Madison Scholar

Dr. Thomas Moran, left, and Dr. Mark Gabriele become the latest winners of the Outstanding Faculty Award from JMU.

Dr. Mark Gabriele, a professor of biology, and Dr. Thomas Moran, a professor of kinesiology, are among 12 recipients of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and Dominion Resources.

The Outstanding Faulty Awards recognize superior accomplishments in teaching, research and public service at Virginia’s institutions of higher learning. Nominees are selected by the institutions, reviewed by a panel of peers and chosen by a committee of leaders from the public and private sectors. In all, 83 nominations were received this year. This group was narrowed to a field of 27 finalists and then to the 12 recipients.

Gabriele, who has taught at JMU since 2001, and Moran, a JMU faculty member since 2008, are the 14th and 15th award winners from JMU since the award was first presented in 1987. Math professor Caroline Lubert and marketing professor Theresa Clarke received the award last year.

Gabriele said the award "is truly a reflection of the hard work of so many amazing students I've had the pleasure of mentoring, the openness and collaborative spirit of my colleagues, and the ongoing support of our leadership that encourages faculty to blend traditional boundaries of our teaching, research and service activities."

Moran said, "I have been blessed to work with awesome colleagues, students, and individuals of all ability levels in the community who challenge me to grow as a person and a professional every day.  I dedicate this award to all those past and present who have given me numerous opportunities to be part of something special at JMU."

A ceremony honoring the recipients will be held March 1 at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond. Each recipient will receive an engraved award and $5,000 underwritten by the Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Dominion Resources. The Outstanding Faculty Award program is administered by SCHEV and funded by a grant from the Dominion Foundation, which has fully supported the OFA program since 2005.

SCHEV is the Commonwealth’s coordinating and planning body for postsecondary education. The agency provides policy guidance and budget recommendations to the governor and General Assembly, and creates the statewide strategic plan, The Virginia Plan for Higher Education. SCHEV has administered the Outstanding Faculty Awards since the program’s creation by the legislature in 1986.

The Dominion Foundation is dedicated to improving the physical, social and economic well-being of the communities served by Dominion companies. Dominion and the Foundation support nonprofit causes that meet basic human needs, protect the environment, support education and promote community vitality. For more information about Dominion (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond and one of the nation’s largest producers and transporters of energy, visit www.dom.com.

In a typical history class, students expect to be assigned a lot of writing.

And while students in Dr. Andrew Witmer's HIST 422 class did a lot of writing, they also learned in a different way, incorporating virtual reality technology to construct homes and other spaces used by the historical figures they were studying. With virtual reality you are, in the most literal sense, propelled beyond classroom walls and able to tour the places in your textbook.

3D version and frontal view of national historic landmark, Poplar Forest. Modeled by Ty Reed. 

Back view of plantation built by Thomas Jefferson. Students could navigate in and around the area designed. Modeled by Ty Reed. 

"Building Poplar Forest (Thomas Jefferson’s plantation) allowed me to experience the space in a completely different way. It was an extremely rewarding experience and something I will remember for the rest of my life," said Ty Reed, a junior majoring in history and minoring in secondary education and interdisciplinary social sciences. Witmer and his students reinvigorated an archaic subject through incorporating digital technologies.

Julia Day, a senior majoring in history and minoring in secondary education, added, "Along with the research, creating this space made me feel like I knew the family living in it."

Reid-White House in Lexington, Virginia. Modeled by Julia Day.

Kathleen Olifiers, a junior majoring in history who chose to study and model Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield, Illinois, home, said, "I learned not only about the space but a lot about Lincoln and his family, which I wouldn’t have if I just took another plain history class and read a book."

Inside bedroom view of Abraham Lincoln's home. Modeled by Kathleen Olifiers. 

Witmer, an associate professor of history, has been incorporating digital projects into his coursework since 2010. Objects of Faith was a spring 2017 project dedicated to creating 3D models of religious objects with narratives to give historical context. Without completely abandoning traditional teaching practices, the History 422 course brought to life the significance and power of space via virtual reality and 3D technology. Students were required to choose a building from the early American republic (period between the Revolution and Civil War) and create a scale digital model using SketchUp Make, a 3D software. Traditional research, readings and discussions were used to assist students to conceptualize and interpret their 3D models.

Floor plan of Poplar Forest, a plantation and plantation house in Forest, Bedford County, Virginia. Source: Historic American Buildings Survey. 

"The goal was to look at spaces from that era and draw on works of scholars who view space as an important factor for historical development, not just as a neutral backdrop for human activity," Witmer said.

Dr. Andrew Witmer with opening remarks at HIST 422 final presentations.

Christian Ford, a junior studying history, said the "strongest part of the project was seeing concepts from textbooks come to life. . .a space means nothing without context and written work is less powerful without strong visuals."

In the end, students had to present their work in a new way. Rather than holding cue cards and speaking from behind a podium, they were challenged with presenting their work while wearing virtual reality goggles and using IrisVR Prospect to lead a "virtual tour" of their model. Fortunately to some students, not being able to see the audience was the solution to their stage fright.

Ty Reed, a history senior, guides the audience on a virtual reality tour of Poplar Forest. 

Presenters were joined by curious and supportive parents, students and faculty members. 

Grant fuels project pairing students with former inmates

The idea of working with formerly incarcerated individuals who are adjusting to life outside prison was, at first, a little intimidating.

But Lily Gates, a sophomore majoring in public policy, is finding the experience truly rewarding. "I look forward to this every week," she said recently after finishing a session helping men put their life stories to music.

Gates, a classically trained violinist who also plays a number of other instruments and who started at JMU as a social work major, is one of seven students working with the men who take part in programs at Gemeinschaft Home, a residential, transitional facility for individuals who have been released or diverted from incarceration and who may have a probation obligation with the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Music professors David Stringham and Jesse Rathgeber started the program this fall along with social work professor Cindy Hunter after getting a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to study the impact of an interdisciplinary, arts-based project on formerly incarcerated persons, pre-service professionals and community members. The goal is to use music and storytelling as therapeutic outlets, not only for the men who are participating, but in the spring for members of the community who attend a concert where the men may choose to be involved in performing what they have created. Stringham said focus groups will be organized following the concert to gauge whether experiencing these performances changes people's perceptions about formerly incarcerated individuals. Those perceptions will be compared to results from a survey being done this year in collaboration with faculty and students in the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue.

Gracie Cuevas, a senior majoring in social work and Spanish, said she has been surprised by how the men have opened up and discussed their lives, breaking the stereotype of the macho male who keeps everything inside.

Maggie Rabe, a senior majoring in music education, also has been surprised by the openness of the men. And while some have been more hesitant than others at venturing into singing and playing instruments, she thinks they are coming around. "Making music is for everybody," she said. "It's not for an elite group of trained individuals. I think everyone has more music making skills than they give themselves credit for."

Hunter said the social work students "are building social work and music education skills by bringing their classroom education into planning and facilitating groups at Gemeinschaft. They have conducted literature reviews to inform their understanding of the population, strengths and challenges these men bring and the potential for the arts to influence successful reintegration. It is a perfect example of engaged learning."

Sydney Seed, a junior who is studying music education and doing a family studies minor in social work, said the experience has opened her eyes to what she will be able to do as a music teacher. "I started the family studies minor because I wanted to be a better K-12 teacher," she said. "I want to reach children through music and I thought if I could better understand family systems and better understand problems at home and how that impacts children, I can more effectively use music as a tool to help them. Never had I ever considered that I could use this curriculum for something like this project. So just opening my mind to the endless possibilities that exist for social work and music and all of the lives that I could help through that knowledge has changed my life."

The project involves a series of seven-week classes where the Gemeinschaft residents first talk with students about their life experiences to come up with ideas for lyrics. After coming up with ideas they start learning to write lyrics and then move into learning how to play instruments and sing. Most of the NEA grant was used to purchase instruments and recording equipment that will remain at Gemeinschaft after the program ends.

Two more seven-week classes are scheduled for the spring semester before the final performance, which will be held in the Forbes Center Concert Hall.

Stringham said the project is addressing a gray area between often discretely-defined disciplines of music education and music therapy. "What we're going out there to do is not what some may see as mainstream music education. We're not primarily concerned with these guys developing a sense of tonality or a sense of meter. Will they develop their musicianship through doing this? Sure. Will they probably also experience some sort of non-musical benefit from processing their story through these arts-based lenses? Absolutely."

Dr. Hefner captures decades worth of data at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.  

Researching the history of U.S. magazine circulation is a bit like trying to look for a black cat in a coal cellar- the data is hard to find, and even when located, it can be difficult to access.

But with a $50,940 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Brooks Hefner is teaming up with a University of California researcher to build a web-based tool that will put decades worth of previously inaccessible data at the fingertips of scholars.

The project, called "Circulating American Magazines," will provide complete access to circulation numbers by issue in addition to each title’s geographical circulation across the U.S. and abroad. The work uses detailed reports from several hard-to-reach archival materials from the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the advertising agencies of George C. Rowell & Co. and N.W. Ayer & Son.

Volumes of reports, between 1926 to 1929, from the A.B.C.

"We're talking about re-centering the history of American publication around magazines," said Hefner, an associate professor of English. "It is the most read kind of material in U.S. history. In the last 15 to 20 years, scholars have recognized that magazines are profoundly important for development of anything in literature."

The first magazine in America was published in 1741 and before the end of the 18th century there were over 100 magazine publishers. The project will focus on historically significant magazines, such as the New Yorker and Saturday Evening Post, between 1868 to 1972.

The web-based tool, being developed with the help of Ed Timke, lecturer of media studies at UC, Berkeley, along with faculty members in JMU libraries and educational technologies, will show the data in visual formats that will enable efficient comparisons. The tool will track readership data and offer information ranging from subscriptions by state to method of purchase. Researchers will no longer have to rely on second- and third-hand accounts on popularity and readership. For the first time in history "factual comparisons between magazines and other mass communication channels, such as television and the internet, can be made," Hefner said.

Reports submitted from individual periodicals are compiled into volumes. Each volume represents one six month period. 

The project aims to explore questions such as if spikes were caused by changing prices, an eye-catching cover, a shift in editorial leadership and other factors. The new open-source tool and the digitalized data will give scholars a big advantage in asking better questions about mass media and its influences.

Photos courtesy of Morgan Steffen and Louie Wurch

It is well known that massive algae blooms thrive when nourished by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, especially in warm water. But could there be more to their success than just an abundance of food and favorable environmental conditions?

A pair of James Madison University researchers has received $430,000 from the National Science Foundation to conduct a three-year study into bacteria that live with the harmful cyanobacterium, Microcystis, to determine if they benefit the blooms. If the relationship proves beneficial, it could lead to more effective ways of thwarting the unsightly—and sometimes toxic—growths, said Morgan Steffen and Louie Wurch, both assistant professors of biology.

"Our end goal is always to come up with mitigation strategies that are going to work," Steffen said.

Added Wurch, "Understanding the role the bacteria play in promoting these harmful algal blooms extends to other algae as well. Microcystis is sort of a model for a high biomass-forming algal bloom and there are other species. Maybe bacteria helping them is what we need to be looking at, microbial interactions."

Harmful algal blooms occur when colonies of Microcystis grow out of control while producing toxins that can cause effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds.

The Associated Press has been documenting the severity of the algal bloom problem across the U.S., and in a November 16 story, stated the "sometimes toxic blobs are fouling waterways from the Great Lakes to Chesapeake Bay, from the Snake River in Idaho to New York's Finger Lakes and reservoirs in California's Central Valley."

In addition to being eyesores and discouraging people from water recreation, harmful algal blooms release toxins that can kill animals and sicken people. The blooms also consume oxygen from the water and can block sunlight from reaching underwater vegetation, which causes a host of habitat problems.

As one of her first projects at JMU, Steffen was part of a research team that included scientists from the University of Tennessee who determined a virus was the most likely cause of a bloom releasing toxins into the Toledo, Ohio drinking water supply in 2014. The toxins, released by a bloom on Lake Erie, forced the water system to shut down for two days.

Steffen said her dissertation research at the University of Tennessee "pointed us toward the idea that there are all these other bacteria that live in the water with the Microcystis, but we've never actually done any studies to figure out if they're helping it. So we're trying to figure out what they're doing and if they function in any way that makes the cyanobacteria more successful."

Faculty from eight departments, including English and kinesiology for the first time, received more than $70,000 in grants for collaborative research projects from 4-VA at JMU on Wednesday, Nov. 8.

An additional five faculty members received $16,000 in grants to redesign courses.

The largest grant, $15,000, was awarded to Stephanie P. Kurti, an assistant professor of kinesiology, who is collaborating with faculty at the University of Virginia to study whether acute and/or chronic exercise protects older adults from high fat meal induced lipemia, glycemic and inflammation.

Awards of $10,000 were made to Christopher Berndsen, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who is collaborating with colleagues at Virginia Tech on using X-ray crystallography to support basic research into human and plant processes; and to Klebert Feitosa, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, who is collaborating with Marcelo Dias, a former JMU faculty member now teaching at a university in Denmark, on "Smart Surfaces for Tuneable Fluid-Structure Interactions."

"The point of this program really is about collaboration and engagement," President Jonathan Alger said before handing out the awards during a ceremony at Lakeview Hall. "It may be within your discipline or it may be interdisciplinary, but this is creating exciting opportunities for our faculty and for our students. This program has touched the lives of a lot of students over the last several years and hopefully many more to come. And I hope it has enriched your teaching and your scholarship as well."

The grants support faculty efforts that contribute to 4-VA initiatives related to research and instruction. Potential outcomes include shared courses, redesigned courses or collaborative research projects. Since the program started in 2010, 100 JMU faculty have received grants that are awarded in the fall and spring.

Nick Swayne, executive director of 4-VA at JMU, noted that this was the 12th cycle for the awards, bringing the grand total to more than $870,000. The money has provided a boost to more than 125 projects and 100 unique recipients across all colleges multiple times, he said. Swayne also said the projects have resulted in a $5 return for every dollar spent.

The 4-VA consortium was organized in 2010 in an effort to meet the needs of the Commonwealth identified by the Governor’s Higher Education Commission and his Jobs Commission. The original members were JMU, George Mason University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University have joined in the past two years.

Information about the program, including an application, can be found at http://4-va.org/rfps/jmu/.

"I know it takes time and effort to apply for this program, to do this kind of work," Alger said. "When you're collaborating, it adds an extra layer of complexity because you have to coordinate with others, but it's really worth it and it's really helping JMU to expand its horizons."

The full list of grant recipients:

The first injuries, to his legs, were inflicted by gunfire from AK-47 assault rifles.

As William Chapman took cover, he triggered an improvised explosive device that caused the rest of the damage: broken bones, a ruptured spleen and a severe concussion.

Now a junior accounting major, the injuries Chapman sustained in Afghanistan, while serving in the Marine Corps, required a full year of recovery and ended his dream of being selected for a special operations unit. Without a spleen, he was no longer eligible to serve with such a unit.

"Everything I envisioned myself doing was to get to special operations and that was taken away," Chapman said. "I experienced a loss of identity and I didn't know what I wanted to do."

In 2012, after four years of active duty in the Marine Corps, Chapman returned to civilian life and started working as a trailer mechanic. Although he enjoyed the work, he felt he needed to do something else for personal growth and applied to JMU in spring 2014.

A Purple Heart recipient, Chapman credits his family – he comes from a long line of military veterans – and his military training for his success as a student. "It does not matter how big, accomplished or strong you are. If you don't have that desire to be there, it won't pan out for you in the long run," he said.

William Chapman receives his Purple Heart from General Conway, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and Sergeant Major Kent, in Germany. 

Chapman discovered a passion for academic work and made the president’s list in spring 2017. He also received the Medal of Inspiration sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs. “Will Chapman is a prime example of why the Medal of Inspiration Award exists,” said Yvonne Hinson, AICPA Senior Director - Academic in Residence. “In the face of great adversity, he has continued to persevere and meet the goals he set out to accomplish. He has used each obstacle as a building block to propel himself forward to become a successful student and officer of Beta Alpha Psi.”

Outside the classroom, Chapman has volunteered for the Skyline Literacy program, where he helped immigrants study for the naturalization test. He also serves on the board for the Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices; as an executive member of Beta Alpha Psi, an international honor organization for accounting, finance and information systems; and tutors fellow students in accounting.

William Chapman receives the Medal of Inspiration from Yvonne Hinson of American Institute of CPAs in Anaheim, California. 

“It is an honor to be recognized at the national level from academia,” Chapman said. The years 2012 to 2017 “were filled with obstacles, but perseverance and determination means good things come at the end. Being at JMU and a part of BAP gave me an avenue to show others it doesn’t matter what you are struggling with, you can get through it. BAP was the best academic choice I made as it prepared me for real-world skills. JMU gave me a sense of community and diverse experiences.”

Student teams take a crack at solving exceedingly complex issue

What's the best way to provide health insurance to 400,000 Virginians who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to purchase their own insurance?

That was the challenge facing about 200 JMU students from multiple majors in the College of Health and Behavioral Studies and the College of Business on Monday during the fourth annual Health Policy Summit. While state lawmakers have been grappling with the dilemma for years, the students were tasked with developing solutions in 45 minutes. And since Virginia has repeatedly voted against expanding Medicaid to cover the gap, the students were barred from using Medicaid expansion as an option.

In the end, three of more than 30 teams were selected for having the best solutions, which they then pitched to a panel consisting of two current state lawmakers — Del. Tony Wilt, a Republican representing the 26th House District, and Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat representing the 25th Senate District — and Brent Finnegan, a Democrat who is challenging Wilt in this year's General Assembly election.

All three panelists had nice words for the teams, whose solutions included: A bus, funded by a combination of state taxes and donations, and manned by volunteers, that would travel the state and offer health services to those in the gap; a state-run insurance program where customers could choose from a list of services they needed and could afford; new regulations on how much hospitals and insurance companies could charge and redistributing the savings created by the new regulations to help cover those in the gap.

Wilt told the students they should have had a semester to work on the problem and "hats off to you" for what was accomplished in the short time frame. He also applauded the students for some out-of-the-box thinking and noted he always gets ideas from attending the sessions. Wilt suggested the students also consider competition and a free market, which "often creates the best services for the best price."

Deeds and Finnegan, both proponents of expanding Medicaid, also lauded the students for their creativity and said the work they did was important.

Laura Trull, an assistant professor of social work and an organizer of the summit, said the exercise has numerous benefits for the students, who "are challenged to work on one of the most pressing problems in Virginia and to utilize the different skills and knowledge they bring to the table to craft a potential solution."

The opportunity to mentor undergraduate students while also pursuing meaningful research makes JMU special, Kristen St. John said Friday, Oct. 6, after receiving a lifetime achievement award during the Office of Research and Scholarship's Recognition Reception.

Friday's event was the OSP's second annual Recognition Reception, held to honor faculty and staff for their work in securing external funding and to raise awareness of the grant process. St. John, a professor of geology and environmental science, was among more than 100 faculty and staff honored for securing external funding during the 2017 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017, and for their careers.

The OSP asked deans to nominate faculty for the lifetime achievement award based on criteria in areas of teaching; research and scholarship; and service through their externally funded projects throughout their JMU careers. St. John has earned more than $500,000 in external funding since arriving at JMU in 2003.

Conducting research in paleoceanography, St. John has published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Science and Nature, and her scholarship has rewritten the geologic history of Arctic ice, information that is critically important as scientists seek to understand contemporary dynamics of climate change.

In 2004, St. John was selected to serve as part of an international research team for an Arctic coring expedition, a project she will lead in the 2018-19 academic year. Since 2012, she has been editor-in-chief of the Journal of Geoscience Education and in 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. She has mentored more than two dozen undergraduate students, providing them with opportunities to learn about the geosciences through cutting edge research in the field.

"I feel like JMU is walking a very important and fine line where we're able to maintain this really excellent undergraduate education but the faculty are also able to do research that’s highly respected and valued at many different levels," St. John said.

For faculty and staff who are considering seeking grants for the first time, St. John said sitting on a grant review committee will provide valuable insight. She also commended the OSP staff for its assistance.

The following faculty and staff received outstanding faculty awards for met criteria in teaching, scholarship, service and mentoring through their externally funded projects during fiscal year 2017:

·      Daniel Downey, chemistry and biochemistry

·      Mark Gabriele, biology

·      Kim Hartzler-Weakley, Institute for Innovation in Health and Human Services

·      Elizabeth Johnson, geology and environmental science

·      Jonathan Monroe, biology

·      Gerald Weniger, health professions

·      Steven Whitmeyer, geology and environmental science

The OSP also recognized faculty and staff for various funding tiers, including:

·      $20 million — Cheryl Henderson, Training/Technical Assistance Center

·      $15 million — Kim Hartzler-Weakley, Institute for Innovation in Health & Human Services

·      $10 million — John McNaught, Training/Technical Assistance Center; Ken Rutherford, Center for International Stabilization & Recovery; Rhonda Zingraff, College of Health & Behavioral Studies

·      $5 million — Bob Kolvoord, College of Integrated Science and Engineering; Jonathan Miles, Integrated Science & Technology

Picturing Harrisonburg: Visions of a Shenandoah Valley City Since 1828, a new book by David Ehrenpreis, documents and celebrates the history of Harrisonburg from 1828 to the present. JMU’s Duke Hall gallery will host a corresponding exhibition through October 14.

The book explores “how visions of a place shift over time can reveal a community’s values, how they evolved and what they mean. While Harrisonburg has a unique history and distinct character, the challenges it has faced over the past two centuries are familiar to many other communities, towns, and cities,” said Ehrenpreis, director of the Institute for Visual Studies at JMU.

Five others contributed to the book: Randall B. Jones, Kevin Borg, Dale MacAllister, Scott Hamilton Suter and Henry Way.

Publication is scheduled for this October. More information about the book is available at http://www.gftbooks.com/books_Ehrenpreis.html

The exhibition is the first of its kind to trace the history and transformation of Harrisonburg over the last two centuries. It includes more than 80 paintings, postcards, maps and photographs, many on display to the public for the first time. It is a collaboration between the Institute for Visual Studies and the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society.

“This exhibition offers a new way of understanding how places evolve,” said Ehrenpreis.

The book and exhibition are part of the larger Picturing Harrisonburg project, which celebrates the city’s history with a variety of events and programming in the fall of 2017.

Additional events and programming include:

September 1 to 29: Exhibition, Looking for Rocktown. Contemporary depictions of Harrisonburg. Arts Council of the Valley.

September 1 to 29: Exhibition, Harrisonburg: Unfiltered. 22 city residents document their lives using instant photography. Larkin Arts.

September 1 to 29: Exhibition, Court Square’d. Glimpses of downtown Harrisonburg – 6”x6” format, t-shirts as canvas. Laughing Dog T-Shirts & Gifts.

September 11: Reception, Picturing Harrisonburg: Visions of a Shenandoah Valley City Since 1828. Duke Hall Gallery, 5 to 7 p.m.

September 19: Opening reception, Who Wore What Here? A century of garments, many worn by residents. JMU’s Institute for Visual Studies, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

September 19 to October 26: Exhibition, Who Wore What Here? A century of garments, many worn by residents. JMU’s Institute for Visual Studies.

September 21: Harrisonburg’s Postcards and Community Vision. Lecture by Scott Suter, Bridgewater College. Harrisonburg-Rockingham Historical Society, 7 p.m.

October 5: The Rural Co-op, Pare Lorentz and the New Deal Documentary in Rockingham. Film, plus a lecture by Shaun Wright, JMU professor. Massanutten Regional Library, 7 p.m.

A plan on paper can look like a winner, but until it's executed, it's hard to tell, especially when it involves working with snakes in the wild.

That's the position in which Rocky Parker finds himself as he tries to help a number of federal and state agencies manage a Burmese python scourge in the Florida Everglades.

Ever since pythons got loose in Florida in the 1990s, they have become an ecological nightmare, specifically in the Everglades. Pythons, like all snakes, will eat anything they can get their mouths around, from fish to birds to rodents. And since they have no native predators in their invasive range, they’re free to eat and reproduce at will.

Over the years, the giant snakes — which can grow to more than 20 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds — have altered the ecology of the Everglades, primarily by consuming native mammals and birds, costing the state not only indigenous species, but millions of dollars. Wildlife officials have tried all sorts of ways to trap and control the snakes with varying degrees of success.

In collaboration with Dr. Michael Avery at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Research Center in Gainesville, Florida, the Parker lab at JMU has been analyzing Burmese python trailing behavior and their chemical cues for several years. Parker’s lab has been funded through multiple agreements with the NWRC where their scientists design and execute the experiments while his lab studies the behaviors and isolates sexual chemical cues from python shed skins. By working together, they have determined many behaviors that males exhibit toward females in the hopes of cracking the pythons’ sexual code.

With a new $73,000 grant from the U.S. Geological Survey, Parker, a chemical ecologist, says he is taking a slightly new approach to his research, which could significantly improve how wildlife managers find the elusive predators.

One of the toughest challenges in managing the python population, even though it's large, is finding them. "Tracking free-ranging animals is difficult in the Everglades. It's a very impenetrable environment, it's gnarly," Parker said. In addition to that, pythons' skin colors and markings offer perfect camouflage.

Last year, Parker and his students ran experiments to gauge python reaction to male and female scents. Results of that research, which continues, look promising as male snakes were able to follow female scents and did not follow male scents.

Undergraduate biology major Shannon Richard analyzes python behavior in collaboration with scientists at USDA NWRC in Gainesville, Florida. That research is funded by a scientific agreement between USDA and JMU.

Now Parker wants to combine what he's learned about potentially luring snakes by scent with another technique, called the "Judas" approach. The Judas approach involves tagging individual snakes with transmitters and tracking them, hopefully to more snakes, when the animals are breeding in aggregations. Parker's plan is to make male snakes smell like female snakes, then tag them and set them loose. If it works, the male snakes that smell like females will attract other males and increase the number of snakes that can be trapped.

"I think it's promising," Parker said. "Anything that increases detectability is a very useful tool and if we can make males attractive and make other males come out of their hiding, that could crack this detectability issue, or at least help it."

Parker will make male snakes smell like females by implanting estrogen, a hormone that will trigger female pheromone production, even in males. The technique has worked in garter snakes and brown tree snakes, so it should work in pythons, Parker said. To test its effectiveness with pythons, a control group will be tagged but not given estrogen.

If the results are good, Parker said the approach could be used with other invasive species because hormones such as estrogen and testosterone are the same compounds in just about all vertebrate species.

beatgig co-founder Connor Feroce discusses the early performance of his company.

The entrepreneurial spirit is thriving at JMU and there's no sign of a let-up, even as the first iteration of a Venture Creation Fellowship came to a close.

An eight-week accelerator designed to give budding student-created startups a boost, all nine ventures that participated in June and July plan to continue their efforts.

"In my experience, at Yale for example, was maybe about half the ventures shut down after eight weeks and they either put it on the back burner or even quit. We don't have a single student doing that. Every single one of them is continuing to work on their venture," said Patrick McQuown, who came to JMU in January to lead the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Business.

McQuown, who also directed the summer accelerator, said he hoped to get five applications for the program when he advertised it in the spring and ended up with 19. The nine ventures chosen to participate received mentorship from McQuown and other serial entrepreneurs as well as $4,000 stipends for each student and, in some cases, additional funding to cover expenses.

A major goal of the accelerator is to help the startups gain traction, or in some cases, strengthen their traction. "Traction either is people paying you for your goods and services, or in the case of an application, getting users," McQuown said. "I'm happy to report that with our nine ventures, six of them have traction, five with revenue and one with users. And that, frankly, puts us in a different league."

Chris Ashley of Hydra discusses the need for the team’s micro-factory.

"Patrick is fantastic. He's been a great mentor," said Connor Feroce, a May intelligence analysis graduate who co-founded a company called "beatgig," an online platform that helps musicians and music venues get together to schedule shows. Feroce was one of four students who pitched their ventures Thursday in a sneak peak of a program that will feature all nine ventures this fall. Each pitch lasted five minutes and was geared to interest investors. The audience included JMU President Jonathan Alger, JMU First Lady Mary Ann Alger and College of Business Dean Mary Gowan.

Feroce already had the attention of another audience member, Bryan Bostic, a 1993 JMU alumnus and serial entrepreneur who has been serving as an entrepreneur in residence. The two met about a year ago. Following Feroce's presentation Thursday, Bostic said he was ready to offer more financial support and also connect Feroce to others in the music industry.

"I have gotten to know Connor over the past year and have watched the growth of this company and frankly, the growth of the team, which is, at these early stage investments, the most important thing," Bostic said. "They have shown a very strong propensity to listen, to pivot where necessary, to be open-minded about mentors and council."

After launching beatgig in 2016, the business booked nearly 100 shows at colleges in the Mid-Atlantic region and handled more than $50,000 in show volume, Feroce said. "It's an outdated industry. You see these other industries where technology platforms have arrived and become successful. It's basically inevitable this technology is going to happen. It's just a matter of who's going to do it. I'm confident we'll be the first one, so that's pretty exciting."

Dustin Hux talks about the need for an app that helps people use 360 video and photography.

The other presenters Thursday (July 27) were Hydra, a team that is building a "micro factory" that will do large-scale 3D printing projects and also offer pick-and-place and CNC (computer numerical control) functions; and Presence, a social media app that allows users to upload, share, pin and view 360 media. All three ventures swept a pitching contest this summer against student start-ups at Georgetown University.

McQuown said the contest is going to become an annual event called the "Bulldog Cup," since each school's mascot is a bulldog.  Similar competitions are being scheduled at Princeton and at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Applications for the second cohort of Venture Creation Fellows will be available this fall, McQuown said. The fellowship is open to students in any discipline.

Dr. Tracy Deem (center) reviews T cell data with Bridgewater College biology major Chandler Parker (left) and JMU biology major Jenny Russell.

The second year of a three-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health is getting off to a good start for biology Professor Chris Lantz.

Lantz said laboratory experiments this spring and summer have confirmed that a fluorescent marker protein is working the way it should when a protein in the immune system, Interleukin‑3, or IL-3 for short, is activated.

One of the main goals of the research, which received $445,500 from NIH, is to discover what cells are responsible for producing IL-3 in living mice and the timing involved in its production. IL-3 is generally good for fighting off infections, but experiments in Lantz's lab have shown that it has the opposite effect with malaria. Additional knowledge about when and where IL-3 is produced could eventually lead to better treatments for malaria and other diseases.

In experiments with white blood cells collected from mice with genes that have been modified to alert to the presence of IL-3, "we've confirmed essentially that when IL-3 is made in mice, the fluorescent protein is also produced," Lantz said. He said more testing is needed "in situations where we know when IL-3 is made" before doing additional experiments with malaria. Much of the testing of the fluorescent protein has been done with hookworms, which infect the small intestine and trigger IL-3 production.

Tracy Deem, an immunologist from Bridgewater College who serves as an adjunct assistant professor of biology at JMU and who works with Lantz, said, "Now the question is, what type of T cell (a type of white blood cell) is actually making this. If we polarize the T cells to become different types of T cells, we're hoping to see that one population makes the IL-3."

Lantz said he, Deem and students who are working with them are looking forward to publishing the results of the experiments using the fluorescent marker protein this fall.

Jenny Russell, a senior biology major who will graduate from JMU in May 2018, said she is enjoying the summer research experience that is helping her prepare for a future in medicine. "I love doing this research. It's relevant to what I want to do and working in an immunology lab is very beneficial."

Chandler Parker, a biology major at Bridgewater College who also is preparing for a career in medicine, said she was happy to work on the project for a second summer. "I love the project and really wanted to do it again," she said. "And now I'm looking into Ph.D/MD programs because of the work I have done with Dr. Deem."

Professor's book offers tips on happy, meaningful vacations

From the rigors of travel to handling relationship tensions to unplugging from work, vacations can be surprisingly stressful.

Jaime Kurtz has first-hand knowledge of the struggles and might be able to help — via some tips in her new book. Published in late May by Oxford University Press, "The Happy Traveler: Unpacking the Secrets of Better Vacations" offers tips for making vacations more fun, meaningful and engaging.

An associate professor of psychology who teaches positive psychology, Kurtz said writing the book involved combing the research on happiness, meaning and decision-making; and also talking to friends and people in the travel industry. It is also inspired by her own experiences. After finishing graduate school and finally having some time and money for travel, Kurtz realized traveling wasn't as much fun as she thought it would be. "And if I, a happiness researcher, can't have fun on vacation, which is a time especially set aside for fun and happiness, maybe there's something inherently difficult about it," she said.

The book is intended for a general audience and is organized to address planning travel, the time spent traveling and the return home.  Kurtz also writes about how to enjoy time spent at home during "staycations."

While canceled flights and lost luggage are certainly concerns for travelers, the book focuses more on topics such as picking the right destination to meet the travelers' needs, getting along with other people, unplugging from work and relaxing, and savoring the present instead of thinking about what’s happening next — "That's one of my big challenges," Kurtz said.

"There are all these reasons why traveling isn't as easy as we think it is," she said. "I have some friends who can't stop checking e-mail while they're on vacation. They say, 'If I don't check it now, I'm going to come back and have a thousand e-mails.' So even though they're on vacation, their mind is still at work. I address many of these challenges in the book.”

When you look at stars through a telescope, you only see a little, you can only measure a few isotopes. To better understand how stars create all naturally occurring elements, you need some knowledge of what goes on inside them, “and that’s where you come in,” Professor Art Champagne told a gathering of researchers last week at a workshop to explore the research possibilities at a new physics lab at JMU.

The Madison Accelerator Laboratory, located on the first floor of the newly renovated Madison Hall, will swing into full operation this fall. More than 10 years in the making, the laboratory features a medical electron linear accelerator, a 140 keV X-ray imaging machine and standard particle detection instrumentation. The linear accelerator, purchased from Rockingham Memorial Hospital when it moved to new digs, is a versatile magnetron unit that can provide electron and photon beams with energies up to 15 MeV.

Champagne, the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, was one of 10 speakers to address the two-day workshop that included researchers from universities in Greece and Turkey that also have medical accelerators. While other labs are also investigating how stars work, there's always room for more, Champagne said. No one facility will be able to answer all the questions, "we need complimentary facilities, we need to have a very broad approach to some of these problems."

The laboratory will be capable of performing low energy experiments for a range of purposes, including nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, nuclear engineering, nuclear forensics and homeland security. Much broader applications in a variety of fields, such as accelerator physics, medical physics, materials science, environmental geochemistry, geology, biology, astronomy, archaeology and art history were discussed at the workshop, with the aim of forging possible collaborations.

The standard model for physics, a theory developed over decades to describe three of the four known fundamental forces in the universe, is getting a rigorous test at a national laboratory in Chicago and the JMU physics department is right in the thick of it.

Within the past couple weeks, JMU has shipped 24 custom-designed and built power supply boxes to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The boxes are powering calorimeter detectors being used in a project called The Muon g-2 Experiment.

Results from the three-year project, which has been years in the making, could rewrite scientists’ picture of the universe and how it works.

"The g-2 (g minus 2) experiment is one of those things where people are saying, 'Look, CERN found the Higgs particle. It's like the final element to complete the standard model. It was predicted, it had to be there and, boom, it's there,’" said Kevin Giovanetti, professor of physics and astronomy. "But people are saying now that the Holy Grail is to find something that shows us the standard model can't work, some evidence that it's a great theory, but if you push it . . ."

That evidence appeared to show up about a decade ago in experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. The experiment at Fermilab looks to confirm the Brookhaven findings with higher precision. "When their result came out in the mid 2000s, they were three standard deviations away from predictions by theorists, so there's this sense that there's a hint of disagreement between what the standard model can do and what the measurement has shown us," Giovanetti said. "So this could be the very first evidence of a break away from the standard model and that's the key to the importance of this experiment."

The power sources shipped to Fermilab were designed and built at JMU by Giovanetti and his students. "I learned a lot about physics at the beginning when we discussed why we were making these," said new physics graduate Premal Patel, "and then I was constantly learning about electronics."

Giovanetti said the physics department likes to give students opportunities to do more than just learn from lectures and books. "We don't want to send every single physicist out of our department with the same sort of blueprint. All of this stuff involves building new skill sets. We try to promote the option for students who are interested in these kinds of things to be hands-on developers," he said.

JMU became involved with the project working with colleagues at the University of Virginia. More information about the Muon g-2 experiment can be found here: http://muon-g-2.fnal.gov.

More information on the JMU role in the project is available here: https://www.jmu.edu/4-va/grant-bios/2013/July-q11/giovanetti-kevin-mega.shtml