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COSAM News:
COSAM names next Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
 Vince Cammarata, associate professor of chemistry, was appointed to succeed Larry Wit as COSAM's associate dean for academic affairs. Cammarata, who is an analytical chemist, received his bachelor of science from California Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and conducted post-doctoral work at the University of Minnesota. He joined the Auburn faculty in 1991, and since that time has served the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, COSAM and the university as a whole in a number of capacities including: undergraduate advisor for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; division chair of analytical chemistry; member of the 2010-2011 COSAM Curriculum Committee; participant on the Toomer’s Corner Oaks Task Force; and faculty advisor to both the Auburn Rowing and Auburn Triathletes sports clubs. He will officially begin his term on Aug. 1, 2012.
"I've worked with some terrific Chemistry students in the last 20 years,” Cammarata said. “As associate dean for academic affairs, I now get the privilege to interact and learn from all the outstanding students in COSAM and hopefully, help them achieve their goals. What could be more exciting than that?"
For more information on Cammarata, visit his webpage.
Auburn University senior awarded Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany
 Paul Bergen, a senior in COSAM double majoring in microbiology and German, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany for the 2012-13 academic year. At the Technical University of Munich, he will continue to pursue his research in microbiology.
"Paul is an inquisitive and engaging young man with a range of interests and activities that go well beyond the lab and range from the study of German politics, culture and language to being an active member of Auburn's nationally recognized mock trial team," said Paul Harris, associate director of the Auburn Honors College. "He will gain so much from his classes and interactions with German students and faculty and he will represent himself, Auburn University and the United States with distinction."
A four-year member of the Honors College with a 3.97 overall grade-point-average in two demanding majors, Bergen is Auburn's fourth consecutive Fulbright scholar, following Rebecca Ludvigsen, Germany, 2009, Helen Hunter Robertson, France, 2010 and Kristen Snow, France, 2011. Continue reading...
COSAM awards the 2012 Dean’s Outstanding Outreach Award
 COSAM named two recipients of the 2012 Dean’s Outstanding Outreach Award, David King, professor of geology, and Ash Abebe, associate professor of mathematics and statistics. The annual Outstanding Outreach Award is given to COSAM faculty members with recent records of service and outreach performance that extend beyond normal expectations.
King was recognized for his work at a site where about 85 million years ago, a small asteroid or comet struck the shallow waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico in the vicinity of Wetumpka, Ala. The energy from this impact was about 175,000 times that of the Hiroshima bomb, and it excavated a depression and raised a rim of hills that largely still stands today. King led a team that identified the unusual geological features in Wetumpka indicating the impact crater, and preliminary scientific research results were first published in 2002. King and his students and colleagues abroad continue to conduct research at the crater. In addition, King has worked with the city of Wetumpka and its Impact Crater Commission for the past 14 years to bring public education about the crater to the community, organize and staff annual crater tours, and in recent years to help the city plan for the Alabama Crater Center, which will be built in the near future on US 231 in Wetumpka.
 Abebe is involved in a variety of outreach-centered work. He has secured funding from the British government through its UK-US New Partnership Fund as part of the Strategic Alliances and Partnerships strand of the Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education 2. The funding is intended to stimulate the strategic partnership between Auburn University and the University of Sussex to improve mathematics education and research in Sub-Saharan African institutions. Continue reading...
Journey magazine available
 COSAM’s yearly magazine publication, Journey, is now available on-line. To read the latest issue, click here.
Biological Sciences News:
Halanych awarded NSF grant
 Ken Halanych, professor of biological sciences, has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant along with his collaborator, Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii. The combined $800,576 of funding will begin in September 2012 and allow Halanych and Smith, along with collaborators from five different countries, to continue their research on the diversity of deep-sea organisms.
“We hope to gain a better understanding of the deep sea environment, the last frontier, and we hope that we can relay some of the gained knowledge and information to the lay public,” Halanych said.
The team will launch landers made of wood, whale bone and rock off the coasts of Washington and Oregon. After a year of submersion, the landers will be pulled up and observed in hopes that their target species, ship worms and bone-eating worms, will have inhabited the structures. The whale bone-eating Osedax, a type of sea worm, is of particular interest due to its recent presence in the news. Continue reading...
Ornamental fish sale
 The lab of Nanette Chadwick, director of academic sustainability programs for the Office of Sustainability and associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, is selling two-band anemonefish or “clownfish.” These fish, made popular by the movie "Finding Nemo," are native to the Red Sea and associate with giant sea anemones in the wild. Clownfish are popular as ornamental organisms in private and commercial aquaria, and most are collected from coral reefs. Research conducted through Chadwick’s lab has shown that when clownfish are removed from their sea anemones, the host anemone usually shrinks and dies because it lacks the nutrients, aeration and protection from predators provided by the clownfish.
Undergraduate researchers in Chadwick’s lab have cultured fish larvae from eggs laid by adult fish in the lab. The hope is that the aquarium trade will begin to acquire clownfish that have been cultured in a lab rather than caught in the wild. As a result, by purchasing a cultured ornamental fish through Chadwick’s lab rather than a wild one harvested from a coral reef, you are supporting marine conservation.
Captive-raised anemonefish can be kept comfortably in saltwater aquaria without anemones, and grow to about four inches long. The cost of the fish is $15 for a small fish and $25 for a medium-size fish. This cost is below market price and includes free shipping. Buyers will also receive up to six months of “tech support” from Auburn biologists on how to keep your fish happy and healthy in your home aquarium. Note that these fish generally have a high survival rate and experience no stress from shipping. All proceeds benefit Auburn’s ecological research program on clownfish symbioses and conservation. To purchase a fish, contact Channing Cantrell by email at cec003@auburn.edu or by phone at 423.443.7264. Interested buyers can also contact Nanette Chadwick at chadwick@auburn.edu or by telephone at 334.844.8184.
For more information on Chadwick, visit her website.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships awarded
 Department of Biological sciences graduate students Alex Bentz, Nicole Garrison and Rebecca Koch each won a prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, or GRFP, is the oldest fellowship of its kind and has a long history of recipients achieving high academic and professional success. GRFP fellows often become lifelong scientific leaders and educators. Bentz’s mentor is Assistant Professor Wendy Hood, Garrison is being mentored by Professor Jason Bond and Koch’s mentor is Professor Geoff Hill. Congratulations to each of these meritorious students and their mentors!
'Medicine, Poverty and Haiti' lecture and presentation
 Matthew Goodwin, of Weill Cornell Medical College at Cornell University, presented a free, public discussion titled "Medicine, Poverty and Haiti: Lessons from Abroad" on Tuesday, March 27, in the Sciences Center Auditorium. Goodwin lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti for six months in 2009, working at the renowned GHESKIO clinic. In his talk, he presented a pre-earthquake view of Haiti. The talk brought to light what a remarkable and resilient people Haitians are, as well as highlighted larger issues relating to developing countries and health care. The event dealt with many of the issues that surface in "Mountains Beyond Mountains," Auburn's 2011-2012 Common Book. For more information, go to the website.
SCB explores Birmingham Zoo and Birmingham Botanical Gardens
 Thirteen members of Auburn University’s chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, or SCB, traveled to Birmingham, Ala., on March 24 to visit both the Birmingham Zoo and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Arriving first at the zoo, SCB explored the exhibits and received a tour of the Primate Exhibit from a zookeeper. Participants then saw the Sea Lion show and went behind the scenes with two of the trainers to see the marine mammals up close and learn more about the challenges and rewards of working with them. At the Botanical Gardens, participants enjoyed a one-and-a-half-hour guided walk led by John Manion, curator of the Kaul Wildflower Garden. Many plants native to Alabama were in full bloom, and participants learned much about some of the rare Alabama native plants grown at the garden, including the rarest fern in the state, Tutwiler’s Spleenwort. The species is being propagated in greenhouses at the Botanical Gardens for possible conservation use in the future.
For more information on SCB, visit the SCB website.
American non-fiction writer to visit Auburn University
 On Monday, April 23, the Auburn University Museum of Natural History and Departments of Biological Sciences and Entomology and Plant Pathology will host guest speaker Richard Conniff in celebration of Earth Day. Conniff, a Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the National Magazine Award, writes for Smithsonian and National Geographic magazines, is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio's “All Things Considered,” and a guest columnist for the New York Times. His books include “The Natural History of the Rich” and “Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time.” In his lecture, he will discuss his latest book, “The Species Seekers – Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth.” Conniff will tell stories of bold and colorful adventurers who risked death to discover strange life forms in the farthest corners of the Earth. Learn about daredevil species seekers ranging from the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linneaus, to Thomas Jefferson, who laid out mastodon bones on the White House floor. This free lecture is open to the public and will take place at 5 p.m. in the Sciences Center Auditorium on the Auburn University campus. A book signing will follow. For more information, contact Professor Jason Bond at jbond@auburn.edu.
New suckermouth armored catfish discovered
 A scientist from DePaul University, Windsor Aguirre, found five specimens of an odd-looking fish in 2008 in the Santa Rosa River in Ecuador. He sent the specimens to COSAM’s Museum of Natural History where Jonathan Armbruster, curator of fishes and Biological Sciences professor, along with Ph.D. student Milton Tan, identified the fish as a new species of suckermouth armored catfish. The story is featured on the National Geographic website.
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Alumni Highlights:
Contact Us!
 We want to hear from you! Please email news on promotions, research, graduations, honors and awards, new jobs, marriage, children and anything else that's new in your life to ceh0012@auburn.edu. Please include a photo.
Development News:
Sixth Annual Women's Leadership Symposium
 The Sixth Annual Women's Leadership Symposium will be held Tuesday, May 1, in the Auburn University Student Center. The event, hosted by the College of Sciences and Mathematics and the Society of Women in Sciences and Mathematics, will feature keynote speaker Anda Ray. Ray, physics '78, is the senior vice president of Environment and Technology at the Tennessee Valley Authority. She also serves as the agency's environmental executive and sustainability officer. For more information on the event, contact Kim McCurdy in the COSAM Office of Development at 334.844.7780.
Outreach News:
COSAM announces science event for families
 First- through sixth-grade students and their family members of all ages are invited to celebrate science at COSAM’s 3rd annual Backyard Science Bash on Sunday, April 22, from 4 to 6 p.m. The event will feature the popular “Wet ‘n’ Wild” Science Show, hosted by Auburn and Alabama State University’s Science in Motion education specialists, and a kid-friendly picnic-style dinner on Saunders Lawn. Admission is $5 per person and pre-registration is required. The deadline to register is April 13. For more information and to register, visit the GUTS website or contact Erin Percival at erin.percival@auburn.edu or by phone at 334.844.7449.
Diversity and Multicultural Affairs News:
PASS Mentoring Recognition Luncheon
 The 2nd annual PASS Mentoring Recognition Luncheon will be held Thursday, April 26, from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the Drop-In Center Classrooms. Certificates of Participation will be awarded and lunch will be served. Additionally, the Mentor of the Year Award will be presented. For more information, please visit the PASS website.
Research News:
Chemistry researchers participate in NanoDays 2012 celebration
 Professor Curtis Shannon and Assistant Professor Christopher Easley, both of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Associate Professor Virginia Davis of the College of Engineering, organized and participated in NanoDays on Tuesday, March 27, at the Student Center. NanoDays celebrations bring university researchers together with science educators to create new and unique learning experiences for both children and adults to explore the miniscule world of atoms, molecules and nanoscale forces. NanoDays events combined fun hands-on activities with presentations on current research. There were approximately 70 attendees who participated in the hands-on demonstrations, led by Shannon, Easley, Davis and graduate student volunteers. A variety of ages were present, from kindergarten students through college age, and the demos were well-received by all.
Graduate students recognized at Research Gala
 Twenty-three Auburn University graduate students were among those recognized at the 2012 Research Gala April 3, wrapping up two days of oral and poster presentations by students and faculty. Research Week 2012 was the first campus-wide event to bring together faculty, undergraduate and graduate students to highlight research and creative scholarship at Auburn University. Among the first-place winners in the Graduate Scholars Symposium at Research Week 2012 was Justin Havird from the Department of Biological Sciences. Havird received both his bachelor’s degree and master’s in zoology from the University of Florida. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in biological sciences at Auburn. Havird’s first-place, oral presentation focused on osmoregulatory and metabolic capabilities of Halocaridina rubra (Crustacea: Atyidae). His faculty advisor is Scott Santos. For a complete list of winners, click here.
Chemistry News:
Acevedo and Zhan granted tenure and promotion to associate professor
 President Jay Gogue has informed Assistant Professors Orlando Acevedo (pictured left) and Wei Zhan (pictured below right) that they will be promoted to associate professor with tenure, effective fall semester 2012. Acevedo received his Ph.D. from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa., and was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University from 2003 to 2006. His research is in the area of theoretical and computational chemistry, solvent effects, ionic liquids, drug design and sampling strategies.
 Zhan received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin from 2004 to 2006. His research is in artificial photosynthesis, materials chemistry and bioanalytical chemistry. Congratulations to Acevedo and Zhan!
Gorden named Advisor of the Year
 Associate Professor Anne Gorden, advisor of Auburn's Delta Gamma chapter, won the Chi Omega Convocation - Auburn University Panhellenic Advisor of the Year Award for 2012. Congratulations, Dr. Gorden!
Geology and Geography News:
Geology and Geography graduate students participate in competition
 Graduate students Kirsten Guerra, John Hawkins, Jeff Keevan, Steven Rodesney and Sarah Sheffield, all from the Department of Geology and Geography, recently participated in the Imperial Barrel Award competition in Houston, Texas. The competition was organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies. Their eight-week long project focused on petroleum prospectivity of the Western Netherlands and the Dutch North Sea. Students analyzed geological and geophysical data provided by industry and presented their findings at the competition. They presented their research to the public at a seminar organized by the Department of Geology and Geography on April 5.
Mathematics and Statistics News:
Tam to lead Department of Mathematics and Statistics
 Mathematics Professor Tin-Yau Tam has been chosen to head the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. His four-year tenure begins August 15, 2012. Tam received both his bachelor of science and his Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong. He joined the Auburn University faculty in 1988 and since that time, has accumulated numerous honors and awards including being named SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellow for 2009-2010 and Outstanding Graduate Mentor 2011. He has consistently secured grant funding, collaborated on numerous international projects, organized conferences and overseen five master’s students and six Ph.D. students. Tam teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses at Auburn and his research interests are in algebraic structures and classification, problem solving involving analytical and algebraic techniques, and representation theory and their applications. He is on the editorial board of several mathematical journals including the Journal of Linear and Multilinear Algebra and the Electronic Journal of Linear Algebra. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Linear Algebra Society and a member of the Mathematical Association of America, has about 80 published works, and has served COSAM as the director of assessment and planning and the university as a whole as special assistant to the provost. He also serves as the chair of the University Scholarship Committee and the chair of the Administrator Evaluation Committee.
“The Department of Mathematics and Statistics is the largest department in COSAM. The strength of our department is our people — prominent faculty members, a professional supporting staff, and outstanding students,” Tam said. “I feel honored to be selected with strong support as their chair, and I look forward to working with them to build a strong and cohesive department that excels in the areas of instruction, research, and service and outreach in the coming years.”
For more information on Tam, visit his website.
Physics News:
Dhar joins physics faculty
 The Department of Physics recently hired Assistant Professor Sarit Dhar. Dhar received his master of science in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India in 2000 and his Ph.D. in Materials Science from Vanderbilt University in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he was a post-doctoral researcher at Vanderbilt University working on the processing and characterization of gate dielectrics on silicon carbide (SiC) and surface/interface science related to SiC based metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) technology. From 2008 to early 2012, he worked as a research scientist at Cree Inc., where he was involved in the development of silicon carbide power devices, with a specific focus on SiC power MOSFET development. His specific areas of expertise are processing and characterization of gate oxides on wide band-gap semiconductors for power device applications. His broad research interests include electronic materials and device processing, device physics, dielectric-semiconductor material systems, surface/interface science and thin film characterization using ion beams. He has authored or co-authored about 25 peer reviewed research articles and authored one book chapter related to SiC MOS technology. He is also the co-inventor on three pending patents.
“I am really excited to be part of the vibrant experimental condensed matter physics group at Auburn,” Dhar said. “Among many other notable accomplishments, this group has established itself to be a leader in the field of wide band-gap semiconductor science and technology. I am proud to have the opportunity to lead such cutting-edge research and collaborate with the experts in this area.”
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