Outlook by TempleCST

College of Science and Technology

FAL L 2 019

INVESTING

IN COMMUNITY STEM EDUCATION

CST initiatives inspire young people to explore research and discovery.

YOUR GIFT TO CST SCHOLARSHIPS UNLOCKS OPPORTUNITY AND FUELS EXCELLENCE But excellence is harder to achieve when financial obstacles stand in the way. Too many students still must make tough decisions—taking a semester off or working full-time—because of finances. Alumni- and donor-funded scholarships enable students to take a firm hold of opportunity. With fewer financial pressures, students can carry full course loads and have more time to devote to research in the laboratory or in the field. From supporting the CST Alumni Scholarship Fund to establishing a new fund for students in a specific department, you can ensure CST’s amazing students have the opportunity to excel in science and technology. Make your gift toward CST scholarships at giving.temple.edu/givetocst. To learn more about other scholarship giving options, contact Lynne Corboy, Major Gift Officer, at lynne.corboy@temple.edu or 215.204.8192.

CONTENTS O UTLOO K

News

Fall 2019 College of Science and Technology 400 Carnell Hall 1803 N. Broad St. Philadelphia, PA 19122 215-204-2888 Michael L. Klein, FRS Dean and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science Robert J. Levis Senior Associate Dean Susan Jansen Varnum Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs and Science Education Kathy McGady Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Affairs Greg Fornia, KLN ’92 Director of Marketing and Communications

cst.temple.edu Follow the College of Science and Technology:

Research, accolades, awards and events Funded Research

External research grants in each CST department Investing in Community STEM Education

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CST faculty and students inspire young people Alumni Board Message

CST graduates can impact students’ lives Sherry Gillespie (PhD ’75, Physics)

CST’s Gallery of Success honoree Development/Alumni Relations Message

Pursuing excellence at CST Class Notes Keep up with friends and former classmates

DEAN’S MESSAGE The traditional way to describe the College of Science and Technology (CST), would be to list our six departments and several dozen majors. Or note that we offer bachelor’s, master’s, Professional Science Master’s and doctoral degrees as well as certificates and one post baccalaureate program. That same description might include the number of faculty and their research grants and citations. But to fully understand the college, one must look at how departments, programs, faculty, students and other stakeholders intersect in ways that both define who we are today and drive us toward a more collaborative and interconnected future. For example, in this issue of Outlook, you can learn how a data scientist and genomicist are building a global ‘data science playground’ to study infrastructure, archeology and more. In Pennsylvania, two CST biologists and a mathematician are investigating the spread and economic impact of the invasive spotted lanternfly. Another CST biology professor is working with a Temple bioengineer to investigate how spiders maintain stability after limb loss, which could lead to improved rescue robots. Our feature story details how, together, the college and its many community partners are inspiring future generations of science and technology leaders. With organizations ranging from the Naval Surface Warfare Center to the G.W. Carver High School of Engineering and Science to a local arboretum, CST is enhancing science education for young children, middle schoolers and students aiming for college. These activities also offer real-life teacher training for CST students enrolled in the college’s TUteach program, itself a collaboration with Temple University’s College of Education. In the alumni section you can read about a mother and daughter who faced adversity together, both graduating from Temple this past spring. Another recent graduate faced his own challenges and is now a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University. Jen Gresh, our new Alumni Board president, pens her first message for Outlook. Kathy McGady, Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Affairs, highlights how alumni and friends can support excellence here at the college. In Class Notes, you can keep up with the life events and successes of CST graduates. All of us here at CST—faculty, students, alumni, friends and partners around the world—are powering CST forward in research and teaching, innovation and impact. I thank you for joining with us. Sincerely,

Michael L. Klein, FRS Dean and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science

College of Science and Technology

Betsy Manning

Photos this page: Kelly & Massa

CST’s second Goldwater Scholar

Post Bacc Pre-Health program continues growth

Tracking Pennsylvania’s spotted latternflies

NEWS

CST celebrated the success of more than 500 graduates at the spring 2019 graduation ceremony in McGonigle Hall

CST CELEBRATES NEW GRADUATES’ SUCCESS

More than 500 graduates and their families celebrated earning bachelor’s, master’s, Professional Science Master’s and doctoral degrees at the CST spring 2019 graduation ceremony in Temple University’s McGonigle Hall. In front of one of the largest audiences ever for a CST graduation, Dean Michael L. Klein, FRS praised the graduates’ resilience and thanked friends and families for their support of students. The keynote speaker was Emily Carter, at the time dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. Known for her research combining ab initio quantum

chemistry with molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, especially as applied to etching and growth of silicon, Carter is now executive vice chancellor and provost at UCLA. The student speaker was Thatyana Morales (BS ’19, CIS), whose research focused on helping people stop smoking through the use of smart watches and machine learning. (Read her profile on page 25.) Jennifer Gresh (BS ’98, EES), new president of the CST Alumni Board, advised the new graduates to find mentors in their lives and careers and, even more important, be a mentor to someone else.

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

NEWS

CST researchers Zoran Obradovic (left) and Rob Kulathinal are working to establish more collaborations between data scientists and academics in other fields.

BUILDING A ‘DATA SCIENCE PLAYGROUND’

Temple data scientists joined hundreds of international researchers in Belgrade for the U.S.-Serbia and West Balkan Data Science Workshop, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Serbia’s Ministry of Science and Education. “We want to establish new interdisciplinary and international collaborations between hardcore data scientists like me and academics in other disciplines,” said Laura H. Carnell Professor of Data Analytics Zoran Obradović, who chaired the workshop. One successful data science-related research collaboration between the U.S. and Serbia is the dual PhD program agreement between Temple and two Serbian universities. The program’s first doctoral degree was awarded recently to Ivan Stojkovic (PhD ’18, CIS), for a dual PhD in computer and information sciences at CST and in electrical engineering at the University of Belgrade. One track at the meeting was digital archaeology, a critical inclusion given the conference’s setting near Viminacium, one of the largest cities of the Roman Empire. The site contains

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remains of temples, amphitheaters and about 20,000 ancient graves. Viminacium may hold the genetic answers to many questions about human biology and history. “Serbia was a major cradle of migration between Asia, Europe and Africa, and provides an unprecedented snapshot of human diversity in ancient times,” said Rob Kulathinal, associate professor of biology. Kulathinal, a keynote speaker at the workshop, proposed creating a living laboratory on the site and is now seeking funding to support ongoing research. Obradović is working toward similar platforms for joint research in other areas, including a power systems laboratory to develop predictive frameworks for monitoring the resilience of vital infrastructure. “We’re building a data science playground,” explained Obradović. “We want to encourage people to get out of their comfort zones and play there, too.” —Elisa Ludwig

Ryan Brandenberg

SOLVING A 200-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY

Associate Professor Xifan Wu and Roberto Car, a Princeton University professor, recently solved a 200-year-old mystery: Why do positive hydronium ions diffuse almost twice as fast in water as negative hydroxide ions? To solve the riddle, Wu told the journal Chemistry World, “We set up a state-of-the-art theoretical scheme in which the proton transfer effects of the water ions could be accurately modeled and understood.” The researchers employed molecular dynamics based on density functional theory—with corrections for non-local van der Walls interactions and self-interaction in the electronic ground state. Their conclusion: Hydronium diffuses faster in water because its structure of three hydrogen bonds usually transfers protons in concerted double and triple jumps. By comparison, the researchers determined that hydroxide diffuses more slowly because its stabilized, hyper-coordinated structure, which typically contains four bonds, prefers single proton jumps. The study was published last year in Nature Chemistry.

CST’S 2 nd GOLDWATER SCHOLAR

Mitchell Young, a physics and mechanical engineering double major, was named the second CST student in as many years to win a prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious STEM award for undergraduates. Young was one of just 496 U.S. college students selected for the 2019 scholarship from a pool of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nominated by 443 academic institutions. “It was a bit shocking when I first learned about it,” said Young. “Now it’s become something I am very proud to have accomplished.” The scholarship will award Young $7,500 for tuition, housing and fees for both his junior and senior year. During the summer of 2017, Young began working as an undergraduate researcher in the laboratory of Professor Virgil Percec, a chemistry professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his investigations: helping develop and design new 2-D and 1-D polymers capable of hydrogen bonding, as well as creating visualizations of designed polymers and simulating x-ray diffractions. “I like being able to collaborate between universities, meeting people both inside and outside of Temple and getting to know people who have made some incredible contributions to the scientific community,” said Young. Young plans on earning a PhD in materials science/engineering in order to conduct defense-related research of advanced materials. Last year, Marcus Forst (BS ’18, Phys) was the first Temple student to be named a Goldwater Scholar. (Read his profile on page 24.) —Bruce E. Beans

NEWS

POST BACCALAUREATE PRE-HEALTH PROGRAM GROWING

CST launched its Post Baccalaureate Pre-Health program in 2016, led by Grace Hershman, associate vice dean and program director, who had an eight-year history of successfully selecting applicants for the Pre-Med post baccalaureate program at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. More than 230 students have been accepted and enrolled in the program since its inception. In the 2018-2019 cycle, alumni have received offers to attend Drexel School of Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and more than twenty other schools. The program optimizes student success for applicants looking to apply to a variety of health professions: medicine, podiatry, dentistry, pharmacy and physician assistant. Post Bacc includes a

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customized curriculum that allows biology, physics and general chemistry to be taught with a focus on health professions school applications and the standardized test topics. Another unique aspect of the program is embedding learning skills and tutoring into the core schedules throughout the program. This includes customized standardized test preparation, and developing in students a deeper understanding of critical reasoning and analytical skills. “Students not only become competitive professional school applicants,” said Hershman, “but also more humanistic and compassionate and, as a result, better physicians, dentists, pharmacists and physician assistants.” More than 80 students from approximately 20 states are enrolled in the 2019-2020 class, with people transitioning from a wide range of careers.

ACCLAIMED SCIENTISTS PRESENT AT CST

COULD SPIDERS IMPACT ROBOTICS?

The College of Science and Technology and Temple Materials Institute hosted the 2019 Sheikh Saud Lecture on Advanced Materials in March 2019 featuring Naomi J. Halas, best known as the first person to demonstrate that controlling the shape of metallic nanoparticles determines their color. Halas, whose talk was titled “Nanomaterials and Light for Sustainability and Societal Impact,” is the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University, where she also holds faculty appointments in the departments of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Materials Science and Nanoengineering, and Bioengineering. The 2019 Dean’s Distinguished Lecture featured Jill Pipher, Elisha Benjamin Andrews Professor of Mathematics and vice president for research at Brown University and 2019 president of the American Mathematical Society. Her research interests include harmonic analysis, partial differential equations and cryptography. As part of CST’s 20th anniversary events, Nobel Laureate William Daniel Phillips (picture below) presented “Time, Einstein and the Coolest Stuff in the Universe,” a lively science demonstration, to students, staff, faculty and local school children.

Ryan Brandenberg

For a human, losing a limb is a traumatic experience. For a spider, not so much. They can pop off a leg or two as a form of defense without experiencing much disruption to their movement. Tonia Hsieh, associate professor of biology, and Andrew Spence, associate professor of bioengineering, are investigating how spiders adapt to limb loss and keep their stability. Their study might lead to the development of search and rescue robots that can save lives faster. Hsieh, who has explored lizard tail loss, began to wonder if there was an animal that could adapt to a more extreme change. Spiders’ bodies are pressurized, when a spider chooses to eject a limb the wound coagulates, and the spider losses no blood. Hsieh’s team analyzed hundreds of gigabytes of high-speed video showing spider movement after they had ejected two legs to see how they dealt with the change. When spiders walk, they use only four of their eight legs at a time, keeping them stable and fast. It was assumed spiders with six legs would use three legs at a time. While most spiders did, a significant number used two of their six legs at a time, then transferred to four, almost like they were limping. To the surprise of Hsieh and Spence, these spiders lost little in terms of stability and speed. Future search and rescue robots would have to navigate difficult terrain, so they need to be able to adapt to extreme conditions. Although great progress is being made, robot movement is still not very robust. Simple things like stepping off a curb, or moving from grass to concrete, can cause a robot to fail. Imagine how losing a leg would impact a robot’s functionality. Learning how spiders can take limb loss in stride, would be of great use in the robotics industry. —Adam Zajac, KLN ’19

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

Photos this page: Kelly & Massa

NEWS

The 2019 Scholarships, Awards and Student Recognition Luncheon attracted more than 200 students, their family and friends, and CST donors and alumni.

CST SCHOLARSHIP LUNCHEON CELEBRATES SUCCESS

This year, more than 100 CST students received scholarships and awards from the college and outside organizations. And close to 70 were presented to undergraduate and graduate students at the annual Scholarships, Awards and Student Recognition Luncheon. Held in the Science Education and Research Center, the ceremony honored students from the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Computer & Information Sciences, Earth & Environmental Science, Mathematics, and Physics, as well as from TUTeach and the Undergraduate Research Program. The luncheon drew more than 200 people—the largest in its history—including awardees and CST alumni and friends who have made significant contributions to awards or scholarships. Attendees, who have established and/or funded scholarships and awards, included Albert Brown (BA ’64, Chem) and Marie Koals, EDU ’63, Albert B. Brown Chemistry Scholarship; Professor Emeritus Theodore Burkhardt, Stanislav Kotsev (CST ’99) Memorial Award; Professor Emeritus Orin Chein, Orin N. Chein Most Promising Mathematics Major Award; Henry Harrison, James A. Harrison Memorial Award; Gerald Kean (BA ’65, Bio) and Marlene Chachkin, Chachkin-Kean Fund for Undergraduate Research; Professor Mia Luehrmann, Natan Luehrmann-Cowen Memorial Award; David Tepper (BA ’64, Math; CLA ’66, ’69), David Tepper and Elaine Kowalewski Scholarship in Mathematics; and Seda Tarzian (BA ’48, Bio), Seda Tarzian Endowed Scholarship.

College of Science and Technology

Kelly & Massa

MAGNETIC ‘SPIN FLIPS’ HAPPEN MUCH FASTER THAN THOUGHT

Solar cells, quantum computing and photodynamic cancer therapy all involve molecules switching between magnetic and nonmagnetic forms, which occurs by flipping the spin of electrons. It used to be assumed that this “spin flip” process occurred slowly in organic molecules—but not anymore. In research published in Nature Chemistry, Chemistry Professor Spiridoula Matsika and collaborators at the University of Missouri demonstrated that this process happens in one half of one trillionth of a second—and demonstrated why. The Missouri researchers conducted a scattering experiment where beams of molecules collided with each other, which created a chemical reaction inside a vacuum chamber. They then teamed up with Matsika, who used computational modeling to figure out why the spin flips were taking place, and why so fast. Their conclusion: as the products were exiting the reaction they could still interact long and strong enough to enable the spin flip to occur. “It was completely unexpected,” noted Matsika, who has taught at Temple since 2003. “That had never been observed before. “I also think that it is important in science to combine both experimental research and computational modeling,” said Matsika. “That’s when you get a more complete picture of what is actually happening.” PROFESSOR MITREA EARNS PRESTIGIOUS SIMONS FELLOWSHIP

—Bruce E. Beans

Irina Mitrea, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics from 2016 to 2019, has been awarded a prestigious Simons Fellowship. The program, aimed at researchers in both mathematics and theoretical physics, provides funding for up to a semester-long research leave. The goal of the Simons Fellowship is to allow recipients to focus solely on research for the sustained periods often necessary for significant advances. With the Simons Fellowship support, Mitrea plans to visit the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, Instituto de Ciencias Matematicas in Madrid, Uppsala University in Sweden and the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University. Professor Mitrea, who recently received a three-year $180,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, is the first Temple University recipient of the award since its inauguration in 2012. In 2015, Mitrea was elected as fellow of the American Mathematical Society “for contributions to partial differential equations and related fields as well as outreach to women and under-represented minorities at all educational levels.” She is also part of the 2019 class of fellows of the Association for Women in Mathematics. “Mitrea is uniformly recognized throughout the mathematical community as a leader in her field of harmonic analysis and partial differential equations,” explained Brian Rider, professor and current chair of the Mathematics Department. “This well-deserved award is just one more indication of the importance of her work, and yet another reflection of the incredible strides our department has made over the course of the last decade.” Spiridoula Matsika

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

Angela Lu

NEWS

COMPUTER VISION AND CROWDSOURCING TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING

More than 60 percent of child sex trafficking survivors were at one point advertised online, according to 2016 research by the University of New Hampshire. These advertisements often include photos of the victim posed provocatively in a hotel room. To help law enforcement identify where these photos were taken, Associate Professor Richard Souvenir has teamed up with George Washington University researchers, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the St. Louis County, Missouri, Police Department to devise a system called TraffickCam. Recently funded by a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Justice, the research agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, TraffickCam incorporates millions of U.S. hotel room images collected from both publicly available travel websites and crowdsourced photos submitted by more than 100,000 users of the project’s mobile app, who voluntarily take photos while traveling, and a new computer vision approach that supports classification of the hotel room images and fast image-search capabilities for particular objects in rooms—all powered by deep neural networks. The system, which the researchers continue to refine, has already been used successfully in some prosecutions. “It’s not a silver bullet that solves cases on its own,” Souvenir said. “But it’s one more tool that can lead law enforcement officials to apprehend criminals in the hotels or, more commonly, provide corroborating evidence to show where they have engaged in criminal activity.” —Bruce E. Beans

Biochemistry faculty (l to r): Rongsheng Wang, Robert Stanley and Carol Manhart.

BIOCHEMISTRY GROWING AT CST

In the past four years, the number of CST’s undergraduate biochemistry majors—a major that is jointly offered by the Chemistry and Biology departments—has increased approximately 26 percent, to 349 majors. “Having more of a biochemistry research focus is a good avenue to attract undergraduate and graduate students, and to enable them to see how the field impacts general science research,” said Assistant Professor Carol Manhart, who explores the mechanisms of proteins that repair DNA mismatches and prevent genomic instability. Since his arrival three years ago, Assistant Professor Rongsheng Wang has also detected significantly increased interest from both graduate and undergraduate students in working with him. “Every week I get three to five emails from students interested in joining my lab for undergraduate research experiences,” said Wang, a biochemist who develops probes to dissect, or therapeutics to target, the proteins essential for the onset and relapse of such disorders as cancer, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. “It’s the chemistry of life,” added Professor Robert Stanley, who uses laser spectroscopy and biochemistry to understand the mechanism of light-driven repair of UV-damaged DNA. “It’s one of the most interdisciplinary of all the sciences. From gene editing to drugdelivery antibiotics, none of that would have been possible without biochemistry.” —Bruce E. Beans

College of Science and Technology

Betsy Manning

ENHANCING ‘INTERNET OF THINGS’ PERFORMANCE

Smart locks. Smart thermostats. Smart appliances. Modern homes and businesses increasingly feature everyday objects that, through a smart hub or router connected to the internet, offer sophisticated sensing and remote activation capabilities. But as smart as they are, they—and the smart phones used to access and control them—are vulnerable to security threats. To address these concerns, four CIS researchers—Professor Xiaojiang Du, Laurel H. Carnell Professor Jie Wu, Professor Xubin He and Associate Professor and Chair Jamie Payton—received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation. According to Du, the principal investigator, “internet of things” (IoT) devices are vulnerable, in part, because tens of thousands of manufacturers are making the devices, and many often don’t follow best security practices, interactions between apps on IoT devices could create security issues, and software bugs in some of the apps could be exploited by hackers. “These hackers could unlock your smart door, or use your security cameras to watch you,” said He. There are also concerns that, as usage of these devices increases, systems could be challenged by the large amounts of IoT data communicated over networks and stored in cloud-based data centers. In response, the CIS team is developing a new testbed and infrastructure for exploring security issues that make the IoT vulnerable and new approaches to make the IoT more robust and scalable. The testbed incorporates: hundreds of IoT devices; an IoT edge-computing server; multiple software-defined network (SDN) switches; and state-of-the-art storage facilities. “These IoT devices, and our research, have a wide range of applications,” explained Du, “including for smart homes, healthcare and life sciences, cybersecurity, municipal infrastructure, retail, manufacturing, agriculture, education, automation and entertainment.” —Bruce E. Beans

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

NEWS

CREATING HAITI’S FIRST-EVER PRIVATE NATURE RESERVE

A CST professor and CEO have teamed up to establish private nature reserves to protect Haiti’s dissappearing species. With funding from Global Wildlife Conservation and Rainforest Trust, the first park has been purchased: Grand Bois, a mountain in southwest Haiti with endangered plants and animals. “The native species of plants and animals in Haiti need greater protection,” said Carnell Professor S. Blair Hedges, director of CST’s Center for Biodiversity, who has been surveying the last remaining tracts of Haiti’s original forests before they disappear. Haiti has less than 1 percent of its original primary forest and is going through a mass extinction of biodiversity. However, they identified a few remaining biodiversity ‘hot spots’ where original forests and their species still exist, including Grand Bois. His partner in the effort is Haitian businessman Philippe Bayard, CEO of Sunrise Airways and president

of conservation group Société Audubon Haiti. In 2015, Haiti declared Grand Bois a national park, identifying it as a priority for conservation and validating the critical need to acquire and protect the area. To assemble the mountain tracts, Bayard and Hedges sought donors to purchase private land and fund park management. After delays from government instability in the last two years, the Grand Bois purchase was completed in January 2019. “It is a jewel of biodiversity with about one half of the orginal forest intact above 1,000 meters of elevation,” explained Hedges. “Its more than 1,200 acres holds at least 68 species of vertebrates including some found nowhere else in the world and plants and animals previously thought to be extinct, such as Ekman’s Magnolia tree and the Tiburon Stream Frog.” —Greg Fornia, KLN ’92

RESEARCHERS TACKLE INVASIVE SPOTTED LANTERNFLIES

Biology Assistant Professors Matthew Helmus and Jocelyn Behm, along with Associate Professor Benjamin Seibold, are investigating the spread and economic impact of the spotted lanternfly planthopper, an invasive insect from Asia. Since first found in Berks County, Pa. in 2014, it has spread rapidly throughout Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia region, and threatens $18 billion worth of the commonwealth’s commodities—including vineyard grapes, fruit trees, hardwood trees such as black walnut and maple, and Christmas trees. With $117,000 in funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, researchers are merging data science, field biology and mathematical modeling to predict how the pest is spreading. Helmus is using data science techniques to identify landscape variables associated with increased spread; Behm is field sampling landscape genetics to estimate connectivity among pest outbreaks; and Seibold, from the Department of Mathematics, is constructing mathematical models that calculate where people and their vehicles might inadvertently spread the pest. The state and USDA will use this information to help with their control efforts. “I do think that control is possible, but I think there is going to have to be a lot more focus by both the public and the government,” said Helmus.

New faculty in the Department of Computer & Information Sciences Xinghua Shi

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Xinghua Shi comes to CST from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics. Before joining UNC Charlotte, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Shi earned her PhD in computer science from the University of Chicago, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and technology from Beijing Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on development of tools and algorithms to solve large-scale computational problems in biology and biomedical research. Her work is supported by Wells Fargo Foundation Fund, DARPA, NIH and NSF, including a 2018 CAREER Award.

SYMPOSIUM HONORS GENE LIKENS, ACID RAIN PIONEER

A symposium on science communication was held in April at Temple University in honor of Gene Likens, winner of the 2019 Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science. Likens is known for his development of watershed scale science and his leadership in identifying the threat of acid rain in North America. Likens worked to educate the public and the U.S. Congress on the threat, which led to the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990. The symposium honored his efforts by providing advice to other scientists about how to advocate while still conducting rigorous science. The symposium was organized by Professor Laura Toran, who along with Professor Robert Sanders, Biology Department chair, nominated Likens for the medal. Likens received his medal at a ceremony at the Franklin Institute.

Yan Wang

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Yan Wang comes to CST from SUNY Binghamton, where he was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. He earned his PhD from Stevens Institute of Technology, specializing in computer engineering. His research interests include internet of things, cyber security and privacy, smart healthcare, mobile sensing and computing and connected vehicles. Wang has published one book chapter, authored and co-authored more than 26 journal and conference papers and peer-reviewed journals including: ACM MobiCom, ACM MobiSys, ACM MobiHoc, ACM CCS, IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE ICDCS and IEEE TMC. He earned three Best Paper Awards from IEEE CNS 2018, IEEE SECON 2017 and ACM ASIACCS 2016. His research has received broad press coverage, including BBC News, Yahoo News, NBC New York, WCBS TV and Voice of America TV. He holds 3 U.S. patents, two of which are under commercialization.

Yu Wang

PROFESSOR

Yu Wang comes to CST from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he was professor and senior associate chair in the Department of Computer Science. He earned his PhD in computer science from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Wang’s research focuses on the design and analysis of algorithms/ protocols/systems for large-scale networks (such as wireless networks, social networks and vehicular networks), smart sensing (using wireless/acoustic signals or leveraging mobile crowds), and mobile computing (including mobile edge computing and AI-enabled mobile systems). He is a fellow of the IEEE.

Joseph Labolito

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

Adam Zajac

NEWS

Assistant Professor Alexander Gray

CST LAUNCHES U.S.’S FIRST LAB-BASED 5.4 KEV HARD X-RAY ANGLE-RESOLVED PHOTOEMISSION SPECTROMETER

A research team headed by Alexander Gray, assistant professor of physics, completed the construction and testing of a unique university-based instrument to study complex multilayer quantum material systems. Gray’s hard X-ray photoemission spectrometer, equipped with a six-axes cryogenic goniometer and a wide-acceptance-angle electrostatic electron analyzer, is the first such laboratory-based system in the U.S. and the most versatile lab-based hard X-ray system in the world. “The ever-growing demand for miniaturization and increased speeds in next-generation electronic devices has taken science to the quantum frontier, a frontier where emergent nanoscale phenomena require us to clearly differentiate among the properties found at the surfaces, the bulk or interiors and the interfaces of various materials,” said Gray. “These types of measurements require an extremely energetic source of X-rays.” It is possible to conduct such research at a handful of largescale synchrotron radiation sources at several national and international laboratories. However, the demand is so high that individual researchers often are limited to using such technology

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only a few days per year, and after a rigorous international peer-review competition process, according to Gray. “We expect that this system will change the way in which hard X-ray photoemission experiments are currently carried out,” said Gray, who notes that the instrument was funded by Temple University, Army Research Office and CST’s Dean Office. “Without the need for a synchrotron source and with unlimited continuous experimental time, we can now carry out comprehensive studies which cannot be done elsewhere.” “Modern day devices consist of many layers of different materials,” explained Gray. “This instrument allows us to probe beyond the surface layers, and to see what’s happening in the entire device, including buried layers and interfaces. Gaining such an understanding is not just important for basic science, but could be potentially transformative to modern computing. It could bring us closer to new devices that can be operated with minimal energy expenditure, at speed limits governed only by the fundamental laws of physics.” —Bruce E. Beans

NIH GRANT TO FUND NEW APPROACH TO CHEMICALLY LABELING PROTEINS

Brookhaven National Laboratory

RESEARCH ELUCIDATES ORIGIN OF SPIN IN PROTONS

A major new finding about the fundamental structure of all matter was published by a group of researchers that includes a CST physicist and two former Temple graduate students. Appearing as a rapid communication in the journal Physical Review D, the research stems from an analysis of data produced by the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC) experiment conducted at the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) on Long Island in polarized proton-proton collisions. The new data is derived from the STAR experiment that added detail—and complexity—to an intriguing puzzle that scientists have been pondering: How the building blocks that make up a proton effect its spin (both protons and neutrons form the center of each atom). “After multiple years of experimental work at RHIC, this exciting new result provides a substantially deeper understanding of fundamental quantum physics questions regarding how quantum fluctuations affect the dynamics of quarks inside the proton,” said Professor Bernd Surrow, vice chair of the Physics Department and 2019 American Physical Society fellow. In a field dominated by males, Surrow notes that two women who formerly were graduate students in his laboratory—Amani Kraishan (PhD ’18, Phys) and Devika Gunarathne (PhD ’17, Phys)—were two of the three graduate students who analyzed the data that led to the publication of the research. Kraishan is currently an adjunct professor both in CST’s Physics Department and at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University in Jordan. She continues to collaborate with the Temple group. The research was funded by an ongoing grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, which featured the research on its Office of Science website.

Rongsheng Wang, assistant professor of chemistry, has been awarded a five-year, $1.95 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an innovative approach to chemically label protein changes—a strategy that could lead to advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, inflammatory and neurogenerative diseases. Wang’s focus is on what are called post-translational modifications (PTMs) of proteins, primarily caused by enzymes after proteins first form. The PTMs modify proteins with additional chemical functions that can alter the function of the proteins and, thus, activities in cells. “PTMs have recently emerged as a class of important biological pathways that have been reported as a key to certain human diseases such as cancer, inflammatory disorders and neurogenerative diseases,” said Wang, who noted that the current tools to label PTM are limited because they can actually create unwanted effects in the molecules under study. Wang is proposing a new, multi-step process that avoids such effects, including interference with cellular signaling. It uses the chemical fluorine to more accurately and completely label PTMrelated proteins. His objectives include: (1) developing a technique to tag substrates, or proteins underlying the PTMs, with the chemical fluorine; (2) using this fluorine-tagging strategy to study the underlying proteins that make up PTMs—which are potentially important to the survival of cancer cells, but not regular cells; and (3) investigating PTM substrates that, in the thymus gland, control the activation of T cells—which play a pivotal role in the body’s immune responses. “Our goal is to invent a chemical labeling method that efficiently and accurately identifies disease-associated subcellular components,” said Wang. “It could lead to the identification of previously unknown proteins that could be key players in controlling disease pathways. This would greatly accelerate disease diagnosis and treatment, and result in a tool box of PTM probes that the entire scientific community could use.” —Bruce E. Beans

—Bruce E. Beans OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

FUNDED RESEARCH AT CST NEW RESEARCH GRANTS 2018-2019

Biology Vincenzo Carnevale • Regulation of Sensory TRP Channels by Phospholipids and G-Proteins, National Institutes of Health Erik Cordes • Advancing Edna as a Tool for Exploration in Deepwater Environment, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research Giacomo Fiorin • IPA Assignment Agreement with DHHS, NIH Antonio Giordano • Role of Rb Family Proteins in Mediating Gene Expression Through Epigenetic Mechanisms in Normal and Cancer Cells, Sbarro Health Research Organization Inc.

S. Blair Hedges • Genetic Relationships and Identification of an Unidentified Species of Gecko from the Dominican Republic, Knight Foundation Matthew Helmus • An Integrative Approach to Model, Predict and Control the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma Delicatula) Invasion, Pa. Department of Agriculture David Liberles • Collaborative Research: Expanding List of Determinants of Rates of Protein Evolution and Dissecting their Molecular Bases, NSF Anna Moore • Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Intrinsic Excitability, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation • Unraveling the Molecular Mechanisms of Neuronal Plasticity, Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Sergei Pond • Biological Properties of HIV-1 V3 Evolutionary Variants, NIH • Development of Secure HIVTRACE, Centers for Disease Control Robert Sanders • Collaborative Research: Diversity and Ecological Impacts of Antarctica Mixotrophic Phytoplankton, NSF Brent Sewall • Wildlife and Conservation Monitoring and Management at Fort Indiantown Gap

National Guard Training Center (NGTC), Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (PaDMVA) • Forestry and Conservation Monitoring and Management at Fort Indiantown Gap NGTC, PaDMVA • Integrated Training Area Management at Fort Indiantown Gap NGTC, PaDMVA • Geographic Information Systems Program of the Fort Indiantown Gap NGTC, PaDMVA • Range and Training Land Assessments (and Seasonal Augmentation) at Fort Indiantown Gap NGTC, PaDMVA

Chemistry Rodrigo Andrade • Synthesis and Evaluation of Narrow-Spectrum Antibiotics Targeting MRSA, NIH Eric Borguet • MRI: Development of a Timeresolved, High-resolution Nonlinear Optical Microscope for Interfacial Studies, NSF Hai-Lung Dai • Chemical Mechanisms of Biodeterioration of Aircraft Fuel Studied by Nonlinear

Light Scattering, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

in Free Space and in Optical Microcavities, NSF

Michael L. Klein • Computational Chemical Science Center: Chemistry in Solution and at Interfaces, DOE

Yugang Sun • EAGER: Imaging of ElementSpecific 3D Distribution Dynamics in Working Bimetallic Catalysts by in situ Anomalous Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering, NSF

Ronald M. Levy • Mapping Fitness and Free Energy Landscapes of Proteins, NIH Spiridoula Matsika • Quantum Chemical Methods for Studying Photon and Electron Driven Process, NSF Christian Schafmeister • Development of Intelligent Systems for Macromolecular Catalysts, Atomically Precise Membranes and Therapeutics, ThirdLaw, LLC • Developing Nanometer Scale, Atomically Precise Metallocatalysts with Molecular Lego, U.S. Department of Energy • Molecular Lego Based Organophosphatase Mimics, Department of Defense • Atomically Precise Membranes for Gas Separations, Mainstream Engineering Corporation Francis Spano • Modeling Molecular Aggregate Photophysics

Susan Varnum • REU Site, NSF Rongsheng Wang • Novel Protein Agents for Image-guided Cancer Immunotherapy, Fox Chase Cancer Center • Novel Stapled Peptides to Target Leukemia-Related Protein-Protein Interactions, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center • Steric-free Labeling Strategies to Study Disease-related Non-histone Substrates of Posttranslational Modifications, NIH Katherine Willets • OP: Super-resolution Imaging of Plasmon-molecule Interactions, NSF Stephanie Wunder • I-Corps, NSF Michael Zdilla • Maximizing Redox Frustration

PROFESSOR BORGUET EARNS MORINO LECTURESHIP

Eric Borguet, professor of chemistry, was selected as a recipient of the prestigious Morino Lectureship in Japan. Named after molecular scientist Yonezo Morino, the Morino Foundation for Molecular Science presents the award to distinguished scientists and researchers each year. Fellow Morino recipients include Nobel Prize laureates and Hai-Lung Dai, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Chemistry and Vice President for International Affairs. The Morino Lectureship funds Borguet’s travel for several weeks to lecture in Japan at research institutions and universities. He lectured at the Japan Society of Molecular Science, where he was one of two invited speakers from the United States, the other being Michael L. Klein, CST dean and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science.

in Hybrid Organic-inorganic Energetic Materials to Pursue New Realms of Energy Density, Office of Naval Research

Computer & Information Sciences Eduard Dragut • BIGDATA: F: Collaborative Research: Collective Mining of Vertical Social Communities, NSF Xiaojiang Du, Xubin He and Jie Wu • MRI: Development of an Information Assurance and Performance Infrastructure for the Internet of Things, NSF Xiaojiang Du and Jie Wu • SpecEES: Collaborative Research: Study of the Tradeoff between Spectrum Allocation Efficiency and Operation Privacy in Dynamic Spectrum Access Systems, NSF Xubin He • SHF: Understanding, Modeling and Systems Support for HPC Data Reduction, NSF Krishna Kant • EAGER: Exploring Magnetic Communication for Challenging Environments, NSF Longin Jan Latecki and Haibin Ling • RI: Small: Learning Shape Features with Deep Neural Networks, NSF • Focus Area Image Search with Target Object Detection, Amazon Research Awards Program Zoran Obradovic • Characterizing Diversity of Demographics and Health Conditions Affecting Risk for Comorbidities Development in Cancer Patients, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology • Detection and Countering R&D for Counter-UAS, Northeastern University • Disease Detection and Disease Progression Modeling, IQVIA • US-Serbia and West Balkan Data Science Workshop, NSF Zoran Obradovic and Eduard Dragut • EAGER: Assessing Influence of

News Articles on Emerging Events, NSF Jamie Payton • Collaborative Research: Retaining and Engaging Computer Science Majors by Solving and Visualizing Algorithmic Problems on Real-world Data Sets, NSF • EAGER: Collaborative Research: Enhancing Impact of Broadening Participation in Computing Efforts through the STARS Cohort Conference Attendance Program, NSF • MRI: Development of an Information Assurance and Performance Infrastructure for the Internet of Things, NSF Richard Souvenir • An Object-Centric Approach for Image Analysis to Combat Human Trafficking, National Institutes of Justice Pei Wang • Cognitive Automation via Reasoning and Learning, Cisco Jie Wu • Cyber Forensic Tool Kit for Machinery Control, TDI Technologies Inc.

Earth & Environmental Science Timothy Myers • Collaborative Research into the Paleoecology of Jurassic Terrestrial Landscapes, NSF Dennis Terry • An Inter-disciplinary Approach to Constraining Paleogeomorphic Responses to the Eocene-oligocene Hothouse to Icehouse Transition, NSF • Document Significant Fossil Localities within the Sharps Formation, Badlands National Park, National Park Service Laura Toran • CZ RCN: Research Coordination in Carbonate Critical Zones, NSF • I-95 Girard Avenue Interchange Stormwater Project, AECOM/PennDOT • Workshop: How Does Infrastructure Shape Equity and Well-Being Across the Urban-Rural Gradient, NSF

CST’s Undergraduate Research Program offers students the opportunity to work with worldrenowned scientists. Each year, the URP Symposium lets student present their research posters before a group of faculty judges, with the winners earning a monetary award.

Mathematics Shiferaw Berhanu • Unique Continuation and Regularity of CR Mappings, NSF David Futer • Conference Proposal: Classical and Quantum Three-Manifold Topology, NSF • Hyperbolic Geometry: Effective, Quantum, and Coarse, Simons Foundation • Hyperbolic Manifolds and Their Groups, NSF Isaac Klapper • Determining how a Dynamic Microbiome Contributes to Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease, NIH Irina Mitrea • Singular Integral Operators for Higher Order Elliptic Boundary Value Problems in Uniformly Rectifiable Domains, Simons Foundation • Singular Integral Operators for Higher-order Systems in Nonsmooth Domains, NSF Irina Mitrea and Maria Lorenz • Mathematical Confluences: A Partnership Between Temple University and Philadelphia High School for Girls, Mathematical Association of America Gillian Queisser • Collaboration Toward an Experimentally Validated Multiscale Model of rTMS, NIH Matthew Stover • Geometry, Topology, and Rank-1 Lattices, NSF

This list does not represent all current research funding at CST.

• Temple University Graduate Student Conference in Algebra, Geometry and Topology, NSF Samuel J. Taylor • Conference: Young Geometric Group Theory VIII, NSF

Physics Martha Constantinou • EIC physics from Lattice QCD, Department of Energy Early Research Program • Hadron Form Factors using State-of-the-art Simulations in Lattice QCD, Argonne National Laboratory Alexander Gray • Lab-Based Hard X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer and Diffractometer for Probing Depth-resolved Electronic Structure of Quantum Materials and Interfaces, U.S. Army Research Office Early Career Research Program • Emergent Phenomena at Mott Interfaces: A Time- and Depthresolved Approach, U.S. Department of Energy Jeff Martoff • Collaborative Research: DarkSide-20k: A Global Program for the Direct Detection of Dark Matter Using Low-Radioactivity Argon, NSF Andreas Metz • Hard Scattering Processes in QCD, NSF Dmitri Romanov • Transient Optical Nonlinearities Engendered

by Femtosecond Laser Filamentation In Gases, NSF Nikolaos Sparveris • Hall C Experimental Hall Effort, Jefferson Science Association • Studies of Hadronic Structure, U.S. Department of Energy Qimin Yan • Design, Control and Application of Next-Generation Qubits, U.S. Department of Energy • Synthesis of Motif and Symmetry for Accelerated Learning, Discovery and Design of Electronic Structures for Energy Conversion Applications, Department of Energy Early Career Research Program

STEM Education & Outreach Susan Varnum • 2018-19 Middle School Scholars Program, Friends of Carver High School of Engineering and Science • 2018 & 2019 Navy Summer Programming, Naval Surface Warfare Center • Frances Velay Fellowship at Temple University (2019-2021), Panaphil Foundation • Philadelphia Regional Noyce Partnership Scholarship Program, Saint Joseph’s University • Sail with Seaglide, Naval Surface Warfare Center • STEM Teacher Education and School Strengthening Activity (STESSA), 21st Century Partnership for Stem Education

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

INVESTING

IN COMMUNITY STEM EDUCATION

STEM Scholars

CST’s initiatives—designed for first graders, middle schoolers and students on the cusp of college—inspire young people to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

Photos by Ryan Brandenberg and Elizabeth Manning, Temple University

Whether it’s an underwater robotics challenge, plant anatomy lessons at an arboretum or mathematics instruction aimed at girls and young women, the College of Science and Technology’s community STEM programs are far reaching. CST’s education outreach not only inspires children from North Philadelphia and beyond to consider science and technology careers, it also provides Temple students with opportunities to hone their teaching skills and make a positive impact on young people’s lives. “Community engagement is one of Dean Michael Klein’s strategic initiatives and my job is to carry out that mission,” says Susan Varnum, Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs and Science Education who also leads the college’s STEM Education and Outreach group. “And many of the college’s outreach efforts are connected to TUteach, our science teaching training program, which gives us the bandwidth to maintain a large portfolio of activities.” Paid and unpaid internships for coursework and volunteer positions within the group’s portfolio are open to the broader student community as well. All of these initiatives give CST undergraduate students valuable work experience, which makes them more appealing to potential employers, Varnum says. “We’ve never had any student who’s been active in any of these programs get turned down for a job.”

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

Photos by Kelly & Massa

SeaPerch and SeaGlide Competitions

One initiative is CST’s partnerships with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch and SeaGlide Challenges. Held on Main Campus and in the pools of Pearson and McGonigle Halls, both events involve a competition where middle- and high-school students design underwater robots (SeaPerch) and autonomous underwater vehicles (SeaGlide). Temple students oversee the event and the regional winners then go on to compete for a national championship. “These events bring kids from 25 high schools and 50 middle schools to campus and it’s a fun and intense competition,” Varnum says. “It’s also an opportunity for our college and Temple to shine brightly.” Another major initiative, Let’s Get Ready ACCESS Partnership, is a joint program between the nonprofit organization Let’s Get Ready and Temple, designed to make SAT prep and college readiness resources available to lowincome families. Offered twice a week in 10-week blocks, the class reaches nearly 500 high-school students each year. “Participants receive free tutoring from our TUteach students in math and verbal skills, as they prepare for the SAT,” Varnum says. “They also take a college trip and talk about developing a financial pathway to enrolling.” The program has been effective—active participants typically come away with significant increases in SAT scores. The Middle School STEM Scholars Program, in partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and George Washington

College of Science and Technology

Carver High School of Engineering and Science helps to both prepare middle schoolers for ninth grade and to gain acceptance to selective high schools in Philadelphia that are the primary pathway to four-year colleges. STEM Scholars is free and open to all who apply with the caveat that they complete one of CST’s free residential two-week summer camps. The program continues on Saturdays through the academic year. A related and similar program called STEM-UP is offered to rising ninth, tenth and eleventh graders. CST also conducts the Greater Philadelphia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, a citywide research competition co-sponsored by the City of Philadelphia, the United States Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the Academy of Applied Sciences. This daylong event includes STEM activities, networking opportunities and a talk by an inspirational speaker in a STEM field. The breadth and depth of community programs at CST is unusual, Varnum says, and she’s proud of its impact. “Not many major universities offer comprehensive education programs for middle schoolers, students in high school and students about to enter college,” she says. “What makes us unique is that CST’s commitment to STEM outreach starts with Dean Klein—who has invested college resources into making these opportunities available—and continues through all our departments and programs.”

MAKING A LASTING IMPRESSION At Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day, held in March 2019 for the eighth consecutive year, dozens of Philadelphia middle school students gathered at Temple to share their love of all things quantifiable. With studies showing that girls are more likely to lose interest in math and mathematics careers in their pre-teen years, interventions during this time are critical to retaining women in the discipline. “Mathematics is a male-dominated field, and even if girls are interested in this subject, they might only see one or two peers like them in their classroom,” says Irina Mitrea, professor and former chair of the Department of Mathematics. “Here, they have the opportunity to come together with 75 other girls, which makes a big, positive and long-lasting impression on them and their parents.” Created with the aim of fostering young women’s interest in, and likelihood to pursue the study of mathematics and mathematics-related careers, the American Women in Mathematics-sponsored event has become a major highlight for the CST graduate and undergraduate students who run and organize the workshops, competitions and awards ceremony. For Temple’s mathematics students, both undergraduate and graduate, the experience is a valuable one for gaining leadership and mentoring skills easily transferable to future careers across academia and industry.

“We have a large outreach program for a department of our national research ranking and our size,” says Mitrea, who, together with Professor Maria Lorenz, put these programs into place when she came to CST in 2011. “Our long-term goal is to create a regional network to support students interested in mathematics in our surrounding community.” Another program promoting the entry of women and particularly low-income women and women of color into the field is the department’s partnership with the Philadelphia High School for Girls, an ongoing series of events sponsored by a minigrant from the Mathematical Association of America. “We’re building professional bridges between higher education mathematics and high schools,” Mitrea says. “The activities include a boot camp at the start of the school year to get students up to speed for their math classes. We also provide tutoring activities throughout the semester in which our undergraduate and graduate students visit the school on a regular basis.” Recently, Mitrea saw firsthand the benefits of this outreach work when a Temple undergraduate student volunteering for Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day revealed that she had actually attended the event herself as a middle-school student. “Our program left a very good impression on her, clearly, and that’s what we’re hoping for,” Mitrea says. “If we can continue to build a diverse pipeline of students, we can do a great service to the mathematical and scientific community at large.”

Sonia Kovalevsky Mathematics Day

Photos by Kelly & Massa

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

Photos by Ryan Brandenberg, Temple University

Adventure camp

Bioinformatics

Photo by Greg Fornia

ENHANCED TEACHER TRAINING The Department of Biology hosts a weeklong bioinformatics camp, funded by a National Science Foundation grant for Philadelphia teachers each June. “The discipline of bioinformatics is now integral to working at any major health-related or biological initiative whether it’s in a university, research institute or industry setting,” says Professor Jody Hey. “We thought it was crucial to bring these skills to public school teachers.” Taught by Temple professors, postdoctoral students and TUteach students, part of what makes the program special is that NSF funding provides participating teachers with a laptop to keep, and it comes installed with the software they’ll use in class. During the week, the attending teachers develop a curriculum module they can take back to their school classrooms to share the knowledge with students. “The teachers tell us there’s nothing like this in their schools and they recognize how important it is to apply these kind of curriculum components to high-school science,” Hey says. “We know how important computer skills are in general for these students and being able to combine them with life sciences experience will give them an important edge going into college and beyond.” Hey says they’re looking to expand the camp and run more sessions each summer, possibly developing a parallel program for high-school students who are interested in careers in computers, medicine and/or life sciences.

College of Science and Technology

Working with a very different group of students—first graders—a few miles from Main Campus in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood, the Department of Biology collaborates each summer with Morris Arboretum’s Adventure Camp. The partnership came about when Assistant Professor Rachel Spigler noticed there were untapped opportunities for learning as very young children encounter nature. “I’d watch my own child draw a flower and it was always a sunny-side-up egg,” she says. “I wanted kids to better understand the parts of the flower and their purpose, how pollination occurs, and why bees are so important. I reached out to the camp in 2014 to see what we could do there.” The result has become an annual session where trained undergraduates show campers how to examine and identify the parts of a flower and how to compare different flowers. The segment also includes related games and arts and crafts projects. For CST students, it’s a great hands-on opportunity to try out their teaching skills on a new audience. Spigler designates time for the Temple students in her lab to develop their STEM-infused projects and create pre- and post-assessments to measure their effectiveness. “I give them a basic scaffold with the core learning objectives but they really use their own creativity in designing activities,” says Spigler, who’s hoping to expand by offering the program to kindergarten classes. “The kids really enjoy the activities. For CST students, it’s great to get out of the academic bubble and participate in outdoor natural education where they can use what they’ve learned in new ways.”

Photos by Elizabeth Manning, Temple University

CST STUDENTS TAKE THE LEAD The student-run Temple University Chemical Society (TUCS) runs several public programs that engage schoolchildren, high schoolers and others about the discipline. Most significantly, the group assists the American Chemical Society’s Philadelphia chapter in presenting the Herb Bassow Memorial Lecture chemistry demonstration event each December, inviting 500 middle- and high-school students to campus to watch demos, participate in workshops and visit labs and classrooms. Over the school year, TUCS also stages hands-on science activities and demonstrations at G.W. Carver High School, and sends undergraduate chemistry majors for bimonthly mentoring visits to the Tanner Duckrey Elementary School. A typical activity is making liquid nitrogen ice cream with students, which showcases chemical reactions in a delicious way. “I was able to personally mentor students at Duckrey and work with them on their science fair projects,” says TUCS vice president Vanessa Fischer. “Fostering student interest in science and helping them through the entire process was really exciting and I look forward to working with the program again this year.” Each March, TUCS hosts an undergraduate volleyball competition called Setting the Spike for Science. Local high schools and undergraduates form teams for a daylong tournament at Temple that raises money for local high school science programs. “Setting the Spike is fun because it’s very different from our usual chemistry-related events. This serves as a way for us to increase our reach with Temple students and we see a lot of new faces,” Fischer says. Another fundraiser, Chem Wars, takes place in April. The intercollegiate chemistry competition raises money for the Ronald McDonald House. Society members also participate in Women in STEM Day at The Franklin Institute, which showcases women in science to the museum’s general public. Given its extensive work in the community, TUCS was recently awarded an outstanding local chapter designation. The honor is motivating the group to continue on with its outreach efforts. “We’ve seen how important it is to stay involved,” says faculty advisor and professor of instruction Steven Fleming. “These activities are rewarding for everyone who participates.”

VEX Robotics

—Elisa Ludwig

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

ALUMNI

Message from the CST Alumni Board President That’s me, peeking out from the corner of a selfie I took after my remarks to the CST graduating class of 2019.

Learn more about how you can get involved at cst.temple.edu/alumni or email cstalum@temple.edu

What an amazing moment. I welcomed graduates into the Temple alumni family, and then told them about an ‘ah ha’ moment I had early in my career. The details can wait for another time—maybe when I see you at an alumni event—but it was a moment when I realized it’s not just about me and my success. Life is about supporting everyone around me, helping colleagues succeed and making the whole team better. That kind of environment is what I experienced in what was then the Geology Department, from professors who mentored me and inspired my deep love for, well, rocks. Today, I’m focused on being a mentor, both in my life as a geologist and through CST’s Owl to Owl Mentor Program. Owl to Owl gives alumni the opportunity to guide a student on his or her career path. You can find out more about CST mentoring at cst.temple.edu/

Joseph V. Labolito

Alumni can also help our students by reviewing résumés, conducting practice interviews, or, when you can, helping students get that interview and land that all-important first job. I am proud to be CST’s Alumni Board president, and grateful to those current and former Board members who have helped me along the way, especially the late Steve Szczepanski. (See a remembrance on page 26.) I’m looking forward to meeting more CST graduates, connecting them with opportunities and experiences here at the college and, together, making the CST alumni community even stronger. You rock!

Jen Gresh (BS ’98, EES) President, CST Alumni Board

Marcus Forst (BS ’19, Phys): Off to Stanford University As a senior physics major, Marcus Forst was the first Temple University student to be named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. The competitive scholarship program awards financial support for the full cost of attendance for graduate education at Stanford University. “I am really excited to be a part of the prestigious KnightHennessy program and help shape what it will look like for years to come,” said Forst, who is now working toward a Stanford PhD in applied physics. “I look forward to being around scholars from different fields and determining how best to bring my perspective as a physicist to people who are more globally focused, and solving some complex interdisciplinary problems.” The son of two Temple alumni, Forst is among the year’s 75 Knight-Hennessy Scholars. This is the latest academic honor for Forst, who in 2018 became Temple’s first Goldwater Scholar. The Goldwater is widely considered the most prestigious undergraduate award in the STEM fields. Forst’s path to the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship required perseverance—in and out of the classroom. A 2015 diagnosis

mentor or make a gift to support the program at giving.temple.edu/givetocst.

College of Science and Technology

of T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma kept him from completing coursework for close to a year. He has endured three and a half years of chemotherapy, with summer 2018 marking his final treatment. “It was July 4—a true Independence Day,” he said. His final chemotherapy treatment took place in Germany, where Forst participated in the DAAD Rise academic studyabroad program. He worked in a laboratory led by Thorsten Poeschel of Friedrich-Alexander University, primarily on a project that examined how the density of granular materials can differ based on the way they are poured into a cylinder. “I’ve never felt so proud to be from Temple,” Forst said about earning the Knight-Hennessy. “Temple is where anyone, regardless of background, can enter and then leave reaching these great heights. That is what makes Temple such a special place, and I am so happy to represent it.” —Christopher A. Vito

Joseph Labolito

HAZEL M. TOMLINSON LECTURE HALL DEDICATED

Thatyana Morales (BS ’19, CIS): Celebrating degrees together No one can predict the struggles they’ll face on their journey through Temple University. But for Thatyana Morales and her mother, Annette Cruz, CLA ’19, late nights and deadlines were the least of their worries. Together, the Temple alumnae—Morales with a bachelor’s in computer science and Cruz with one in English with a focus on creative writing—faced Cruz’s metastatic breast cancer. The day Cruz was accepted to Temple, the disease she struggled with 10 years prior had resurfaced. Early in that first semester, doctors discovered that Cruz’s breast cancer had spread to her lungs. She could either work or go to school as she underwent intense treatment, but not both, they told her. She chose school. While taking classes, Cruz began a regimen of chemotherapy and surgeries that would have put most people out of commission, but not her. As a caregiver and daughter, Morales felt the weight of cancer, too, and began falling behind in some of her classes. Motivated by her mother’s tenacity, she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way. “My mom’s a warrior,” said Morales, who was the student speaker at CST’s graduation ceremony. “She’s at the center of my Temple experience.” Morales is working toward a master’s through the College of Science and Technology’s 4+1 computer science program. She will also begin working full-time at Protiviti, a global consulting firm where she interned last summer. One of her research projects at Temple, which used smart watches and machine learning to help people quit smoking, is motivated by—like her mother’s work—a strong desire to help people. Their journey is far from over, but the mother and daughter agree their experiences at Temple made them stronger. ”We didn’t do it alone,” said Cruz. “It was family and a crowd of Temple people that helped and pushed us both to be our best.”

The Hazel M. Tomlinson Lecture Hall was dedicated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in late 2018, as part of CST’s 20th anniversary celebration. Located in the Science and Education Research Center, the state-of-the-art lecture hall was named in honor of longtime chemistry professor Hazel Tomlinson (BA ’26, MA ’28, Chem). Tomlinson inspired generations of Temple students as a faculty member and assistant dean from 1928 to 1974. After earning her master’s degree, she served as an instructor from 1928 until 1939. After earning her PhD from Columbia University, she was an assistant professor from 1939 to 1949 and an associate professor from then until 1968, when she became an assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts until her retirement in 1974. Robert Fineman (BA ’66, Chem), who regarded Tomlinson as an inspiring mentor, provided much of the leadership to have a lecture hall named for Tomlinson. Fineman, who was accompanied by his wife Bonnie, gave a very moving speech at the dedication. Dean Michael L Klein also spoke, as did Chemistry Professor Ann Valentine. Also attending were several members of the CST Board of Visitors, including Albert Brown (BA ’64, Chem), Stanley Lefkowitz (BA ’65, Chem), and his wife Debbie, and Seda Tarzian (BA ’48, Bio). Greg Fornia

(l to r): Robert Fineman (BA ’66, Chem), Chandrakant Gupta, (MA ’58, Chem), Dean Michael L. Klein, FRS, Albert Brown (BA ’64, Chem), Stanley Lefkowitz (BA ’65, Chem), Professor Emeritus David Dalton, and Arthur Dawson (BA ’68, PhD ’76, Chem)

—Adam Zajac, KLN ’19

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

ALUMNI Kelly & Massa

REMEMBERING STEVEN SZCZEPANSKI (BA ’79, PHD ’87, CHEM)

Steven Szczepanski, president of the CST Alumni Board, passed away in spring 2019 following a prolonged illness. After earning his Temple University undergraduate and doctoral degrees in chemistry, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an NIH post-doctoral fellow. Szczepanski had more than 30 years of experience as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, with a focus on product development, quality control and manufacturing. Most recently, he was a consultant on FDA application issues for Ironshore Pharmaceuticals. Committed to mentoring in his professional life and as a Temple alumnus, Szczepanski also led the college’s Owl to Owl Mentor Program, which connects students to successful graduates. Even as his health declined, Szczepanski remained committed to CST and to the many relationships he built at the college. He attended the college’s Student Scholarships, Awards and Recognition Luncheon this past spring and even helped lead the effort to gather food items for Temple’s Cherry Pantry. In December 2018, Szczepanski spoke at the college’s winter graduation ceremony. He urged graduates to stay connected to Temple and to build on those lasting relationships. “Today, you have joined the growing ranks of Temple graduates,” Szczepanski said. “You will either join the working community or continue your professional education. You are on your way to becoming a diamond. But remember, Temple graduates prove their value by helping one another.” The Steven W. Szczepanski Memorial Student Support Fund has been established to provide financial assistance to CST undergraduates who have encountered financial hardships that may hinder their academic progress or force them to withdraw from their current academic semester. Support can include food, housing or whatever other essential needs students might have. To make a gift to the fund, go to giving.temple.edu/givetoCST.

College of Science and Technology

Sherry J. Gillespie (PhD ’75, Phys) named to Gallery of Success An innovator, advisor to a U.S. senator and a former keynote speaker at the 2018 CST graduation ceremony, Sherry Gillespie has been named to Temple University’s Gallery of Success. A collaboration of Temple’s Office of Alumni Relations and Career Center, the honor recognizes outstanding alumni for their inspiring success. After graduating with a doctorate in physics from Temple, Gillespie launched her career in the semiconductor industry at IBM, working in the areas of computer chip reliability and fabrication processes for advanced semiconductor devices. She then moved to the Semiconductor Products Sector at Motorola, becoming Director of Materials Research and Strategic Technologies. While at Motorola, Gillespie initiated research partnerships with U.S. universities as well as partnerships in Japan, China and South America. She served on the boards of the Semiconductor Research Corporation and the Technology Strategy Committee of the Semiconductor Industry Association. She was also an industrial advisor for the NSF Science and Technology Center for Synthesis, Growth and Analysis of Electronic Materials at the University of Texas. She has authored or co-authored more than 40 publications, holds a U.S. patent and earned Motorola’s High Impact Technology Award and IBM’s Technical Innovator Award. In 2008, Gillespie was selected to be an IEEE-USA/AAAS Congressional Fellow, working on staff as a science advisor in the U.S. Senate in the office of Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Her work there included drafting legislation about government acquisition of advanced microelectronics from commercial sources. She remained in Washington, D.C. as a technology management consultant on issues relating to science and public policy.

Adam Zajac

Jim Berglund (PhD ’19, EES): Hydrology research in Montana Four years after the Department of Earth & Environmental Science admitted its first three geoscience doctoral candidates, Jim Berglund became the department’s first PhD graduate. Berglund’s doctoral research explored the fluctuating hydrological characteristics of karst formations in central Pennsylvania through the thermal and geochemical monitoring and modeling of springs. “Rare earth elements act like fingerprints to let us know where the water has been and what interacted with it by the time it reaches the spring,” said Berglund, who at Temple authored or co-authored four research articles. “Those indicators can vary widely following a storm as rainwater often flows into sinkholes that feed these springs.” In December, the popular teaching assistant received the Rick Valentino Outstanding TA Award, which is given only occasionally. His students appreciated his inclusive teaching style, carefully crafted lectures and puns. Berglund also co-founded TU’s Sigma Gamma Epsilon Honor Society, which provides career information to earth and environmental science students. “I enjoy teaching because I have to learn the material more and get to relive, for example, the feeling of falling in love with geology,” said Berglund. Berglund is now a non-teaching assistant professor of hydrology at Montana Tech in Butte. A licensed drone pilot, one of his research projects will involve using heat-sensing drones to gauge groundwater movements in the Yellowstone Basin. Referring to his advisor, Weeks Chair of Environmental Geology Laura Toran, Berglund said, “She was an amazing PI in terms of getting me more experience in developing research questions, writing, publishing, attending conferences, networking with potential future collaborators and teaching. My time here at Temple has been very valuable.” —Bruce E. Beans

Tyasia Guadalupe (Post Bacc): Building bridges between doctors and patients Leadership comes naturally to Tyasia Guadalupe. The oldest of ten children, she forged her own path through higher education and onto a career in medicine. “Growing up, I never saw doctors who looked like me,” said Guadalupe, whose parents are black and Puerto Rican. “I’ve come to see how important that is.” At Temple, Guadalupe graduated with a bachelor’s in sociology, focusing on the social determinants of healthcare inequality. “I knew I wanted to go to medical school but it was also important for me to understand barriers people face as well as how public perceptions shape the way healthcare is delivered,” explained Guadalupe. As an undergraduate, she traveled with Temple medical students on missions to Honduras and Peru, seeing firsthand how access to medicine could change lives. Guadalupe then enrolled in CST’s Post Baccalaureate PreHealth Program, which helped her fill an educational gap with required pre-med coursework.

Now a first-year student at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM), Guadalupe is relishing the challenges of medical training while keeping a focus on the bigger picture. She’s copresident of PCOM’s Global Health Initiative, working to organize international service trips for students and international clinical rotations. She’s also serving as co-chair of a PCOM cultural competency program, helping doctors in training approach clinical care with awareness of, and sensitivity to, diverse values and traditions. “It’s an important part of medical education, to train doctors to understand the patients they serve,” she said. Guadalupe is currently leaning toward a specialty in pediatrics. The long-term goal would be to work for the World Health Organization as an advocate for children. “Every child deserves healthcare, and yet so many around the world go without. Children need to be protected and cared for and these are the concerns that are driving me forward every day.” —Elisa Ludwig

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

ALUMNI POST BACCALAUREATE GRADUATES ACHIEVING SUCCESS

CST’s Post Baccalaureate Pre-Health Program offers college graduates the opportunity to build the skills and experience needed to apply to medical, dental, physician assistant and other health professional schools. With customized curriculum, dedicated test prep, interview practice and clinical shadowing, the program offers two tracks: Basic Core in Health Science (BCHS) for non-science majors and career changers and Advanced Core in Health Science (ACHS) for science majors. After having been accepted into four programs, Asra Khan (ACHS ’17) is thrilled to be attending the University of Tampa’s Master’s in Physician Assistant Medicine this year. Zaira Chavez (ACHS ’18) is in Los Angeles, where she will be attending the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Specifically, she was accepted into the Primary Care Program at Keck, which offers 24 students the opportunity to “experience longitudinal relationships with patients and the primary care faculty throughout their four years of medical school.” James Fagen (BS ’17, Bio; ACHS ’18) will be staying local as he attends the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Recent program graduates, Rubab Zafar (ACHS ’19) and Keri Davids (CLA ’18, BCHS ’19), are staying in the Philadelphia area for their growth years—Zafar just completed a podiatry internship at the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine and Davids is working as a medical assistant in a dermatology office. Joseph Kellett (ACHS ’19) is engaged to his high school sweetheart and is planning a July 2020 wedding. Eric Gramszlo (CLA ’13, ACHS ’19) and Connor Tom (ACHS ’19), pictured below at their white coat ceremony, along with Bryson Hoover-Hankerson (ACHS ’18) and Tiffany Nguyen (CST ’17; ACHS ’18) will be part of the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine’s Class of 2023.

Ryan Brandenberg

Radin Bonakdar (BS ’19, Bio): Closer to the dream For Radin Bonakdar, the road to earning his bachelor’s degree was longer than for most. But today, he is one step closer to his dream of becoming a dentist. “My mom is a dentist. I went to school, and she would pick me up and bring me to her office,” Bonakdar said. “I grew up in her office. I always liked it.” Bonakdar, who is now in a post-baccalaureate program to prepare for dental school, said he always looked up to his mother, who has overcome considerable challenges. When she was a child, her own mother, Bonakdar’s grandmother, was killed at their home during a bombing. “My grandmom couldn’t find two of her sons, so she went back in to find them, and a bomb dropped on the house,” Bonakdar relayed. “Both she and my aunt were killed. My mom was in middle school.” Bonakdar’s mother went on to excel in school, attending a university and training as a dentist in Tehran. Bonakdar and his mother eventually moved to the United States in 2014, after he graduated high school in Tehran. But when they arrived at their new home in Pennsylvania, he said, he couldn’t jump right into college. “I went back to high school and graduated again,” Bonakdar said. “I had to take a bunch of courses and learned English during my senior year.” By 2015, Bonakdar had applied and was accepted to Temple, where he decided to study biology to prepare to follow in his mother’s footsteps as a dentist. “At first, it was really tough for me. I was crying to my mom, and I wanted to go back. But as time passed, I stopped resisting and went with the flow and really liked it,” Bonakdar said. “I’m still not to my goal, which is to be a dentist, but I’m happy I did my best and really happy with the results now.” —Morgan Zalot

College of Science and Technology

ALUMNI WEEKEND STEM CARNIVAL

Featuring fun and inspiring activities for kids 8 through 14, CST’s STEM Carnival, during Temple University’s Alumni Weekend celebration, introduced young people to important concepts in basic science, engineering, robotics, computer science, applied mathematics and more. Kids worked directly with CST undergraduates to learn how scientists work, what it takes to be a real researcher and how science impacts the world we all live in.

MENTORS MAKE A DIFFERENCE As a CST graduate, you’ve earned your success. Why not share your experience with a Temple student? Mentors help students think about what they want to achieve in life, set goals and map out strategies for achieving their dreams. In just a few meetings a year, you can share your knowledge with a student who is looking to enter your field, whether its research, business, academia or as an entrepreneur.

Learn more about the Owl to Owl Mentor Program and how you can make a difference in a CST student’s education at cst.temple.edu/mentor

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

ALUMNI

Message from the Assistant Dean My office is in historic Conwell Hall, at the corner of Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue. I’m just a short stroll from so much of the excitement of Main Campus, from the activity on Polett and Liacouras walks to the extraordinary Charles Library to the sporting events in Pearson and McGonigle. But what I’m really drawn to is the remarkable faculty and students here at the College of Science and Technology, whether their classrooms and labs are in the Science Education and Research Center (also extraordinary) or Beury, Bio-Life or Wachman halls. What I see is a level of excellence that is simply unmatched in the history of this great university. Research breakthroughs, student achievement, community partnerships— CST is making an impact on campus, in our local community and around the world. For me, excellence isn’t a distant endpoint. It’s all the steps along the way. It’s the relentless pursuit of knowledge. It’s the dedication to help each student excel. It’s a commitment to support faculty and students as they achieve great things. It’s also a commitment by CST graduates and friends of the college. That’s one reason why CST exceeded its fundraising goal for FY19. People like you are establishing and supporting our many scholarships across CST’s six departments. Our

College of Science and Technology

friends understand the value of the Undergraduate Research Program (URP), which gives CST graduates the ‘lab hands’ and know-how to succeed in a very competitive job market. And thanks to several alumni, we now have ‘top-up’ funds available to our best graduate students, to ensure that our fellowships are competitive with other Carnegie Research 1 schools. I want to thank the many alumni and friends who support student scholarships, URP, graduate fellowships and the college’s other important initiatives. Their commitment—your commitment—is what makes CST excellence a reality day in and day out. There are so many ways to support the work of students and faculty here at CST; so many ways to ensure excellence. You can learn more about giving options at cst.temple.edu/giving. Perhaps the best way to find out how you can be a part of CST’s ongoing success is to contact me at 215.204.4704 or kathleen.mcgady@temple.edu. Sincerely,

Kathy McGady Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Affairs

GIFTS FROM GRADUATES STRENGTHEN THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2019–2020 CST ALUMNI BOARD MEMBERS

Joe Allegra (BA ’70, Bio), past Chair and current member of the CST Board of Visitors, recently supported two major initiatives at the college. A significant gift to the CST Dean’s Endowed Term Professorships Fund will help establish a named professorship at the college, which will assist in attracting top researchers. Allegra, along with a distinguished career as an oncologist and researcher, is founder of several health-related companies. This year, Allegra continued his long-time leadership support for TUteach, the college’s innovative science teacher training initiative. TUteach’s administrative home, the Allegra Family Math and Science Teacher Education Center, is in Gladfelter Hall. Jay Novik (BA ’67, Math), a longstanding member and now Chair of the college’s Board of Visitors, has established a second endowed fellowship for mathematics graduate students. Fellowship funding at CST can be up to several thousand dollars less per student than at other Research 1 universities. Known as ‘top-up’ funds, fellowship gifts help to close this funding gap and are key to attracting talented graduate students who might have otherwise enrolled at other top research universities. Novik is a national leader in both life and property/casualty reinsurance. Seda Tarzian (BS ’48, Bio), a pioneer in pharmaceutical research, struggled to afford tuition when she was a Temple student. Now, she has strengthened her commitment to CST and its students through a major gift to the Seda Tarzian Scholarship, presented to talented students with preference given to those who have experienced socioeconomic or education disadvantages. A retired pharmaceutical research medical program director, Tarzian, a member of the CST Board of Visitors who also sponsors a CST faculty award, established the scholarship in 2006 to help ensure deserving CST students don’t have to struggle financially. Sharon Greenblatt (BS ’18, CIS) made a Conwell Society-level gift to support CST’s involvement in the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, the world’s largest gathering of women technologists. The conference offers a great opportunity for CST students to gain professional visibility and expand networks. As a CST student, Greenblatt attended the conference twice, which she could not have done without funding from CST. The conference helped her to secure an internship—and ultimately her first job—at Amazon. Martin Jay Spitz (BA ’60, Chem; MED ’64), a long-time supporter of both CST and the Lewis Katz School of Medicine, continues his longstanding and significant support of the Hazel M. Tomlinson Memorial Scholarship. Established in 1995 by the estate of Hazel M. Tomlinson, a Temple alumna and long-time member of the Temple chemistry faculty, the scholarship is presented to undergraduate chemistry students who have demonstrated excellence in academic achievement and financial need. A native of northeastern Pa., Spitz is a gastroenterologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and professor emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco.

Margherita Abe (BA ’66, Chem) Sina Adibi (BA ’84, CIS; FOX ’86) Mark Dash (BA ’84, CIS) Terry Dougherty (BA ’74, Chem; FOX ’86) Jennifer Gresh (BS ’98, EES) James Guare (BA ’77, MA ’83, Chem) Eileen Helzner (BS ’68, Bio; MED ’72) Sandra Ilunga (BA ’08, Bio) Justin Malone (BS ’05, Bio) Christian Obasi (MS ’08, EES) Jaldhi Patel (BA ’20, Bio) Michael Remaker II (BS ’06, CIS) Randy Shochet (BS ’81, Chem) John Tierney (PhD ’81, Chem)

NEW DEVELOPMENT STAFF

Lynne Corboy has joined CST’s advancement team as a Major Gift Officer. She has more than 20 years of direct fundraising experience most recently at Salus University, formerly Pennsylvania College of Optometry. For information about the many ways to support CST, contact Corboy at lynne.corboy@temple.edu or 215.204.8192.

OUTLOOK / Fall 2019

CLASS NOTES Michael R. Berman (BA ’66, Bio) has been appointed to chief quality officer at the Mount Sinai Downtown Campus of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. Berman is also associate dean for quality and safety for Graduate Medical Education and professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In his new role, Berman will oversee the quality and safety at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Mount Sinai Downtown Ambulatory Care and Surgery facility at Union Square and The Blavatnik Family– Chelsea Medical Center. Prior to joining the faculty at Mount Sinai, Berman was in clinical practice in obstetrics and gynecology and clinical professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine. He founded the Hygeia Foundation for Perinatal Loss and Bereavement (now Hope After Loss) and is the author of numerous poems and essays documenting the human condition. He is also author of the book, “Parenthood Lost: Healing the Pain After Miscarriage, Stillbirth and Infant Death.” James Pittman (BA ’94, MA ’96, Chem) co-created Borderwise, an online interface to simplify the immigration application process for both immigrants and attorneys, which was recently highlighted by the Philadelphia Business Journal as a startup “disrupting the status quo.” Sabri Ibrahim (BS ’98 Bio, PHR ’03), a former regional vice president of pharmacy operations at Rite Aid, is founder of Pharmacy of America, with seven location across Philadelphia. Bill Lukens (BS ’09, MS ’13, EES) will begin a tenure-track position this fall at James Madison University. He just completed a postdoc at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he examined terrestrial paleoclimate proxies. Alyssa Finlay Griffin (BS ’10, MS ’12, EES) is pursuing a doctoral degree at one of the world’s premier oceanographic institutions, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research on the impact of changing ocean chemistry on coral reefs was the subject of the recent Scripps Student Spotlight. Emily Morton (BS ’10, EES), who expects to defend her geophysics doctoral dissertation at New Mexico Tech, last year earned the top student award at the Seismology Society of America conference in Miami for her research into small earthquakes off the Pacific Northwest coast. Christopher Seminack (MS ’11, EES), an assistant professor of geology at the University of North Georgia, recently shared his research on coastal dynamics at an EES Department seminar.

College of Science and Technology

Jennifer Francis (BS ’12, Chem) is a quality assurance manager at the Tisch MS Research Center of New York, where she is in charge of a team that produces stem cells for a Phase II trial aimed at reversing the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis. Karen Kopcznski (BS ’12, MS ’17, EES) joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and will continue helping the department as an adjunct instructor, teaching general education classes and a variety of lab sections. Kamali Thompson (BS ’12, Bio) earned both a medical degree and MBA from Rutgers University and is currently training for the U.S. Olympic fencing team. Logan Wiest (MS ’13, EES) won the 2018 PALAIOS outstanding paper award from the Society for Sedimentary Geology and has joined the faculty at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. Danielle DeMauro (BS ’14, Chem) is an endocrinology analyst at NMS Labs, conducting confirmation testing, ascertaining that blood and other bodily fluid and tissue samples that have initially tested positive for illegal drugs do contain such substances. Brandon DeMauro (BS ’15, Chem) is an analytical chemist for Johnson & Johnson, involved in the development and launch of new acne and beauty products. Krishna Mudumbi (PhD ’18, Bio) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Cancer Biology Institute, studying signals produced by cell receptor proteins that lead to either growth or differentiation.

Keep CST up to date! Email CSTalum@temple.edu to share your recent news and accomplishments. IN MEMORIAM Arnold Melnick (BA ’41, Bio; CLA ’49) George D. Evans III (BA ’50, Chem) Albert C. Beatty Jr. (BA ’51, Bio) Harold Herman (BA ’51 Chem; MED ’56) Charles Shambela (BA ’51, MA ’55, Chem) Albert R. Tama (BA ’51, Bio) Kenneth Friedberg (BA ’56, Bio) Robert A. Block (BA ’58, Bio; MED ’64)

Joseph L. Biddle (ENG ’67; BA ’68, Sci) Jerry L. Bundy (BA ’69, Bio) William MacKenney III (MA ’70, Math) Frank P. Pettinelli Jr. (BA ’78, Bio) Karen B. Vaniver (BA ’82, Bio) David J. Undercoffler (BA ’89, Chem) Grace F. Oey (BS ’13, EES)

REAL-WORD RESEARCH WITH WORLD-CLASS RESEARCHERS MEANS CST STUDENTS HAVE AN EDGE IN GRADUATE SCHOOL AND THE JOB MARKET. The Undergraduate Research Program offers top students the opportunity to work alongside experienced researchers, from CST and across Temple. Your gift means more students get that experience. Out in the field, in the lab or at a powerful computer, students in URP learn what it takes to do advanced research: theoretical knowledge, technical skill, critical thinking and how to persevere through failure and build on success.

The experience is essential to being accepted into a top graduate and professional school or to landing a high-paying job in geology, biotechnology, information science and other growing sectors. Most universities simply donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t offer such an extraordinary opportunity for their undergraduates. CST does. But we need your support to offer URP to more students. Make your gift at giving.temple.edu/URP or contact Lynne Corboy, Major Gift Officer, at lynne.corboy@temple.edu or 215.204.8192.

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