Faculty & Staff Accomplishments
We are excited to share recent accomplishments from faculty and staff members at our campuses around the world.
Accomplishments are listed by date of achievement in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.
Kevin LaGrandeur
College of Arts & Sciences, EnglishKevin LaGrandeur, Ph.D., professor of English, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to participate in a workshop offering guidance and strategies for addressing how scholars and nonfiction authors write for broader audiences while maintaining intellectual rigor. LaGrandeur also gave a compelling presentation at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Lecture arguing the strong possibility that many of today's jobs will soon be completed more inexpensively by artificial intelligence.
Jim Martinez
College of Arts & Sciences Interdisciplinary StudiesJim Martinez, Ph.D., assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies, published a new book, The Search for Method in STEAM Education. It "explores various approaches to building a positive interdisciplinary STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) learning environment, as described by educators across the K-20 educational ladder." In August 2017, Psychology Today published a review, praising Martinez as "a pioneer in bringing playful and performatory learning to higher education and to service learning."
Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong
School of Engineering & Computing SciencesZiqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, along with co-author with Sarah Meyland, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental technology and sustainability, had a journal paper, "FEW: A Case Study of an Autonomous Wireless Sensor Network System for Environmental Data Collection," published in Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy, Food, Energy and Water Special Issue, August 2017.
Aydin Farajidavar
School of Engineering & Computing Sciences, Electrical and Computer EngineeringAydin Farajidavar, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has received $142,200 from National Institutes of Health to supplement his previously funded award for "An Implantable Wireless System to Study Gastric Neurophysiology." The award will allow Farajidavar to provide an enhanced dataset to the SPARC Data and Resource Center. Including this recent supplement, Farajidavar has secured $696,731 through the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to conduct this research.
Lynn Rogoff
College of Arts & Sciences, EnglishLynn Rogoff, M.F.A., adjunct associate professor of English, and CEO of Amerikids USA, was featured in an interview, "VR Adventure Games for Young Adults," on July 27, 2017, the final day of "Virtual Reality Games & Entertainment Extravaganza," a free "multi-day online event of speaker presentations, 1-on-1 interviews, panel discussions and online exhibitors." The event was hosted by Crowdcast, a new Internet site for creating webinars and live video experiences to connect, teach, and sell online. In August, Rogoff participated in "Creating VR to Impact The Planet with a Purpose Drive Generation," a virtual reality and higher education event at Cool Blue Media.
Dong Zhang
College of Osteopathic Medicine, Department of Biomedical SciencesDong Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences, had research regarding the treatment of ALT cancers published in a July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His team's findings that suggest new synthetic lethal interactions could inhibit the growth of ALT cancer tumors without posing the same toxic effects as the conventional chemotherapy drugs.
Susana Case
College of Arts & Sciences, Behavioral SciencesSusana Case, Ph.D., professor of behavioral sciences, had a new book of poetry, Drugstore Blue, published by Five Oaks Press in July 2017. It is an "edgy yet compassionate and sometimes racy" woman-coming-of-age odyssey where blue eye-makeup takes center stage.
John Hanc
College of Arts & Sciences, Communication ArtsWalter's Way, co-written by John Hanc, M.A., associate professor of communication arts, was one of four books that received top honors in the Literary Classics International Book Awards, announced July 1, 2017. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Walter's Way won the Lumen Award for Literary Excellence, which honors "extraordinary youth nonfiction literature annually." Additionally, the book won the gold medal in the Nonfiction category of the overall Awards competition.
John Hanc
College of Arts & Sciences, Communication ArtsJohn Hanc, associate professor of communication arts, wrote a cover story, "From LI to France: a Soldier's Illustrated Letters of WWI," for the features section of Newsday on July 29, 2017. It tells about the illustrated letters of Salvador Cilia, a young (and talented) World War I soldier from New York's Lower East Side who did his basic training on Long Island before being deployed to France.
Reza Amineh
School of Engineering & Computing Sciences, Electrical and Computer EngineeringReza K. Amineh, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, co-authored a journal paper with Abhishek Patel, a graduate assistant at NYIT, titled "Sub-Diffraction Holographic Imaging with Resonant Scatterers," which was published in Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 59, July 2017. The article proposes a novel technique to overcome the well-known "diffraction limit" in the resolution in holographic imaging.