Dear Kent State University Community, We all have spent much of the last few days watching as the nation mourns the death of George Floyd. We join the nation in mourning. Our collective sorrow remembers Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, two African Americans also killed this year. Our grief and pain also are tied to the reality that African Americans along with other marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Closer to home, two members of our beloved Golden Flashes community, state Sen. and Kent State Associate Professor of Political Science Verno...

近期，我校高等材料与液晶学院高级研究员，教授Quan Li博士入选了欧洲科学院（The European Academy of Sciences）成员。作为一个由杰出学者和工程师组成的非盈利非政府独立组织，EAS从事前沿研究和先进技术的开发，并致力于促进科学技术及其在促进社会和经济发展中的重要作用。迄今为止，该组织拥有来自45个国家的660位成员，其中包括了65名诺奖和菲尔茨奖得主。 李教授的入选是对他在先进智能材料（尤其是液晶领域）开发方面的领导权威所做出杰出贡献的认可。肯特州立大学副校长保罗·迪科雷托（Paul DiCorleto）博士说：“我们为李博士感到非常自豪，并衷心祝贺他获得这一当之无愧的荣誉。拥有李教授这样的研究人员，就是肯特州立大学在先进材料和液晶领域拥有强大领导力的原因，同时也是我们能够围绕这一研究领域建立研究所的原因！” 李教授于2004年加入肯特州立大学，担任高级研究员，并在液晶研究所（现为高新材料和液晶研究所）担任有机合成和先进材料实验室的主任。他被肯特州立大学授予 “杰出研究 “奖学金，并在几所大学担任客座教授和讲座教授。在过去的10年中，李教授领导了许多由多个联邦和州机构以及企业赞助者资助的研究项目。同时，他还担任许多联邦资助机构和出版社的小组成员和审阅者。他的研究领域包括刺激响应性智能软物质，用于能量收集和节能的先进光子和光电材料，功能性生物相...

International project to study COVID-19’s impact on the UK’s LGBTQ+ population announced. Queer Pandemic: Resilience in Times of Crisis is a video-based oral history project to collect stories about the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in the UK in the era of COVID-19. The project will explore connections between the current pandemic and previous crises related to the health and safety of LGBTQ+ people. These crises include (but are not limited to) HIV/Aids, violence, criminalisation, and restricted access to healthcare. These crises have shaped queer identities and this current crisis shoul...

Message from the Dean To Current and Prospective Students of Kent State University Columbiana County Campuses: As your Dean, I am writing to update each of you on our plans for the fall semester. First, you must understand that there are, literally, more than 100 people considering every problem and situation you can think of to make sure we have procedures in place so that we can welcome you back to campus in the safest way possible. One way we will do this is by following the Flash Safe 7.  If you are unfamiliar with those guidelines, be sure to check them out. Second, over 250 fac...

  Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine (CPM) faculty members Jill Kawalec, PhD and Larry Osher, DPM, along with Sr. Associate Dean Vince Hetherington, DPM have been awarded a patent for the innovative technology used in their thermochromic liquid crystal research.  The patent, titled “Thermochromic Fabrics Utilizing Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Material”, will be issued on May 26, 2020.  In addition to Drs. Kawalec, Osher and Hetherington, inventors on the patent also include John L. West, PhD (Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute), Yijing Chen, PhD (Dep...

The medical and science communities are always seeking new ways to study and monitor organs and common diseases to improve human health and quality of life.   While there is a seemingly endless need for versatile, low-cost, yet highly sensitive biochemical sensor devices, there are many steps to take between initial research and clinical application.   At Kent State University, Dr. Björn Lüssem, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics, and the graduate students in his laboratory have taken some of those initial steps toward the goal of ...

Today’s Flashes of Inspiration comes from Lisa Strom, Kent State University’s head women’s golf coach, who offers a pep talk to all in the university community struggling under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strom talks about finding ways to stick to a healthy routine, even as social distancing continues for months.    The Golden Flashes women’s golf team was ranked No. 5 in the nation when the pandemic forced an early end to college sports. The team was hoping to make a run at the national title, having already beaten No. 1 ranked Texas in late February at t...

Dear Golden Flashes, Kent State University’s reopening committees continue to work for a safe return to our campuses this fall. We plan to resume residential living and in-person classes in August, and we are developing several scenarios to ensure an outstanding and safe experience for our students, faculty and staff. Although we will be together in person, there will be notable differences during the next school year. Students will likely enroll in a combination of face-to-face and remotely taught courses. When possible, we will allow faculty who wish to teach in person to do so, w...

A native of England, Brent Hicks, M.S. ’19, the School of Information’s Alumnus of the Year, has been involved in the health information field for much of his life. After earning degrees in computer science and technology and design at Sheffield University in England, he took a job with the National Health Service (NHS) as a developer/programmer. “I jumped at the chance to work for the NHS, to actually have an impact on patient care,” he recalls. Years later, Brent applied for a Green Card to work in the United States for the Veteran’s Administration office in Chicago, programming electroni...