Research & Innovation Magazine Fisk University Volume 1 Spring 2019

M A G A Z I N E

Fisk University’s scholarly, scientific, and creative endeavors

2019 Inaugural Issue

Inside Cover

Leaders. Scholars. World Changers.

Research & Innovation M A G A Z I N E

ON THE COVERS

Theoretical model and visualization of a protein studied in Dr. Steve Damo’s research group, as part of the project supported by the National Science Foundation-Center for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST)-Biological Signatures and Sensing (BioSS). research & innovation magazine team co-editors

Jamaal Sheats, MFA Assistant Professor of Art Arnold Burger, PhD Professor of Physics graphic design

Ivy Brown Design Consultant photography

Courtesy of the Fisk University Office of University Relations, Fisk Galleries, and John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library, Special Collections.

Research & Innovation Magazine is published by: FISK UNIVERSITY 1000 17th Avenue N. Nashville, TN 37208

(615) 329-8500

Research & Innovation Magazine at Fisk University is published annually by the Office of the Sponsored Research and Programs. The publication draws from the enormous range of current research and scholarly activities at Fisk University, comprising diverse projects supported by more than $9 million in annual funding in FY 2017. Opinions expressed do not reflect the official views of the University. Use of trade names implies no endorsement by Fisk University. For permission to reprint text from Research at Boston University, contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at 615/329-8516, or email aburger@fisk.edu The 2019 Inaugural Issue of the Research & Innovation Magazine was made possible through partial support from The NSF/Fisk Center of Excellence for Biological Signatures and Sensing (BioSS) and the Fisk University Van Vechten Art Gallery.

Select Articles i n t his issue

05 06 14

Fisk University in National Rankings Messages from the Fisk Administration Google in Residence Scholar Program

17

Fisk Partners with the Museum of the Bible and the Smithsonian

19

MARC U*STAR Program

22

24 30

Fisk’s Implementation Award Fisk University Museum Pre-College Program at Fisk

33 36 38 46 50

Highlights from Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Business Recent Student Achievements

Highlights from Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences

Center for Biological Signatures and Sensing Community College Outreach

51

Library Projects and Partnerships

54

Fisk Research Symposium

58

Active Research Grants from the National Science Foundation

message from the co-editors Since opening its doors to hold first classes in1866, Fisk University has fulfilled its mission with hands-on education and engagement on campus, in Middle Tennessee, in the United States, and around the world. Today, Fisk University is recognized nationally and internationally, as a leader in advancing and disseminating discovery and knowledge.

With a variety of topics, this inaugural issue of the Research & Innovation Magazine moves the reader from multi- and cross-disciplinary, cutting edge research achievements in natural science to innovations in technology and business, and

showcasing the high-quality scholarly work in humanities and social and behavioral – many highlighting the research-based descriptions of the interaction between students and faculty advisors.

We hope you will enjoy reading our publication as much as we enjoyed gathering the material. We look forward to receiving submissions for future issues from our colleagues and students!

Arnold & Jamaal Fisk University- February 6, 2019

Fisk University in National Rankings Founded in 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War, Fisk University is a historically black university, and is the oldest institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee. Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s national reputation for academic excellence, which is validated year after year by the leading third party reviewers, as well as, by the pool of talented applicants and the large percentage of alumni who complete graduate or professional degrees and become leaders and scholars . in their fields.

Our Mission recognizes the importance of research Fisk University produces graduates from diverse backgrounds with the integrity and intellect required for substantive contributions to society. Our curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts. Our faculty and administrators emphasize the discovery and advancement of knowledge through research in the natural and social sciences, business and the humanities. We are committed to the success of scholars and leaders with global perspectives.

1st

Historically Black college or university to gain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

RANKED

#4

RANKED

#6

U.S. News & World Report 2018 Best HBCU

Most awarded research expenditures in the 2017 ranking of National Liberal Arts Institutions by The Washington Monthly.

5

Research & Innovation Magazine

Kevin D. Rome, PhD. Fisk President

Message from the Fisk University President Welcome to Fisk University!

I am pleased to introduce this inaugural issue of the Fisk Research Magazine. Fisk University’s commitment to being active in the community, organizing events and workshops, and establishing relationships with funding agencies and key sources of entrepreneurs, will continue to support our mission and future.

Since 1866, Fisk University has proudly served students from around the country by providing access to an intellectually stimulating, high-quality, and affordable education in an ideal campus setting. Consistently, Fisk has earned top rankings in college guides and national publications. In the most recent 2019 U.S. News and World Report rankings, Fisk climbed three spots from last year and is now #6 among all HBCUs. Yet, we have loftier aspirations and we will continue to holistically improve our impact on our students and society at large.

Fisk University takes pride in the accomplishments of its faculty, staff, and students in the competition for external resources. Research dollars alone do not tell the whole story and we hope this Fisk Research Magazine will reveal, in more detail, the breadth of intellectual endeavor in our externally sponsored projects or the impact of these projects on the quality of life. We also hope it will bring deserved attention to Fisk’s keen focus on distinctive approaches to providing college access to a broad community of learners.

We invite you to visit our beautiful, historic, 40-acre campus. You will find our dedicated faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners make Fisk a great university which creates a wealth of activities which bring entrepreneurs close to us.

6

Leaders.

Scholars.

World Changers.

“We teach our students to be conscious of societal trends and impacts, to ensure they courageously advocate for themselves and those less fortunate. Fisk University is the #1 liberal arts, Historically Black College and University in the nation for research. The University’s research expenditures are perennially ranked among the top of all liberal arts institutions in America.”

—Fisk University 2018-2022 Strategic Plan

Institutional Infrastructure In Support of Our Research and Education Programs To realize our vision, accomplish our mission and remain true to our values, Fisk University established priorities and the U.S. Department of Education Title III/ HBCU funding has been an integral part of enabling us to meet our goals: 1. Academic Excellence a. Learning Resource Center (Library) b. Academic Excellence and Student Performance Program (AESP) c. Professional Development d. International Studies e. Religion & Philosophy 2. Enhanced Physical Assets a. Facilities

3. Financial Strength a. Fiscal Management b. Institutional Advancement 4. Global & Community Engagement a. Training & Outreach 5. Infrastructure A. IT Services 6. Sponsored Research/Title III Program Administration Specifically, Title III funding has been important in improving our library resources and in promoting academic excellence through the AESP program.

7

Research & Innovation Magazine

It has also helped improve our professional services and our overall IT infrastructure. It has also supported our emphasis on fiscal management and our commitment to enhanced facilities.

Title III/Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) funding has enabled us to support advanced technological programs on- and off-campus: 1. Distance Learning/Education Program: Develops online courses, alternative distance learning delivery methods, and provides student and faculty support services in the areas of instructional design/technology.

2. Research and Assessment: Provides guidance to and works with faculty and staff for the development of student learning outcomes at the course, program, school and University levels considering the needs of our diverse student population.

3. Enterprise Systems Analysis: The new CAMS Enterprise Academic System is designed, using a masterand-detail relationship so that data will always be available in real-time, in unlimited detail, and without a need for the term- or year-end closing.

SAFRA has also funded various software programs that will enable Fisk to “go completely electronic� in the near future. AmpliFund Grant Tracking, Canvas, AdobeSign, Paycom, etc. are all programs that reduce or eliminate the number of hard copies of paperwork, allowing the electronic routing of documents to authorizing officials and expediting the authorization processes.

8

www.fisk.edu

office of

Sponsored Research and Programs The Office of Sponsored Research and Programs (OSRP) at Fisk University is the centralized unit charged to coordinate research and sponsored program activities campus-wide. The unit strives to maintain a supportive environment for research and scholarly endeavors, and encourages the faculty and staff to seek external funding to support the mission of the university and to explore alternative means to advance their professional interest.

2018 ACTIVE RESEARCH GRANTS AND CONTRACTS

$6.38M

During 2018 Fisk University’s Office of Sponsored Research and Programs managed 74 active research grants and contracts totaling $6.38M. More than a third of the amount originates from the National science Foundation (NSF). The projects sponsored by these grants and contracts were won and executed by 28 Principal Investigators (PIs).

Staff

Arnold Burger, PhD

Sr. Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and Sponsored Research

(615)329-8516 aburger@fisk.edu

Patrice Ward

Assistant Director of Sponsored Research

(615)329-8531 wardp@fisk.edu

9

Research & Innovation Magazine

Vann R. Newkirk, PhD.

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Message from the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Greetings, Fisk is committed to fulfilling our mission of serving as a valuable resource for building the state’s intellectual capital through teaching, research and community outreach.

From its founding in 1866, academic excellence has been the hallmark of Fisk University, one of the foremost research and teaching universities in the United States. Fisk offers its students an exceptional curriculum and dynamic learning and mentoring experiences with an award-winning, professionally renowned faculty. We are proud of our strong academic programs. Fisk offers twenty-two baccalaureate degrees and four master’s degrees in six academic departments: Arts and Languages; Behavioral Sciences and Education; History and Political Science; Life and Physical Sciences; Math and Computer Science; Business Administration. The University has programs that appeal to various interests and fields of study, including the honors program, Fisk Altitude Achievement Missile Team, and a number of Summer Research Programs.

The 2018 Washington Monthly Rankings rates Fisk as 3rd in the nation in research among the top liberal arts colleges, when ranked by research expenditures, and 1st among HBCUs when ranked by social mobility.

This significant national recognition validates the high quality of our strong graduate and undergraduate programs.

In this inaugural issue of our Fisk Research Magazine, you will discover our diverse research and studentbased initiatives. We look forward to the continued successes and recognition that our university so greatly deserves.

10

www.fisk.edu

Fisk Rocket Team Seeks to Soar to New Heights The Fisk Rocket Team is currently participating in two initiatives: 1. Liquid Bi-Propellent Rocket Development 2. K-12 STEM Outreach The Fisk Rocket Team is currently participating in the Base 11 Space Challenge. The Space Challenge’s purpose is for a University to design, build, and launch a liquid propellant rocket to attain an altitude of 100 km 0r 62.1 mi. Fisk has chosen to develop a rocket-propelled by hydrogen peroxide and kerosene.

The participants of the Base 11 Space Challenge are competing for a grand prize of $1 Million.

The Fisk Rocket Team sent two students, Novell Carter and Timothy Mazenge and faculty member Dr. Bryan Kent Wallace to Purdue University’s, Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories Propulsion Laboratories for a two-day safety training for dealing with cryo-bi-propellent rockets.

The Fisk Rocket Team is partnering with Metro Public Schools to teach rocketry to several middle school’s students. On Saturday, December 1, 2018, Fisk hosted two classes from metro public schools in the Fisk Physics Laboratories to participate in an Arrow Rocket Competition. Students won 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies 3D printed in Fisk’s Physics Laboratories.

11

Research & Innovation Magazine

Arnold Burger, PhD.

Sr. Vice Provost for Faculty Initiatives

Message from the Sr. Vice Provost for Faculty Initiatives Colleagues, We are excited to present our inaugural edition of the Office of Sponsored Research and Programs (OSRP) magazine. The purpose of this magazine is to engage the Fisk University community with the roles and responsibilities of the office, highlight research capabilities and promote the research and scholarly activities undertaken by our faculty, staff, and students, and disseminate policies and procedures governing research at Fisk.

One of our primary goals at OSRP is to create an environment at Fisk that facilitates and promotes superior research, creative, and scholarly pursuits while leveraging our unique strengths to collaborate locally, nationally, and internationally. Fisk is recognized nationally for its quality research and ability to produce young scholars and leaders. Fisk also has a long-standing history of collaboration with Vanderbilt and other universities to confer PhD degrees in physics, astrophysics, materials science, biology, and chemistry to students from underrepresented groups.

We encourage you to explore our magazine; learn more about the opportunities, resources, and research endeavors at Fisk; and contact us with any questions. The past fiscal year has been a great one for the office and we have spent more than $9.5M in research and development expenditures. Congratulations to the Fisk research and sponsored programs community for making this year another success.

12

Google

In Residence Program at Fisk University

The Google In Residence (GIR) program was founded by Google in 2013 with the mission to grow and support a more representative pipeline.

The program embeds Google engineers at HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Institutions across the country to serve as visiting lecturers for the schools’ introductory CS courses. GIR instructors bring an industry perspective to campus, and work with the community to develop a strong CS curriculum, to support students in their search, and to grow student engagement in technical fields. See details pg. 14.

13

Research & Innovation Magazine

Google In Residence Scholar (Fall 2018) Kim Merrill is a visiting instructor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Fisk University for the Fall 2018 semester.

She comes to Fisk from Google in Seattle, Washington, where she works as a senior software engineer and technical lead on the Google Cloud Platform.

Origins Kim grew up in New Jersey, and went on to graduate with a B.A. in Computer Science (CS) from Pomona College in Claremont, California. She entered college intending to major in English, but fell into an introductory CS class by chance and later declared a CS major in her second year. During her time in school, she interned with the Google Engineering Practicum program in New York, followed by an internship on the Xbox LIVE team at Microsoft.

Career Kim moved to Seattle and started as a software engineer on the Google Cloud Platform in 2014, where she has worked on App Engine and most recently, the Knative project. She has served as the technical lead for the App Engine Admin API and the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Serverless add-on teams. She has also been involved with Girls Who Code and the Google Computer Science Summer Institute.

Interests In her free time, Kim enjoys dancing, hiking, reading, and skiing. She has been a dance fitness instructor for the past 4 years, handing off her weekly class just prior to moving to Nashville. Her favorite books include The Phantom Tollbooth, Jane Eyre, and the Mistborn trilogy.

14

Dr. Sajid Hussain, Associate Professor, Computer Science (CS), attended Faculty-in-Residence program of Google at Mountain View, CA, from June 4 – June 29 (4 weeks), 2018.

Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) is an immersive professional development program that engages CS faculty serving underrepresented populations in tech. The focus is on industry-informed, applied learning projects. The goal is to help faculty to better prepare students for jobs in the tech industry.

Key Program Objectives: 1) Experience hands-on workshops and resources to augment applied learning; 2) Gain insights into industry expectations and the technical interviewing process; 3) Immerse yourself in Google’s engineering culture and developer practices; 4) Share your insights with Googlers around the challenges your students face; and 5) Increase dialogue and partnership between CS faculty and Google.

Expectations Upon Program Completion: Design at least two (2) classroom experiments related to projectbased learning for your CS courses to implement in Fall 2018; Facilitate at least 1 tech interview practice session with your students each semester; Share your Google/Silicon Valley experience with current and future students and with colleagues.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a cooperative, student-centered approach to teaching that emphasizes the development of skills through practice, sustained inquiry and facilitated learning through the management of a project or product. PBL gives students an opportunity to complete a project which is personally meaningful (a useful test is whether the student will share or forget their project afterwards) while reaching key learning objectives.

www.fisk.edu

Select Student Profiles (Class 2019) In class of 2019, Oumar Karaga and Bikki Nagarkoti (Computer Science majors) will join Google as fulltime employees. Denise Buliga (Business Major and Data Science Minor) will join Intel Corporation.

Name: Bikki Nagarkoti Class: 2019 Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal Major: Computer Science GPA: 3.99

Name: Oumar Karaga Class: 2019 Hometown: Burkina Faso Major: Computer Science GPA: 3.99

Future Plans: Software Engineer, Google NYC

Future Plans: Software (Site Reliability) Engineering at Google, Mountain View, CA

“Namaste, everyone! I am Bikki Nagarkoti hailing from Nepal, and now a senior computer science major at Fisk University in Nashville. The small class size has fostered good relations with my professors and peers. I got immense help and support throughout my undergraduate journey. Fisk has offered countless opportunities in college and beyond. For instance, I recently got a chance to attend Goldman Sachs’ HBCU Leadership Summit in NYC. During the summer of each college year, I did three internships at Google. I did freshman and sophomore Engineering Practicum internship at Google, Mountain View, CA and Software Engineering internship at Google, NYC. I will be joining Google NYC as a full-time software engineer in June 2019 after my graduation. I will always be indebted to Fisk and my professors. The liberal arts education at Fisk has not only shaped my overall development but also helped me look into my inner-self.”

Salut! I am Oumar Karaga, and I am from Burkina Faso, a French-speaking country in West Africa.

I am more than grateful of my journey at Fisk University. I started out as a Mathematics major in my freshman year in 2011, my love of Mathematics has led me into Computer Science where I discovered I could do amazing things. I never would have imagined prior to 2011 that I would get such a huge opportunity as interning at Google in my freshman year. This was possible thanks to Fisk’s Google In Residence Program from which I learned the basics of programming in Python. Fisk University’s particularity is that professors are close to and know their students individually and make it a priority for them to prosper and pursue personal projects beyond class work. It is mesmerizing for me to imagine that there once was a time in high school that I would get scared that my laptop was broken just because I would inadvertently open the Command Line GUI on my Windows laptop! Thanks to Fisk for what it has taught me, I am glad that upon graduation I will be joining Google as a Software. Engineer in Site Reliability, contributing to developing cutting-edge solutions at scale and doing so with maximum reliability.”

15

Research & Innovation Magazine Google In Residence Program continued

Name: Denise Buliga Class: 2019 Hometown: Nashville, TN Major: Business Administration (Accounting) - Minor in Data Science GPA: 3.7 Future Plans: Intel Corporation, California “My name is Denise Buliga and I am a senior graduating from Fisk University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration (Accounting Concentration) and a Minor in Data Science. I am so thankful to be studying at an institution that values woman empowerment in technical fields, such as computer science and data science. Since freshman year, Fisk professors have fostered my interests and equipped me with the tools and confidence necessary to succeed in my career. During college, I was able to complete two summer internships at Intel Corporation in California and I will be returning to Intel for a full-time position following graduation. I strongly encourage young women to pursue technical disciplines and to consider Fisk University as a launch-pad for their careers. A high regard for academic achievement coupled with outstanding faculty support truly make Fisk University a phenomenal place to learn and grow.�

NCWIT Extension Services Award Fisk University received $10,000 for NCWIT Extension Services Award in order to promote computing majors/ minors (Computer Science and Data Science) for women.

The award will be used to provide peer mentoring and to organize student engagement and recruitment activities. The objective is to increase women enrollment in advanced courses (Data Structures & Algorithms) from 19% (previous 6 years average) to 30% (2020).

16

www.fisk.edu

Fisk University Partners with the Museum of the Bible and the Smithsonian for Slave Bible Exhibition Fisk University partnered with the Museum of the Bible and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for a special exhibition featuring the rare Slave Bible. The bible, Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves, in the British West-India Islands, has been on loan at the Museum of the Bible since November 2017.

Due to the popularity of the artifact, the Museum of the Bible offered to partner with Fisk University and the Smithsonian to create a special exhibition that explores the Slave Bible’s role in the struggle for freedom. The exhibition, The Slave Bible: Let the Story Be Told, opened on November 28 at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. “This past year is the first time the Slave Bible has been on display anywhere other than Fisk,” said DeLisa Minor Harris, special collections librarian.

“To have something this rare on display nationally to the public speaks to its interesting history.”

There are only three known copies of the Slave Bible in existence. One copy belongs to Fisk University, and the other two are located in the United Kingdom. Harris has stated that Fisk University librarians and archivist are unsure how and when the book came to the university. It has been in Fisk University’s special collection for over 50 years, and many believe it was brought over by the Fisk Jubilee Singers© when they returned from singing for Queen Victoria on their European tour.

The original Slave Bible was published by Law and Gilbert publishing house in London in 1807, and the copy belonging to Fisk University was published the following year. It was published on behalf of the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves to educate enslaved Africans and preserve the system of slavery. It excluded any portion of the

bible that might inspire liberation. This rare artifact features selections from the Holy Bible that were used to defend slavery during most of the abolition movement. It omits most of the Old Testament and around half of the New Testament.

A committee was formed at Fisk University to oversee the creation of this special exhibition. The Museum of the Bible will host a multitude of special events to promote the exhibition over the next year including panels, performances and conferences.

Fisk University committee members are anticipating to attend a few of these events to represent the university’s contribution to the exhibition.

The exhibition will be on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. until November 2019.

17

Research & Innovation Magazine

18

www.fisk.edu

MARC

U*STAR

program The Fisk University MARC U*STAR Program is Fisk University’s highest honor for aspiring biomedical researchers. Since its establishment in 2013 and its competition for five additional years of funding in 2018, the MARC U*STAR program has provided an outstanding training environment and has catalyzed transformative changes in the STEM research culture at Fisk University.

From an undergraduate student’s perspective, the program allows Scholars to explore biomedical research as a career by engaging in generously stipend research for 24 consecutive months, including both the academic year and summers (encouraged to occur at research-intensive academic health centers nationally) and generous tuition support, as well.

From the perspective of the National Institutes of Health, who fund this program, the goals of the MARC U*STAR Program are to Increase interest in biomedical research careers via multiple, complementary strategies, Increase application, acceptance and completion of PhD- programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences by MARC Scholars, and enhance implementation of inquiry- and problem-based instruction in STEM courses and their associated. These goals help students without familial career role models understand that one can serve society, improve human health, and reduce health disparities not only as a health care provider but also in biomedical research careers.

The Fisk University MARC U*STAR Program has been very successful to date. Thus, one-hundred percent (100%!) of our MARC U*STAR scholars graduated from Fisk in four years, and 65% have transitioned to PhD programs and an additional trainee to a Master’s Program (i.e. 71% overall) within TWO years of graduating from Fisk University.

These post-graduate outcomes are likely an underestimate of future data, as several trainees are still within the NIH ‘window’ of three years post- undergraduate commencement.

Nonetheless, our outcomes exceed NIH expectations.

19

Research & Innovation Magazine

Cancer Research at Fisk University

Cancer is a complex disease caused by dysfunction of many biological pathways converging and resulting in uncontrolled growth of cells. My research is focused on studying a group of genes that are cancer-cell biomarkers. Melanoma antigen Genes (MAGEs) are a group of genes that are typically restricted in expression to the germline and then aberrantly re-expressed in a wide variety of cancers with high penetrance. The expression of MAGE genes usually correlates with poor patient prognosis.

The goals of my research program are to:

• Determine how MAGE genes and their protein products contribute to cancer (either initiation or sustenance)

Dr. Saumya Ramanathan

Assistant Professor Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

• Determine the mechanisms regulating MAGE gene expression. We will test the hypothesis that epigenetic modulation, a mechanism that regulates many germline genes, plays an important role in the regulation of their expression. We will study whether small molecules or toxic compounds (such as dietary by-products or cigarette smoke components) can elicit MAGE expression.

Students in my laboratory will develop a firm understanding of the fundamental concepts of the biochemistry of cancer. Students will also become experts at developing and testing hypotheses. They will use various techniques such as tissue culture, RT-qPCR, western blotting, protein purification, flow cytometry and data-mining from databases such as ENCODE or The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) to build their research projects. Students are also expected to analyze their data, organize into manuscripts and write manuscripts.

Currently our research is funded by two grants, an NSF Implementation Award to Dr. Lee Limbird and an HBCU-UP Research Initiation Award to me.

I have an adjunct appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University and have cultivated relationships with faculty in the Department of Biochemistry. Students in the Ramanathan lab will attend journal clubs in these departments at Vanderbilt. We also participate in lab meetings at Fisk every week where we have a roundtable format of presentation, and discuss experiments, trouble shooting and life!

Dr. Saumya Ramanathan attended a national conference in Biology teaching pedagogies which was fully funded by the HHMI at Harvey Mudd College and came away with lots of ideas for how we can improve our lab classes to make them MORE engaging to our Fiskites.

20

www.fisk.edu

21

Research & Innovation Magazine FISK UNIVERSITY'S

IMPLEMENTATION AWARD

Award Increases student and faculty confidence and competence in quantitative and computational life sciences In August of 2018, Fisk University was awarded $2.25 M from the National Science Foundation (Award # 1817282) to support the development of its Quantitative and Computational Life Sciences initiative on the Fisk campus over the next five years.

The award supports the recruitment of faculty talent to lead a new Bioinformatics initiative, complementing the new major in Data Science at Fisk, and to support the development of programming and large data set use across the disciplines, beginning with a new first-year student initiative to be piloted in the Fall of 2019. The rationale for the emphasis on computational thinking and quantitative confidence reflects the emerging need to harvest new knowledge from the data repositories that grow daily - whether it is the human genome and its epigenetic modulation, predicting global catastrophes due to climate change, projecting economic modulations in global business, interrogating digitized literature for thematic concepts, or enriching our culture through the graphic arts, data will define our futures.

Fisk University has a rich tradition in scientific discovery and a growing interdisciplinary culture that complements undergraduate courses with courseembedded research and projects that allows students to apply their learning to solving authentic problems, a transition that also has been supported by the National Science Foundation at Fisk University. The co-leaders of this Implementation Award, Drs. Sajid Hussain, Brian Nelms, and Lee Limbird, bring interdisciplinary strength and diverse academic experience to this program.

The bioinformatics and other data science skills that students will gain will poise them for competitive careers in precision medicine, drug discovery, health informatics, biotechnology, software development, and academics.

According to Veaux et. al. (2017) -- Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Programs in Data Science”, Annual Review of Statistics and Its Applications, 2017, 4:15–30: 22

“Data science is experiencing rapid and unplanned growth, spurred by the proliferation of complex and rich data in science, industry, and government. Fueled in part by reports, such as the widely cited McKinsey report (McKinsey Global Inst. 2011), that forecast a need for hundreds of thousands of data science jobs in the next decade.”

According to ICSB (Intl. Society for Computational Biology), www.iscb.org, examples of careers for Bioinformatics graduates are as follows: Individual contributor - Many scientific labs, both in the academic and commercial sector, are hiring people trained in bioinformatics to support the research of the lab. Positions are available for various levels and types of training. People in these positions generally work on a specific area of research.

Core facilities - Many institutions create a central resource for labs in an institution. These resources are call core facilities. Members of such group often have a mix of skills and work on many different research projects with researchers in many different labs.

Educators - There is a demand for teaching bioinformatics at many different levels. Some Ph.D. level bioinformaticians will pursue an academic career, build their own research agenda and teach at the university level. In addition, there are a number of institutions who host a dedicated facility to teach bioinformatics to people inside the institution as well as to the greater community.

Software developers - Another career path that supports bioinformatics is the development of new algorithms and new tools. There are companies dedicated to building and deploying computational tools. Other bioinformatics software developers are hired within core facilities and within individual research labs.

www.fisk.edu

New Initiatives Spotlight

Dr. Shirley Brown

Associate Vice Provost of Online Initiatives Professor of Sociology and Discipline Coordinator Dr. Shirley Brown, Associate Vice Provost of Online Initiatives, Professor of Sociology and Discipline Coordinator was awarded by the State of Tennessee and Tennessee Higher Education Commission the Veteran Reconnect Grant in September 2018. The Veteran Reconnect Grant is to assist the needs of prospective veteran students who will be attending Fisk University. The major goal it to recruit, retain and secure job placement for veterans who will attend Fisk University and major in Sociology/Criminal Justice and Computer Science. These academic areas will be used to create expedited, guided academic pathways for veterans. This is a Military Pathway Pilot Project funded at the level of $50,000, for one year.

Dr. Qingxia Li

Associate Professor of Mathematics Broadening Participation Research Project Dr. Li and Ms. McCarroll were funded by NSF to conduct a Broadening Participation Research project in STEM education: Assuring the integration of mathematics into Biology through a peer-led intrusive learning community. The overall goal of this project is to increase academic performance and prepare and motivate students to pursue education and careers in STEM disciplines, with the intent to test the specific intervention that, if effective, would provide replicable national models for implementation nationally. A Performance Pyramid model, evaluated in collaboration with social science colleagues, will test why the proposed intervention may or may not be effective and examine the extent to which each intervention reflects the influences of Performance Pyramid support systems. The collaborative effort between faculty in STEM and social sciences blends STEM education with social and educational research design in behalf of the goals of this project.

23

Research & Innovation Magazine

Fisk University Museum 2018 Leadership Program

24

www.fisk.edu

This year Fisk University Galleries launched the Fisk Museum Leadership Program (FMLP) in collaboration with the HBCU Alliance of Museums and Art Galleries with support from the Ford Foundation and Walton Family Foundation Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative.

The Museum Leadership Program commenced with an orientation week at Fisk University. Over the course of the week, we provided an overview of the 4 components of our model-based curriculum: 1) Conservation, 2) Curatorial, 3) Museum Education (Community Outreach, Programming), and 4) Marketing.

Our partners within each of the modules included Susan Edwards (Executive Director of the Frist Art Museum) on leadership; Anne Henderson (Director of Community Engagement, Frist Art Museum) on education and community outreach; Katie Delmez (Curator, FAM) on the Nick Cave exhibition; Rosemary Brunton on Nick Cave exhibition community outreach; and Henry Hicks (Executive Director, National Museum of African American Music) on “Having a Museum without a Museum;” and Shelly R. Paine (Conservator) on “Ethics of the work and Artist’s Intent.”

During Orientation week the students curated the exhibition Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance (Aaron Douglas Gallery, October 2018-March 2019).

Photo of Fisk Museum Leadership Program students when they presented at the annual Inter-Museum Council of Nashville (ICON) meeting, June 2018.

Professor Sheats (Center) is the Director of the FMLP Program.

25

Research & Innovation Magazine

Conservation Module: June 10-30, 2018

Winterthur/The University of Delaware, Smithsonian Lunder Conservation Center, & Fisk University Fisk Museum Leadership Program students completed their conservation module at the University of Delaware along with five other HBCU students with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation! The first week was an introduction to the history, technology, and preventative care of art; the second week the students were divided into three groups—one at Winterthur/U. Del., another at the Smithsonian Lunder Conservation Center, and another at Fisk—where they began treatment on three Tuskegee University dioramas from the 1940 American Negro Exposition in Chicago. For two weeks the Aaron Douglas Gallery was turned into a conservation lab! The team at Fisk presented their work at the Inter-Museum Council of Nashville (ICON) conference.

Special thanks to Shelley Paine, Joyce Stoner, Debbie Norris, and all the conservators who worked with our students!

Taryn Nurse conserving a diorama in the Aaron Douglas Gallery, Fisk University. The Aaron Douglas Gallery was converted into a conservation studio the last two weeks of June 2018

We partnered with Winterthur/The University of Delaware to design the conservation module combining the ten Fisk Museum Leadership students with five HBCU students selected by the University of Delaware for participation in the module. All fifteen students were participants in the three-week module. During the first week students received intensive conservation training at University of 26

Delaware led by Prof. Brian Baade and Dr. Kristin DeGhetaldi, two leading paintings conservators and educators. The students were introduced to the examination, history of technology and preventative care of art with a focus on paintings.

The students were able to see how conservators use technology to view paintings from the Kress Collection at Howard University and make

www.fisk.edu

assessments about the condition of the pieces. They were able to apply some of the first-hand knowledge gained from the technological assessments of the particular artwork which they chose to focus upon for their final projects. They divided themselves into three groups and presented their findings in their group presentations offered on the final day of the first week. Their analysis was then compared with the conservators’ report on the pieces which they had chosen. In each case, the students did an excellent job of evaluating the data and presenting their findings.

During the second and third weeks of the module the students were divided into three groups. Each group focused on the further application and expansion of the techniques learned in the first week as they assessed, tested, cleaned and began treatment of three of the Tuskegee University dioramas from the 1940 Negro Exposition in Chicago. The five students selected for the art conservation module only remained in Delaware, moving to the Winterthur conservation labs to work on the diorama the faculty and staff had selected. The other two groups, comprised of only the Fisk Museum Leadership students, traveled to the Smithsonian Lunder Conservation Center and to Fisk University, respectively, to work on two dioramas, one in each location. Each of the three groups concluded the second half of the art conservation module with individual presentations about the parts of the diorama on which they had worked. The Fisk Museum Leadership students who spent weeks two and three at Fisk University were able to present their findings at the Inter-Museum Council of Nashville conference which coincided with the final day of the module.

Fisk Museum Leadership Program students completed their conservation module at the University of Delaware along with five other HBCU students with support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation

27

Research & Innovation Magazine

Cultural Module: August 6-10

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

We partnered with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art to design the curatorial module.

Students received collections management, curatorial and exhibition design training from the registrar, curatorial, exhibition design, and preparator and interpretation departments at Crystal Bridges.

Students had the opportunity to learn from Rod Bigelow (Executive Director), Margi Conrads (Director of Curatorial Affairs), Jennifer De Martino (Head of Collections Management), Lauren Haynes (Curator, Contemporary Art), Allison Glenn (Associate Curator, Contemporary Art), Mindy Besaw (Curator, American Art), Stace Treat (Interpretation Manager), Jen Padgett (Assistant Curator, Modern Art), Taylor Day (Project Manager, Curatorial), and many others. The students’ culminating project was to select, research and then discuss works on paper from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection in the Modern Art Galleries.

Photo of Fisk Museum Leadership Program students during their curatorial module at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, August 2018.

28

www.fisk.edu

Education Module: December 10-14

The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico

We partnered with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum to design the students’ museum education and community outreach module. The students received training from Cody Hartley (Senior Director, Collections and Interpretation), Robert Kret (Director), Shannon Bay (Program Manager, Adult & Community Engagement), Sarah Zurick (Program Manager, School and Youth Programs), Liz Neely (Curator of Digital Experience), along with educators at other cultural institutions in Santa Fe. Students had the rare privilege of visiting Georgia O’Keeffe’s home, studio, and Ghost Ranch, and meeting Mino Lopez (Construction and Maintenance, Historic Properties) and Pita Lopez (Projects Director, Historic Properties), who both worked for O’Keeffe. Students had the opportunity to listen to them share their memories of living and working with O’Keeffe.

Development Module: March 2019

Fisk University

This March will be the final module of the first cohort’s year-one curriculum. They will focus on museum administration, development, management, and human resources and take place on Fisk University’s campus.

29

Research & Innovation Magazine

Newly Expanded

Pre-College Program at Fisk University Program Logistics The Fisk six-week, tuition-based project proposes to enhance and expand the Pre-College Program at Fisk University. The goal of the refocused and enhanced Pre-College Program is to identify and enroll prospective Fisk students, with an emphasis on males, and to ensure the academic/collegiate success of conditionally admitted students who participate in the Pre-College Program. The $80,000 of awarded support from The Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) HBCU Summer Bridge Program Grant will enable Fisk to enroll more male students in the Pre-College

30

Program and ensure the success of Pre-College Program graduates during their matriculation at Fisk.

The Pre-College Summer Program provides an academically stimulating, and culturally motivating experience. With a goal to increase the number of students who successfully matriculate through the undergraduate curriculum, the PreCollege Program is designed to bridge the gap of skills and knowledge between high school and college. Students are not only provided with academic support during the six week summer experience, but continue receiving tutoring,

www.fisk.edu

academic counseling and mentoring through the fall and spring semesters of the school year. The tentative Program Dates are: June 10 - July 19, 2019.

An important goal of the program is to identify and enroll prospective Fisk students and equip them with the academic skills and cultural capital that will enable them to persist through college.

Another goal is to impact positively the retention and graduation rate of our students.

embraces the liberal arts, cultural enrichment, and service learning. The general education curriculum is known as the Core Curriculum. Since the PreCollege Program was implemented, the director and faculty have worked to refine and improve the learning skills of participants. The lessons learned during a successful history of performance, has informed the proposed project. Curriculum offerings are as follows: •

Core 100- New Student Orientation (1 hour)

Through the efforts of the Pre-College Program, complemented with LEAD and AESP Programs, marginal students who enrolled at Fisk have been able to earn their undergraduate degrees in eight semesters and graduate with honors. With the enhancements enabled by this award, we purpose to:

•

Core 150- Composition I (3 hour)

•

Mathematics Enrichment (Non-credited)

•

Leadership Development (2 hour)

1. Better prepare program participants to master quantitative skills for successful completion of College Algebra.

Congratulations again on being selected to receive the THEC HBCU Summer Bridge Program grant for 2019! I am looking forward to the amazing ways Fisk will be able to expand capacity and serve students.

2. Enhanced communication and critical thinking skills as well as test taking strategies so that students might achieve a grade point average of 3.0 or better.

Award

3. Strengthen command of the study skills specific to success at the college level.

4. Introduce participants to non-curricular knowledge that is instrumental to successful matriculation.

5. Expose participants to service as an integral part of good citizenship and becoming a successful college student.

6. Provide mentors who will facilitate academic and social development during the student’s enrollment at Fisk.

Academic Core The Pre-College Program at Fisk University offers students a general education curriculum that 31

cravath hall fisk university

www.fisk.edu

highlights from

The School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Business Faculty Accomplishments

Ms. Patricia McCarroll - Pre-College Summer Program: Fisk University hosted a four week intense Pre-College Summer Program , June 11 – July 6, 2018. The PreCollege Program provided an academically stimulating and culturally motivating experience, with a goal to increase the number of students who successfully matriculate through the undergraduate curriculum. There were fourteen participants in the program, four males and ten females. The students were all incoming college freshmen from the states of Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Tennessee.

Participants were able to earn six credit hours by taking the following courses: Composition I, New Student Orientation and a Leadership Seminar. Through the program, students acquired skills in learning strategies, mathematics, critical thinking and oral and written communication. A seminar was also given by a representative from Regions Bank.

The program included a weekly alumni spotlight featuring seasoned and recent graduates of Fisk University who shared their career experiences. The program also provided cultural and social outings to the following: the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Jefferson Street Jazz Festival and a Nashville Sounds Baseball Game.

The Pre-College Program was directed by Ms. Patricia McCarroll, Instructor in the Department of Life and Physical Sciences and Mr. Isaac Thompson, Director of the THRUST and GUSTO Programs.

Dr. Sajid Hussain, Associate Professor, Computer Science (CS), was selected to attend Faculty-in-Residence program of Google at Mountain View, CA, from June 4 – June, 2018.

Faculty-in-Residence (FIR) is an immersive professional development program that engages CS faculty serving underrepresented populations in tech. The focus is on industry-informed, applied learning projects. The goal is to help faculty to better prepare students for jobs in the tech industry.

Expectations Upon Program Completion: Design at least 2 classroom experiments related to project-based learning for your CS courses to implement in Fall 2018; Facilitate at least 1 tech interview practice session with your students each semester; Share your Google/Silicon Valley experience with current and future students and with colleagues.

33

Research & Innovation Magazine Dr. Bryan Kent Wallace was a selected mentor by the University of Pennsylvania this past summer. This program is hosted by the Center for Minority Serving Institutions. It is faculty development for 1st 2nd, and 3rd year professors at HBCUs. He gave a session on Teaching Skills, and was his 4th year being an invited speaker.

MSI faculty members are life-long learners and educators who are constantly in pursuit of personal and professional excellence. In an effort to support the ongoing development of early-career MSI faculty, the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions will draw from our expertise to offer ELEVATE. ELEVATE will bring together early-career MSI faculty to further equip them with support, training, and an opportunity to create a close-knit network of peers. This three-day program will provide early-career MSI faculty with a unique professional development experience that will do the following: • Enrich Learning by helping early career MSI faculty navigate the professoriate.

• Enhance Visibility by producing high quality research.

•

Train Educators by giving MSI faculty a space to build partnerships across MSIs that will increase efficiency and optimize resources.

Dr. Cathy Martin has agreed to serve as PI in the Fisk project entitled “Tennessee Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation,” (TLSAMP) under the direction of Lonnie Sharpe, and Alisa Mosley, of TSU. This award starts September 1, 2018 and ends August 31, 2023. It is a continuing grant which has been approved on scientific/technical merit at the level of $502,254.

• Objective 1 improves the recruitment of underrepresented students into STEM majors at TLSAMP universities, especially those students transferring from community colleges.

• Objective 2 improves the retention and persistence of underrepresented STEM majors across the Alliance.

• Objective 3 increases the number of underrepresented undergraduate STEM majors who enter graduate programs Dr. Qingxia Li was invited for a research visit to Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China to present “ Stability of Travelling Waves in Multi-dimensional Dynamical Systems” in May 2018. He participated in two workshops: “BioQuest” on Wicked Problems at Harvey Mudd College and “Mathematical Problems in Industry” at Claremont Graduate University in June 2018.

Google in Residence Instructor - 2018 Kim Merrill is a visiting instructor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Fisk University for the Fall 2018 semester. She comes to Fisk from Google in Seattle, Washington, where she works as a senior software engineer and technical lead on the Google Cloud Platform.

34

www.fisk.edu Fisk University has been awarded $2.25 M from the National Science Foundation (Award # 1817282) to support the development of its Quantitative and Computational Life Sciences initiative on the Fisk campus. The award supports the recruitment of faculty talent to lead a new Bioinformatics initiative, to complement the new major in Data Science at Fisk, and to support the development of programming and large data set use across the disciplines beginning with a new first-year student initiative to launch in Fall 2019. The four co-leaders of this ‘Implementation Award‘, Drs. Sajid Hussain, Brian Nelms, Princilla Evans Morris, and Lee Limbird, bring interdisciplinary strength and diverse academic experience to this program . The rationale for the emphasis on computational thinking and quantitative confidence reflects the emerging need to harvest new knowledge from the data repositories that grow daily - whether it is the human genome and its epigenetic modulation, predicting global catastrophes due to climate change, projecting economic modulations in global business, interrogating digitized literature for thematic concepts, or enriching our culture through the graphic arts, data will define our futures.

This funding from the NSF supports and enriches majors at Fisk in biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer sciences as well as the behavioral and social sciences. In fact, the funding can be leveraged to bring computational thinking and computational confidence to all students at Fisk University. A large portion of the funding supports faculty -mentored undergraduate research during the academic year and summer, while also supporting faculty development to advance instructors’ own confidence in this rapidly growing field of discovery at the interface of information and life sciences.

The bioinformatics and other data science skills that students will gain from this initiative will poise them for competitive careers.

Robert Wingfield, Jr. – Nashville NOBCChE, the next installment of our Careers in STEM Exploration series was held Monday, August 27th at 6 pm at Fisk University Talley-Brady Hall. We were excited to have Dr. Marquita Qualls speaking at this event about her work as a consultant. We have many openings on committees and need help to make the chapter successful.

Dennis McNamee – Congratulations upon receiving a $10,000 contribution from the Charles Koch Foundation. Pursuant to the request of Fisk University, the foundation awarded a guest speaker series and faculty support under the control and supervision of the University, and the direction of Prof. Dennis McNamee, who was selected by the University. The grant must be used exclusively to further our charitable purposes.

From time to time the Foundation may offer the University additional support related to this grant, such as educational opportunities and in-kind services.

35

Research & Innovation Magazine

Recent Student Achievements Taylor Harris graduated from Fisk University and started the wonderful process of obtaining her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology at Washington University at St. Louis. While we miss her immensely, we wish her all the very best.

Ashley Colemon a Masters’ student in the Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge program attended and presented her research at Frontiers in Stem Cell and Cancer Research meeting at Xavier University in New Orleans, LA. The meeting is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Summer Internships

Fisk Students Received Google Internships and Employment In summer 2018, nine Fisk students obtained extremely competitive and highly paid summer internship from Google. Basanta Dhakal, Kayla Walker, Lemi Eba, Matthew Clark, Oumar Karaga, Eirene Francis, Emanuel Guy, Jamaal Wells and Bikki Nagarkoti. The average salary is about $20,000/summer plus very generous benefit. Further, Computer Science alumnus Amier Smith received full employment as a software engineer at Google in 2018.

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology •

Dana Franklin (’19) selected for UCLA Bruins in Genomics Summer Research Program; won a best poster award

•

Sidney Stuckett (’19) as a Fisk/NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Scholar, carried out summer research in bioinformatics at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

•

Lyndon Rolle (’20) selected for UCLA Bruins in Genomics Summer Research Program

•

Jasmine Brooks (’20) as a Fisk/NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Scholar, carried out summer research in bioinformatics at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and Fisk University

•

Antonio Cheshier (’21) selected for the Fisk/NSF Targeted Infusion Program in Bioinformatics and Biomathematics

36

www.fisk.edu

Biology •

Jalen Thomas (’19), as a Fisk/NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) scholar, carried out summer research in bioinformatics at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)

•

Samuel Nkrumah (’18) selected for UCLA Bruins in Genomics Summer Research Program

•

ShareeBrewer (’18) selected for Fisk/NSF CREST BioSSSummer Research Program

•

Cameron Brown (’21) selected for Fisk/NSF CREST BioSSSummer Research Program

•

Destiny Williams (’21) selected for the Fisk/ NSF Targeted Infusion Program in Bioinformatics and Biomathematics

Chemistry •

Kofi Arthur (’21) as a Fisk/NIH Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) Scholar, carried out summer research in bioinformatics at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) and Fisk University

Graduate Program Acceptances

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology •

TerishaPaul (’18) accepted offer in Graduate Program in Forensic Science at Virginia Commonwealth University

•

Taylor Harris (’18) accepted offer in PhD Program at Washington University of St. Louis

•

Samuel Nkrumah (’18) accepted offer in PhD program at the University of Missouri

•

Christopher Shelton (’18) accepted offer in MHA program at the University of Southern Indiana

•

Lorado Mhonda (’17) accepted offer in MD program at Case Western Reserve University

Physics •

Tyree Williams (’18) accepted offer in Biomedical Engineering PhD program at RenselaarPolytechnic Institute

Graduate Program in Biology •

Debresha Shelton (MA ’18) accepted offer in PhD program at Emory University

•

Destane Garrett (MA ’18) accepted offer in Biological Sciences PhD Program at Vanderbilt University

•

Natasha Berryman (MA ’18) accepted offer in PhD program at Icahn School of Medicine

•

Saffron Little (MA ’18) accepted offer in PhD program at the University of Michigan

•

Casey Paton (MA’ 17) accepted offer in MD Program at University of Rochester School of Medicine

Biology •

Guillermo Sanchez (’18) accepted offer in PhD program at the University of Cincinnati

•

ShareeBrewer (’18) accepted offer in DVM program at the University of Tennessee 37

Research & Innovation Magazine

highlights from

The School of Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences Scholarship in the Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences shapes and broadens our perspectives as individuals and as contributors to society. Through dedicated teaching and research, our faculty educates students who will meaningfully add to society and develop knowledge that will make a difference in the world.

Our faculty are among Fisk University’s most celebrated for their teaching and research, and our students often win prestigious scholarships and awards.

In our research magazine we will showcase our faculty member’s scholarship, teaching, and service to the University and the wider community. By shining a spotlight on our scholarly and professional endeavors, we hope to spark a contagious interest in this school’s practice of harnessing technology and ideas to enrich our world both locally and globally.

department of history and political science History Dr. Reavis L. Mitchell, Professor of History, Dean of the School of Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences was elected Executive Vice President of the Tennessee Historical Society at the 2018 Board of Directors Meeting. Dean Mitchell is also completing his second term as the Chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission. In the area of community service, the Dean will serve as the university spokesperson for Project Registrar, a city wide outreach for voter registration and as an on-air consultant to WTVF Chanel 5 for the November Congressional Elections.

This spring Professor Linda Wynn served as a consultant to the Frist Art Museum for its We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press, 19571968 exhibit. She also contributed a chapter to museum’s We Shall Overcome Catalogue, entitled, “Nashville: An Inspirational City”. Additionally, she chaired a panel entitled Voices from the Front Lines that included persons who were active in the Nashville Sit-ins and participants in the Freedom Rides, as well as one who was on the front lines of desegregating Nashville Public Schools. During the spring, Prof. Wynn was a featured speaker at the Tennessee State Museum’s Lunch and Learn Program, where she presented a lecture on Tennessee was a Part of King’s World House.

A co-founder of the award-winning Nashville Conference on African American History and Culture she is a member of the Nashville City Cemetery Board, the Nashville Public Television (NPT) Advisory Board and was reappointed to the Metropolitan Historical Commission of Nashville and Davidson County by Mayor David Briley.

38

www.fisk.edu Dr. James Quirin published “Beta Israel Convert Biographies, 1837-1931” in the Ethiopian Journal of Religious Studies. His forthcoming book, Ethiopia, Africa and PanAfrica in World History: Selected Articles, is expected to be released in 2020. He also attended the African Studies Association Conference as well as the African American History and Culture Annual Conference.

Political Science Dr. Jennifer W. Adebanjo, Associate Professor of Political Science, currently serves as the Chair of the History and Political Science Department. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Mid-Southern Interdisciplinary Association (MISA) and the Nashville Cordell Hull Chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States of America, (UNA-USA). This past year, Dr. Adebanjo has been actively involved with the Nashville Community through her service to Women’s Groups, Community Outreach Programs, and religious organizations. As a community speaker, she was the featured guest speaker at the The Living Word International Church for their annual Black History month and Women’s Month celebrations.

In spring 2018, Dr. Adebanjo became a participant in the Merlot Affordable Learning Pilot program at Fisk University. In her role as Pre-Law Advisor, she hosted Law school representatives from the University of Maryland School of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law, and other professionals from the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency to share valuable and pertinent information with Fisk students. Dr. Adebanjo was most recently awarded the Fannie Bell Waters Leading Lady Award for her exceptional and exemplary service to the Nashville community. Her forthcoming work, “Captive Communities of the American Two-Party System”, which examines how various communities are held captive to the two major political parties in the U.S. and may suggest the need for additional parties, is expected to be completed by summer 2019.

In February 2018, Dr. A. Hannibal Leach Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration traveled with a group of students to Washington, D.C. to compete in the National Model U.S. Congress competition. The students competed and took home a number of individual and group honors. Dr. Leach also traveled with a group of students in January 2018 to Vanderbilt University to take part in the Zimbabwe Genocide Prevention Simulation hosted by the Holocaust Memorial Center. During this event, students worked closely with professionals from the US Department of State, Department of Defense, the International Criminal Court, and other practitioners and academics with an interest in international human rights policy. He also presented his research at the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists Conference, the Mid-Southern Interdisciplinary Sciences Association Conference, the Fisk Cool Scholarship Café, and the 19th Annual Fisk Research Symposium. Over the past year, he has been invited to provide expert commentary for audiences such as Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), and the Pi Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. He also took part in the 2nd Annual Fisk University Teach-In in September 2018.

In February 2018, Dr. Leach was selected to be one of five NAFSA Global Dialogue Fellowship Program Partners. In this capacity, he conducts strategic dialogues with counterparts in Africa on ways to enhance, strengthen, and create collaborative higher education programs between U.S. and African universities. Dr. Leach also published his book, The Social Context of U.S. Foreign Policy and Public Opinion in January 2018. This book explores the role social identity plays in shaping mass attitudes toward U.S. foreign policy.

39

Research & Innovation Magazine

department of arts and languages English Dr. Katherine Burnett’s important book, Cavaliers and Economists: Global Capitalism and the Development of Southern Literature, 1820-1860 will be published

by Louisiana State University Press in May 2019. The book positions southern literary form and genre as reflective of the plantation’s transatlantic market before the Civil War. She argues that early southern literature developed as an attempt to reconcile two opposing ideologies that circulated within southern society: the impulse toward economic (and thereby social) progress, and the desire to maintain a “traditional” South structured around slavery. In this sense, southern literature emerged in tandem with the region’s patterns of global trade, in which southern authors appropriated popular British literary genres in order to bring slavery into conversation with modern modes of free market capitalism. Each chapter focuses on a different genre and a pairing of British and southern texts, ranging from historical romances by Sir Walter Scott and William Gilmore Simms, to social problem novels by Elizabeth Gaskell and the little-known Georgia author Maria J. McIntosh. Ultimately, the project utilizes the intersection of economic history and literary genre as a way to highlight the centrality of debates over slavery to national and international discussions of economic modernization in the nineteenth century.

In November 2017 Dr. Patrick C. Fleming traveled with a group of honors students to Atlanta, Georgia; the students presented at the National Association of African American Honors Programs, and Dr. Fleming, with other honors directors from Nashville, presented on a panel at the National Collegiate Honors Council.

He also presented his research at the Victorians Institute Conference at Furman University and at the Children’s Literature Association Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Over the summer he organized a Nashville meeting of a national seminar sponsored by V21, a Victorian studies organization; meetings were attended by scholars from Fisk, Vanderbilt, Northern Alabama University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Virginia. In August he signed a contract with McFarland Publishing for a new book, A Companion to Nineteenth-Century English Children’s Literature (estimated for 2022).

In addition to his scholarly activities, Dr. Fleming helped the organization March for Them to raise funds and donate 100 copies of John Lewis’s March Trilogy to MLK, Jr. high school in recognition of students’ protests against gun violence. And in collaboration with the Nashville Public Library, he organized two discussions of Frankenstein for October 2018, as part of the international Frankenreads Project, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel.

Dr. Holly Hamby, Associate Professor of English and director of the Fisk University Writing Center; and Brandon Owens, library assistant for technical services, were chosen as participants in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s digital ethnic studies forum, “New Storytellers,” Oct. 25-26 in Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska’s Center for Digital Research in the Humanities is hosting the forum to advance digital ethnic studies and bring more diverse voices and stories to digital life.

40

www.fisk.edu

Fisk University is among ten colleges and universities that were invited to select two emerging and innovative scholars to attend the forum. At the forum, they will be part of teams thinking critically about digital ethnic studies and working in groups to develop new digital projects.

The theme of the forum centers around thinking about and working toward answering two questions – what is needed to advance digital ethnic studies, and what stories in this field are suited for the digital medium?

Modern Foreign Languages Dr. Irina Willis is assistant professor of Spanish. In July 2018, she attended a twoweek long faculty- development program at the University of Valladolid in Valladolid, Spain.

This past summer (May 9-26, 2018), Dr. Rueda-Garcia took 3 students (one major in Foreign Languages, one in Psychology and one in Business) to San José, Costa Rica for a three-week immersion program at the Universidad Hispanoamericana, one of the best institutions for Liberal Arts in Central America. Students took a course entitled Afro-Costa Rican Cultural Profile which introduced them to the rich blend of Afro-Hispanics in this part of the world. They met a number of authors and leaders in the social and educational arena and participated in musical presentations and poetry readings.

During the month of July, 2018 she directed a workshop on how to articulate foreign language programs at the institutional level and between schools entitled, “Foreign Language Articulation Issues: How to Avoid Repetition and/or Waste of Resources.” She also attended the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages - ACTFL - Nashville, TN; November 2017 I, Professor Nancy Rasico, am very pleased and proud to announce that Fisk University has once again been awarded a Fulbright Scholar for the 2018-2019 academic year. I have had the honor of applying for Fulbright Scholars over many years, and Ms. Thaynara Lima from Rio de Janiero, Brazil, is the ninth Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant whom I have had the pleasure of mentoring.

Ms. Lima, whose professional credentials include degrees in English language and literature, is teaching Intensive Portuguese I & II to our students this year. Fisk’s history with the Fulbright program includes our hosting of three Scholars from Tanzania who taught Swahili, one from China who taught Mandarin and five from Brazil who have taught Portuguese, the most popular language with our students.

41

Research & Innovation Magazine

Music Composer Dr. Gary Nash is known for accessible, cutting-edge sounds in traditional forms. He is also known for a high level of artistry devoted to rare piano music.

Last month the Fisk community was treated to a collaboration among these three music faculty to present the world premiere of Nash’s “Dandelion and Azure,” and that this is only the second time his music has had its first performance on the Fisk campus. Dr. Nash told Sharon Kay (Sharon Kay’s 411) that the piece presents the spirit of the University Alma Mater, The Gold and Blue.” The piece is dedicated to Mr. Petrescu and Dr. Autry.

Programmed with “Dandelion and Azure” were tangos of Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, Romanian Dances by Hungarian composer Béla Bartȯk, Suite for Violin and Piano by Fisk composer John W. Work III and “Waltz triste” by Mr. Petrescu himself. The program was titled “Music for a Late Summer’s Afternoon.”

The next major event from the Music Discipline is the Christmas at Fisk concert, November 29 at 7 p.m., with guest Eric Lyn.

behavioral sciences and education Sociology and Anthropology This past year, Dr. Dani Smith traveled with four senior sociology students to Emory University to present their senior research papers at the Southeastern Undergraduate Sociology Symposium (SEUSS). The SEUSS Fellows were Yolanda Bundy, Gregory Dendy, Jr., also a joint political science major, Jackson Harms, and Jonnae Miller. Gregory also presented his research paper at the Fisk Research Symposium and won in the category of Socialization and Human Development. Gregory is now pursuing a master’s degree in the School of Divinity at Vanderbilt University.

Jackson is pursuing graduate studies at Middlesex University in London. Jonnae is studying law at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

Dr. Rainey-Brown published important works in range of peer-reviewed articles, scholarly books, and textbooks over the past year. Some of her published books this year include: Environmental Sociology: Case Study of an Environmental Distress Community, Enjoying Spiritual Works: A Collection of Sermons for Special Occasions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the Twenty First Century: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis of their Mission, Glenn S. Johnson, V. Gray. She also contributed to her professional discipline by participating in several important conferences throughout the year. Such conferences include the INTERFACE :Education, Networking and Solutions IT Conference, Center for Advancing Opportunity Summit. Dr. Rainey-Brown also wore many leadership hats throughout the past year. She served in leadership capacities during the HBCU 42

www.fisk.edu

Summit at Fisk University, and she also served as president of the innovative Mid-Southern International Interdisciplinary Sciences Association. Dr. Rainey-Brown continues to also be a proud servant within the Nashville community. She is a much sought after speaker and she provided numerous faith-based groups and community events throughout this past year.

Library Sciences Dr. Jessie Carney Smith is Dean of the Fisk University Library and is also the Camille Cosby Distinguished Chair in the Humanities. Her book, Encyclopedia of African American Businesses was named best reference book by Library Journal in the business and economics category for 2017. This accomplished and distinguished work, covering from the late 18th to the early 21st century, improves on its 2006 edition in every way, with more entries, statistical tables, and photographs. This iteration focuses on how African American businesses have developed over the last decade and the areas in which they have expanded during that time. In particular, Smith adroitly addresses the role of women and the emergence of African American businesses in global markets.

Fisk University Galleries Jamaal B. Sheats, MFA, Assistant Professor of Art and Director of Fisk University Galleries. We have had a busy and exciting year at Fisk University Galleries.

This year we have curated 10 exhibitions, including World War I and the Great Migration, which featured a joint-ticket with the Frist Art Museum’s World War I and American Art, and The Harmon, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Harmon Foundation gift of modern African and African-American art. Our staff and dedicated team of volunteer Gallery Ambassadors have welcomed over 8,000 visitors. We launched the Fisk Museum Leadership Program in collaboration with the HBCU Alliance of Art Museums and Galleries with support from the Ford Foundation and Walton Family Foundations; our first cohort of 10 students completed orientation at Fisk and conservation training at Winterthur/University of Delaware, the Smithsonian Lunder Conservation Center and here at Fisk. We gave talks at Yale University, Brandeis University, Tate Modern in London, and at the Association of Art Museum Curators annual meeting in Montreal. We have continued to grow our signature programs like Babies in the Gallery (B.I.G.) and Experiment Fridays: the STEAM series for 2-5 year olds and worked with our students to develop exciting new programs that we look forward to launching in the coming year.

43

Research & Innovation Magazine

school of humanities and behavioral social sciences

Year At A Glance

44

aaron douglas murals

/ Cravath Hall, 1930. Photo: Caroline Allison

Research & Innovation Magazine

Fisk NSF Center Of Research Excellence In Science and Technology

Center for Biological Signature and Sensing (BioSS)

The Fisk University Center for Biological Signature and Sensing (BioSS) conducts collaborative interdisciplinary research in the area of biological, chemical, and nuclear sensors for biological applications. The overarching theme is the development of novel biosensors to address a variety of biological testing needs. Center efforts are organized into three research subprojects: In Subproject 1 we are testing the hypothesis that the approach of combined transcriptional network analysis, microfluidics tools for reaching a better understanding of dopaminergic neuron function. By integrating biochemistry, polymer synthesis, and microfluidics, Subproject 2 is developing a sensor to reveal the fundamental role of manganese in essential cellular processes and optimize this sensor for monitoring heavy metals in the environment. Subproject 3 will utilize traditional nuclear sensing devices and by integrating materials science, computational science, and mathematical optimization to develop and utilize novel radiation sensors for biological applications. Mentoring together with innovative learning modules, we assure a successful pathway of under-represented minority talent moving from Community College through the Ph.D, and thus serve as a model for national replication.

46

www.fisk.edu

Research Projects

1. Biological sensors and molecular signatures (Dr. Brian Nelms (Co-PI) We will bring together established cutting-edge techniques from multiple fields (next generation sequencing, microfluidics, and computational modeling) and apply these to the directed.

Objective 1: Probe the misregulation of genes in the absence of the transcription factor FKH8 as a window into transcriptional regulatory signatures needed for the development and sustained differentiation of dopaminergic (DA) neurons.

Objective 2: Develop a suite of microfluidic tools (“worms-on-chips�) leveraging genetically-encoded sensors to sense in vivo dopaminergic neuron responses (at the cellular and organismal level) to genetic changes and chemical exposure.

Innovation: We will bring together established cutting-edge techniques from multiple fields (next generation sequencing, microfluidics, and computational modeling) and apply these to the directed study of dopaminergic neuron function in living organisms to ask and answer questions in a new way.

Acknowledgement This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1547757. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the National Science Foundation.

47

Research & Innovation Magazine

2. Revealing the Regulatory Role of Mn2+ in diverse biological processes via development and implementation of a biochemical Mn2+ sensor (Dr. Steve Damo, Co-PI) This transformative approach leverages the basic biochemistry of the protein calprotectin at the center of an interdisciplinary effort bridging structural biology, microbiology, computer science, engineering, and materials science in order to create a sensitive and selective manganese sensor that will inform the basic biology of manganese homeostasis, define the manganese metalloproteome, and serve as a device to detect manganese levels in biofluids.

Innovation: This project integrates well established methods from a broad spectrum of disciplines in order to repurpose the high manganese binding affinity of the protein calprotectin into a chemical sensor.

Objectives: Develop a protein –based Mn2+ specific chelator and determine the microbial response to limiting versus abundant Mn2+ availability; Identify proteins that require Mn2+ as a cofactor based on transcriptional profiling.

Determine structures of novel Mn-binding proteins using experimental approaches or comparative modeling.

3. Development and implementation of novel radiation sensors for biological applications (Dr. Arnold Burger, PI and Center Director) Develop innovative nuclear radiation sensing technologies pioneered at Fisk and based on novel materials and innovative instrumentation to achieve more sensitive and lower cost bone mineral density measurements..

Innovation: Breakthrough in technologies based on discovery of a new class of scintillators, SrI2(Eu2+), that together with CZT may provide higher-performance nuclear radiation

48

www.fisk.edu

sensing that have the potential to supplant former scintillationbased technology.

Objectives: Optimize CZT and SrI2(Eu) sensor fabrication to enable low power and light weight sensor applications; expand current capability to process CZT and SrI2(Eu) scintillators into detector pixel arrays; fabricate, test and evaluate handheld probes and evaluate them for use in dual energy X-ray absorptivity and radio-identification methods.

49

Research & Innovation Magazine

Community College

Outreach

The Center for Biological Signature and Sensing serves as a research and education venue for transitioning under-represented minority Community College students to a four-year degree program at Fisk University with experiential learning that sustains participation as STEM majors and in STEM careers. Create a Bridge to Research at Fisk University via summer research experiences for Community College students as a prelude to transition to a four-year Undergraduate program; integrate this effort with curricular pathway advising.

CREST BioSS Collaborators: Steven Morgan (Fisk Phys), Qingxia Li (Fisk Math), Lee E. Limbird (Fisk Chem), and Dina Myers Stroud (Fisk/ Vanderbilt, Bio), S Hussain (Fisk CS); N. Arnett (Fisk, chemistry), R. Mu

(Fisk, physics), L Qian (Fisk CS); Vanderbilt Collaborators: Walter Chazin (Structural Biology), Eric Skaar (Microbiology/Immunology), and DeYu Li (Biomedical Engineering); Qingxia Li, PhD (Fisk, mathematics); Lei

Qian (Fisk, CS), Todd Peterson and Michael Stabin (Vanderbilt) and Gilma Adunas –Nashville State Community College (NSCC)

Acknowledgement This material is based upon work supported by the National

Science Foundation under Grant No. HRD-1547757. Any

opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommenda-

tions expressed in this material are those of its authors and do

not represent the views of the National Science Foundation.

50

www.fisk.edu

2017-2018

Library Projects and Partnerships 1. In 2018, The Community Archiving Workshop (CAW) was awarded the IMLS support for our audiovisual archiving workshop program, in part thanks to feedback and letter of support from Fisk University’s Franklin Library.

Between Spring 2019 and Summer 2020 the CAW organization will be running 12 audiovisual archiving workshops in the regions surrounding Oakland (CA), Madison (WI), and Nashville (TN). The Nashville Metro Archives at the Nashville Public Library is serving as the Anchor Organization for the Southeast Region (in and around Nashville), will be organized by the Coordinating Mentor.

Our goal is not only to partner with Fisk University to provide support in gaining intellectual and physical control over your audiovisual collection, but also to demystify the processes of cataloguing and inspection through sharing information and passing on valuable skills to volunteers, archivists and community members.

We would like to share our collective resources and knowledge with you to further promote the preservation and posterity of independent media. We want to work with you to bring your collection into the future and we believe this information will ultimately benefit its longevity!

Here’s how it will work: Nashville Metro Archives will hold our first in the series of CAWs late February to early March of 2019. The workshop will be held at Metro Archives in downtown Nashville. We invite you and any other representatives or staff from Fisk to come and join in our workshop. This first workshop would serve as an introduction to the CAW structure and would focus on a collection here at Metro Archives.

Depending on your collection needs, we invite you to bring a small representative sample from the Fisk

collection to the workshop for cataloging or inspection (if you feel ready to do that). This CAW would be followed be a second CAW in the summer of 2019 that would focus on the Fisk Collection.

2. In 2018, the Museum of the Bible extended the loan of the Slave Bible from Fisk University for an exhibit dedicated to feature the Slave Bible, a two thousand square foot space that prompts questions about the Bible’s relation to other situations of enslavement.

Partnered with other institutions, the National Museum for African American History and Culture and Howard University. Both enthusiastically expressed interest to help tell the wider story of the Bible and enslavement.

A Committee was formed at Fisk University including faculty members, Dr. Jessie Carney Smith, Dr. Reavis Mitchell, Dr. Sheila Peters, Dr. Anthony Williams, Dr. Antwan Leach, Dr. Holly Hamby, Dr. Brian Nelms, Cheryl Hamberg and DeLisa Minor Harris. Our committee met several times with MOTB and continues to meet, discussing concepts, program ideas, panel discussion events, curriculum materials, and capturing data from the response cards. Students and faculty gave interviews that are included in the exhibit. The video responses were filmed in Special Collections and students answered questions and gave their opinion regarding the Slave Bible. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ heavily-abridged-slave-bible-removed-passagesmight-encourage-uprisings-180970989/ 3. The Winterthur University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, in partnership with the HBCU Library Alliance, received funding to coordinate five fully-funded, eight-week summer internships in library and archives preservation during 2018, at five 51

Research & Innovation Magazine Library Projects continued

nationally-recognized library preservation/conservation laboratories. Winterthur’s Melissa Tedone, Ph.D, Associate Conservator for Books and Libraries, is Primary Investigator for this project.

Thanks to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the University of Delaware College of Arts and Science, the Department of Art Conservation at the University of Delaware, and the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library (DE) for funding this internship project. Thanks to Board member Debbie Hess Norris, University of Delaware, for securing this funding.

Interns will work on a range of possible projects, including •

surveying the condition of library collection materials;

•

stabilization and conservation treatment of historical documents, such as humidification and flattening, surface cleaning, and mending tears;

•

historical research;

•

digitization projects;

•

environmental monitoring; and

•

constructing custom storage enclosures for fragile archival materials.

Interns will then use their new expertise to implement a library preservation project designed in collaboration with their host site mentor and their home institution’s library staff. These projects will build on the success of each intern’s summer experience by providing an opportunity to perform meaningful work preserving significant HBCU library collections at their institution.

52

www.fisk.edu

John Gabriel

Davies

John is a junior English major and hopes to pursue a career as a historical novelist.

He has developed an interest in historical research and insight into our present lives that the past often brings. John’s interest in historical research match well with the Winterthur Library collections, which promote the interdisciplinary study of American material culture, including art, architecture, decorative arts, and everyday life. Winterthur’s resources include printed books and serials; trade and auction catalogs; manuscripts, diaries, letter books, design and architectural drawings; historic photographs; printed ephemera; a large collection of modern photographs; and institutional archives.

John returned to Fisk University to work on a project conserving architectural plans from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and McKissack and McKissack collections. John completed this project at the end of the fall semester, flattening, cleaning, repairing, and re-housing 6 architectural drawing plans.

53

Research & Innovation Magazine

20th Annual

Fisk Research Symposium On April 4, 2018 we have organized our 20th Annual Fisk Research Symposium. Drs. Katharine Burnett and Sajid Hussain served as co-chairs.

The research symposium is a time for celebrating our research, scholarship and creative work accomplishments; it is a venue to showcase, disseminate, and share scholarly contributions with other researchers and scholars. Overall we had 86 oral presentations and posters The poster presentations and dialogue with the researchers shows Fisk’s commitment for critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. This year’s symposium reinforced our trust that the students at Fisk receive the tools, techniques and skills essential to their intellectual growth.

The link https://www.fisk.edu/assets/files/v8/ frs-2018-booklet.pdf will allow you to download the symposium proceedings including all the abstracts submitted. Congratulations to all students, faculty, administrators and organizers for another successful campus event.

54

www.fisk.edu

Congratulations to the winners of

Fisk Research Symposium 2018 or a l a n d p o s t e r p r e s e n tat ion s

gregory dendy

sociology

Socialization and Human Development

niara savage

political science

christine hale

political science

Race and Gender in the Modern Era

“The Effects of Parental Religiosity on Deviance in Childhood and Young Adulthood”

Black Politics “Contours of the Black International: Select

Discourses Within the Black Internationalist Tradition”

maya golden

petros bokretsion

joshua williams english Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

political science University Life

“First in the Family: College Edition"

Biochemistry

“Expression, purification, and characterization of the heme uptake regulator, HeuR”

“Black Twitter as a Political Counter-Space”

“Mad World: Examination of Extremism and the Hero’s Journey through Fiction”

55

Research & Innovation Magazine Oral and Poster Presentation Winners continued

Digital Humanities and Social Sciences “The Commonality Amongst Shakespearean Tragedies” anna flood, english and gender studies carrington comer, psychology jordan reynolds, psychology

Key Issues in the Contemporary Business World “Immigration and the Workforce” administration shayla richard, business administration

anna lisa baidoo, business

Applications for Computational Thinking “Using Technology to Bridge the Education Gap” tykeena watson, computer science "Code with Voice” bikki nagarkoti, computer science upendra dhakal, computer science marlon portillo, computer science

Biology “Keep It Moving”

eugene winston wright ciara elie

Physics

“Damage Detection in 3D Printed Parts Using the Optical Properties of Gold Nanoparticles” michael davies (undergraduate)

“BD +31 643: Light Curve Analysis of a Young Eclipsing Binary and Its Stable Debirs Disk” don dixon (graduate)

Chemistry

“Comparison of the Degradation and Viability of Polyesters as Sewing Cuff of Valves in Heart Valve Transplants” skye faucher jasmine Brooks

“Characterizing the role GNAT 2199 in Acinetobacter Baumanii Antibiotic Resistance” briana whitehead kofi amoah

Mathematics and Computer Science “Developing a Stock Market Data Analysis and Prediction Tool” novell carter,jr.

“Fisk Mail Notification Center” lemi eba

56

School of Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences The disciplines of education, psychology, and sociology comprise the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Education. Psychology and sociology share a common focus—human behavior. While each discipline examines human behavior from different perspectives, together they answer the questions that many of us ask about thoughts, actions, and interactions. Both emphasize the scientific method in answering these questions. Our special education major applies many of the perspectives of these disciplines to an important social institution and to the students the educational institution serves. The teacher certification program allows students interested in elementary or secondary education to pursue a major in a specific academic discipline and to meet the requirements necessary to become an enthusiastic and well-trained teacher.

To prospective students, we welcome you to explore the course offerings in the disciplines of sociology, psychology, and education. We believe that as majors in our department, you will find an endearing and enduring academic home. To current students, we advise you to make the most of resources contained in these pages to ensure your academic journey will be successful.

The faculty in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Education, as professors and advisors, look forward to meeting each of you and to assisting you to fulfill your career ambition. Together we will engage in activities and learning experiences that will provide you with the critical knowledge and skills needed to propel you toward your academic, professional, and service goals.

Staff

Dean Reavis L. Mitchell, Jr. D.A. rmitchell@fisk.edu

Professor of History / Department of History and Political Science.

Dean of School Humanities and Behavioral Social Sciences

Blanchie Dobson Assistant

bdobson@fisk.edu Departments

Arts and Languages

Behavioral Sciences and Education History and Political Science

57

Research & Innovation Magazine

January 2019

Active Research Grants

Awarded to Fisk University by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

CREST: Center for Biological Signature and Sensing Investigator(s):

Arnold Burger aburger@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Brian Nelms (Co-Principal Investigator) Steven Damo (Co-Principal Investigator) Steven Morgan (Co-Principal Investigator) Qingxia Li (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $5,000,000.00

Graduate Opportunities at Fisk in Astronomy and Astrophysics Research (GO-FAAR) Investigator(s):

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann k.holley@vanderbilt.edu (Principal Investigator) Keivan Stassun (Former Principal Investigator) Michael Blanton (Co-Principal Investigator) Sajid Hussain (Co-Principal Investigator) Arnold Burger (Co-Principal Investigator) Keivan Stassun (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $2,199,981.00

Targeted Infusion Project: Infusing Quantitative Biology Methods into Cognate and Upper Division Courses: Enhancement of the Life Sciences Curriculum at Fisk University Investigator(s):

Steven Morgan smorgan@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Phyllis Freeman (Co-Principal Investigator) Steven Damo (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $376,844.00

HBCU-UP RIA: Isolation and identification of novel chemical entities from marine microorganisms Investigator(s):

Glenroy Martin gmartin@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator)

Amount: $299,953.00 58

www.fisk.edu

Louis Stokes Regional Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation Investigator(s): Arnold Burger aburger@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Courtney Tanenbaum (Co-Principal Investigator)

Dina Stroud (Co-Principal Investigator)

Nicole Joseph (Co-Principal Investigator)

Kelly Holley-Bockelmann (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $1,400,000.00

Targeted Infusion Project: Strengthening the Undergraduate STEM Curriculum at Fisk University through the Infusion of Computational-Biological content in Pre-Calculus Investigator(s):

Sanjukta Hota shota@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Brian Nelms (Co-Principal Investigator) Lei Qian (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount:$399,849.00

Implementation Project: Achieving Greater Confidence and Competence in Quantitative and Computational Skills in STEM Disciplines at Fisk University Investigator(s):

Lee Limbird llimbird@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Brian Nelms (Co-Principal Investigator) Princilla Evans (Co-Principal Investigator) Sajid Hussain (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $942,349.00

Building STEM Student Success at Fisk University Investigator(s):

Lee Limbird llimbird@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Princilla Evans (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $350,000.00

Collaborative Research: AGEP Transformation Alliance: Bridging the PhD to Postdoc to Faculty Transitions for Women of Color in STEM Investigator(s):

Arnold Burger aburger@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Lee Limbird (Co-Principal Investigator) Kelly Holley-Bockelmann (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $452,613.00

59

Research & Innovation Magazine Active Research Grants continued

Research Initiation Award: Uncovering the Role of Germline-Specific MAGE-B2 Protein in Maintenance of Cellular Identity Investigator(s):

Saumya Ramanathan sramanathan@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator)

Amount: $300,000.00

Broadening Participation Research Project: Investigating the Integration of Mathematics into Biology by Reciprocal Course Content Exchange Investigator(s):

Qingxia Li qli@fisk.edu (Principal Investigator) Patricia McCarroll (Co-Principal Investigator) Thomas Gross (Co-Principal Investigator)

Amount: $309,687.00

60

www.fisk.edu

the office of

Global Initiatives at Fisk University

Fisk University has recently experienced a dynamic shift in its internationalization efforts. While Fisk has historically maintained its international presence, it’s been tasked with further advancing its global initiatives. Since the development of the Office of Global Initiatives in 2017, the campus community has moved forward in building strategy around graduating global citizens.

61

Research & Innovation Magazine

The Office of Global Initiatives endeavors to cultivate and nurture generations of global leaders by promoting diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion in all aspects of the Fisk experience. In this increasingly global society, our students will challenge the status quo and be frontrunners for innovation with the skills they have acquired throughout their matriculation at Fisk. With the help of the Mellon Grant, in 2018, one hundred percent of students that studied abroad received some form of financial assistance. Students have traveled to Argentina, Chile, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, and Costa Rica. These unique funding opportunities reduces the financial burden that many students would encounter if funding was not available. This reflects Fisk University’s growth in the global scholar experience. *Fisk University Student Brittany Holmes pictured in Buenos Aires, Argentina

62

Alumni Spotlight

Elmer Samuel Imes (1893-1941)

Physics Tradition at Fisk University Elmer Samuel Imes was born in Memphis, Tennessee on October 12, 1883. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Fisk University in 1903 and a Master of Arts in 1910 from the University of Michigan.

Elmer Imes earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1918, becoming the second African American to earn a Ph.D. in Physics. Between 1918 and 1922, Dr. Imes served as a Consulting Chemist in New York.

From 1922 to 1924 he was a Research Physicist for

the Federal Engineer's Development Corporation.

From 1924-1927, Imes worked with the Burrows Magnetic Equipment Corporation, moving to the E.A. Everett Corporation as a Research Engineer, from 1927 to 1930. Elmer Imes served as Professor of Physics and Head of the Physics Department at Fisk University, from 1930 until his death in 1941.

63

Research & Innovation Magazine

Using experiments of interaction between light and matter, Imes' work formed a turning point in the scientific thinking, making it clear that quantum theory was not just a novelty, useful in limited fields of physics, but of widespread and general application. Imes’ experimental results also provided the first spectroscopic evidence for the existence of nuclear isotopes.

Measurements on the Near Infra-Red Absorption of some Diatomic Gases

"The importance of (this) study ... is that there is found here a new application and test for the quantum theory in that it is extended to the originally excluded region of the rotational energy of molecules.“ For more information see the article by Dr. Ronald E. Mickens, Fisk University class of 1964. “The Life and Work of Elmer Samuel Imes” in Physics Today, Volume 71, Issue 10

64

www.fisk.edu

65

2018 convocation at fisk university

Research & Innovation Magazine at Fisk University is published annually by the Office of the Sponsored Research and Programs. The publication draws from the enormous range of current research and scholarly activities at Fisk University, comprising diverse projects supported by more than $9 million in annual funding in 2017.

The 2019 Inaugural Issue of the Research & Innovation Magazine was made possible through partial support from The NSF/ Fisk Center of Excellence for Biological Signatures and Sensing (BioSS) and the Fisk University Van Vechten Art Gallery.

Research & Innovation Magazine, 2019 All Rights Reserved www.fisk.edu