Natasha McFadden
Natasha McFadden, The Cortland Fund, was honored at the Leadership in Civic Engagement Awards Ceremony on April 25. She received two awards for her work with the SUNY Cortland Cupboard food pantry: the Donald M. Wilcox 2019 Civic Engagement Award for her service on the Cortland Cupboard board, and the board was recognized with the Civic Engagement Leadership Award. Also, she received the Civic Engagement Leadership Award as a member of the New York State Mentor Program.
Kathleen A. Lawrence
Kathleen A. Lawrence, Communication Studies Department, had three poems, all abecedarians of different types, published in Inigo Online Magazine on April 12. They are titled “Mean Girls,” “H-I-V: Hope Is a Verb” and “King.” In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, Poetry Super Highway has been publishing daily poetry writing prompts. Featured in this series on April 6 was Lawrence’s writing exercise “I’m Taking a Mulligan,” an instructional essay that suggests writing a poem about a “do-over” of a day or event in one’s life.
Dennis Weng
Dennis Weng, Political Science Department, had his paper published in the Asian Journal of Comparative Politics in January. The article is titled “Can economic profit influence public opinion? Observing generational change on cross-strait relations in Taiwan.”
Susan Wilson
Susan Wilson, Recreation, Parks and Leisure Studies Department, presented with Jennifer Hinton of Western Carolina University at the 2019 American Therapeutic Recreation Association’s annual conference held in September in Reno, Nev. They presented “Social4: Deeper understanding of social skills, social affiliation, social cognition, social empowerment and beyond.”
Jennifer Janes
Jennifer Janes, The Cortland Fund, recently learned that the office won a SUNY Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) Award for Excellence Best in Category award for the 2010 Faculty and Staff Campaign. The award will be presented during the annual educational conference scheduled for June 8-10 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Marissa Whitaker
Marissa Whitaker, Conley Counseling and Wellness Services, twice presented about cannabis, harm reduction and the evolution of prevention — at a virtual conference hosted by Stanford University and at a conference in New Orleans for the American College Health Association.
Katherine Hicks and Andy Roering
Katherine Hicks and Andy Roering, Chemistry Department, serve as co-advisors to the SUNY Cortland Chemistry Club, which is a student chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Club members were featured in the cover photo of the April/May issue of inChemistry, the magazine for ACS student members. This photograph was taken in May 2015 at Kionix, Inc. in Ithaca, N.Y. The student club president at the time, Samuel Lothridge, who graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry in 2015, is currently employed at Kionix and was an intern there then. The picture was taken during a field trip that the club took to Ithaca to visit the Cornell synchrotron and Kionix.
Moataz H. Emam
Moataz H. Emam, Physics Department, and physics graduate Jesse Chandler '14 collaborated on a research paper that was recently published in the Journal of Classical and Quantum Gravity. “Geodesic structure of five-dimensional non-asymptotically flat 2-branes” summarized research in the context of the superstring theory and studies the motion of light particles around a 2-brane, which is a higher dimensional generalization of black holes. This specific brane has interesting properties in that it has a gravitational field that doesn’t get weaker as one gets farther away from it.
Frank Rossi and Terrence Fitzgerald
Frank Rossi, Chemistry Department, and Terrence Fitzgerald, Biological Sciences Department, are the principal authors of an article titled “Response of the neonate larvae of Cactoblastis cactorum to synthetic cactoblastins, a newly identified class of pheromonally-active chemicals found in the caterpillar’s mandibular glands” appearing in the journal Chemoecology. Four recent Cortland students are coauthors of the paper: Daniel Rojas ’19, a current a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of Delaware, Danielle A. Cervasio ’17, currently a PhD candidate at Stony Brook University majoring in neuroscience, John Posillico ’16, now a middle school science teacher in New York City, and Kyle Parella ’17, currently a PhD candidate in biochemistry at SUNY ESF. The paper is the fifth to be published by the principal investigators that explores the possibility of using the insect’s own pheromones as an eco-rational alternative to biocides in managing populations of the invasive caterpillar. The research was support by grants from the USDA-APHIS.
Carol Van Der Karr, Susan Wilson, Andrea Dávalos, Michael Hough and Tim Baroni
Carol Van Der Karr, Academic Affairs, Susan Wilson, Parks, Recreation and Leisure Studies Department, and Andrea Dávalos, Michael Hough and Tim Baroni, all from the Biological Sciences Department, volunteered at the 24-hour community BioBlitz Sept. 8 and 9 held at the Cayuga Nature Center in Ithaca, NY. The event was sponsored by Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Sciences (SIPS) and the Cayuga Nature Center and the censing work was done at the both the center and The Smith Wood Preserve in Trumansburg, a patch of old growth forest near Taughannock State Park that has recently yielded newly discovered species for the Cayuga Lake Basin. A BioBlitz is the cataloging of all life forms, from mammals to bacteria, that can be found in a defined area over a 24-hour time span. It is meant to serve as a baseline snap shot of biodiversity for the area. The first ever BioBlitz was held in 1996 at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C. Such events are now common across the US and can cover small or large areas, such as national parks, and the time frames can be extended to a year or more. Van Der Karr and Wilson helped with the census for mollusks (snails and slugs) and annelids (worms). Dávalos assisted with identification of non-native annelids, Hough helped with identification of plants and Baroni with collecting and identification of fleshy fungi (mushroom and relatives). The BioBlitz started at 5 p.m. Friday at the Cayuga Nature Center and included talks and demonstrations that evening until 9 p.m. on snails, slugs, bats, spiders, moths and other nighttime insects. Saturday’s events began at 10 a.m. and included talks, walks and demonstrations on plants, fungi, microbiology, bees, large wild animal back yard feeding and birds. In addition, some of the selected organisms collected by the survey teams and brought to the nature center for identification were placed on display, along with field guides and literature on identification of organisms in nature. The event drew nature enthusiasts from as far away as Rochester, N.Y., and resulted in an overflow parking capacity at the center on Saturday.