COSAM News Articles 2019 December Message from Dean Giordano – December 2019

Message from Dean Giordano – December 2019

Published: 12/17/2019

As I reflect on 2019, I want to thank all of the faculty, staff, and students in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM) for their dedication and hard work throughout this year.

The collective achievements of our college show that COSAM makes a significant impact. In 2019, our researchers were recognized for an impressive array of projects, including:

Ryan Comes is the first Auburn recipient of the Air Force’s Young Investigator Award with $450,000 in funding
Tonia Schwartz and Rita Graze received a $448,345 National Institutes of Health (NIH-R15) grant that will study aging, develop a new vertebrate model and train 50 undergraduate students
Mark Carpenter is part of a partnership with the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering that received two contracts from Defense Intelligence Agency totaling $355,000 to develop statistical learning and physics-based approaches to expand the understanding of military threats
Karen McNeal and an interdisciplinary Auburn team received a highly competitive $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Graduate Education to train students with a focus on climate resiliency
Monika Raj received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award
Yu Lin is part of the largest grant ever awarded from NASA where she is the theory lead
Thi Thao Phuong Hoang is the recipient of a National Science Foundation award using mathematics to work on large-scale environmental problems
Dennis Bodewits has received additional time to conduct research on the Hubble Space Telescope

In addition to our research efforts, COSAM is working hard to enrichen the lives of our students, help them achieve academic success, and prepare them to excel professionally. COSAM offers study abroad programs, shadowing and networking opportunities, seasoned speakers, professional advising, mentoring, outreach opportunities, and much more.

COSAM is making efforts to continually improve from the "inside" also.

The college continues to work with an external consultant to discuss and understand concerns from faculty, staff, and students and develop a plan for long-term changes. As examples, we have conducted training opportunities for supervisors and are now working on finding new ways to build more open communication into the structure of all of our departments and offices.

Moreover, COSAM’s commitment to inclusion, equity, and diversity has never been stronger. We continue to welcome all students and find new ways to support the next generation of scientists as unique individuals.

I wish all of you and your families a happy holiday season. And, I want to thank you for continuing to help us improve COSAM, so that we can leave an even greater impact in 2020.