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Embryology

L’Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 – Benzinga – Benzinga

On June 23rd, the Fondation L'Oral and UNESCO will be celebrating 45 eminent women scientists from over 35 countries and all regions of the world at an unprecedented For Women in Science International Awards Ceremony being held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The past three years have been some of the most challenging for science in recent history. Women have been on the frontlines, addressing unparalleled issues related to climate change, disease, and health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite being essential to tackle today's emergencies, female scientists are not yet sufficiently visible and numerous.

PARIS, INTERNATIONAL RALLYING POINT FOR FEMALE SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE

Starting on June 20th, the entire week will be dedicated to making Paris a rallying point for some of the world's top scientific minds. A series of events will create interactions between these outstanding women scientists, including an Extraordinary Lecture at the Academy of Sciences and networking events, leading up to the Awards Ceremony at UNESCO on June 23rd.

In this special Ceremony gathering the laureates from the past three editions, 15 exceptional researchers will receive the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards in recognition of their outstanding scientific achievements in recent years, along with 30 young female scientists, selected in 2020 and 2022, who will earn the title of International Rising Talents.

COUNTERING THE SIDELINING OF WOMEN SCIENTISTS

According to UNESCO recent data, the number of women pursuing scientific careers is increasing slightly, only one in three researchers is a woman globally1. In the research world, the glass ceiling persists: just 14%2 of senior academic positions in Europe are held by women and just 4% of the Nobel prizes in science have been awarded to women.

Alexandra Palt, L'Oral Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer and CEO of the Fondation L'Oral, said: During the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen how women scientists are essential to respond to existential threats to our health, to society, to the planet. But still they are invisibilized and often face tremendous obstacles during their careers and research studies. This situation is the result of systemic barriers, unconscious bias, self-censorship but also discrimination. This is not just a problem for women: this is a problem for research. To be relevant, research has to be inclusive and needs all its talents to be mobilized.

According to Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences of UNESCO: Many of the rising female talents being celebrated this year are excelling in fields that will be vital to decarbonizing our future, such as energy storage systems, hydrogen fuel systems and quantum optics, a field of study which is paving the way for more energy-efficient computers. Yet many of their peers working in similarly strategic fields are not getting the recognition that they deserve. UNESCO, as the UN agency in charge of science, which has made gender equality a priority, is determined to act to put an end to these inequalities. The L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science partnership is a relevant example of positive action in this field, giving a voice and visibility to women scientists and to their achievements to meet the challenges of our century.

Since its inception in 1998, the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science program has honored and supported 3,900 women scientists. It continues to lobby for these women to receive the recognition that they deserve. These brilliant female researchers have contributed significantly to their respective scientific fields and to finding effective solutions to some of the most pressing and urgent challenges that we face as a global society. This year's celebration will be a way to acclaim them for their life's work and the many obstacles they have overcome.

DISCOVER THE LAUREATES AND INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS CELEBRATED THIS YEAR

More information on these 45 women in science awarded by clicking on this link

LAUREATES 2022

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Agns Binagwaho, PUBLIC HEALTH AND PEDIATRICS, Professor of Pediatrics and Vice-Chancellor of Global Health Equity University, Kigali, Rwanda

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Professor Hailan Hu, NEUROSCIENCE, Professor and Executive Director of the Neuroscience Center of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor ngela Nieto, EMBRYOLOGY AND BIOMEDICINE, Professor at the Institute of Neuroscience (CSIC-UMH), San Juan de Alicante, Spain

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Maria Guzmn, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND VIROLOGY, Director of the Research Center of the Pedro Kouri Institute (IPK), Institute of Tropical Medicine, Havana, Cuba

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Katalin Karik, BIOCHEMISTRY, Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America, and Senior Vice President at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, Philadelphia, United States of America

LAUREATES 2021

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Catherine Ngila, CHEMISTRY, Acting Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences, Former Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Academic and Student Affairs (DVC-AA) at Riara University, Kenya, and Visiting Professor of Applied Chemistry at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Professor Kyoko Nozaki, CHEMISTRY, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, Japan

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor Franoise Combes, ASTROPHYSICS, Professor and Galaxies and Cosmology Chair at the Collge de France in Paris, and Astrophysicist at the Paris Observatory - PSL, France

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Alicia Dickenstein, MATHEMATICS, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Shafi Goldwasser, COMPUTER SCIENCE, Director of the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California Berkeley, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, United States of America and Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Weizmann Institute, Israel

LAUREATES 2020

LAUREATE FOR AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Professor Abla Mehio Sibai, MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES, Professor of Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

LAUREATE FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Doctor Firdausi Qadri, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Senior Scientist, Head Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Unit, Infectious Diseases Division, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

LAUREATE FOR EUROPE

Professor Edith Heard, FRS, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany, Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory at the Collge de France, Paris, France, and former Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology Unit at the Institut Curie, Paris, France

LAUREATE FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Professor Esperanza Martnez-Romero, ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Professor of Environmental Science at the Genomic Science Center, National University of Mexico, Mexico

LAUREATE FOR NORTH AMERICA

Professor Kristi Anseth, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Distinguished Professor, Tisone Professor and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado, Boulder, United States of America

INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2022

AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Dr. Lina Dahabiyeh, BASIC MEDICINE, The University of Jordan, Jordan

Dr. Ndeye Maty Ndiaye, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal

Dr. Waad Saftly, PHYSICS, Al-Baath University, Syria

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Dr. So Young Choi, INDUSTRIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea

Dr. Van Thi Thanh Ho, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, Hochiminh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam

Dr. Pantana Tor-ngern, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Dr. Daria Smirnova, PHYSICS, Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy

of Sciences, Russia

EUROPE

Dr. Natalia Bruno, PHYSICS, National Institute of Optics of the National Research Council, Italy

Dr. Karolina Mikulska-Ruminska, PHYSICS, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland

Dr. Ieva Plikusiene, CHEMISTRY, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, PHYSICS, Stockholm University, Sweden

LATIN AMERICAN AND THE CARIBBEAN

Dr. Maria Florencia Cayrol, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Institute of Biomedical Research - UCA - CONICET, Argentina

Dr. Irene del Real, EARTH & RELATED ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, Austral University, Chile

NORTH AMERICA

Dr. Daphn Lemasquerier, PHYSICS, University of Texas at Austin, United States of America

Dr. Alison McAfee, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, University of British Columbia and North Carolina State University, Canada

INTERNATIONAL RISING TALENTS 2020

AFRICA AND THE ARAB STATES

Dr. Laura-Joy Boulos, FUNDAMENTAL MEDICINE, Institute of Applied and Human Neurosciences (INSAN), Saint-Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon

Dr. Nowsheen Goonoo, MATERIAL SCIENCES, BIOMATERIALS, Drug Delivery and Nanotechnology Unit, Centre for Biomedical and Biomaterials Research, University of Mauritius, Rduit, Mauritius

Dr. Nouf Mahmoud, HEALTH SCIENCES, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory, Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Dr. Georgina Nyawo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Clinical Mycobacteriology & Epidemiology (CLIME), Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

Dr. Rui Bai, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Structural Laboratory, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

Dr. Huanqian Loh, PHYSICS, Center for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Dr. Mikyung Shin, MEDICAL ENGINEERING, Nature-inspired Biomaterial Engineering Laboratory, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

EUROPE

Dr. Vida Engmann, MATERIAL ENGINEERING, SDU NanoSYD, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Snderborg, Denmark

Dr. Serap Erkek, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Cancer Epigenomics Laboratory, Biomedicine and Genome Center, Izmir, Turkey

Dr. Jennifer Garden, CHEMISTRY, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Dr. Cristina Romera Castillo, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, Barcelona, Spain

Dr. Olena Vaneeva, MATHEMATICS, Department of Mathematical Physics, Institute of Mathematics of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Dr. Paula Giraldo-Gallo, PHYSICS, Quantum Materials Laboratory, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogot, Colombia

Dr. Patrcia Medeiros, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Laboratory of Biocultural Ecology, Conservation and Evolution Institution: Federal University of Alagoas, Macei, Brazil

NORTH AMERICA

Dr. Elizabeth Trembath-Reichert, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States of America

ABOUT THE FONDATION L'ORAL

The Fondation L'Oral supports and empowers women to shape their future and make a difference in society, focusing on three major areas: scientific research and inclusive beauty and climate action.

Since 1998, the L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science program has worked to empower more women scientists to overcome barriers to progression and participate in solving the great challenges of our time, for the benefit of all. For 24 years, it has supported more than 3,900 women researchers from over 110 countries, rewarding scientific excellence and inspiring younger generations of women to pursue science as a career.

Convinced that beauty contributes to the process of rebuilding lives, the Fondation L'Oral helps vulnerable women to improve their self-esteem through free beauty and wellness treatments. It also enables underprivileged women to gain access to employment with dedicated vocational beauty training. On average, around 21,000 people have access to these free treatments every year and more than 27,000 people have taken part in professional beauty training, since the beginning of the program.

Finally, women are affected by persistent gender-based discrimination and inequalities, exacerbated by climate change. While they are on the frontline of the crisis, they remain under-represented in climate decision-making. The Women and Climate program of the Fondation L'Oral supports, in particular, women who are developing climate action projects addressing the urgent climate crisis and raises awareness of the importance of gender-sensitive climate solutions.

ABOUT UNESCO

Since its creation in 1945, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has worked to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures, and peoples, based on respect for common values. UNESCO's mission is to use its unique expertise in education, science, culture, communication and information to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development, and intercultural dialogue. The Organization has two global priorities: Africa and gender equality.

UNESCO is the only UN specialized agency with a specific mandate in the sciences, symbolized by the "S" in its acronym. Through its science-related programs, UNESCO contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, helps developing countries build their scientific and technological capacities, and supports Member States in their efforts to develop science policies and programs. UNESCO also supports Member States in their efforts to develop effective public policies that integrate local and indigenous knowledge systems.

UNESCO promotes scientific research and expertise in developing countries. The Organization leads several intergovernmental programs on sustainable management of freshwater, ocean and terrestrial resources, biodiversity conservation, and the use of science to address climate change and reduce disaster risk.

UNESCO Science Report: the Race Against Time for Smarter Development, UNESCO Publishing (2021)

European Commission 2018 She figures report

WebWireID289989

Originally posted here:
L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 - Benzinga - Benzinga

Embryology

Women, Witches, and Abortion: A Misguided Attack on Justice Alito – Public Discourse

On Roe, Alito cites a judge who treated women as witches and property. Thus reads the title of a recent op-ed in the Washington Post by Jill Elaine Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Her effort to discredit the leaked draft opinion in the Supreme Courts Dobbs abortion case rests on the writings and career of seventeenth-century jurist Sir Matthew Hale. Hasday says Justice Alito relies on Hale because he is desperate to establish that the early American legal system was opposed to abortion. In her view, he has to cite this especially odious misogynist on this point because that is the best Alito can do.

This charge is misguided in so many ways that it is difficult to know where to begin. But it is worth scrutinizing carefully and refuting clearly so that we can turn our attention to the real question raised by the draft opinion, which is the legal history and status of abortion.

An Alleged Obsession with Hale

First, Hasdays attack grossly overstates the importance of Hale, as the Alito opinion does not cite him as the only source for any legal fact. In the British common-law system, which relied not on a written constitution but on past judicial precedents, Hale was one of a number of legal scholars whose digests of those precedents was used by fellow judges. Justice Alito cites a consensus of the major writers in this fieldnoting at one point, for example, that the same legal principle is found in Bracton, Coke, Hale, Blackstone, and a wealth of authority.

In fact, there is a very good reason why Alito has to cite Hale: Justice Harry Blackmun cited him in his majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, to argue that British and early American law generally permitted abortion.

That great defender of womens reproductive rights Harry Blackmun had to resort to citing a witch-hunter and rape apologist for his arguments? Was he desperate to show that American legal history is pro-abortion? In any case, Alito had to cite Hale to respond to Blackmuns historical claim and show why it is flawed.

Misrepresenting Alito

Second, in claiming that it is Justice Alito whose interpretation is flawed, Hasday simply misrepresents him. His draft opinion notes that Hale described abortion of a quick child who died in the womb as a great crime. Hasday here accuses Justice Alito of glossing over the fact that this referred to a situation in which the woman is quick with child. Well, no, Alito says exactly that. And he elsewhere says forthrightly that under the common law abortion was a crime at least after quickeningi.e., the first felt movement of the fetus in the womb, which usually occurs between the 16th and 18th week of pregnancy.

Justice Alito says much more that Hasday ignores. He cites Hale and Blackstone and historical treatises by John Keown and Joseph Dellapenna, as well as specific court cases, to show that abortion was seen as unlawful even when quickening may not have occurred. And Hale, Blackstone, and many other authorities said that performing an abortion before quickening can be prosecuted as homicide if the woman dies. This was an early version of the legal concept of felony murder: if someone is already committing a crime, a death resulting from that illegal situation can be charged to the offender as murder. The paradigm example is that a shooting death during a bank robbery can result in a murder prosecution for the robber, even if that person did not fire the shot. Incidentally, this was also an interesting way to encourage prosecution of abortionists who endanger women.

By contrast, a patients accidental death resulting from a lawful medical procedure was not a homicide. An early abortion, then, was not seen as lawful medical practice, though it was a lesser offense than an abortion after quickening.

Historical Debates

Third, Hasday claims that Justice Alitos historical account is rebutted by an amicus brief filed in Dobbs by a group of historians. But footnote twenty-four of the Alito opinion cites that brief, as well as a brief by legal scholars that contradicts it. The first brief claims that quick with reference to the unborn child meant the mothers subjective perception of the childs movements; the second claims that it often simply meant alive and was believed to occur early in pregnancy.

Justice Alito goes on to say we need not choose between these accounts because, in the nineteenth century, they became irrelevant. Due to medical and scientific advances, in 1859 the American Medical Association began successfully urging American legislators to update their abortion laws by treating abortions at every stage as a crime. By the time state legislatures were ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, twenty-eight of the thirty-seven states had taken this step, and the rest soon followed. So whatever else these legislatures meant by the Fourteenth Amendments references to due process (cited by Roe) or liberty (cited by Casey), those words could not have meant a legal license for abortion.

Hasday wants to suggest that the move toward stronger anti-abortion laws arose from a demeaning view of women. But during that same part of the nineteenth century, American law was moving to reject British common laws tendency to wink at a husbands physical abuse of his wife. And the AMA in 1871 explained why the quickening distinction was obsolete and should be deleted from American laws, quoting with approval the widely respected legal compendium Archbolds Criminal Practice and Pleadings:

It was generally supposed that the foetus becomes animated at the period of quickening; but this idea is exploded. Physiology considers the foetus as much a living being immediately after conception as at any other time before delivery, and its future progress but as the development and increase of those constituent principles which it then received. It considers quickening as a mere adventitious event, and looks upon life as entirely consistent with the most profound foetal repose and consequent inaction. Long before quickening takes place, motion, the pulsation of the heart, and other signs of vitality, have been distinctly perceived, and, according to approved authority, the foetus enjoys life long before the sensation of quickening is felt by the mother. Indeed, no other doctrine appears to be consonant with reason or physiology but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality from the very moment of conception.

Twentieth century findings in embryology have only confirmed and elaborated that statement.

Misrepresenting Hale?

While I have no interest in defending Sir Matthew Hales very flawed views of women, marriage, or witches, it is far from clear that he originated those views or was unusual in holding them. His treatises were intended not as creative works of legal philosophy, but as compendia of principles abstracted from the range of past British judicial rulings.

Hasday criticizes the Alito opinion for describing Hale as an eminent authority in this regard. But Justice Alito was only quoting a six-to-three opinion in the US Supreme Court case of Kahler v. Kansas (2020), about the need to consult the eminent common-law authorities (Blackstone, Coke, Hale, and the like) on issues of criminal law like the insanity defense. That majority opinion was written by Justice Elena Kagan, not widely seen as a misogynist.

Apparently, as a judge Matthew Hale did convict two women of practicing witchcraft. Especially in the period from 1560 to 1630, before Hale was accepted to the Bar, witchcraft trials had already led to the execution of thousands of people throughout Europe; in Salem, Massachusetts, they led to the execution of 20 people (14 women and 6 men) in 1692 and 1693. In this regard, tragically, Hale was a man of his time. But the charge that he generally saw women as witches seems overblown.

The Checkered History of Marital Rape

Hasday further claims that Hale was uniquely influential in promoting the legitimacy of rape within marriagenot in inventing the idea, but in formulating the argument that the wife is the property of her husband. She quotes Hale as saying: The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.

Hasday offers no evidence that Hale was the originator even of this rationale, as opposed to a chronicler of British legal doctrine. One might even question whether the argument here is that a wife is simply her husbands property, as it seems more to rest on contract law: in the marriage contract, both parties have consented to being available to each other for sexual relations (that is what in this kind refers to) for life. Hale is not likely to have held that property can make valid contracts or be bound by them. Nonetheless, its true that the argument is demeaning and was later rightly rejected in British and American law.

In the United States it was first rejected in 1976, by the legislature of Nebraskaa state expected to pass anti-abortion laws if Roe is reversed. The exemption for the husband was not rejected by all the states until 1993and some states, like the pro-abortion state of California, still treated marital rape differently from other rape. In the meantime, some state courts rejected the exemption as unconstitutionalbeginning with New York in 1984, and the strongly anti-abortion state Alabama in 1986. With this legal history in mind, it is clear that the attempt to link opposition to abortion with support for marital rape is flawed.

Overall, Hasdays charge that the Alito draft opinion is based on faulty history or an obsolete and demeaning view of womens rights does not withstand careful scrutiny. This and other misguided efforts to demonize critics of Roe deserve to be analyzed and refuted so thatideallythose attempting them will ultimately stop changing the subject and begin discussing the ugly realities of abortion.

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Women, Witches, and Abortion: A Misguided Attack on Justice Alito - Public Discourse

Biochemistry

Chemistry & Biochemistry | California State University, Long Beach

Chemistry & Biochemistry | California State University, Long Beach

Jump to Content Jump to Resources

We welcome Dr. Julie Wahlman as our newest faculty member. She will teach Organic Chemistry and conduct research in Organometallic chemistry. She joins us from the University of Utah as a former NIH Ruth Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow.

Dr. Fangyuan Tian was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER award for "Surface Chemistry of Crystalline Coordination Networks." It will be used to study electron transfer processes in 2D frameworks.

Dr. Elena Grintsevich was awarded a prestigious NSF CAREER award to support work in biochemistry on "Isoform-Dependent Redox Regulation of Actin."

Nishi Rauth (l) and Miguel Palma (r), both from Dr. Bhandari's (mid) lab, won the Glenn Nagel Undergraduate and the Don Eden Graduate Research Awards, respectively, at the 34th Annual CSUPERB symposium.

Biochemistry undergrad research students Nishi Rauth (l), Jordan Cook (mid), and Madeleine Phan (r) from the Bhandari, Schwans, and Dawson labs received best poster awards at the ABRCMS Virtual Conference 2021.

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Chemistry & Biochemistry | California State University, Long Beach

Biochemistry

It felt like a turning point: Cal Poly professors recount the impact Kristin Smart has had on campus over 26 years – Mustang News

Phil Bailey has seen many things happen during his 53-year tenure at Cal Poly: the changing of Cal Polys name as California Polytechnic State University, the opening of the Robert E. Kennedy Library and the 1990 Poly Royal riots.

But one aspect of Cal Polys history that has been on his mind for the past 26 years is the disappearance and murder of former Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

Smart was a freshman at Cal Poly when she went missing while walking to her dorm from an off-campus party on May 25, 1996. She was last seen with Paul Flores, another Cal Poly student, and was reported to be heavily intoxicated.

Paul Flores and his father Ruben Flores were arrested in April of 2021 and have been charged with the murder and accessory to the murder of Smart, respectively. After a preliminary hearing held in San Luis Obispo, the trial has been moved to Monterey County and is scheduled to begin May 31.

For Bailey, one of the longest employed faculty members at Cal Poly, Smarts disappearance was a catalyst for changes regarding student safety at Cal Poly.

After 26 years, the story of Smart is still alive in San Luis Obispo. Billboards with her face can be found throughout the county, her name is frequently found in headlines and news stories and with an impending trial for her murder, Smarts name echoes through the community.

For many students on campus, these are the only ways they learn about Smart, a person who was legally declared dead in 2002 before some students were born.

However, there is a group of about 57 faculty members that were employed at Cal Poly when news struck that Smart was missing, and still work on campus to this day.

Bailey began teaching as an assistant professor at Cal Poly for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1969. He later became the dean of the College of Science and Mathematics in 1983, and it was while he held that position in May of 1996 that he said he learned of a student unaccounted for.

That student was Kristin Smart.

Bailey said that it took a couple of days to hear about her disappearance, probably early in the week following her disappearance when he read about it in the newspapers and heard it on the radio.

It was really, really of a concern to the campus and it really influenced to some extent how we did things for a while, Bailey said. It shook the campus.

Biological sciences emeritus professor Chris Kitts was in his first year teaching at Cal Poly and said that he wasnt paying much attention to the campus community due to the workload of a new professor, but he said he still remembers a feeling of worry that ensued on campus.

Like Bailey, Kitts said he first found out about a missing student via local news, as well as hearing about it across campus. The same was for music professor Alyson McLamore, who first read about Smarts disappearance in the Tribune and heard conversations in the hallways about it the Thursday and Friday after she was reported missing.

Kitts said that many conversations were held among faculty concerning the safety on campus in the wake of a missing student. These conversations carried beyond campus, as Kitts said Smart would be discussed at faculty social gatherings as well.

To Kitts, the disappearance and murder of Smart was the beginning of a new awareness on campus.

From my perspective, since I just got here, it felt like a turning point, Kitts said.

Like many other professors told Mustang News, McLamore said that not much information was released regarding Smarts disappearance which led to suspicions and rumors wafting through campus.

I cant say [the campus reaction] was horror, it was more puzzlement, McLamore said. You know, this is strange, this is weird, I wonder where shes gone.

Prior to coming to the Central Coast, psychology professor Laura Freberg had spent much of her life in city environments. She grew up in Los Angeles, but later moved to New Haven and New York City in the 1970s. She described New Haven at the time as a war zone and everyone she knew in New York City had been mugged.

Freberg said that she never quite lost that city girl, even after moving to San Luis Obispo to teach at Cal Poly in 1985. To this day, she said she is more cautious because of her city experiences.

While she said that living in San Luis Obispo is much safer than the urban war zones she described living in, she still never felt completely safe when walking on Cal Polys campus at night.

So you have these kinds of instinctive, burnt into your soul safety things, but I still dont like being at Cal Poly at night, Freberg said. I never have.

What makes Cal Poly feel unsafe for Freberg is how dark the campus is at night and its remoteness.

Kitts said that the concern for safety on campus at night is something that still pervades the campus.

[Smarts] story does get brought up when were talking about doing things late at night, Kitts said. I think everybody sort of has that on the back of their mind.

While Freberg has always felt unsafe on campus, San Luis Obispo has had a reputation of being a safe town, yet Freberg said that San Luis Obispos tendency to brush safety issues aside and Cal Polys need to maintain this elusive safety has been a hindrance to the conversations surrounding student safety and the true experiences of students.

She said that after Kristin Smarts disappearance, Cal Poly student Rachel Newhouse was raped and murdered by Rex Krebs in 1998, who was later found guilty for the abduction, rape and murder of Newhouse and Cuesta College student Aundria Crawford. Freberg said that prior to discovering Newhouse, missing posters for her were posted all over Cal Polys campus. Right before open house, though, all the posters were removed. She said she does not know who removed them.

Because heaven forbid that we express any kind of dismay about our safety to the incoming students and their parents, Freberg said. I think in dealing with a situation [of student safety], hopefully they dont come up, but if they do, I think we owe it to everybody to be a little more sensitive to kind of honoring our community.

Aerospace engineering professor Faysal Kolkailah said that it is important that the university establishes safety measures for its students, such an increased presence of police walking on campus.

Life is very, very, very, very important, Kolkailah said. We shouldnt really do anything short from making sure that we are protecting the life, the honor, the dignity of our students Our students on campus should be able to feel safe walking [on campus].

Industrial and manufacturing professor Tao Yang said that one way Cal Poly can increase their safety measures is by implementing cameras on campus. Camera surveillance on campus is one way to help solve crimes, Yang said, and the university should learn from Smarts case and the lack of surveillance of her disappearance.

How much time money and energy were wasted? Yang said.

He suggested that students advocate for such measures for their safety, like cameras and increased lighting, utilizing Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) to enact the change.

Let the students decide where to put the lights or cameras, Yang said. Its a student campus. Students should have more voices to speak up.

Kolkailah has been working at Cal Poly since 1984 and has had three daughters attend Cal Poly. He said that whenever they were studying on campus late at night, he ensured that either he would be there to walk them to their cars or make sure someone else would do it.

But Kolkailahs diligence for safety did not just extend to his daughters.

To him, all of his students over the past 38 years are his grandkids, and with that is his desire to ensure their safety as well.

All of the kids at Cal Poly [are] my daughters or my sons, Kolkailah said. Im 73 years old, so I look at all my students as grandkids. I wouldnt let any of my grandkids, at home or at school, walk alone from the library to their car at night.

Bailey and his wife Christina Bailey, faculty and chair emeritus in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, housed over 20 unrepresented and low-income Cal Poly students after their own four children left the house. When Smart disappeared, they were hosting two young women and had a heightened concern for their safety.

When she went out I said, you be careful and I want to know where you are, Bailey said.

He said that his concern, like Kolkailah, also extended to his students. Although he had always been concerned with his students safety, the disappearance of Smart increased it.

In my lab, I went around, especially to all the women in [the] lab, and I said, do you have a safe way home? And if they didnt, I either took them home or paired them up with somebody, Bailey said. But it was scary. I mean, we didnt want anything to happen to anyone else.

Like Bailey and Kolkailah, many professors echoed the same piece of advice for their students: never walk alone, especially when its dark.

For Kolkailah, remembering the early moments of the Smart case is not hard.

How can you forget that? Kolkailah said. And as I said, it makes me even more worried about my grandkids and my kids at home here and also on campus. I worry about the students Im teaching that something can happen to them, boys or girls. Now, thats not a good feeling.

Smarts disappearance is something thats weighed on Kolkailah over the past 26 years.

We lost this beautiful young lady, Kolkailah said. My heart goes for her parents, her family, her loved ones. Im not kidding, sometimes I get tears in my eyes.

Bailey, too, said that Smarts disappearance is something that has been on his mind for the past 26 years. During his tenure, he said her disappearance has led to an increased awareness on campus, and the lack of resolution for her case has kept her name alive.

I can just tell you that 25-26 years later, most of us [Kristin Smart is] at the front of our minds, Bailey said. How can we have not gotten her back?

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Biochemistry

Biochemistry in Everyday Life – News-Medical.Net

The impact of biochemistry has been seen most notably in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. However, biochemistry plays a fundamental role in everyday life, affecting different aspects of society from retail, food, cosmetics, and fashion to healthcare.

Biochemistry has been involved in the development of many products and processes used every day. These include the discovery and improvement of medical products, cleaning products and DNA recombinant technology which can be used to make important molecules such as insulin and food additives.

Biochemical and binocular knowledge has also assisted the quality and quantity of food production through improved agrochemicals, the development of crops with enhanced resistance to pests and disease, and the preparation of foods that improve human health, which includes pre- and pro-biotics and antioxidants.

Biochemistry can be considered to contain several branches. These include Enzymeology; Endocrinology; Molecular biology; Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering; Immunology; Structural Biochemistry; Neurochemistry; and Cell Biology. Each of these disciplines concerns a different component of biochemistry.

Increasingly, the global food system is under strain, with an increase in the prevalence of polarised obesity and poverty, and increased dependence on chemical fertilizer and pesticides, poor quality foods, environmental degradation, and the loss of biodiversity. As such, many practices are being revised and regenerated. These practices are informed by biochemistry.

Biochemistry is used to enhance plant growth, yield, and quality as a consequence of optimizing fertilizer components. Crop improvement has also been improved by way of increased tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, alongside augmented nutritional value.

With knowledge of the mechanism of action of fertilizers, such as nitrates, the use of fertilizer can be optimized to improve plant growth quality. An example of this is the increasing use of biochemical fertilizers including nitrogen fixes, phosphorus potassium, sulfur solubilizers, and various fungi such as mycorrhiza, and Trichoderma, as well as small molecular iron chelators called siderophores that are produced by microbes.

This is thought to ameliorate the effect of intense use of chemical fertilizers, which cause water contamination, depleted nutrients, and soul deterioration.

Biochemistry plays an important role in nutrition and health and is considered to be a powerful unsustainable tool for the improvement of health, reduction of poverty, and hunger in the world. Through the use of sustainable biochemistry, the commercialization of biochemical techniques is considered to be a powerful way of reducing brook global poverty and hunger and improving nutritional delivery across the world.

Biochemistry in agriculture. Image Credit: PopTika/Shutterstock.com

The most notable way in which biochemistry has affected nutrition is through crop improvement using several biochemically-informed techniques. Since 1996, genetically modified crop varieties have been developed through the introduction of genes or genetic elements with desirable functions.

Despite concerns, genome editing tools have recently emerged as a new form of technology and have been successfully used to modify crop genomes without evidencing the use of foreign gene introduction across a variety of species. Although they have only been used relatively recently, they have greatly improved crop yield and quality.

Characteristics of crop improvement include improved nutritional and functional quality, particularly for staple crops that satisfy high demand, such as maize, wheat, potato, and rice. For example, 20% of the world's population over one billion people - is dependent on rice cultivation as an energy supply. Gene technology has been used to improve, for example, glutinosity in rice varieties. A high-amylose and low-viscosity rice variety was produced by knocking out SBEIIb, a gene for the starch branching enzyme, using CRISPR/Cas9.

To circumvent the issue caused by cold storage of potatoes in transport, TALEN technology was used to remove a gene encoding for vacuolar invertase, which catalyzes the breakdown of sucrose into glucose and fructose. This prevents the accumulated reducing sugars that cause high levels of a potential carcinogen compound, acrylamide, produced when they react with free amino acids when cooked.

Biochemistry is also applied in the context of food contamination, with biochemistry aiding in determining detailed food chemistry. Related to this, biochemistry is essential in nutrient value tests, which can define the percentage or concentrations of nutrients in various types of foods consumed. Moreover, through a complex understanding of the macromolecular, vitamin, and mineral content of food, food can be used strategically to improve the quality of life. For example, knowledge of the effects of high quantities of sugar and fats enables doctors and nutritionists to advise patients on their dietary choices.

Rice production. Image Credit: pran/Shutterstock.com

Biochemistry is used in biotechnological applications in the textile industry. Enzymes are used routinely to bleach and wash textiles, and to change the property of clothing, for example changing the appearance of denim or preventing shrinkage of fiber types, such as wool and cotton. Increasingly, microbial involvement in the fashion industry has begun to take hold, avoiding the use of traditional chemical processes which are associated with high levels of pollution.

Spider silk, for example, is noted for its strong flexible and lightweight properties; however, it has not been possible to farm spider silk on an industrial scale in the past. However, by using fermentation bioreactors, genetically engineered bacteria can be used to produce this in large quantities. Due to knowledge of the material properties of the silk on a molecular level, this affords significant control over the final product relative to traditional materials. Moreover, this use of technology addresses the problem of sustainability as the silk is produced in the absence of animal or petroleum material.

Spider silk. Image Credit: Pablesku/Shutterstock.com

In fact, biochemically-mediated approaches have the potential to impact climate change, which is increasingly being recognized as a large challenge facing society worldwide. Biochemical knowledge has been used to identify solutions such as algal biofuels, carbon sequestration, and more efficient industrial processes, which can help protect the environment and enhance economic opportunities.

Biochemical research can also be used to understand the basic biological processes as well as complex and elegant mechanisms for harnessing energy and converting it into a form that can be used. By understanding these processes, the development of advanced biotechnology products has been achieved, which enables the production of novel types of bioenergy such as biochemical photovoltaics.

Through the identification of natural products that occur from biochemical reactions, products have been developed that enhance human health. This research has been fundamental and has increased public understanding of the importance of good nutrition and disease.

This article touches on a few examples of biochemistry in everyday life. Biochemistry continues to address the challenges faced by society worldwide, improving and influencing aspects of our lives.

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Biochemistry in Everyday Life - News-Medical.Net

Biochemistry

New discovery has potential to stop inflammation at the "growing end" – News-Medical.Net

Redness, swelling, pain - these are signs of inflammation. It serves to protect the body from pathogens or foreign substances. Researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne were able to show that inflammatory reactions of an important sensor protein proceed in a specific spatial direction. This finding has the potential to conceivably stop inflammation at the "growing end", and thus bring chronic inflammatory diseases to a halt. The study has now been published in the journal "Science Advances".

If bacteria or viruses attack living cells or other foreign substances appear in them, the danger sensor with the abbreviation NLRP3 is activated. "The protein deposits in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer's disease, the so-called amyloid- plaques, can also set NLRP3 in motion," says Prof. Dr. Matthias Geyer from the Institute for Structural Biology at the University Hospital Bonn, referring to earlier studies. As these previous studies by the researchers show, this reaction increasingly fuels itself: The inflammatory reaction triggered by NLRP3 promotes the further deposition of amyloid- plaques and contributes significantly to the disease process.

Once activated, several NLRP3 proteins attach to each other and in this way form the nucleus for a thread-like structure at which more and more proteins gather.

The reaction kicks in as soon as about a dozen of the NLRP3 molecules are present."

Prof. Dr. Matthias Geyer, Institute for Structural Biology, University Hospital Bonn

In theory, an infinite number of NLRP3 molecules can join together and extend the thread-like structure - scientifically called a "filament" - further and further. Inga Hochheiser from Prof. Geyer's team has now been able to show the direction in which this filament grows and continues to expand. "We were able to gain these insights using cryo-electron microscopy. This method makes it possible to observe protein molecules with up to 80,000-fold magnification and thus make them directly visible," says Hochheiser.

In tiny steps, the scientist drizzled NLRP3 isolated from cells onto a sample carrier and flash-froze this mixture. This provided the researchers with a kind of "still image" under the cryo-electron microscope. The emerging thread-like structure of NLRP3 molecules arranged side by side was thus visualized. "These individual images made it possible to understand how the filaments elongate, just like in a film," says Hochheiser. As the molecules fall differently on the sample carrier when drizzled, they can be seen from different perspectives under the microscope. These different views can be combined on the computer to create a three-dimensional image. The results showed that the filaments only form in one direction. "This allowed us to visualize part of the inflammatory apparatus and literally read the direction of growth," says Prof. Geyer, who led the study and is a member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 and the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Life and Health" at the University of Bonn.

"The technical challenge was to find the transitions in the thread-like structures and make them visible in the image," says Prof. Dr. Elmar Behrmann from the Institute for Biochemistry at the University of Cologne. "The new findings now allow us to target the growing end of the inflammatory response using antibodies or drugs," Hochheiser explains. This brings the researchers closer to their goal of stopping the further build-up of the inflammatory apparatus and thus counteracting chronic inflammation.

In addition to the Institute of Structural Biology and the Institute of Innate Immunity of the University Hospital Bonn, the Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Cologne and The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne (Australia) are involved in the study. Measurements were carried out at the research center caesar in Bonn and at the Rudolf Virchow Center at the University of Wrzburg. The study was funded by the Else Krner-Fresenius Foundation and the German Research Foundation.

Source:

Journal reference:

Hochheiser, I.V., et al. (2022) Directionality of PYD filament growth determined by the transition of NLRP3 nucleation seeds to ASC elongation. Science Advances. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn7583.

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Biochemistry

Photo gallery Students and campus all dressed up for commencement – University of Wisconsin-Madison

1 Soon-to-be-graduate Makenna Ley poses on Bascom Hill with her gown and decorated neurobiology and biochemistry motarboard hat while Liza Spellman take photos. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

2 Red and white tulips bloom in front of Bascom Hall. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

3 Its a hot day! Sophomore Michael Nichols takes a photo of poli sci graduate Canaan Odeh on Bascom Hill. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

4 First-year audiology graduate students, from left to right, Vee Stanarevic, Jenny Lucke, Serena Helman, and Kelly Schneider along with Mia the dog enjoy a picnic on Bascom Hill on May 11. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

5 Soon-to-be-graduate Canaan Odeh poses while wearing his graduation gown with the numerals 2022 while sophomore Michael Nichols directs his photo. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

6 Soon-to-be industrial engineering graduates Dingsheng Tao (left) and Nicholas Tam (right) pose with the numerals 2022 while wearing their graduation gowns on Bascom Hill. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

7 Soon-to-be industrial engineering graduate Dingsheng Tao poses with the numerals 2022 while Nicholas Tam takes his photo. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

8 Art supplies are ready for creative graduates at the Wheelhouse Studios Cappy Hour event. Photo by: Althea Dotzour

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Photo gallery Students and campus all dressed up for commencement - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Biochemistry

Moving biochemistry and molecular biology courses online in times of disruption – DocWire News

This article was originally published here

FASEB J. 2022 May;36 Suppl 1. doi: 10.1096/fasebj.2022.36.S1.R5451.

ABSTRACT

When the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid pivot to online instruction, a team of faculty teaching biochemistry and molecular biology courses created a resource to help other educators approach online education. The group, comprised of educators with experience teaching hybrid and fully online courses, described their strategies in areas like course design, promoting engagement, and assessing student performance. Each topic has a dedicated webpage with brief recommendations, along with a curated list of links to relevant reading, videos, and resources. The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) supported the project by hosting the resource on their website (https://www.asbmb.org/education/online-teaching). At this time, I was transitioning into a position focused on curriculum redesign; one key goal was to introduce discussion sections into a biochemistry course for majors. Drawing from the teams ideas to promote online engagement, I designed many of these activities using a collaborative whiteboard tool. These activities have now been successfully implemented both online and in-person, and offer flexibility to instructors and students as we continue to develop engaging activities for hybrid and blended courses.

PMID:35556720 | DOI:10.1096/fasebj.2022.36.S1.R5451

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Moving biochemistry and molecular biology courses online in times of disruption - DocWire News

Biochemistry

Steering committee of pulmonary and primary care experts aims to reduce time to diagnose complex lung diseases – Yahoo Finance

American College of Chest Physicians

William Lago, MD

Family Medicine Physician, Wooster Family Health Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Wooster, OH.

Andrew H. Limper, MD

Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director Thoracic Disease Research Unit, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.

Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients

Composed of pulmonologists, primary care physicians, and a nursing professional, the steering committee will work to create materials that will aid in reducing the time it takes to reach a diagnosis for interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like pulmonary fibrosis (PF).

GLENVIEW, Ill., May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) and Three Lakes Foundation are announcing a steering committee of experts in the fields of pulmonary medicine and primary care medicine to lead an initiative called Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients. Composed of pulmonologists, primary care physicians, and a nursing professional, the steering committee will work to create materials that will aid in reducing the time it takes to reach a diagnosis for interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) like pulmonary fibrosis (PF).

Affecting about 400,000 people in the United States, ILDs comprise a group of diseases that cause lung inflammation and/or permanent scars and are frequently misdiagnosed as more common lung diseases. Some studies show that reaching an appropriate diagnosis for rarer lung diseases can take upwards of several years.

Members of the Bridging Specialties: Timely Diagnosis for ILD Patients steering committee include individuals from leading medical institutions, health systems and organizations across the country:

Daniel F. Dilling, MD, FCCP, Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Loyola University Chicago, Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL.

Andrew Duggan, MPH, Patient Engagement and Innovation Leader, Boston, MA.

Jessica Glennie, APRN, MSN, Nurse practitioner, Interstitial Lung Disease Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH.

Timothy Hernandez, MD, Family Medicine Physician, Chief Executive Officer of Entira Family Clinics, San Antonio, TX.

Corey D. Kershaw, MD, FCCP, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX.

Tejaswini Kulkarni, MD, MPH, FCCP, Assistant Professor, Director, Interstitial Lung Disease Program, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL.

William Lago, MD, Family Medicine Physician, Wooster Family Health Center, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Wooster, OH.

Andrew H. Limper, MD, FCCP, Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Director Thoracic Disease Research Unit, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.

Anoop M. Nambiar, MD, MS, FCCP, Professor of Medicine, Founding Director of the UT Health San Antonio Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio, TX.

Mary Beth Scholand, MD, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Diseases, Director, Interstitial Lung Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

Story continues

While interstitial lung diseases do not affect a substantial amount of the population, those touched by the disease are impacted tremendously, says steering committee member and pulmonologist, Dr. Andrew H. Limper. Any delay in receiving a diagnosis is time that could be dedicated to finding a treatment therapy that can improve their quality of life. I look forward to the work of this committee helping to shape how patients with ILDs are diagnosed and treated in the future.

Starting with data-gathering surveys sent to both primary care physicians and pulmonologists, the committee will evaluate the findings to develop tools that can be used to aid in diagnosing complex lung diseases.

Having experts from both pulmonary and primary care medicine as members of the steering committee is critical, says steering committee member and Family Medicine physician, Dr. William Lago. Patients first see their family medicine or primary care clinicians and, all too often, the most complex lung diseases present in ways that are indistinguishable from more common conditions like asthma and COPD. Bringing together experts in both fields will yield the best results in creating a path to diagnosis.

Select members of the steering committee and representatives from CHEST and Three Lakes Foundation will be on-site (booth 2003) at the 2022 American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Francisco to provide additional details on the steering committee and the joint collaboration. To learn more about the initiative, visit the Three Lakes Foundation website or the CHEST website.

About the American College of Chest Physicians The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is the global leader in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chest diseases. Its mission is to champion advanced clinical practice, education, communication and research in chest medicine. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 19,000+ members from around the world who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. For information about the American College of Chest Physicians, and its flagship journal CHEST, visit chestnet.org.

About Three Lakes Foundation Three Lakes Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to serving as a catalyst for uniting research, industries and philanthropy in pulmonary fibrosis. We connect entrepreneurs, advocates and institutions to an innovation ecosystem that will transform our approach to improve time to diagnosis and accelerate new therapies. To learn more, visit threelakesfoundation.org.

Contact:CHESTLaura DiMasildimasi@chestnet.org224-521-9482

Three Lakes FoundationMarita Gomezmaritagomez@crispsolution.net630-936-9105

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ea95a17f-2ab7-4c31-9c40-7a14b3415411

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/39c028ad-14dc-477d-bd7a-212ef5451dc9

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9d395027-b16e-4f6d-bfa4-af2a12f72149

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Steering committee of pulmonary and primary care experts aims to reduce time to diagnose complex lung diseases - Yahoo Finance

Biochemistry

Biology Professor Greg Pask Receives Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching – Middlebury College News and Events

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. Faculty, staff, and students honored Greg Pask, assistant professor of biology, with the Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching at a ceremony in Bicentennial Hall on May 4. The annual award is presented alternately to a faculty member from mathematics or thesciences.

Earlier this year, student majors and minors in the science departments were asked for nominations for the award. The winner was chosen by a selectioncommittee.

The selection committee reviewed the letters and members were deeply impressed by the level of detail students provided to describe the myriad impacts our faculty have on students in the classroom, the research lab, and beyond, said Associate Dean of Sciences Rick Bunt, who introduced Pask. While all those nominated this year were worthy of recognition, this years awardee truly stoodout.

Pask, an insect neurobiologist, studies the powerful sense of smell insects use to locate food, find mates, and communicate with others. His research focuses on the chemical language of ants and the specific genes involved in detecting socialcues.

He earned his bachelors degree in chemistry from Muhlenberg College, his PhD in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University, and completed postdoctoral work in entomology at the University of California, Riverside. Bunt noted that Pask combines all of his academic skills in his study of chemical signaling in insectswork that has earned support from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation. His research has resulted in 11 peer-reviewedpublications.

Bunt pointed out that Pask, who arrived at Middlebury in 2020, wasted no time diving into the campus community. Greg has already made quite a mark on students through his commitment and dedication to teaching excellence in the spirit of Professor LlewellynPerkins.

Students Benjamin Morris, Daphne Halley, and Aiden Masters each offered glowing remarks at the ceremony in support of Pask. The Perkins family was represented by Catherine Harris and Andrew Perkins onZoom.

Created in 1993, the Perkins Award is provided by the Professor Llewellyn R. Perkins and Dr. Ruth M.H. Perkins Memorial Research Fund, and it was made possible by a gift from Ruth Perkins, Middlebury Class of 1932, in memory of her husband, Llewellyn, who taught at Middlebury from 1914 through1941.

Their children, Marion Perkins Harris 57, a science teacher, and David Perkins, a physician, augmented the fund and expanded the scope of the award to honor their mother, Ruth, as well as their father. The award supports the recipients faculty development. It is presented in even-numbered years to a member of the mathematics or computer science department, and in odd-numbered years to a faculty member who teaches in the naturalsciences.

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Biology Professor Greg Pask Receives Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching - Middlebury College News and Events