In Brief

Faculty/Staff

At the American Association of Colleges of Nursing conference in March, Susan Bakewell-Sachs presented Representative Rush Holt (12th District, New Jersey) with an award for his efforts related to nursing education and the nursing shortage.

Mary Biggs, professor of English, discussed Emily Dickinson’s “Split the Lark—and you’ll find the Music” on March 27 as part of the Close Readings presentations sponsored by the School of Culture and Society and the Department of English.

Jo-Ann Gross, department chair and professor of history, was the Faculty Senate Spring 2008 speaker for the senate’s Colloquium for Faculty Research and Creative Activity. Her presentation took place in the Forcina Hall on April 2 and was entitled, “The Poetics of Sacred Space.”

Nancy Hingston, professor of the mathematics and statistics, was an invited speaker at the City University of New York in the CUNY Topology Seminar. Hingston’s presentation, “Loop Products and Closed Geodesics”, took place on March 26.

Stacey Hunt, adjunct professor of political science, presented a lecture entitled, “Democratic Security and Cultures of Citizenship: From Crosswalks to Militias in Columbia” on April 24 in Social Science Building.

Richard Kamber, professor of philosophy, spoke at Northern Essex Community College March 26 as a guest lecturer of the school’s genocide awareness series, sponsored by the NECC Diversity Committee. Kamber spoke on the subject “Can Democracy Prevent Genocide?”

Irini Kuturoff, adjunct professor of political science, gave a presentation entitled “International Governmental Organizations and the Likely Decrease in the Incident of War: A Study of the European Union.” The presentation took place on March 27 in the Social Science building.

Jao Neves, professor and chair of management, marketing, and interdisciplinary business, offered a “Team Management Workshop” for members of the Chamber’s Young Business Leaders Council, as part of TCNJ’s educational partnership with the Mercer Regional Chamber of Commerce. This workshop took place on Friday, March 28.

Michael Robertson, professor of English, gave a lecture on April 3 entitled, “Reading Poetry Religiously.” This presentation was part of the Religion, Culture and Identity program.

Jess Row, assistant professor of English, was featured as one of five new, fresh, and emerging writers at the Emerging Writers Festival at Franklin & Marshall College on April 9–11. The festival is the school’s seventh annual celebration of the work of young American writers in order for them to talk about their various forms of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Students

Numerous students were inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma, the Financial Management Association's National Honor Society, and Omicron Delta Epsilon at the School of Business Annual Honor Society Luncheon. A full listing of each student's name can be found here: www.tcnj.edu/~business/awards/honors.html.

Laura Cenker, senior business major; Danielle Damiano, junior business management major; Rob Screpka, senior business management major; alternate Jeff Joffe, sophomore business major; and SHRM adviser Pamela Kravitz, associate professor of management, marketing, and interdisciplinary business, participated in the 2008 SHRM Northeast Regional HRGames held at Bryant University, Rhode Island, on March 28–29. Competing in a jeopardy-style game, the business students placed fourth against 23 other teams from schools such as Cornell and Penn State.

TCNJ students competed recently at the Beta Beta Beta Biology National Honor Society Convention winning top honors. Daniel K. Fox, a senior with a self-designed major in biochemistry, was awarded first place in oral presentation. Ermal Bojdani, a senior biology major with a minor in chemistry, was awarded third place in that category. Jason Lei, also a senior biology major, was awarded third place in the poster presentation category. The Beta Beta Beta regional convention was held at Mount St. Mary University.

Michael Heaney, junior finance major, and Allen Soriano, junior marketing major advanced to the quarterfinals of the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC) at Kennesaw State University on March 14–15, 2008. They competed against 98 other students from 50 universities. They were awarded a $300 prize of a gift certificate for Tom James apparel, and both were heavily recruited by Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Standard Register, and Johnson and Johnson.

Brendan Kelly, senior mathematics major, and Jeff Hatley, junior mathematics major, were invited speakers at Brown University’s Symposium for Undergraduates in Mathematical Sciences (SUMS) on March 8. Kelly’s presented his research on Zero-Divisor Graphs. This research was completed at an REU at Wabash College under the advisement of Mike Axtell. Hatley’s talk was on research done with Thomas Hagedorn, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, on relatively prime polynomials.

Brendan Kelly and Vincent Martinez, both senior mathematics majors, traveled to Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, to present their research on Plant Pathogen Dynamics. This work was done under the advisement of Jean-Michelet Jean-Michel, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics, and in collaboration with Janet Morrison, associate professor of biology. This project is funded by the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics.

Mike Stein, senior mathematics major, and Rob Wilson, senior computer science major, attended the Putnam Mathematical Competition, considered the most prestigious and challenging mathematics competition for undergraduate students in the nation. Four thousand talented mathematics students from about 500 colleges and universities participated. Stein and Wilson received a score of 14, the highest 2007 TCNJ individual score. As a team (consisting of three students), TCNJ’s rank was 117 out of 516 participating colleges and universities from US and Canada. A school-record 14 TCNJ students, who prepared under the coaching of Qifu Zheng, associate professor of mathematics and statistics, took the Putnam examination.

Rachel Thomas, a freshmen open option science student at TCNJ, has been selected to receive a $5,000 scholarship from the New Jersey Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission. Rachel’s selection was based on her many academic pursuits and co-curricular accomplishments that further the causes of human rights, social justice, and world peace. Rachel is a member of the Indian Student Association, through which she worked to raise funds for Darfur. She belongs to I-Tunes A Cappella, which strives to celebrate every culture’s contribution to music. Other organizations in which Rachel participates include NJ Christian Fellowship.