CURRENT ISSUE
BACK ISSUES

OTHER RELATED LINKS:
Excellence in teaching winners

New Graduate School initiatives

3-2 options expanding

Graduate School

Published weekly during the academic year by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 3699 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, N.Y. 13850.John Hachtel, associate vice president of communications and marketing; Anita Knopp Doll, director of communications; Marty Doorey, editor; Katie Ellis, Janice Endrissen, Gail Glover, Susan E. Barker, Karen Fennie, John Hartrick, Ingrid Husisian, Sandra Paniccia, Susann Thiel, contributing writers; Evangelos Dousmanis, photography; Libby Graves, webmaster. Phone 607-777-6366. COMMENTS: Email Inside. BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

The Graduate School honored 24 graduate students Thursday, March 7, with excellence in teaching and excellence in research awards. The students were chosen on the basis of recommendations from faculty, and in the case of the teaching awards, from students as well. Short profiles of the research winners are presented.


Research awards

Sabarni Chatterjee, a PhD candidate in chemistry, focuses his dissertation research on the development of anti-cancer drugs, and examines the interaction of anti-microtubule drugs with the protein tubulin and with microtubules. In addition, Chatterjee has collaborated with biologists in several research projects using a variety of experimental techniques. He has co-authored five articles and four abstracts, and is currently contributing to several other articles that are in preparation. Chatterjee was a recipient of a University dissertation-year fellowship and has been a junior research fellow at the Chittaranjian National Cancer Research Institute in Calcutta.

Li Han is a PhD candidate in chemistry, whose research is in nanoparticle assembly and chemical sensor applications. Her dissertation examines techniques for preparing new nanoparticle materials as well as their use in devices. She has developed novel chemical and biological sensor systems using nano-structured thin films as highly sensitive coatings. According to her nominator, Han has been especially productive and is the primary author of three articles in leading journals.

Rui Du is a PhD candidate in electrical engineering and will complete his degree in steganography and watermarking. His research focuses on data embedding and authentication of JPEG and MPEG-2 images. His research has improved the ability of data to be hidden as noise in innocuous images. Du is the co-author of 10 articles, and the co-inventor on a software application that has a patent pending. In addition, he has developed a software application called SecureStego, which secures image transmissions. This software has generated great interest in industry as well as by many government agencies.

Miroslav Goljan, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering, is conducting his doctoral research in the field of steganography and digital watermarking. Goljan has developed new paradigms for embedding data in images that allows images to repair themselves after accidental damage. His research in steganography has many industrial, military and law enforcement applications, including authentication, copyright protection, and detection of digital forgeries. His research and productivity has been described as outstanding. He is the co-author of 16 research articles and the co-inventor of two software applications with patents pending.

Katrina Shilts is a PhD candidate in English whose research focuses on 19th-century poetry, criticism and theory. Her dissertation on the writings of Randall Jarrell has been described as ambitious, and was said by one nominator to go a long way toward giving Jarrell’s work its due recognition. Shilts has published two essays and co-authored a book-length manuscript, “500 Years of Italian-American Accomplishments: A Study in Culture,” which is currently under publisher review.

Ian Lunt is a PhD student in geological sciences and environmental studies whose research focuses on the sedimentary environment of gravel-rich braided riverbed deposits. Using a modern river in Alaska, Lunt is testing hypotheses about the sedimentary environments of ancient riverbeds, which become reservoirs for oil, gas and water. His dissertation research will contribute to his field by aiding in the development of three-dimensional models for gas and oil reservoir exploration and locating drinking water aquifers. Lunt is the co-author of two articles, and five scientific abstracts. He has been a recipient of a research grant from the Geological Society of America. His dissertation work has been funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Robert Telban is a PhD student in mechanical engineering, whose research focuses on vehicle dynamics, control algorithm development, motion simulation, and real-time computational methods. He developed a motion cueing algorithm based on optimal control and human vestibular sensation models. Since 1997, Telban has been a major contributor in research at the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-istration’s Langley Research Center on advance flight research simulation. Telban derived new mathematical models of human integrated motion perception and published scholarly articles in several journals. According to a recommender, Telban “has been tenacious in ferreting out answers to complex technical problems.”

Elizabeth Jeglic, a doctoral candidate in psychology, is focusing her dissertation on suicidal behavior of college students. In addition to scholarly publications, Jeglic has presented her work at national conferences. She is part of a research team working on the development and assessment of treatments for sexual offenders in Canada. According to her nominator: “She studies in areas that are rarely investigated, often due to the difficulty of doing such work.” One faculty member noted that Jeglic “is committed to advancing and promoting the science of psychology and has demonstrated the necessary leadership skills to serve as a representative to the APA in state and national capacities.”

Paul LoCasto is a PhD student in cognitive psychology whose research interests center on the general issue of categorization in recognizing spoken language. His re-commenders believe that LoCasto’s research will make a significant contribution to his chosen field. LoCasto published several scholarly articles as first author. He has also presented his work at several conferences. One of his recommenders wrote: “What distinguishes LoCasto from other very good students in our program is his intellectual independence, his love for the probing issues, and love for the discussion of research.”

Jason Robert Rohr, a doctoral candidate in biological sciences, focuses his research on behavior, behavioral ecology, herpetology, sociobiology and chemical signals. He has presented his research at local, regional, national and international meetings. His nominator stated: “His work is conceptually important from the standpoint of both pure and applied ecology. Jason’s demonstration of the importance of temporal changes in community dynamics will be regarded as important by anyone trying to understand the nature of ecological communities.” Another faculty praises him: “Jason has accomplished so much so well and in such a short period of time. He is without any doubt a shining star in our department.”

Tatyana Zabotina, a PhD candidate in finance in the School of Management, is preparing a dissertation on changes in price discovery induced by the innovations in financial markets. She published several articles in scholarly journals. According to her recom-mender: “ she has an exceptionally strong background in mathematics and econometrics.” One faculty member writes: “Tatyana is an enthusiastic and dedicated researcher and teacher.”

Ji-Hyon Mun (Nina) is a PhD candidate in systems science and industrial engineering who has been involved in numerous state-of-the-art research endeavors in printed circuit board assembly. She has written numerous technical reports for the electronics packaging industries and three conference proceedings using her research work. Mun serves as a student-manager of a research group within the Electronics Manufacturing and Research Services. Nominators praise her research as exceptional and innovative. One faculty member noted: “Nina embodies all the characteristics we would like to see in an ideal graduate student in Binghamton.”

Teaching awards