Research Highlights
This page offers a brief sampling of recent research, scholarly, and creative achievements at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. A link to past years' highlights is at the bottom of the page. For more on faculty and student accomplishments, see Perspectives Magazine and Graduate Highlights. For an overview of SIUC research and external funding, see the SIUC Research Profile.
Health leader
Joyce Fetro, professor of health education and recreation, has been named the American Association for Health Education's 2009 scholar. Her research focuses on youth development, resilience, and health risk behaviors.
Children's health
The landmark National Children's Study is expanding into three Southern Illinois counties. The NCS monitors health before conception until age 21 to learn more about the development, prevention, and treatment of health problems. Working in collaboration with St. Louis University's School of Public Health and other institutions, SIUC's Center for Rural Health and Social Service Development will receive more than $3 million to recruit participants, conduct birth visits, and more.
Disaster planning
SIUC is leading a $1.2 million, multi-county emergency preparedness effort. Geology professor Nicholas Pinter is directing the project, working with colleagues from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and with five Illinois regional planning commissions to assist local agencies in 17 Southern Illinois counties to assess their disaster risks and make plans for disaster mitigation. FEMA is funding the work.
This or that
Josh Woods, an MFA student in creative writing, is the editor of a new anthology, expected this summer from Press 53. All the stories, poems, and other works in The Versus Anthology oppose "two iconic and incompatible forces," whether they be historical figures, characters, or concepts. Woods not only edited the anthology, he contributed a story and designed the cover.
Education achievement
Patricia Elmore, professor of educational psychology and special education and now interim associate provost for academic affairs, is serving as lead editor of Educational Researcher, the education field's premier journal, with more than 28,000 subscribers worldwide. She also was recently named a fellow of the journal's parent organization, the American Educational Research Association.
Fighting fatigue
Linda Toth, professor of phamacology and associate dean for research and faculty affairs at the SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, has been awarded a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the mechanisms of fatigue in chronic viral disease, such as Epstein-Barr virus, mononucleosis, and viral hepatitis.
Health law experts
Marshall Kapp, Garwin Distinguished Professor of Law and Medicine and co-director of the law school's Center for Health Law and Policy, received the American College of Legal Medicine's Gold Medal in February. The medal is the organization's highest award for service and professionalism. Kapp is the third faculty member in the law school to receive the prestigious award in the last four years. The others were Theodore LeBlang and W. Eugene Basanta.
Radio and Appalachia
Jacob Podber, assistant professor of radio-TV, was awarded a spring 2009 residency with the Berea College (Ky.) Appalachian Music Fellowship Program to conduct research on radio and Appalachia. His book on the subject, The Electronic Front Porch, won the 2009 Browne Literary Book Award for the Best Focused Study in Popular and American Culture, given by the Popular Culture/American Culture Association.
"alt.news 26:46" scores again
For a second straight year, the all-student crew of "alt.news 26:46" can claim the best collegiate television magazine show in the nation. The half-hour alternative series captured another national student Emmy in March in Los Angeles.
Fulbright in Ireland
Leslie Duram, chair of geography, received a Fulbright Scholar Award to do research at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She specializes in organic food production and rural land use.
2008
Filmmaker residency
Cade Bursell, assistant professor of cinema, was awarded a four-week National Endowment for the Arts International Digital Filmmaker Residency in fall 2008 at Squeaky Wheel, Buffalo's Media Arts Center. In addition, a recent film of hers, "Heron Pond: Boardwalk View," was chosen to be shown at the ninth annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film and Video Festival in Toronto last fall.
Screening seedlings
A simple, cheap lab test developed in the College of Agriculture can unerringly detect Sudden Death Syndrome, a costly fungal disease, in soybean seedlings. Once commercialized, it will help breeders produce SDS-resistant soybean varieties much faster than they can now. SIUC biotechnologist David Lightfoot received a patent for the assay in October 2008.
Global social work
The School of Social Work received the 2008 Partners in Advancing Education for International Social Work Award, conferred by the Council on Social Work Education's Commission on Global Social Work. Six schools were nominated from among 600 degree-granting social work education programs. SIUC's program is active in numerous international initiatives and has ties with 11 universities in eight countries.
Arsenic fueling life
Microbiologists Michael Madigan and Marie Asao have proved the existence of an ancient form of photosynthesis in a particular species of bacteria. The microbe, which grows on an island in Mono Lake (Calif.), uses arsenic instead of water with carbon dioxide to make cell material. The discovery gained international attention after it was published in the leading journal Science.
Hot shots
The History Channel's "Modern Marvels" series revisited SIUC recently, this time to feature research at the Center for Advanced Friction Studies (the first trip, a few years ago, was for a program on metals). The crew taped interviews for "Super Hot," a show looking at how researchers create and study extreme temperatures. The SIUC footage included airplane brake friction demonstrations.
Cancer research
Daotai Nie, assistant professor of medical microbiology, immunology, and cell biology, was recently awarded three federal grants totaling $1.75 million for cancer research. Two, from the National Cancer Institute, involve prostate cancer studies; the third, from the U.S. Army, involves breast cancer metastasis.
Distinguished composer
Frank Stemper, music professor and SIUC composer in residence, recently received his 20th consecutive ASCAPlus award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Stemper had premieres of new works in 2008 in the United States, Mexico, France, and Hungary.
Recognition
Zoology professor Chris Kohler, former director of SIUC's Fisheries and Illinois Aquaculture Center, is the 2008 recipient of the Excellence in Fisheries Education Award from the American Fisheries Society (AFS), the top such annual award in North America. Marianne Webb, Distinguished University Organist and professor of music, received the biennial Edward A. Hansen Leadership Award from the American Guild of Organists at its national convention in June 2008. And two leading professional organizations in the area of toxicology awarded their highest rankings to SIUC's science dean in 2008. The American Board of Toxicology named Jay Means as a diplomate, and the Academy of Toxicological Sciences elected him as a fellow. The honors certify Means as an international leader in his field.
Clean coal
The Illinois Clean Coal Institute awarded a team led by mechanical engineering professor Tomasz Wiltowski $1.4 million to establish a facility to develop, test, and refine advanced technologies for the production of liquid fuels from coal.
Innovator
In February 2008, mechanical engineer Ajay Mahajan's (right) ultrasonic 3-D navigation system for image-guided brain surgery beat out more than 1,000 entries to win first prize in the medical category in the international Create the Future Contest sponsored by NASA Tech Briefs, Hewlett-Packard, Solidworks, and Comsol. Mahajan's invention will be featured in a Discovery Channel segment and in a NASA Tech Briefs article.
Water in the works
Civil engineer Rolando Bravo was named executive director of the American Institute of Hydrology in January 2008, and the international organization is making SIUC its new headquarters. The initial length of the arrangement is five years, meaning that the University will be a focus of the hydrology and water resources field at least through 2012. Bravo also won diplomat status in late 2007 from the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers.
Safeguarding infrastructure
A $1 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration's Intelligent Transportation Systems program will allow SIUC engineers and scientists to create a network of Internet-based wireless sensors and databases that can provide near-real-time data and analysis on the structural soundness of transportation infrastructure, such as bridges. The idea is to pinpoint problems before they can deteriorate to catastrophic proportions, to schedule inspections more efficiently, and ultimately to design structures with such technology in place. The team is headed by Max Yen, director of SIUC's Materials Technology Center.
Pushcart Prize
Fiction writer Pinckney Benedict (right) of SIUC's English Department won a 2008 Pushcart Prize—his third such award—for "Mercy," a story published in the Ontario Review. Pushcart Prizes honor the best literary works that appear in small-press publications.
Student Fulbright
An SIUC graduate student this fall is studying the ongoing democratization of Romania as a winner of a Fulbright award. Charles Harris, a doctoral student in political science, also is working with Romanian students as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant.
Recent faculty Fulbrights
Two radio/television professors received Fulbright Awards for 2008. Lisa Brooten will study newly emerging media reform efforts in Thailand and the Philippines, and Leo Gher will teach international mass media and assist with curriculum development in Azerbaijan. History professor Theodore Weeks was named a 2008-09 Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Also, journalism professor William Recktenwald received a selective Fulbright Senior Specialists Award to teach six weeks of journalism classes in Uganda.
