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Dr. David Montague serves as the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs - student success and a professor of criminal justice at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He formerly served as the director of online learning. 
Dr. Montague completed federal investigations for 14 years in law enforcement and intelligence capacities working for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a federal drug diversion investigator. At the age of 23, he lectured on Asset Forfeiture at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and at 29, he was appointed as head of investigations for the United States JFK Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) as the senior investigator. He later went on to serve as a consultant on national security matters with US Investigations Services, Inc. and was a member of the founding faculty of the PhD Program in Organizational Leadership at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
In 2004, he joined UA Little Rock’s Department of Criminal Justice as an Assistant Professor teaching in both undergraduate and graduate programs. He has used his time at UA Little Rock to facilitate a mix of his teaching, research, and service in such a manner as to use his access to expose students via projects, collaborate both on and off campus, and generate grant and contract funding as often as possible. He founded the UA Little Rock Senior Justice Center to promote service and research on crime against older people. He is the recipient of the 2003 Outstanding Faculty Staff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Intellectual Development of Undergraduate Students by the University of Maryland at College Park Nyumburu Cultural Center, the 2009 UA Little Rock College of Professional Studies Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching, and the 2014 UA Little Rock College of Professional Studies Faculty Excellence Award in Service. He is also the recipient of the 2016 Felix Fabian Founder’s Award from the Southwest Association of Criminal Justice, awarded for outstanding contribution to SWACJ and the criminal justice profession.
Dr. Montague formerly served as the graduate coordinator for the UA Little Rock Master of Science Program in criminal justice and is a graduate of the LeadAR Program, the Arkansas State leadership program involving a two-year commitment of service-learning and travel within-state and the People’s Republic of China. He was a founding member of the UA Little Rock’s Chancellor’s Committee on Race and Ethnicity, and his most recent funded research project was to evaluate programming for the Arkansas Department of Community Correction, dealing with services for clients during and after release from prison. In 2017, he was appointed to a part-time role as coordinator of UA Little Rock’s university-level mentoring program for new faculty.
Dr. Montague is active in the community volunteering as a deputy sheriff in Arkansas, participating in a rehabilitation program at three prisons, and has served on several discipline-related boards – one of them being the board of directors for the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, one of the largest national associations for criminal justice educators.
He has presented his research internationally at conferences in Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Holland, Trinidad, and Canada. In addition to serving as a keynote speaker nationally, he has testified before two state legislatures on prospective policies. He has written numerous publications and is the coauthor of the book Travesty of Justice: The politics of crack cocaine and the dilemma of the Congressional Black Caucus, now in its Second Edition. He is also finishing up a new book dealing with his tenure as part of the Congressional reinvestigation of JFK assassination records during the 1990s.
Dr. Montague resides in Little Rock, Arkansas with his wife and daughter.

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Her legacy continues: Arkansas's 'Hidden Figure' Dr. Raye Montague's son reaches for next generation

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Laura Fine is the state director for the Arkansas SBTDC hosted by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She joined the program in 1989 initially engaged in training and communications roles prior to becoming Assistant State Director in 1992 and then Associate State Director in 2013. She was named state director in 2017. Prior to joining the Arkansas SBTDC, Fine was a trainer and special projects manager for Levi Strauss & Co.
She leads the ASBTDC statewide network of 11 offices with more than 60 team members. ASBTDC is currently performing on six projects federally funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
A member of the America’s SBDC Network Board of Directors, Fine also serves on the national Marketing and Operations Committees and previously served on the Accreditation Committee. She was recognized by Arkansas Business in its annual Arkansas 250 listing in 2019 and 2020 as one of Arkansas’ Most Influential Leaders in Economic Development. She represents the Arkansas SBTDC with the Arkansas Economic Developers and Chamber Executives, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, and the Arkansas Community & Economic Development Alliance.
Fine earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the University of Central Arkansas. She is an active member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock where she currently serves on the Finance Team.

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Hawkins Collects Statewide ASBTDC Honors

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Professor Virginia (Gina) Lorenz joined the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2015, where her research group performs experiments in quantum optics and atomic, molecular and optical physics. Lorenz's research group currently focuses on a variety of areas in quantum optics: quantum networks, quantum memories, photonic quantum sources, quantum sensing. On November 4, 2023, in collaboration with other research teams and university and community partners, Lorenz launched the first publicly accessible quantum network. Her group investigates new sources of entangled photon pairs for use in quantum protocols. They are also developing a quantum memory capable of storing and retrieving THz bandwidth quantum states. Finally, her group studies quantum information theory to better understand and predict the limitations of sensing techniques in a wide range of applications.
She received her B.A. in physics magna cum laude and mathematics in 2001 and completed her Ph.D. in physics in 2007 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. From 2007-2009 she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the University of Oxford, where she worked on implementations of quantum memories in atomic and solid-state systems. From 2009-2014, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware.

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Grainger Engineering researchers launch world's first public quantum network

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Professor Shaloo Rakheja is an expert in physics-based modeling of nanoelectronic devices and technology-device-circuit co-design and co-optimization. She is particularly interested in understanding, predicting, and modeling physical phenomena in materials that drive their functional behavior and enable multifaceted applications in the domains of low-power logic and memory, sensing, brain-inspired computing, and wireless communication.
The models Rakheja creates are predictive in nature, provide guidance to experiments, reduce costs of test-structures, improve the turnaround and success rate of laboratory tests by preventing trial and error, and enable correct interpretation of experimental data. Her computational models also strengthen the innovation loop between materials scientists, device engineers, and circuit designers and eventually enable new functionalities in the next-generation sensing, memory, computing, and communication technologies.
From 2015 to mid-2019, Rakheja was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New York University (NYU), where she established her independent research laboratory called “Quantum Nanoelectronics Laboratory.” Since joining UIUC in 2019, she has continued to grow in the area of physical modeling of electrical, thermal, and magnetic excitations in nanoscale devices. She has successfully used her models to enable a co-design framework wherein the different layers of the design hierarchy – materials, devices, and circuits – are simultaneously optimized for maximum system-level benefits.

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Center to develop new materials, process paradigms for next-generation semiconductors

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Popcorn breeder available for National Popcorn Day

From snack to science: Innovative grant brings popcorn into the classroom

Dr. Anthony "Tony" Studer improves the efficiency and productivity of cereal crops by optimizing photosynthesis and water use. His research helps develop crops that are resilient to climate change and meet the needs of growers at the regional, national, and international levels.
More information: Studer's lab studies the evolution, regulation, and function of the carbon concentrating mechanism employed by plants for C4 photosynthesis. This process plays an important role in carbon dioxide uptake and transpirational water loss, and thus, has direct implications for photosynthetic and water-use efficiency. Elucidating the genetic control of photosynthesis will enable the manipulation of crops (through both breeding and engineering) to improve productivity and sustainability, which will be vital for food and fuel security in a changing environment.
Affiliations: Studer is an associate professor in the Department of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also affiliated with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), the Center for Digital Agriculture, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at U. of I.

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Don’t look back: the aftermath of a distressing event is more memorable than the lead-up, study suggests

Florin Dolcos is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a full-time faculty member at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
He performed his Ph.D. research in cognitive and affective neurosciences at the University of Alberta’s Centre for Neuroscience and Duke University’s Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, and his postdoctoral training in cognitive, affective, and clinical neurosciences at Duke University’s Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Dolcos joined the University of Illinois following an assistant professor appointment in the University of Alberta’s Department of Psychiatry.
Research 
Dolcos researches the neural correlates of affective-cognitive interactions in healthy and clinical populations, as studied with brain imaging techniques such as functional MRI and ERP. His program can be divided into the following main directions:

Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Impact of Emotion on Cognition. 
This direction investigates the mechanisms underlying the enhancing and impairing effects of emotion on various cognitive/executive processes (perception, attention, working memory, episodic memory, decision making). A novel direction emerging from this research investigates the neural mechanisms linking and dissociating the opposing effects of emotion. This is important because they tend to co-occur in both healthy functioning and clinical conditions. For instance, enhanced distraction produced by task-irrelevant emotional information can also lead to better memory for the distracters themselves. Also, enhanced memory for traumatic events in PTSD can also lead to impaired cognition due to increased emotional distractibility.

2. Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Impact of Cognition on Emotion. 
The impact of cognition on emotion is typically exerted as cognitive control of emotion, or emotion regulation. This direction is corollary to my first direction, and is important to pursue, because optimal cognitive control of emotional responses is a key component of healthy emotional behavior, whereas maladaptive regulation strategies constitute a core feature of affective disorders. Thus, in our studies we also manipulate emotion regulation strategies (e.g., suppression, reappraisal, attentional deployment), to investigate the regulatory mechanisms mediating the beneficial or detrimental impact of emotion on cognition.

3. Neural Mechanisms of Emotion-Cognition Interactions in Social Contexts. 
My research also targets mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions in social contexts. This newly emerging direction in my research program is also important, because proper processing and interpretation of emotional social cues are key components of successful social behavior. Therefore, we are also investigating the neural mechanisms of processing emotional information as social cues, and of their impact on behavior.

4. The Role of Individual Differences in Emotion-Cognition Interactions. 
Although the first three lines of research have clear clinical relevance, it is important to also directly investigate the very same issues in clinical cohorts. Therefore, my research program also includes collaborations with clinical researchers that investigate neural mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions in patients with mood and anxiety disorders (depression, PTSD), as well as investigation of changes associated with therapeutic interventions. Investigation of individual differences, however, is important not only for understanding clinical conditions, but also for integrative understanding of the factors that influence individual variation in the vulnerability to, or resilience against, emotional and cognitive challenges leading to disturbances. Thus, in my research, I have also investigated the role of gender, age, personality, and genetic differences in emotion-cognition interactions. Especially relevant are emerging large-scale studies using comprehensive behavior-personality-brain approaches emphasizing integrative understanding that is critical for the development of training and preventive programs aimed to increase resilience and reduce vulnerability to emotional disturbances.

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Veterans see positive changes in emotional resilience after intervention

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Novel Immunotherapy Selectively Targets Malignant T Cells

Clinical Expertise: Dr. Girardi is Co-Director of the Yale Cutaneous Lymphoma Group, Director of the Photopheresis Unit, and Director of the Phototherapy Unit at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center and Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Girardi is also an active member of the national and international organizations (United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium, International Society of Cutaneous Lymphoma) that formulate and publish the criteria guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment CTCL, and is executing the largest clinical database for CTCL. He has published over 150 scientific manuscripts, clinical reports, and book chapters, including on the genetic basis of CTCL and a Medical Progress Report for the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Girardi was awarded the 2023 Yale Blavatnik Innovation Award for the development of new treatments for T cell lymphoma and the 2017 Zeligman Award by Johns Hopkins University for his expertise in understanding the genetic and immunologic mechanisms that cause CTCL, and he has delivered over 100 national and international lectures including at the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Moffitt Cancer Center, Kings College London, and Northwestern University. Dr. Girardi is currently Professor, Vice Chair, and NIH T32 Research Fellowship Co-Director for the Department of Dermatology, Yale School of Medicine.
Disease Interests: the diagnosis and management of cutaneous lymphoma and related conditions, including: mycosis fungoides (MF) cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL) [variants of which include folliculotropic MF, follicular mucinosis MF, hypopigmented (hypomelanotic) MF, pagetoid reticulosis (Woringer-Kolopp disease), erythrodermic MF, tumor-stage (T3) MF, transformed MF (T-MF), large cell transformation MF (LCT-MF), and Sézary syndrome (SS)]; CD30+ lymphoproliferative disorders (CD30+ LPD) including lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) and anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL); CD4+ small/medium/pleomorphic T cell lymphoma (CD4+ SMPTCL); cutaneous B cell lymphoma (CBCL) [variants of which include primary cutaneous marginal zone B cell lymphoma (PCMZBCL) and primary cutaneous follicle center B cell lymphoma (PCFLBCL); lymphocytoma cutis (pseudolymphoma); parapsorias (including large plaque and small plaque variants); subcutaneous panniculitic T cell lymphoma (SCPTCL); cutaneous CD8+ cytotoxic T cell lymphoma; cutaneous gamma-delta T cell lymphoma; and cutaneous NK/T cell lymphoma. Laboratory Research: During more than 20 years leading an NCI-funded research program at Yale, Dr. Girardi’s laboratory is credited with major contributions to our understanding of skin biology immunology and skin cancer development, including the elucidation of roles for gamma-delta T cells, NKG2D ligands, Langerhans cells, and innate lymphoid cells. Dr. Girardi has served as the Co-Director for the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Immunology and Immunotherapy Program, and is the holder/filer of 10+ biomedical patents on cancer diagnosis and treatment and co-founder of two Yale startup companies: Stradefy Biosciences and Devana Bio. Dr. Girardi's work has been published in Science(x2), J Exp Med (x3), Nature, Nature Immunology (x4), Nature Genetics (x2), Nature Materials, PNAS (x4), and Blood (x4) – with a Google Scholar Profile of h-index 45+, i10-index 100+, 10,000+ citations. Watch a video with Dr. Michael Girardi 
Dr. Girardi’s current research programs include:

The role of local immune cells in the development of cutaneous carcinogenesis. Using state-of-the-art genetically engineered mice, immunobiology techniques, and confocal imaging, the Girardi laboratory is dissecting how various immune cells, resident within and recruited to the skin, contribute the skin cancer development.
Novel approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of cutaneous T cell lymphoma (CTCL). Overseeing one of the largest centers for CTCL, Dr. Girardi and colleagues use genetic sequencing and robotic transfer to enhance diagnosis and to screen and develop new pharmaceutical agents in the treatment of this malignancy, and is engineer new small molecules and immunotherapeutics for T cell
Biodegradable nanotechnology in the prevention and treatment of skin cancer. In collaboration with W.M. Saltzman (Professor, Yale Biomedical Engineering) and Douglas Brash (Professor, Genetics), Dr. Girardi’s lab is developing novel strategies for skin cancer prevention and treatment.

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Dr. Scott Irwin helps farmers in Illinois, the United States, and throughout the world make more informed production, marketing, and financial decisions by evaluating the economic factors that affect corn and soybean prices. He also leads farmdoc, a pathbreaking Extension project that provides timely, useful, and relevant online information about Corn Belt farm economics. 
More information: Dr. Scott H. Irwin, the Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing at the University of Illinois, is a globally recognized leader in agricultural economics and multi-published author of commodity books. His influential research on commodity markets is sought after by academics, farmers, and policymakers alike. He’s a frequent media commentator for prestigious outlets like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He has over 40,000 followers on social media, the largest following for an agricultural economist worldwide.
Irwin is best known for his work on commodity market speculation and biofuel policy, leading to invitations to testify before the U.S. Congress and the OECD. His vision and leadership have been a driving force behind the innovative farmdoc project that benefits farmers throughout the world. This award-winning project has been dubbed the “Wall Street Journal of ag business.”
He is a Fellow of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA), the highest honor accorded to members. He has also received numerous AAEA awards for his contributions to research, extension, and policy. Dr. Irwin holds a B.S. in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University. Currently, he teaches courses on commodity price analysis. His lifelong fascination with commodity markets began in his childhood, accompanying his father to the local grain elevator to track the latest prices from ‘Chicago.’
Irwin is the author of three books, most recently Back to the Futures: Crashing dirt bikes, chasing cows, and unraveling the mystery of commodity futures markets, named one of the 100 best non-fiction books of 2023 by Inc. Magazine. 
Affiliations: Irwin is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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Dr. Gary Schnitkey is the Soybean Industry Endowed Chair in Agricultural Strategy within the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  His activities focus on farm and risk management on Corn Belt grain farms. He analyzes factors causing differences in profitability across farms, and develops ways of mitigating risk on farms. He writes the Weekly Farm Economics article that appears each Tuesday on the farmdocDaily website. 

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Understanding differences in nonconformity

Our work seeks to understand what shapes people's identity. Our research investigates how people think about their identity, changes to their identity, and how identity is different according cultural contexts. We use a personality approach to understanding individual differences in identity. The overarching goal of our research is to illuminate what makes people who they are as dynamic complex individuals living across the world.

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UGA stroke treatment headed to clinical trial

Dr. Steve Stice is a University of Georgia, DW Brooks Distinguished Professor and Director of the Regenerative Bioscience Center, who holds a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar endowed chair, and is CSO of ArunA Biomedical Inc. He has over 30 years of research and development experience in biotechnology and is a co-founder of several biotech start-ups, including ArunA Biomedical; the first company to commercialize a product derived from human pluripotent stem cells, and cell development used to facilitate approval of Pfizer’s current cognitive enhancing pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining UGA, Stice was the co-founder and served as both CSO and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, the first USA Company to advance to human clinical trials using human pluripotent stem cells. Additionally, he co-founded startups; Prolinia and Cytogenesis which later merged with what is now, ViaCyte.
Outside of his academic professorship and business role, Stice co-directs The Regenerative Engineering and Medicine research center, or REM, a joint collaboration between Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology and UGA, and is also a group leader of EBICS: Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an invited member, he sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is serving on the Governing Committee of the first institute funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC); National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), the eleventh institute in the Manufacturing USA government network.
Stice is a world-renown expert in the field of pluripotent stem cell biology. In 2001, he directed work on derivation of three human pluripotent stem cell lines which were approved for federal funding by the NIH and President Bush. One of several noteworthy achievements for Stice, was producing the first cloned rabbit in 1987 and the first cloned transgenic calves in 1998 (George and Charlie). In 1997 his group produced the first genetically modified embryonic stem cell derived pigs and cattle. Notably, the Stice lab was one of only five NIH sponsored sites for training NIH investigators on the propagation, differentiation and use of hESC over a six year period.
Currently, the Stice lab is developing novel therapies and new technologies for drug screening and neurodegenerative disease, which could change the lives of those suffering with Parkinson’s, Stroke injury, and Alzheimer’s. This research has led to publications in Science and Nature journals, national news coverage (CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN) and the first US patents on cloning animals and cattle stem cells which was featured in the Wall Street Journal. Most recently, Stice was elected to NAI Fellow status, the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors. Georgia Bio also honored Stice that same year with the 2017 Georgia Bio Industry Growth Award.

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Superbowl Stress Can Hurt Your Heart - Cardiologist Offers Tips to Stay Healthy on Game Day

Dr. Tamara Horwich is a cardiologist and Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is Medical Director of UCLA's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, Co-Director of the UCLA Women's Cardiovascular Health Center, and an active member of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center.
Dr. Horwich's clinical interests include treating and preventing heart disease in women, cardiac rehabilitation, treating patients with heart failure, and performing and interpreting echocardiograms. Dr. Horwich's main research interests include studying obesity, body composition and cardiovascular disease, as well as risk factors and novel therapies for patients with heart disease, with a focus on women. She has been a grant recipient from the National Institutes of Health, the Heart Failure Society of America, as well as the Iris Cantor Women's Center at UCLA. Dr. Horwich is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association and has helped draft national guidelines on management of heart failure. Dr. Horwich received a BA in History from Brown University and an MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She then returned to her native Los Angeles to complete internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at UCLA, during which time she also attained a Master’s of Science in Clinical Research from UCLA.




 

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Deborah Cory-Slechta, PhD, is a professor of Environmental Medicine, Neuroscience, and Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her research focuses on the impact environmental toxins, particularly ultra-fine particles found in air pollution, have on brain development and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Professor Cory-Slechta has served on numerous national review and advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Center for Toxicological Research, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control.

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Researchers look for link between air pollution and brain disease

Essential herbicide, but at what cost? Paraquat remains in US despite bans elsewhere

The Pesticide Playbook

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Philip’s research explores how individuals seek meaning in life, with a particular focus on the positive psychological consequences of death awareness. Inspired by evidence from research into near-death experiences and post-traumatic growth, Philip is responsible for a psychological model that links healthy and honest considerations of mortality to increased well-being, heightened desires for self-direction, and more authentic living. His work has been covered in the ‘Huffington Post’, ‘Psychology Today’, ‘Scientific American’, ‘BBC Radio 4’ and has generated research from numerous psychologists around the world.

Philip also hosted and produced the 'Understanding Our Place In The World' podcast: https://sptfy.com/9M48

Philip received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2006. His current role is Associate Professor of Research at the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

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Thinking about Death Can Make Life Better

Thinking about Mortality Changes How We Act

Why Thinking About Dying Makes Us More Generous

'The Riddle' - BBC Radio 4

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Syphilis expert available to discuss new CDC report on maternal syphilis rates in the U.S.

Syphilis expert available to discuss rising trends

$3.3 million grant awarded to UTHealth Houston to develop diagnostic test for rapidly increasing congenital syphilis

Irene Stafford, MD, is an associate professor and maternal-fetal medicine physician with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. 
Dr. Stafford's clinical interests include syphilis trends and testing. She has interviewed with multiple national and loca news outlets to discuss the ongoing rise of syphilis in Houston, Texas and across the United States. In 2022, Dr. Stafford recieved a $3.3M grant to develop a molecular diagnostic test for congenital syphilis. Dr. Stafford is the PI for the multicenter study, which includes Baylor College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of California, the University of Southern California, and The Ohio State University, will also focus on neurodevelopment testing of babies born with syphilis.
Dr. Stafford also leads a perinatal syphilis program at UT Physicians, the clinical practice of McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston, where she has dedicated a clinic day for patients with syphilis. 

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Baby’s First Tooth? Time for a Visit to the Dentist

Dr. Cheen Loo is a Professor, Chair and Postdoctoral Program Director in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry (ABPD), a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and a member of the College of Diplomates of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and the Academy of Dental Education Association. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the Examination Subcommittee of the ABPD.

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Dr. William Schaffner is Professor of Preventive Medicine with a primary appointment in the Department of Health Policy as well as Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee.
After graduating from Yale in 1957, Schaffner attended the University of Freiburg, Germany as a Fulbright Scholar. He graduated from Cornell University Medical College in 1962 and completed residency training and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt. He then was commissioned in the U.S. Public Health Service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for two years. While with the CDC, Dr. Schaffner became intimately familiar with public health and investigated outbreaks of communicable diseases both in the United States and abroad. These experiences were a formative stimulus for his subsequent career. He returned to Vanderbilt after that tour of duty, joining the faculty and establishing a long collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Health.
Dr. Schaffner's primary interest has been the prevention of infectious diseases. He is a strong proponent of collaboration between academic medical centers and public health institutions. He has worked extensively on the effective use of vaccines in both pediatric and adult populations and has been a member of numerous expert advisory committees that establish national vaccine policy.
Dr. Schaffner is the current Medical Director and past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and has served on the Executive Board for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. 
Dr. Schaffner is committed to communicating about medicine to the general public. He regards this as a teaching opportunity. As such, he is often invited to comment in local and national media on communicable disease issues, translating research advances and public health events into language that the public can understand.

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JN.1 variant now behind nearly half of US COVID cases

How to prevent shingles and what to do if you get it

COVID-19 hospitalizations are increasing in US, rates are highest among oldest and youngest Americans

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Expert available to discuss US court ban, EPA violation regarding dicamba herbicide

The silver bullet that wasn't: Glyphosate's declining weed control over 25 years

Tank-mixing herbicides may not be enough to avoid herbicide resistance

Dr. Aaron Hager contributes to increased crop production through development and implementation of integrated weed management programs. His research helps to identify and manage herbicide-resistance in the most aggressive agronomic weeds.
More information: The focus of Hager's research program is to develop innovative approaches that ultimately expand our knowledge and understanding of weed biology, with a particular emphasis directed toward addressing the contemporary weed species infesting the major field crops of Illinois. His ultimate research goal is to establish a robust applied research program, supplemented with basic research fostered through novel collaborations with molecular biology scientists and ecologists, to provide economical and sustainable solutions to the fundamental weed management challenges plaguing Illinois producers. A contemporary weed biology research program should be holistic and engender partnerships that establish new research paradigms to address the dynamic nature of weed management in Midwestern agronomic cropping systems. His extension/research appointment provides many opportunities to develop new research projects that address the immediate and long-term needs of producers. Forming research collaborations with current weed science faculty and staff provides opportunity for contemporary weed management challenges to be addressed using both applied research techniques and research techniques unique to the University of Illinois weed science program.
Affiliations: Hager is a professor in the Department of Crop Sciences and a faculty Extension specialist with Illinois Extension, both part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

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University of Illinois researcher discusses the health benefits of Valentine’s Day chocolate

Dr. Elvira de Mejia investigates bioactive peptides and proteins in foods that promote health benefits for reducing inflammation, markers of type 2 diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease risk. She identifies and characterizes the functional properties of food components, notably flavonoids in ethnic teas, herbs, and berries.
More information: Molecular mechanisms of chemoprevention of bioactive food components, mainly proteins and flavonoids, and their safety. The de Mejia lab studies food components with health benefits; analysis, characterization and mechanism of action of antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic compounds in foods (legumes, oilseeds and vegetables). They currently are working with bioactive proteins in different legumes. The research group investigates the role of processing on the presence, concentration and physicochemical characteristics of proteins with biological potential against transformed human cells as well as their safety, such as allergenic potential. They also are studying the health benefits of tea, in particular the molecular mechanisms underlying the biological effects of ethnic teas used in folk medicine to combat several disorders, including cancer. This scientific study will introduce new materials to improve human health.
Affiliations: Dr. de Mejia is a professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and the Division of Nutritional Sciences, both part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

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Marianne Alleyne is a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and is affiliated with the Illinois Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. Her research group, the Alleyne Bioinspiration Collaborative, or ABCLab, uses a variety of insects as inspiration for the novel design of materials and mechanical systems. 
Alleyne is the incumbent president of the Entomological Society of America. She is also regularly featured on news outlets like NPR and The Verge. 
Research Interests:

Insect physiology

Physiology


Bioinspiration


Bioinspired design


The ABC Lab is broadly interested in what structures and systems in nature (specifically those found in arthropods) can help us more efficiently design novel technologies. We rely on fundamental scientific data to inform the bioinspired design process. Our focus is on multi-functionality of insect wings (cicadas, flies, dragonflies, beetles) and insect associated structures (leafhopper brochosomes). We also study the clicking mechanism of click beetles.
Education

B.A., integrative biology, University of California, Berkeley, 1991
 


M.S., entomology, University of California, Riverside, 1995
 


Ph.D., entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000
 


Other links

School of Integrative Biology profile
The Grainger College of Engineering profile

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