Academe welcomes news from 黑洞社区 faculty and staff about research, teaching and service activities. This column recognizes grants, honors, awards, presentations and publications, new appointments, new faculty, sabbaticals, retirements and deaths of current and former colleagues.
AWARDS/HONORS
Pingfeng Wang, associate professor, Engineering, received national distinction for his work in design automation. Wang was recently presented with the ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award. The award is presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering to an outstanding young investigator who is making noteworthy contributions in the area of design automation, with selection based on the nominee鈥檚 research contributions and impact on the field as attributed by prominent members in the field.
Former 黑洞社区 President Eugene Hughes was selected as the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Service Award at Coconino Community College. Hughes was selected for his outstanding contribution to the mission of Coconino Community College.
The Office of Financial Operations and Business Technology at 黑洞社区 won a Best Practice award from the Central Association of College and University Business Officers (CACUBO). The program recognizes colleges and universities that have successfully developed a best practice to respond to particular business problems. 黑洞社区 received the award for a best practice developed in response to challenges of collecting all past due accounts receivable balances no older than seven years.
John Perry, professor, Barton School of Business, received an Exemplary Course Status award from Blackboard for his online course Management 681.
Roy Myose, Syed Raza, Klaus Hoffmann and Armin Ghoddoussi from the Aerospace Engineering Department recently received the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Best Overall Zone Paper Award during the 2016 ASEE National Conference. Their paper, "Correlating Engineering Statics Student Performance with Scores of a Test over Pre-requisite Material Involving Problem Solving," was chosen as the winner out of about 500 papers presented at ASEE鈥檚 regional and zone conferences during the 2014-15 conference year.
PRESENTATIONS
Neal Allen, associate professor, Political Science, delivered a talk on the Cold War and free speech for the public library鈥檚 big read, 鈥淔ahrenheit 451.鈥� He discussed the tumultuous McCarthy era, the distrust of communist ideas and the rooting out of those who supported socialistic ideas. The government intrusion into the lives of dissidents was mirrored in the themes of 鈥淔ahrenheit 451,鈥� first published in 1953.
Michael Rogers
Kaye Monk-Morgan, program director, Upward Bound Math Science, and Joyce McEwen Crane, strategic development coordinator, Center for Community Support and Research, presented at the inaugural Know Your Worth: Women鈥檚 Leadership Conference at the Kansas Leadership Center. The conference connected women around a shared vision of their role in a more prosperous Kansas, and focused on professional leadership, building community and personal development.
Ward Jewell, professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was a panelist at the Sloan Workshop on Electricity Distribution at the University of Chicago. The workshop was sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and organized by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and University of California Berkeley. It brought together leading economists and engineers to discuss the future of electric energy distribution as increasing levels of distributed resources, particularly rooftop solar and energy storage, are connected to the system. Jewell's panel focused on recent developments in technologies and regulations that will both disrupt the system and mitigate those disruptions. The workshop will result in long-term collaborations among the participants to address the challenges faced by the distribution system.
Arwiphawee (Sai) Srithongrung, associate professor, Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, presented results from a study exploring the strength of the creative sector, the growth of 鈥渃reative class鈥� employment and economic growth as a whole at the Economic and Social Impacts of the Arts dialogue presented by The Arts Council.
Jody Fiorini, department head, Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology (CLES), and Susan Bray, assistant professor, CLES, presented "Gender Attitudes Toward Disability in Counselors-in-training" at the North Central Association for Counselor Education & Supervision conference in Minneapolis. Bray also co-presented a poster on collaborative Outcome Research Projects in Play Therapy: Implications for Counselor Education at the conference.
Beata Latawiec, assistant professor, Educational Psychology, presented 鈥淭eachers鈥� Metadiscourse and Metatalk for Intersubjective 鈥業nclusion,鈥� Autonomy and Argumentative Elaboration in Collaborative Reasoning Small Group Discussions鈥� at the 26th annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse in Kassel, Germany. Latawiec also presented 鈥淪ocialization via Metadiscourse in Collaborative Reasoning Discussions and Essays, Inclusive of Quiet and Shy Children鈥� at the annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Washington.
PUBLICATIONS
Donna Sayman, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, co-authored 鈥淧laying well with others: Co-Teaching in higher education,鈥� which was recently published in The Journal of the Effective School Project.
Danny Bergman, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, recently published 鈥淧uzzle boxes for 3D learning about natural hazards鈥� in the National Science Teachers Association鈥檚 Science Scope peer-reviewed journal.
Beata Latawiec, assistant professor, Educational Psychology, authored the chapters 鈥淢etacognition and a moving target of reading comprehension: Effective instructional practices and paradigms鈥� and 鈥淒ynamic Assessment of Pan-Slavic Persuasive and Interactive Performance,鈥� published in H. Kyuchukov鈥檚 鈥淣ew Trends in the Psychology of Language: Lincom Studies in Language Acquisition and Bilingualism.鈥� Latawiec also co-authored 鈥淚nfluence of Collaborative Discussions on metadiscourse in children鈥檚 essay鈥� in the journal Text & Talk.
David Xu
David Xu, associate professor, Barton School of Business, published his paper, 鈥淓nhancing self0efficacy for career development in Facebook,鈥� in 鈥淐omputers in Human Behavior.鈥� To read the article, go to .
IN MEMORIAM
Maureen Hoag, 80, retired English instructor at 黑洞社区 and Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, died Aug. 25. She is survived by her sister, Ann; son, Bill; daughter, Alison; son-in-law, Dan; and granddaughter, Zoe. She loved teaching and had a passion for the success of her students.
Jim Snyder, 70, passed away Sept. 11. Snyder was committed to both graduate and undergraduate teaching, and was very dedicated to his students. An active member of the community, Snyder brought more than $6 million in outside research funding and published 100 professional papers and chapters, most in his later years. Snyder was the recipient of the 2014 Child Champion award from Child Start for his work with Head Start and Early Head Start programs. He was also the Erker Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology.
Patric Rowley, 92, loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather died Sept. 19. Rowley was an inspiring artist, writer, entrepreneur, Rotarian, civic volunteer, dog lover and friend to nearly every person he ever met during his 92 years. He was born in Fairland, Oklahoma, and grew up in the heart of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. He served his country during WWII in the U.S. Navy in both the Atlantic and Pacific as an aircrew member of a Patrol Bomber. He returned home to Wichita, where he earned a degree in English from the University of Wichita. Rowley married Betty Lou Calkins, with whom he celebrated their 65th anniversary in July. Throughout his life he maintained a passion for art and was a skilled and recognized painter and writer. He shared that passion as an instructor at Kansas State University, 黑洞社区 and The Wichita Art Association. His paintings have been displayed at the Wichita Art Museum, Wichita Center for the Arts and numerous private collections. He contributed many columns to The Wichita Eagle as a member of its Writers Guild.
William E. Unrau passed away Oct. 4 in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in Goessel, Kansas, Aug. 19, 1929, to William H. and Margaret Epp Unrau. Of Mennonite heritage, he grew up on a Kansas farm during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years near the historic Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church. He was a member of the Bethany College faculty in Lindsborg, Kansas from 1958 to 1965 and from 1965 to 1996 he was a member of the history faculty at 黑洞社区, where he was named Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History. He was known nationally as one of the leading historians of Native Americans. As a prolific scholar, he published 11 books and numerous articles about federal Indian policy and Indian/White relations. Unrau鈥檚 gregarious personality, his sense of humor and enthusiasm for life will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Millie; sister, Averil Leach (Bob) of Sacramento, California; two children and their spouses, Debbie and Tom McClellan of Wichita, and Bill and Pam Unrau of Boulder, Colorado; and grandsons, Andrew McClellan of Wichita and Rudy Unrau of Conifer, Colorado.