College of Liberal Arts
Dr. Craig Byron, assistant professor of biology, had a paper titled “Rudimentary pedal grasping in mice and implications for terminal branch arboreal quadrupedalism” published in the Journal of Morphology in December. All co-authors were undergraduates from the biology department.
Dr. David A. Davis, assistant professor of English, published the essay “Sinners in the Temple: Transgressions of Social Space in Sanctuary” in Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. The essay argues that Faulkner’s novel Sanctuary focuses on a series of transgressions of social space and that space is based on socially constructed illusions. Dr. Davis also presented the paper “Georgia Nigger and the Prison House of Labor” at the American Studies Association meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Adam Kiefer, assistant professor of chemistry, Dr. Kevin Drace, assistant professor of biology, and undergraduate students Kyle Bliton and Zack Davis recently presented data gathered during their Mercer on Mission trip to Mozambique at the joint Southwest/Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. The students presented posters titled “Mercer on Mission: Mozambique – International Service and Science Education” in the chemistry education poster session and “Evaluation of Mercury Contamination at the Tsetsera Mine in the Manica Province of Mozambique” in the undergraduate research poster session.
Dr. Randall Peters, professor of physics and chair emeritus, was part of a team presentation titled “Subsurface Tiltmeter Arrays at Homestake DUSEL,” at the 2010 American Geophysical Union San Francisco Fall Meeting, with researchers from San Jose State University, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. With co-authors Dr. Michael Russell of the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership and Dr. Erskine James of the Mercer Medical School, Dr. Peters published the Arxiv paper titled “Amplitude modulation effects in cardiac signals.”
Dr. Caryn Seney, professor of chemistry, Dr. Jeffrey Hugdahl, associate professor of chemistry, Dr. David Goode, Dr. Adam Kiefer, Dr. Kathryn Kloepper and Dr. Jennifer Look, assistant professors of chemistry, Tanya Do, sophomore chemistry major, Kasie Knapper, sophomore chemistry major, Danielle Montanari, junior chemistry major, Samantha Paluck, junior chemistry major, Gordan Rak, sophomore computational science major, Amanda Santa Maria, senior biochemistry and molecular biology major, Lara Smith, junior biochemistry and molecular biology major and Golda Vanchipurakel, junior biochemistry and molecular biology major, presented their research at the joint Southwest/Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, La. on December 1-4.
Dr. Anya Silver, associate professor of English, had the poems “Borscht” and “Late Renoir” published in Southern Poetry Review. Silver also had the poems “At Skyline Caverns,” “The Boy Shaped Puzzle” and “The Ninety-Third Name of God” published in Crab Orchard Review last fall. In addition to these poems, Silver had “Chasing a Grasshopper at the Indian Mounds” and “Running an Errand for the National Geographic Society Library, 1992,” published in Poet Lore in its Fall/Winter 2010 edition. Her book, The Ninety-Third Name of God was recently published by Louisiana State University Press.
McAfee School of Theology
Dr. Brett Younger, associate professor of preaching, and Carol Younger recently published “Mark: Finding Ourselves in the Story,” the annual Bible study for Smyth & Helwys Publishing.
School of Medicine
Dr. Lee Bowen, director of counseling services, and Dr. Steve Livingston, director of family therapy programs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences co-authored an abstract submission, “Helping Families Heal: Treating Divorcing Families in Family Therapy,” which has been accepted for presentation at the XIXth World Family Therapy Congress of the International Family Therapy Association on March 30-April 1 in Nordwijkerhout, Netherlands. Bowen currently serves on the board of directors of the International Family Therapy Association.
Dr. Susan Cline, assistant professor of biochemistry, presented research data as a poster, titled “Disruption of Human Mitochondrial DNA Polymerase Replication by the Endogenous Aldehyde Adduct of DNA, M1dG,” in collaboration with Dr. Lawrence J. Marnett of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Dr. William C. Copeland of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the 41st Annual Meeting of the Environmental Mutagen Society held in October. The research abstract was published in Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis 51(7):717. Dr. Cline also published a research article with collaborators at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Pennsylvania State University titled “Arrest of human mitochondrial RNA polymerase transcription by the biological aldehyde adduct of DNA, M1dG,” in Nucleic Acids Research 38(21): 7546–7557.
Dr. Dayle A. Daines, assistant professor of microbiology, gave an invited presentation, titled “The curious ‘alternative lifestyle’ of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae” to the Seattle Children’s Research Institute in Seattle, Wash., on Dec. 7.
Dr. Richard O. McCann, assistant professor of biochemistry, along with his collaborators at the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine published a paper, titled “The actin cytoskeleton inhibits pore expansion during PIV5 fusion protein-promoted cell-cell fusion,” in Virology, Vol. 15, pages 117-126 (2010). The first author of the paper is Dr. Mark Wurth, who was an M.D.-Ph.D. student with McCann and Dr. Rebecca Dutch at the University of Kentucky and is currently a resident in pediatrics at the Chandler Medical Center of the University of Kentucky. Dr. McCann also gave an invited seminar to the Department of Cellular Biology at the University of Georgia on Nov. 9. The presentation was titled “Structure, Function, and Evolution of Multicomponent Cell Adhesion Assemblies.” Additionally, Dr. McCann and his collaborators at Chiba University in Japan presented their research on the evolution of LASP proteins at the Annual Meeting of the Annual Society for Cell Biology in Philadelphia on Dec. 11-15. The title of the presentation was “Molecular Evolution of LASP Family Proteins.”
Cheryl Nylund, clinical research nurse, was recently inducted into Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society. Nylund is working on her Bachelor in Nursing at the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Dr. Andon Placzek, assistant professor of neuroscience, published a research article with collaborators at Baylor College of Medicine, titled “In vitro identification and electrophysiological characterization of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area,” in Neuropharmacology 59(6): 431-436.
Staff and Administration
Mercer Police gave out several awards and recognitions at its end of the year banquet last month. Wesley Hillard was named Macon’s Officer of the Year for the second year in a row. Vince Broccolo won the Top Gun Award for shooting a perfect score in firearms qualifying and was recognized for 10 years of continuous service to the University, and David Chambers was recognized for 20 years of continuous service to Mercer.
Shaun Kell, assistant director of counseling and psychological services, was elected chair of the Middle Georgia Chapter of the Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
Tift College of Education
Dr. Peter Ross, associate professor, recently had the third edition of his textbook Developmental Discipline released. The text covers child development, childhood pathology, learning theory, discipline, motivation and classroom management. A new chapter on bullying appears in this edition.
Townsend School of Music
Dr. Douglas Hill, professor of music, performed in the Colony IV Brass Quintet at First Baptist Church of Macon on Dec. 12 and at Liberty United Methodist in Macon, on Dec. 19. He participated in “College Night” as part of the 64th International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Ill. on Dec. 15-18. Prospective music students from around the world attended this clinic and received enrollment information for both undergraduate and graduate programs in Townsend School of Music and other colleges within Mercer University. Dr. Hill also performed with the Macon Symphony Brass as part of the nationally famous concert series, “Random Acts of Culture” on Dec. 30. Performances were presented to a surprised audience at Publix Supermarket and Dillard’s Department Store.
Amy Schwartz Moretti, associate professor and director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, performed a CD release concert in Neva Langley Fickling Hall on Dec. 6. Her debut album “Kaleidoscope” was presented to the Macon community and will be released worldwide on SRM Classical, March 2011, by Dorian/Sono Luminus. Featuring the music of Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Kreisler, Novacek, Martinon, Massinet and Moszkowski, “Kaleidoscope” was recorded in Fickling Hall, engineered by Leslie Ann Jones of George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and produced by Morettiman Music. Mercer colleague Elizabeth Pridgen was the pianist and renowned violinist Robert McDuffie performed with Moretti in a duo violin suite on the album.
University Libraries
Stan Trembach, instructional services librarian, and Liya Deng, government information librarian, were granted the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Training Award. On Nov. 29-30, on behalf of Jack Tarver Library, they provided a series of training workshops titled “Starting at the Front Line: Using NLM Online Health Resources in Libraries” to 65 personnel of 18 branches of the Savannah Live Oak Public Library System in Savannah.
Walter F. George School of Law
Linda Jellum, associate professor of law, served as a panelist at a number of recent conferences, including: “Getting to No: Law Professors and the Work-Life Balance,” at the American Association of Law Schools’ Annual Conference in San Francisco, Calif. on Jan. 6; “Comparative Administrative Law of the E.U. and U.S.,” at the Constitutional Administrative Law Forum at University of Aix-Marseille III in Aix En Province, France on Dec. 6; “But That’s Absurd: Why Specific Absurdity Undermines Textualism,” at the Brooklyn Law School Symposium; “Statutory Interpretation: How Much Work Does Language Do?” in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Nov. 19 and at the Southeastern Scholars Conference at Charleston School of Law in Charleston, S.C., on Oct. 22.
David Ritchie, associate professor, has been selected as the chair of the Law and Interpretation Section of the Association of American Law Schools for 2011.
