Texas Tech University

Faculty Research Club - Past Sponsors and Speakers

Click on each month to see speakers

March 2018 Hosted by the Institute for Peace & Conflict

Hosted by the Institute for Peace & Conflict

Speakers:

  • Ron Milam is an associate professor of history and the Executive Director of the Institute for Peace & Conflict (IPAC) in the College of Arts & Sciences. His research deals with soldier behavior in battle, particularly in wars of the 20th and 21st centuries. He will discuss how IPAC is organized, its plans for research, and publications, and the international nature of its focus.
  • Colonel Dave Lewis, USAF (ret) is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Political Science Department and the Director of Strategic Studies and Veteran Studies under the Institute for Peace & Conflict (IPAC) in the College of Arts and Sciences. His research deals with assisting veterans transitioning from military to civilian lives. He will discuss the FASTRR strategy model and opportunities for multi-discipline research in policy, big data, neuroscience, trauma recovery, brain injury, addiction, and family support.
  • Justin Hart is Associate Chair and Associate Professor of History and Senior Fellow in the Institute for Peace and Conflict. His research examines the intersection of domestic affairs and U.S. foreign relations, focusing particularly on the mid-20th century. He will discuss his current book project on the failed campaign for Universal Military Training in the United States during the administration of Harry S. Truman.
  • Alan Barenberg is an associate professor in the Department of History specializing in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union. His research focus is Soviet forced labor and its legacies. His presentation will focus on the 1960s correspondence between two former Gulag prisoners, Georgii Demidov and Varlam Shalamov. By examining these letters, Barenberg will explore how former Gulag prisoners shaped the parameters of how the Gulag experience was to be represented in literature.

February 2018 Hosted by the Humanities Center

Hosted by the Humanities Center

Speakers:

 

  • Dorothy Chansky is a professor in Theatre and Dance and the Director of the Texas Tech University Humanities Center. Dr. Chansky will share the center's mission as well as current and future activities.
  • Ben Poole is a specialist in the history of twentieth-century Europe as well as global history and popular culture. His current research explores how food helps construct national identities in the global age. Dr. Poole will present on "Food and Frenchness in the Global Age".
  • Lauren Miller Griffith is an assistant professor of ethnology with research focused on tourism, embodiment & performance in Latin America and the U.S. Dr. Griffith will provide insights into "Longing & Belonging in Global Movement Communities".
  • Janis Elliott, an Associate Professor of Medieval History, will share with the FRC an innovative and interactive approach to history in her discussion on "Sharing Medieval Naples via the Popwalk App."
  • Tyler Davis is a professor in Psychological Sciences and will tell us of his Seed Grant for Interdisciplinary Research team project titled "Building Capacity for Music Therapy Research: Revealing the Neural Basis of Music Skill Learning Using MR-Safe Instrumentation"

January 2018 Hosted by Office of International Affairs

Hosted by Office of International Affairs

Speakers:

  • Stacey Jocoy from the School of Music will talk about her work in Japan and Japanese culture
  • Amy Boren from the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication will discuss nutrition-related work in Central America
  • Marc Lochbaum from the Department of Kinesiology and Sport Management will share information about his sport-related work in Oman
  • Stephen Ekwaro-Osire will tell us about some of his engineering-related work in Ethiopia

November 2017 Hosted by The Institute of Environmental and Human Health

Hosted by The Institute of Environmental and Human Health

Speakers:

  • Celine Godard-Codding is an associate professor of biochemical and mechanistic toxicology and endangered species toxicology with research interests focused on genomic and cellular toxicology, mechanistic toxicology, endangered wildlife ecotoxicology and conservation, and biomarkers. Dr. Godard-Codding will present Endangered Species Toxicology: challenges create opportunities for innovative science and multi-disciplinary collaborations. Dr. Godard-Codding has established collaborations with a number of agencies and universities, including the Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks; the NOAA Fisheries center in Galveston, Texas; the Texas Marine Mammal stranding Network, the USDOC/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research at Charleston (CCEHBR), South Carolina, and the University of Siena, Italy. These collaborations provide opportunities for interesting research projects and student multi-disciplinary training.
  • Jordan Crago is an assistant professor of aquatic toxicology. Dr. Crago's research focuses on the use of laboratory and field studies to identify known and novel adverse outcome pathways from exposure to low-level legacy compounds and CECs; and measuring the fate and transport of chemicals in the aquatic environment through the use of in vitro and in vivo bioassays. The FRC presentation will narrow in on using zebrafish in environmental and human health research: linking molecular pathways, physiological changes and behavior to environmental contaminants.
  • David Klein is an associate professor of environmental, clinical and analytical chemistry. Dr. Klein is currently an adjunct professor with the University of Hawaii, Manoa and previously was head of the Chemical Terrorism Response Lab (part of the Centers for Disease Control Laboratory Response Network) in Texas. In addition to his own wide range of research interests, Dr. Klein's lab is focused on three major instrument platforms; inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Students work in a supportive environment to learn the principles of analytical chemistry as applied to a wide variety of problems as suits their interests. The Analytical Toxicology Lab in the Department of Environmental Toxicology has collaborated with researchers across Texas Tech and the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center. No matter what the analytical needs, there is expertise and willingness to provide support for the research.
  • Steve Presley is chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology which is the academic home of The Institute of Environmental and Human Health and the Institute for Forensic Sciences. Research facilities and technologies combined with the multidisciplinary expertise possessed by our faculty, allows us to provide both robust research capacity and outstanding research capabilities. The research team of the Department of Environmental Toxicology are eager to discuss and pursue opportunities for collaboration and technical support of any project you believe could benefit from our expertise, facilities and technical resources.

October 2017 Hosted by the Innovation Hub at Research Park

Hosted by the Innovation Hub at Research Park

Speakers:

  • Kimberly Gramm is managing director of the Innovation Hub at Research Park, where she plans, directs and leads the overall operation of the Innovation Hub and a total of 16 venture development programs supporting the West Texas entrepreneurial ecosystem for four universities within the Texas Tech University System. Additionally, the Hub supports economic growth of the state and region fostering public-private partnership and providing a place for the entrepreneur community to learn and launch a start-up with opportunities such as the NSF I-Corps (TTU is a Node Partner), Spark Fund, and Texas Tech University Accelerator. Ms. Gramm will be sharing how the Innovation Hub can be a resource for all faculty as well as how you can get involved in the entrepreneurial enterprises and activities at the Innovation Hub.
  • Stephen B. Bayne is a professor with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. His research interests include Power Electronics for Hybrid Electric Vehicles, Design of Compact Power Electronics Converters, Evaluation of Power Devices for Power Electronics & Pulse Power Applications, and Renewable Energy (wind and solar). Dr. Bayne has had past experience as Branch Chief for the Directed Energy Branch of the Army Research Lab, and as an Electronic Engineer for both the Army and Naval Research Labs. In his time at Texas Tech, Dr. Bayne has received several honors for his teaching and research, including EEE Texas Tech University Student Branch Teacher of the Year 2013-2014 and TTU Lockheed Martin Excellence in Engineering Teaching award, 2012. Dr. Bayne serves on the Spark Fund Board and is not only one of the NSF I-Corps participants, but also an instructor.
  • Lindsay Penrose is an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, where she manages resident research by overseeing undergraduate and graduate students preforming research and assisting in the laboratory. While in the laboratory Dr. Penrose conducts independent research in both animal and human reproduction with an emphasis on developing technology to improve assisted reproduction. Several technologies developed in Dr. Penrose's laboratory have been submitted for patents with many being licensed for commercialization or having licenses pending. Dr. Penrose's research interests include Research Ethics, Histology, Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Cell Culture, and Andrology. Dr. Penrose is currently working with the Hub as an NSF I-Corps participant and a Texas Tech Accelerator team member with Reproductive Solutions Inc.
  • Michael Ryan is an associate professor of practice in management at the Rawls College of Business. Dr. Ryan is also the executive director for both the Institute for Leadership Research and the Center for Entrepreneurship & Family Business. Dr. Ryan has research interests in leadership development, team development, product innovation, and project management. His most recent efforts concentrated on leadership challenges for virtual teams. His notion of ambassadorial leadership integrates ideas from social network theory, boundary spanning, and transformational leadership into a unified framework. Dr. Ryan brings more than 25 years of industry experience to his work as an academic. Dr. Ryan serves as a mentor and is highly involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Texas Tech serving as both and iTTU Mentor and NSF I-Corps Instructor.
  • Cole Seifert is the president and CSO of GAP Peptides, LLC, which seeks to commercialize GAP Peptide Synthesis technology, having been invented by Dr. Seifert and Professor Guigen Li during Dr. Seifert's graduate tenure at Texas Tech University. In addition to his dissertation work focusing on the development of group-assisted purification (GAP) chemistry and its numerous applications, Dr. Seifert has also conducted research with Dr. Michael Mayer on supramolecular chemistry and mechanically interlocked molecules at Texas Tech. Dr. Seifert has recently secured space at the Innovation Hub to continue research and development for GAP Peptides, LLC and is an active tenant and researcher.

September 2017 Hosted by the Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center and the High Performance Computing Center

Hosted by the Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center and the High Performance Computing Center

Speakers:

  • Ravi Vadapalli is site director of the Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center (CAC). The unit is funded through the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers program. The main purpose is to develop long-term industry-research partnerships through pre-competitive R&D leading to new business development, workforce training, and commercialization opportunities. The CAC has a few universities as member sites and since its inception in 2014, the CAC at TTU has successfully recruited industry members and sponsored industry relevant R&D in healthcare, banking, cloud standards, data center analytics and storage technologies. While this list is expanding, like many computing-oriented areas of research at the university, CAC at TTU is supported locally by the High Performance Computing Center of the TTU IT Division. By combining our capabilities through HPCC and CAC, we are looking for increased industry engagement, extramural funding, and workforce training opportunities.
  • Lisa Gittner is an associate professor of political science and public health. Her research is centered on building public health models using cloud computing and big data. The complexity of a system is difficult to model, thus most models of health and disease risk are tiny snapshots of a constellation of related factors that may actually contribute. Models are predictive in limited scenarios with exacting assumptions and when translated into real world situations predictive power degrades. There are numerous disease prevention programs that work in controlled situations but do not easily translate into the complex system that is the real world. Thus, we are building the novel computational and computing tools necessary to begin to unravel lifestyle diseases.
  • Susan Mengel is an associate professor in the Whitacre College of Engineering in the Department of Computer Science. Her areas of research interest include big data and computer security. She will showcase work done through the NSF Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center sponsored TTU Exposome Project on secure containers and databases for high performance computing and automated techniques to support health risk analytics and visualization.
  • Yong Chen is an associate professor of computer science and associate site director for the NSF Cloud and Autonomic Computing Center at Texas Tech. Scientific breakthroughs are increasingly powered by advanced computing and data analysis capabilities. The data-driven discovery has become the new fourth paradigm of scientific innovation after theory, experiment, and simulation driven innovations. Chen performs fundamental and translational research on storage and file systems, data management, big data analytics, and algorithms for building scalable computing systems for high-performance scientific computing/high-end cloud computing. Chen's research creates innovative solutions and advances computing and data-driven discovery methodologies.

August 2017 Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation
Seed Grants for Interdisciplinary Research Program (SGIR)

Speakers:

  • The Use of Therapy Dogs in Conjunction with Applied Behavior Analysis-Based Educational Programs for Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities - Alexandra Protopopova, Department of Animal and Food Sciences; Jeanne Donaldson, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership, College of Education; Breanna Harris, Department of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences
  • Building Capacity for Music Therapy Research: Revealing the Neural Basis of Music Skill Learning Using MR-Safe Instrumentation Tyler Davis, Department of Psychological Sciences; Carla Cash, School of Music, College of Visual and Performing Arts; Changzhi Li, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Whitacre College of Engineering; Gregory Brookes, School of Music, College of Visual and Performing Art
  • Developing Reflective Engineers with Artful Methods (DREAM) - Danny Reible, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, Whitacre College of Engineering; Jeong-Hee Kim, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education; Chongzheng Na, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, Whitacre College of Engineering; Roman Taraban, Department of Psychological Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences; Gary Morgan, Museum of Texas Tech University; Jill Hoffman, Museum of Texas Tech University
  • STEM+ Confluence: Converging Disciplines, Teachers, Administrators, Parents and Practitioners to Improve Learning - Hansel Burley, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership, College of Education; Faith Maina, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education; Craig Cox, School of Pharmacy, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; Bolanle Olaniran, Department of Communication Studies, College of Media and Communication; Tom Arsuffi, Department of Natural Resources Management, College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Llano River Field Station

April 2017 Hosted by the Graduate School

Hosted by the Graduate School

Speakers:

  • Tim Dallas, is an Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Whitacre College of Engineering. He oversees the Office of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Fellowships which is responsible for internal and external fellowship programs. He will discuss the various graduate student funding programs supported by the Graduate School, as well as federal opportunities including Fulbright and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. A funding initiative will be proposed that is designed to spur new collaborations.
  • David Doerfert, is an Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Professor of Agricultural Education and Communications in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. He will discuss the professional development programs that are being used to better prepare the graduate students for their careers in both academia and industry. Winners of the 3-Minute Thesis competition will make presentations.
  • Kristin Messuri, is associate director of the Graduate Student Writing Center. The Center offers writing assistance to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from all disciplines and departments. Tutors provide feedback on any writing project at any stage of the writing process. She'll discuss how these services are helping students to produce better work.
  • Jacek Jońca-Jasiński, is the Director of Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Life. He oversees the Graduate Student Center which is a 6000-sq. ft. facility dedicated to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The center is located in the basement of the Administration Building and is home to the Graduate Student Writing Center, a computer lab, and networking, leisure, and work space. He'll discuss the programs and amenities that support student success and well-being.

March 2017 Hosted by the Obesity Research Cluster (ORC)

Hosted by the Obesity Research Cluster (ORC)

Speakers:

  • Mindali Dean, program manager for the Research Development Team (RDT) in the Office of Research & Innovation, has worked closely with the Obesity Research Cluster and will provide an overview of the RDT roles to support interdisciplinary teams such as the ORC.
  • Naima Moustaid-Moussa, professor in nutritional sciences in the College of Human Sciences, and founding director of the Obesity Research Cluster, funded since 2014 by the Presidential Cluster Hire. Her research is in the areas of adipocyte biology, nutrition and obesity, with emphasis on mechanisms by which bioactive compounds (such as omega 3 fatty acids, tocotrienols, tart cherry anthocyanins and botanicals) reduce obesity-associated white adipose tissue inflammation and activate brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. Moustaid-Moussa will present information about the ORC history and activities, share some examples of successful collaborative teams across various colleges at Texas Tech and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and future collaboration opportunities.
  • Jannette M. Dufour, associate professor, Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry and associate dean for research, TTUHSC School of Medicine, focuses on utilizing the immune privileged properties of Sertoli cells to improve survival of transplanted insulin-expressing cells as a treatment for diabetes. Her research has been funded by several national and local agencies including the NIH, American Diabetes Association and Texas ARP. She will present an overview of research at TTUHSC that is relevant to the ORC. Specifically in the areas of obesity, diabetes, cancer, community outreach and health, fertility, bone health, and women's health.
  • Michael Ballou, associate dean for research in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) and associate professor of nutritional immunology in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences, focuses on understanding the immunological basis for increased risk for neonatal and peripartum infectious diseases, and investigating nutritional strategies to reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes. He will present information on various research programs in CASNR that deal directly or indirectly with obesity, including: food evaluation and quality, encapsulation technologies, animal models for metabolic diseases, functional foods and fiber, urban design and economic analysis of incentive programs.
  • Glenn Cummins, associate dean for research in the College of Media and Communication and director of the Center for Communication Research, specializes in media psychology and novel measurement of audience response to media content using a variety of approaches including eye tracking, psychophysiology and more. He will showcase obesity-related research by Media & Communication faculty as well as research labs used to examine communication in the context of health and obesity issues.
  • Wilna Oldewage-Theron, professor of nutrition in the Department of Nutritional Sciences is interested in the factors contributing to household food insecurity and malnutrition in resource-poor communities. She has investigated the effect of various interventions, such as food fortification, supplementation, nutrition education, food product development and implementation, as well as school feeding programs on food insecurity, dietary diversity and nutritional status of women and children as well as the elderly. Her presentation will focus on the research being undertaken in her lab at present.

February 2017 Hosted by the Humanities Center

Hosted by the Humanities Center

Speakers:

  • Hannah Friedman, assistant professor of classics, specializes in the archaeology of the Roman provinces. She is co-investigator of the Barqa Landscape Project and is developing a field school in Libarna, Italy. Her current work in Libarna aims for a greater understanding of this strategically important northern Italian in order to advance knowledge of this understudied region of Italy. She is also interested in ancient Roman slavery, agriculture, pollution and spatial control through observation.
  • Christopher Hom, associate professor of philosophy, focuses on the research areas of the philosophy of language and metaethics, specifically on the topics of racial slurs, structured propositions, and normative language, generally. He also has interests in philosophy of mind, philosophy of race, and philosophical logic.
  • Abigail Swingen, associate professor of history, specializes in early modern British history. Her research focuses on Britain's Financial Revolution during the late 1600s and early 1700s, emphasizing the origins of the national debt and public credit and how they intersected with war, politics, and social change.
  • Donald E. Lavigne, associate professor of classics and associate director of the Humanities Center, is interested in the oral and poetic landscape of Archaic Greece. He will speak about the Humanities Center.
  • James Yang, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is involved in collaborations with faculty in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. He will discuss one of those collaborations in a talk titled: "Interdisciplinary Research: Pianists, Their Avatars, and the Brains of the Audience."

January 2017 Hosted by the National Wind Institute

Hosted by the National Wind Institute

Speakers:

  • Daan LiangDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering and Director of the National Wind Institute Daan Liang is a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering. He holds the position of the Interim Director of National Wind Institute, an intellectual hub for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education, research, and commercialization related to wind science, wind energy, wind engineering and wind hazard mitigation at Texas Tech University. Liang is the chief administrator responsible for leadership, management, and stewardship of NWI's facilities, finance, supporting staff, and research affiliates. He is also responsible for an interdisciplinary doctoral program in wind science and engineering and strategic relationships with other research centers, universities, industries, government agencies, and national laboratories.
  • Kishor Mehta, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering Dr. Kishor C. Mehta is recognized as a leading authority in Wind Engineering. He is the past chairman of the National Research Council Committee on Natural Disasters and has chaired the American Society of Civil Engineers' task committee on wind loads. He organized the 11th International Conference on Wind Engineering, held at Lubbock, Texas in the summer of 2003, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering for his systematic studies of structural damage caused by windstorms and leadership in the development of structural design standards for wind loads.
  • Stephen Bayne
  • Delong ZuoDepartment of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering Dr. Zuo's research efforts include investigations on the vibrations and control of cable-supported bridges, traffic signal support structures, high-mast lighting towers and transmission towers, as well as the loading and performance of wind turbines subjected to various types of wind. He has developed and maintained a strong research program in the area of characterizing and modeling of wind and, on this basis, assessing wind effects on structures and wind turbines, especially wind-induced vibration. His research has been sponsored by both federal and state agencies, as well as industry associations and other private industry entities such as GE Renewable Energy. 

November 2016 Hosted by the Rawls College of Business

Hosted by the Rawls College of Business

Speakers:

  • Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute
    Eric Walden
    , Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences Director, Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute. The Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute (TTNI) is a multi-user neuroimaging facility that promotes cutting-edge interdisciplinary research among Texas Tech University and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center faculty and graduate students. The TTNI provides researchers with brain and body imaging technologies including structural MRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging and techniques, including multimodal data fusion of EEG, fMRI, and DTI data.
    The TTNI has help available in the form of statistical analysis experimental design and some grant funding to help students and faculty explore Nero imaging applications.
  • Innovation and Product Development
    Kelli Frias
    , Marketing
    Innovation and product development research often begins with the assumption that firms enter the product development process with a product-concept and deliver commercial value through improvements to product attributes.  Our research examines an early-product development decision made prior to determining the product-concept.  In particular, we ask when firms choose to market their idea as intellectual property, an intermediate good (e.g. a component), or a final good (e.g. a system/solution) and consider the factors impacting that choice.  We explore this strategic deliberation process with angel investors and aspiring entrepreneurs.
  • Mission-Based Performance Metrics for Nonprofit Organizations
    Robert McDonald
    , Marketing; John Masselli, Accounting; Mark Charney, Theatre & Dance; Russell James, Personal Financial Planning
    The primary objective of a nonprofit organization is its mission.  The extant organizational research has focused heavily in the domain of business where the motivation is on profit and shareholder wealth.  Our research explores the use of mission-based performance metrics in nonprofit organizations, particularly in the arts.  Our interest includes the use of these metrics in various ways including management, strategic planning, operations, fundraising, recruiting volunteers, stakeholder interface, and public relations.  We intend to use several methodologies including interviews, surveys, experiments, and neuroimaging to explore various specific research questions. 
  • Culture in Context: A meta-analysis of the nomological network of organizational culture
    Elizabeth Karam
    , Management (with colleagues Amy Y. Ou, National University of Singapore; Chad A. Hartnell, Georgia State University; Angelo Kinicki, Arizona State University; and Dongwon Choi, National University of Singapore)
    Research into organizational culture accelerated during the 1980s as a result of Barney's (1986) conclusion that culture can be a source of competitive advantage. This has led to the development of theoretical explications regarding the types of culture and the relationships between culture and organizational outcomes. Although much has been learned about organizational culture, this study attempts to fill two voids associated with past research. The first pertains to the general tendency for researchers to examine bivariate relationships between culture and measures of organizational effectiveness. This trend overlooks the need to examine a theoretical model of culture's nomological network including antecedents and correlates. Second, and relatedly, prior empirical studies have focused on specific categories of organizational outcomes (e.g., employee outcomes, customer outcomes) leaving an incomplete picture of how culture affects performance relevant to multiple stakeholders. Therefore, this meta-analysis assesses the relationships between organizational culture and variables in the nomological network as well as examining the relative effects of organizational culture on unit-level outcomes.

October 2016 Hosted by the Transdisciplinary Research Academy

Hosted by the Transdisciplinary Research Academy

Speakers:

  • Immune Mechanisms in Pulmonary Hypertension - The team includes Brian Reilly (Biological Sciences), Joaquin Gonzales (Dept. of Kinesiology and Sport Management), and Joe Neary (Animal and Food Science) -  Pulmonary hypertension is a progressive, incurable disease that is estimated to affect up to 100 million people worldwide. All forms of pulmonary hypertension are characterized by pulmonary vasoconstriction, remodeling, and inflammation that ultimately results in right heart dysfunction and failure. Unfortunately, the real-time inflammatory changes occurring within the lungs during the development of pulmonary hypertension cannot be determined using current animal models. Our goal is to develop a bovine calf model of pulmonary hypertension that will permit a comprehensive real-time evaluation of right ventricular function, pulmonary artery hemodynamics, and microvascular remodeling and inflammation. We hypothesize that stiffening of the pulmonary artery is an early change during disease development.
  • Time Stress and Choice of Retirement Plans - The team includes Charlene M. Kalenkoski (Personal Financial Planning), Michael Parent (Psychological Sciences), and Eric Cardella (Energy, Economics, and Law) - They are investigating how time and informational constraints affect decision making related to retirement plan choices.
  • Understanding Dating Teen Violence through the use of Media - The team includes Narissra Punyanunt-Carter (Communication Studies), Sylvia Niehuis (Human Development and Family Studies), Fernando Valle (Educational Psychology and Leadership), and Eric Rasmussen (Electronic Media & Communications) -  Wolfe et al. (2009) reported that roughly 20% of teens are physically hurt by a romantic partner. Findings indicate that to reduce the cycle of violence in adolescents, they must be educated about healthy dating relationships (Wolfe et al., 2009). The purpose of this study is to create an educational prevention program aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness about Teen Dating Violence (TDV).
  • Nanodevices and Chronic Disease Theranostics - The team includes Zhaoyang Fan(Electrical & Computer Engineering) and Shu Wang (Nutritional Sciences) -  An electrical engineer and a biomedical scientist develop a nanoparticle-based approach for detecting and treating atherosclerosis. Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 silent killer in the United States. Current diagnostic and therapeutic strategies cannot target its disease cells. Targeted delivery of diagnostic agents and therapeutic compounds to the disease cells in plaques using our nanoparticle-based approach represents an innovative strategy for enhancing detection sensitivity and treatment efficacy with minimized side-effects and toxicity.
  • The Value of Greening Urban Environments: A Pilot Study in Fair Park, Dallas - The team includes Jennifer Vanos (Geosciences), David Driskill (Architecture), and Tary Arterburn (Landscape Architect, Partner, Studio Outside) This project explores the value of urban spaces through a new lens, focusing on the invisible parameters of weather and carbon pollution. Through the use of data specific to Fair Park in Dallas, we put forth new ideas to enhance the value of the park through the use of bioclimatic design for thermal comfort by transforming select parking lots to vegetation. Using park as a noun rather than a verb, we model the future benefits of incorporating greenspace into the park for urban heat island reduction and air pollution mitigation.
  • Time use, food expenditure and quality of diet: Painting the complete picture The team includes Mary Murimi (Nutritional Sciences), Carlos Carpio (Agricultural and Applied Economics), and Charlene Kalenkoski (Personal Financial Planning) The group is studying how time use, money expenditures, and food choices are jointly related and are working to create metrics showing these relations across a variety of population groups.
  • Robotics Matter Design - The team includes Christian Pongratz (Architecture), Sang-Wook Bae (Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering), Brian Nutter (Electrical & Computer Engineering), Jeff Hanson (Mechanical Engineering), Chongzheng Na (Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering), Snoeyink Craig (Mechanical Engineering), and Venhuizen Von (Art) The Robotics Matter Design team will investigate novel fabrication opportunities to build components and design products through the implementation of industrial robots into a multi-functional design and fabrication platform bridging many disciplines.
  • International Security and the Visual Environment: Biobehavioral Costs of Negative Image Consumption - The team includes James Carr (Biological Sciences), Breanna Harris (Biological Sciences), Erik Bucy (Advertising), and Zachary Hohman (Psychological Sciences) With the explosion of social media, click-bait articles, and the twenty-four-hour news cycle people are constantly exposed to media content designed intentionally to alter or prey on human emotion. To date, the impact that the near-continual display of threat messages has on stress, anxiety, risk taking behaviors, and group identity are unknown. Our multi-disciplinary team aims to understand how such visual content a) is manipulated to influence emotion and behavior; b) how the human brain and endocrine system decode and respond to emotionally charged visual messaging; c) the consequences of exposure to such messaging on viewer physiology, individual behavior, and group identification; and, d) how leader non-verbal cues and group affiliation can mitigate the stress and anxiety associated with emotionally charged messages.

September 2016 Hosted by the Honors College

Hosted by the Honors College

Speakers:

  • Michael San FranciscoMichael is Professor of Biology (TTU), Microbiology and Molecular Immunology at the TTUHSC and Dean of the Honors College.  He is primarily interested in a fungal pathogen of amphibians and also has interactions with Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Atmospheric Sciences and the Pharmacy School.  Tennis is a spare time passion!
  • Aliza WongAliza is associate dean of the Honors College and associate professor of History.  A two-time Fulbright scholar, the first as a graduate student research and the second as the only junior scholar in Italy, Aliza works in understanding the processes of cultural transmission of identity, race, nation, and community.
  • Joe HodesJoe is assistant professor in Honors. His work focusses on a political and historical examination of the modern Islamic world broadly defined, with a specific focus on minorities within that world. My first book, From India to Israel: Identity Migration, and the Struggle for Religious Equality studies the creation of Israel and India. It explores the massive migrations which accompanied the birth of those nations and examines the consequences of being a religious minority in India and then an ethnic minority in Israel.
  • Greg McKennaGregory B. McKenna is a Professor in Chemical Engineering and currently supervises a group of about 12 that includes  post-docs, graduate students and undergraduate students. He is a world recognized expert in the physics of glasses, solid mechanics of polymeric glasses, macromolecular rheology and thermodynamics of rubber and gels.  He is also an avid tennis player and occasionally beats Dr. San Francisco.

April 2016 Hosted by the College of Media & Communication

Hosted by the College of Media & Communication

Speakers:

  • Paul Bolls - Paul Bolls is the Associate Director of the Center for Communication Research in the College of Media & Communication. His research uses Media Psychophysiology to study how individuals mentally process and respond to media content and technology. Dr. Bolls is especially interested in research designed to optimize media for positive effects on health and wellness. His recent work focuses on the use of narrative media content in health persuasion. He co-authored the first methodology book on Media Psychophysiology and engages in industry client consulting in Neuromarketing.
  • Narissra Punyanum Carter- Narissra Maria Punyanunt-Carter is an associate professor in the department of communication studies at Texas Tech University. Narissra teaches interpersonal communication, gender, nonverbal, and romantic relationships. Dr. Punyanunt-Carter's research interests include romantic relationships, computer-mediated communication, father-daughter communication, and mass media portrayals of romance. She has served as a permanent or ad-hoc reviewer for ten different peer-reviewed journals. She was awarded Advisor of the Year 2013 by the (NSCS) National Society of Collegiate Scholars (honor society). She is the TTU advisor for Delta Phi Omega and Delta Epsilon Psi (the first sorority and fraternity for Asian Americans). She was just elected as Vice Chair Elect of the Mass Communication division of the National Communication Association. Recently, she was awarded by the Honors College as the "Faculty of the Year"!
  • Glenn Cummins- R. Glenn Cummins is director of the Center for Communication Research in the College of Media & Communication. As director, he supervises the facilities research labs, which include eye tracking, psychophysiology, an in-home simulation and gaming lab, focus group room, continuous-response lab, and large controlled experiment lab.
  • Charlene Kalenkoski- Dr. Charlene M. Kalenkoski is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Ph.D. Program in the Department of Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech. She also is a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany. The overarching theme of her research is individuals' allocation of time. Her research has examined individuals' time use with respect to child care, education, employment, and retirement. She also has examined the effects of time poverty on individuals' food choices. She is interested in working with others on topics related to time-use decisions.

March 2016 Hosted by the School of Theater & Dance

Hosted by the School of Theater & Dance

Speakers:

  • Bob Chanda - Bob Chanda will speak. He is the Senior Administrator of Special Projects for the College of Visual and Performing Arts. He has been coordinating this project and facilitating different possibilities for research. Bob also is a highly skilled communicator and teaches others such as academics to communicate their research in a much more accessible and pleasing manner.
  • Mark Charney - Dr. Mark Charney will recount the background of the School's Theatre and Dance in the Community class, especially concentrating on the collaborative programs we have created with the Burkhart Center for Autism Research and our graduate commitment to educational and experiential activism. He will also explain how, in conjunction with the Medical Alliance of Houston, he hopes this work will better the understanding of how music, theatre, and dance can best affect students on the spectrum, and details some of the methods of assessing growth with unconventional audiences.
  • Linda Donahue - Linda Donahue will describe the previous interaction between the School of Theatre and Dance and the Department of Chemistry/Biochemistry in the application of acting/communication skills for safety training for Chemistry TA's. She will also describe possible community research projects, such as our humanities/outreach interest in telling the stories of US Veterans in a theatrical form. She will present information about previous ethnically-diverse productions of the Latina/o play "Nunca" and the African-American piece "Stick Fly" which may enhance discussion about possible exchanges among our School of Theatre and Dance and other TTU disciplines.
  • Elizabeth G. "Bess" Haley - Since 2003, she served as Associate Vice Chancellor of the TTU System, and as Dean Emeritus and Professor in the College of Human Sciences, TTU. For nearly 20 years, she served as Dean of the College of Human Sciences. We are fortunate to have her here and grateful she is willing to say a few words about how they got involved in the Arts Initiative in Medicine and why it is so important to encourage research across disciplines in Arts, physicians and others in health care.
  • Rachel Hirshorn - Rachel Hirshorn will discuss how existing performer-training methodologies, particularly approaches that focus on breath, energy, balance and impulse, are now being embraced by the larger community. Specifically, Rachel is currently having discussions with the Komen Foundation (Lubbock Chapter) and Dr. Annette Sobel (TTU faculty) about creating a series of workshops for breast cancer survivors. These workshops will utilize foundational exercises found within Fitmaurice Voicework® - a holistic, physical and energetic approach that uses modified yoga postures to allow for more impulse-driven, spontaneous breath, while exploring deep physical release. This approach, along with other performer-rooted explorations in kinesthetic awareness and partnered experiences, could ideally be embraced by any number of population subsets who have experienced trauma, even in a mild form. She is also exploring a pilot study with this same, specific Voicework methodology and its potential effects on the brain using the fMRI we have here on campus in the Experimental Sciences building.
  • Victoria Surliuga- Dr. Surliuga's research focuses on Italian art, contemporary Italian artist Ezio Gribaudo, Peggy Guggenheim and patronage, Italian cinema and stardom, and contemporary Italian poetry. She is also the recipient of The 1905 Fellowship from the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association. Dr. Surliuga will discuss a research project in the arts and the humanities that has resulted in the award of grants and the creation of research synergies in her work, centered on Italian artist Ezio Gribaudo, an internationally known artist and art publisher who has worked with Francis Bacon, Joan Miró, among others, and was recipient of the XXXIII Venice Biennale in 1966. Dr. Surliuga's work also centers on Peggy Guggenheim as art patron and her collaboration with Gribaudo. She was awarded a CH Foundation grant to curate a Gribaudo exhibition at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) in Lubbock, Texas. This project has resulted in the publication of a book, conference presentations, and invited lectures. Dr. Surliuga will also discuss her book Ezio Gribaudo: The Man in the Middle of Modernism, currently in print with Glitterati, a New York art publisher.

February 2016 Hosted by the OR&I Carnegie Classification Celebration

Hosted by the OR&I Carnegie Classification Celebration

Speakers:

  • Guy Loneragan - Dr. Loneragan will discuss the Carnegie classification of institutions of higher education and what it means for TTU to be placed in the category of R1- highest research activity.
  • Stacie Elko - Dr. Elko will talk about "Scapes," an interdisciplinary collaborative event (between art and music), which focuses on a total immersive environment driven by music, supported by visual and performance art. These 6 works utilize the ideals of escapism, landscapes, and body-scapes to tell stories of madness, fear, and hope. The event has been documented and videos have been posted to a vimeo channel. https://vimeo.com/user2800984
  • Sybil Hart - Dr. Hart is a psychologist whose research focuses primarily on the emotion of jealousy. In this presentation, she will describe main findings of her research using infants and young children and the implications of these results for basic understanding of human nature, applications in the field of developmental psychopathology, and questions for future research.
  • Dimitri Pappas - Dr. Pappas will talk about research and commercial opportunities in rapid sepsis diagnosis. Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in nosocomial settings, and treatment is limited by detection time and methods. The Pappas group is working to develop and commercialize a novel diagnostic platform for early detection of sepsis, which can potentially be used in point of care diagnosis.

January 2016 Hosted by TTU Libraries

Hosted by TTU Libraries

Speakers:

  • Bruce Cammack, A native of Nebraska, Bruce Cammack is the Associate Librarian for Rare Books at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library. Thought his thirty-year tenure at Tech, he has served as the first archivist for the Vietnam Archive, curated the world's largest collection of the works of Joseph Conrad, and given numerous presentations and workshops on the history of the book. Bruce's presentation will be based on his recently published article on John Watts Murray, the first newspaper editor and printer in our region. Establishing The Crosby County News in Estacado in 1887, Murray's chronicling of our area's settlement and the challenges facing communities in such remote area reveals the importance of journalism on the Texas frontier.
  • Tyan Cassidy, Ryan Cassidy is an Assistant Librarian with the Texas Tech University Library and was formerly the personal librarian for History and Philosophy. Starting in February, Ryan will be directing a new makerspace service in the University Library. Ryan's research interests include the preservation efforts for interactive digital media and emerging technologies in libraries."" Research topic - ""Today, Ryan will be discussing the concept of a library makerspace and his collaborative work on a task force in constructing a proposal for such a service to be implemented at the University Library.
  • Patrick Metz, Currently, Professor Metze is employed as a Professor of Law and Director of the three Criminal Defense Clinics at the Texas Tech University School of Law. In addition to his clinical duties, Professor Metze teaches Texas juvenile law and a seminar on capital punishment. His most recent article is entitled Nothing Changes—It All Remains the Same: Modern Capital Punishment (Human Sacrifice by a Different Name). Professor Metze was tasked to discuss whether capital punishment is a good or bad idea, ignoring the tangential questions of morality or the possibility of executing the innocent. In doing so he takes an historical approach discussing how societies have dealt with the problem, concluding that our society "...will be judged [by history] for the ritual killing of our own because we are not infallible and our definition of what is moral has gone astray." 47 Texas Tech L. Rev. 179 (Fall 2014).

November 2015 Hosted by the Museum of Texas Tech University

Hosted by the Museum of Texas Tech University

Speakers:

  • Brian Ancell - Dr. Ancell will discuss the motivation and some early results involved with his work on inadvertent weather modification.  This research is deeply rooted in chaos theory, which relates to much of Dr. Ancell's work on why weather forecasts are often wrong and the development of techniques to improve them.  More specifically with regard to inadvertent weather modification, Dr. Ancell explores the atmospheric effects of human-related activities such as wind farms, irrigation, and urban development.  Determining whether these changes decay or grow, potentially modifying high-impact weather events far from the source of the human activities that created them, is a key aspect of Dr. Ancell's work.  He expects this cutting-edge research to just begin to provide an understanding of the relationship between humans and the weather. This research involves a number of activities at the Museum toward public education goals, including an exhibit, summer camps for area youths, and educator resource kits for local schoolteachers.
  • Robert D. Bradley - Dr. Bradley will talk about the role of natural history collections in many areas of biological research. Topics will include systematics, biodiversity, epidemiology and zoonoses, population genetics, toxicology, and natural history. He will demonstrate how collections are used to coalesce the thought process between past, present, and future biological data and will show examples from the 4 NSRL collections (Mammal, Bird, Invertebrate, and Genetic Resources).
  • Peter S. Briggs - Dr. Briggs will introduce current research on the development and application of eccentric printmaking techniques in the visual arts. Briggs, an art historian and a curator at the Museum of Texas Tech University, founded and directs the Artist Printmaker Research Collection, a research locus devoted to developing and providing analysis, historical and critical interpretation, and preservation of post-World War II American fine art prints. In his research on creative processes, Briggs' focus on the integration of non-traditional printmaking methods has concentrated recently on the work of sculptor John Robert Craft and integrates research strategies from humanities, material sciences, and creative visual arts.
  • Stance Hurst - Dr. Hurst will discuss some of the Lubbock Lake Landmark's regional research program's recent work. The Landmark has been conducting survey and excavation at several research locations across the Southern High Plains. The Landmark's program is broad in scope examining all periods of human occupation in the region. The research is focused on examining the changing relationships between people and landscape. The Landmark field crew is currently working on a likely Comanche bison kill and processing site, a buffalo hunter's dugout, and a transitional late Pleistocene to early Holocene faunal record with some evidence of the First Americans.

October 2015 Hosted by the Department of Design

Hosted by the Department of Design

Speakers:

  • Spencer D. Bradshaw - Dr. Spencer Bradshaw will introduce and highlight research from the Center for Addiction Recovery Research (CARR), a division of the Institute for the Study of Addiction, Recovery, & Families. Current brain research will be shared that focuses on examining the brain's physiological and psychological recovery from alcoholism and important physiological and psychological aspects of the recovery process for family members of an addict. Other CARR projects include research in the field Food Addiction diagnosis and recovery, the impact of pornography on individuals and couples, and clinical research that examines methods of helping addicts and their family members find lasting recovery. CARR aims to collect clinical data that merges scientific research with clinical application, foster collaboration with TTU Systems and National Researchers, and lead the national dialogue of recovery through federally funded research.
  • David Klein - Dr. Klein's research focuses on analytical chemistry and wants to build collaborations with other researchers. He will talk about applied analytical chemistry in his laboratory with a focus on exploring potential collaborations.
  • Debajyoti Pati - Dr. Debajyoti Pati focuses his research efforts on the interfaces and interactions between the physical environment and healthcare quality, efficiency and safety. His interest also lies in salutogenic approaches to health. More recently, he has initiated several neuroscience studies to better understand the impact of physical design on health and health delivery. He will provide an overview of his research work, and discuss briefly his ongoing collaborations on campus with the Texas Tech Neuroimaging Institute, Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Health, Exercise and Sports Sciences.
  • Erin Schambureck - As an environmental design researcher, Professor Schambureck tries to understand how persons with vision impairments and other disabilities perceive the built environment around them. She has developed a series of design typologies to identify the architectural needs of the visually impaired. Her current work looks at the impact of design modifications on circadian rhythm and behavior in seniors and individuals with neurocognitive disorders. 

September 2015 Hosted by the Humanities Center

Hosted by the Humanities Center

Speakers:

  • Don Lavigne - Dr. Lavigne is the Associate Director of the newly created Humanities Center. He will provide information about the Center.
  • Jorgelina Orfila - Art as Cultural Document: the 1937 Van Gogh Exhibition. In the interwar period, Museography was established as a new discipline, one that studied how to display cultural objects so that the public could understand both the objects and the knowledge scholars abstracted from them. My research focuses on Van Gogh: His Life, His Work, an exhibition organized by an art curator and the deputy director of the Ethnographic Museum in the context of the first ever exhibition on Museography, presented at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. This was the first time works of art were displayed together with historical documents related to the life of the artist, a strategy that transformed artworks into cultural documents.
  • Christopher Smith - Akimbo Culture: Reconstructing the Lost Sounds of the Creole Americas. Much of the music historically made in the Western Hemisphere was never written down, because it was learned, taught, and passed-on by ear and in the memory--or because it came from social groups (especially African Americans) presumed incapable of "art." In this presentation, Christopher Smith, author of "The Creolization of American Culture" (winner of the TTU Faculty Book Award), explores the use of pre-recording-era sources to recover lost sounds which enrich our understanding of multi-racial identity in the Americas.
  • Sara Spurgeon - Sovereign Native Nations in Native American SciFi. There has been an explosion in the last decade of sci fi and alt histories written by people of color.  So many Native American authors are working in these genres the movement has been labelled "Indigenous Futurism."  And perhaps not surprisingly, the future they imagine looks quite different from the futures imagined by white writers.  One common thread in these narratives is the establishment of sovereign Indian Nations—sometimes on earth, sometimes on other worlds. My current research looks at Indigenous Futurism literature and film through the critical lens of critical indigenous methodologies emphasizing decolinization and sovereignty—what Native scholars refer to as "red pedagogy."

August 2015 Hosted by STEM-Core

Hosted by STEM-Core

Speakers:

  • Ed Anderson - A fundamental question in undergraduate learning concerns how novices become skilled problem solvers. My ongoing research has been guided by theoretical constructs from cognitive and educational psychology and include domain knowledge, mental models, problem-solving strategies, and metacognitive thinking. The discussion will focus on how different kinds of knowledge and problem-solving behaviors emerge and develop together on the path to skill acquisition, with an eye to a more comprehensive understanding of how to develop scientists and engineers through learning and instruction.
  • Amy Koerber - Dr. Amy Koerber will introduce her book-in-progress, tentatively titled The Hormonal Woman: A Critical Exploration of Expert and Public Rhetorics. As a communication scholar, Koerber uses textual analysis to illuminate the multiple forms of rhetorical activity that preceded the emergence of the term hormone in a 1905 lecture by British physician Ernest Henry Starling. Understanding this history connects our current understandings of the "hormonal woman" to a not-so-distant past in which hysteria was a catch-all diagnosis for many of the symptoms and behaviors now affiliated with hormones. Koerber contends that language matters in science and medicine, and she has previously contributed to an interdisciplinary team that studied how pregnant and postpartum women interpret and use infant-feeding information. She hopes to do more such interdisciplinary work in the future.
  • Sonya Sherrod - Having identified critical thinking skills as a crucial component to success in engineering gateway courses such as math and physics, we report plans to restructure sections of the introductory calculus (Calculus I-III), physics (Principles of Physics I and II) and engineering (Introduction to Engineering) courses with an emphasis on critical thinking skills across the curriculum. The sections identified for this project will incorporate materials and pedagogies purposefully designed to foster the development of critical thinking skills. The impact of the program and student outcomes will be continuously assessed, both qualitatively and quantitatively, across disciplines and longitudinally across semesters. The planning and grant proposal development are being carried out by researchers Sonya Sherrod, Audra Morse, Brock Williams and Beth Thacker.
  • Roman Taraban - A fundamental question in undergraduate learning concerns how novices become skilled problem solvers. My ongoing research has been guided by theoretical constructs from cognitive and educational psychology and include domain knowledge, mental models, problem-solving strategies, and metacognitive thinking. The discussion will focus on how different kinds of knowledge and problem-solving behaviors emerge and develop together on the path to skill acquisition, with an eye to a more comprehensive understanding of how to develop scientists and engineers through learning and instruction.
  • Beth Thacker - A large-scale assessment of all of the introductory courses in the physics department was carried out over a 5-year period from 2007-2012 in order to assess the introduction of evidence-based materials and pedagogical methods into the labs and recitations with and without the introduction of such materials into the lecture. Data was taken on conceptual inventories, free-response pre-and post-test questions, TA evaluation inventories and scientific attitude and scientific reasoning inventories across all of the large lecture sections, both calculus-based and algebra-based, and a small evidence-based, inquiry-based, completely laboratory-based, algebra-based class (INQ class). In both the conceptual inventories and the free-response questions, the students' gain increased with increased use of evidence-based instruction. The classes with evidence-based materials in both the lecture and labs/recitations had the highest gains and those with traditional instruction in the lecture and labs/recitations had the lowest gains. The small INQ class (completely evidence-based) achieved the highest gains of all. In addition, we were able to research our students' conceptual understanding, laboratory, mathematical and thinking skills and have the results needed for significant course and program assessment. The work was funded by a National Institutes of Health Challenge grant. (National Institutes of Health (NIH) Challenge grant #1RC1GM090897-01, "An Assessment of Multimodal Physics Lab Intervention Efficacy in STEM Education," to assess for interventions to the laboratory curriculum at Texas Tech University, PI's Beth Thacker and Kelvin Cheng.)
  • Jonathan Ulmer - The STEM Center for Outreach, Research, and Education is a multi-college center serving the needs of STEM faculty across TTU. An overview of the mission and services of the Center. Get involved, get in contact and become an affiliate!

April 2015 Hosted by the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Office for the Vice President of Research

Hosted by the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Office for the Vice President of Research

Speakers:

  • C. Roger James - Individuals accommodate to gait perturbations using different strategies, which can affect the energy cost of transport, fall risk, and musculoskeletal tissue loading. Our research seeks to understand different accommodation strategies to identify and ultimately modify those strategies that may lead to negative clinical consequences.
  • Martina I. KleinTTU Department of Psychological Sciences; Many adverse patient outcomes are due to mistakes made by medical personnel. My research focuses on basic and applied human factors issues in the medical environment, with emphasis on skill acquisition, experience of mental workload and mental stress in the laparoscopic and robotic surgery environments.
  • Mary Beth Schmitt, TTUHSC Speech and Hearing Sciences: Pediatric Language Disorders Lab, Research Interests include Behavior Regulation in Children with Language Impairment (LI) Active Ingredients of Language Therapy for Children with LI Interactive Effects of Environmental, Child-level, and SLP-level Factors that Impact Language Growth
  • Phil Sizer - Spine Pain is a debilitating condition that creates personal, occupational and financial burdens on millions of individuals annually. There is evidence that spinal instability considerably contributes to the incidence and long-term persistence of spine pain. Individuals can learn voluntary spinal sensorimotor control strategies that can serve to increase spinal dynamic stability, which can lead to correction and prevention of spinal pain. Our research examines individuals' specific capacity to incorporate selected stabilizing control strategies during functional activities of daily life and seek to understand the mechanical and functional consequences of using those strategies.

March 2015 Hosted by the Department of Political Science

Hosted by the Department of Political Science

Speakers:

  • Lisa Gittner, assistant professor in the Dept of Political Sciences will talk about her research on health policy
  • Gregg MurrayAssociate Professor of Political Science, will talk about his research on the effects of evolutionary forces on political behavior.
  • Dennis Patterson, Professor and Chair of the Dept of Political Sciences will talk about research in the department in general. He also will talk about the Earl Survey Research Lab
  • William Westney, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Music and Eva Browning Artist-in-Residence (piano), will talk about his transdisciplinary team research project in which motion capture technology and fMRI brain scans are used to analyze and compare the physical gestures of performing pianists and investigate how they are perceived by others.

January 2015 Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Speakers:

  • Dorothy Chansky - Dorothy Chansky writes about how and why particular theatre audiences' experiences and expectations inflect staged work. Her two forthcoming books investigate representations of domestic labor and food on American and international stages, exploring how what is presented as real or realism can expose but can also repress actual material conditions. Domestic labor has, in the United States since the mid-nineteenth century, been a frequent guarantor of proper (white) womanhood, even as actual women have chafed against its grinding repetitiveness. Food's symbolic and material unwieldiness make it a rich source of meaning in theatre, what with its aesthetic and political implications of whetting the audience's appetite or turning its stomach.
  • Sharon Decker - As a member of international, interprofessional simulation organizations, Dr. Decker has promoted the development of the science and pedagogy of simulation. Dr. Decker's scholarship focuses on the pedagogy of simulation. Her educational research, supported by multiple grants, is related to how simulation can be used to improve learning and promote professional competencies. She presents nationally and internationally on topics related to simulation and interprofessional teamwork and serves as a national and international consultant to assist nurse educators in the integration of simulation into curricula and competency assessments. Dr. Decker received her BSN from Baylor University, her MSN from the University of Texas at Arlington, and her PhD from Texas Woman's University. She is a Fellow in the National League for Nursing's Academy of Nursing Education, a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, and a Commissioner for the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
  • Daniel M. Hardy - Daniel Hardy will present the rationale underlying his lab's research on susceptibility to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, with an emphasis on understanding why the rate of this injury is 3-8 times higher in female athletes than in males. The work spans the fields of sports medicine, athletic training, biomechanical engineering, reproductive biology, molecular and cellular biology, and biochemistry. 
  • Rajinder Koul - Rajinder Koul will introduce his research on the efficacy of assistive technology based interventions for people with developmental and acquired communication disabilities. Presently his work is focused on investigating the variables that effect the use of speech generating assistive devices by people with aphasia (acquired condition) and those with autism (developmental impairment).
  • Guy H. Loneragan - Open access publication facilitates greater and more diverse readership of research. In addition, many new Open Access publishers – such as the PLOS family of journals – provide a more streamlined and expeditious review process. Texas Tech University, through the OR&I, has provided funds to support open access publication.

November 2014 Hosted by the Office of the Chancellor

Hosted by the Office of the Chancellor

Speakers:

  • Jennifer Hornserves as the Director of Export and Security Compliance in the Office of Research & Innovation. In her role, Horn handles export restricted research training, inquiries related to regulatory issues, restricted party screening, technology control plans, and international shipping. She serves as the university's "empowered official" and is responsible for export licensing and technical assistance agreements.
  • Shannon Rinaldo, Dr. Rinaldo's research centers on sensory and perceptual processes in the marketplace, biological psychology theory for understanding consumers, and neuroimaging research methods. 
  • Philip SmithDr. Smith is an environmental toxicologist with broad ranging interests in contaminant exposure and responses among ecological receptors. His research is focused on pathways of contaminant exposure among mammals, birds, aquatic organisms, and trophic transfer of environmental contaminants. 
  • David Snowis responsible for intellectual property, licensing, and venture development activity across all Texas Tech campuses, which include Texas Tech University, Angelo State University, Texas Tech Health Sciences Centers, and the TTUHSC Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso. 
  • Mohamed Soliman, professor, Department of Petroleum Engineering
  • Brian StillDr. Still's research interests include medical discourse, theories of technology, online communities, Internet activism, medical discourse, techno-pedagogy, theories of technology, and open source issues.

October 2014 Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Speakers:

  • Kristi Gaines- Dr. Gaines will provide a summary of her research on the effects of the built environment on behavior. Her multi-disciplinary research primarily focuses on environmental perception and cognition for special populations. She has partnered with experts in interior design, architecture, healthcare, education, and apparel design to conduct research projects in the US and UK focusing on individuals with neuro-diversities.
  • David H.J. Larmour - Discourses of identity established in the Classical World continue to dominate the intellectual and cultural, scientific and philosophical, underpinnings of many contemporary "Western" societies. What can we learn from the ways in which the Greeks and Romans saw themselves: who they were, whence they had come, and how they related to others and to the landscapes/cityscapes in which they lived? Prof. Larmour's research over the past 30 years has examined Greek and Roman self-definition in three areas: (a) Body—e.g., Greek athletic competition, Roman gladiatorial combat, theatrical performance. (b) Space—e.g., mythical landscapes, the cityscape of Rome, the border-zones of empire. (c) Time—e.g., decline vs progress, "lost" Golden Ages, the imagining of Empire. He works in an international collaborative network, established with colleagues both here at TTU (through the Centre for Archaeology and Ancient Studies, CAAS) and in other universities across the globe. This network seeks to promote and publish innovative studies relating to identity and self-definition, with the aim of bringing the multifarious aspects of Classical experience to bear on the most urgent questions of the day.
  • Kendra K. Nightingale - Is it possible to be too clean?  Some have proposed that lack of exposure to microflora and parasites during childhood contributes to asthma.  It is also possible that lack of exposure to bacteria in food may result in an immune system that is not sufficiently primed to deal with the occasional highly virulent pathogen that may be on food from time to time.  This so-called hygiene hypothesis is an important question from the basic understanding of the interaction between bacteria and humans to the applied food policy development. Dr. Nightingale, a molecular microbiologist, has developed a collaborative and novel approach to explore the existence and consequence of the hygiene hypothesis applied to an important food borne bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes.
  • Susan San Francisco - The Center for Biotechnology and Genomics is an interdisciplinary research and educational resource that has served the research community at both the TTU and TTUHSC campuses for approximately 25 years. The Center core facilities house instrumentation for use in qualitative and quantitative studies of a variety of molecules. Recent areas of significant growth are in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics as applied to such diverse areas as cancer research, behavioral correlations of gene expression, microbiomes, and agriculturally important crop responses to environmental stress.

September 2014 Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Hosted by the Office of Research & Innovation

Speakers:

  • Harvinder Singh Gill -  Dr. Gill will introduce his research on immune engineering and micro-nano medicine. He performs fundamental and translational research in the fields of vaccines, nanomedicine, and drug delivery to help address some of the pressing biomedical challenges facing human health. Presently he is engineering pollen grains as Trojan horses to facilitate oral vaccination, developing a universal influenza vaccine and engineering microneedles for local tumor drug delivery to treat oral squamous carcinomas and skin cancers. His transformative research necessarily integrates engineering and life sciences to produce products to benefit society.
  • Naima Moustaid-Moussa - Dr. Naima Moustaid-Moussa will provide a summary of her research program and the Obesity Research Cluster initiative on campus. Her research primarily focuses on adipose tissue biology and inflammation in relation to obesity and metabolic disorders. The Obesity Research Cluster she is leading is a new interdisciplinary initiative recently funded by the President Cluster Tier 2. The goal of this initiative is to foster and develop collaborations in obesity-related areas translating basic research into clinical and community applications. The long term goal is to develop a strong interdisciplinary and impactful obesity program in Lubbock that will also position TTU/HSC to attract future major funding in obesity and related cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.
  • Annette Sobel - Dr. Sobel will discuss a number of opportunities for collaboration between the TTUHSC and TTU and agency funding opportunities, and where she believes the high-payoff areas for research and education reside. She has focused her career on One Health, systems engineering and homeland security/defense.
  • Kay Tindle - Kay Tindle will introduce the goals of the Research Development Team (RDT). This team fosters new and innovative initiatives to increase competitiveness and move TTU to the forefront of top research universities. One of the goals of RDT is to increase collaboration between researchers in order to leverage our campus research strengths and partnerships. To accomplish this goal, RDT: Facilitates collaborations between research groups to increase submissions of multi- and inter-disciplinary proposals valued at $1 million or more; Coordinates catalytic research events, seminars and workshops to help expand the knowledge base, develop partnerships and increase cooperation and collaboration; Assists in developing new on-campus research working groups.
  • Eugene Wang- Dr. Wang is the associate director of the Institute for Measurement, Methodology, Analysis, and Policy (IMMAP). He will discuss the mission of IMMAP and the services and opportunities it provides for faculty and students.