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EVENT CALENDAR
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Bart Ng Retirement Celebration
Friday, September 23
Join us for a program and reception honoring Bart's many years of service to IUPUI. RSVP by noon tomorrow, September 20. Learn more & RSVP.
IUPUI Regatta
Saturday, September 24
Bring the entire family to cheer on the School of Science in a canoe race on the canal. Clowns, face painting and live entertainment all day long. Don't forget to stop by the Science table!
Learn more.
IUPUI Career Week
October 5 - 7
IUPUI's Career Services Council will be hosting a week of career exploration and development related events, including career fairs, networking events, and career panels focusing on a wide array of different academic disciplines and industries.
Learn how you can get involved.
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NEWS BRIEF
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ACT Center Receives Distinguished Signature Center Designation
IUPUI has selected its second cohort of research centers to receive IUPUI Signature Center designation. Read more.
Computer Science Lecturer Receives Teaching Award for Work with IPS.
Michele Roberts, lecturer, IUPUI Department of Computer and Information Science, received the Teaching Excellence Award from the IU School of Continuing Studies for her work in the development and teaching of a hands-on technology program for the Indianapolis Public Schools Parent Liaison program.
School of Science at IUPUI Names New Associate Dean for Planning and Finance
N. Douglas Lees, Ph.D., former chair of the Department of Biology, will work with the dean to assist with resource allocation, annual budget planning and assessment, and fiscal policy development. Read more.
Acting Dean of the School of Science at IUPUI to Lead College of Science at Benedictine University
Bart S. Ng, Ph.D., acting dean and a 35-year veteran of academia, has been named the dean of the College of Science at Benedictine University. Read more.
IUPUI Study First to Look at Early Treatment of Depression to Reduce Heart Disease
Jesse Stewart, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology in the School of Science at IUPUI and an the IU Center for Aging Research affiliated scientist, has received a $110,000 grant from the American Heart Association to explore whether treatment of depression before one experiences a heart attack can reduce the likelihood of future heart disease. Read more.
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SCHOOL OF SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
| Inside Indiana Business with Gerry Dick: The Blame Game in Work-Family Conflict, an interview with researcher Elizabeth Poposki, assistant professor of psychology
NUVO Newsweekly: A legacy of lead
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RECENT DONORS
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Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) supporting the Safe Urban Gardening Initiative, a program designed to promote individual and community health and sustainability.
Keith and Sally Anliker supporting the Bonner-Ferguson-Kelley Scholarship for the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology.
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Greetings!
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Simon Rhodes, Dean,
School of Science at IUPUI
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It is my pleasure to begin the school year as the dean of the School of Science and am honored to join a family of students, faculty and staff whose impact can be seen on campus and beyond. I am fortunate to be taking the reins from dean emeritus Bart Ng, who has been named dean of the College of Science at Benedictine University and whose retirement we will be celebrating this month. For the past 35 years, Dr. Ng has dedicated his career to the relentless pursuit of academic excellence and, as dean, his entrepreneurial spirit and leadership have laid the foundation to ensure the school's place as an urban leader in science education and research. I am excited to welcome the new faculty who have joined Science at IUPUI this year. Four of our seven departments have named new faculty - six in math, four in biology, three in earth sciences and two in physics. Over the past three years, the school has hired 44 new faculty, 39 of whom are tenured or tenure-track. These aggressive efforts illustrate the school's commitment to academic excellence, cutting-edge research and innovative collaboration in the lab, classroom and community. The School of Science teaches the largest number of hours at IUPUI in subjects that form the foundation for many different IUPUI degrees, and we offer our students unparalleled research opportunities and an increasingly innovative and effective learning environment. Not only have we seen a 28% increase in Science majors over the last three years, the quality of students choosing to study at our school continues to rise. With an 86% retention rate, the success of our students is evident. Our graduates emerge from the School of Science with the skills and experience needed to be the next generation of innovators in the science, technology and mathematics fields that have become increasingly central to Indiana's competitiveness and growth. I encourage you to become personally involved in shaping this transformation. Not only will community investment transform undergraduate and graduate science education in central Indiana, it will cement Indiana's role as THE incubator for life and health science innovation. Sincerely, Simon Rhodes Dean, School of Science at IUPUI Professor of Biology |
Stephen L. Boehm II, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in the School of Science at IUPUI, has been named the 2011 Young Scientist of the Year by the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. The award was presented May 13 at the society's annual meeting in Rome, Italy.
Boehm, a behavioral neuroscientist, is being honored for his ongoing study of the impact of binge alcohol consumption on gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neural circuits in the brain. The organization also cited Boehm's mentorship of students.
"Human alcohol abuse and dependence is associated with binge drinking, a dangerous mode of alcohol intake. We are interested in how binge drinking changes normal brain function. We expect to see changes in the GABA system at the cellular level that affects brain function. Understanding how the GABA system interacts with alcohol and is changed by repeated binge consumption is a critical step to the development of new treatments. The knowledge we are gaining in our lab is an early step on what we hope is the path to drug therapy which may be useful in treating alcohol abuse and dependence," said Boehm.
Read full story.
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Researchers Report Progress Using iPS Cells to Reverse Blindness
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Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be directed to develop into light-sensing photoreceptor cells of the retina. It is hoped that these cells can be used to better understand and treat human disease affecting the visual system. (Photo credit: Jason Meyer, Ph.D., School of Science at IUPUI)
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Researchers have used cutting-edge stem cell technology to correct a genetic defect present in a rare blinding disorder, another step on a promising path that may one day lead to therapies to reverse blindness caused by common retinal diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa which affect millions of individuals.
Jason Meyer, assistant professor of biology in the School of Science at IUPUI, and his colleagues used recently developed technology to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from a human patient with an uncommon inherited eye disease known as gyrate atrophy. This disorder affects retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, the cells critical to the support of the retina's photoreceptor cells, which function in the transmission of messages from the retina to parts of the brain that interpret images.
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Summer Science Outreach @ IUPUI
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Jim Wark of the D. J. Angus Scientech Educational Foundation with volunteer student mentors.
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Science Apprentice Camp In July, student volunteers passed on their excitement for science to the next generation. DJ Angus-Scientech Summer Research Eight high school students were paired with faculty mentors for an intensive six-week summer research program in the physics department.
DJ Angus-Scientech Water Resource Field Trip In June, nine students and two teachers traveled to Grand Valley State and the Annis Water Resource Insititute on Lake Michigan for three fun-filled days where they collected, analyzed and interpreted chemical and biological water data.
Project SEED (Summer Experience for the Economically Disadvantaged) Almost 50 high students spent their summer working alongside world-renowned researchers across the IUPUI campus.
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Project SEED student Imani Ramses conducted research in the lab of Dr. Randall Roper. Her research on tissue samples has helped Dr. Roper maximize use of available tissue samples in his research of genetic abnormalities related to Down syndrome.
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Discovering the Science of the Environment Summer Institute for Teachers Eight teachers from Seidner Academy (IPS #359) and Oaklandon Elementary learned how to successfully develop and implement an action plan to construct an outdoor learning laboratory for their school.
Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Nearly 35 teachers participated in the intense summer program at IUPUI - where they learned how to bring a new level of hands-on, self-guided science to high school classrooms. In just two weeks at IUPUI, teachers review the entire year's PLTW biomedical sciences curriculum, running through the various labs and receiving instruction and tips from the master teachers on the supplies they'll need and how to make the lessons interesting, creative and fun for students. |
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