than focusing on language learning, I realized I could learn by focus-ing on language use.

Today, I’m the director of the program. We boldly assert our long-term goal of establishing “a campuswide expectation that students will be able to make meaningful use of any language they know in any class at any level anywhere in the university curriculum.” We ask our colleagues and students why they aren’t making more use of their foreign language knowledge. I mean, after all, suffering through those grammar sessions about the subjunctive should be worth something, right?

Or, if you’re a heritage learner, meaning that you learned a language other than English in your home or community, we ask why you’re not finding a place for your bilingual skills in your studies. Most often, I’m met with a blank stare, so I move to questions about “meaningful use.” Do you think you could read a headline in “insert

The New INTerNaTIoNalIsm:

By Suronda Gonzalez, PhD, Photo by Jonathan Cohen

Culture and Language across the Curriculum

Suronda Gonzalez, PhD

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 7

language here?” Could you locate some newspapers from “insert country name here” through the Internet or the library’s database? Do you think it could be beneficial for you to know how various languages (and cultures) conceptualize “fill in the blank here with a key term from your area of study?”

The answer is nearly always a resound-ing “yes.” Students enter college with an attitude that understanding different lan-guages and cultures are important for their careers and for the future of the United States. Too often, academic institutions don’t capitalize on that interest. One of my colleagues from another institution argues that students don’t incorporate languages into their studies because they’re told they can’t. I argue that they’re never told that they can. Once students are encouraged to do so, they’ll often try it out. The most recent statistics from our program show that half of all students who participate would be willing to try to use their lan-guage in another class of their own accord.

At Binghamton University, we’ve had 20 years of support to develop our Languages across the Curriculum Program. I’ve worked for the program for almost 15 years. The work has done far more than encourage me to expand my language abilities. Working for Languages across the Curriculum has been the fundamental force shaping my teaching and learning philosophies.

My work, my students, and my col-leagues have taught me that the principles we espouse are not only capable of produc-ing intellectual and personal transforma-tion, but that they also can, over time, transform our institutions.

Despite the title of our program, “Languages across the Curriculum” (and the more recently created “Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum” move-ment), we are as much about encouraging critical thinking as meaningful language use. Students use their basic knowledge of a foreign language to find materials in other languages. Often, these authentic cultural sources (newspaper articles, commercials, and websites) reflect perspectives that expand knowledge of a given issue. Our methods foster engagement and curiosity

about the many layers of meaning embed-ded within a concept.

Faculty members who participate empower students to push the boundaries of even the faculty member’s knowledge. Such programs represent a “flipping of the classroom” in that they empower students to be collaborators in the production of knowledge. Those who take up the chal-lenge are those who are familiar with the unpredictability and fluidity of culture and who are comfortable mucking around in the complexity and ambiguity of a text.

By implication, the approach is cross-disciplinary. Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum-centered instructors are often innovators in their classrooms and in their research. They empower learners to become interpreters and to discover their unique voice. In this way, CLAC strate-gies can be a democratizing force in the classroom.

Exploring the globe highlights regional and local differences. Students who partici-pate begin to realize that what they see from a more international or even global perspec-tive enriches their understanding of the local and the regional. Students begin to look at their own environments with new questions.

Students carry these new questions/perspectives into new classrooms, and across their undergraduate experience. Most recent statistics show that more than 50 percent of participating students plan to use their language in another course, of their own accord. If allowed, they can transform the curriculum through their questions.

To be sure, it isn’t easy for the instruc-tor. This happened to me as I taught a 180-student course related to immigration and ethnicity in the United States. Inter-national students in the course had wildly different questions about the material than did students who had attended US schools. At times, we were able to examine the reasons behind the different questions to explore the historical and cultural forces shaping both groups. Practitioners must be flexible and responsive to such important moments. Upon graduation, these profes-sionals carry new questions/perspectives into their communities.

Students are some of the most ardent supports of these methods/programs. They often recruit new professors by describ-ing how the curriculum intersects with our goals. These programs are most well positioned to foment broader institutional change when there is strong support at both ends of the institution. Students are a vital part of growing the program.

Rather than being a specialized pro-gram, or an offshoot of the curriculum, CLAC programs are at the foundation of the curriculum. Working in a this environ-ment for the majority of my professional career has pushed me to think about the ways the entire curriculum should be able to articulate its “meaningful use” for students to connect with the power of our general education requirements.

As our programs work to bridge disci-plinary divides, there’s been a parallel move-ment to broaden meanings of “international” so that they are not the sole responsibility of the study abroad and international student and scholar offices. Internationalization of an institution must be the responsibility of every division. We are all part of the movement to globalize our campus.

Suronda Gonzalez is the director of both the Global Studies Minor Program and the Languages across the Curriculum Program at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The Languages across the Curriculum Program is a world language instruction program that allows students to apply their language skills and intercultural knowledge to a wide range of academic subjects. Gonzalez began her career at SUNY Bingham-ton in 1999 as the program’s assistant director before taking over the program in 2001. She also was an instructor in the history department in 2005.

While attending WVU, Gonzalez double majored in Spanish and interna-tional studies with a concentration on Western Europe. She graduated in 1987 and went on to complete a certificate in women’s studies and a master’s degree in liberal studies in 1991. Her oral history project focused on the experiences of Spanish immigrant women in Har-rison County, West Virginia. Gonzalez received her PhD in US history in 2005 from SUNY Binghamton.

Culture and Language

8 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

During a recent visit to the Student Health office, my doctor asked what

I was studying in school. I responded by saying I was a psychology graduate student. She knew there were quite a few programs within the Department of Psychology at WVU, so I told her I was in the newest program—behavioral neuroscience. Her eyes lit up with interest and she asked more about it. I said I was in my second year, and that I was one of two graduate students who comprise the inaugural behavioral neuroscience graduate student class. Then, pleading ignorance, she wanted to verify that behavioral neuroscience meant studying both biology and behavior. When I confirmed her belief, she blurted out, “Well, isn’t that what we should have been studying all along?!”

Of course I laughed. But she was right. What good is it if we only study biology and behavior separately and have no understanding of how they interact? Behavioral neuroscience is a field with a specific intention to fill this gap. It examines the biological bases of behavior and provides a well-needed bridge between the field of neuroscience, which studies the biology of the brain, and the field of psychology, which studies the behavior of people. It was this dual mindset that appealed to me. I always enjoyed the “hard core” science, but I love painting a more complete picture by studying how this relates to human behavior.

I entered the behavioral neuroscience program in August 2010, after earning my bachelor of science degree from WVU in May. During my undergraduate studies I intended to go to medical school. I wanted to become a psychiatrist and work

with patients with sleep disorders. In fact, during my senior year, I applied to medical schools in the United States and Canada; this program was the only graduate school program to which I applied. However, the more I found out about this program, the more I realized my interests lie on the research side of sleep disorders, not on the clinical side. By the time I received my acceptance, this program had already become my top choice, and what I once thought would be a difficult decision to make became a no brainer (no pun intended).

I am in the unique position of being with the program since its 2010 inception. Many people questioned my choice to join a new, not yet fully established program. However, that was one of the aspects that drew me to it—the fact that I would play a role in the development and early success of a program still in its infancy.

Since beginning grad school, I have assumed the role of one of the “senior” students in the program. It’s a role that has not always been easy, especially in my first year when I was just learning the ropes myself. However, it’s a role I’ve embraced and ultimately enjoyed because, despite the service commitments it entails and the “guinea pig” role I sometimes play, it comes with benefits and experiences I could not have otherwise gotten so early in my training.

I have had the opportunity, as a graduate student representative of my program, to meet and dine with prestigious neuroscience researchers who are invited guest speakers at WVU. I also have served as the student representative on our training committee for the second year in a row—a spot usually reserved for third- and

fourth-year students. I have participated in training committee meetings where the direction of the program has been established, a behavioral analysis emphasis has been added, and even witnessed the creation of my preliminary exams (a slightly terrifying experience). This year is also the third consecutive year that the committee has conducted a faculty search, which means I’ve been actively involved in two of these search committees. Through this experience I have gone over countless faculty applications and been a part of meetings with current faculty where I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t—valuable information for when I go on the job market. It also means I have witnessed and contributed to the program’s growth.

When the program officially began, it consisted of just two faculty and two graduate students. It nearly doubled in size this year, and we expect continued rapid growth that will approach full capacity by the time I graduate. Our most recent faculty addition, Dr. Steven Kinsey, was hired last year and is conducting research on the effects of stress and the endocannabinoid system on behavior and the immune system. Dr. Kinsey joins Drs. Hawley Montgomery-Downs and Miranda Reed to comprise the core behavioral neuroscience faculty. Our program’s coordinator, Dr. Montgomery-Downs, is conducting research on postpartum sleep disturbances. Research in the sleep lab also has examined sleep disordered breathing in a pediatric population. I am one of three graduate students who are part of the sleep lab this year, with my own research looking at disruption of the circadian rhythm (the internal 24-hour biological clock that helps

Bridging the Gap between Biology and Behavior

BehavIoral NeuroscIeNce:

By Amanda McBean, Photo by Brian Persinger

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 9

control our sleep-wake cycle) among new mothers. Dr. Reed, who was hired in 2010, is conducting research on the molecular and behavioral basis of memory loss. The lab uses animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral analysis techniques.

One of the major strengths of this new program is its interdisciplinary nature. As the behavioral neuroscience field attempts to bridge gaps in research between disciplines, our program similarly attempts to bridge gaps in research between WVU departments. This is done through collaboration and interaction with students and faculties in departments both within and outside of psychology. All of the faculty members in our program are also members of the Center for Neuroscience, which integrates all neuroscience research across WVU. Forty WVU laboratories are members of the Center, and the members’ research falls into four main categories: sensory neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neuroscience, and neural injury. The members of the Center are very interactive and participate, along with trainees, in regularly scheduled scientific meetings and social interactions where recent breakthroughs and topics in neuroscience research are discussed.

My brief stint in this program has been rich with opportunities and learning experiences. The program is much more research-oriented than other programs in the Psychology Department, which means my course load is somewhat lighter than other graduate students. This provides me with more time to spend conducting studies, securing external funding to support my research, and publishing manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. The extra time set aside for these activities is invaluable as I build my resume with the intention of pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship and a more heavily research-oriented career in academia upon graduation.

Since our program is still new and relatively small, we experience a unique sort of camaraderie and teamwork. Everyone in the program, both faculty and graduate students alike, wants it to succeed and everyone is working toward that same goal by excelling in their individual research areas. We are all playing some role in choosing who is hired and what graduate students are accepted, and it is fun to watch the program grow. I am excited to be a part of this period of growth for the next few years and see the direction we take and the research that comes out of our labs.

Amanda McBean studies circadian rhythm disruption among new mothers.

Amanda McBean was born and raised in Canada. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the WVU cross country and track and field teams. In 2007, she ran on the cross country team that won the first-ever Big East title in any women’s sport at the University—that year WVU went on to a top 10 finish at the NCAA Tournament. In 2010, McBean earned her bachelor of science in animal and veterinary sciences with a minor in psychology from WVU.

She is a second-year doctoral candidate in the behavioral neuroscience program in the Department of Psychology. She works with Hawley Montgomery-Downs, PhD, in her state-of-the-art sleep laboratory conducting research on sleep in the postpartum period. She defended her master’s thesis last spring which examined circadian rhythm disruption among new mothers and how it related to their mood, anxiety, and stress levels. She plans to continue this line of research; looking at possible ways to improve the sleep and mental health of new mothers by reducing their circadian rhythm disruption. She continues to be an avid runner, living and training with many of her former teammates.

10 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

In 2010, I had the experience

of a lifetime. I was one of 75

graduate delegates chosen from US

institutions to attend the 60th annual

Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates.

During this gathering in Germany,

59 Nobel Laureates from the fields

of chemistry, physiology, medicine,

and physics gave presentations on

current and future topics in their

respective disciplines. To be one of the

675 young researchers from 68 countries

interacting up close and personally with

these scientists, and exchanging ideas in

meetings and over dinner, was incredible.

But how did I get there?

Since the age of 14, I have engaged

in community involvement and

development through mathematics

and the sciences. I am impassioned

to increase scientific literacy in

underrepresented populations.

Before becoming a physicist, I

worked in youth development for

11 years, and I gained insight on

deficiencies within the education

system. I am especially concerned

with the disconnect between the

scientific community and students

in the populations where hands-on

influence is desperately needed. In my

experience, no one was available to talk

to youngsters about STEM professions

or the benefits and excitement of

scientific and mathematic study. I

made the decision to go back to school

when I realized that in spite of all the

good I could do as a teacher and

an organizer, I still felt as though I

lacked the full background needed to

best serve young people.

After graduating from Georgia Tech,

I was accepted as a doctoral student in

the WVU Physics Department, where

I specialize in plasma physics. I am

working toward my goals to advance

scientific discovery and to dispel

ignorance that may have impeded

progress. Using my PhD training, I want

to expose our nation’s bright minds to

experiences that will ignite passion and

lead to identification and development

of future scientists, particularly targeting

at-risk populations.

At the University, I work with helicon

plasmas, exploring double layers and ion

heating using laser induced florescence

diagnostics. A double layer is a special

region of plasma where particles undergo

acceleration from a potential field.

These parallel sheets of opposing charge

accelerate ions and electrons in opposite

directions. Using the diagnostic as our

“radar gun,” we can observe ion beams

in our laboratory reaching speeds in the

order of 20,000 mph.

I explore the science behind

controlling this phenomenon, which has

been observed in space, with the aim of

duplicating it. My research, alongside

my mentor and advisor Dr. Earl Scime,

has implications in space propulsion and

in materials processing. Some practical

applications of this research include

sterilizing medical instruments using

heat and UV radiation of a plasma and

creating computer chips with plasma

etching. I look forward to our continued

work in our newly renovated, cutting-

edge facility, White Hall.

As for the Nobel Laureates

conference, connecting and networking

with other researchers proved invaluable

to me. While I was thrilled for the

opportunity, I was concerned about a

number of self-perceived challenges.

The meeting lasted for only six days;

would there be enough time? Would

I be able to relate effectively to these

giants in their fields? Would there be

generational or even cultural gaps that

might inhibit communication?

Thankfully, my fears were quickly

allayed as I found that among the

objectives of the Lindau Meeting

is to bring science to a rebuilding

community (in this case post-World

War II Germany). By bringing

scientists to engage students, the

By Jerry Carr Jr., Photo by Brian Persinger

A Meeting of the Minds

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 11

conference organizers are able to give

locals a chance to participate and

benefit. The impact on the region itself

has been transformative. I want to be a

part of bringing a similar initiative to

some of the communities where I have

served in West Virginia; Dorchester,

Massachusetts; and my hometown of

Detroit, Michigan.

In Lindau, I shared close quarters

with three roommates and, having only

three keys for four guys, I got to know

my roommates quickly and developed

a good rapport. It’s hard to be less than

cordial when someone has control over

whether you can get into your room at

the end of the night.

Rather than remain within cramped

(but lovely) quarters, we all took the

opportunity to mingle with the hundreds

of delegates. We represent the next

generation of scientific leadership.

I have worked with the Spallation

Neutron Source, a unique accelerator-

based neutron source in Oak Ridge,

Tennessee, that provides the most

intense pulsed neutron beams in

the world for scientific research and

industrial development. I have also

worked with WVNano, the West

Virginia initiative for nanoscience and

nanotechnology research.

My experiences with both

organizations emphasize the importance

of what was reflected during my time

in Lindau—that taking the time to

leave your comfort zone and meet on

common ground with researchers from

other disciplines is critical to solving

a number of the challenges facing

humanity. I count myself lucky to have

seen firsthand the benefits of sharing

different scientific perspectives on a

national and global scale.

Jerry Carr Jr., represents the next generation of leaders in the field of physics.

Jerry Carr Jr., is a plasma physics doctoral student at WVU. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree and highest honors in physics from Georgia Tech in 2007, and studied electrical engineering, computer science and brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and plans to complete his PhD in December 2012. He would like to acknowledge the support he received from the WV Space Grant and the Southern Regional Education Board.

By Rebecca Herod

THE

YEARPLAN

LOCALLY FOCUSED, NATIONALLY PROMINENT, GLOBALLY ENGAGED

12 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 13

The Eberly College, in keeping

with WVU’s continuing rise in national

recognition, is bursting at the seams

these days. It is hard to make it through

a week without hearing about another

internationally significant

publication, grant, award,

or accolade. All this activity

is fuel for our aspirational

goals for 2020. Those goals

include five key areas in

which we will focus our

resources and energies to

create the strongest and

best Eberly College yet—a

College, not just ready

to meet the needs of the

future, but also leading and

innovating as it delivers on

the landgrant mission in the

twenty-first century.

According to “Raising

the Bar: Employers’ Views

on College Learning in

the Wake of the Economic

Downturn,” a survey of

employers conducted for

the American Association

of Colleges and Universities

and published in 2010, US

employers want universities

to place more emphasis on

essential learning outcomes.

The assets that they are looking for align

fully with Eberly’s liberal arts philosophy,

a philosophy that gives undergraduates

the tools to compete in the job markets of

today and tomorrow. We will track student

progress between the beginning and end

of degree programs to demonstrate that

our student body makes measurable gains

in their understanding of the values of a

liberal arts education, critical thinking, and

communication skills.

As the College develops new curricula

and programs, we will add course modules

and out-of-the-classroom experiences that

help students maximize the value of their

undergraduate degree and build skills

needed to invent their own career path.

We will partner with the WVU Office

of Career Services to engage students in

the career planning process early. And

we will redouble our efforts to provide

teachers the training and technologies

needed to create a first-class learning

environment. A key aspirational goal for

undergraduate education is to ensure

that every student has a hands-on, out-

of-the-classroom learning experience

such as an internship, fieldwork, study

abroad, service learning, or research.

This will require the marshaling of

resources to support research, travel,

and other costs of ensuring access to

important real-world experiences.

Scholarship will lead our charge

toward ever-higher quality and relevance

to tomorrow’s world. Key indicators

of progress include the numbers

of PhD students

completing degrees,

research grants and

contracts, publications,

and national recognition

of our faculty and student

scholarship. We also want

to continue, and indeed

grow, our success in placing

master’s and PhD graduates

in a variety of positions

across the spectrum of the

public and private sectors.

To meet these

challenges, the College

is investing in research

facilities, enriching

graduate student learning,

and increasing graduate

student enrollment. Each

year, we will invest several

million dollars to buy

new equipment, renovate

research labs, and secure

cutting-edge technologies—

including a supercomputer,

clean rooms to develop

nanotechnology, and

imaging technologies that can show us

the structure of individual molecules. We

plan to increase the number of fellowships

and assistantships, increase stipends to

levels comparable to the departments

of peer institutions, and add innovative

training programs that our graduates will

need in today’s fast-paced multitasking

world. Our efforts will ensure that we not

only increase the graduate pool, but also

compete for the best and most promising

Ensuring our students meet these essential learning outcomes will make us a go-to place for employers seeking qualified candidates.

Read more about Eberly College for Arts and Sciences’ 2020 Strategic Plan for the Future and the process and people behind it at eberly.strategicplan.wvu.edu

PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYERS WHO WANT COLLEGES TO “PLACE MORE EMPHASIS”

ON ESSENTIAL LEARNING OUTCOMES

Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World

• Science and technology.....................................................70%• Global issues.................................................................... 67%• The role of the United States in the world............................ 57%• Cultural diversity in the United States and other countries..... 57%• Civic knowledge, participation, and engagement.................. 52%

Intellectual and Practical Skills

• Written and oral communication.........................................89%• Critical thinking and analytic reasoning...............................81%• Complex problem solving...................................................75%• Teamwork skills in diverse groups.......................................71%• Creativity and innovation....................................................70%• Information literacy........................................................... 68%• Quantitative reasoning....................................................... 63%

Personal and Social Responsibility

• Ethical decision making......................................................75%• Intercultural competence (teamwork in diverse groups)......... 71%• Intercultural knowledge (global issues)................................ 67%• Civic knowledge, participation, and engagement.................. 52%

From “Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn”

14 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

graduate candidates. By 2020, we plan to

increase the number of master’s and doctoral

degrees by more than 20 percent.

The Eberly College has many

programs aimed at building a better life

for the citizens of West Virginia and our

region. In 2010, the Carnegie Foundation

for the Advancement of Teaching

recognized the scope and success of

WVU’s impact by selecting the University

for the 2010 Community Engagement

Classification. This honor put WVU in

the six percent of all US higher education

institutions—and the only institution in

West Virginia—that Carnegie recognizes

for high-quality, high-impact engagement.

Our faculty and students are truly

transforming peoples’ lives, as can be seen

in the stories in this, and past editions

of Eberly. Just a few examples of some

of our unique community partnerships

include the Community Design Team,

the Behavior Analysis Teacher Training

Program, and the Institute for Math

Learning. We will strive to increase the

number of these partnerships, with a

specific focus on healthy communities and

healthy choices in the next ten years. And

though we have a strong local and regional

focus in our outreach programs, we aim to

expand our successes to reach a national

and international audience. Indeed, most

everything we do in outreach, research,

and teaching is aimed at building global

perspectives and connections.

Our goals cannot be reached if we

do not continue to attract and retain the

best and brightest students, faculty, and

staff, and provide them with the facilities

they need to succeed. Therefore, part of

our investments will be used to build a

welcoming, diverse, and collaborative

environment in which people can develop

successful and personally rewarding

careers. By 2020, we hope to add two

new academic buildings, and complete

major renovations to three existing

buildings, White, Chemistry Research,

and Hodges halls. We also plan to add

staffing adequate to meet the demands for

student advising, instruction, research,

outreach, and administration using

comparisons with peer institutions and

surveys of staff perceptions of the work

environment. Those surveys are one

tool that will help us be the best place to

work: providing resources, mentoring,

and continuing education opportunities

for our employees. The Eberly College is

already a vibrant community of scholars,

students, and staff but we can do more to

foster and grow a diverse culture.

In the coming decade, we will continue

to refine the things we do best. Through the

development of excellent and diverse faculty,

students, and programs, the Eberly College

of Arts and Sciences will fulfill its mission to:

• Lead West Virginia University’s

emergence as one of the nation’s

premier institutions of higher education;

• Strengthen existing successes in

learning and discovery, and build

academic programs for tomorrow; and

• Enhance the well-being of the citizens

of West Virginia, as well as our region,

nation, and world.

WVU RANKS 5TH ON AARP’S “BEST EMPLOYERS FOR WORKERS OVER 50” LIST, A MEASURABLE INDICATOR OF OUR EFFORTS TO MAKE WVU AND THE EBERLY COLLEGE THE BEST PLACE TO WORK.

KATHERINE BOMKAMP a political science major, was named one of Glamour magazine’s “21 Amazing Young Women” for developing a prosthetic device that aims to alleviate phantom pain in the world’s millions of amputees. The distinction is given to young women across the country who are changing the world through service and innovation.

ARWEN STEWART is an international studies major and participant in the Critical Language Scholarship Program offered by the US Department of State.

a biology and psychology major, is intrigued by the complex and integrated workings of the human brain. She is one of nine students chosen nationwide for the National Health Institutes Undergraduate Scholarship Program.

ELI RODGERS-MELNICKa doctoral candidate in biology, was invited to the Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany. This is an honor annually reserved for fewer than 100 graduate students worldwide. He is the second WVU student in two years to attend the event.

NAMRATHA GUDEMARANAHALLI

Faculty members in the Eberly College submitted

212 research proposals, received $15.9 million in external funding, produced 550 peer-reviewed publications, and had seven new patent applications in 2010.

Retention of students from freshman to sophomore year—83 percent in

2010—was well above the national average of 76 percent reported by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems for the latest year of complete data (2009).

The college is increasing the size of its faculty. Fourteen new positions were added

in fall 2010, and 11 more in fall 2011; nine percent of Eberly’s faculty positions are endowed.

The University was named as one of the top 20 research

institutions at which to work in 2011, according to The Scientist.

The College boasts national rankings in psychology,

forensic and investigative science, public administration, creative writing, and communication studies.

Three English faculty members received significant recognition; Pat Connor had three paper sessions at the

International Medieval Congress dedicated to him, Mary Ann Samyn received WVU’s Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing, and Mark Brazaitis received the University of Notre Dame’s Richard Sullivan Prize for his collection of short stories.

The WVU Debate Team, advised by faculty in the Department of

Political Science, finished 10th in the annual national competition.

The Eberly College implemented a new

doctoral specialization in behavioral neuroscience, a minor in Japanese studies, and a graduate program in forensic and investigative science. Additionally, gerontology and nonprofit management certificate programs are now offered entirely online.

A multidisciplinary team of faculty from the Eberly College successfully submitted and

received a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Grant in the amount of $3.2 million to promote participation and leadership by women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

Justin Legleiter, assistant professor in the C. Eugene

Bennett Department of Chemistry, received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and an Alzheimer’s Association New Investigator Research Grant, one of approximately 45 internationally awarded. Read more about his work on page 38.

The first group of international dual-degree master’s

candidates in the Central and Eastern European Studies Atlantis Grant Program graduated from the program. Currently, 21 students from the three participating universities are enrolled.

The $2.5 million planetarium complex in the newly renovated White Hall will open this Summer.

The Department of Philosophy’s Ethics Bowl team qualified for

the 17th National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition. The team qualified for the national competition by placing among the top three teams in the Central States Regional Ethics Bowl Competition.

Associate Professor Jim Nolan received the 2010 Carnegie

Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) West Virginia Professor of the Year Award.

Chatman Neely, senior lecturer and off-campus MSW coordinator for the WVU Division of Social Work’s Wheeling

campus, was named 2011 West Virginia Social Worker of the Year.

1.2.

3.

4.

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6.

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8.

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13.

14.15.

12.

11.

REASONS TO BE PROUD OF THE

EBERLY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 15

Dr llinginto the

IssueIn October, West Virginia University announced its Marcellus Shale Initiative that would bring together industry experts to study development of the Marcellus shale natural gas field. Through the project, experts are examining how the Marcellus reserve can be developed with minimal environmental impact.

Eberly asked Sam Ameri, PhD, chair of the WVU Department of Natural Gas and Engineering, and Shikha Sharma, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geography, to share their Marcellus-related research and offer some insight from engineering and geochemist perspectives. Here’s what they had to say.

Marcellus Shale Offers Economic Development, Clean Energy

By Sam Ameri

West Virginia has a rich history of

oil and natural gas production. In 1771,

George Washington acquired 250 acres

in what is now West Virginia because “it

contained an oil and gas spring.” (From

Where It All Began: The Story of the People

and Places Where the Oil and Gas Industry

Began: West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio By

David McKain and Bernard L. Allen (1994).)

In 1916, the West Virginia University

School of Mines offered its first course in

petroleum engineering.

Fast-forward to 2012. The industry

is thriving, and West Virginia University

remains the only academic institution in

the state offering degrees in petroleum

and natural gas engineering.

The Department of Petroleum and

Natural Gas Engineering (PNGE)—with

which I have been affiliated for more than

30 years—furnishes industry with petroleum

and natural gas engineers, develops new

extraction technologies, and provides industry

with expert technical services.

We are entering a golden age of natural-gas

use, which is fantastic news for our state and

its people. With innovative breakthroughs in

fracturing and drilling technology, massive

homegrown natural gas reserves can be

brought to the surface. The production of

more than 100 years’ worth of inexpensive

natural gas is clearly in sight.

Shale gas is the gold rush of this

century. West Virginians are sitting right

on top of the Marcellus shale. This gas

field spans 95,000 square miles, and has

as many productive layers of gas-bearing

formations as Saudi Arabia has oil fields. I

believe that the Marcellus could potentially

be the second-largest natural gas field

in the world. It offers excellent career

opportunities to our graduates; prosperity

for our state; and abundant, affordable,

clean energy for our nation’s future.

To understand the Marcellus shale, it

is important to have a basic understanding

of its geology and the technologies that

have facilitated its development. The

Marcellus shale gas field consists of shale

formations/layers that are from 40 to

100 feet thick and located about a mile

(depending on the location) beneath the

surface. The field extends throughout

most of the Appalachian Basin, spreading

across southern New York, Pennsylvania,

eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. The

formation tapers off in the bordering

states of Maryland, Kentucky, and

Tennessee. Sweet spots and largest

concentrations of drilling production are in

the northeastern portion of the field.

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic

16 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 17

fracturing have been the prime

technological drivers for the growing

importance of shale gas, but these

technologies pose unique challenges for

determining optimum development

strategies. Research is the key to unlocking

vast quantities of natural gas that were once

considered too difficult to produce.

Consequently, every faculty member

in our department is actively engaged in

research relating to the Marcellus and other

shale formations. We recently established a

Marcellus Shale Laboratory, with state-of-

the-art equipment and technology, and are

excited about the opportunity this facility

will provide to enhance our research and

development efforts.

PNGE’s shale-related research involves

both laboratory investigations and

computer modeling to develop a better

understanding of shale and the impact of

horizontal wells with multiple hydraulic

fractures on gas recovery efficiency.

Researchers also are investigating the use

of artificial intelligence, data mining,

and smart software for modeling shale

and other unconventional hydrocarbon-

bearing formations. We also are researching

optimum techniques for extracting the

liquid-rich gas that is widely found in the

northwestern part of the Marcellus shale.

As an academic department, our primary

goal is to educate petroleum and natural

gas engineers. Due to the rapid increase

in shale gas production—not only in the

Marcellus but also all over the world—our

student enrollment has increased greatly.

Technological changes have also led us to

place special emphasis on the Marcellus shale

in our graduate research program.

As a teacher, I gain a great deal of

pleasure from working with our students,

who are some of the best and brightest

from West Virginia, the nation, and

the world. I am proud of our strong

job placement rate and know that my

colleagues are equally pleased about the

many opportunities that have opened for

our graduates in recent years.

In addition to jobs for engineering

graduates, shale gas development offers

great opportunities for other high-paying

jobs. Opportunities exist in such areas as

construction; equipment manufacturing,

service, and repair; water management;

well servicing; legal, accounting, and other

professional services; and others.

There is no doubt that the Marcellus

shale offers great promise for our long-term

economic prosperity in West Virginia.

Industry experts believe that we have

not come close to realizing the economic

potential of this resource, and won’t for many

years. As technology continues to improve,

efficiency will as well. I believe that in 20

years, natural gas will be the second-largest

fuel used to power the cars that we drive, and

that there will be natural gas vehicles and

filling stations everywhere.

In addition, several companies are

currently considering West Virginia as the

location for a multibillion-dollar ethane

cracker. These plants convert ethane, a by-

product of Marcellus shale gas drilling, into

a vital ingredient for the plastics industry.

The project would

create up to 10,000

construction

jobs, hundreds of

permanent positions,

and a major boost to the state’s economy.

The icing on the cake is the Utica shale

gas field, another huge shale formation that

is actually located beneath the Marcellus.

Many in industry believe it may offer

even greater potential for long-term

development than the Marcellus.

Natural gas is an abundant, inexpensive

energy resource that will help us fuel our

economy for decades to come, and it is exciting

to witness its growth in shale gas-rich West

Virginia. I personally believe it is a very good

thing for our state and its people. The need

for bright petroleum and natural gas engineers

and geologists to meet the energy demands of

West Virginia and the nation is on a steep rise.

It is exciting to be involved at this time of rapid

technological change, and I look forward to a

bright energy future for our state and nation.

“Natural gas is an abundant, inexpensive energy resource that will help us fuel our economy for decades to come.”

About Sam Ameri, PhDSamuel Ameri, professor & chair of the

Petroleum & Natural Gas Engineering

Department at West Virginia University, has

more than 30 years of distinguished service in

both industry and academia. Ameri has in-depth

experience in fossil energy areas, particularly

natural gas and oil extraction. As a researcher, he

has developed a high-quality research program

in the area of oil and gas recovery and compiled

an outstanding record of publications across a

wide spectrum of oil and gas issues.

Ameri has been active in the Society

of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). His

participation includes being the co-general

chair of SPE Eastern Regional Conference

and Exhibition 2000, serving on the SPE

Education & Accreditation Committee,

SPE Continuing Education Committee,

and the Eastern Regional SPE Technical

Conference Program Committees.

Other roles he has held include the chair of

Department Heads of Petroleum Engineering

Schools in U.S.A. He has served on the SPE

Cedric K. Ferguson Medal Committee, and the

Northern West Virginia Section of the Society

of Petroleum Engineers. He received his

bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum

and natural gas engineering from WVU.

18 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Let’s Make Sure We Understand the Impact on Water Quality

By Shikha Sharma

In August 2011, the Secretary of Energy

Advisory Board’s Shale Gas Production

Subcommittee released its 90-day interim

report outlining measures that can be taken

to reduce the environmental impact and

improve the safety of shale gas production.

As a stable isotope geochemist, my

research program focuses on both those

aspects of Marcellus shale gas development

in Appalachia.

I believe with proper drilling and

monitoring practices in place, shale gas can

be produced with minimal environmental

impact and prove to be a tremendous

resource for our economy.

I have three graduate students using

stable isotopes (such as carbon, hydrogen,

and oxygen) to understand the sources and

fates of different contaminants related to

shale gas drilling. Our group is interested

in developing geochemical tools for

characterizing surface waters, coal mine

waters, groundwater aquifers, and flowback

waters in areas of shale gas drilling in West

Virginia and Pennsylvania.

As the debate over hydrofracking in

regions of Marcellus shale drilling grows, a

number of residents near drilling fields are

concerned that the process will taint their

drinking water with methane.

Some of these concerns, although

legitimate, are not necessary because

environmentally conscious drilling can

alleviate these issues. My research, which

covers the origins of methane gas in the

Monongahela River watershed and other

areas of the region, has shown that dissolved

methane gas already exists in groundwater

where there is no shale gas drilling.

The sources of methane gas can

include active or inactive deep coal mines,

landfills, gas storage fields or microbial gas

generated in a shallow subsurface. However,

all methane is not isotopically the same.

Depending on how and where methane is

formed, it can have very different carbon

and hydrogen isotope signatures. This gives

us the ability to know if it comes from

hydrofracking releases or some other source.

The preliminary results from our

ongoing studies show the promise of

our approach to understanding sources

of contaminants in groundwaters and

surface waters including dissolved

methane. One of the key factors

controlling the gas production potential

of shale deposits is determining what

type of kerogen we’re dealing with.

Kerogen is the naturally occurring,

solid, organic matter that occurs in source

rocks and can yield oil upon heating.

There are three types of kerogens; type I,

consisting of mainly algal and amorphous

kerogen and highly likely to generate

oil; type II, mixed terrestrial and marine

source material that can generate waxy

oil; and type III, woody terrestrial source

material that typically generates gas. We

can determine the type through common

laboratory and petrological tests.

However, there are a number of factors

that need to be considered when examining

the matter, particularly the environment.

As a scientist, it is my job to stay focused on

the scientific perspective of this study while

staying neutral on the political and social

issues associated with it.

It is important to understand the role

of these processes because they control how

much gas can be generated from a formation

and its quality. I am interested in using

different geochemical

approaches to

understand the

primary biological

and geochemical processes that control

the variation in type, distribution, and

concentration of total organic carbon

preserved in Marcellus shale.

It is also important to understand

exactly how much methane exists in the

groundwater now and what sources it

comes from, so that unbiased decisions

can be made regarding the potential and

real impacts of hydrofracking on our water

sources in the future.

About Shikha Sharma, PhD

“…there are a number of factors that need to be considered when examining the matter, particularly the environment.”

Shikha Sharma joined WVU’s Department

of Geology and Geography as an assistant

professor in 2010. She previously worked

for the University of Wyoming as an

associate director. Sharma completed her

studies at Lucknow University in Lucknow,

India. After graduating, she went to the

University of Erlangen in Germany for an

Academic Exchange Fellowship from 2000

to 2002. From there, she came to the United

States and joined Iowa State University as a

post-doctoral associate.

Sharma’s current research bridges the fields of

low-temperature stable isotope geochemistry,

environment, energy, water resources, and

ecology. She is interested in understanding the

environmental impact of climatic, biological, and

geochemical processes on biogeochemical

cycles of major elements using stable isotopes.

Her efforts revolve around a variety of issues

related to the “carbon-water-energy” nexus.

Sharma is part of WVU’s ADVANCE and

WiSE initiative to encourage and mentor

women in science, technology, engineering,

and mathematics. In 2011, she was one

of eight women to receive a $15,000 grant

through the University’s $3.2 million National

Science Foundation ADVANCE Grant.

Tim Carr, the Marshall Miller Professor of Geology at West Virginia University, is the president-elect of the Council of Energy Research and Education Leaders, and is the interim director of a Marcellus shale roundtable at WVU.

Prior to coming to WVU, Carr worked for the Kansas Geological Survey as chief of the Energy Research Section and as senior scientist for the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas. He was also co-director of the Energy Research Center and courtesy professor in the University of Kansas

Meet Tim Carr, Eberly’s Resident ExpertDepartment of Geology.

His experience includes 13 years with Atlantic Richfield, where he worked in a number of research, operations, and management positions. At ARCO, Carr was involved in both exploration and development projects in locations including Alaska, the North Sea, East Greenland, California, and Kansas. Carr has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin, a master’s in geology from Texas Tech University and a doctorate in geology from the University of Wisconsin.

REFRESH YOUR MEMORY Read about Tim Carr’s research on geologic sequestration in the summer 2011

edition of Eberly (pg. 10). The online archive edition is at eberly.wvu.edu/alumni/publications

WVU President Jim Clements, 2011 State of the University Address

The governor and other state leaders have declared that the responsible development of shale gas in West Virginia is critical to the economic development and well-being of our state.

And so we are establishing a Marcellus Gas Shale Initiative to serve as a clearinghouse for the wide range of expertise and intellectual power that our faculty, staff, and students have to offer from many different disciplines.”

“The opportunities and challenges of natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, and in the future the Utica Shale, presents one of the most significant issues West Virginia will address in our lifetimes. As a land-grant university, it is our fundamental responsibility to be part of this process through the education, research, and service expertise that we have to offer. We have many disciplines where our expertise provides objective analysis and science. We must use this expertise to help our society.

About Shikha Sharma, PhD

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 19

Englehardt is responsible for the

Division of Social Work’s Professional

and Community Education Program.

The Program offers or sponsors 60 to 70

continuing education courses each year,

along with an annual Summer Institute

on Aging Conference. Courses are offered

all over the state and are concentrated in

the fall or spring semesters.

“Our program allows us to respond

to emerging topics that our current

courses may not cover,” Englehardt said.

“It is much easier to create a continuing

education opportunity than it is to have

By Rebecca Herod, Photo by Chris Schwer

Social workers must complete

an average of 25 credits of

continuing education annually

in order to maintain their

license to practice—a tough

thing to do if you are a rural

practitioner in West Virginia.

Enter Jacki Englehardt.

fast and flexible: The Social Worker’s Social Network

a new academic course created and vetted

through the academic approval process.

Continuing education allows us to be

flexible and to respond immediately to the

needs of state practitioners.”

Based on a survey she conducted,

emerging topics of interest for practitioners

include workshops on self-care to prevent

professional burnout, veterans’ issues,

hoarding, specific clinical techniques, mental

illness, and instruction on Medicare and

Medicaid open enrollment. West Virginia

social workers also reported increasing

interest in immigration law. Englehardt is

20 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Carly Costello, MSW graduate assistant; Erica Chico-Martin, administrative secretary; Jacki Englehardt, coordinator; Danielle Graunke, Children’s Home Society mentoring and volunteer coordinator and MSW candidate; Kurt Schmidt, Children’s Home Society site manager. CHS uses Englehardt’s listserv to post positions and find qualified MSW graduates for employment.

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 21

partnering with Jim Friedberg of the West

Virginia University College of Law to offer

Immigration Law 101 for Social Workers.

A social worker is often the first

person people talk to about their

immigration issues. Friedberg will draw

on his experience

from his work

with the WVU

Immigration Law

Clinic to discuss

how the federal

immigration system is structured and

the kinds of problems social work clients

are likely to face regarding residency

status, deportation, benefits, agency

communication, domestic violence, and

other pertinent areas.

Following a workshop like this, social

workers are able to identify broad areas

of federal law that affect immigrants

and their families; define categories of

immigrant statuses; identify immigrant

eligibility for government services; identify

federal protections that are available to

immigrant victims of domestic violence;

define terminology common to immigrant

law issues; and identify resources to assist

immigrants in their communities.

While all faculty members from the

Division of Social Work share their expertise

through Englehardt’s program, a number of

the workshops’ instructors come from the

professional community and departments

across the University. For instance, Religious

Studies professor Jane Donovan teaches

an “Introduction to World Religions for

Helping Professionals;” professor James

Nolan from the Division of Sociology

and Anthropology educates social service

practitioners on how to recognize, report,

and respond to hate crimes; Jane Riffe from

WVU Extension regularly presents on

ethical practice and counseling techniques;

and Diane Williams, from WVU Center

for Excellence in Disabilities, presents

social workers with information on the

recognition, diagnoses, and treatment of

autism spectrum disorders.

Englehardt is taking advantage of

technology to keep state social service

organizations and practitioners apprised

of available course offerings and job

opportunities. Approximately 2,135 social

workers, counselors, and nurses from West

Virginia and other states are members of

her e-mail listserv network.

“When Jacki joined the faculty and took

on this program it was losing money,” said

Chris Plein, associate dean of the School of

Applied Social Sciences and interim chair

of the Division of Social Work. “It is now

solvent and we attribute that to her excellent

management, particularly her ability to

connect folks all over the state and give

them exactly what they need in terms of

continuing education opportunities.”

In addition to individual courses, the

Professional and Community Education

Program offers a nonprofit management

certificate and is developing a gerontology

certificate. Both require 100 hours of course

work. Linda Feola, director of the Literacy

Volunteers of Upshur County, was one

of the first participants to complete the

nonprofit management certificate program.

“When working, it is hard to have

large blocks of time available away from

your work site. These classes were user

friendly,” Feola said. “The programs

were within easy driving distance or were

grouped together at institutes. The lengths

of the classes were effective and concise.”

Feola is the only paid staff member

of Literacy Volunteers of Upshur County

and says the certificate program was vital

to her improved leadership skills. She

has used the board orientation materials

provided by the program extensively and

reports that the grant writing workshop

was “worth its weight in gold.”

“Since taking that class I have written

four grants and received all four,” she said.

That financial

support has allowed

Feola to expand

activities for the

program, which

serves the 19 percent

of adults—or one in five—reading below a

fourth-grade level in Upshur County. Last year

she was able to support 27 student activities.

“The more connected participants stay,

the better result they have,” Feola said.

“When you can’t read, even the simplest

tasks become impossible; shopping for

groceries, getting a prescription, helping

your children with their homework.

Having these grant resources has been

invaluable to our mission.”

Training leaders to act as administra-

tors within the social work field is another

goal of the Professional and Community

Education Program.

“During school, most social work

students take a direct practice curriculum.

They are not trained to be managers and

administrators, they are trained to be in the

field doing social work with individuals,

couples and families,” Englehardt said.

“Continuing education allows them to

gain critical management skills necessary

to lead and supervise programs.”

In the world of Facebook and Twitter, a

listserv may seem like a low-tech option, but

Englehardt’s work to connect West Virginia

social workers with education opportunities

and jobs is paying dividends to students,

alumni, practitioners, the vulnerable

populations that they serve, and social

service agencies around the state.

“It is much easier to create a continuing education opportunity than it is to have a new academic course created and vetted through the academic approval process…”

socialwork.wvu.edu/ce.For more information, visit

fast and flexible: The Social Worker’s Social Network

WorkingBy Devon Copeland, Photos courtesy of Beth Dunton/Virginia Beach Police Department

22 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Ask Dade Chisler what he does for a living and his answer sounds remarkably like a catchy tagline—“CSI, without the leather pants and stilettos.”

Those three letters have become synonymous in pop culture with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a whodunit procedural where the crimes are gruesome, the clothes are fashionably sleek, and the technology at times borders on futuristic. In reality, careers in crime scene investigation are a lot less glamorous and a lot more time consuming.

But those aren’t the only differences between the CBS

television hit that has produced two spin-offs and the decades-old

career field that CNN Money recently dubbed one of the top ten

fastest growing in the country.

While millions of viewers tune in every week to watch one

of three iterations of CSI, the hundreds of police officers who

make up the Virginia Beach Police Department know to count

on the agency’s crime scene unit to do its best to help them

catch their guy.

And with three West Virginia

University alumni in the Tidewater-

area unit as evidence, the Forensic

and Investigative Science Program

is gaining traction as a nationally

renowned program for its rigorous

and high-quality curriculum that

excels in preparing its graduates for an

increasingly competitive job market.

The trio, Dade Chisler, BS ’08;

DeAnna Wallace, BS ’08 and MS

’10; and Kayti Wildman, BS ’11,

serve as ambassadors of the Program

and exemplary examples of “what

works” by beating out dozens of

candidates in three separate national

hiring searches for their posts in

Virginia Beach.

And that suits them all just fine.

“Even my boss has joked that we’re

taking over,” said Wallace, when

talking about the three WVU grads all clocking in at the Virginia

Beach police department.

Still in the early phases of their careers the three have

already encountered “the CSI effect” and its influence on career

placements, court cases, college curriculum, laboratory loads, and

victims’ expectations.

They even admit it played a role—a small one—in guiding

them toward a career in forensic and investigative science. But

their reasons for pursuing their line

of work also reflect the strengths and

demands of the career: strong math

and science skills, a desire to help

people, and a keen attention to detail.

“My interest was kind of piqued

by CSI,” said Chisler, a Blacksville,

West Virginia native who initially

considered a career in mechanical

engineering. He joined the Virginia

Beach crime scene unit in 2009.

“It was the hit show that people

were watching and I thought it would

be the better opportunity for me to

help and interact with the public.”

The facilities, curriculum, and

faculty proved to be the perfect

trifecta of an education for the

PROMISE Scholar.

“We had so much access to

equipment and we had tons of

opportunities to get hands-on experience at WVU,” he said.

“They had high goals for all of us. They pushed us because

they knew what we were capable of.”

Student Achievement:

During the summer of 2011, 32 Forensic and Investigative Science students completed their internships at federal, state, and local forensic laboratories and crime scene units. All undergraduate students are required to have completed 420 internship hours in order to graduate. The placements of students by state are as follows:

West Virginia: 7

Maryland: 6

Pennsylvania: 6

Virginia: 4

Florida: 2

Texas: 1

New York: 1

Wisconsin: 1

Delaware: 1

North Carolina: 1

Georgia: 1

Kentucky: 1

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 23

DeAnna Wallace, Kayti Wildman, and Dade Chisler.

Since the program’s inception in 1999, its rigor has attracted

and retained students like Chisler, Wallace, and Wildman who

truly excel in math and science. Within each of the program’s

areas of emphasis is a required minimum of 53 hours of math

and science credits composed of 16 hours in chemistry, 12 hours

in biology, eight hours in physics, eight hours in calculus, three

hours in pharmacy, three hours in statistics, and three hours in

biochemistry.

When students aren’t hitting the books, they’re using

professional-level laboratory equipment, thanks to gifts from

companies including Cogent System, Nikon, and Afix Tracker;

or working through a mock case in the Crime Scene Training

Complex.

“They really have their stuff together,” said Wallace, of

Moundsville, West Virginia. “WVU has so much equipment and

it just keeps growing over the years.”

In 2010, the US Secret Service donated an infrared

spectrometer and microscope to help students analyze evidence

found at crime scene investigations, like fibers, paint chips, and

polymers and substances used in counterfeit activity, like ink.

When the Virginia Beach Police Department’s crime

scene unit supervisor and the department’s human resources

coordinator came to WVU in November 2010, Chisler said he

didn’t bother to mask his Mountaineer pride as he accompanied

the visitors along their tour of the program’s facilities.

“They were astounded,” he said. “We got an awesome

education here and the word is getting out among the forensic

science community. It couldn’t come at a better time.”

David Durham, director of the Career Services Center at

WVU, said his staff has seen an uptick in interest in forensic

science careers. He said more recruiters have expressed interest in

participating in University career fairs, with agencies from police

departments in Arizona and other states acknowledging that the

Forensic Program is on their radars.

“We send out some general feelers,” he said. “But they tend

to find us. They do their homework.”

“If you would have asked me four years ago, whether we’d see

these kind of numbers, I would have said no way.”

Wallace, a first-generation college student who’s been with the

Virginia Beach crime scene unit for a little more than a year, said

the program’s more than 400-hour internship requirement was key

to preparing her for a future in forensics. She interned for a police

department in Greensboro, North Carolina where she called her

adjustment to real-life crime scene work “seamless.”

“I feel like I really lucked out,” she said. “In Greensboro they

practically let me work a scene as if I worked there, as if I were

one of the staff.”

Wildman, a fingerprint examiner with the unit, and the

Top 10 TV Crime Lab Myths

1. Crime labs can gather, prepare, test, and have results from DNA and other forensic tests within a few hours.

2. A suspect will sit in an interrogation room wearing the same clothes he wore during the crime—and conclusive test results arrive just as you sit down to question him.

3. Crime scene investigators follow cases from start to finish and conclude investigations within a few days.

4. Crime scene investigators are directly involved with the investigation, raids, and arrests.

5. Crime scene investigators can get DNA evidence from any surface.

6. DNA analyses provide two results: Yes, he did it, or no, he didn’t do it.

7. Crime scene investigators cannot only pull up DNA, but they can tell whether it came from tears, saliva, and sweat or cremated remains.

8. Everyone is in a DNA database.

9. When a DNA match is indicated, crime lab computers flash big red letters declaring a “99 percent match,” and a driver’s license photo for good measure.

10. Crime scene investigators conduct DNA testing while munching snacks or joking with colleagues.

Source: Tim Kupferschmid, Sorenson Forensics

24 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

newest Mountaineer in Virginia Beach with less

than a year under her belt, agreed.

“My internship really opened my eyes,”

the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania native said.

You don’t have a clue until you work your

internship.”

The internships helped erase any preconceived notions they

had about the risks and rewards of working in forensic science. For

instance, while CSI investigators on television are involved in every

aspect of a case, Chisler, Wallace, and Wildman play much more

compartmentalized roles.

They also said that on CSI, investigators find the DNA match

each time, while in reality lab results can take weeks and months to

receive and it’s difficult to get a good fingerprint sample.

“We do the wide range from car larcenies to homicide,”

said Wildman. “Matching DNA and fingerprints are tricky

because if someone isn’t in our database system, we’re not

going to get a match.”

Even though on television, agents wrap up their cases neatly in

an hour and they look good while doing it, Wallace, Chisler, and

Cracking Down on Crime, One Camp at a Time

After a successful debut last summer, the Forensic and Investigative Science Program will again offer two, one-week-long day camps for middle and high school students. The camps run June 11-15 for students in 7th through 9th grades and June 18-22 for students in 10th through 12th grades. The camp fee is $280, which includes lunch daily and a T-shirt. If more than one student from a family wishes to attend, it is $280 for the first student and $260 for each additional sibling.

The deadline to register is June 1.

Visit forensics.wvu.edu/summer-camp-2012 for more information, or contact Tina Moroose at (304) 293-5346.

Cogent Systems Laboratory

The Cogent Systems Laboratory in Oglebay Hall houses a state of the art Automated Fingerprint Identification System of 24 workstations and a teaching station. Of the 24 student workstations, half are ten-print stations and the other are latent print stations. In addition there are three live-scan devices for electronically capturing ten-prints. The teaching station has both a ten-print and latent workstation. The lab was made possible by a generous gift from Ming Hsieh and his company, Cogent.

Ming Hsieh Hall

Ming Hsieh Hall consists of four general purpose classrooms fitted with the University’s new standard technology, including retractable projector screens, DVD and VHS players, and an AMX touch-screen panel that controls all the audio-visual effects in each classroom. California businessman Ming Hsieh and his company donated $5.5 million to the Program. The gift helped fund construction of the building and created the Program’s first endowed professorships.

Oglebay Hall

The LEED-certified Oglebay Hall includes a microscopy lab with several different types of microscopes, which teaches students how to analyze trace evidence, hairs, fibers, and other evidence collected from crime scenes. The building also houses a instrument lab with several analytical scientific instruments for the analysis of metals, explosives, drugs, and toxicological evidence.

Crime Scene Training Complex

With three crime scene houses and a forensic garage for vehicle processing, WVU has the largest crime scene training complex in the world. The Crime Scene Training Complex is used to prepare mock crime scenes so forensic and investigative science majors can learn processing techniques in a controlled environment. Outdoor sand beds are used for collection of shoe print evidence, and two 20’ x 10’ grave sites allow for simulated recovery of human remains. Students also have access to a fire-training facilities and a large shooting range with indoor and outdoor ranges.

Wildman say as real-life investigators, they measure their “reward”

in terms of a bigger picture.

“Every case is different. When you get a fingerprint or DNA

hit it’s rewarding,” Wallace said. “I feel very challenged and

rewarded at the same time.”

Chisler said there is one thing that the television shows do capture:

the satisfaction of giving victims and their families some peace.

“We’re seeing people in some of their worst moments,” he said.

Their houses have been broken into or one of their loved ones has

been murdered. They just want to know what happened.

“We don’t get a lot of money. We don’t get a lot of fame.

But when we can wrap a case and get that closure for a

family, that’s the reward.”

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 25

28 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

keeping with WVU’s 2020 Strategic Plan

for the Future, which emphasizes diversity

and inclusion. WVU’s goal, an initiative of

WVU President Jim Clements, is to attract

more veteran employees and recruit and

retain more veteran students.

Following a visit to Morgantown and

the WVU campus from Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen

in 2010, Clements was selected to attend

the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.

He was one of 39 participants for

the forum, a US Department of Defense

program for some of the nation’s top

leaders interested in increasing their

knowledge of the military and national

defense issues.

Guacheta-Shay acknowledges that

returning soldiers have a dramatically

different and better college experience now

than they ever have before. There are more

opportunities and services in place, which

is one of the reasons he chose to come to

responsibilities, deployment issues, and

other matters.

He said there are a number of factors,

including veterans’ sensitivity to their

surroundings, that must be considered when

helping them transition to student life.

“The problem is that soldiers overseas

are in constant danger, and that affects

their behavior and concentration once they

return,” Miller said.

There are no front lines in the war on

terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving

every deployed soldier in immediate danger

when they are in those countries, Miller

said. They are constantly on guard and

aware of everything around them. The

hypersensitivity they develop stays with

them when they return to the States, even

though it is no longer necessary.

This makes it incredibly difficult for

them to pay attention to what professors

are saying in classes, because they are so

focused on what the other students are

doing or saying and every little detail of the

surrounding environment.

“They react to each sound, movement,

who is around them (who is there to

support, who might be there to harm),”

Miller said.

The veteran-specific classes allow

soldiers to participate in smaller classes and

interact with others who understand what

they are going through.

“Giving these students the option to

attend classes with other veterans during

their first semester eliminates some of

these outside influences and allows them

to better concentrate on learning.”

The welcoming atmosphere is in

Guacheta-Shay had been stationed for

15 months in the Iraqi province of Diyala

at Forward Operating Base War Horse

before heading back to the United States.

Domestic life and matriculating into the

student population, he said, presented a

new set of difficulties.

During the spring 2010 semester

he participated in the veteran-specific

Orientation 293 and English 101 classes.

The orientation class is designed around

the needs of former soldiers, who require

specific information about how their

payments from the GI Bill work, along

with other information pertinent to

military personnel.

“That orientation gives us a much

better opportunity to network, and the

open atmosphere of the class allows us to

share relevant information and personal

experiences,” Guacheta-Shay said.

The veterans-specific English 101 course

design resonated with him. “As a 25-year-

old former Army medic, I would have been

uncomfortable taking that class with 17- and

18-year-old freshmen,” he said.

“I’m older and my world view is

different, my experiences are so different. I

don’t think I would have been able to relate

to traditional freshmen like I did to the other

veterans.”

In addition to the Orientation and

English courses, the WVU Veterans office

offers sections of Adventure WV, Theater

101, and ULib 101.

In Terry Miller, the University has

an active veterans advocate whose office

helps solve financial aid and VA education

benefit issues, class absences due to military

WVU uses several platforms to recruit prospective veteran employees. The University has partnered with the Employer Partnership of the Armed Forces to advertise jobs across the country and around the world. The next step is to develop a mobile app so that soldiers can access critical information on WVU and Morgantown, such as health care, employment opportunities, family and social networks, and education, wherever they are deployed.

Also, WVU’s Human Resources Division offers a summit each year to further make outreach to veterans a priority on campus and off. WVU has hosted “Veterans’ Summits,” which offer networking opportunities for veterans at WVU and in the community and guest speakers on a variety of topics, including WVU research related to veterans’ health.

Quick Facts

“It may sound weird, but the Army provides a very structured lifestyle. In many ways it’s easier than civilian life.”—Alex Guacheta-Shay

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 29

remain enrolled full-time and pass all of

their classes.

WVU also participates in the Yellow

Ribbon Program, which helps students with

tuition and fees associated with education

programs that may exceed the Post-9/11 GI

Bill tuition benefit.

For its efforts, in 2011 WVU earned

mention on G.I.Jobs’ list of “military friendly

schools” for the third straight year.

Jake Lambuth, a Houston native, enjoys

being part of WVU’s veterans community

as both a student and employee. A senior

majoring in chemistry, Lambuth transitioned

from active duty in the US Navy to a

sergeant’s rank in the US Army reserves.

Lambuth said many of his fraternity brothers

WVU in the first place. The University

provides many services to veterans, including

their own advisers, and attempts to make

their adjustments to university life easier.

For Guacheta-Shay, his choice was

also sentimental.

“It was just West Virginia. I wanted to be

home,” said the Beckley native.

The University provided the services

and academic programs that he needed,

and he said the cost of living is manageable

with his payouts from the GI Bill. The

Post-9/11 Bill pays directly to the school

and provides compensation for tuition,

books, some tutoring, and a $1,300

monthly stipend for living expenses. To

maintain these payouts, veterans must

in Tau Kappa Epsilon are veterans, and

he has made other connections with vets

through WVU’s Student Veterans Group

and his job as a photographer for WVU

University Relations/News.

“There’s a large community of veterans

here—more than I thought,” he said.

Lambuth said he compares notes with

veteran friends at other institutions, which

makes him appreciate being at WVU.

“I hear from several friends who have

nothing but complaints—paperwork not

getting done or transitional issues,” he said.

“I have two friends who did not transition

well—they felt there was no help for

them—and they returned to active duty.

They didn’t feel like they were meant to be

Alex Guacheta-Shay, Candice Matelski, and Jake Lambuth represent a diverse group of veterans on campus.

WVU ReseaRcheRs collaboRate on Project roVer

Man’s best friend may also be a veteran’s best therapy. Faced with statistics from a 2011 report on the needs of veterans returning to the labor force that showed a higher-than-average unemployment rate and a threefold increase in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the last decade, a team of West Virginia University researchers and an area nonprofit are partnering with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to see if dogs can help veterans both recover and return to the workforce.

“Although there is significant interest in service dogs for veterans to aid in readjustment, the focus has not been on employment,” said Matt Wilson, project leader and interim director of the Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design.

“There is a resounding lack of empirical evidence documenting whether the provision of service dogs is of therapeutic benefit for persons with PTSD—other than the generally accepted, positive effects of human-animal companionship,” Wilson continued.

The institute has provided $273,202 to allow the WVU-led team to collaborate on Project ROVER, Returning Our Veterans to Employment and Reintegration. Project ROVER is a component of a larger NIOSH initiative related to total worker health and its focus on veterans.

The Project ROVER team will examine the therapeutic benefits of service dogs that are trained to provide physical and psychological assistance to veterans, and determine the impact of this assistance on the veterans’ ability to cope with PTSD symptoms and function effectively in the workplace.

Clarksburg resident Clay Rankin, a Hearts of Gold volunteer and combat veteran of the first Gulf War who also completed multiple tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom, will help provide a personal perspective.

His own return to work was facilitated by the acquisition of Harley, a mobility and psychological assistance dog. Rankin has served as an Army Wounded Warrior liaison, has assisted in the placement of service dogs with veterans and is on the Board of Directors for Patriot Paws, the organization that provided Harley.

“Clay will be invaluable in providing perspectives on the surveys, focus groups, literature review, and the various contexts and tasks for the laboratory-based clinical case studies,” Wilson said.

WVU and Hearts of Gold are collaborat-ing with the PTSD Rehabilitation Program staff at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg on the development of the project.

Key to that collaboration has been Joseph R. Scotti, a clinical psychologist in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. Scotti has more than 30 years of research experience and clinical work with people who have a range of psychiatric disorders, primarily PTSD and developmental disabilities.

He recently completed a major survey of 1,100 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify service-related psychological, physiological, functional and social issues, and testified before the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on his findings. Scotti will provide research consultation to Project ROVER.

Richard T. Gross, a clinical psychologist in the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry at the Chestnut Ridge Center, also will provide expertise in clinical psychology and behavior analysis.

Anne Foreman, a WVU doctoral candidate in psychology and certified professional dog trainer, is one of the instructors of the University’s service dog training courses. Foreman has a master of science degree in psychology from WVU. Megan Maxwell, owner of Pet Behavior Change in State College, Pennsylvania, earned her master’s and doctorate in psychology and will provide consultation in animal behavior, training procedures, and research design for the project.

The project team will work with two NIOSH scientists to conduct the research. Lindsay Parenti, MS, a board-certified behavior analyst and certified dog trainer, is a NIOSH research fellow, and Oliver Wirth, PhD, a research psychologist, is the NIOSH Project officer on the ROVER project. Both are graduates of the behavior analysis program in the WVU Department of Psychology.

“Although there is significant interest in service dogs for veterans to aid in readjustment, the focus has not been on employment.”

By David Welsh

30 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 31

there. I have absolutely no complaints.”

Though Guacheta-Shay said at times

he regrets leaving the service for his studies,

he’s working toward a medical degree so

that he can return to the military and help

his fellow soldiers on the battlefield as a

knowledgeable doctor.

“It is key to realize that an Army medic

sees and does things that most people would

not be able to handle,” he said.

Even given the difficult nature of the

job, Guacheta-Shay insists that being a

medic is the best job in the Army, because

“they can go anywhere.”

“Medics are stationed at every base

around the world, from Hawaii to the

Middle East. Being an Army medic allows

people to gain intense real-world experience

in crisis situations that often puts them on a

level with medical personnel in the United

States who have more education.”

Although Candice Matelski is still

getting used to the fact that she’s typically

the oldest student in her classes and the

only mom, she echoed the sentiment

shared by Guacheta-Shay and Lambuth.

She’s pursuing a graduate degree

in speech pathology in the College

of Human Resources and Education

and said she hopes to see WVU’s

commitment to veterans continue to

grow. The campus already has around

1,000 veteran students and employees.

“This is the third year in a row we’ve

received the G.I. Jobs designation. Other

schools are also asking the same questions

and starting their own initiatives,” she said.

“I’d like the goal at WVU not to just be a

school that supports veterans but to be the

best in supporting veterans. I want us to set

Listen to army veteran and chemistry senior Jake Lambuth discuss his military background and his experience choosing and attending WVU.

a standard for others to follow.”

Terry Miller estimates that the veteran

community at WVU brought in about

$6.8 million to the University and the local

economy in the 2009-2010 academic year.

“These classes are also attractive to

veterans who are looking at different

schools,” he said. “The fact that WVU

provides so many resources for veterans

and is continuing to expand them could

mean the difference when they are deciding

where they want to go to college.

“This group tends to be motivated.

They are leaders who have the proven

ability to work under stressful situations.

They are team oriented. They bring a

different perspective to discussion in

classrooms and across campus.”

“I’d like the goal at WVU not to just be a school that supports veterans but to be the best in supporting veterans. I want us to set a standard for others to follow.”—Candice Matelski

WVU ReseaRcheRs collaboRate on Project roVer

New &Notable

Legendary lost cities, ancient secret societies, underground tombs, and provocative plot twists—these aren’t the makings of a new Dan Brown novel, and it’s not the synopsis of an Indiana Jones film franchise reboot. It’s the premise for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, a popular Playstation 3 video game that sold more than 3.8 million copies worldwide when it was released last fall. Though reviewers hailed the visuals and technical game play, one key element sold casual and avid gamers on the action-adventure platform game.

By Jared Lathrop, Photo by M.G. Ellis

GAME ONGAME ON

Associate Professor of English Sandy Baldwin and graduate student Ben Myers.

32 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

professional and technical writing, not just gaming.” Although students do not need a technical

background for the course, they worked in groups to design a fully functioning text-based video game. Each group was responsible for one level of the game, which includes developing the narrative for both plot and character design. Students blogged about their experiences and presented progress reports every few weeks.

“If you describe your experience with a com-puter game, you’ll describe things like characters, stories, reading, writing, and dialogue,” Baldwin said when interviewed by WVUToday in the fall. “These are things people deal with in English

departments. We talk about how to tell a story and develop characters.

“Writing for a computer game can mean a lot of different things. There’s Halo and then there’s Angry Birds. There’s World of Warcraft but there’s also Tetris. It’s really diverse.”

This course has officially been added into the Professional Writing and Editing curriculum and stu-dents can choose between it and Multimedia Writing. Ballentine said so far he has every reason to believe the course will be a popular addition to the program.

For more information, visit bit.ly/I5sXP3

The story. Today’s gamers are looking for a more sub-

stantial, cinematic story—a number of best-sell-ing titles use a nonlinear storyline and subplots.

Eberly College English professors Sandy Baldwin and Brian Ballentine this past semester introduced “Humanities Computing—Narrative and Video Game Design,” a new course that taps into student interest in a growing career field as video games become more “mainstream.”

“These days the gaming industry is bigger than film,” Baldwin said. “Games like Modern Warfare and Halo find a large part of their audiences with college students, so we’re harnessing that interest and combining it with narrative theory.”

In the class, which recently finished its first run, students explored how narrative theory informs the design and play of video games. Video games, especially those that contain rich layers of storytelling, provide a dynamic context for exploring narrative frameworks. In turn, Bal-lentine said video game genres provide students a unique opportunity to design their own narratives and put theory into practice.

“Students are captivated by computer gam-ing,” he said. “This course combines their interest in gaming, with academic concepts like critical thinking and rhetorical analysis. Students create and document the overall vision of their projects and these experiences transfer well to any career in

“These days the gaming industry is bigger than film.”

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 33

New &Notable

Every movement begins with a vision. And recycling is no differ-ent. What started as a theory by Plato in 400 B.C. has since been reincarnated hundreds of times over the years, evolving based on demand through pre-industrial times, to World War II, to now.

But although “reduce, reuse, recycle” has become a common mantra, the statistics still leave much to be desired. According to Food and Water Watch, Americans spent $10.6 billion on bottled water in 2009, paying approximately 1,000 times the cost of tap water, although nearly half of all bottled water actu-ally comes from municipal tap water sources.

Moreover, manufacturing bottled water in the United States used the energy equivalent of 32 and 54 million barrels of oil re-spectively to produce and transport plastic water bottles in 2007. Approximately 75 percent of the empty plastic bottles find their way to landfills, lakes, streams, and oceans, where they may never fully decompose.

Three WVU alumni believe that it’s time to overhaul the model with a little “precycling.”

Tom Petrini and Stephen Jacob, graduates of the College of Business and Economics, and Blake Barnes, an Eberly College alum, have formed Evive Station, a free health and wellness kiosk that cleans reusable bottles and fills them with cold, filtered water in one minute.

The company, which also is led by Penn State graduate Jason Yablinsky and John Carroll University graduate Lacy Caric, employs 25 people and aims to educate the public and potential Evive Station users, about how harmful bottled water is and why Evive Station makes being sustainable convenient.

“When you recycle you are taking a high grade product and re-ducing it to a lower grade product that cannot be recycled again,” said Barnes, Evive Station’s business development manager.

By Jared Lathrop,Photos by David Lewetag II

Visit evivestation.com to learn more about Evive Station. Visit wecan.wvu.edu to learn more about the WVU Office of Sustainability.

34 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

“If you have leftover waste that cannot be created into something new then you really aren’t helping the environment. Our company is working to eliminate the wasted product before it happens.” Hence the company’s aim to “pre-cycle” by eliminating that third step.

“While complet-ing my MBA at Duquesne University in 2007, I attended a sustainability confer-ence,” said Petrini, the company’s CEO. “While waiting for my flight back home I realized an empty bottle could be carried through airport security, but an issue existed as to where someone could sanitize and fill their bottle on the go.”

Petrini began to brainstorm ways to make water available and to appeal to consumers, especially college students, who he said typi-cally have a water bottle tucked in their backpacks.

He said he realized that if he provided a free water bottle to users, it could be refilled at convenient locations with highly filtered/chilled water and daily multivitamins. The question then became how to make it profitable. The answer was advertising.

When customers receives an Evive Station “Smart Bottle,” they complete a demographic survey listing their “likes,” similar to Facebook. Evive Station maintains this information, and every time a customer fills the bottle, they view targeted advertisements on the Evive Station screen. The Smart Bottle will be integrated into social media sites, including Facebook, so that users can get coupons and share them with friends

To obtain a free double-walled stainless steel bottle, users complete a short demographic profile. This profile is used to select relevant advertisements, and helps sponsors know who is viewing the ads. Users’ personal information is not shared with sponsors. The information Evive Station shares is anonymous.

directly from an interactive touch panel at Evive Station.Evive Station officially launched in April, with the Pittsburgh-

based company choosing WVU as the pilot site for the project. Two stations are in the Mountainlair and two in the Student Recreation Center.

As the company expands, Evive Sta-tions will be located at colleges, universi-ties, businesses, and fitness centers.

Students can track their water usage through both their online profile, and on the Evive Station touch screen. Users will be informed of how many gallons of water they have consumed via the sta-tions and approximately how many plastic water bottles they have kept out of landfills across the nation.

Although Petrini’s idea took years to form from its original concept to the now fully functioning Evive Station, the idea to use West Virginia University as the location to premiere this new and innovative technology wasn’t a hard decision to make at all.

“As most of our team are graduates of WVU we wanted to give back to our alma mater,” Barnes said. “Strategically, WVU is a diverse school, dedicated to and highly recognized for its constant innovation in many of its programs.

“Clement Solomon in the WVU Sustainability Office has been a champion for Evive Station from the beginning, and the Evive Station aligns well with the waste reduction efforts led by Solomon through the WeCan program.”

When users approach the Evive Station, they scan their bottle, enter a four digit pin, and insert the bottle into the cleaning and filling chamber.

While the Evive Station is cleaning the bottle and filling it with ice-cold water, users are presented with some targeted content, ranging from product adver-tisements to job placement opportunities, which are shown on a 32” high-definition monitor. A multivita-min is dispensed when users retrieve their bottle.

how the evive station works:

1.

2.

3.

Find Evive Station on Facebook

Visit evivestation.com to learn more about Evive Station. Visit wecan.wvu.edu to learn more about the WVU Office of Sustainability.

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 35

Stephen Jacobs, Jason Yablinsky, Thomas Petrini, Lacy Caric, and Blake Barnes

Take one look around Chitwood Hall, and you’ll find what you’re looking for in Spanish, French, Chinese, and half a dozen other languages.

That’s because the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics is in the midst of its very own Renaissance.

The program’s evolution comes not on the heels of its new name announcement last September, instead pre-dating the change as the program presses on in its effort to embody what a world language department in the new millennium should be.

A community where professors fulfill their scholarly mission to their discipline, that grows based on the desires and needs of its students, and that garners national recognition for its initiatives.

A Different Type of Language Lab

Faculty members in the Department

conduct laboratory research regularly to

better understand the history of different

cultures. Their laboratories are the

expressions, civilizations, and literature of

other countries and languages.

For instance, Assistant Professor Pablo

Garcia has been researching Colonial Latin

American literature since 2003. Garcia is

a member of the Folgers Institute, a center

for advanced study and research in the

humanities, which is sponsored by the Folger

Shakespeare Library and a consortium of 40

universities in the United States. Next year he

will attend a research seminar at the institute.

“Participants in this advanced research

seminar will be reading and discussing

primary and secondary sources in the

literature of discovery,” he said.

“Then we will engage in discussions

on a number of theoretical, critical, and

historiographical reflections and philosophical

interpretations regarding the history of early

modern New World encounters.”

Janice Spleth, Armand E. and Mary

W. Singer Professor in the Humanities, has

been a member of the African Literature

Association (ALA) since 1982. She has co-

edited a volume of its annual Interdisciplinary

Dimensions of African Literature.

“Through my research I have sought

to make an academic space for an African

perspective among those world views

traditionally represented in the curriculum,”

the French professor said. “My books and

articles help draw attention to what these

truly extraordinary writers have contributed

to the human story, making their literature

more accessible to students and scholars.”

Spleth, who served as the ALA

president during the 2010-2011 year, is

still very involved in organization events.

As a past president, she helped plan the

April 2012 meeting at Southern Methodist

University in Dallas, Texas, on “Human

Rights, Literature, and the Visual Arts in

Africa and the Diaspora.”

Her publications include two books

and several articles on the Senegalese poet-

statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor, and her

scholarship on Central African literature

appears in the French Literature Series,

The Literary Griot, Matatu, Research

in African Literatures, and Studies in

Twentieth Century Literature.

Kathleen McNerney’s research has

taken her deep into the works of Mercè

Rodoreda, a world-renowned Catalan

novelist. The Spanish professor has

been compiling a complete annotated

bibliography of more than 400 entries

over the past two years.

“forward thinking?”How do you say…

By Jared Lathrop, Photos by Brian Persinger & Todd Latocha

Pablo Garcia Stacy FintJanice Spleth

36 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

New &Notable

Malvisi has also developed three new

courses. We have an excellent student

organization, Circolo italiano, and many

students interested in declaring Italian

Studies as their major.

“The minor has been very successful.

There are reasonable grounds for

assuming that, once students become

aware of the major as incoming freshmen

and the program is established, ten or

more Italian Studies majors, on average,

would be graduated per year.”

In Good Company

In the fall, the University’s Intensive

English Program received national

accreditation from the Consortium

of University and College Intensive

English Programs (UCIEP).

“WVU’s program is one of only 72

institutions, public and private, whose

intensive English programs are accredited

by UCIEP, marking the 31-year-old

program as one of the best in the

country,” said Dean Robert Jones,

The program, which is housed in the

World Languages Department, originally

focused on preparing Japanese students

for enrollment at the University but has

since grown to host nearly 250 students

from 15 countries.

Once students complete the IEP

coursework and pass the Test of English as

a Foreign Language (TOEFL), they may

apply to WVU to become undergraduate

or graduate students or return, with English

skills, to universities in their home countries.

She said the Department and the

University have been very supportive

as she took on the project.

“West Virginia University awarded me a

sabbatical year to work on this bibliography,”

McNerney said. “But the staff from the

Interlibrary Loan Service at the Wise Library

also worked tirelessly to make articles and

books available to me during my preparatory

and follow-up time in Morgantown, and the

West Virginia Humanities Council gave me a

grant to help with travel expenses.”

The book, which will also include critiques

of Rodoreda’s works by other authors, as well as

unpublished papers, is due out next year.

No Minor Feat

Over the past year, the Department

has launched a new minor in Japanese

studies and a new Italian major.

With the increasing popularity of

the College’s Multidisciplinary Studies

Degree, students can round out their

degree with a Japanese Studies minor, said

Program Coordinator Asako No.

She said that enrollment in upper-

division Japanese language courses have

seen double-digit increases.

Last May, the Italian Studies program

graduated its first two students, exactly

one year after the program’s creation,

and five years after an Italian minor was

established in the Department. The

major, one of few in the country, exposes

students to business, tourism, fashion, and

design among other subjects through the

lens of Italian culture and society.

“Since I started working at WVU ten

years ago, the Italian Studies Program

has been expanding in many different

directions,” said Anastella Vester, Italian

Studies coordinator. “I have since

developed three new courses for the

program; Italian instructor Beatrice

The Consortium of University and

College Intensive English Programs

advances professional standards and

quality instruction in intensive English

programs at universities and colleges in

the United States.

“Membership in the UCIEP

demonstrates to applicants, their

parents, and other institutions that we

are concerned with issues that affect

international education,” said Stacy

Fint, IEP Director.

Member programs are committed to

the consortium’s effort to ensure that

students receive the highest quality

intensive English instruction from

trained, professional teachers.

Each program undergoes a rigorous

application process, including a site visit by

an external reviewer, before being accepted.

Fint had to submit a thorough study of

the program for it to be considered. Every

five years each program must submit a

substantial self-study document to an

evaluation committee, which reviews it to

verify that the program continues to meet

the standards of UCIEP.

The program is expected to grow with

the new accreditation showing the value

of what the IEP has to offer.

This accreditation, the University’s

IEP founder Takeko Minami said, reflects

the value of the program.

“The IEP is giving to the state of West

Virginia much needed exposure to the rest

of the world.”

“Membership in the UCIEP demonstrates to applicants, their parents, and other institutions that we are concerned with issues that affect international education.”—Stacy Fint

“forward thinking?”By Jared Lathrop, Photos by Brian Persinger & Todd Latocha

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 37

Justin Legleiter, assistant professor in the C. Eugene Bennett

Department of Chemistry, is doing his part to help turn back the

clock on the effects of a disease that robs people of their memories,

perception, and cognitive skills. He’s decoding how nanoscale

molecular mechanisms may trigger neurodegenerative disorders

such as Alzheimer’s.

In 2011, Legleiter was awarded a $400,000 grant through the

National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development

Program, and a $99,592 New Investigator Research Grant from the

Alzheimer’s Association, two prestigious awards that acknowledged the

complexity and value of the research he’s pursuing.

His work demonstrating the possible connections between

mechanical changes in cells to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s

disease, could potentially lead to therapeutic strategies.

Alzheimer’s is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United

States, killing more Americans than diabetes, and more than breast

cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to the Alzheimer’s

Association’s 2011 Facts and Figures report.

“As we age, significant alterations in our cellular structure—with

implications for cellular mechanics—occur,” Legleiter said. “Post-

mitotic cells, such as neurons, are particularly susceptible to age-

related changes, and aging is the primary risk factor associated with

Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disorder.”

By Christine Schussler, Photos by Brian Persinger

AN ESTIMATED 5.4 million people in the United States

are living with Alzheimer’s disease, and that figure is growing at an

alarming rate. Researchers and health providers predict that by

2050, a person will be diagnosed with the disease every 33 seconds.

Justin Legleiter

38 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 39

The National Science Foundation’s

Faculty Early Career Development

Program is its most prestigious award

supporting junior faculty who exemplify

the role of teacher-scholars through

outstanding research, excellent education

and the integration of education and

research within the context of the mission

of their organizations.

Similarly, the Alzheimer’s Association’s

New Investigator Research Grant is reserved

for researchers who have earned their

doctoral degrees within the last ten years and

whose research helps identify new treatment

strategies and further knowledge of brain

health and disease prevention.

Legleiter expects to publish some of

his research findings this spring.

Legleiter works with WVU chemistry

students to unravel information on the beta-

amyloid peptide, which is found deposited

in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. It is

composed of 39-43 amino acids.

“One of the major hallmarks of

Alzheimer’s disease is the formation of

deposits of the beta-amyloid peptide in

the brain,” Legleiter said. “These deposits

are composed of smaller beta-amyloid

peptide aggregates often termed fibrils and

oligomers, which are thought to play an

important role in Alzheimer’s.”

Legleiter believes his team’s research

could provide a detailed understanding of

how changes in cellular surface properties

associated with aging influence beta-

amyloid peptide binding to the cell, which

can lead to peptide aggregation and its

related toxicity.

“While it is unclear how beta-amyloid

peptide aggregates are toxic, the initial

interaction of it with the surface of a cell

represents a fundamental step in Alzheimer’s

disease pathology,” he said. “The goal of our

research is to try to understand the physical

changes of a cell’s surface that facilitate

this initial interaction with the beta-

amyloid peptide.”

Legleiter will incorporate the research

models that he and his lab group use into

the courses he teaches and use part of the

National Science Foundation funding to

reduce the teaching load of his graduate

students—allowing them more time

to focus on research. His proposal also

reaches out to the future teaching corps

for the region.

Legleiter has set aside funds to provide

meaningful research experience to pre-

service science, technology, engineering,

and mathematics teachers, with a

particular focus on pre-service teachers

planning on careers teaching high school

in Appalachia.

The pre-service teachers will be

recruited from among education graduate

students at WVU, who are interested in

teaching science. The students will have

the opportunity to create lesson plans

that can be translated directly into the

classroom from research activities.

“By providing this opportunity, I

believe that these teachers in training

will be able to infuse the excitement of

discovery not only in their education

but also in their future classrooms,”

he said.

Justin Legleiter earned his bachelor’s

degree in chemistry from Murray State

University and a doctoral degree from

Carnegie Mellon University. He has

conducted postdoctoral work as a fellow in

neurology/biophysics at the Gladstone Institute

of Neurological Disease, affiliated with the

University of California, San Francisco.

Legleiter joined the Chemistry Department

faculty as an assistant professor in 2008.

Legleiter studies the physical changes of a cell’s surface as it interacts with beta-amyloid peptide.

Awards & Honors

“I love faculty, staff, and students. But I am excited about the fact that I’m finally going to graduate and design my life.”—Nancy Lohmann

40 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

More than 30 years ago, Nancy Lohmann

went out on a limb and joined her husband

Roger in applying for positions at West Virginia

University’s then—School of Social Work. At the

urging of the School’s interim dean, the couple

agreed to interviews in Morgantown.

But Lohmann’s first impression of

Morgantown was anything but ideal, as a series of

errors including a flight delayed by bad weather had

her all but ready to turn back around.

By the next day, with a clearer head and

after her round of interviews, Nancy Lohmann

knew she was home.

“I liked the mix of research and teaching,”

Lohmann said. “We were expected to publish,

but teaching was valued and the environment

here provided the kind of relationship with

students you want to have.”

In December, she retired with emerita status

from WVU, satisfied with a long career that had

proven to be a perfect fit for her and her family.

“We’ve been offered positions elsewhere,” she

said. “But we’ve continued to stay here because

we know how much impact we could have here,

and it was a wonderful place to raise our children.”

Lohmann’s impact has meant wearing many

hats at WVU since joining the social work

faculty in 1977 as an associate professor. In the

early 1980s, while serving as dean of the School,

Lohmann was able to successfully navigate it

through some accreditation challenges.

It was also during that time that full-time

graduate student enrollment doubled. In addition,

external grant funding doubled and the continuing

education program expanded from serving 300

people a year to nearly 1,000 each year.

A two-time winner of a University

Outstanding Faculty Award, Lohmann

juggled administrative positions with teaching

honors courses on human diversity and

publishing more than 30 articles and books,

most of which she wrote with her husband.

She is the co-editor of Rural Social

Work Practice (2005), co-author of Social

Administration (2002) and co-editor of

Transitions of Aging(1980).

In her classroom, her colleagues and students

said, Nancy Lohmann harnessed a strong passion

for research that she used to prepare students for

life as social work practitioners.

“There are a lot of frustrations that

come with a career in social work, but there

are also a lot of rewards,” said Chris Plein,

associate dean for the School of Applied

Social Sciences. “As a teacher, Nancy deftly

guided her students in understanding that

addressing injustices in society and providing

a voice to those in need is not easy, but it

makes such a difference.”

While her former students said she

could be a “tough teacher,” ultimately they

said they recognized Lohmann wanted to

make it clear just how necessary research is

for budding practitioners.

By Christine Schussler, Photo by Jake Lambuth

Awards & Honors

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 41

42 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

“She wanted us to have a

conceptual and methodological

understanding of the social science

research process and wanted us

to see the practicality of analysis,

evaluation, and implementation of the

basic research concepts, designs, and

processes,” said Trisha Gyurke, director

of employment at WVU.

“She did this well.”

As senior advisor to the former

Provost Gerald Lang, Lohmann led the

2007 committee charged with creating

No Role Too BigNancy Lohmann has served in a number of different

capacities since coming to WVU in 1977. In addition to

being an associate professor of social work and dean of

the School of Social Work, she has worked as:

• Assistant Vice President for Faculty Development

• Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic

Affairs and Research

• Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

• Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs

• Senior Advisor to the Provost

• Senior Advisor to the Vice President for Administration

and Finance

• Director of the Division of Social Work’s Beatrice Ruth

Burgess Center

“Even when her path led her to

University-level administration, her

continued commitment to our program

and to arming future social workers

with the knowledge and skillset they’ll

need out in the world was evident,”

Plein said.

“She will always be welcome in the

classrooms of Knapp Hall.”

Roger Lohmann, who retired last

May from the Division of Social Work

and is now an emeritus professor, said

the couple has always been grateful for

their experience at the University.

“At a time when many dual-career

couples were forced to live and work

hundreds of miles apart, WVU enabled

us—and several other academic couples

here—the opportunity to pursue our

individual careers and still keep our

household and family intact,” he said.

“It’s been a real demonstration

of the West Virginia, Appalachian,

commitment to the family.”

When Nancy Lohmann visits

campus these days, she said she

pleasures in a leisurely walk to

Woodburn and watching students

bustle around.

Her retirement, she said, has been

bittersweet, but it’s time for another

chapter in her life.

“I love faculty, staff, and students. But

I am excited about the fact that I’m finally

going to graduate and design my life. As

much as I loved my time here, I’m looking

forward to the next 30 years.”

a new transportation and parking plan

for the University. The committee

recommended several strategies,

including creating a new position

to guide transportation and parking

initiatives at WVU in collaboration

with city and county transit officials.

During her tenure as the director

of the Beatrice Ruth Burgess Center,

she was vocal in supporting the

Summer Institute on Aging, an annual

conference in Morgantown that covers

aging policy and services.

eberly.wvu.edu SPRING 2 0 1 2 43

Only five West Virginia University

students are majoring in both chemistry

and math. Two of them are now Goldwater

Scholars, acknowledging their achievement

and encouraging them to keep at it.

Sophomore Tonia Ahmed and junior

Jessica Carr bring the number of WVU’s

Goldwater Scholars to 35. WVU has had at

least one Goldwater Scholar in each of the

past 20 years, except for 2008 and 2001,

and has had two 10 times.

“We are so proud of these students,”

said President Jim Clements. “Being named

a Goldwater Scholar puts them in the ranks

of the best young scientists in the nation.

Their achievement reflects their hard

work and dedication as students, as well

as excellent mentorship from exceptional

faculty and staff here at WVU.”

Ahmed and Carr are two of 282

sophomore and junior mathematics,

science and engineering majors from across

the United States selected from 1,123

applications, and the only West Virginia

residents, to win a

Goldwater Scholarship

this year.

Ahmed, a

Morgantown native,

had a jump start on her

research career. Prior

to even starting her

freshman year at WVU,

she was already working

in a University lab.

She took a WVU

organic chemistry class during her senior

year of high school and immediately fell in

love with the field. Afterwards, she asked the

professor if she could join a University lab. In

that lab, she worked to extract bio fuels from

different wood products and corn.

When she officially started at WVU,

she didn’t stay in the dorms because

she lives in town, meaning she didn’t

necessarily get the usual freshman-year

experience, but that was OK with her.

But last summer, she studied at

the California Institute of Technology,

working on research with

other students—and

lived in the dorms.

“I’ve spent a lot of

my time doing research.

Ever since the summer

after my senior year of

high school, I started

doing research at

WVU,” she said. “The

thing that helped me the

most was that I was able to take organic

chemistry at WVU in my senior year.”

More recently, she has researched carbon-

hydrogen bond activation in the fuels that

we use on a daily basis. She is trying to find

a way to break the hydrocarbon bonds and

find other products, which would be useful

in the pharmacy industry. She started this

research at Cal Tech and continued it over

the last semester and a half at WVU with

chemist Michael Shi.

When she finishes with her education,

she wants to continue in that same setting

as a research professor who teaches organic

and inorganic chemistry.

“That way, I’m conducting my own

research, it’s my own ideas and I can influence

other graduate students and guide them to do

the same thing,” she said. “Being a Goldwater

Scholar definitely gives me a leg up to get into

a better grad school, and it’s also a bit of a

confidence boost in your ability.”

Ahmed, who will begin taking graduate-

level courses in the fall, found out about

the honor online while looking at the

Goldwater website. She saw her name just

minutes before receiving the mailed package

from the organization.

“This honor really satisfied my

concerns of, ‘am I good enough?’ They

selected me from a lot of candidates. I

should be able to do it,” she said.

Carr, a Fairmont native, opened up

her mailbox on March 30 to a large white

envelope. She knew exactly what it was.

Awards & Honors

From Arithmetic to Compounds

By Tony Dobies, Photos by Brian Persinger

44 SPRING 2 0 1 2 Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Magazine

Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra has spent the past 42 years at WVU immersed in the world of phys-ics, supervising and directing the research of more than 60 graduate and postdoctoral students. His former students talk about the professor whose push made them better. Profes-sor Seehra’s push continues today as he settles into his new physics research office in the renovated White Hall.

Last summer, Professor Seehra realized that though his commit-ment to research was just as strong today as ever, he and his peers were nearing retirement. But, he had an idea. To make sure

Your Legacy is Personal

Make a special gift today and plant seeds for tomorrow’s future.For more information on how you can contribute to the Eberly College through your will, living trust or IRA, contact Bonnie McBee Fisher, Director of Development, at 304.293.4611 or bonnie.fisher@mail.wvu.edu

A year ago, she received a not-so-similar

smaller envelope in the mail from the Goldwater

Foundation saying she wasn’t a recipient.

This year, however, was different.

“I was so excited about it that I gave

myself a paper cut trying to open it,” Carr

said, laughing. “My first emotion was relief,

because I had so much pent up excitement

and nervousness. Everyone I talked to told me,

‘now you can go to just about any graduate

school you want,’ and that’s when I took a step

back and realized what it all meant.”

Carr started as a chemistry major with

the intention to become a pharmacist.

However, she wanted more experience in

her undergraduate classes and decided to

scrap that career path and double major

in chemistry and math. She will attend

graduate school for research.

“I have a lot of determination to succeed

in everything I do. I’m driven by finding the

most challenging thing and trying to be the

best at it,” Carr said. “Initially that’s what got

me involved most in the chemistry major.

It was challenging and takes a lot of patience.”

She hopes to work in a government

lab or private industry in the future doing

environmental chemistry, which will allow her

to lead her own research team. Currently, she

is working on researching materials that have

applications in both medicine and catalysis, the

latter of which can control pollution and the

long-term effects it has on the environment.

Last summer, Carr had a summer

internship with the National Institute

of Standards and Technology in which

she participated in a project involving

radioactivity. She worked on developing

an analytical technique for environmental

samples to try to determine what and

how much radioactive chemicals are in

environmental samples.

Carr became interested in research in the

summer prior to her sophomore year during

an internship in China. Later that year,

she joined the lab of WVU physicist James

Lewis—one that she has worked at since.

In addition, Carr is also the vice president

of the WVU Habitat for Humanity student

organization.

“I grew up on a small farm, and I’ve

always had an interest in being outdoors and

playing in the dirt. That allowed me

to start thinking of questions about

why things are the way they are. In

high school, I didn’t particularly enjoy

chemistry as a subject, but when I saw

where it could go, I think it meshed

with my interests.”

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

is the most prestigious undergraduate award

of its type and recognizes the commitment

and potential each winner has to make a

significant contribution to science. WVU

was the only University in the state to have

a Goldwater Scholar this year.

The scholarship pays tribute to the

former Arizona senator’s 56 years of

service and leadership to the United

States as both soldier and statesman

through an endowed recognition

program that encourages outstanding

students to pursue careers as advanced

scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.

Each scholarship covers the cost of

undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and

room and board up to $7,500 annually.

his dedication to the pursuit of research excellence would be instilled in future generations of WVU physics students, he created the Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra Re-search Award. This award recognizes the publishing success of a physics doctoral student each year.

Perhaps, Professor Seehra’s smartest idea though was using a distribution from his IRA to make a tax-free charitable gift to endow his fund. Individuals age 701/2 or older are required by law to take minimum distributions from their IRA and, in Professor Seehra’s case, this option was the perfect fit for taking his idea and turning it into action.

NEW!

NEW EDITION

NEW EDITION

SPRING/SUMMER 2012

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

ORDER ONLINE AT WWW.WVUPRESS.COM OR PHONE (800) 621-2736.

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences201 Woodburn HallWest Virginia UniversityPO Box 6286Morgantown, WV 26506-6286

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Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage PAIDMorgantown, WV 26506Permit No. 34

Look for the fall Research issue of Eberly in your mailbox in November 2012.

Goldwater Scholar and NSF Fellowship recipient Scott Cushing shares his excitement about the newly renovated White Hall at the April 13, 2012 celebration of the building’s completion. Cushing’s research, with Drs. Alan Bristow and Nick Wu, is focused on surface plasmon resonances and light-harvesting materials. These can be used in the creation of biological sensors, nanoscale circuitry, and other items that can be utilized in national defense, including explosives and anthrax detection.