Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, Spring 2025, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Page 1 Dean's Message from Dr. Sen Subramanian
Page 2 Student Spotlights
Page 3 Kaushik honored, Three-Minute Thesis, & Ice Cores revealed
Page 4 Alumni Spotlight
Page 5 Day of Scholars
Page 6 Cyanide research, Record Research Expenditures, Adhikari awarded Miller Research Award
Page 8 Hanson Receives NSF Grant
Page 9 Snow Lab Research Team
Page 10 Faculty Awards
Page 11 Drone Day
Page 13 Khalaf Awarded Presidential Award

The Living Campus: Landscaping With Purpose At St. Mary's, Karelen Bastida, Alyana Estes, Erick Jarquin, Elijah Perez

Presentations - 2025

This project focuses on evaluating and improving current landscaping and waste management practices at the Casa Maria community to create a sustainable model that can be scaled across the broader campus.

Brother Nature: Pursuing Zero-Waster At Casa Maria, Isaiah Charles, Giuliana Porzio Cuenca, Tatiana Flores, Isabella Lopez, Antonio Martinez, Kelly Sawyers

Presentations - 2025

This presentation focuses on evaluating waste production and management at Casa Maria, a Marianist community on campus, with the goal of establishing baseline data and offering sustainability recommendations grounded in the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Insights from this initiative aim to inform broader sustainability efforts across the university.

Binge Buddies, Joshua Uribe

Posters - 2025

Many people struggle to keep track of the shows and movies they’ve watched or plan to watch. Existing streaming platforms often provide limited or cluttered tracking features, making it challenging to stay organized. Binge Buddies addresses this issue by centralizing watchlists and viewing history in one streamlined location. The website is designed to simplify the binge-watching experience, helping users stay on top of their content and discover new shows/movies. Which makes the experience a smoother and more enjoyable experience.

Heartbeats And Algorithms: Black Pre- Med Students At The Crossroad Of Cardiology And Ai, Shuri Magdalene

Posters - 2025

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the healthcare landscape. • The underrepresentation of Black/African American (BAA) doctors is alarming with recent data of active physicians from the Association of Medical Colleges in 2021 has highlighted this underrepresentation of Black/ African American physicians in the U.S., with only about 5.7%1 of doctors belonging to this demographic, and cardiologists making up a mere 4.2% of this group1 .

Detection Of Microplastics In The Hindgut Content Of Zophobasmoriolarvae, Zoey Drexler

Posters - 2025

Microplastic and nanoplastic pollution is a growing environmental concern, with potential impacts on soil ecosystems and the organisms within them. Insects play a crucial role in soil health, and their digestive processes may influence the fate of microplastics in terrestrial environments.

Detection of micro- and nano-plastic particles in complex mixtures such as soil, sediments, and feces is difficult because these small particles often resemble particles of mineral or organic materials. One way to visualize them more specifically is by using Nile Red, a stain which is a dull blue when in aqueous on hydrophilic conditions, but which fluoresces bright red …

Cyber Safe, Hiram Franco, Laurene Robinson, Joshua Do, Enrique Martinez, Han Vu

Posters - 2025

With the rapid rise of cyber threats, understanding malware behavior is more crucial than ever. Millions of new malware variants emerge annually, compromising personal data, financial information, and entire networks. While no system is entirely immune, cybersecurity education can help mitigate risks. CYBERSAFE is a sandbox malware analyzer designed to enhance malware detection and analysis skills. By running malware samples in a controlled virtual environment, users can observe real-time file modifications, network activity, and system changes. The tool also includes interactive exercises and quizzes to reinforce learning. CYBERSAFE bridges the gap between theory and practice, providing hands-on experience to help …

Synthetic And Mechanistic Investigations Of Ruthenium Catalyzed Coupling Reactions Via C−C And C−N Bond Activation, Aldiyar Shakenov

Dissertations (1934 -)

Transition-metal catalyzed C-N and C-C bond activation reactions are synthetically valuable reactions for selective and atom-economical synthesis of complex organic molecules. Catalytic reactions that involve activation of unreactive bonds are important for the stereoselective synthesis of molecular scaffolds from readily available substrates derived from bio-mass feedstock. Despite these advances, designing a broadly applicable catalytic method faces challenges of selectivity and harsh reaction conditions. A five coordinate Ru-H complex was found to be an effective catalyst for promoting the multicomponent deaminative coupling reaction of anilines, aldehydes and tertiary amines to selectively afford 2,3-disubstituted quinoline products. The scope of the reaction was …

User Perception For Usability And Security On New Technology And Online User Privacy In Real-Time Bidding, Subhash Rajapaksha

Dissertations (1934 -)

The digital advertising capabilities to reach users with personalized ads have been steadily improving over the last couple of decades. Automated mechanisms use efficient algorithms and a wealth of data to complete transactions between websites/apps and potential advertisers as part of what is known as programmatic advertising. Among the most prevalent protocols is Real Time Bidding (RTB), which selects ads for a user visiting a website in real-time through a series of messages within online ad exchanges. Such communications have the potential to carry detailed, personal information about users without their knowledge and have raised privacy concerns. RTB also poses …

Advancing Devsecops In Smes: Challenges And Best Practices For Secure Ci/Cd Pipelines, Jayaprakashreddy Cheenepalli, John Hastings, Khandaker Mamun Ahmed, Chad Fenner

Research & Publications

This study evaluates the adoption of DevSecOps among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), identifying key challenges, best practices, and future trends. Through a mixed methods approach backed by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory, we analyzed survey data from 405 SME professionals, revealing that while 68% have implemented DevSecOps, adoption is hindered by technical complexity (41%), resource constraints (35%), and cultural resistance (38%). Despite strong leadership prioritization of security (73%), automation gaps persist, with only 12% of organizations conducting security scans per commit. Our findings highlight a growing integration of security tools, particularly API security …

2025 Research Day Program, Lincoln Memorial University

Research Day

This program contains poster presentation summaries from LMU's 2025 Annual Research Day conference.

Development Of An Alpha-Diimine Aluminum Catalyst For Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization, Mairo Yamano , '25

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Aluminum is an attractive metal in developing novel homogeneous catalysts due to its natural abundance, low cost, and benign environmental impact. The Graves group has been investigating its chemistry by developing metal complexes with redox non-innocent ligands. Thus, the previously reported (LMes ^2- )AlCl(THF) (L_Mes = N,N′-bis[2,4,6-trimethylphenyl]-2,3-dimethyl-1,4-diazabutadiene) will be investigated as a potential atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) catalyst. Using gel permeation chromatography and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, this study investigates a model ATRP system of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with (L_Mes^2- )AlCl(THF). The dependence of polymerization outcomes on several reaction parameters was tested. In addition, a time-resolved polymerization …

Computational Investigation Of The Chemical Bond Between An(Iii) Ions And Soft-Donor Ligands, Naomi E. Rehberg

Honors Thesis

The nature of chemical bonding of actinide metal ions with arene and borohydride ligands is investigated through quantum chemical methods to understand how the transuranium elements differ from uranium with respect to their interaction with soft-donor ligands. Specifically, this study examines [An(arene)(BH₄)₃] complexes (An^Me₆; An = Np, Pu, U, arene = C₆Me₆). Density functional theory (DFT) shows that, when the complexes are neutral, electrostatic interactions dominate the interaction between the metal ions and the soft-donor ligands. Molecular orbital analysis, with both the DFT and the complete active space …

Navigating Generative Ai In Honors, Anne Dotter, Victoria M. Bryan

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Considering the historical significance and pedagogical impact of educational technologies on teaching and learning in higher education, authors suggest that generative artificial intelligence creates more questions than solutions for honors practitioners. What might meaningful AI literacy look like throughout a multidisciplinary honors curriculum? To what extent will generative AI level educational inequities, or create new ones? If policing AI misuse is ultimately a losing battle, how might this understanding reshape assignment design, assessment practices, and even our definitions of academic dishonesty? Drawing on examples in current teaching practice, authors observe the two sides of generative AI—one holding powerful possibilities for …

Editor's Introduction, Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Editorial for Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (2025) 26(1), special issue on Forum on AI and Honors.

Ai Responsibilization: Shifting The Burden Of Academic Integrity, Daniel A. Cryer

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Because AI text generators like ChatGPT give students unprece-dented power to outsource their work, concerns about academic integrity are escalating among instructors. This essay suggests that the proliferation of generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning dramatically shifts the burden of academic integrity, typically shared between teachers and students, onto students. The concept of responsibilization, a defining feature of neoliberal societies in which individuals become responsible for costs and tasks once shouldered collectively, is a useful lens through which to view this new reality. Rather than policing students’ work, educators should recognize the new responsibilities conferred onto students by learning …

Pull Up A Chair, Deep Blue: Ai In Honors Education, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Generative AI is the latest in a succession of technologies that allow us to do with machines what we used to have to do by hand. This essay argues that the elements of teaching in honors that can be automated probably should be and that it is the role of honors faculty to teach students how to distinguish superior thought from mediocre thought, good questions from great ones, and solid supporting evidence from weak or biased counterparts. Large learning models (LLMs) only collate what is already known and cannot teach thinking. As an information delivery system, AI can narrow the …

Teaching Ai Literacy Through Science Studies, Rhetoric, And Ethical Reasoning, Michael J. Klein, Philip L. Frana

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Building on the idea of productive troublemaking, this essay presents a team-taught interdisciplinary honors course that integrates science and technology studies, rhetorical analysis, ethical reasoning, and artificial intelligence policy. Rather than framing AI as a threat, this course invites honors students to experiment with AI technologies and develop competencies by analyzing AI as a social and subjectivity-shaping phenomenon—writing policy briefs, producing rhetorical analyses of science fiction, and completing self-paced AI literacy modules. Honors education is uniquely positioned to model responsible and human-centered uses of intelligent systems, thereby cultivating graduates who can both use and critically interrogate the AI tools that …

News From The Front: How To Win The Ai War, Christine Haverington

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While artificial intelligence is currently and justifiably a hot topic among scholars and university administrators, students are way ahead of the curve in terms of its use and application. Calling for educators to stop trying to catch AI “cheaters,” this essay provides evidence from honors and other classroom observations, student research on peer and faculty usage and attitudes, course evaluations, and external sources to demonstrate how and why generative AI can be creatively and effectively incorporated into teaching. Toward this end, practical pedagogical strategies are shared describing teaching modalities and innovative curricular design, avoiding the cognitive degradation of students, and …

Another “Tone Test” Moment: Authenticity, Ai, And The Admission Essay, Peter Tschirhart

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Debates about “authenticity” are not new but cyclical, and insights from music history and performance studies can illuminate how we evaluate student work in an age of machine collaboration. At the turn of the twentieth century, Edison’s “tone tests” blurred the line between human and machine by staging performances in which audiences were challenged to distinguish live singers from phonographic recordings. These events inaugurated a century-long debate about authenticity in music, one that resonates strongly today as educators confront new challenges posed by large language models (LLMs). Drawing on Auslander’s (2023) account of liveness, authenticity in writing—like authenticity in music—can …

Honoring Intellectual Risk-Taking: A Dialogue, Julie Bowman, Alexis Teagarden

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Presented in the form of a Socratic dialogue, this piece considers what honors courses should strive to teach. Bowman, an experienced instructor of both non-honors and honors classes, notes that while universities’ honors colleges prize intellectual curiosity, her honors students might not. Teagarden, the other interlocutor and a writing program administrator, wonders whether curiosity is a sufficient end goal for honors or any teaching. The speakers turn to whether curiosity or courage is the more important virtue to instill, explore a classical difference between courage and audacity, and then discuss whether and how courage could be taught.

Generative Ai And The Honors Thesis: A Rhetorical Framework For Gai Policy, Pedagogy, And Equity, Sean Chadwick

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This article offers a rhetorical framework for understanding how honors students engage with the capstone thesis following the emergence of generative AI (GAI) tools. Author reviews the nature of the honors thesis and analyzes some rhetorical models for thinking about GAI and literacy before offering a heuristic framework identifying four interdependent skill categories—writing, social, executive, and subject matter—that shape students’ thesis work. Drawing on findings from an interview study, this framework clarifies how GAI tools interface with existing thesis practices and pain points, allowing honors practitioners to better articulate our values, evaluate use cases, and craft GAI-informed policy. As a …

Analysis Of The Potential Impacts Of Brine And The Main Challenges Of The Water Importing Project From The Gulf Of California To Phoenix, Arizona (Arizona Water Project Solution), Alejandro Corral Hernandez

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

In December 2022, the Arizona Water Project Solution (AWPS) was presented to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA). The project proposes to develop, construct, and operate a Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) plant in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, Mexico, and transport potable water through a 200-mile pipeline to supply the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States.

This study includes a cross-multiple-case analysis, incorporating expert data and information, to evaluate the brine impacts and challenges faced in developing the five operational SWRO plants in Israel and the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad plant in California, United States. By identifying patterns, …

Modeling Droplet Levitation Over A Heated Liquid Surface, Jacob E. Davis

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Research into the interactions between droplets and liquid surfaces is of importance for a number of practical applications. These applications range from spray cooling techniques in engineering, to infectious disease transmission, to the distribution of aerosolized pharmaceuticals and various challenges in particle transport in multiphase flows. In this study, we focus on the dynamics of a slowly condensing droplet, suspended above an evaporating liquid layer. The key objective of the present study is to formulate comprehensive mathematical models that describe the phenomena of diffusion and heat transfer occurring within this system. Using this, we model the flow around the droplet …

On The Construction Of The Fundamental Group And Its Topological Invariance, Preston Hutter

Senior Honors Theses

This paper investigates the algebraic topological topic of the fundamental group in efforts to show its topological invariance. This is done first by providing background both historical and practical, and then by developing basic homotopy theory, leading to path homotopy. A path product is defined, which motivates a product for homotopy classes of paths. The product on homotopy classes of paths is shown to have desired properties, namely associativity, identity, and inverses. The fundamental group is then defined with homotopy classes of loops paired with the product. Its point dependence is shown to be irrelevant to the calculation of the …

Mashed Potato Gravy Boat And Cream Cheese Fish: Modifying A 3d Printer To Print With Unconventional Materials, Aahanaa Tibrewal

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

3D printing is growing beyond plastics into fields like food and construction, bringing rapid additive manufacturing to various industries and consumers. However, high costs and the need for specialized knowledge limit access for many. My project aimed to modify a low-cost 3D printer to print with paste-like materials using commonly available parts and simple processes. I tested the modification with clay, mashed potatoes, and cream cheese, and found that it successfully worked with all three. This modification has three key benefits: it allows users to print with unconventional materials, helps researchers create low-cost proof of concepts, and contributes to the …

Experimental And Computational Investigation Of Ethylene Oxide Hydrate And Its Mixed Hydrates With Propane And Isobutane, Adebayo Paul Adeleye

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Gas hydrates represent an important class of crystalline solids, where water molecules form cage-like frameworks that encapsulate gas molecules. They have garnered significant attention for their unique properties and diverse applications in energy and environmental science. This study investigates the formation and vibrational properties of the ethylene oxide (EO) hydrate (structure I, sI) and EO-seeded hydrates of propane and isobutane (structure II, sII) using matrix isolation Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, supported by Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. Under low-temperature and low-pressure conditions, EO hydrate was formed by co-depositing a premix of EO and argon …

Integrating Data Visualizations To Enhance Effectiveness Of Mitigation Reports, Eric A. Kowalik

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The Wisconsin State Public Defender (SPD) relies on mitigation reports to communicate the personal histories, circumstances, and mitigating factors of clients during criminal defense and sentencing advocacy. Traditionally, these reports are text-heavy documents that must be reviewed efficiently by attorneys, judges, and other stakeholders. Research suggests that data visualizations, including maps, charts, infographics, and the strategic use of color, can improve comprehension, increase engagement, and provide clearer context for complex information. This project explores the design and development of a Tableau dashboard that enables the efficient creation and integration of data visualizations within SPD mitigation reports. The project seeks to …

A Formal Simulation Model For Discrete Rate Simulation, Thomas J. Tracey

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Simulation is an essential tool for virtualizing systems by creating a representative model of real or hypothetical systems and observing how they change over time. Two predominant simulation paradigms include Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and Continuous Simulation, which both have their strengths and weaknesses. DES does not handle continuous state variables, while continuous simulation handles continuous state variables but encounters errors where these variables have discrete changes in their behavior. This difficulty between the two predominant simulation paradigms prompted the creation of a new simulation paradigm to cover this gap: Discrete Rate Simulation (DRS). DRS as a simulation paradigm focuses …

Exploring Rotational Energy Transfer Of Intermolecular Collisions In Complex Systems: A Mqct Approach, Carolin Anna Joy

Dissertations (1934 -)

The accurate modeling of molecular spectra in astrophysical environments requires detailed understanding of collisional energy transfer processes, which remains a significant challenge due to the computational complexity of quantum mechanical calculations for larger molecules, heavier projectiles, and higher collision energies. This dissertation addresses this challenge through the development and application of Mixed Quantum/Classical Theory (MQCT), a hybrid approach that combines quantum mechanical treatment of internal molecular motion with classical description of translational degrees of freedom. The methodology was first validated through detailed study of rotational energy transfer in the ND3 + D2 system, demonstrating excellent agreement with full quantum results …