New Hires

• Cory Anderson has joined the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and assistant compliance officer, effective Aug. 16.
• Devin Bates has joined the Department of English as adjunct faculty, effective Aug. 16.
• Stephanie Common has joined BSU Alumni and Foundation as an office and administrative specialist, senior, effective Aug. 22.
• Eric Gustafson has joined the Department of Music as adjunct faculty, effective Aug. 16.
• James Nissen has joined the Department of Professional Education as adjunct faculty, effective Aug. 16.
• Brian Ophus has joined the Department of Social Work as adjunct faculty, effective Aug. 16.
• Blake Peterson has joined the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics as an assistant men’s basketball coach, effective Aug. 16.
• Amy Weiher has joined the Bemidji School of Nursing as a college laboratory services specialist, effective Aug. 29.

Faculty and Staff Achievements

• Dr. Drago Bilanovic, professor of environmental, economic, Earth and space studies, presented “A global facility for microalgal reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide” at the Green Chemistry – Gordon Research Conference, held July 31-Aug. 5 in Stowe, Vt. He also recently published several papers — “Preparation of biodegradable xanthan–glycerol hydrogel, foam, film, aerogel and xerogel at room temperature” in the Sept. 5, 2016, issue of “Carbohydrate Polymers” along with two co-authors; “Rust dissolution and removal by iron-reducing bacteria; a potential rehabilitation of rusted equipment” in the Jan. 2016 issue of “Corrosion Science” along with three co-authors; and “Cross-linking Xanthan and Other Compounds with Glycerol” in the Dec. 2015 issue of “Food Hydrocolloids” along with two co-authors. In addition, he and three co-authors wrote “Co-cultivation of microalgae and nitrifiers for higher biomass production and better carbon capture” which has been accepted for publication in “Bioresource Technology.”

• Dr. Mary Fairbanks, associate professor of nursing, participated in “Improving Your Online Course”, a two-week online course by Quality Matters in June. She also attended NurseTim‘s Nuts and Bolts for Nurse Educators Conference, Aug. 5-6 in Minneapolis.

• Dr. Angela Fournier, associate professor of psychology, and BSU alumna Sara Fritsch co-authored “It can W8: A community intervention to decrease distracted driving”  in Volume 44, Issue 3 of “Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community.” She also published “The Human–Animal Interaction Scale: Development and Evaluation” in Volume 29, Issue 3 of “Anthrozoös,”” a multidisciplinary journal of the interactions of people and animals.

• Dr. Colleen Livingston, professor of mathematics and North Central Section of the Math Association of America, attended the Mathematical Association of America MathFest in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 3-6. She also attended a North Central Section of the Math Association of America summer seminar on Big Data, June 22-24 at South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D.

• Pete McDonnell, systems, distance learning and circulation librarian at the A. C. Clark Library, edited “The Experiential Library: Transforming Academic and Research Libraries Through the Power of Experiential Learning,” released this month. McDonnell also wrote the book’s preface and its final chapter, “Conclusion: An Experiential Librarian’s Creed.”

• Dr. Denise Meijer, assistant professor of nursing, presented a poster “Community Health Nursing in a Global Setting” during the International Rural Nursing Conference in Rapid City, S.D., in July. She also recently led a group of nursing students on a trip to experience nursing in South Africa.

• Dr. William “Bill” Scheela, professor emeritus of business administration, has recently published several articles. He wrote the chapter on Thailand with two co-authors in the book “Angel Financing in Asia Pacific,” published in August; he wrote “Business Angels in Emerging Economies: South East Asia,” in “Handbook of Research on Business Angels,” which will come out in October; and he wrote “Born-Global Start-ups in Emerging Economies” in “Global Entrepreneurship: Past, Present & Future,”the most recent volume in the book series “Advances in International Management.”

• Dr. Marty J. Wolf, professor of mathematics and computer science, has joined the editorial advisory board for the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. As vice chair for its Committee on Professional Ethics, Wolf is helping lead a group that is updating the code of ethics and professional conduct for the Association for Computing Machinery. In May, he spent three days at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, to begin work on this project.Wolf also has had several papers published, including:
  • “There’s something in your eye: Ethical implications of augmented visual field devices“, along with two co-authors, in Volume 14, Issue 3 of the “Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society“
  • “Ethics of the software vulnerabilities and exploits market” along with one co-author in Volume 32, Issue 4 of “The Information Society.”
  • “This ethical trap is for roboticists, not robots: On the issue of artificial agent ethical decision making,” along with two co-authors, in Volume 22, Issue 4 of “Science and Engineering Ethics.”

Wolf and two co-presenters also delivered “Applying a social-relational model to explore the curious case of hitchBOT” at the annual meeting of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy, held June 14-17 in Ferrara, Italy.