Does mindfulness meditation truly help in relieving stress and managing blood pressure? It is a popular technique, but until now no large-scale studies utilizing meditation have been conducted. With a $3.64 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, two Kent State University researchers and their colleague from the University of Pennsylvania will recruit and treat 180 individuals with elevated blood pressure from Northeast Ohio and Philadelphia to see if learning how to manage stress through mindfulness meditation or other stress management strategies can help keep them o...
A $952,000 National Science Foundation grant to researchers at Kent State University will result in a mobile device application to help visitors to Cuyahoga Valley National Park learn more about the park’s history and ecology and become “citizen scientists” by sharing their findings with others. The grant to a team of researchers led by Richard E. Ferdig, Ph.D., professor in the Research Center for Education Technology in the College of Education, Health and Human Services at Kent State, will be used to create a mobile app with multiple interactive features, including the ability to learn mor...
Dr. Aysegul Keskin Zeren has recently accepted a position as a full-time Visiting Assistant Professor of Conflict Analysis and Transformation in the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Keskin Zeren will be primarily engaged in the MA in International Peace Studies program, a highly selective graduate program that prepares an internationally diverse group of students for careers as professional peacebuilding practitioners. She will also be a part of the Conflict Analysis and Transformation professional track area which focuses on ...
The Department of Psychological Sciences has once again placed all 13 of its Clinical Psychology graduate students who applied for internships at APA-accredited sites this summer. According to Psychology Department Chair Maria Zaragoza, Ph.D., nationally, the match rate to all internship sites was 80%, and the match rate to American Psychological Association-Accredited internships sites was only 62%. "In the clinical psychology field this is the equivalent of medical students being "matched" to a residency," Zaragoza said. "Needless to say, we are very pr...
Kent State's 20th anniversary FlashFest was headlined by Capital Cities along with Ab-Soul, Scavenger Hunt, and Evan Evolution and Dominic Parisi. ...
Scholar of the Month Eric Jefferis Associate Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences College of Public Health 2004-present Eric Jefferis is an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences in the College of Public Health. His research focuses on intentional injury, violence prevention and program evaluation. Jefferis has served as principle or co-principle investigator on funded research projects totaling nearly $3 million and has authored numerous research articles and reports. Most recently, he was awarded $472,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice fo...
Scholar of the Month Pratim Datta Associate Professor of Management and Information Systems and Director of the Ph.D. Program College of Business Administration 2007-present Pratim Datta is an associate professor in the Department of Management and Information Systems and director of the Ph.D. Program at the College of Business Administration. His research examines global technology and supply chain management in the areas of user experience, design, security and deployment. Datta has more than 55 publications in journals and conferences with more than three best papers in top intern...
The Office of Public Health Practice and Partnerships (OPHPP) recently completed a survey of northeast Ohio local public health departments on workforce development. The survey, conducted among health commissioners, environmental health directors, nursing directors and other senior administrators, inquired about education and training needs for current employees and the desired competencies of recent college graduates seeking employment in the field. According to Assistant Dean of Operations and Community Relations Ken Slenkovich, director of the OPHPP, respondent...
An internationally recognized social geographer, a metadata expert and a leading researcher in the science of liquid crystals and nanomaterials received Kent State University’s 2014 Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards at a ceremony and reception yesterday on the Kent Campus. Outstanding Research Award Winners James Tyner, Ph.D., professor of geography; Marcia Lei Zeng, Ph.D., professor of library and information science; and Quan Li, Ph.D., senior research fellow in Kent State’s Liquid Crystal Institute, were recognized for notable scholarly contributions that have an impact on soci...
Kent State University’s Department of Psychology will host U-Night to End Stigma on April 14 from 5-9 p.m. at the Kent Student Center Ballroom. Attendees can come and go as their schedule allows. This event will provide a platform for students, community members, professionals and activists to speak about their insights and experience in the following domains: mental illness/difference, cognitive and physical disabilities/differences, sexuality, gender and addiction. Headliners for the event are Morton Gernsbacher, Ph.D., a researcher from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Sascha D...