College of Science

Spring 2009 Dean's List: The College of Science has announced the dean's list for Spring 2009. Congratulations to the students who made the list. The dean's lists for Fall 2008, Spring 2008, Fall 2007, Spring 2007, Fall 2006, Spring 2006, Fall 2005, Spring 2005, Fall 2004, Spring 2004, Fall 2003, Spring 2003, and Fall 2002 are also available.

Students Liam Dorney, Matt Racine and Roxana Hickey were featured on the University of Idaho home page.

Read about former ASUI President Jon Gaffney, who graduated in May 2008 with degrees in mathematics and history.

Bryan Wilson, who graduated with a math degree in May 2009, won a national Goldwater Scholarship. More information.

The University of Idaho placed 55th out of more than 500 schools participating in the 2008 Putnam Competition, which is the premier annual undergraduate competition in mathematics.

FACULTY AND STAFF NEWS

College of Science Faculty and Staff Awards for 2009

Hejun Kang, assistant professor of geography, won the 2009 Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Transportation Geography from the Association of American Geographers. The title of her dissertation is "Moving Beyond the Individual: Activity-Based Modeling of Time Use and Travel Behavior Incorporating Intra-Household Interactions." Professor Kang earned her Ph.D. at McMaster University and joined the University of Idaho faculty in 2008.

Congratulations to Dr. Larry Forney of the Department of Biological Sciences and Dr. Paul Joyce of the Department of Mathematics on winning university faculty awards. Dr. Forney won the University of Idaho Award for Excellence in Research or Creative Activity. Dr. Joyce won the Donald Crawford Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award. More information.

Congratulations to Zachary Blurton, assistant director of college recruiting and student relations, on winning an Outstanding Employee Award for 2009.

Dr. Dennis Geist of the Department of Geological Sciences was featured in a recent press release from the Charles Darwin Foundation regarding a volcanic eruption in the Galapagos Islands.

Congratulations to the following College of Science faculty who have earned tenure and/or promotion:

Dr. Zaid Abdo of Mathematics and Statistics is being featured on the University of Idaho home page. More information.

The Department of Chemistry has acquired a new gas chromatography-mass spectrometer for undergraduate teaching for the new chemistry forensics option. More information.

Dr. James Nagler and Dr. Joe Cloud of the Department of Biological Sciences have published a paper on the effect of human birth control chemicals on rainbow trout populations. More information.

Dr. You Qiang of the Department of Physics and Dr. Andrzej Paszczynski of the Department of Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Biochemistry have won a $732,000 grant from the Department of Energy to develop methods to use highly magnetic nanoparticles to extract radioactive materials from spent nuclear fuel. More information.

Dean Scott Wood has published results of his research on acidic waters. More information.

Dr. Erica Bree Rosenblum of the Department of Biological Sciences has published a paper on her research on an ancient fungus that is killing frogs in large numbers. More information.

The university has received a five-year, $15 million NSF EPSCoR grant to study the impact of climate change on water resources in Idaho. This is the largest grant received by the university. Dr. Von Walden of the Department of Geography is directing the project. More information.

Dr. Chien Wai of the Department of Chemistry has developed technology using supercritical fluids to recover enriched uranium from radioactive waste. More information.

A team of faculty from the university's Initiative for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST) has won a $9.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Larry Forney of the Department of Biological Sciences is directing the project, which is a renewal of the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant first awarded in 2002. More information.

Dr. Dennis Geist, professor and chair of Geological Sciences, is working on a project studying undersea volcanoes near the Hawaiian Islands. More information.

Dr. Larry Forney and colleagues in the Departments of Biological Sciences, Mathematics, and Statistics have published important new research on the health impacts of microbial ecology in the human vagina. More information.

Idaho Science Spring 2005 (pdf) The newsletter of the College of Science