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For this historian, the Salem Witch Trials are personal

Colleen Rich — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 12:14:58 +0000

For this historian, the Salem Witch Trials are personal Colleen Rich Wed, 10/30/2024 - 08:14

When Daniel T. Howlett was a junior in high school, he needed to do a history project. Growing up in Massachusetts, near the historic Salem Village, he decided to do one on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and his own ancestry.

Daniel T. Howlett. Photo provided

“I knew at the time we were descended from the Putnam family, and the Putnams were the main accusing family,” said Howlett, who has completed an MA and is now working on a PhD in history at ��AV. “So going back 10 generations, all of the people who were making accusations are related to me.”

Howlett’s family also has an ancestor on the other side—Mary Bradbury, who was accused of witchcraft and convicted but managed to escape her death sentence.

For his project, he ended up focusing on the relationship between Reverend Cotton Mather, the Boston minister who was leading the charge against witchcraft, and Reverend George Burroughs, who was executed for witchcraft. And that provided the basis for a chapter in the dissertation he is writing.

His dissertation focuses on religion and disability in early America, and the Salem Witch Trials play a role. Howlett said, in a way, that high school project never ended for him. It just grew in scope. He has been a tour guide in Salem and estimates he has visited more than 150 cemeteries for his research, which may make him the perfect candidate for a Halloween-themed interview.

Witches? 150 cemeteries?

I'm originally from North Andover, the town where most people were accused [of witchcraft]. My high school was on the land where Sarah Osborne, one of the first accused, lived. I grew up down the street from the cemetery where Timothy Swan, one of the accusers, is buried. The Salem Witch Trials were quite literally in my backyard. I've been surrounded by this is topic for a very long time.

But part of it was more—I'm a historian. This is a historical place. It's just kind of neat. I never thought it would end up being a key component to my research.

The gravestone of Timothy Swan, one of the accusers at the witch trials. Photo provided

Do you have a favorite cemetery?

I have a bunch that I like, and I've gone back to a couple of them. So the one in my hometown, North Andover’s First Burial Ground is obviously a favorite because it's close to home. I've been there a ton of times. A lot of the important graves that I look at are from there. But I also like Marblehead's Old Burial Hill, Newburyport’s Old Hill Burying Ground, Hingham Cemetery, Plymouth’s Burial Hill. There are so many fun cemeteries out there.

Everyone goes to Salem for Halloween. Are they going to the wrong place?

I've worked as a tour guide in Salem for a summer job, and I've had Salem residents shout out that “the witches weren't from here.” Salem was larger than it is today. Salem Village, which is now the town of Danvers, where my high school was, is where it starts. Salem is like the seat of the county at the time so the trials happened there.

In your research, you’ve been able to make connections between disability and the witch trials. Can you talk about that?

When these accusations of witchcraft are being made, the young accusers are said to be falling “deaf, dumb and blind”—that’s the quote that gets used. So they're losing their speech, their hearing, and their sight because that's what they expect witchcraft afflictions to do.

"Trial of George Jacobs, August 5, 1692" by Thomkins H. Matteson (Wikimedia Commons)

All of those have very important theological meanings because you're supposed to be able to say your prayers, read the Bible, hear the minister's sermons. All your religious participation is dependent on your senses working. The idea is if your body is unable to do that, your soul can't be nourished with the faith and religion that it needs for you to gain your eternal salvation. So that's the threat that's behind a lot of these witchcraft afflictions.

But for the accusers, this is a temporary state. They get afflicted by witchcraft and then they come out of it because they arrest the witch. They pray to God and there's divine intervention that helps them pass these disabilities.

When they accuse someone of witchcraft, it's not necessarily because they have a disability. But whenever they get the chance, the accusers seem to make a connection to [the accused’s] disability. For example, Rebecca Nurse [who was convicted of witchcraft and executed in 1692] being “hard of hearing” in her own words, that's what she says in the trial transcript.

They say that's the devil, or the black man, whispering in her ear. The black man was often used as the stand-in for Satan at the time. That has a ton of racialized tones because Indigenous people were referred to as Black. There's a ton of frontier violence going on. It's one of the big threats.

For my research, I'm looking at the word disability as some stated version of difference so maybe not disability as we recognize it today. At the time, illness and disability are conflated a lot. Whatever that difference is its often used to insinuate motivation, but also proof that the devil has hardened your heart to God. You are therefore a sinner and more likely to be guilty in a witch.

That’s still a lot of cemeteries. Do you believe in ghosts?

I don't believe in ghosts. I want them to be real because I think that'd just be kind of fun. [George Mason] history grad students sometimes joke that a great indie horror film would be a grad student doing their dissertation with a Ouija board to interview their sources. I've been to 150 cemeteries. I've not been haunted yet.

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New study shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19, but utilized fewer support services

mthomp7 — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 11:09:35 +0000

New study shows that university students experienced increased psychological distress during COVID-19, but utilized fewer support services mthomp7 Wed, 10/30/2024 - 07:09

Underrepresented students, particularly women of color, were less likely to receive mental health services during the pandemic.

PhD in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell and her mentor Kenneth Griffin, a professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, in ��AV’s College of Public Health, worked with Tolulope Abidogun, also a PhD in Public Health student, and former Global and Community Health professor Lisa Lindley, now of Lehigh University, to analyze data from the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA III) in an effort to understand how university students’ mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

PhD in Public Health candidate Elaine Russell studied how university students’ mental health needs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“More U.S. college students suffered from mental health concerns during the pandemic, but fewer received necessary mental health treatment,” says Russell.

This study is the first to use a national dataset to examine changes in university students’ psychological well-being and their utilization of mental health services from pre-COVID-19 to peak pandemic. Russell and the research team found that, consistent with prior research related to diverse populations, racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minority groups were at a greater risk of suffering from poor mental health during the pandemic. Additional findings revealed that, during the pandemic, students of color, especially female students of color, were less likely to receive mental health services.

“When developing innovative approaches to improving mental health outcomes on college campuses, it is important to be culturally sensitive and understand the diverse needs of the specific student population,” says Russell.

The study used data from before the COVID-19 pandemic (Fall 2019 and early Spring 2020) and during the pandemic (Spring 2021) to examine mental health symptoms and utilization of mental health services among university students. The sample was limited to full-time undergraduate students aged 18-24 attending four-year universities in the United States. In addition to analyzing the entire sample of university students, the team examined demographic subgroups based on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

Several validated psychological testing scales were used in the study to indicate students’ self-reported levels of psychological distress, loneliness, overall stress, psychological well-being, and resilience. Additional survey questions asked about COVID-19 specific stressors, including the students’ concern over themselves or their loved ones getting COVID-19 and being unable to spend time with the people they care about due to the pandemic lockdowns. Students’ use of mental health services within the 12 months preceding the survey was also assessed.

“These findings are important to better understand sub-groups who disproportionally suffer from severe psychological distress but may not be accessing the necessary care,” the study reports. While issues such as a lack of access to mental health services and discrimination within the health care system are undoubtedly factors in students’ reluctance to seek mental health care, the stigma surrounding mental health is also prohibitive.

“Improvements in mental health resources must also address stigma and empower students to access necessary care,” Russell says, specifying the use of peer health educators and making efforts to normalize mental health treatment may be effective prevention strategies.

Russell concludes by calling for future research to increase understanding of the barriers to mental health service use among high-risk university students.

“Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students’ psychological distress, well-being, and utilization of mental health services in the United States: Populations at greatest risk” was published online in Frontiers in Public Health in October 2024.

The authors are Elaine Cooper Russell, ��AV; Tolulope M. Abidogun, ��AV; Lisa L. Lindley, Lehigh University; and Kenneth W. Griffin, ��AV.

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PhD student knows how to (neural) network

Teresa Donnellan — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 18:54:28 +0000

PhD student knows how to (neural) network Teresa Donnellan Tue, 10/15/2024 - 14:54

Electrical and computer engineering PhD student Shay Snyder is not only “a very capable student,” as his ��AV advisor Maryam Parsa said, but he is also a tenacious networker. Passionate for his subject and tireless in his pursuit of research opportunities, Snyder joined George Mason's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and assisted in securing at least two years of funding for a project in Parsa’s lab.

Parsa’s research focuses on neuromorphic, or "brain-inspired," computing across various levels of the computing stack. The question is "how can neuroscience and biology help us redesign computers to be more capable, energy-efficient, and robust?" said Parsa, who is an assistant professor in ECE.

Although Snyder began his PhD in January 2023, he had been part of the Mason Nation for the prior year, working as an undergraduate research assistant for Parsa as he finished up a bachelor’s degree at East Tennessee State University.

Snyder was an effective networker even as a teenager. He attended a two-week summer camp at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a junior in high school and was eager to return.

Shay Snyder. Photo provided by Maryam Parsa.

“I found out that they have an internship program for high schoolers, so my entire senior year of high school, I emailed and emailed, saying like, ‘Hey, I like this about your work, and I want to work with you," Snyder said.

He recalled, “I sent so many emails, I got two e-mail accounts blocked because they thought I was spamming them, but luckily I heard back … so a week after I graduated from high school, I got to go to work at Oak Ridge for a summer, and that kind of started everything.”

He added, “It was a miracle.”

The internship was an eye-opening experience for Snyder. “Where I grew up in East Tennessee was much more remote," he said. "There are not a lot of technology jobs, and coming from my high school, I think over 50% of the kids were below the poverty line. So getting to see that was a whole new world for me, and I was determined that I wanted to continue doing work like they do at Oak Ridge.”

After that initial internship, Snyder continued reaching out to scientists he had met or learned about at Oak Ridge. He attended Lunch and Learn events for undergraduate students, at one of which he met Catherine Schuman, who introduced Snyder to the concept of neuromorphic computing.

“I was super inspired,” he said. He followed up with Schuman and was offered a yearlong position at Oak Ridge doing autonomous vehicle research for General Motors. He took his undergraduate classes part-time and worked remotely to leverage this opportunity.

Snyder first encountered Parsa when she gave a presentation at the International Conference on Neuromorphic Systems. She was then a post-doc also working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with Schuman. Snyder contacted her, and the two stayed in touch. After joining George Mason, Parsa hired Snyder remotely as an undergraduate research assistant while he finished his undergraduate degree. Meanwhile, Snyder also started a part-time internship at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.)

“[Snyder] was still an undergraduate, and he worked on an area that was completely different from his background,” said Parsa. “The project was on neuromorphic computing, but it involved learning multiple new areas including Bayesian learning and Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINN). He quickly learned the necessary background and developed Lava Bayesian Optimization that later merged with the Intel’s neuromorphic optimization framework, Lava-Optimization.”

The work has been published in multiple conference papers at the International Conference on Neuromorphic Computing Systems (ICONS), the Great Lakes Symposium on Very Large Scale Integration (GLSVLSI), and the International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), and Snyder’s contribution is publicly available in Intel’s open-source Lava framework.

Two years ago, after Parsa circulated a call for proposals from the Army Ground Vehicle Research Center with her lab, Snyder approached her with an idea involving hyperdimensional computing. She encouraged him to write a draft. The two refined the idea and submitted a white paper on the topic. They were then invited to submit a full proposal, which was accepted for funding. So, the same semester that Snyder joined Parsa’s lab as a PhD student, the lab also began to receive funding for a project based on Snyder’s idea.

Maryam Parsa and lab members. Photo provided by Maryam Parsa.

Since Spring 2023, Snyder has become a full PhD student at George Mason and remains an important part of Parsa’s lab. Snyder has taken lead on multiple projects, academic, industry and government collaborations, and published multiple papers. He has also been mentoring not only high school interns and undergraduate students in Parsa’s lab, but also other PhD students. Since Snyder joined Parsa’s lab, he has been the first author of five published conference papers in top artificial intelligence and neuromorphic venues and coauthor in one published journal paper and six published conference papers.

Parsa deeply appreciates having Snyder in her lab, not only for his technical and professional skills but also for the positive energy he brings to the team. She highlights how Snyder's can-do attitude, curiosity, and collaborative nature have been instrumental to the success of numerous projects. His peers frequently rely on him, valuing his contributions and leadership in driving projects forward. Parsa regards working with Snyder as a true pleasure, given the impact he has made inside and outside in the lab.

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First-year PhD student makes business and society better through data

Jennifer Anzaldi — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 20:55:38 +0000

First-year PhD student makes business and society better through data Jennifer Anzaldi Mon, 10/14/2024 - 16:55

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Mehmet Altug

Xinyi Li, a first-year PhD student at ��AV's Costello College of Business, joins the program with a co-authored peer-reviewed paper already published in the United States on African American youth suicidality, alongside a similar publication history in China. Her work reflects a commitment to using data analytics to improve societal and business outcomes.

Li’s academic career spans multiple disciplines. She began in China, earning a bachelor of economics with a concentration in finance from Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics. One of her notable projects during her undergraduate studies involved the planning and risk assessment of insurance for assisted reproductive technologies. She then pursued a master’s in finance at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where her thesis examined the relationship between IPO underpricing and the reputation and location of underwriters.

Xinyi Li

In 2023, Li earned a second master's degree in business analytics from George Washington University (GWU), where her passion for data analysis led her to a meaningful social science research project. “Last summer, Dr. Saijun Zhang, the first author of the paper, asked me if I would like to join a project studying the factors influencing suicidal behavior in African American teenagers,” Li explained. The study examined how factors such as parenting styles and exposure to violence affect suicidal tendencies.

Li contributed to the project by applying her data analysis expertise, using methods like logistic regression models and correlation analysis to identify key social factors affecting suicidal behavior.

“We found that neglectful parenting was significantly associated with an increase in suicidal ideation,” Xinyi noted. “It was fascinating to see how the analytical techniques I learned in business analytics could be applied to such a critical social issue.”

Li is now pursuing a PhD in operations management (OM) at Costello, a shift motivated by her growing interest in areas like supply chain management and game theory. “When I took a course in supply chain management during my master’s, I realized how exciting it was to apply data models to solve real business problems. That’s what inspired me to move into operations management,” she shared.

During the first year of her PhD program, Li will be focusing on coursework and exploring various research directions under the guidance of Mehmet Altug, associate professor of information systems and operations management.

Looking forward, Li is eager to contribute to both academia and industry. “In the short term, my goal is to become deeply familiar with the literature in operations management and start identifying key research areas,” Li said. “Long term, I hope to publish in top academic journals and find a position where I can continue applying my skills to solve practical problems.”

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PhD student’s research on COVID-19 transmission leads to discovery of a major model gap

Colleen Rich — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 20:52:40 +0000

PhD student’s research on COVID-19 transmission leads to discovery of a major model gap Colleen Rich Fri, 08/09/2024 - 16:52

Scientists have long studied the spread of diseases, but the emergence of COVID-19 and its profound impact on society have underscored the critical need to understand where and how diseases spread. As ��AV doctoral student Jericho McLeod reviewed literature on disease transmission as part of his work toward a PhD in computational science and informatics, he and George Mason professor Eduardo López noticed a gap in the models and now seek to correct it.

From left, PhD student and George Mason alum Jericho McLeod with Professor Eduardo López in front of their research poster at the International Pandemic Sciences Conference at Oxford University. Photo provided

In trying to understand why disease transmissions were worse in some areas over others, McLeod and López dove into COVID-19 data looking specifically at extended family ties—meaning family members beyond the nuclear family of parents and children, such as cousins, aunts, uncles, or grandparents.

“According to research on social networks in the United States, individuals during crises like COVID-19, contract their social circles yet become more active with them,” said McLeod. “During lockdown, you saw your friends less, but may have still delivered groceries to your grandmother regularly.”

Studies by McLeod, López, and George Mason PhD student Unchitta Kan previously confirmed that people migrated closer to family more frequently after the pandemic began and that availability of extended family plays a primary factor in influencing face-to-face interaction, laying the groundwork for this research. Now, McLeod and López wanted to know if these extended family ties played a role in the spread of COVID-19.

With the help of Kan and doctoral students Bryan Adams, Valentin Vergara Hidd, and Mailun (Alan) Zhang, they aimed to confirm that these networks mattered enough to warrant future research and updates to disease modeling.

The team gathered obituaries in the Unites States between 2020 to 2022 to examine familial relationships with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data on deaths by geography, age, and gender. They found that during COVID-19, there were more instances of multiple family members dying within short periods (e.g., 60 days) compared to 2018 and 2019, where such cases were less common. This rise in deaths aligns with CDC data on excess deaths but is more noticeable between different waves of the pandemic. So, should these relationships be considered in models demonstrating the spread of disease? McLeod says yes.

In July, McLeod presented his research at the International Pandemic Sciences Conference at Oxford University and was awarded best poster presentation in the epidemiology, data and analytics category.

“I am very proud of our work, and it has been collaborative in every way,” said López, who is an associate professor of computational data sciences. “Jericho has a strong ability to work through the data engineering portion of a problem, but also has the intuition necessary to make this research happen. We were optimistic that we would see the effects that we did, and now we have this great opportunity to study something that people have just completely overlooked.”

McLeod earned a degree in accounting from the University of South Alabama before attending George Mason to earn an MBA. In one of his business courses at the Costello College of Business taught by Pallab Sanyal, professor of information systems and operations management, McLeod was introduced to data analytics and machine learning—and found it fascinating. He went on complete a graduate certificate in data analytics at George Mason before deciding to pursue a PhD.

“Attending the [Oxford] conference was so energizing,” McLeod said. “It brought together a collection of top minds, and Dr. López knew the right people to introduce me to, which led to additional conversations, ideation, and thoughts on future directions for this research.”

George Mason’s Graduate Student Travel Fund, offered by the Office of the Provost, supported McLeod’s trip to the Oxford-based conference.

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George Mason scientists explore adhesives to advance preservation of historical texts

Colleen Rich — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:49:44 +0000

George Mason scientists explore adhesives to advance preservation of historical texts Colleen Rich Thu, 07/11/2024 - 14:49

What does science have to do with the conservation of historical texts? Everything.

Doctoral student Rocío Prisby. Photo provided

Rocío Prisby, a biosciences doctoral student at ��AV, led the first comprehensive analysis of proteins found within wheat starch-based and flour-based pastes used in historic texts.

This study produced a working database for historians to cross-reference for their own samples that will ultimately result in greater understanding of the evolution of adhesives, while also providing a starting point to determine the best conservation practices for bookbinding and paper conservation.

Each sample tells a story—someone in the 1500s mixing flour, water, and milk in a large bowl to create a paste that binds paper; another in the 1600s hoping to improve their glue’s viscosity with a dash of egg. But each story is different, and the uncertainty in these mixtures reinforces the need for a central database to aid in historical research.

“We still don’t know when in human history people stopped mixing flour and water and shifted to starches,” said Prisby, who also has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from George Mason. “So, you can’t make any assumptions for what a book’s glue makeup might be.”

Prisby worked alongside George Mason researchers Alessandra Luchini and Lance Liotta of the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine, as well as Caroline Solazzo from the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute. Their study, published in the Journal of Proteome Research, involved extracting wheat proteins from three small leather cover samples obtained from the National Library of Medicine.

Photo by Getty Images

Their methodology sought to establish a protocol capable of identifying wheat proteins, along with collagen and other proteins commonly found in leather and adhesives. The results were then compared to a database containing collagen proteins from various sources like cattle, sheep, goats, and chicken eggs, as well as wheat proteins from common wheat.

Analysis of historical samples indicates a shift away from using whole wheat for glue production towards the use of starch-based glues. This transition has led to a noticeable decrease in protein content, as the starch extraction process significantly reduces the protein levels in the final product.

Consequently, samples containing starch-based glue exhibit considerably lower protein concentrations compared to those containing traditional wheat-based glue. Environmental conditions and extraction techniques also influence protein composition. Prisby said understanding the chemical changes in wheat-based adhesives is crucial for conservation and restoration practices, particularly in comprehending the degradation of samples over time.

The study’s researchers suggest that further investigation into wheat pastes and other plant-based adhesives should consider a diverse array of factors, including preparation methods, additives, aging processes, and the extensive variety and composition of the raw materials used.

A native of Argentina, Prisby (formerly Cornero) began her chemistry studies at a local university before moving to the United States. She continued her studies at Northern Virginia Community College and was in the first ADVANCE cohort to transfer to George Mason.

Prisby began researching proteins as an undergraduate in the College of Science’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP). In that early research, she studied the proteins in honey to monitor the health of the local environment while also seeking to identify a biomarker that might detect and diagnose diseases in honey bees.

It was through that project that Prisby met Luchini and became interested in her lab’s work in proteomics.

“Dr. Luchini is a great mentor. She dedicates so much time to her students,” said Prisby. “It doesn’t matter what knowledge or experience level you’re at, she meets you where you are.”

When Prisby graduated from George Mason with her undergraduate degree in chemistry, it was Luchini who encouraged her to pursue a PhD in Biosciences.

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Neuroscience PhD student pens novel rooted in Middle Eastern mythology

Colleen Rich — Mon, 20 May 2024 13:32:30 +0000

Neuroscience PhD student pens novel rooted in Middle Eastern mythology Colleen Rich Mon, 05/20/2024 - 09:32

��AV doctoral student Rania Hanna has been writing since she was a child. All those years of storytelling paid off this spring with the publication of her debut novel, The Jinn Daughter, published by Hoopoe Press in April.

Rania Hanna. Photo provided

Reviewers have called her book a “haunting homage to Middle Eastern folklore,” and Hanna, a Syrian American, said she draws from stories she heard as a child for inspiration.

Can you tell us a little about your author journey?

My writing journey started in childhood. I was a voracious reader, so it made sense I’d turn to writing.

In the third grade, I would write short essays on things I was interested in—like dinosaurs and Egyptian mummies, and then hand them to my teacher. At the end of the year, [my teacher] took all my essays and bound them into a book for me. It was such a beautiful and thoughtful gift, and I've never forgotten it.

I found my publisher, Hoopoe Books, an imprint of the American University in Cairo, working with my literary agent. Hoopoe centers Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) voices, so they were the perfect choice for The Jinn Daughter.

What inspired the book?

My heritage! I grew up being fed oral stories by my dad, and so a lot of the stories are a reflection of his stories and our culture. What prompted the specifics of The Jinn Daughter is that a few years ago, I finished reading Tahereh Mafi’s Whichwood, and I loved the idea of taking care of the dead. When I was a teenager, I read Garth Nix’s Sabriel and the Old Kingdom series, and I fell in love with the idea of taking care of the dead there, too, so it all culminated into The Jinn Daughter, with someone who cares for the dead as she does the living. I think it’s important to honor our ancestors, our dead, and not forget their stories.

Hanna's debut novel, The Jinn Daughter, was published by Hoopoe Press in April. Photo provided

How did you come to attend George Mason?

I've been wanting to pursue a PhD in neuroscience for some time, and living in the area, I narrowed down choices to those local to me. George Mason was one of my top choices, and in fact, my top choice, after meeting with professors from the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience and learning of the research being done. The program’s flexibility has allowed me to pursue my degree and study the areas I want. I'm studying the effects of taxanes [a type of drug that blocks cell growth] in relation to neuropathic pain in cancer models.

How does the writing tie into your academic studies? Is there any overlap?

Academic studies and research are stressful, so my writing is cathartic. Having a creative outlet is necessary to my mental health, and without writing, I would walk dead through life. My research and writing do not overlap currently, but I hope to apply my skills in both and write a neuroscience or other scientifically bent book one day.

Do you think you will write another?

Absolutely. Writing is woven into my soul, and Middle Eastern culture is known to have such a rich tradition of storytelling, so it is my culture lineage to write and to tell tales. I have another story in the works, this one focused again on Middle Eastern themes and draws from Arabian star folklore.

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Schar School Alum Bilal Wahab Named President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 16 May 2024 14:10:28 +0000

Schar School Alum Bilal Wahab Named President of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani Andrew J Schappert Thu, 05/16/2024 - 10:10

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Bilal Wahab, PhD ’15: ‘I am equally honored and humbled.’ Photo provided.

Bilal Wahab, a 2015 graduate of ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government’s PhD program, has been named the president of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS). The not-for-profit university, founded in 2007, is among the top-ranked private universities in the Kurdistan region.

Wahab takes the reins of the 1,400-student campus from AUIS president Bruce Walker Ferguson, who announced his departure in July. The school teaches primarily in English and focuses on liberal arts, critical thinking, and leadership skills in graduate and undergraduate studies.

“I am equally honored and humbled,” Wahab said of the AUIS board of trustees’ unanimous vote for his appointment. As a AUIS faculty member from 2012 to 2016, Wahab taught courses on the petroleum industry, public policy, and international politics and founded the school’s Center for the Development of Natural Resources. His Schar School dissertation focused on oil federalism in Iraq.

Wahab came to George Mason as a doctoral student from American University when University Professor Louise Shelley moved her Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) to the Schar School from American University.

Shelley has nothing but the highest praise for her former student, who was among the first Iraqis awarded a Fulbright scholarship.

“When he came to the U.S. to study at American, he was the number one choice of the Fulbright selection committee out of the many thousands of applicants,” she said. “I always knew he would be a president but the question for me was, ‘of what?’

“He is so articulate in English and so poised and showed such leadership. He has been such a good analyst of Middle East politics and has such great fluency in so many different languages—Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish.

“Going back to the American University of Iraq is so characteristic of Bilal,” she added. “He wants to give back and help students grow.”

As for his experience at George Mason, where he was a research assistant from 2008 to 2012 at TraCCC, “It is my sincere and heartfelt thanks for the unwavering support extended to me by the Schar School and the many scholars I studied under,” he said. “It has been a journey, but here I am, embarking on a new personal and professional chapter.”

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Mason doctoral student aims for the stars through a passion for math

Colleen Rich — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:15:03 +0000

Mason doctoral student aims for the stars through a passion for math Colleen Rich Thu, 03/07/2024 - 15:15

Some people’s interest in space exploration begins in elementary school, while others grow a fascination through sci-fi television shows or movies. For Sky Ratcliffe, a ��AV student in the second year of their PhD in mathematics, it was a personal connection through their great uncle, a former NASA engineer who worked on Apollo 11, 12, and 16.

Mason PhD student Sky Ratcliffe. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“My interest in NASA started at a young age and began with a sense of being enamored by space, more specifically pictures of it, as that appealed to my artistic side,” Ratcliffe said. “My mom gave me a big binder of original photos of some of the rockets and moon landing pictures, [which belonged to my great uncle]. It felt so special to own original copies of those pictures you come across online when searching ‘the moon landing.’"

Originally from a small town in upstate New York, Ratcliffe, who identifies as nonbinary, has a strong affinity for the stars from being able to see them so clearly back home.

“I have a unique experience [because] I grew up off the grid. My house was powered through solar and wind power, and we had a generator. It wasn't easy to deal with as a child,” they said. “This inspired me to get out of the house and go to college right away knowing I wouldn’t be faced with limitations on electricity usage.”

While initially dreaming of becoming a chemist when they started their undergraduate studies at St. Lawrence University, Ratcliffe eventually realized their interest in chemistry was specifically due to the mathematics behind chemical processes.

“I have ADHD so all the memorization in chemistry was difficult for me, while math was just more appealing because it wasn't about having a good memory—it was about learning to understand,” Ratcliffe said. “I realized that if you learn to understand rather than learn to memorize, it becomes much easier and much more interesting.”

Applying to graduate school during the peak of COVID-19 was an overwhelming experience for Ratcliffe. Coming from a low-income family, they were thrilled to receive an email from Mason stating that McNair Scholars, a first-generation college student program for individuals interested in higher sciences that Ratcliffe took part in during their undergraduate studies, are eligible to apply for a PhD program at no cost.

“I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy my time at Mason until I got here,” they said. "There is a strong support system in the Mathematical Sciences Department. We all want to see each other succeed, and I can see myself working with and being friends with these peers long into my career.”

Focused on pursuing the mathematics side of chemistry, Ratcliffe’s interests landed on differential equations and dynamical systems, a type of math seen in engineering.

“’Applied math' can be referred to as math that pertains to our world directly such as math used in architecture or population models or, more topically, tracking the spread of diseases such as COVID-19,” said Ratcliffe. “This is opposed to theoretical math, which is simply math that hasn’t been applied to our world (yet), and one day it may.”

Still new in their PhD journey, Ratcliffe has not conducted any official research. Matt Holzer, associate professor for the Department of Mathematical Sciences who began working with Ratcliffe this semester, said he is impressed by their independence and work ethic. “They have been taking the lead in the readings that we have been doing and are doing a fantastic job.”

In search of a scholarship geared toward first-generation students in need of financial aid, Ratcliffe applied to the Graduate Inclusion and Access (GIA) Scholarship program at Mason and was accepted in 2022. “The scholarship allows me to not only progress more quickly in my program, but provides me the opportunity to be here and continue doing what I enjoy most: mathematics,” Ratcliffe said.

“Sky’s background as a McNair Scholar has helped them quickly contribute toward building inclusive communities of peer support, both within Mathematics PhD program and the GIA cohort,” said Senior Associate Provost for Graduate Education Laurence Bray. “They are the kind of scholar who is going to make a positive impact in this world and for whom the GIA scholarship is intended.

Ratcliffe said they feel content knowing other GIA scholars with whom they can connect and said they are thankful for the many resources available on campus to help them with any questions or concerns throughout the PhD journey.

“It’s good to know there are other first-generation students around since I feel like we sort of had to navigate a lot of applying to and attending college on our own,” they said.

Ratcliffe plans on a career that will have a positive impact on the environment and hopes to work in an industry that is dedicated to healing and sustaining the Earth. Their childhood environment plays a significant impact in Ratcliffe’s deep care for the environment, which they hope to continue throughout their life.

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Mason doctoral student named Virginia Teacher of the Year

Colleen Rich — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 16:33:29 +0000

Mason doctoral student named Virginia Teacher of the Year Colleen Rich Thu, 06/01/2023 - 12:33

��AV doctoral student Jeffery W. Keller is the 2024 Virginia Teacher of the Year. The announcement was made by Governor Glenn Youngkin during a livestreamed event held on May 18, 2023, in Richmond, Virginia.

Jeffery Keller. Photo provided

Keller, who is also a Mason alum with a master’s degree in history, is a history teacher at John Handley High School in Winchester, Virginia, and is currently pursuing his PhD in education with a primary specialization in teaching and teacher education at Mason.

Upon being named recipient of this prestigious award, Keller stated, “It’s exciting. It’s validation for hard work and long hours...I am thankful for my students too, it’s really for them. They’re what it’s all about.”

“Jeffery encourages each of his students to set high goals and creates pathways for them to achieve excellence,” said Lisa Coons, Virginia superintendent of public instruction. “I am looking forward to visiting Handley High and watching him in action. Jeffery and our other regional teachers of the year are going to be outstanding ambassadors for the commonwealth’s teachers and public schools.”

Keller was one of eight individuals chosen to represent their respective school districts as the 2024 regional teacher of the year. Following an interview with each of the commonwealth’s eight regional winners, a Virginia Department of Education selection committee named Keller as the winner of the commonwealth award.

Keller will now be representing Virginia on the national stage as nominee for 2024 National Teacher of the Year. The winner of the national competition will be announced next spring during a ceremony to be held at the White House.