In This Issue

Research Funding News

Yaroslavsky, Hall Receive Third Frontier Research Incentives

Drs. Greg Hall and Ilya Yaroslavsky

Cleveland State University researchers will receive two Research Incentive grants from the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) to conduct research regarding infant mortality and substance abuse issues in the state. The funding was allocated as part of a provision in House Bill 166, which gives ODHE the authority to use the funds to advance collaborative research in specified research areas.

Dr. Greg Hall, co-director of CSU’s Partnership for Urban Health, will lead the implementation of “Survive and Thrive – A New Future for African American Babies.” The project will be funded for $982,322 over two years, and will be conducted in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic and Birthing Beautiful Communities of Cleveland. The team, which includes Dr. Roland Anglin (Dean, Urban Affairs) and Dr. Heather Rice (Nursing), will analyze macro- and micro-economic factors and neighborhood and household conditions with the goal of identifying causal links to infant mortality. In addition, they will develop a Social Risk Assessment tool using the data and a toolkit linked to comprehensive services such as transportation access, housing placement, trauma therapy, and job placement.

Dr. Ilya Yaroslavsky, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, will lead a CSU research team to investigate patient-specific risk patterns for substance use disorder and withdrawal in real time. The team will receive $252,819 through the program, and will develop a cellphone application and automated statistical algorithms to identify risks for sobriety lapses for individuals completing outpatient treatment programs. The goal will be to better identify individuals in need of additional support, while reducing the risk of relapses. Faculty members Dr. Sandra Hurtado Rua (Mathematics and Statistics), Dr. Cathleen Lewandowski (Social Work) and Dr. Wenbing Zhao (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) are co-investigators.

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Meet CSU's New Faculty

Mohammad Othman, Nursing

Dr. Mohammad Othman is an assistant professor in the School of Nursing. His research interests include pediatric cancer treatment and simulation training, and he teaches pediatric nursing and other specialty courses. As a certified healthcare simulation educator (CHSE), he conducts pediatric clinical training simulations in collaboration with clinical faculty. After graduating from Al al-Bayt University in 2006, he worked as a registered nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at King Abdullah University Hospital in Ramtha, Jordan and as an ambulance nurse in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

He came to the United States to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati, earning his Ph.D. there in 2017. His graduate school research focused on symptom management in pediatric oncology where he investigated the variables that influence cancer-related fatigue (CRF) in pediatric oncology patients. He is currently a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Pediatrics.

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Featured Researcher Alumni Series

Evelyn Gajowski

Dr. Evelyn Gajowski is a professor of English and Barrick Distinguished Scholar at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). A noted Shakespearean scholar, she earned her B.A. at Cleveland State in 1971.

Dr. Gajowski is the author of four books on Shakespeare, including The Merry Wives of Windsor: New Critical Essays, published by Routledge in 2015, and is also a published poet. She has been a UNLV faculty member since 1991, specializing in gender theory, genre theory, and constructions of woman in late medieval and early modern cultures and texts.

If you know a former Cleveland State student researcher who has gone on to career success, please email Dan Simon or Joy Yard to let us know.

Internal Research Funding News

Internal Funding Applications

Faculty and graduate students continue to show their initiative in pursuing new directions in research and scholarship. The Office of Research received a huge response for internal research awards, including:

• 14 FRD proposals for seed funding for external research grants
• 23 GSRA proposals from graduate students
• 28 FSI proposals for scholarship and creative activity by faculty from all 8 academic colleges
• 63 USRA proposals for undergraduate summer research, submitted by 63 faculty across 6 colleges and involving 86 undergraduate students

Thanks to all who applied - funding decisions will be announced by April 1.

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CSU Scholar News

Karen Sotiropoulos, History and Black Studies

Dr. Karen Sotiropoulos is an associate professor in the Department of History and in the Black Studies Program whose research focuses on how people of African descent interpreted ideas of race and nation during the era of Jim Crow in the US and formal European colonial control of Africa. Her first book, Staging Race: Black Performers in Turn of the Century America (Harvard University Press, 2006), looks at black musical theater to explore how African Americans entered a public conversation about race in an era saturated with racist stereotype. As a member of the editorial board of the Duke University Press Radical History Review, she co-edited three special issues that address race, colonialism and diaspora.

Her second book will cover the lives of continental Africans who studied in the US to see how their encounters with black Americans shaped their ideas about race. Her most recent publications set the framework for this book. “Rose and James Aggrey and the Black Atlantic Gestations of African Nationalism” (International Journal of African Historical Studies, Spring 2020) takes a new look at Gold Coast native James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey, the letters he wrote to his black American wife, and their shared vision as emanating in part from black American women’s politics. “Town of God: Ota Benga, the Batetela Boys, and the Promise of Black America” (Journal of World History, 2015) presents a new understanding of the life of Ota Benga, a Batwa man from Leopold’s Congo who was exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and was caged in the Bronx Zoo.

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Inspired Creativity

Toni Nicoletti Hosts the Conversations in Bioethics Podcast

Dr. Toni Nicoletti, an instructor in the Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion, hosts the Conversations in Bioethics podcast. Created in connection with CSU’s Center for eLearning, the podcast is intended to increase understanding of these important topics and how they impact communities through interviews with department colleagues, hospital ethicists, and other professionals working in the field of bioethics.

Podcast episodes can be found here.

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News from the Technology Transfer Office

Invention Disclosure Pipeline

The CSU Patent Review Committee has approved a second invention disclosure of Dr. Girish Shukla, a professor in the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BGES) and a member of the Center for Gene Regulation in Health and Disease (GRHD), titled “Methods for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer.”

The microRNA drug candidate miR-149-5p downregulates key pathways to pancreatic cancer. Dr. Shukla’s initial results indicate a significant suppression of intracellular cholesterol and testosterone in tumors treated with miR-149-5p, indicating its tumor suppressive function.

Contact Jack Kraszewski for assistance with a disclosure to begin the process of protecting your invention or intellectual property.

New TeCK Fund Commercialization Support

The TeCK Fund has awarded funds to Dr. Geyou Ao, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, to pursue commercialization of technology developed in her laboratory. Dr. Ao’s submission, titled “Liquid Dispersions and Sunscreen Applications of Boron Nitride Nanomaterials,” will focus on a chemical-free, environmentally friendly hexagonal boron nitride nanosheet-based sunscreen formulation. She has developed a process for producing highly aligned boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) films, which includes effectively dispersing, purifying, and inducing self-assembly of nanotubes by solvent evaporation.

The TeCK Fund is accepting Letters of Intent until May 30th, 2020. Contact Jack Kraszewski for information regarding the TeCK Fund and technology transfer.

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Research Events

Law and Social Sciences Faculty Meetup Feb. 21

As part of our mission to enhance collaboration across the University and promote engaged research activities, the Office of Research launched a new series of faculty meetups for the 2019-2020 academic year. Meetup topics can be found here.

On February 21 at 12:00 p.m., Dr. Joseph Mead, an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, will lead the meetup discussion on the topic of Law and Social Sciences. All panels are held in PH-200, the Office of Research conference room.

Also, on March 6 at 12:00 p.m., Dr. Chandra Kothapalli, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (CBE), will lead a faculty meetup focused on Materials Science Research.

Analysis of the Achievement Gap of Underrepresented Minorities at CSU – Dr. Thijs Heus (Physics)
February 18, 2:30 - 3:30 p.m. in Fenn Hall 255
*Please RSVP to Shawn Ryan (s.d.ryan@csuohio.edu) to ensure the room will be large enough.

Levin Forum and IOTC Brown Bag Speaker Series – Prof. Brian Ray (Law)
February 26, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. in UR 247

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Seminar – Dr. Rohan Akolkar, Case Western Reserve University
February 27, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Washkewicz Hall 405

Returning to the Moon: A Legal Symposium – The Global Space Law Center
March 6, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. in the Moot Court Room

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Research Guidance

NSF Updates Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a revision to the NSF Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG), NSF 20-1. The new PAPPG will be effective for proposals submitted or due, and awards made, on or after June 1, 2020. Prior to June 1, the guidelines contained in the current PAPPG (NSF 19-1) continue to apply.

Significant changes include:

• NSF will require use of an NSF-approved format in submission of the biographical sketch and current and pending support documents;
• New requirement for proposing organizations to submit government-wide representations and certifications in the System for Award Management (SAM);
• New requirement for providing e-mail documentation of Program Officer approval for the submission of RAPID and EAGER proposals; and
• Clarifications to current and pending support coverage as well as other changes throughout the document.

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College Highlight Series

Scholarship in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Cleveland State University’s faculty members are highly regarded scholars who are influential in their fields. The College Highlight Series periodically highlights faculty accomplishments across CSU’s academic colleges. This month, we are highlighting faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS).

• Dr. Meghan Novisky's (Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology, or CAS) latest article, “Gladiator School: Returning Citizens’ Experiences with Secondary Violence Exposure in Prison,” appeared in the journal Victims & Offenders. The paper was the result of research funded under the Faculty Scholarship Initiative (FSI) program.
   
• Dr. Samantha Baskind (Art and Design) has been selected as a 2020 Research Fellow by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). She will conduct the first book-length, scholarly assessment of Moses Jacob Ezekiel, a noted 19th-century sculptor best known for creating the 25-foot tall monument to religious liberty in Philadelphia and the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.
   
• CLASS Interim Associate Dean Dr. Robert Shelton (History) received a grant from the Ohio Humanities Council. The $14,175 award will support Dr. Shelton’s project, “Suffrage: Voting rights and the 15th and 19th Amendments.”
   
• Taylor Augustine, a dancer and graduate assistant in the Department of Theatre and Dance and Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) student, is collaborating with Dr. Mary Milidonis (Health Sciences) to implement a program in which physical therapy doctoral students screen dance students for injury prevention and wellness.

Congratulations to all!

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