Author: Cheryl Miller

David Charbonneau, Fred Kavli Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University, will present a public lecture, “The terrestrial worlds of other stars,” at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 16 in 127 Jabara Hall.

Charbonneau works with his students and postdoctoral fellows to develop novel methods and instruments for the detection and characterization of planets orbiting other stars, and studies how the life cycles of the parent stars affect the presence and properties of the atmospheres of any attendant worlds. Charbonneau has pioneered many of the methods that are now widely used to discover and study these worlds, including the first exoplanet transit, the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere, and the first estimate of the number of habitable worlds in the galaxy. He recently co-chaired the National Academies study, commissioned by Congress, that describes the national strategy for exoplanet research, including the search for life in the universe. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In September 2024, he was awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics from the King of Norway at a ceremony in Oslo.

The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment.

Janet Iwasa is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah and director of the Genetic Science Learning Center. Iwasa will present “Visualizing the tiny worlds inside our cells,” at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 27 in 211 Hubbard Hall. An exhibition of her work illustrating molecular and cellular visualizations, “Tiny worlds,” will show March 21-31 in the Clayton Staples Gallery, McKnight Art Center.

Iwasa is the head of the Animation Lab at Utah, and her broad goal is to create accurate and compelling molecular and cellular visualizations that support research, learning and scientific communication. Her award-winning illustrations and animations have appeared in scientific journals including Nature, and Science and Cell, as well as in the New York Times. Her work has also been featured on television and in museum exhibits. As a postdoctoral fellow, she created a multimedia exhibit with Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak of Harvard University and the Museum of Science, Boston, and later worked on biological visualizations as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She received her doctorate from the University of California, San Francisco for her work on the actin cytoskeleton in the laboratory of Dyche Mullins, and completed 3D animation training at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects.

Fairmount College, the School of Digital Arts, and the School of Art, Design and Creative Industries are co-sponsoring her visit. The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. The grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment.

The next Faculty Senate meeting will be held 3:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24 in 211 Hubbard Hall. To learn more, visit the Faculty Senate webpage or email the Faculty Senate.

Evan Williams, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, will present “A Window into Molecular Complexity with Mass Spectrometry: From Physics to Chemistry to Biology and Beyond at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19 in 209 Hubbard Hall.

Williams’ research aims to develop novel instrumental and computational techniques in mass spectrometry, separations, chemical imaging and laser spectroscopy for improved molecular structure elucidation, and to apply these methods to interesting chemical problems of both practical and fundamental interest. He is the faculty director of the QB3/Chemistry Mass Spectrometry Center and he holds a joint appointment in molecular biophysics and integrated bioimaging at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Watkins Visiting Professorship was created in 1974 by the Watkins Foundation. This grant is now provided through the Watkins fund, a part of the Wichita State University Foundation’s endowment.

William E. Simon and Mark G. Wentling exemplify the merits and advantages of a liberal arts and sciences education and will be inducted into the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame at 2 p.m. Feb. 4 in Wiedemann Hall. Induction into the Fairmount College Hall of Fame is the highest recognition of outstanding alumni who have had a significant impact on the region, nation and world.

Jeff Hayton, associate professor of history, likes to study punks: the agents that produce social friction and disrupt normative values.

“Those individuals and communities upset society,” Hayton said. “And in so doing, they speak to those societies and teach us. That disruption requires an enormous amount of energy and bravery, and that should be celebrated.”

In 2022, Hayton published his first book, “Culture from the Slums: Punk Rock in East and West Germany,” which explored the emergent punk scenes on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Intersecting cultural production with political and economic theory, Hayton explains the differences in state reactions to the rise of punk.

In the aftermath of a sexual assault, survivors have the choice to undergo a medical forensic exam, a procedure which collects evidence in a sexual assault kit. Most who opt for the medical forensic exam will have their kit collected and released to law enforcement to support investigation of the assault.

One in five, however, will have a medical forensic exam, but not report their assault at that time. Few of those who elect the non-report kit will ever convert their kits into a full report. This raises questions about why survivors choose to undergo an invasive, intensive and uncomfortable medical forensic examination following an assault, but then decide that they do not want to see their kit processed.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Rachael Goodman-Williams seeks to answer that very question.

Fairmount College students entering Wichita State under the 2024-25 undergraduate catalog will need to meet new competency requirements in order to graduate.

The nine competencies are designed to help students to have a clearer understanding of what skills they are developing by taking specific classes as liberal arts and sciences majors. They also promote the value of a liberal arts and sciences education and incorporate skills employers value in employees.

“This is beneficial for students to know how the courses they are taking in the college fit into a degree program in a liberal arts education,” Brien Bolin, senior associate dean for student success, said. “ The competencies also address nine core areas of skills that employers are seeking.”

Students will be able to meet competency requirements by using classes they are already taking to satisfy requirements for their major and the general education program.

“Our academic advisors will work closely with students to make sure they stay on track to graduate,” Patricia Phillips, director of the LAS Advising Center, said.

The competencies were created by a 14-member faculty committee representing majors across the three academic divisions within Fairmount College.

Life during the 16th century in France afforded few opportunities for women to make their voices heard. Its rigidly patriarchal culture expected them to be dutiful wives, mothers and daughters, not opinionated politicians, poets and painters, like their male counterparts.

But buried in the pages of manuscripts, annotating the margins, exists a historical record that, until recent decades, had gone undiscovered. Here, women could take part in literary production, if only privately and tangentially.

“Living in a patriarchal world, women learned to creatively negotiate a landscape that forbade them from writing,” Brigitte Roussel, associate professor of French, said.

With dozens of brightly colored origami figures decorating the shelves and sketches covering the whiteboard in the corner, Catherine Searle’s office looks more like an art studio than a space to do fundamental research in mathematics. 

Searle’s field of study has a bad rap, a fact of which she is fully aware. 

“I get it – Math can be terrifying at times,” Searle, professor of mathematics, said. “But there’s so much to discover and create, and there’s still so much to solve.”