Research & Science
Though she had an interest in science at an early age, Raissa Mendonca had no idea she would end up over 4,000 miles away from her hometown of Recife, Brazil studying and doing award-winning ecological research in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. She probably did not expect to be wearing a bug net over her head in Manitoba either. Now, while pursuing her Ph.D. at Kent State, Mendonca conducts research in Costello’s lab that focuses on ecotoxicology and biogeochemistry and how environmental disturbances affect aquatic communities and ecological processes. One of her recent projects resulted in her being first author on a peer-reviewed journal article and earned her a $5,000 award to continue pursuing her research.
Kent State University Libraries’ May 4, 1970 Collection has been selected by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to benefit from a $30,561 award through the Recordings at Risk grant program, generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Imagine being a 17-year-old high school student, and in your first semester of a geology research internship, your professor asks you to identify an extinct 300-million-year-old, tiny and unknown crustacean specimen. Megan Schinker, then an ambitious Stow-Munroe Falls High School junior, jumped right in. Now a senior in high school, Ms. Schinker, chose Kent State as her undergraduate school where she will pursue a double major in geology and chemistry starting fall 2019.
From the Kent State Magazine, “I want to be a voice in the renewable energy community,” says Angela Deibel, reluctant to give up her marketing edge. “I don’t want to just be an engineer—though I love it—but I want to tell [the public] about renewable energy.”
David Kaplan, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University, has been elected president of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), the premier academic and professional geography organization in the United States, for 2019-20.
A lack of skilled labor is one of the top hiring challenges that businesses in Stark and Wayne counties face, according to the results of a wage and benefits survey conducted by the Corporate University at Kent State University at Stark. More than 120 area companies completed the online survey, which was conducted in 2018.
Richard Costes, BA ’06, was born deaf, but grew up in a hearing environment. He told himself he wasn’t deaf. He refused to learn sign language and declined any assistance in the classroom and his grades often suffered as a result. Professors at Kent State helped Mr. Costes embrace his identity.
An interdisciplinary team of Kent State University professors has come together to explore the different ways virtual reality (VR) technology can help those with developmental and cognitive impairments. “We found that we are able to blend our expertise together to create a project that will improve the health opportunities for people with cognitive impairments,” said Mary Ann Devine, Ph.D., director for the Disability Studies and Community Inclusion minor/graduate certificate.
Andrew Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor of special education, recently was featured in the Washington Post in a perspective piece reinforcing the purpose and function of special education.
With great hope and expectations for the future of brain health research at Kent State University, President Beverly J. Warren introduced Michael N. Lehman, Ph.D., as the inaugural director of the university’s Brain Health Research Institute on Feb. 25.