v2i2-hou

Editorial

Celebrating the STEM Research: Faculty Achievements

Harvey J.M. Hou

Department of Physical/Forensic Sciences, Alabama State University, Alabama 36104, USA.

*Corresponding author, Harvey J.M. Hou, E-mail: hhou@alasu.edu

The Annual Research Symposium has been increasingly becoming a forum for faculty and scientists to celebrate the excellence in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. For example, the 2018 Annual Research Symposium at Alabama State University (ASU) have received 86 abstracts and had more than 20 talks from professors and scientists (Annual Research Symposium 2018; Annual Research Symposium Program Book 2018; Frontiers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics 2018). The group photo of the 2018 Annual Research Symposium is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Group photo of the participants in the 2018 Annual Research Symposium (photo by David Campbell).

The Plenary Speaker of the Symposium, Dr. Kevin Redding shared a successful story on their contribution to unlock the secrets of photosynthesis (Orf et al 2018, Gisriel et al 2017). Their outstanding work describes the 2.2-Å resolution X-ray structure of the "first-ever" homodimeric photosynthetic reaction center, which is a multisubunit membrane protein complex from Heliobacterium modesticaldum and functions as a remarkable energy conversion device (Gisriel et al 2017). It shines new light on the evolution of photosynthesis and on cleaner fuels. The Featured Speaker, Dr. Derrick Dean, gave a talk on their recent and innovative results on Biomedical Engineering (Dean 2018).

Other speakers are Drs. Phong Ngo (Forensic Chemist, Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences), Zongli Tang (Professor of Sociology, Auburn University Montgomery), Joong-Wook Park (Associate Professor of Biology, Troy University), Xutong Niu (Associate Professor of Geomatic Science, Troy University), Xinyu Zhang (Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, Auburn University), Balaram K Ghimire (Assistant Professor of Mathematics, ASU), Shanlin Pan (Professor of Chemistry, University of Alabama), Randall Clark (Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Auburn University), Mian Jiang (Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Houston Downtown), Elizabeth Gardner (Associate Professor of Forensic Science, University of Alabama Birmingham), Chunhua Feng (Associate Professor of Mathematics, ASU), Bridgette Stasher-Booker (Interim Chair and Assistant Professor, ASU), Robert Villafane (Professor of Microbiology, ASU), Maureen Kendrick Murphy (Chair and Professor of Chemistry, Huntingdon College), Hongzhuan Wu (Associate Professor of Biology, ASU), Marcia Rossi (Professor of Psychology, ASU), and Harvey Hou (Professor of Forensic Science, ASU).

Selected topics presented in the Symposium are listed below.

a.     Photosynthesis and Energy Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Kevin Redding (Plenary Speaker, Arizona State University), Barry Bruce (University of Tennessee Knoxville), Wei Zhan (Auburn University), Bridgette Barry (Georgia Institute of Technology), Gianluigi Veglia (University of Minnesota), Gary Hastings (Georgia State University), Shanlin Pan (University of Alabama), Harvey Hou (Alabama State University), and Fernando Porcelli (University of Tuscia, Italy).

b.     Nanotechnology and Material Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Shree Singh (Alabama State University), Shreekumar Pillai (ASU), Vida Dennis (ASU), Sapna Jain (ASU), Komal Vig (ASU), Cleon Barnett (ASU), Harvey Hou (ASU), Xinyu Zhang (Auburn University), Mian Jiang (University of Houston Downtown), Shanlin Pan (University of Alabama), and Zhenyi Wu (Xiamen University, China).

c.     Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease: Presentations by Drs. Manoj Mishra (ASU), Sabita Saldanha (ASU), Shree Singh (ASU), Komal Vig (ASU), Qiana Matthews (ASU), Brian Sims (University of Alabama Birmingham), Glenn Rowe (University of Alabama Birmingham), and Deepa Bedi (Tuskegee University). 

d.     Forensic Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Randall Clark (Auburn University), Phong Ngo (Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences), Elizabeth Gardner (University of Alabama Birmingham), Xiongying Chen (Jackson Hospital), Cleon Barnett (ASU), Gulnaz Javan (ASU), and Harvey Hou (ASU).

e.     Anti-bacteria, Virus, and Zoonotic Disease: Presentations by Drs. Robert Villafane (ASU), Mamie Coats (ASU), Shree Singh (ASU), Shreekumar Pillai (ASU), Vida Dennis (ASU), Komal Vig (ASU), Alain Waffo (ASU), Hongzhuan Wu (ASU), and Catherine Picart (CNRS, France).

f.      Biomedical and Computer Engineering, Presentations by Drs. Derrick Dean (Featured Speaker, ASU), Bo Wang (ASU), Kennedy Wekesa (ASU), Manoj Mishra (ASU), Komal Vig (ASU), Rajendran Swamidurai (ASU), and Wuwei Li (Dalian Medical University, China).

g.     Chemistry: Presentations by Drs. Larry Yet (University of South Alabama), Mian Jiang (University of Houston Downtown), Douglas Strout (ASU), Sapna Jain (ASU), Harvey Hou (ASU), and Zhenyi Wu (Xiamen University, China).

h.     Environmental Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Maureen Kendrick Murphy (Huntingdon College), Joong-Wook Park (Troy University), Alexander Josh (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and B.K. Robertson (ASU).

i.      Mathematics and Computer Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Balaram Ghimire (ASU), Chunhua Feng (ASU), Ching-Shyang Chen (University of Southern Mississippi), and Anup Raja (University of Southern Mississippi).

j.      Social Sciences (Sociology and Psychology): Presentations by Drs. Zhongli Tang (Auburn University Montgomery), Marcia Rossi (ASU), Seela Aladuwaka (ASU), and Ram  Alagan (ASU).

k.     Geosciences: Presentations by Drs. Xutong Niu (Troy University) and Jason Mann (Troy University).

l.      Health Sciences: Presentations by Drs. Bridgette Stasher-Booker (ASU) and Adetoun Komolafe (ASU).

m.   STEM Education: Presentation by Dr. Diann Jordan (ASU).

In this issue of the journal, four full manuscripts resulting from the Annul Research Symposium are included.

Villafane group at Alabama State University provided a timely review on the current progress of phage with an emphasis on the initiation of phage infection via the phage P22 system (Ayariga et al 2018). The model for phage-host interaction is highly likely to offer more accurate therapeutic strategies.

Akujuobi and his co-worker at Prairie View A&M University utilized the discrete Wavelet transform to analyze the electrocardiogram, which is widely used in the diagnosis of heart diseases (Akujuobi et al 2018). The results show that Wavelet transform is a valuable method for offering improved and better information in the evaluation of electrocardiogram signals.

Pan group at the University of Alabama reported the characteristics of the polymer organic semiconductor, regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT), using single molecule Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (Clayton et al 2018). The results enhanced the fundamental understanding of structural and conformational information of single molecule Raman scattering spectroscopy.

The utilization of the dispersant to fight the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has generated concern about the effect of dispersants on the microbiota. Park and his co-workers investigated the effect of the dispersant Corexit® 9500A on the bacterial community in the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal sediments and found that the concentration of dispersant is a crucial factor affecting the bacterial community (Bhattacharya et al 2018).

It is our intention to provide readers some of the outstanding results presented from the Annual Research Symposium, to share the latest research innovations, and facilitate the collaborations among the faculty members in their respective field.   

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Alabama State University.

References

Akujuobi CM and Kandah BA (2018) Noise removal of ECG signals using discrete wavelet transform, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 82-91

Annual Research Symposium (2018) https://sites.google.com/a/alasu.edu/ars-2018/ (accessed September 18, 2018)

Annual Research Symposium Program Book, pp. 1-24, Alabama State University, 2018

Ayariga JA, Venkatesan K, Ward R, Wu H, Jackson D, and Villafane R (2018) Initiation of P22 infection at the phage centennial, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 64-81

Bhattacharya P and Park J-W (2018) The effect of Corexit® 9500A on the bacterial community in the northern Gulf of Mexico coastal sediments, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 105-115

Clayton DA, Brooks KS, and Pan S (2018) A single molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic study of region regular poly (3-hexylthiophene-2, 5-diyl) on nanostructured silver substrate, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 92-104

Dean D (2018) Polymeric tissue scaffolds and biomaterials: Issues and opportunities, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 5

Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Vol. 2, pp. 1-60, 2018

Gisriel C, Sarrou I, Ferlez B, Golbeck JH, Redding KE, Fromme R (2017) Structure of a symmetric photosynthetic reaction center–photosystem, Science, 357, 1021-1025

Orf G, Johnson W., Gisriel GJ, and Redding KE (2018) Evolution of the Function of Photosynthetic Reaction Centers: Insights from the Heliobacterial Reaction Center, Front. Sci. Technol. Eng. Math., 2, 4

Citation:

Harvey J.M. Hou (2018) Celebrating the STEM Research: Faculty Achievements, Frontiers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Volume 2, Issue 2, 61-63