The latest news and announcements from the 
Wright State University College of Science and Mathematics

Spring 2016

Dean's Message

What sets Wright State apart from other local institutions of higher learning, including community colleges and small liberal arts colleges? It is the quality and quantity of basic and applied research that our faculty and students are engaged in. In the almost 50 years since our beginnings as a regional campus of Miami University and Ohio State, we have done what was said  at the time could not be done: establish masters and Ph.D. research programs starting completely from scratch. In fact we have gone far beyond the initial charge of this campus-we now have 54 masters and 10 Ph.D. 


Alumni Spotlight
College of Science and Mathematics' 2016 Outstanding Alumni Award

On Friday, February 26, 2016 the Office of Alumni Relations honored the 2016 Outstanding Alumni College Awards. The College of Science and Mathematics is pleased to recognize Department of Mathematics and Statistics alumnus Grady Burkett, CFA, '02 B.S., '04 M.S. 


Microscopic View

Resting behind black, sliding, barnlike doors designed to minimize outside light is an array of sophisticated microscopes, one capable of magnifying at the molecular level. 
The microscopes are the treasures in Wright State's new  housed on the second floor of the university's Neuroscience Engineering Collaboration Building. And the high-tech equipment is available for use by students, faculty, staff, post-docs and even outside researchers. 


COSM Spotlight
Clinical Lab Sciences Needed

Recruiters buy them lunch. They each get job offers from multiple employers. Salaries start at $50,000 a year.  Such are the travails of graduates of Wright State University's  Clinical Laboratory Sciences program "There is so much need right now," said Director Tammy Bash. "It's a great time to be in this program. And we're the only game in town."



Nitrogen Dynamics

October 2015,  Earth and Environmental Science  Assistant Professor  Silvia Newell, Ph.D. , met with the  Environmental Monitor  regarding her labortory studies on the chemical relationships found in marine environments. Currently her work focuses on hypereutorphic Lake Taihu in China, Lake Erie, and Ohio waterways.




Visual encounter

The student dons a red and blue skullcap studded with electrodes. She sits before a monitor inside a sealed chamber as images of human faces, motorcycles and church sanctuaries flash before her eyes. Just outside, researchers are locked into her brain waves, which light up their computers.

Things are humming in Wright State University's new cognitive neuroscience lab, a state-of-the-art facility that promises to unlock the mysteries of how the human brain interprets visual images.



Changing calculus

The $702,820 state grant is part of $10 million in funding allocated by the Ohio General Assembly as part of the Straight A Fund that will enable  Wright State University to help high school teachers qualify to teach college courses in high school.   It will create nearly $500,000 in scholarships for the teachers - in which Wright State will add $162,000 - to reach a goal of 60 teachers completing their credentials.  



Student Spotlight
Quantum leap

He balanced his mother's checkbook when he was only 4 years old. In second grade, he graded his classmates' math tests. And he idolized Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the groundbreaking theory of relativity.  "I was the kid who read Einstein's autobiography for fun," said Mitchell Schneider. "I think my elementary and middle school library had to ship in extra Einstein books because I flew through them."



Doctor, doctor

It promises to be a busy summer for Wright State  biology  students Kayla Crager and Kyle Hazlett. In April they get their college degrees. In June they marry each other. And in July they go off to medical school together. That's the plan. And it's all happening in front of Kayla's proud father, Mark Crager, who is taking courses at Wright State that he hopes will get him into medical school as well. 
Next semester, he and his daughter will be in the same Wright State class.  Mark Crager is an internal medicine physician's assistant who co-owns a Chillicothe company that provides health care to post-acute and long-term care patients in central and underserved southern Ohio. He is on-call 24 hours a day, and since August has put 10,000 miles on his car making calls at nursing homes and attending classes.



Supporting the College
A New Direction for CoSM Undergraduate Research

We are poised to make a significant jump in how we approach student access to undergraduate research in our college. The goal is to impact as many students as possible through undergraduate research with limited accessible funding. The key phrase is "impact as many students as possible." In conversations with former Dean Li and Interim Dean Engisch, that if such funding were to materialize, we realized that we would need to think outside of the box. We would need to develop programming that would impact more than just a few students, positively impact both research and student success, and also attract attention to its success so we could win support to sustain the program. What has evolved from a lot of consideration and discussion is Wright State's take on a new approach to scaling up undergraduate research based on successful models at UT Austin and Maryland.


You can be a catalyst

A single question can separate a CoSM student from realizing an opportunity to build valuable skill sets or gain practical experience in their career field. How will the opportunity be paid for?

Your financial support can be the answer.


Announcements

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