News

Fisher College Earns ABET Accreditation Under Cybersecurity Criteria

October 8 — The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has accredited Towson University’s computer security track in the computer science B.S. degree program until 2024. “Earning one of the first ABET cybersecurity accreditations in the world is a signal of Towson University’s rigorous academic programs and affirms TU as a preeminent provider of tech-focused leaders,” said TU President Kim Schatzel. TU is one of four institutions in the world—along with the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and Southeast Missouri —to receive ABET accreditation under the cybersecurity criteria.

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Chemistry Students, Alumnus and Faculty Publish in Pretigious Journal

August 29 — Chemistry undergraduates Ryan Dias ’18, Kayla Martin-Culet ’18, Marella Schammel ’20 and alumnus Nicholas Race ’15 —along with chemistry professors John Sivey and Keith Reber—co-authored a paper selected for publication by the prestigious Environmental Science Water Research and Technology journal.  An independent reviewer of the article had high praise for it.  “The experimental work is of very high quality, and the level of detail provided is exceptional in comparison to many other investigations of this type. Overall, the authors present a compelling case for the use of TMB in chlorination and bromination studies, and I fully expect to see its increasing adoption as a quenching reagent/probe following publication of this work.” 

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Mathematics Professor Recognized as One of Maryland’s Best

August 9, 2018  —Dr. Linda Cooper, professor of mathematics education, received a 2018 Maryland Council of Teachers of Mathematics (MCTM) Outstanding Mathematics Educator Award in early July.  The award recognizes outstanding mathematics teaching and leadership across Maryland.  Dr. Cooper is the co-director of Towson UTeach, TU’s teacher preparation program for students studying to become secondary-level science or mathematics teachers.

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Astronomy Professor Answers Questions about NASA Solar Probe Mission

July 26, 2018  — On July 30, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is expected to launch its seven-year mission to probe the outer corona of the sun. The robotic spacecraft—about the size of a small car—will fly as close as 3.8 million miles to the sun’s surface to collect information to help scientists better understand the corona and the phenomenon of solar wind.   Dr. Alex Storrs, associate professor of physics, astronomy and geosciences, answers questions about this historic mission.

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FCSM Students "Engineer" a Summer of Research through Dreyfus Grant

July 16, 2018  —Towson University juniors Kameron Langford and Ian Gilbert took circuitous routes to their research projects, but thanks to a research stipend included in the grant the Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics received from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the students will be able to spend all summer working on them. Langford considered engineering in high school but disliked the physical side of modeling and working with pure mathematics. When he came to TU, he enrolled in a freshman chemistry lab that introduced him to assistant professor Mary Sajini Devadas and the importance of undergraduate research. The physics major attended a meeting Devadas held for students who were considering joining her research group.  Balancing areas of life is something chemistry major Ian Gilbert is very familiar with. “Organic chemists make things. I love that,” he said. “You have an end product, like organic compounds that nobody has made in the history of never. I think structures are beautiful. It’s like architecture; it’s a process. Seeing it come to fruition after a year is amazing to see.”

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headshot of dean david a vanko

Dean David A. Vanko Appointed Interim Provost and Executive Vice President

July 1, 2018  — The following is excerpted from President Kim Schatzel's message to the University community.  I am writing to inform our university community that Timothy J.L. Chandler has decided to step down from his position as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs effective July 1, 2018. We owe him much gratitude and regard for his more than five years of unwavering service and dedication to Towson University.  I will begin a national search for the next Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs this fall and plan to have the search completed in early 2019.  Until the new chief academic officer joins the university, David Vanko, dean of the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics, will serve as Interim Provost and Executive Vice President. A Professor and former chair of the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Geosciences, Dean Vanko has spent more than 17 years in administration at Towson University, leading the Fisher College through a period of record growth in enrollment and research grants. I know you all join me in offering our university’s sincerest appreciation and support as he assumes this important leadership role.  

Four Fisher College Faculty Receive 2018 Board of Regents Awards

March 22, 2018 — Pamela Lottero-Perdue (physics, astronomy, & geosciences) won the 2018 USM Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching. Clare Muhoro (chemistry) won the 2018 USM Regents Award for Excellence in Public Service. Vera Smolyaninova (physics, astronomy and geosciences) won the 2018 USM Regents Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Research or Creative Activity. And Sidd Kaza (computer & information sciences) won the 2018 USM Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching.

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Dean Vanko and Professors Kaza, Muhoro and Song Collaborate with Obafemi Awolowo University to Open Doors to STEM in Nigeria

February 6, 2018 — “A strong partnership with Obafemi Awolowo University is a win-win scenario for both institutions.  For Towson University, this specific partnership will play a role in opening opportunities to contribute to the STEM capacity-building ventures of Nigeria and expand TU’s presence to the largest country on the African continent,” TU’s Assistant Vice President Saleha Suleman said.  “I’m excited about this new two-way partnership that can include student and faculty exchanges and joint research,” Vanko said. “These mesh very nicely with the Fisher College’s strategic objectives in cybersecurity research and education, diversity and inclusion, and internationalization.”

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Physics Major Max Coplan Shares Why He Thinks TU is Among the Best in Physics Research Institutions

February 6, 2018 — “This is what I’ve always wanted to do.”  Coplan was invited to the headquarters of Wolfram Inc. in Champaign, Illinois, for their 2017 Technology Conference. Wolfram is the maker of Mathematica—the world's leading software for solving mathematical equations symbolically—that is distributed to all TU faculty and students. He gave a half-hour talk to the Wolfram experts on how he has been able to use Mathematica to "go where no one has gone before" and explore the inside of rotating black holes mathematically.

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Chemistry Faculty Member named Emerging Investigator by the Royal Chemistry Society

January 31, 2018 — John Sivey, assistant professor of chemistry, was named a Royal Society of Chemistry Emerging Investigator in Environmental Sciences.    Read more for the full interview with Dr. Sivey.  Read John’s Emerging Investigators paper “Comparing the inherent reactivity of often-overlooked aqueous chlorinating and brominating agents toward salicylic acid” and find out more about him in the interview.

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Two Mathematics Faculty Awarded a Grant from the National Science Foundation to Support Seminar On Numbers

January 9, 2018 —  Angel Kumchev, professor of mathematics, and Nathan McNew, assistant professor of mathematics, received a grant that provides funding for the Mid-Atlantic Seminar On Numbers (MASON) for three years.  MASON is a nascent regional conference in number theory whose main goal is to promote and sustain communication and collaboration among number theorists from the Mid-Atlantic region.  The need for a regular meeting like MASON is especially acute among students (both graduate and advanced undergraduates) and researchers at the many comprehensive and primarily undergraduate institutions in the region.

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Geology Professor Part of NASA's Search For Transfats And Other Fatty Acids On Mars

December 29, 2017 — NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover and its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument have found chlorobenzene (an organic ring molecule) in Gale Crater’s Sheepbed Mudstone.  But, to date, no one has ever had a positive detection of a fatty acid on Mars.  Amy Williams, an assistant professor of geology at Towson University, is a member of the SAM instrument science team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center involved in this research.

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Chairperson of Biological Sciences Receives Nearly $600,000 in Funding from National Science Foundation

November 16, 2017 — Some people look forward to summer vacation, planning sun-drenched getaways that feature plenty of beach time.  Towson University biology professor and chairperson Laura Gough and master’s student Matt Suchocki prefer the Arctic.  Dr. Gough is the co-principal investigator on two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling over $570,000 — the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research Project (LTER) and Collaborative Research: Adding animals to the equation, affectionately known as Team Vole.   She has been doing summer research in Alaska for over 20 years, and recently took over as the lead principal investigator for the terrestrial portion of the Arctic LTER, based at Toolik Field Station, 350 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

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Computer & Information Sciences Faculty Receive $3.9 Million Grant

October 9, 2017 — Members of Towson University’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences in the Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science and Mathematics recently received a $3.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation called Scholarship for Service (SFS).  The grant, which extends over five years, will help CIS faculty Josh Dehlinger, Shiva Azadegan,  Sidd Kaza, Blair Taylor, Michael O’Leary, and Nam Nguyen to expand TU’s current CyberCorps program.  “Cybersecurity is a critical national need. Towson faculty have always been at the forefront of cybersecurity education and research,” said Sidd Kaza, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at TU. “This grant and others speak to our excellent research, teaching, and cutting-edge degree programs.”

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Mathematics Faculty Member Co-Authors Award Wining Resource for Elementary School Teachers

October 6, 2017 — Edward C. Nolan, a master teacher of mathematics with the Towson UTeach program, is one of five authors of the sourcebook for elementary school teachers entitled “Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching Grades 3–5.” This book won the Learning® Magazine 2018 Teachers’ Choice℠ Award for Professional Development.  The book is designed to help educators increase their knowledge of the mathematics they teach and improve intermediate-grade mathematics instruction.  This book is part of the Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching series which also includes three other titles on which Edward Nolan is also a co-author: “Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching Grades K–2”, “Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching Grades 6–8”, and “Making Sense of Mathematics for Teaching High School.”

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