MOVING PERFORMANCE

Trinity physics professor Nirav Mehta, Ph.D., is not a glutton for punishment.

words by Jeremy Gerlach

by

That’s important to clarify after attending his “Speaking Physics” course, where he’s been sandwiched between two beds of nails, had a cinder block sledgehammered atop him, been blasted across the room using a fire extinguisher and a small cart, and has otherwise been subjected to any number of other death-defying feats.

Mehta simply doesn’t think the field of physics should give anyone stage fright.

“The class is a physics communications class called ‘Speaking Physics,’” Mehta says. “The goal is to put together a stage show and do a wide variety of physical demonstrations [that] explain physics at a level suitable for a general audience.”

The stage show is held during each semester Mehta teaches the course. The performance, open to the Trinity community and the public, features each student in Mehta’s class presenting an experiment.

Mehta is a theorist who studies ultra-cold atoms, examining the physics of three-particle and four-particle systems by looking at collisions of atoms and molecules under extremely cold temperatures. Over the years, he’s seen student interest in his “Speaking Physics” course heating up.

That may be because Mehta has urged his students to approach the stage show as a dry run for giving presentations as researchers and professionals.

“People who go on to careers in science and STEM have to communicate their ideas, whether research ideas or canonical curricular content,” Mehta says. “Communicating technical information in a way that people can understand is a ubiquitous skill.”

These skills are a fundamental part of Trinity’s approach to the liberal arts, where writing, speaking, and other forms of communication add value to the student experience regardless of major. And the chance to add these skills, says computer science major Amber Carlson ’23, class in Spring 2022 and says she first came to the class because it seemed like a fun way to fulfill an oral and visual communication credit requirement, a staple of Trinity’s Pathways curriculum. But each of these students says they’re finding surprising benefits from taking the course—even though it only takes up a single credit hour.

Barahona, an international student from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, says the class twists the is what makes taking a chance on courses like “Speaking Physics” worth the work.

“I figured public speaking was not my strong suit until this semester,” Carlson says. “But [“Speaking Physics”] ended up being really neat in ways that I did not expect it to be.”

Along with physics majors Sebastian Barahona ’24 and Angela Graf ’24, Carlson took the typical format of physics labs into something more unique to each learner. “Typically labs are more formal, conducting complex experiments, measuring data, and writing long reports. In [“Speaking Physics”], you’re having more fun with the experiments. You get to choose how you do things rather than having to follow the instructions. So you really have a more personal connection with what you’re doing in this class when compared to a traditional lab.”

Graf, from Center Point, Iowa, says the course is a simple but powerful source of energy that allows students the chance to re-invigorate their love for the field.

“I think it’s fun to make the connec tions between the experiments we’re doing in this class and some of the higher level concepts we’re learn ing in our other physics classes,” Graf says. “When you’re reading textbooks and working on equa tions all day long, you kind of forget how cool some of these concepts are. So when we can put them in these fun demonstrations, it reminds me of why I actually like physics so much and why I became interested in it in the first place.”

And for Carlson, from Austin, Texas, the class is the perfect chance to build with her hands. As part of preparing each of these experiments for the stage, Carlson and her team designed, crafted, and honed the physical components for each experiment in Trinity’s Maker space. The Makerspace is a unique, all-in-one design and machine shop where students of all majors (from engineering and entrepreneurship to English) can learn to build using lathes, water jet cutters, 3D printers, and more.

In the Makerspace, Carlson and Graf were challenged to build an experiment demonstrating eddy currents (loops of electrical current induced within conductors by a changing magnetic field) and Faraday’s law of induction (a basic law predicting how magnetic fields interact with electric circuits to produce electromotive force).

“It was interesting because we designed the whole thing, and we were still running into issues (with the magnets),” Carlson says.

This type of experiment might have run smoother in a lab. But students such as Carlson and Graf are often able to directly learn more from the mistakes they make building these experiments themselves.

Next, Mehta and his Spring 2022 students took the results of these individual projects and prepped them for the stage. Mehta says his group polished up the most exciting and visually dynamic of the experiments and prepared simple presentations for each one—all spoken in plain English.

There was a Van de Graaff generator, students spinning on turntables with weights to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum, a bicycle wheel gyroscope—and Mehta even made his entrance by jetting across the stage in a cart using a fire extinguisher.

Think of it as a magic show, but one where the performers actually get to explain how the tricks work: “There’s a lot of demystifying that we can do as far as what physics actually is and what a lot of these concepts are, because physics is a scary word for a lot of people,” Graf says. “This is a really cool way to bridge the gap between what [physicists] do and what other people do.”

As Carlson moves forward toward a career that will not involve physics, the unexpected dividends from taking a course like this will end up being just as important as some of the computer science classes in her major.

“I would say the biggest benefit is learning to manage your own project,” Carlson says. “You’re trying to teach these big concepts [while] starting from scratch and figuring out how you want to … [build] that project from the ground up using whatever method you decide is best. And I think that’s going to be pretty reflective of things in the real world.”

And as Mehta moves forward with staging future editions of the show, he says he plans to keep the format of the course roughly the same, while adding in potential opportunities to make short films and “explainer videos” to complement the stage production.

Ultimately, Mehta says what makes the course the most fun for him is getting to restart the process each semester he teaches it. “I’m looking forward to having a new batch of students,” he says of the spring semester, “with some fresh demonstrations.” left and middle Students reviewed the run of show during a dress rehearsal in Laurie Auditorium. bottom left A student holding a Hoberman sphere prepares to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum. bottom right With a trash can and a fog machine, the class illustrated that one can, in fact, get round air through a square hole.

Geosciences professor Benjamin Surpless was awarded a three-year, $192,830 National Science Foundation-funded Keck Geology Consortium grant to support his investigation of fault evolution along the Sevier fault zone in southern Utah.

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, and MATHEMATICS

Nationally recognized for academic strength, interdisciplinary focus, and undergraduate research, Trinity’s STEM programs offer students cutting edge opportunities that include experiential learning at the interface of disciplines. The University’s STEM departments include Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering Science, Geosciences, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, and Psychology.

E. CABRAL BALREIRA / Mathematics co-authored “Geometry and Global Stability of 2D Periodic Monotone Maps” in the Journal of Dynamics and Differential Equations in 2021.

GERARD M. J. BEAUDOIN III ’99 / Biology, J. F. M. Manrique ’20, P. R. Voit ’18, K. E. Windsor ’19, A. R. Karla ’20, and S. R. Rodriguez ’20 published “SynapseJ: An Automated, Synapse Identification Macro for ImageJ” in Frontiers in Neural Circuits, 2021, Vol. 15.

CAROLYN BECKER / Psychology co-published five articles in 2021: “An exploratory examination of internalized weight stigma in a sample living with food insecurity,” published with F. Gomez ’18 and colleagues for Body Image, 2021, Vol. 37; “Adapting the body project to a non-western culture: a dissonance-based eating disorders prevention program for Saudi women” in Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, Vol. 26, Issue 8; “Binge eating among older women: prevalence rates and health correlates across three independent samples” for the Journal of Eating Disorders, Vol. 9, Issue 1; and “Psychometric properties of the contextual body image questionnaire for athletes: a replication and extension study in female collegiate athletes” and “The legacy of hope summit: a consensus-based initiative and report on eating disorders in the U.S. and recommendations for the path forward,” both for the Journal of Eating Disorders, Vol. 9, Issue 1.

MICHELLE M. BUSHEY / Chemistry, S. Y. Li ’13, B. Iba ’15, and colleagues published “A thermodynamic study of capillary electrochromatographic retention of aromatic hydrocarbons on a lauryl acrylate porous polymer monolithic column with measured phase ratio” in the Journal of Separation Science, 2021, Vol. 44, Issue 16.

BERT D. CHANDLER / Chemistry, Akbar Mahdavi-Shakib / Chemistry, L. C. Rich ’22, and T. N. Whittaker ’17 published “Hydrogen Adsorption at the Au/TiO2 Interface: Quantitative Determination and Spectroscopic Signature of the Reactive Interface Hydroxyl Groups at the Active Site” in the ACS Catalysis, 2021, Vol. 11, Issue 21.

JANE CHILDERS / Psychology, E. Warkentin ’22, B. M. Porter ’18, M. Young ’22, S. Lalani ’19, and A. Gopalkrishnan ’20 published “Preschool Children’s Processing of Events during Verb Learning: Is the Focus on People (Faces) or Their Actions (Hands)?” for Brain Sciences, 2022, Vol.12, Issue 3. Childers won the Dr. and Mrs. Z. T. Scott Faculty Fellowship in May 2022, which recognizes the top educator of the year at Trinity University.

CHRISTINA B. COOLEY / Chemistry received a five-year grant of $403,322 from the National Science Foundation for “CAREER: Fluorogenic Radical Polymerization for Signal Amplification and Detection” in August 2021.

Read more about Christina Cooley’s National Science Foundation grant at gotu.us/cooleyNSF

RYAN D. DAVIS / Chemistry, J. Hajek-Herrera ’22, and B. Snyder ’22 won $25,000 as grand prize winners of the Louis H. Stumberg Venture Competition in October 2021. Their company, MicroLev, aims to sell an affordable aerosol research device that can detect and categorize particulate matter. Davis, E. Huynh ’22, and colleagues published “Seeded Crystal Growth of Internally Mixed Organic–Inorganic Aerosols: Impact of Organic Phase State” in The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2021, Vol. 125, Issue 39. Davis was awarded a Cottrell Scholar Award from Research Corporation for Science Advancement in 2022 for “Chemistry Beyond the Beaker: Exploring Supramolecular Assembly in Aqueous Microdroplets and Addressing Inequities in Chemical Education.” Davis’ proposal was founded upon his work on “Evidence for a semisolid phase state of aerosols and droplets relevant to the airborne and surface survival of pathogens,” which he, A. Olinger*, D. Woolley ’22, Huynh, and colleagues published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022, Vol. 119, Issue 4.

Read more about MicroLev at gotu.us/microlev

WILLIAM D. ELLISON / Psychology published “An Initial Study of Practicing Psychologists’ Views of the Utility of Ecological Momentary Assessment for Difficult Psychotherapy Cases” in Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 2021, Vol. 48, Issue 4. Ellison, J. Yun ’21, M. I. Lupo ’21, A. K. Lucas-Marinelli ’22, V. B. Marshall ’20, A. F. R. Matic ’20, and A. C. Trahan ’20 published “Development and initial validation of a scale to measure momentary self-concept clarity” in Self and Identity, 2021, Vol. 21, Issue 8. Ellison co-authored “Improving Quantitative Abilities and Attitudes in Clinical Psychology Courses: Longitudinal Assessment of a Blended Learning Intervention” in the Teaching of Psychology, 2021, Vol. 48, Issue 4.

LUIS D. GIAVEDONI / Biology, E. Mask ’20, Jessica E. Callery / Biology, and colleagues published “Molecular Approaches for the Validation of the Baboon as a Nonhuman Primate Model for the Study of Zika Virus Infection” in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 2022, Vol. 12.

PAULA T. HERTEL / Psychology, P. Herrera ’18, and P. Shamapant ’19 published “Rumination: Practicing Retrieval of Autobiographical Memories” in Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2021, Vol. 45, Issue 5.

TOMAS HRBEK / Biology co-authored four articles in 2021: “Ancient DNA of the pygmy marmoset type specimen Cebuella pygmaea (Spix, 1823) resolves a taxonomic conundrum” in Zoological Research, Vol. 42, Issue 6; “An integrative analysis uncovers a new, pseudo-cryptic species of Amazonian marmoset (Primates: Callitrichidae: Mico) from the arc of deforestation” in Scientific Reports, Vol. 11, Issue 1; “Mapping the hidden diversity of the Geophagus sensu stricto species group (Cichlidae: Geophagini) from the Amazon basin” in PeerJ, Vol. 9; and “Uncertainty Regarding Species Delimitation, Geographic Distribution, and the Evolutionary History of South-Central Amazonian Titi Monkey Species (Plecturocebus, Pitheciidae)” in the International Journal of Primatology Hrbek also co-authored four articles in 2022: “Diversity, biogeography, and reproductive evolution in the genus Pipa (Amphibia: Anura: Pipidae)” and “Out of the shadows: Multilocus systematics and biogeography of night monkeys suggest a Central Amazonian origin and a very recent widespread southeastward expansion in South America” in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Vol. 170; “Four in One: Cryptic Diversity in Geoffroy’s Side-Necked Turtle Phrynops geoffroanus (Schweigger 1812) (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) in Brazil” in Diversity, Vol. 14, Issue 5; and “Two hundred and five newly assembled mitogenomes provide mixed evidence for rivers as drivers of speciation for Amazonian primates” in Molecular Ecology, Vol. 31, Issue 14.

Read more about Tomas Hrbek’s description of a new species of marmoset at gotu.us/marmosets

LAURA M. HUNSICKER-WANG / Chemistry co-authored “Spectroscopic characterization of Mn2+ and Cd2+ coordination to phosphorothioates in the conserved A9 metal site of the hammerhead ribozyme” in the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 2022, Vol. 230.

MICHELE A. JOHNSON / Biology and Laura Hunsicker-Wang / Chemistry co-chaired a $30,000 Inclusive Excellence Learning grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for making first- and second-year STEM courses more inclusive to all students. Johnson, Brittney M. Ivanov / Biology, and colleagues published “Use it and bruise it: copulation rates are associated with muscle inflammation across anole lizard species” in the Journal of Zoology, 2021, Vol. 314, Issue 3. Johnson co-published two articles in Vol. 61 of Integrative and Comparative Biology in 2021: “What Determines Paternity in Wild Lizards? A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Behavior and Morphology” with C. M. Stehle ’13 in Issue 2 and “Understanding Drivers of Variation and Predicting Variability Across Levels of Biological Organization” in Issue 6. Johnson also co-authored “Linking ecomechanical models and functional traits to understand phenotypic diversity” in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 2021, Vol. 36, Issue 9 and “Best practices for building and curating databases for comparative analyses” in the Journal of Experimental Biology, 2022, Vol. 225. Johnson was elected as secretary of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology for 2021-24. Johnson won the Trinity Tomorrow Award in May 2022, which recognizes Trinity University faculty who have made significant contributions to the mission and strategic priorities of the University.

Dynamic Research

Professor builds strong interdisciplinary research team with NSF grant

by Jeremy Gerlach

Mathematics professor Hoa Nguyen, Ph.D., is right at home in collaborating across disciplines.

In 2021, Nguyen wrapped up her first NSF grant (NSF DMS-1720323), a four-year collaboration with co-PI Hakan Basagaoglu, Ph.D., at the Edwards Aquifer Authority. They collaborated with Trinity physics professor Orrin Shindell, Ph.D., to develop a numerical model to simulate the growth and deformation of viscoelastic biofilms in shear flow under different nutrient conditions. A separate collaboration with UC Berkeley biology professor Mimi Koehl, Ph.D., and Tulane University mathematics professor Lisa Fauci, Ph.D., studied how different cell morphologies affect the swimming and feeding of choanoflagellates (protozoans that share a common ancestor with animals). These research projects and several others on bacterial chemotaxis and collective motion have been conducted with the aid of 12 Trinity students, with six being fully supported by the prestigious grant.

“Thanks to the NSF grant, I was able to provide stipends to female and first-generation students, who are underrepresented in STEM,” Nguyen says. “The grant has had a significant impact on educating our undergraduates and supporting faculty and student interdisciplinary research activities.”

This isn’t the first time a small liberal arts university like Trinity has rubbed elbows with bigger research institutions. And it won’t be the last,

Nguyen says, thanks to Trinity’s strong culture of interdisciplinary collaboration.

“The interdisciplinary work we proposed was key to winning these NSF grants,” Nguyen says. “Our work is being conducted in biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering, and it was very exciting to see the enthusiasm from the recruited students from all of these STEM fields.”

Leacadia Silveira ’22, a Trinity mathematics major who was part of Nguyen’s team of students, urges other students considering interdisciplinary research to give it a try. “I was curious as to what the collaborative setting of a lab was like, the sort of team,” she says. “I appreciate the skills I’ve gotten in this environment, and it gives me a better picture of the fields I could go into for math.”

Nguyen says this type of positive energy is one of the reasons she’s loved working with Trinity students on her NSF grants. “These grants give you the ability to train undergraduate students, to get them involved in every aspect of the research,” she says. “I’m thankful for the generous support from Trinity and the powerful impacts of these NSF grants, which help me stay at the cutting edge of the computational fluid dynamics field in a liberal arts environment.”

JONATHAN M. KING / Biology co-authored “Understanding increased ferritin levels in pediatric ECMO patients” for Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases, 2021, Vol. 92 and “Cingulin binds to the ZU5 domain of scaffolding protein ZO-1 to promote its extended conformation, stabilization, and tight junction accumulation” in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2022, Vol. 298, Issue 4. King, J. E. Doran*, A. Avery*, and colleagues presented “Understanding paradoxical EPO elevation during pediatric ECMO” at the Critical Care session of the Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in Denver in April 2022. King received the Trinity University Distinguished Award for Advising and Mentoring in May 2022.

EDDY A. KWESSI / Mathematics published “Discrete Dynamics of Dynamic Neural Fields” in Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 2021, Vol. 15 and co-published “Analysis of EEG Data Using Complex Geometric Structurization” in Neural Computation, 2021, Vol. 33, Issue 7.

JOSEPH B. LAMBERT / Chemistry, T. A. Contreras ’19, C. L. Johnson ’14, and colleagues published “Characterization of Phenolic Plant Exudates by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy” in the Journal of Natural Products, 2021, Vol. 84, Issue 9.

DANIEL J. LEHRMANN / Geosciences, L.M. Stepchinski ’15, H. E. Wolf ’22, and colleagues published “The role of carbonate factories and sea water chemistry on basin-wide ramp to high-relief carbonate platform evolution: Triassic, Nanpanjiang Basin, South China” in The Depositional Record, 2021, Vol. 8, Issue 2. Lehrmann also co-published “Implications of giant ooids for the carbonate chemistry of Early Triassic seawater” in Geology, 2021, Vol. 49, Issue 2. In 2022, Lehrmann co-published

“Contractional fold amplification through bed-parallel gypsum vein (“beef”) formation” in the Journal of Structural Geology, Vol. 156; “Duration and Intensity of End-Permian Marine Anoxia” in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol. 23, Issue 1; and “Quantitative evaluation of the roles of ocean chemistry and climate on ooid size across the Phanerozoic: Global versus local controls” in Sedimentology, Vol. 69, Issue 6.

KAH-CHUNG LEONG / Psychology, H. S. Ballas ’22, S. M. Wilfur ’22, and N. A. Freker ’22 published “Oxytocin Attenuates the Stress-Induced Reinstatement of Alcohol-Seeking in Male Rats: Role of the Central Amygdala” in Biomedicines, 2021, Vol. 9, Issue 12.

KELLY G. LYONS / Biology secured for Trinity University $1.6 million over a five-year period by the U.S. Department of Education for the McNair Scholars Program, designed to support first-generation, low income, and underrepresented minority students. Trinity University matched support from the Department of Education with $28,000 in funding and $88,000 in in-kind support. Lyons co-published “Season of prescribed fire determines grassland restoration outcomes after fire exclusion and overgrazing” in Ecosphere, 2021, Vol. 12, Issue 9.

CORINA MAEDER ’99 / Chemistry won the Trinity University President’s Award for Excellence in Student Advocacy in May 2022, which recognizes Trinity employees who have been significant partners in supporting student success both inside and outside the classroom.

KEVIN P. MCINTYRE / Psychology co-authored “Romantic Relationships and Mental Health: Investigating the Role of Self-Expansion on Depression Symptoms” in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships in 2022.

NIRAV P. MEHTA / Physics and Astronomy co-authored two articles in Vol. 104 of the Physical Review A in 2021: “Scattering of two particles in a one-dimensional lattice” in Issue 5 and “Complex collisions of ultracold molecules: A toy model” with C. Johnson ’20 and colleagues in Issue 2.

DANY J. MUNOZ-PINTO / Engineering Science was awarded a $199,988 standard grant from the National Science Foundation for his laboratory to support “Network by network fabrication approach of bioinspired scaffolds to study the effect of fibrin and hyaluronic acid on the reactive and inflammatory response of human astrocytes” in January 2022. Munoz-Pinto, A. Jones ’20, K. Poole ’20, and a colleague presented “Regulation of proliferation rates in human astrocytes by modulating mitochondrial and cell metabolic activity” at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Denver in July 2021. Munoz-Pinto, A. Gonzalez*, M. McKee*, C. Koch ’22, and a colleague presented “The Effects of Hyaluronic Acid Molecular Weight on the Differentiation Potential of Human Neural Stem Cells in 3D Contexts” at the Society For Biomaterials Annual Meeting and Exposition in Baltimore in April 2022.

TROY G. MURPHY / Biology, L. E. Johnson ’21, and colleagues published “No genetic evidence for parent–offspring relatedness in post-breeding social groups of Black-crested Titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus)” in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 2022, Vol. 134, Issue 1.

PAUL MYERS / Computer Science and O. Bangs* were invited to present “An Application of Vulnerability Theory to Computing: Online Privacy” at The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative through Emory University Law School in Atlanta in August 2021.

HOA NGUYEN / Mathematics, Orrin Shindell / Physics and Astronomy, A. Ybarra ’20, and another author published “Biofilm viscoelasticity and nutrient source location control biofilm growth rate, migration rate, and morphology in shear flow” in Scientific Reports, 2021, Vol. 11, Issue 1.

KIMBERLY A. PHILLIPS / Psychology co-authored “The nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum exhibit greater dopaminergic innervation in humans compared to other primates” in Brain Structure and Function, 2021, Vol. 226, Issue 6 and “Recently Integrated Alu Elements in Capuchin Monkeys: A Resource for Cebus/Sapajus Genomics” in Genes, 2022, Vol. 13, Issue 4. Phillips, Brittany M. Ivanov / Psychology, and colleagues published “Use it and bruise it: copulation rates are associated with muscle inflammation across anole lizard species” in the Journal of Zoology, 2021, Vol. 314, Issue 3. Phillips, C. M. Watson ’21, and a colleague published “Myelin characteristics of the corpus callosum in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus [Cebus] apella) across the lifespan” in Scientific Reports, 2022, Vol. 12, Issue 1.

DAVID POOLEY / Physics and Astronomy co-wrote “Seven Years of SN 2014C: A Multiwavelength Synthesis of an Extraordinary Supernova” for The Astrophysical Journal, 2022, Vol. 930, Issue 1.

REBECCA RAPF / Chemistry co-authored “Water–Air Interfaces as Environments to Address the Water Paradox in Prebiotic Chemistry: A Physical Chemistry Perspective” for the Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2021, Vol. 125, Issue 23.

DAVID O. RIBBLE / Biology published “Ahead of his time: Joseph Grinnell, natural history, and inclusion and equity in STEM” in Therya, 2022, Vol. 13, Issue 1.

JASON SHEARER / Chemistry co-authored three articles in 2021: “Controlled Protonation of [2Fe–2S] Leading to MitoNEET Analogues and Concurrent Cluster Modification” in Inorganic Chemistry, Vol. 60, Issue 21; “Scaffold-based [Fe]-hydrogenase model: H2 activation initiates Fe(0)-hydride extrusion and non-biomimetic hydride transfer” in Chemical Science, Vol. 12, Issue 38; and “The Oxo-Wall Remains Intact: A Tetrahedrally Distorted Co(IV)–Oxo Complex” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 143, Issue 41. In 2022, Shearer co-published “Dinitrogen Coordination to a High-Spin Diiron(I/II) Species” in Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, Vol. 61, Issue 22 and, with D. Ocampo ’21 and colleagues, “Zinc sequestration by human calprotectin facilitates manganese binding to the bacterial solute-binding proteins PsaA and MntC” in Metallomics, Vol. 14, Issue 2.

ORRIN SHINDELL / Physics and Astronomy, Hoa Nguyen / Mathematics, Nicholas Coltharp / Mathematics, and colleagues published “Using Experimentally Calibrated Regularized Stokeslets to Assess Bacterial Flagellar Motility Near a Surface” in Fluids, 2021, Vol. 6, Issue 11.

BETHANY STRUNK / Biology received a three-year, $450,000 grant from the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund as the recipient of a 2021 Voelcker Fund Young Investigator Award. Her research focuses on Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, or hereditary motor sensory neuropathy.

Read more about Bethany Strunk’s research and her grant at gotu.us/voelcker.

BENJAMIN SURPLESS / Geosciences was awarded a three-year, $192,830 National Science Foundation-funded Keck Geology Consortium grant to support his investigation of fault evolution along the Sevier fault zone in southern Utah for 2021-24. Surpless and S. Thorne ’17 published “Segmentation of the Wassuk Range normal fault system, Nevada (USA): Implications for earthquake rupture and Walker Lane dynamics” in the GSA Bulletin, 2022, Vol. 134, Issue 1-2.

Watch Benjamin Surpless’s research in action at gotu.us/geologyfromabove

KATHLEEN D. SURPLESS / Geosciences was awarded a three-year, $198,401 grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences for “RUI: Collaborative Research: Testing models for the Late Jurassic Nevadan Orogeny: Age, provenance, and structural evolution of the Galice and Mariposa basins, OR and CA.” Surpless co-wrote “Detrital zircon record of magmatism and sediment dispersal across the North American Cordilleran arc system (28–48°N)” for Earth-Science Reviews, 2021, Vol. 220. At the Geological Society of America Connects Conference in Portland, Oregon, in October 2021, Surpless co-presented two publications from the Geological Society of America’s Abstracts with Programs: “Using detrital zircon geochemistry to study deep arc processes” from Vol. 52, Issue 4 with colleagues and “Detrital zircon and hafnium analysis of the

Trinity Aims To Increase Diversity In Stem

National Science Foundation grant of $2.5M will be shared by four San Antonio schools

The National Science Foundation has awarded Trinity University and three other private liberal arts universities in San Antonio a grant of nearly $2.5 million to increase the number of historically underrepresented students and those from lower-income backgrounds obtaining bachelor’s degrees in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

St. Mary’s University will administer this $2,478,170 grant-funded project from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program and implement it over the next five years. Our Lady of the Lake University and the University of the Incarnate Word are the other local grant recipients.

St. Mary’s University, Our Lady of the Lake University, and the University of the Incarnate Word are Hispanic-Serving institutions, while Trinity is currently an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution. The long history and strength of the relationship between the four universities was a key factor in receiving the grant.

“Trinity is pleased to be part of this alliance and to learn what activities best support student retention in STEM fields,” says David Ribble, Ph.D., associate vice president for Academic Affairs and biology professor at Trinity. “This is vital to the future of STEM, our universities, and the greater San Antonio community.”

About 400 STEM majors across the universities will benefit from the grant. Each university will launch a cohort of 20 students annually and support them for their first two years of college, which is when they have identified a drop in retention.

As part of the alliance, Trinity aims to recruit, enroll, and support these underrepresented STEM students by nurturing their psychosocial development needed to transform their sense of belonging as scientists; to engage students’ families in an orientation event to help them understand the demands of the STEM academic world; to collaborate between universities on data collection to understand better the effectiveness of different retention strategies; and to eventually evaluate the project’s activities to maximize impact on student retention, persistence, graduation, and the workforce.

The program will include a joint orientation for each cohort of students and their families from all four institutions, including alliance-wide workshops and programming. During eight-week summer research sessions, up to six scholars from each institution will have their housing covered and receive a stipend as they conduct research with faculty at any of the four institutions that share their area of interest.

Ribble says the grant will promote greater opportunities and a better sense of belonging for Trinity students.

“We want all students at Trinity to be successful regardless of background,” Ribble says. “It’s important that we support STEM students from underrepresented groups, and that they feel like they belong in STEM.”

Galice Formation, Klamath Mountains, OR and CA: A record of the Late Jurassic Nevadan Orogeny” from Vol. 53, Issue 6 with R. Alford ’22, N. Weis ’22, and colleagues. At the Geological Society of America Combined Rocky Mountain and Cordilleran Section Meeting in Las Vegas in March 2022, Surpless, Alford, Weis, and colleagues presented two publications from Vol. 54, Issue 2 of the Geological Society of America’s Abstracts with Programs: “Late Jurassic evolution of the Galice basin, Klamath Mountains, CA and OR, from detrital zircon ages” and “Paleogeography of the Late Jurassic Klamath arc from detrital zircon hafnium analysis of the Galice Formation, Klamath Mountains, OR and CA.”

SHENG TAN / Computer Science co-authored “Winect: 3D Human Pose Tracking for Free-form Activity Using Commodity WiFi” in the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 2021, Vol. 5, Issue 4.

EMMA TREADWAY ’11 / Engineering

Science co-authored “Consideration for Scaffolding Open-ended Engineering Problems: Instructor Reflections after Three Years” and “‘Let Me See what I Could Do’: Students’ Epistemic Affect when Solving Open-ended, Real-world Problems” in the 2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference in 2021. Treadway also co-authored “Open-Ended Modeling Group Projects in Introductory Statics and Dynamics Courses” in the 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference in 2021. Treadway and A. Marcee* published “Self-Powered Microgravity Resistance Exercise with Soft Pneumatic Exoskeletons” in the IEEE Aerospace Conference in 2022. Treadway, J. Nania ’22, and N. Younkins ’22 published “Effects of Dual-Frequency Environment Exploration on Stiffness Discrimination Thresholds” in the IEEE Haptics Symposium in 2022.

DENNIS UGOLINI / Physics and Astronomy co-authored four articles for the Physical Review D in 2021: “Tests of general relativity with binary black holes from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog” with H. Rafferty ’20 and colleagues in Vol. 103, Issue 12; “Search for anisotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo’s first three observing runs” and “Upper limits on the isotropic gravitational-wave background from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo’s third observing run” in Vol. 104, Issue 2; and “All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in the early O3 LIGO data” in Vol. 104, Issue 8. Ugolini also co-authored “Constraints on Cosmic Strings Using Data from the Third Advanced LIGO–Virgo Observing Run” for Physical Review Letters, 2021, Vol. 126, Issue 24. Ugolini co-authored five articles for The Astrophysical Journal in 2021: “Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star–Black Hole Coalescences” in Vol. 915, Issue 1; “Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO–Virgo Run O3a” with Rafferty and colleagues in Vol. 915, Issue 2; “Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Young Supernova Remnants in the Early Third Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo” in Vol. 921, Issue 1; “Constraints from LIGO O3 Data on Gravitational-wave Emission Due to R-modes in the Glitching Pulsar PSR J0537–6910” in Vol. 922, Issue 1; and “Search for Lensing Signatures in the Gravitational-Wave Observations from the First Half of LIGO–Virgo’s Third Observing Run” in Vol. 923, Issue 1. Ugolini also co-published

“Diving below the Spin-down Limit: Constraints on Gravitational Waves from the Energetic Young Pulsar PSR J0537-6910” for The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2021, Vol. 913, Issue 2. Additionally, Ugolini, Rafferty, and colleagues published “GWTC2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First Half of the Third Observing Run” for Physical Review X, 2021, Vol. 11, Issue 2.

ADAM URBACH / Chemistry received a $527,940 grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund biomedical research from 2021-24 on the development of minimal protein affinity tags. Urbach presented for the Anslyn, Iverson, Sessler Lectureship at the University of Texas at Austin in October 2021 on “Sequence-Selective Recognition of Peptides and Proteins.” Urbach serves on the editorial board for Supramolecular Chemistry under Frontiers in Chemistry.

HARRY M. WALLACE / Psychology, J. Kelley ’15, and a colleague published “Perceptions of narcissism in college professors” in The Journal of Social Psychology in 2022.

ELAINE WONG / Psychology contributed “Chinese Translingual Writing: In and Out” for The Routledge Handbook of Literary Translingualism with Routledge in 2021.

YIAN XU / Physics and Astronomy, Orrin Shindell / Physics and Astronomy, and colleagues published “Universality in kinetic models of circadian rhythms in Arabidopsisthaliana” in the Journal of Mathematical Biology, 2021, Vol. 83, Issue 5.

ENGINEERING, DOWN TO A SCIENCE

Trinity’s Department of Engineering Science named a top-30 undergraduate engineering program

by Jeremy Gerlach

Trinity University was recently named No. 29 in Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs by U.S. News and World Report So: What is Trinity’s engineering science program doing right?

Engineering science department chair Farzan Aminian, Ph.D., says that the program produces engineers that are “different by design.” Trinity engineers stand out thanks to a versatile liberal arts curriculum that merges a deep understanding of not only mechanical, chemical,

“These are really exciting times for engineering at Trinity,” Aminian says. “Our focus on teaching and design, in addition to our special attention to developing students’ communication, interpersonal, and leadership skills, differentiates us from hundreds of other engineering programs across the country.”

The engineering science curriculum doesn’t force students to silo themselves into mechanical, electrical, or chemical fields, but rather dive into all three. “This allows Trinity and electrical engineering, but also that of the physical sciences, mathematics, and fields like the humanities; the rigor of a design sequence that spans all eight semesters; and continuing education and career prospects nationwide, thanks to access to state-of-art facilities and dedicated faculty who create elite opportunities in undergraduate research. students to be managers at companies and supervise multidisciplinary projects because of their broad background,” Aminian says

So, where do the liberal arts come into play?

“Well, engineering is a profession that must serve the society where it functions,” Aminian says. “An engineering solution that works in one culture may not work in another. So having a liberal arts program gives students a better scope of cultural values.”

A set of nationally acclaimed faculty enrich this curriculum with real-world experience, Aminian says.

“What always amazes me is that our faculty are coming from different backgrounds, with different expertise,” Aminian says. “But given their broad backgrounds and broad base of knowledge, our faculty come together as one to deliver such a unique experience to our students.”

And that curriculum is highly experiential, thanks to a design sequence that explores the fundamentals of solving engineering design problems, built into all eight semesters at Trinity.

Now, Aminian says that the outlook for Trinity engineering grads is beyond stellar.

“Our graduates go to very good graduate programs like Stanford, MIT, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, University of Michigan, Vanderbilt, and Northwestern University, and a lot of these programs are actually coming to us to recruit,” Aminian says. “And our graduates are also going on to great companies such as Southwest Research Institute, Google, Apple, IBM, Tesla, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, and USAA.”

CAROL Y. YODER / Psychology and L. Chan ’17 published “Don’t Blame Me, Blame Those around Me: How Family and Friends Induce Unethical Acts” in Deviant Behavior, 2021, Vol. 42, Issue 7.

YU ZHANG / Computer Science, L. Li ’20, C. Zhang ’21, and H. Guan ’25 published “Application of Correlation Pre-Filtering Neural Network to DNA Methylation Data: Biological Aging Prediction” in Methods in Molecular Biology, 2022, Vol. 2432.

BRADY A. ZIEGLER / Geosciences co-authored “Arsenic in Petroleum-Contaminated Groundwater Near Bemidji, Minnesota is Predicted to Persist for Centuries” in Water, 2021, Vol. 13, Issue 11 and “Months-long spike in aqueous arsenic following domestic well installation and disinfection: Short- and long-term drinking water quality implications” in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, 2021, Vol. 414. Ziegler also co-authored “Sedimentation across the Paraburdoo spherule layer: Implications for the Neoarchean Earth system” for Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI with The Geological Society of America in 2021.