Category Archives: Faculty Notes

Faculty Notes for January 2016: Publications, quotes and more

By Kat Meads

Associate Professor Michael Cheers was interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News at the unveiling of a downtown mural.

Associate Professor Michael Cheers was interviewed by the San Jose Mercury News at the unveiling of a downtown mural.

The San Jose Mercury News interviewed Associate Professor Michael Cheers, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, regarding the December unveiling of a multicultural mural in downtown San Jose that depicts six barbers of Barbers, Inc. styling the locks of six icons, including Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, Johnny Cash and poet Maya Angelou. “Imagine kids leaving here and seeking out Maya’s books of poetry,” Cheers said. The mural is located near the corner of Eighth and Santa Clara streets.

Department of Physics and Astronomy Lecturer Friedemann Freund, a senior scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, was a presenter at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco. He shared his research on predicting earthquakes via electromagnetic anomalies that appear in the Earth’s crust minutes to days before an earthquake occurs.

This month, iSchool Assistant Professor Christine Hagar presented at the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Science and Technology Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Hagar shared research on her specialty, crisis informatics, concerning the role of information professionals and public libraries in disasters and collaborations with disaster and emergency management agencies.

In December, Professor of Art and Art History and Director of the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery Jo Farb Hernandez presented her book “Singular Spaces: From Eccentric to the Extraordinary in Spanish Art Environments” at the Reina Sofia Museum in Spain. Hernandez’ book was presented along with books by three other women who have recently published on the theme of art brut/art environments in Spain, Cuba and Italy.

Last month Lecturer Sharmin Khan, Department of Computer Science and Department of Linguistics and Language Development, published “A Muslim call to fight radical Islam” in the San Jose Mercury News, calling on “all progressive Muslims to wake up to the peril within our midst.” Read the article online.

Assistant Professor Ellen Middaugh, Department of Child and Adolescent Development, was interviewed by NBCBayArea.com on how to discuss the recent Paris terrorist attacks with children. Most critically, parents should emphasize that the actions of Islamic extremists do not reflect the beliefs and actions of all Muslims, Middaugh stressed. Read more online.

Professor Scott Myers-Lipton, Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, is leading a San Jose business tax initiative. The proposed ballot measure would establish a gross-receipts tax, taxing businesses based on income. The proposal will go before voters in November if 20,000 signatures can be gathered in six months. Myers-Lipton, who also led the successful 2012 campaign to raise the city’s minimum wage, is the author of “Ending Extreme Inequality” (Paradigm 2015).

Assistant Professor Dustin Mulvaney, Department of Environmental Studies, published an article in the San Jose Mercury News on climate change and the importance of preserving desert habitats. “Permanently protecting large swaths of the California desert, such as Mojave Trails National Monument, will ensure that these landscapes continue doing the important work of sequestering carbon pollution,” he wrote. Read the article online.

New Scientist interviewed Assistant Professor Aaron Romanowsky, Department of Physics and Astronomy, about his team’s discovery of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy “in distress, orbiting NGC 253, a giant spiral galaxy 11 million light years from Earth,” the article reported. “It looks like it’s being ripped apart by the larger galaxy,” Romanowsky said. Read more online.

Lecturer Edward Webb, Department of Accounting and Finance, was promoted to partner at Burr Pilger Mayer, one of the largest California-based accounting and consulting firms. Webb leads the firm’s Consulting Practice Group. At SJSU, he teaches corporate finance and accounting.

Professor Elizabeth Weiss, Department of Anthropology, recently spoke at the Milpitas Public Library on the links among modern health problems, lifestyle and evolutionary history. Weiss teaches physical anthropology courses at SJSU and has presented her research findings at annual meetings of, among others, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology and the Paleopathology Association.

The December issue of Nature Neuroscience featured an article co-authored by Biological Sciences Assistant Professor Katie Wilkinson on the discovery of a protein related to proprioception – a sense that allows humans and animals to tell where their body parts are relative to each other and the environment. Read more online.

College newsletters published throughout the year

The University Library has published the Fall 2015 edition of “Academic Gateway,” a newsletter about the University Library. Contents include an article on a grant to digitize World War II Japanese Internment items, a letter from Dean Ruth Kifer and more. It is available for download from ScholarWorks.

Current and archived newsletters from other academic units and colleges are also available online:

College of Applied Sciences and Arts

Lucas College of Business and Graduate School

Connie L. Lurie College of Education

Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering

College of Humanities and the Arts

College of Science

College of Social Sciences

SJSU Research Foundation Office of Sponsored Programs Bulletin 12.15 (2)

 

Campus community thanks Dean Steele for service

Provost Andy Feinstein, left, presented Dean David Steele with a plaque commemorating his service to San Jose State at a farewell reception Nov. 13.

Provost Andy Feinstein, left, presented Dean David Steele with a plaque commemorating his service to San Jose State at a farewell reception Nov. 13.

More than 100 members of the San Jose State community, alumni and donors stopped by the Boccardo Business Center on Nov. 13 to say goodbye to Lucas College of Business and Graduate School Dean David Steele. Provost Feinstein hosted a farewell reception in which he recognized Steele’s seven exemplary years of service to the College of Business and San Jose State.Steele departed SJSU to assume the presidency of Woodbury University in Burbank.

During his seven years with the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business, Steele strengthened the global and local reputation of his programs by branding them as the Silicon Valley Experience. Under his tenure, eight major annual conferences launched such as the Global Speakers Series and the Economic Summit. The college consistently ranks as a top business school in “US News and World Report,” most recently as one of the top three business schools in the Bay Area and the seventh among California public/private institutions for first-time pass rates for the CPA exam.

Steele fostered connections between industry leaders for his students and faculty, specifically through the creation of six Executives-in-Residence positions along with the development of five new centers or institutions. More than 130 industry members serve on the boards of the centers and institutes, allowing students and faculty to connect with professionals in their fields. At least 4,500 students, alumni and members of the public attend events sponsored by the college each year.

Beyond these achievements, he focused on student success and faculty recruitment. He shepherded the development of the Jack Holland Student Success Center and oversaw the implementation of an experimental first-year program that provides incoming freshman in the college with an iPad. In the last seven years, he has recruited 34 excellent tenure/tenure-track faculty members and his professors were lauded in a review by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Dr. Marlene Turner will serve as interim dean until a permanent dean is selected via a national search.

Faculty notes for October: Publications, quotes and more

By Kat Meads

The San Jose Mercury News quoted Associate Professor Beverly Grindstaff, Department of Art and Art History, about a plan to construct two-story houses in a Sunnyvale neighborhood of one-story Eichler homes. “It’s growth for growth’s sake and a real misstep,” she said, receiving a round of applause from others attending the zoning hearing. Eichler homes, named for developer Joseph Eichler, began appearing in California in the late 1940s, the majority built in the Bay Area.

Lecturer Stephen Morewitz, Department of Sociology, published “Kidnapping and Violence: New Research and Clinical Perspectives” (Springer), an analysis that covers the use of kidnapping by individuals, governments and terrorist groups to achieve social, cultural, religious and political objectives. Morewitz is president of a San Francisco-based forensic sociology consulting firm and author of the award-winning “Domestic Violence and Maternal and Child Health,” also published by Springer.

Professor Annette Nellen, Lucas College and Graduate School of Business, was interviewed by The Nonprofit Times on the topic of taxing cloud-based services. Nellen’s blog, “21st Century Taxation,” tackles tax reform and the modernization of tax systems.

Lecturer Mary Poffenroth, Department of Biological Sciences, published “Write, Present, Create: Science Communication for Undergraduates” (Cognella), a guide for non-science majors. Poffenroth was a 2013 Salzburg Fellow.

“Tortilla Curtain,” the stage adaption of T.C. Boyle’s novel by Associate Professor Matthew Spangler, Department of Communication Studies, opened Oct. 24 at The Western Stage Studio Theater at Hartnell College in Salinas and will run until Nov. 14. The play was also recently produced by the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

Former Dean of the Lucas College and Graduate School of Business David Steele was appointed president of Woodbury University, a private university in Burbank. Steele’s “vast global business experience and extensive record of building innovative academic and other programs” distinguished him from the other candidates, according to Woodbury’s Board of Trustees chair Lawrence Hurwitz. A native of Venezuela, Steele joined SJSU’s business faculty in 2008.

Earlier this month, Professor Swathi Vanniarajan, chair of the Department of Linguistics and Language Development, gave a keynote address at the first three-day international conference of Pakistan’s linguistic association. Vanniarajan, who joined SJSU’s faculty in 1995, specializes in psycholinguistics, language testing, second language acquisition and the psychology of language processing.

Dean Lisa Vollendorf, College of Humanities and the Arts, with James Parr, published an updated edition of “Approaches to Teaching Cervantes’s ‘Don Quixote’” (Modern Language Association of America). The Spanish novel, which has been called the first modern novel, was originally published in two volumes in 1605 and 1615.

Faculty notes: Publications, performances and more

A roundup of Faculty news from September 2015

Submitted by Kat Meads

Professor Emeritus Mike Foster, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, co-authored The Biology and Ecology of Giant Kelp Forests (University of California Press, 2015), a scholarly review and synthesis of research on the largest of seaweeds. Ranging from Darwin’s early observations to contemporary research, the book provides a historical perspective on the evolution, biogeography, biology and physiology of giant kelp.

Lecturer Leah Griesmann, Department of English and Comparative Literature, was awarded a 2015-2016 artist’s residency at the historic Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. Artists in the fields of photography, music, filmmaking, writing, dance, painting and conceptual art are invited to stay and work in one of 18 apartments for a period of three to six months. In return, artists leave a “trace” of their experience for the hotel’s virtual museum.

Director Sandra Hirsh, School of Information, was guest speaker at the inaugural book club meeting of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Special Libraries Association. Editor of Information Services Today: An Introduction (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), Hirsh’s textbook brings together 39 essays that detail the role of library and information professionals today.

Associate Professor Resa Kelly, Department of Chemistry, and Professor Ellen Metzger, Department of Geology and Science Education, co-authored “A Case Study of Teachers’ Understanding of Sustainability,” an article that will appear in Improving K-12 STEM Education Outcomes through Technological Integration, the latest title in IGI Global’s book series addressing advances in early childhood and K-12 education.

Professor Jason Laker, Department of Counselor Education, recognized expert on community, identity and diversity issues, was keynote speaker for the annual Diversity Festival, hosted by the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville, September 28 through October 1. A Salzburg Fellow, Dr. Laker co-edited Citizenship, Democracy and Higher Education in Europe, Canada and the USA  (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and previously served as SJSU’s vice president for Student Affairs.

Professor Gus Lease, School of Music and Dance, is celebrating his 66th year of teaching at SJSU. “I’m 92 years and nine months,” he told the Daily Democrat in September. “I put it like a little kid, because in many ways a kid is what I am.” Lease came to campus in 1950, organized glee clubs for men and women, produced the first on-campus Broadway show (Kiss Me, Kate) and had his own KSJO pop radio program, “Gus Lease Sings.” The former chair of the music department, he currently teaches music appreciation. Read more online.

Professor Galen Lemmon, School of Music and Dance, principal percussionist for the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra, once again assembled all necessary percussion instruments and “implements” for the 2015 Cabrillo Fest, held in August. This year, the 53-year-old festival required 66 different percussion instruments, including tuned cowbells from Germany. Lemmon has been collecting percussion instruments since he was an undergrad at SJSU. Read an article in the Mercury News.

Professor Aaron Lington, School of Music and Dance, a Grammy-winning baritone saxophonist whose musicianship the San Jose Mercury News describes as “revelatory,” performed at a sold-out concert co-sponsored by San Jose Jazz and the Lick Observatory this summer. His group, the Premier Saxophone Quartet, will open Noe Valley Chamber Music’s 23rd season in October with a recital at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in San Francisco. www.nvcm.org

Lecturer Judi Morrill, Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging, recently published “A happier Happy Meal” in the San Jose Mercury News, an opinion piece that addresses the issues of genetically modified foods and the “complicated” science of biotechnology.

Santa Clara County’s first poet laureate, Professor Emeritus Nils Peterson, Department of English and Comparative Literature, was one of three poets who helped celebrate the art of painter Richard Diebenkorn at a Sonoma Valley Museum of Art event. The author of five poetry collections, Peterson’s most recent book is A Walk to the Center of Things (Robertson Publishing).

Lecturer Edward Webb, Department of Accounting and Finance, was tapped to lead the consulting practice group at Burge Pilger Mayer, one of the largest accounting and consulting firms in California. Since 2013, he has served as managing director of the company’s transaction advisory services team. He also sits on the board of the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame.