A MESSAGE
from the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
Ray Henry
I would like to begin by extending a warm welcome
to our new COSAM faculty: Drs. Tonia Schwartz,
Dan Warner, and Laurie Stevison in the Department
of Biological Sciences; Dr. Guillaume Laurent in the
Department of Physics; and Dr. Hans Werner Van Wyk
in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
There are a lot of exciting things happening in
COSAM this year:
• Several new faculty hires are under way. The college
is playing a central role in Auburn University’s new
Cluster Hire Initiative, with eight new positions being
designated in four out of the five cluster areas. Two
additional searches will be conducted independently
of the cluster hires. In addition, we will be searching
for a newly created position in STEM Education as an
initiative to strengthen this area of scholarship.
• Efforts have begun this year to create an
interdisciplinary doctoral program between the
Department of Geosciences and the School of Forestry
and Wildlife Sciences.
• The COSAM Office of Outreach, led by Mary Lou
Ewald, conducted 22 different programs during the
2014-15 academic year and summer.
• The COSAM Undergraduate Research Fellowship
program supported or co-supported 13 students to
perform directed research in the X