Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the Teaching Computational Thinking Skills with MATLAB Workshop at the Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College October 20–22.  Edwards served as a workshop facilitator and peer reviewer in addition to delivering a presentation titled “Adding a MATLAB Component to an Engineering Dynamics Course ” based on her experience integrating a computational component into the Engineering Dynamics course at Southwestern.  

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards helped lead a workshop held May 14–16, at St. Edward’s University, on conducting air-quality research using ozonesondes. Ozonesondes are lightweight instruments that are launched on weather balloons to measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere and to sample air pollutant from the ground’s surface to an altitude of 30 kilometers. SCOPE students Daniel Whitney ’21 and Jacob Fly ’21 participated in the workshop, along with several St. Edward’s students. In addition to an overview of the science of air quality, the participants learned two protocols for conditioning the instrument and then launched a balloon.

Visiting Professor of Environmental Engineering Rebecca Edwards  was invited to visit the office of the state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon at Texas A&M University on March 12 to discuss her research on the climatology of extreme precipitation in Texas over the past 100 years. The invitation was extended following a presentation of her work at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in January.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the 99th Annual American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Jan. 6–9.  While there, she delivered two presentations: “Changes in Heavy and Extreme Precipitation in Texas 1900–2015,” a statistical analysis of heavy precipitation events in Texas over the past century, and “The Central Texas Collaborative Air Quality Monitoring Experiment,” which described a course-based research experience that involved launching weather balloons from the Southwestern campus during the spring of 2018 as part of the Energy and the Environment course. She also presented a poster titled “Influences on Air Quality in Georgetown, Texas,” a preliminary study of the data collected as part of the weather-balloon project described above

Eleven Southwestern University faculty members have won Sam Taylor Fellowship grants to support their research, with award amounts ranging from $1,000 to $1,600. Sam Taylor Fellowships are selected through a competitive application process and are provided by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. This year’s recipients are

• Professor of Physics Steven Alexander, “Generating Energy from Hot Sidewalks” (awarded $1,200)
• Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Lamiyah Bahrainwala, “The Politics of Stealth Halal: Re-Presenting the Islamic Origins of U.S. Meat Products” (awarded $1,600)
• Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth , “Nature Education in the German Classroom: Possibilities for Integration and Inclusion?” (awarded $1,400)
• Professor of Biology Romi Burks, “Unravelling the Mystery: Genetic Differentiation of Chinese and Japanese Mysterysnails Using 16S” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of History Jethro Hernandez Berrones, “With Indigenist Spirit: Doctors on Spiritual Practices in Post-Revolutionary Mexico” (awarded $1,500)
• Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson, “Human–Jaguar Becomings and Racial Capitalism in Belize” (awarded $1,000)
• Associate Professor of French Francis Mathieu, “Research on Claire de Duras’s Avant-Garde Novella, Ourika” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of French Aaron Prevots, “Gestures toward the Sacred: Guillevic, Vargaftig, Tellermann, Michel” (awarded $1,400)
• Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar, “Contemporary Modes of Parenting: Disrupting the Representation of Stepmothers in Popular Culture” (awarded $1,500)
• Associate Professor of Spanish Maria De Los Angeles Rodriguez Cadena, “Cultural Memory and Historical Fiction: Women of the Past on Television and Film by Four Contemporary Mexican Women Directors” (awarded $1,400)
• Assistant Professor of Political Science Emily Sydnor, “Researching Attachments to American Political Institutions” (awarded $1,600)