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C O L L E G E O F S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O LO G Y N E W S L E T T E R n W W W. B LO O M U. E D U / C O ST n 570 .38 9 .5333SCITECH

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Bloomsburg Universityof Pennsylvania

Students earn 100% pass ratesFor the third consecutive year, Bloomsburg University’s spring nursing graduates achieved a 100 percent pass rate on NCLEX — the standardized exam each state board of nursing uses to determine whether a graduate is prepared for entry-level nursing practice.

In the first attempt, all nurse anesthesia grads passed their certification exam, and 100 percent of the five Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner graduates passed their certification exam.

In the Audiology and Speech Language Pathology department, every student in the Masters in Speech-Language Pathology and Clinical Doctorate in Audiology programs received 100% scores on the Praxis exam.

BU named Cyber Defense Center of ExcellenceBloomsburg University’s digital forensics program has been designated a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The designation by the National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Information Assurance Education is valid for five academic years.

This recognition indicates BU’s digital forensics program, within the Department of Mathematical and Digital Sciences, has met stringent criteria related to curriculum, faculty and research. It demonstrates an institution-wide commitment to information assurance practices and education.

Sponsored by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, CAE programs promote higher education and research to increase the number of professionals with information assurance expertise and reduce U.S. infrastructure vulnerability.

Lauren Chamberlin has been named the first recipient of the Frederick R. Maue 1976 Scholarship, established by Dr. Maue, an alumnus and local physician, to assist B.S. biology majors in the pre-medical sciences option.

Chamberlin is a biology major and pre-medical sciences major with chemistry minor. She previously earned a bachelor's degree in psychology with a concentration in family, youth and children from Bloomsburg University. Chamberlin is a member of the pre-medical sciences club, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the incoming president of Tri-Beta Biology Honor Society. She has experience in counseling and working with psychiatric patients.

Chamberlin has conducted research in the field of synaptic transmission with William Coleman, associate professor of biological and allied health sciences.

“My research investigates the molecular regulation of secretion, which is a way that cells can release various substances and communicate with other cells. This process is crucial for survival and reproduction,” says Coleman. “Since this process is so important, it is highly regulated. It is the job of many proteins to ensure that cellular communication remains efficient and reliable again and again throughout an organism’s life.”

In recent years, Coleman and student assistants have used the common earthworm in research. Chamberlin has researched cell tracers to map the fine anatomical structures of the earthworm nervous system.

“Earthworms are really interesting because they allow for investigation of both excitatory and inhibitory signaling in an easily accessible, student friendly model,” says Coleman.

This semester, Chamberlin will begin work on a new project investigating the distribution and function of synapsin III in sperm cells, which is part of an ongoing research collaboration with Jennifer Venditti, associate professor of biological and allied health sciences.

First Maue scholarship recipient named

BloomsBurg university College of sCienCe and teChnology newsletter

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Faculty PromotionsTo Professor:John Hintz – EGGS

Mark Tapsak – Chemistry

To Associate Professor:Michael Borland – Chemistry

William Coleman – Biological & Allied Health Sciences

Joseph Hazzard – Exercise Science

Tenured:Michael Borland – Chemistry

William Coleman – Biological & Allied Health Sciences

New Tenure Track FacultyMohsin Shaikh – Audiology

Julia Burmingham – Audiology

Danqing Xiao – EGGS

Adrian Van Rythoven – EGGS

Brian Seely – Instructional Technology

Heather Ervin – Mathematical & Digital Sciences

Murat Gunestas – Mathematical & Digital Sciences

Melinda Barrett - Nursing

Megan Walsh – Nursing

Peggy Shipley – Nursing

People in New RolesAssistant Dean – Jennifer Venditti, BAHS

Chair of Nursing – Sheila Hartung

Interim Chairperson Speech-Language Pathology – Pamela Smith

Interim Assistant Vice President and Dean of Graduate Studies – Shaheen Awan, Speech-Language Pathology

Interim Chair of Exercise Science – Tom Martucci

COST Communications Director – Ellen Kehres, Chemistry

PEOPLE

Shepard publishes work on largest metallic asteroid Michael Shepard, professor of environmental, geographical and geological sciences (EGGS) recently published a multi-year study of the largest metallic asteroid, 16 Psyche. The paper, “Radar Observations and Shape Model of Asteroid 16 Psyche” used observations from the Arecibo radar facility in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in conjunction with more traditional telescopes to generate a three-dimensional model. Psyche is considered the largest M-class asteroid in the solar system and is of great interest to researchers because it is thought to be nearly pure iron-nickel. The paper is published in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies, and highlights of the paper will be presented in a talk at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting in Pasadena, Calif. in October. The topic is timely because this asteroid is being considered as the target for a new NASA spacecraft mission in the next decade and these results are being used by mission planners to complete their proposal. Shepard was chosen to serve on the scientific advisory team by the European Space Agency for a mission to the metallic comet.

College of Science and TechnologyDean: Robert S. Aronstam, Ph.D.Assistant Dean: Jennifer Venditti, Ph.D.Administrative Assistant: Karen Davis | 570-389-5333Clerk Typists: Shannon Yarnell | 570-389-5333 Angela Ciucci | 570-389-5331

Social Media Facebook: Bloomsburg University College of Science and Technology

Twitter: Bloomsburg_COST

Blog: bloomuscitech.blogspot.com


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LAB NOTESEGGS students monitor Fishing CreekTwo EGGS students spent much of their summer with the Fishing Creek Hydro Watch project, collecting data to support development of a hydrologic monitoring and flood-forecasting system for the Fishing Creek watershed.

Nathan Shapiro and Dereck Ciecierski worked with EGGS faculty Ben Franek and Jennifer Whisner to collected stream discharge data at three staff gauge sites around the watershed, and acquired and started analyzing available precipitation data. In addition, the students used GIS to assemble data for a Fishing Creek watershed hydrologic atlas with assistance from Jeff Brunskill, associate professor of EGGS.

A citizen science staff gauge has been installed at Kocher Park, so people in the community can submit water levels to a publically accessible website and see their input online in near real time. Check out the CrowdHydrology website (www.crowdhydrology.com/listing/kocher-park-pa1000) for more information. Additional gauges and instructions are planned for the Stillwater and Shoemaker covered bridges in the future.

Calling all reptiles and amphibiansSean Hartzell, a 2015 biology graduate and graduate student in the biology program, has published an article, “A Checklist and Distributional Synthesis of Amphibian and Reptile Species in Columbia County, Pennsylvania,” in the recent issue of the Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science. Hartzell used specimens in the herpetology collection at Bloomsburg University, literature reviews, museum holdings on VertNet, and verified submissions on the Pennsylvania Amphibian and Reptile Survey to construct his checklist. He confirmed that 39 amphibian and reptile species occur in Columbia County (11 salamanders, 9 anurans, 6 turtles, 1 lizard, and 12 snakes). Eleven of these species are of conservation concern in Pennsylvania. The article is here: pennsci.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/JPAS_V90_1.pdf

BU participates in Susquehanna River conservation initiative Bloomsburg University, along with the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Susquehanna University and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are partners in a three-year initiative to restore and conserve the Susquehanna River Watershed. This project of the Chesapeake Conservancy was funded by a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Steven Rier, professor of biological and allied health sciences, and his students will directly evaluate the effectiveness of the precision conservation approach by determining if restoration efforts actually reduce nutrient and sediment loads and restore key ecosystem functions. Bloomsburg University will receive $115,000 to complete this work.

The Chesapeake Conservancy and partners have spent the last 18 months working with the Chesapeake Bay Program to produce one-meter by one-meter resolution land cover data for the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed. This initiative is one of the largest high-resolution land cover datasets ever produced and all the data will be open and available to government agencies, nonprofits and individuals across the watershed. This three-year initiative will pilot conservation methods with local partners in Pennsylvania’s Centre and Clinton counties to reduced nutrient and sediment pollution from nonpoint sources to improve water quality and scenic beauty.


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Science in the CommunityAngela Hess, associate professor of biological and allied health sciences, led an eager group of high school students from the Allentown area in two weeks of hands-on biology activities this summer. The Bloomsburg-Allentown Partnership Program aims to inform, excite, and prepare high school students for college. Students had the opportunity to engage in activities ranging from dissections and microscopy to genetics and anatomical terminology. One of the highlights of the program was a poster session on topics that students researched using resources and databases available at Andruss Library.

BU hosted over 250 students in grades 5 through 9 for the Great STEM Adventure camp this past summer. BAHS held sessions for the Investigators, a group of seventh and eighth graders that included experiments in scientific inquiry, forensics, neuroscience, sensation, human physiology, and microscopy. Highlights included mapping your brain’s homunculus, using microscopes to solve crimes, and following the trails of termites. Leading the way were biology master’s students Kirk Jeffreys, Brad Ohlinger, Jamie Shinskie and Andy King, education graduate student Jennifer Momenzadeh, and Cindy Surmacz, professor of biological and allied health sciences

CoST faculty were on hand to judge the eighth grade Science and Technology fair at the Bloomsburg Middle School. The fair is a forum for students to engage in scientific inquiry and to demonstrate their problem solving skills through the presentation of projects that they have designed and conducted. Ms. Carrie Hoover, BAHS alumna and eighth grade science teacher, coordinates the annual event and Dr. John Polhill, professor of Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Digital Forensics, served as the Bloomsburg University liaison. Judging the event were Angela Hess (BAHS), Carol Moore (Nursing), Cindy Surmacz (BAHS), Jennifer Venditti (BAHS), and Jennifer Whisner (EGGS).

URSCA research student Daniel Steinhauser, double major in biology, environmental biology option and philosophy, received recognition for the Most Outstanding Presentation in natural Sciences and Engineering at the 6th Annual Susquehanna Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium. Mark Drumm, chemistry major, won best abstract biological sciences category at the symposium

Shandna Burroughs, a biological and allied health sciences graduate student, was awarded the Kristin M. Lynch Memorial Scholarship for graduate students

Harrison Ludewig, a health physics student who had a summer internship at Hershey Medical Center, received a $1,500 grant from the American Nuclear Society.

Tyler Behrent, chemistry major, earns the designation of “Certification with Distinction” for earning one of the top 10% in the country on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) certification exam.

Linda Tucker Serniak, a biology graduate student, will have her work appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Ornithology.

Patrick Mattera, health physics student, was accepted to participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program offered by Oregon State University.

STUDENT HONORS

Biological and allied health sciences professor Cindy Surmacz helps a student in the lab.

Inch provides testimony in Deepwater oil spillScott Inch recently provided digital forensics expertise in United States v. David Rainey, a federal criminal case resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The three year investigation included analysis of mobile devices, phone records, email backups, and hard disks. Though Inch was originally hired by law firm Steptoe and Johnson because of his expertise in mobile device forensics, he ultimately provided all digital forensics analysis used by the defense. Ultimately, Mr. Rainey was acquitted of all charges in a short trial.


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PUBLICATION NOTESRicker, M.C., B.G. Lockaby, G.D. Blosser, and W.H. Conner. 2016. Rapid wood decay and nutrient mineralization in an old-growth bottomland forest. Biogeochemistry 127:323-338.

Arcis, H.; Ferguson, J. P.; Zimmerman G. H.; Tremaine, P. R., “The Limiting Conductivity of the Borate Ion and its Ion-Pair Formation Constants with Sodium and Potassium under Hydrothermal Conditions” Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 24081-24094.

Silver, Cary, Johnson, Baumbach, Arico, Luckey, Urban, Wang, Polinski, et al. Characterization of berkelium(III) dipicolinate and borate compounds in solution and the solid state. Science 2016, 353, 6302

Clay E. Corbin, Kenneth E. Pallis, and Brandan L. Gray (2015) An Inexpensive and Mobile See-through Tunnel for Collecting Bird Flight Performance Data in the Field. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 89(2): 88-91.

Cardimona K., Smith, P., and Roberts, L.S. 2016. Lexical Organization in Second Language Acquisition: does the critical period matter? Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Journal.

Cardimona, K., 2016. Differentiated mathematical instruction for Ells in the mainstream secondary classroom. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Journal.

Odhiambo, B.K., Ricker, M.C., Le Blanc, L.M., and Moxey, K.A., 2016. Effects of forested floodplain soil properties on phosphorous concentrations in two Chesapeake Bay sub-watersheds, Virginia, USA. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 23:16056-16066.

Math major earns 6th in national competition Luke Vuksta, a junior Bloomsburg University mathematics major, advanced to the finals and earned a sixth place medal in the Mathematics Association of America national Problem Solving Competition this summer.

“The conference itself is much more than just a problem solving competition,” Vuksta said. “It focused on teaching, as well as pure mathematics. I actually didn’t know this until I met a bunch of math education majors at the undergraduate social event that was held.”

At the competition, drawing students from 400 colleges and universities, there were a series of examinations and problem solving tasks.

Polstra presents at HackConPhilip Polstra, associate professor of mathemati-cal and digital sciences, has been invited by the HackCon conference committee to deliver their Autumn Trainings. HackCon is the top security conference in Norway and is held each fall for high-level security professionals from Norway and surrounding countries. The HackCon committee selects trainers from around the world to deliver this training to an elite group of security professionals. In years past, multiple trainers were invited to deliver the training; however, this year Polstra was honored to be invited as the only trainer, due to his wide-ranging reputation as a forensics expert. He will be presenting training which is focused upon both Windows and USB Forensics, utilizing his existing book for the former and a forthcoming volume for the latter. Additionally, Polstra will meet with people from some of the top Norwegian universities to discuss opportunities for collaboration with Bloomsburg University’s Digital Forensics and Computer Science students.


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How fast did that bird fly? Clay Corbin (shown at left), professor of biological and allied health sciences, along with BAHS alumni Kenneth Pallis and Brandan Gray, published a paper entitled "An Inexpensive and Mobile See-though Tunnel for Collecting Bird Flight Performance Data in the Field" in the Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Sciences. The group tested the use of an inexpensive, lightweight, and portable children's play tunnel to acquire performance data on bird flight such as wing-beat frequency and acceleration. Such data are valuable to scientists researching foraging, predator-prey responses, and physiological demand.

To read more about their work see:

Sean Hartzell and Clay Corbin (2016) New Finds in an Old Collection: Some Distributional Records for Amphibians and Reptiles. Herpetological Review 47(2), 2016, 272

Clay E. Corbin, Kenneth E. Pallis, and Brandan L. Gray (2015) An Inexpensive and Mobile See-through Tunnel for Collecting Bird Flight Performance Data in the Field. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 89(2): 88-91.

Shinskie honored for best student research Biology Master's student Jamie Shinskie won the Best Student Research Award for the poster she presented at the 2016 Northeast Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (NEPARC) Meeting held in Poultney, Vermont this August.

Shinskie's poster highlighted the interdisciplinary ecological research she has conducted using a combination of field-based ecological research and remote sensing to evaluate the effects of reach-scale land use and land cover change and within-stream habitat quality on hellbender salamander population persistence and extirpation in the Susquehanna River drainage of Pennsylvania. Her research demonstrated that deforestation and the subsequent increases in siltation, sedimentation, and turbidity in stream channels were linked with hellbender population loss.

NEPARC is part of the national Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC) which is a partnership-based organization dedicated to the conservation of amphibians, reptiles, and their habitats.

Shinskie will graduate in 2016 with a Master of Science degree in Biology. Her graduate committee consists of Drs. Amber Pitt, Tina Delahunty, and Steve Rier.


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Rier awarded grant to study simulated brine spill on ecosystemsStudents in Steven Rier’s lab, biological and allied health sciences, are working with the USGS Northern Appalachian Research Lab in Wellsboro. The students, Aaron Gordon-Weaver, Jennifer Tuomisto and Jordan C. Krebs, are working on a large-scale year-long simulated brine spill experiment in outdoor raceways that have been set up to mimic natural stream ecosystems. These raceways were naturally colonized with algae, microorganisms and macroinvertebrates and were stocked with ecologically relevant fish. Raceways then experienced brine pulses of varying magnitude and duration to simulate frac water spills associated with unconventional gas drilling. An array of ecosystem-related parameters is being measured for one year following the brine pulses. This research is being funded by the USGS and a $25,000 grant to Rier from the Geisinger Hood Center for Health Research.

BU faculty conduct research at Maya archaeology siteMatthew Ricker (shown at left), assistant professor of environmental, geographical and geological sciences (EGGS), conducted soil research at Maya archaeology site this summer. With Damien Marken, instructor of anthropology at BU, Ricker conducted extensive field research in El Perú-Waka’, a Maya archaeology site in the Petén region of Guatemala. Soil properties were evaluated in reservoirs of the city core to understand how the Maya managed surface water resources. Data collected during the 2016 summer field season are currently being analyzed at Bloomsburg University to guide plans for the upcoming 2017 field season.

Also this summer, Ricker published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Ricker was part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers from Bloomsburg University and the University of Mary Washington. The research was conducted in the lower Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and showed significant contributions of phosphorus to surface waters from eroding floodplain soils and urban runoff.


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College of Science and TechnologyHartline Science CenterBloomsburg University400 E. Second St.Bloomsburg, PA 17815

In the fieldIt’s amazing how much the landscape can change in just a 10-hour drive, and now eleven Bloomsburg University students can explain why. In June, three EGGS faculty accompanied eleven students from EGGS and Anthropology on a geological and environmental tour of the east side of the Great Lakes in the latest iteration of EGGS 330 – Special Topics in Field Geology

The course helps students transition from student to scientist. It gives them a chance to gather, synthesize, and communicate scientific information.

Guidance and feedback from faculty also help students improve their ability to make, document, and interpret scientific observations.Students spent four days in Bloomsburg where they learned how to put up tents, take good field notes and absorbing background information on the trip region. Each student researched two topics, wrote summaries for their fellow students and created posters for field stop presentations. Then the class hit the road for two weeks, traveling from Bloomsburg to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore near Chicago, to

Horseshoe Harbor at the very northern tip of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and back again with many lake-shore camp site and cookouts along the way. Students toured iron and copper mines and visited a world-class mineral museum. They learned about the regional geology and its impact on the environment, local economy, and history. They saw a variety of wetlands, dunes, glacial landforms, and forests, and discussed alternative energy resources and energy storage techniques. They made first-hand observations of human impacts on

coastal environments, and learned what soil can tell us about both the geologic and human history of an area. Students also benefited from other research scientists’ expertise during visits to the University of Michigan Biological Field Station near Pellston and Michigan State University’s W.K. Kellogg Experimental Forest.

— Jennifer Whisner, assistant professor of environmental,

geographical and geological sciences

Non-Profit OrganizationUS Postage

PAIDBloomsburg PA 17815

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