COMMUNITY NOTES
Khandaker Receives Fulbright Award Morshed Khandaker, Ph.D., professor of engineering and physics in the UCO College of Mathematics and Science, received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to travel to Turkey for the 2019-20 academic year. While there, Khandaker will conduct research at Bursa Uludag University, in Bursa, Turkey, as part of a project titled “Effect of Laser Induced Microgrooving on Total Knee Replacement Implant.” Khandaker joined Central’s faculty in 2008 and has since led research exploring potential uses of nanotechnology in the field of biomedicine. In 2016, Khandaker received a grant to pursue a project that focused on improving the design of biomedical implants. Through the development of an engineering manufacturing process, Khandaker, and researchers on the project, focused on using this process to more efficiently restore and maintain long-term functionality of damaged tissue in the human body. The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State and awards grants to further its mission of increasing mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the 160 other participating countries.
Eitrheim Earns Fellowship for National Study The Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists (IONiC) recently named Eric Eitrheim, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry in the UCO College of Mathematics and Science, one of its Virtual, Inorganic, Pedagogical, Electronic Resource (VIPEr) Fellows for a national chemistry study. The study, titled “Improving Inorganic Chemistry Education,” is a collaboration between IONiC and the National Science Foundation’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program. It will use classroom observations, analysis of student work, surveys and interviews to observe how changes in the classroom environment affect students’ learning, interest and motivation. The project aims to eventually create a flexible, foundation-level inorganic chemistry course that maximizes student learning. Eitrheim joined UCO in August 2017 and has taught inorganic, environmental and general chemistry courses, while also being active in several research projects. He is one of 20 faculty selected as the first cohort of fellows for the project. 28
OLD NORTH • FALL 2019