Dr. Adam Safer’s Herpetology Class Assists with Turtle Survey

/ Stephanie Hughes

Dr. Adam Safer’s summer herpetology class is featured in the most recent bulletin published by Georgia Department of Natural Resources.  Back in June, they had the opportunity to help biologists check turtle traps located on the Alapaha River and the results are in – they logged four different types of turtles, with the Suwannee alligator snapping turtle as the targeted species, the largest of which weighed nearly 40 pounds!

Students were able to assist in obtaining data on these snappers including sex determination, weighing, measuring upper and lower shell lengths, and marking them with a transponder. This information will be integral in helping assess the species’ status.

Check out the bulletin in its entirety here: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/GADNR/bulletins/2ee21e9.

Dr. Safer’s summer herpetology class – photo by Chris Coppola, USFWS.

Biology Graduate Student Kenyanna Taylor Wins Presentation Award

/ Stephanie Hughes

Current Biology graduate student Kenyanna Taylor was recently awarded second place in the Graduate Oral Presentation Competition at the American Peanut Research and Education Society Conference held on July 11-14. The title of her presentation was “Effect of Mixing Elemental Sulfur with Demethylation Inhibitors (DMI) and Quinone Outside Inhibitors (Qoi) on the Management of Late Leaf Spot (Nothopassalora personata) and Rust (Puccinia arachidis) of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)“, and her graduate advisor is Dr. Emily Cantonwine in VSU’s Department of Biology.

The purpose of the study was to assess whether or not adding elemental sulfur would increase the efficacy of two types of fungicide (DMI and QoI) used to treat two fungal pathogens (late leaf spot and peanut rust) of Arachis hypogaea (peanut).

CONGRATULATIONS KENYANNA!

CoSM Welcomes New Dean, Dr. Pierre-Richard Cornely

/ Stephanie Hughes
Dr. Pierre-Richard Cornely

The College of Science and Mathematics welcomes new Dean, Dr. Pierre-Richard Cornely, from Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA, where he was the Chair of the Science & Technology Division.

Dr. Cornely received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and brings to Valdosta State unique corporate and academic experiences with a focus on student success, team building, and community engagement.

Welcome to VSU, Dean Cornely!

Promotions Received by Five CoSM Faculty Members

/ Stephanie Hughes

The College of Science and Mathematics wishes to congratulate the following five CoSM faculty members on their recent promotions. As outlined by the University, promotion is awarded to faculty members who demonstrate superior teaching; outstanding professional service to the university and/or the community; outstanding research, scholarship, creative activity, or academic achievement; and professional growth and development. Promotion to the rank of associate or full professor at a regional university like VSU requires the earned doctorate or its equivalent in training, ability, and/or experience.

Congratulations to Biology faculty member Dr. Corey Anderson for his promotion to Full Professor! Dr. Anderson’s research interests lie in spatial ecology and spatial genetics, and he teaches courses on ecology, evolution, and spatial analysis.

Congratulations to Chemistry faculty member Dr. Alexandrina Focsan for her promotion to Full Professor! Dr. Focsan’s research interests are all about carotenoids, and she teaches courses on physical and computational chemistry, as well as carotenoid research.

Congratulations to Mathematics faculty member Dr. Shaun Ault for his promotion to Full Professor!  Dr. Ault serves as the department head, and his research interests lie in algebraic topology and computational mathematics. He teaches courses on set theory and topology.

Congratulations to Mathematics faculty member Dr. Sandra Trowell for her promotion to Full Professor! Dr. Trowell’s research interests include mathematics classroom norms & proportional reasoning, and she teaches courses on curriculum & methods for teaching mathematics.

Congratulations to PAGET faculty member Dr. Dereth Drake for her promotion to Full Professor! Dr. Drake’s research interests include plasma stability and planetary entry modeling for Jupiter and Titan. She also teaches courses on plasma physics and thermodynamics.

CoSM Welcomes New Faculty for Fall 2021 Semester

/ Stephanie Hughes

The College of Science and Mathematics wants to extend a warm welcome to our new faculty members who will be joining Valdosta State this fall. Each of these individuals bring a wealth of knowledge to their respective departments, and we are eager to have them on our team as we continue to educate our students in the fields of Aerospace Studies/AFROTC, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences & Engineering Technology (PAGET).

V-State Computer Science welcomes new faculty member, Assistant Professor Dr. Ahana Roy Choudhury. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and her research interests are in the fields of Computer Vision and Machine Learning, working on medical imaging problems and drone localization.

V-State Computer Science welcomes new Assistant Professor, Dr. Krishnapriya Kottakkal Sugathan who earned her PhD in Computer Science. Her research focus is Cybersecurity, Biometrics and Artificial Intelligence, with specific interest in increasing accuracy of facial recognition systems.

V-State Chemistry welcomes new Assistant Professor Dr. Shipra Gupta. As a photochemist, her current research focus is using photochemical pathways to synthesize industrially relevant compounds and designing smart materials using natural resources.

V-State Biology welcomes new Assistant Professor Dr. Ansul Lokdarshi, a biochemist who uses biochemical, cellular and molecular methods to understand plant responses to environmental stresses. He is also active in K-12 outreach to increase love of plant biology.

V-State Biology congratulates Mr. Joshua Brown (M.S. in Biology) on his recent appointment as Lecturer. He will be teaching introductory biology labs and courses in Anatomy & Physiology. His research interests focus on population & molecular genetics.

V-State Mathematics congratulates Ms. Anna Lane (M.S. in Mathematics) on her recent appointment as Lecturer. She will be teaching courses in College Algebra and Trigonometry.

V-State PAGET welcomes new Lecturer Ms. Neda Shirazi who holds a M.S. in Industrial Engineering. She will be teaching courses in our Industrial Engineering Technology program; her research interests include supply chain engineering and operations research.

V-State PAGET welcomes new Assistant Professor Dr. Billy Quarles. His research focuses on the evolution of planetary systems including how our Solar System began and planetary orbits of binary star systems as well as the discovery of new planets in these systems.