College of Arts, Sciences and Education

Dear friends and alumni,

I recently finished reading John Lewis Gaddis’s Landscapes of History: How Historians Map the Past, a masterful exploration of the historian’s craft. Gaddis’s book not only illuminates the methods by which historians reconstruct the past but also exemplifies the very qualities Francis Bacon had in mind when he observed that “some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Here at S&T, students have long been tasting, chewing, digesting — and savoring — history. After all, our strengths are far beyond engineering. The first bachelor’s degree in history was awarded in 1968 to Glenda Dickman, and the current history and political science department officially took shape on July 1, 1983.

Today, the department is home to a remarkable group of teaching scholars. Dr. John C. McManus, Curators’ Distinguished Professor, hosts the popular Someone Talked! podcast and recently completed his sweeping series on World War II — hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “as vast and splendid as Rick Atkinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Liberation Trilogy.” Dr. Kate Sheppard, professor of history, has authored or edited four books in just the past five years and Dr. Andrew Behrendt was recently recognized for his outstanding teaching with the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

The department’s scholarship is impressive. Over the past five years, faculty have produced 81 articles, eight books, 17 book chapters, 10 conference proceedings, 29 creative works and 201 scholarly presentations. According to Academic Analytics, this extraordinary productivity places the history and political Science department first in Missouri for articles per faculty, citations per faculty and percent of faculty publishing. In 2024 alone, faculty gave nearly 60 public lectures or invited talks and participated in about 60 media interviews.

Beyond research, the department is deeply committed to experiential learning. Students engage in digital projects, manuscript work, exhibitions, policy brief simulations and travel to historic sites. This summer, four students were selected for the prestigious Normandy Academy Program hosted by the National WWII Museum, traveling to New Orleans, Paris and Normandy. The department’s WWII Reenactment Summer Camp is a hit with K–12 students, and looking ahead, students will have the chance to participate in a study abroad program in London in spring 2026.

From groundbreaking research to immersive learning experiences, the history and political science department at S&T continues to honor the past while preparing students to shape the future.

Sincerely,

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean

Graduate students and faculty (pictured above) from mathematics and statistics attended the American Statistical Association (ASA) Statistics Day event held on Sept. 19 at Washington University in St. Louis. During the event, graduate students Pathum Nawarathna and Jiali Zhang ( pictured below) presented posters showcasing their research.

Biological Sciences graduate student, Fahime Taheri, mentored by Dr. Chen Hou, has been selected to participate in the Biomedical Entrepreneurship Training Program for Aging (BETA) at the University of Missouri. BETA is a National Institute on Aging (NIA/NIH)-funded program that trains emerging scientists to translate research discoveries into innovations that improve health and aging outcomes. Participants gain hands-on experience in translational aging research, age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and the entrepreneurial, regulatory and business skills needed to bring new biomedical technologies to life.

The Blackbox Theatre hosted David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Proof Sept. 11–14. Directed by Taylor Gruenloh, director of theatre at S&T, the four-person cast featured Dr. Dan Reardon, associate dean for academic affairs in CASE; Emma Braymer, a sophomore in biological sciences; Victoria Fugaro a senior in mechanical engineering; and Nathan Fischer, a senior in computer science. Auburn’s drama follows a young woman confronting her late father’s mathematical legacy while wrestling with trust, grief, and the cost of brilliance. Gruenloh's staging brought focus to the play’s high-stakes conversations and quiet moments of care.

To celebrate International Microorganism Day on Sept. 17, Dr. Dave Westenberg, was invited to narrate a biography of Fanny Angelina Hesse written by her grandson. The biography is part of a graphic novel project created by a group of artists and writers interested in telling Fanny's story with the world. Without agar (and without Fanny Angelina Hesse!) microbiology (and biotechnology! and molecular biology! and biochemistry! and and and!) would not be the same, today. Get a glimpse of Fanny Angelina Hesse's legacy and life by listening to this excerpt from her unpublished biography while watching an amazing time-lapse drawing by the artist shog!

S&T students can explore several Study Abroad opportunities guided by CASE faculty. Biology faculty Dr. Robin Verble and Theo Sumnicht will lead a trip to Ecuador during the winter break of 2026, chemistry professor Dr. Vadym Mochalin will lead a trip to Estonia during the winter break of 2026, and historian Dr. Michael Bruening will guide the trip to London in the summer of 2026. Be sure to share these opportunities with any interested students.

In August, Dr. Jeffrey Humpherys joined Missouri S&T as the Kummer Endowed Professor Data Science in mathematics and statistics. He earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Indiana University in 2002 and was a post-doc at The Ohio State University from 2002-2005, before joining the faculty at Brigham Young University in 2005.

While at BYU, Humpherys earned six grants from the National Science Foundation, including an NSF CAREER Award in 2009, which was given in part for his work in dynamical systems and compressible fluid dynamics. In 2013, he led the creation of BYU's Applied and Computational Mathematics program which recently won the American Mathematical Society's Exemplary Program Award in 2024.

In 2017, Humpherys left BYU for industry and was hired as a vice president of research at UnitedHealth Group, where he managed over 80 data scientists and oversaw a large research portfolio including key initiatives in type-2 diabetes, neonatal health and pediatric health. Following that, he served as chief data scientist and vice president of research at Owlet Baby Care, where his team developed the first AI-based pulse oximeter. This device is now FDA approved and monitors over 100k infants every night. Humpherys also helped develop the strategy to help take the company public in 2021 (NYSE: OWLT). Following a 2-year stint at the University of Utah School of Medicine during COVID-19, he then became chief data scientist at Harbor Health, an Austin-based integrated health system start-up specializing in value-based primary care.

Dr. Michael Bruening, professor of history and political science, published "Revolutionary Tolerance," an article on Sebastian Castellio and the sixteenth-century roots of religious toleration, in Aeon Magazine.

Dr. Ryan Cheek, assistant professor of English and technical communication, co-authored the article “Deny, Defend, Depose: Structuring Permission for Bureaucratic Indifference, Slow (Civic) Violence, and the Institutional Betrayal of DEI” in Technical Communication & Social Justice (Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2025) with Dr. Isidore Dorpenyo of the University of Minnesota. The article explores how bureaucratic rhetoric and administrative practices reinforce indifference and undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

A research team led by Dr. Amitava Choudhury, associate professor of chemistry, has discovered two new molybdenum phosphate materials that show strong potential as cathodes for lithium- and sodium-ion batteries. Graduate student Sutapa Bhattacharya, lead author of the study, demonstrated their high-capacity, cost-effective performance, highlighting Missouri S&T’s innovation in next-generation battery research. The invited  article was published in celebration of Professor Gordon Miller’s 65th birthday.

Dr. Gerald Cohen, professor of German in arts, languages, and philosophy, authored "Reflections: Two Linear B Signs (69, *47) in Light of the Ancient Egyptian ‘Union of Two Lands’ (Sema-tawy)"; in: Comments on Etymology (vol 55, no. 1, Oct. 2025), 14 pages.

Dr. Shannon Fogg, chair and professor of history and political science, recently published a review article: "Dispossession, Restitution, and Returning Home: Recent Studies on the Holocaust and its Aftermath in Paris, Romania, and Greece" in the European Journal of Jewish Studies (2025): 1-13.

Taylor Gruenloh, assistant professor of theatre in arts, languages, and philosophy, had his play "The Length of a Pop Song" published by Next Stage Press on Oct. 1, 2025. Critical praise of the play includes: "The 95-minute tale feels epic in psychological scope and has us holding our breath for a girl whose loves are too great... The whole show is meticulously great" from Talkin' Broadway and "compelling, a fascinating play with beautifully drawn characters" from The Riverfront Times.

Dr. Beth Kania-Gosche, chair and professor of education, received a $142,900 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for a project titled “Missouri S&T Child Development Center Quality Prekindergarten Program.” She also published an article titled “The Enrollment Cliff Is Worse Than We Think” in Inside Higher Ed.

Dr. Michael Meagher, associate professor of history and political science, published “American Presidential Elections: A Readjustment Model,” in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies (Vol. 37, no. 1-2). 

Dr. Simeon Mistakidis, assistant professor of physics, published two research articles in leading journals. His paper “Competition of light- and phonon-dressing in microwave-dressed Bose polarons” appeared in SciPost Physics, co-authored with collaborators from Harvard University, Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, and the University of Hamburg. He also co-authored “Effective two- and three-body interactions between dressed impurities in a tilted double-well potential” in APS Physical Review Research with colleagues from Aarhus University and the University of Hamburg, revealing new insights into three-body interactions among polaronic quasi-particles in ultracold atomic systems.

Dr. Vadym Mochalin, professor of chemistry and materials science and engineering, leads an international team from the U.S., Estonia, and the Czech Republic developing a nanodiamond-based platform to treat the effects of nerve agents such as sarin and Novichok. Their findings were published in Chemico-Biological Interactions and highlight the platform’s potential for delivering drugs across the blood–brain barrier to treat neurological disorders. Mochalin also co-authored a study in ACS Nano on the degradation and stabilization of MXenes in aqueous environments, supported by the NSF DMREF project “Computationally Driven Discovery and Synthesis of 2D Materials through Selective Etching.”

Dr. Matthew Ng, assistant professor of psychological science, received the Class of '42 Excellence in Teaching Award during the October 3 Miner Alumni Association’s Legends Luncheon.

Dr. Ross Channing Reed, lecturer of philosophy in arts, languages, and philosophy, published a piece on “Anxiety” in the Pittsburgh Review of Books.

Dr. Shun Saito, associate professor of physics, visited the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Kashiwa, Japan to attend two conferences. He organized and co-chaired a mini-workshop, "Target Selection for Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph” on Sept. 12 and attended another workshop, “Beyond two-point Statistics Meet Survey Systematics” during Sept. 16-19.

Dr. Jeff Schramm, associate professor of history and political science, published an article titled “If it Can’t Be Grown, It Has to Be Mined: The History of Mining Schools in the United States” in The Mining History Journal.

Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, professor of history and political science, gave two talks in early October. The first, on Oct. 2, was a talk about early American Egyptology for the Manchester University Egyptology Program at Manchester University in the UK, over zoom. On Oct. 4, she traveled to Chicago to speak at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC) at the University of Chicago about her most recent book, Women in the Valley of the Kings.

Dr. Pablo Sobrado, Richard Vitek/FCR Endowed Chair of Biochemistry, published a collaborative study characterizing the activity of tyrosine hydroxylase in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. The enzyme was found to be involved in melanin production, which serves as a key defense mechanism in insects. The study also demonstrated the enzyme’s role in pathogen resistance, wound healing and cuticle development. 

Dr. Robin Verble, professor and director of the environmental science program, was interviewed by CBS 5 and Telemundo Chicago about the impacts of extreme heat and changing climates on firefighters' health and safety.

Dr. Dave Westenberg, Curators Distinguished Teaching Professor of biological sciences, presented at ASM Microbe on the pivotal role of Fannie Angelina Hesse in introducing agar to the microbial sciences. His presentation was featured on the Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives (CHOMA) website and the American Society for Microbiology’s YouTube channel.

The support of our donors is instrumental in advancing the mission of our college. We extend our sincere thanks to emeritus physics professor Gerald Wilemski, who contributed an additional $50,000 to the Gerald Wilemski Graduate Research Fund in Physics. We are also deeply grateful to Laura Agee, CerE’02, and R.J. Agee, EMgt’03, for their gift to Dr. Vonalt’s Endowment in English and technical communication.

If you are interested in supporting CASE, contact the Senior Development Officer for CASE, Michelle Shults, at shultsm@mst.edu or call 573-341-4380.

Disclaimer: CASE does not endorse the arguments presented in any of the essays listed in this section of the newsletter. We share them solely as "food for thought" and encourage our enlightened audience to form their own opinions on the subjects discussed.

College of Arts, Sciences and Education

Missouri University of Science and Technology

118 Fulton Hall

301 W. 14th St., Rolla, MO 65409

573-341-4687

case@mst.edu