College of Arts, Sciences and Education

Dear friends and alumni,

A heartfelt welcome to all our new and returning students, faculty and staff as we begin another academic year.

The summer months typically bring a quieter pace to campus, but this summer was anything but quiet in many of the buildings that serve our college community. The sounds of construction and renovation were a welcome sign of significant investments being made in the spaces where our students learn and our faculty and staff teach, conduct research, and work.

We are particularly delighted to welcome our mathematics and statistics department back to the historic Rolla Building (pictured above). At 155 years old, the Rolla Building is an important part of our campus heritage. After a year of extensive repairs and renovations, it has reopened with improvements touching nearly every aspect of the building, including new flooring, fresh paint, plumbing improvements, technology upgrades and new furniture throughout. The result is a revitalized space that preserves the character of our oldest building while providing a much-improved environment for teaching, learning and collaboration.

Fulton Hall (built in 1923) and Harris Hall (built in 1940) also underwent repairs and improvements this summer. Meanwhile, the extensive renovation of Schrenk Hall East (built in 1938) is ongoing, with completion scheduled for the end of this semester.

These projects represent an important investment in the people and programs of our college. I hope our students, faculty and staff enjoy the improved facilities and the opportunities they provide.

Best wishes to everyone for a productive, rewarding and enjoyable academic year.

Sincerely,

Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Ph.D.
Vice Provost and Dean

Dr. Halyna Hodovanets, assistant professor of physics, and graduate students Jayashani Wickramasinghe and Sachin Gunasekara served as summer camp instructors at the Kaleidoscope Discovery Center during the third week of June. They led participants through hands-on activities exploring crystallography, the periodic table, symmetry, magnetism, optics and black holes. Campers grew sugar crystals, built crystal structures, constructed a levitating magnetic train, investigated mirror and rotational symmetry, and explored interference, diffraction and the limitations of human vision. They also visited S&T physics laboratories for demonstrations and activities involving X-ray diffraction, quantum-material crystal growth, superconductivity, optics and LIGO research.

Faculty and doctoral students from the mathematics and statistics department (pictured above at AIMS) represented the university at two international mathematics conferences in July: the 15th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications in Athens, Greece, and the International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications in Milan, Italy. Dr. Elvan Akın attended both conferences with mathematics Ph.D. students Beyza Çetin, Md. Mutakabbir Khan and Jack Coleman, who presented their research, exchanged ideas with scholars from around the world and strengthened S&T’s international research connections. At the AIMS Conference, Akın co-organized a special session titled “Advances in Differential, Difference and Dynamic Equations with Applications in Science and Engineering” with Dr. Özkan Öztürk, a Ph.D. alumnus, and Dr. Billur Kaymakçalan.

Photo caption: Participants, faculty mentors and program organizers of the 2026 SOAR-Q pilot program outside the Physics Building.

The physics department recently hosted its four-week Summer Opportunity for Advancing Research in Quantum (SOAR-Q) pilot undergraduate research program, “Quantum Sciences: From Microcosmos to Macrocosmos.” Led by professors Simeon Mistakidis, Aleksandr Chernatynskiy, and Xiaojie Wang, the program provided six undergraduate students with an immersive introduction to research in quantum science and technology through faculty-mentored projects spanning multiple areas of modern quantum physics. In addition to their research, participants took part in career development workshops, faculty-led quantum science seminars, a Quantum Cinema evening and social activities, including kayaking. The program was designed to foster collaboration and build a strong scientific community while expanding undergraduate research opportunities in the rapidly growing field of quantum science.

In a series of papers published in Physical Review A and Physical Review B, S&T physics researchers developed and explored a new mathematical model for describing the dielectric function, or optical response, of crystalline solids. The model incorporates complex oscillator strengths and accounts for a physical effect known as radiative reaction, producing strong agreement with experimental observations and tabulated data for materials including pure silicon, alpha-quartz and calcium fluoride. The new functional forms also enable calculations of atom-surface interaction potentials, extending familiar van der Waals interactions between individual atoms to interactions between atoms and crystalline surfaces, with potential technical applications. The research was led by physics graduate student Tuhin Das and Dr. Ulrich Jentschura, professor of physics at Missouri S&T, in collaboration with Dr. Carsten Ullrich, professor of physics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Postdoctoral researchers Wassim El Housseini, Michael Pence, Rohit Jadhav and Vamshi Kamaja, along with graduate students Huaijun Guan, Egor Baiarashov and Trevor Larkin, published an article titled “Employing AC and DC Electrolysis to Modulate Electroenzymatic Pathways for Efficient and Stereoselective H–D Exchange” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Postdoctoral researchers Monica Brachi and Vamshi Kamaja of the Minteer Research Group published an article titled “Challenges and Opportunities in Integrating Biocatalysis with Photo- and Electrocatalysis for Scalable Synthesis” in Nature Synthesis.

Pathum Randunu Nawarathna Kandedura Arachchige, a doctoral student in mathematics and statistics, successfully defended his dissertation on July 28. The chair of his dissertation committee was Dr. Gayla Olbricht.

Kyle Foster, a doctoral student in physics, successfully defended his dissertation, titled "Nonlinear Photoionization Dynamics in Laser-Cooled Atoms: Continuous-Wave Methods and Ultrafast Light-Source Development,” on Aug. 21. His dissertation committee was chaired by Dr. Daniel Fischer.

Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, CASE vice provost and dean, published an essay titled “This Is What My Father’s Assassination Taught Me About the War in Iran” in The New York Times (Aug. 2). He was also quoted by Euronews, France24, the Financial Times, The Guardian (here and here), The New York Times, ZDF television network (Germany), and Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland); he was interviewed by Alhurra.

Dr. Marco Cavaglia, chair and professor of physics, received a $422,519 grant from the National Science Foundation for a project titled “Enabling Multi-Messenger Astrophysics with Advanced LIGO: From Detector Characterization to Interpretation of Gravitational-Wave Signals.” The award will support research aimed at advancing the detection and interpretation of gravitational waves, with a particular focus on black holes, neutron stars, and other extreme cosmic events observed through the international LIGO collaboration.

Dr. Dave Duvernell, professor of biological sciences, received a $15,070 grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation for a project titled “eDNA Metabarcoding to Support Fish SOCC and Community Projects.”

Matthew Goldberg, associate teaching professor of English and technical communication, read from his new book, Night Watch, as part of The Writers Place reading series in Kansas City, Missouri, on Aug. 21.

Dr. Margret Grebowicz, Maxwell C. Weiner Distinguished Professor of Humanities, published an essay titled “The Big Bend Region Is Losing Irreplaceable Pieces of US History” in Sierra. Grebowicz was also recently interviewed for a cover story by Valor Econômico, a financial newspaper in Brazil. Eu & Fim de Semana, the weekend edition of the paper, included a story featuring her, which focused on the changing culture of pet ownership. 

Dr. Larry Gragg, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor emeritus of history, published “The Americanization of an Italian War Bride in Missouri: Liliana Maria Palmigiani, 1946-2015” in the Missouri Historical Review’s July 2026 issue.

Taylor Gruenloh, assistant professor of theater and film, presented his paper, “A Performance of Recognition: AI Persuasion and Human Precarity,” at the 19th Global Studies Conference at the University of Galway in Galway, Ireland, on July 15. Gruenloh also received a mini-grant from S&T’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society to attend the 2026 Symposium on Education in Entertainment and Engineering at Purdue University, held July 24–25.

Dr. Halyna Hodovanets, assistant professor of physics, published an article titled “Self-organized vacancy order in Pr9⁡Ge16” in the journal Physical Review Materials with collaborators from Baylor University, Oak Ridge National Lab, University of Arizona, and University of Pennsylvania. In this work, the authors report the discovery of a new intermetallic compound, Pr9Ge16, which crystallizes in a previously unreported crystal structure, and present a comprehensive investigation of its physical properties.

Dr. Shelley Minteer, Ken Robertson Memorial Professor of Chemistry and director of the Kummer Institute Center for Resource Sustainability, received the 2026 J. Heyrovsky Prize for Molecular Electrochemistry from the International Society for Electrochemistry.

Dr. Kathryn Northcut, professor of English and technical communication, participated in the 2026 Applied Rhetoric Collaborative Symposium, held June 4–5. As a member of the organizing committee, she helped develop a new write-to-publish track for the symposium and presented a paper that is currently under review for publication in POROI. In July, Northcut also participated in the IEEE Professional Communication Conference as a panelist in a session focused on the international engagement of technical communication scholars. Proceedings from the conference will be published in IEEE Xplore.

Dr. Gayla Olbricht, professor of mathematics and statistics, has been selected to receive a 2026 ASA Outstanding Chapter Service Award from the American Statistical Association. The award recognizes her dedicated service and leadership within the ASA Mid-Missouri Chapter and honors her significant contributions to the organization and the broader statistical community.

Dr. Ross C. Reed, assistant teaching professor of philosophy, presented a paper titled “Existential Philosophical Counseling, Part II: Therapeutic Hermeneutics and the Medical Pathologization of Suffering” at the American Philosophical Practitioners Association Annual Conference on Zoom on June 27, 2026. 

Dr. Michelle Schwartze, associate teaching professor of education, attended the 2026 Show-Me Sparks Conference, held Aug. 7–8 in Jefferson City, Missouri, where she collaborated with elementary and middle school mathematics educators from across the state. She led a discussion on the importance of balancing procedural fluency with conceptual understanding in elementary mathematics curricula. Schwartze also partnered with Missouri S&T education alumna Sydney Beistel to lead a summer camp focused on energy (pictured above). Using the Project Lead The Way Launch module Energy Exploration, students investigated energy transfers and conversions through hands-on activities. Campers also visited S&T’s solar houses and green roof to learn about alternative and sustainable forms of energy.

Dr. Daniel Shank, associate professor of psychological science, delivered an invited opening talk at the technology preconference of the International Society for Research on Emotion (ISRE) in Brisbane, Australia. His presentation, “Feeling the Future: Emotion Research on Social Technology,” provided an overview of the current state of research on emotion and social technology.

Dr. Kathleen Sheppard, professor of history and political science, gave several presentations in the U.S. and U.K. over the summer. In July, she spoke to a summer class at the University of Oxford about her book, Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age. In August, Sheppard spoke at the Ethical Society of St. Louis about the pioneering women who first received permission to conduct archaeological excavations in Egypt. In July, Sheppard was also elected co-chair of the Women’s, Trans, and Non-Binary Caucus of the History of Science Society.

Dr. Pericles Stravropoulos, professor of chemistry, received a $554,962 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a project titled “Development of First-Row Transition-Metal Reagents for Catalytic C-H Bond Amination via Nitrene-Transfer Chemistry.”

Dr. Xiaojie Wang, assistant professor of physics, received a $44,059 grant from NSF for a project titled “Collaborative Research: WoU-MMA: Optimizing the Design of the Next Generation Gamma-ray Observatory in Chile – SWGO.”

Dr. Dave Westenberg, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor of biological sciences, co-facilitated a virtual HHMI BioInteractive workshop with Christina Bowers of Amherst College on Aug. 8. Titled “When Measles Strikes: Modeling Disease Outbreaks to Explore Biological Concepts,” the workshop introduced dozens of educators from across the U.S. and abroad to free BioInteractive resources for exploring infectious disease transmission and vaccine effectiveness.

Dr. Aaron Zalis, director of the South Central Regional Professional Development Center, received a $3,464,650 grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for “South Central Regional Professional Development Center Consolidated Contract.” He also received a second grant of $18,975 for the project “MLDS Program Support – MST.”

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