“Impact of a Host Community Composition on Lyme Disease Risk,” by Associate Professor of Biology Kathleen LoGiudice and collaborators, was published in the October issue of the journal Ecology. The article reports how the composition of the community of animals on which ticks feed influences Lyme disease risk to humans.
Don Austin, coordinator of Kenney Community Center outreach programs, was cited in the awards issue of Forum magazine, published by the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Austin’s grant proposal for the Studying Arithmetic in Literature (SAIL) program, titled “Building a Math in Literature Library,” received a $1,000 award from the society. SAIL works with two Schenectady elementary schools to improve math and reading literacy skills of 50 at-risk students. The award money will be used to establish a small library for children’s books that fully incorporate mathematics into literature.
Shane Cotter, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, working with exchange students Tomas Sadilek and Jaromir Horejsi, recently had a paper accepted to the IEEE DSP Workshop 2009, which was organized by the IEEE Signal Processing Society. The paper, “Facial Expression Recognition Using Hybrid Discriminant Analysis,” will be presented in January. Tomas and Jaromir, from the Czech Republic, are attending Union for the year.
Rudy Nydegger recently returned from Russia, where he lectured at two universities. At Tolstoy State Pedagogical University in Tula, he discussed “Challenges to Organizations in the U.S. and Russia in the New Millennium.” At the Tula State Polytechnical University, he spoke on “Effectively Managing Groups in Organizations.” Nydegger is a professor of psychology and in the School of Management at Union Graduate College.
Three faculty members will be guests on WAMC Northeast Public Radio's Presidential Election Round Table, to air onVox Pop, a daily call-in talk program, Friday, Oct. 24, 2-3 p.m. They are: Tomas Dvorak, associate professor of economics; Ashraf Ghaly, professor of engineering; and Thomas Lobe, political science lecturer. Joining them is Paul Sorum, primary care physician, professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Albany Medical College and chair of the Capital District chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. All four are participating in Union’s Election 2008 course this fall. WAMC can be accessed at 90.3 FM. To listen live,go to: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/ppr/index.shtml. Next Thursday, same time, same station, four other faculty teaching the course will take their turn at the mike: Zoe Oxley, David Cotter, Deidre Hill Butler and Chris Chabris.