The Academic Minute

We are always looking for new ways to detect Alzheimer’s disease early.Amaryllis Tsiknia, neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Southern California, may have found a clue.Faculty Bio:Amaryllis is a 4th-year neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Southern California. She completed her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley with a degree in Cognitive Science, and then acquired her Master’s degree in Neuroimaging and Informatics. Her current research uses neuroimaging techniques to uncover how metabolic and vascular factors increase our risk for dementia with a special focus on type 2 diab...

Collaboration in mathematics has a long history.Kim Plofker, associate professor of mathematics at Union College, examines this.Faculty Bio:Kim Plofker is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Union College in Schenectady, New York. She received her doctorate from the Department of the History of Mathematics at Brown University in 1995. Her research focuses on the history of mathematics and astronomy in India and its connections with Islamic and early modern European science. Kim Plofker’s books include Mathematics in India (Princeton, 2009); (with Anuj Misra and Clemency Montelle) The Sanskrit Astronomical Table Text Brahmatulyasarini (Br...

What do green clay tennis courts have to do with climate change?Jonathan Lambert, visiting assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Climate Science at New York University, says it’s more than you might think.Faculty Bio:Jonathan Lambert is a geochemist and paleoclimatologist in the interdisciplinary-focused Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU. His research themes are twofold - past climate change and modern climate solutions. In his paleoclimate research, he uses fossil plankton to reconstruct ocean conditions in the Pacific over the past 1.5 Million years. In his climate solutions work, he evaluates carbon di...

Revisiting the history of the National Alliance of Black Feminists provides a new lens through which to view intersectionality.Victoria Fields, doctoral candidate and instructor of record in Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, explores this.Faculty Bio:Victoria T. Fields is an award-winning educator and scholar. She is currently a doctoral candidate and instructor of record in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Victoria is also a graduate assistant for instructional design at the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Higher Education, where she crafts...

On Wichita State University Week: What can we learn about the core of the Sun?Nick Solomey, professor at the Farimount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, looks for answers.Faculty Bio:Nickolas Solomey’s research is in the area of experimental particle and astroparticle physics, in the past he worked extensively on quark flavor physics by rare decays of hadrons, CP violation with Kaons, the study of nuclear states of matter and hadronic interaction physics. He was the co-spokesman of the Fermilab E907 experiment. He is also author of the book The El...

On Wichita State University Week: Reducing lift-off weight can be crucial for spaceflight.Waruna Seneviratne, director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research, explores one way to do so.Faculty Bio:Waruna Seneviratne is the Director of the Advanced Technologies Lab for Aerospace Systems (ATLAS) at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR), Wichita State University. With over 25 years at NIAR, he leads a diverse research portfolio in advanced manufacturing, inspection, durability, damage tolerance, certification, and aging of composite aircraft structures—supported by agencies in...

On Wichita State University Week: Should we change the way we think about using generative AI for learning?JaeHwan Byun, associate professor in the College of Education, explores this question.Faculty Bio:Dr. JaeHwan Byun is an Associate Professor in the School of Education, College of Applied Studies at Wichita State University. He joined WSU in 2015 and currently serves as Program Chair for the Master of Education in Learning and Instructional Design and Director of the Applied AI in Education Research Lab. Dr. Byun’s work focuses on how educators and learners can en...

On Wichita State University Week: Your tongue matters more than you might think. Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, chair and associate professor in the Department of Human Performance Studies, explores why.Faculty Bio:Dr. Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell has an established interdisciplinary line of research in clinical exercise physiology and orofacial myology. Her work in promoting healthy tongue muscle performance through physical activity has been internationally recognized and showcased on NPR’s Science Friday with Ira Flatow. Her research also includes R&D and product validation in the health & fitness industry. Dr. Bell has developed a systematic network pu...

On Wichita State University Week: Technology can only help if people are willing to use it.Nikki Keene Woods, professor and chair of Public Health Sciences, reveals why some may not trust devices that could help them.Faculty Bio:Dr. Nikki Keene Woods is an applied behavioral scientist and public health professor. She joined WSU in 2012. She has master’s degrees in behavioral science and public health in addition to a PhD in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and th...

Making a decision about an activity for a group of friends can be stressful.Sharaya Jones, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, examines why emotions play a huge part in the process.Faculty Bio:Sharaya M. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Costello College of Business. Sharaya received her PhD in Marketing from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder, and her bachelor's degree from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses...

An old Medicare rule is keeping older adults in hospitals longer than necessary, so what can be done?Zoey Chen, PhD candidate in health services research at Brown University, looks into this.Faculty Bio:Zihan Chen is a PhD candidate in Health Services Research at Brown University. She studies Medicare policy, with a focus on post-acute and long-term care.Transcript:Imagine this: an older adult falls at home and is hospitalized with a hip fracture. After two days, their doctor says they’re medically stable and ready to leave th...

How do children learn to talk about themselves and other people?Erin M. Kenney, assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College, looks into this using preschool-aged children.Faculty Bio:Erin M. Kenney is an assistant professor of psychology at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. Dr. Kenney’s interdisciplinary work includes time as an early childhood teacher, administrator, professor, and researcher. Her areas of expertise include developmental psychology, early childhood education, parent-child conversation.Kenney’s dedication to bridging the gap between developmental science and developmentally appropriate practice includes a commitment to research practices that...

We are redefining our view of human intelligence.Aron Barbey, the Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame, looks at how our brain organizes information to do so.Faculty Bio:Aron Barbey is also the director of the University of Notre Dame Human Neuroimaging Center and the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory.Barbey’s research investigates how intelligence emerges from the network organization and dynamics of the human connectome, applying methods from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology and computer science. His work aims to achieve a deeper understanding of the ne...

Putting a figure on a person’s bilingual experience can be daunting. Esti Blanco-Elorrieta, assistant professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, looks into one way to do so.Faculty Bio:I am an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. In my research, I combine insights from monolingual and multilingual individuals, who process language through speech or sign, to inform an inclusive and comprehensive neurobiology of language. My research combines data from neuroimaging, computational and behavioral methods with theoretical insights from linguistics, psychology and neuroscience.I...

On Union College Week: What happens to our love lives when the rest of life gets messy? Mariah Purol, assistant professor of psychology, examines this.Faculty Bio:Mariah received her PhD in Social & Personality Psychology from Michigan State University in 2024. She is currently a faculty member in the Psychology department of Union College. Her work examines how both individuals’ and their partners’ characteristics influence their relationship satisfaction, life satisfaction, and well-being. To that end, she’s interested in how we create happy, satisfying lives as individuals (studying traits like gratitude and optimism), and as rel...

On Union College Week: What can we do to improve education for Black students in majority white communities? Stephen Schmidt, Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics, examines possible solutions.Faculty Bio:Stephen Schmidt has been professor of economics at Union College since 1994, after completing his Ph.D. in economics at Stanford University. He was appointed the Kenneth B. Sharpe Professor of Economics in September 2019. His research interests include the economics of education, especially education finance, and the normative evaluation of economic outcomes and policies. He has published articles in American Economic Review (Papers...

On Union College Week: How do we unravel the secrets of volcanoes?Holli Frey, professor of geosciences, examines tiny crystals to gather clues.Faculty Bio:Holli Frey is a professor of Geosciences from Union College (NY). She studies volcanoes, trying to understand the plumbing systems beneath them, looking for clues as to how and why they erupt. She is particularly interested in mineral chemistry and chronology and uses a variety of analytical tools to address fundamental questions about magma evolution. She has active field-based projects in the Caribbean (St. Vincent and Dominica) and...

On Union College Week: Why are democracies suspending the rights of their people? Guillermina Seri, professor of political science, explores this.Faculty Bio:Guillermina Seri is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Union College, NY, where she teaches courses in political theory and Latin American Politics. Seri is the author of the books Seguridad: Crime, Police Power, and Democracy in Argentina (Continuum, 2012) and Neoliberalism and Unlawful Governance. The Crisis of Democratic Rights (University of Michigan Press, 2026), and co-editor of the volume Police Abuse in Contemporary Democracies (Palgrave, 2018).Transcript:<...

On Union College Week: Learning goes on, even during war.Kristin Bidoshi, professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, discusses this through language teaching in Ukraine.Faculty Bio:Kristin Bidoshi is a professor of Russian in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the director of Russian and East European Studies program at Union College, a small liberal arts college in Schenectady, NY. She conducts fieldwork in Eastern Europe and publishes on topics including the use of oral tradition in the works of Anton Chekov, Nikolai Gogol and...

Cannabis may affect your memory after use, but to what extent?Carrie Cuttler, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Co-Director of the Cannabis Research Center at Washington State University, investigates this.Faculty Bio:Dr. Carrie Cuttler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Co-Director of the Cannabis Research Center at Washington State University. She directs the Health and Cognition (THC) Lab, where her research examines both the beneficial and detrimental effects of cannabis and cannabinoids. Her recent work focuses on the therapeutic potential of cannabigerol (CBG) and the...