VT College of Science Quarterly August 2014 Vol. 1 No. 1 | Page 7

College News and Notes
– Fred Read, Professor
Emeritus of Geology, will
receive the Sloss Medal
at the upcoming meeting
of the Geological Society
of America. The award,
named for Lawrence L. Fred Read
Sloss was a prominent
sedimentologist-stratigrapher in the mid
1900’s. The award is given annually to a
sedimentary geologist whose lifetime achievements best exemplify those of Sloss by contributing widely to the field and through service to
the GSA.
– Pilar Madrigal, a
graduate student, received
a graduate fellowship
from the National Science
Council of Costa Rica for
nearly $90,000 to cover
doctoral studies. The fellowship is extremely com- Pilar Madrigal
petitive and is equivalent
to a National Science Foundation Graduate
Fellowship in the United States.

Bio Sciences

– Milagros Tenga and
Iulia Lazar had an article
published in Proteomics
in January that was also
included in the May edition of Global Medical
Discovery with the title Iuliana Lazar
“Proteomic snapshot of
breast cancer cell cycle:
G1/S transition point.”
– Michelle Jusino
received the best Ph.D.
Presentation Award at the
Virginia Forest Resources
and Environmental
Conservation Graduate Milagros Tenga
Research Symposium in
April. Her presentation, Pining for fungi: Redcockaded Woodpeckers and their fungal associates, was co-authored with Mark T. Banik,
and Jeff Walters.
­– Carla Finkielstein’s research on circadian
regulation of genes related to breast cancer

and other major health concerns was featured
on the “Discovery” section of the National Science Foundation.
– Zack Nimchuk joined the Biological Sciences team in August from Cal-Tech. Nimchuk
brings expertise in the areas of signaling and
developmental cell biology as well as the use
of advanced genomics and imaging tools to
the department.
– Kristen Fread, a biochemistry major,
received a VT Sigma Xi Award for Outstanding Graduate Research. Fread also received
the 2012-2013 ACC Creativity and Innovation
Grant.
– Jianhua Xing was
the invited speaker for an
applied mathematics section at the Young Mathematicians Forum held at
the Beijing International
Center for Mathematical
Research in June. The forum was sponsored by the Jianhua Xing
School of Mathematical Sciences and BICMR
of Peking University.
– Iulia Lazar has been awarded a threeyear, $781K grant from the National Science
Foundation DBI Instrumentation Development program entitled, “Microfluidic Platform
for Accurate Sampling of Biological Signaling
Events.”  The project will include collaborations in the second year with Elankumarn
Subbiah (Virginia Maryland Regional Center
for Veterinary Medicine) and in the third year
with Jianhua Xing.  
– Daniela Cimini was an invited speaker
to the Dynamic Kinetochore Workshop in
Porto, Portugal in May. Her talk was titled,

PSYCHOLOGY

GEOSCIENCES

“Investigating
the mechanical
properties of the
kinetochore by
combining laser microsurgery and confocal
microscopy.”
– Daniela Cimini and Daniela Cimini
doctoral student Josh
Nicholson had a paper
accepted for publication
in the journal Frontiers
in Molecular and Cellular
Oncology.
– Daniel Capelluto has
been awarded an AmeriJosh Nicholson
can Heart Association
Grant in Aid for established investigators (one of only 23 on the East
Coast). The 2-year award supports a study
of the structural basis of adaptor proteins
interactions and their regulation in endosomal
protein trafficking.
– Carla Finkielstein was
an invited speaker at the
Cancer Science Institute
at the National Unviersty
of Singapore in May. Her
seminar was entitled,
“Clock proteins: new
players in DNA-damaging Carla Finkielstein
signaling.” You can watch a video from the
event, here.
– Dana Hawley had a
new study published in
PLOS Biology that helps us
understand how diseases
that threaten humans can
be expected to change in
virulence as they emerge. Dana Hawley

Keeping up with...
Prof. Russell Jones

Russell Jones is a professor of psychology and the
director of the Stress and Coping Lab. He is an expert
in behavioral sciences including post-traumatic stress
and growth, and depression.
Jones is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and is the founder and director of Recovery
Effort After Adult and Child Trauma (REAACT). He
received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University
in 1976. Click the Jones Journal to learn more.
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