Kestutis Bendinskas, associate professor of chemistry, and James MacKenzie, associate professor and chair of biological sciences, are co-investigators on a newly funded National Institutes of Health-funded project titled “Environmental Toxicants, Race and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Children.” This four-year, $1.8 million grant to Syracuse University funds a continuing study with principal investigator and former Oswego psychology faculty member Brooks Gump, who is now professor of public health, food studies and nutrition at Syracuse. Additional co-investigators include Craig Ewart and Kevin Heffernan of Syracuse University and Nader Atallah-Yunes of SUNY Upstate Medical University. Oswego’s share of the grant is $77,000. Bendinskas and MacKenzie will initially measure glucose and lipid levels in blood samples from 300 children, and later measure salivary cortisol, plasma C reactive protein, and conduct a plasma proteomic study with the goal of understanding how environmental toxicants, particularly the heavy metal lead, disrupt normal cardiovascular function in children, possibly predisposing them to cardiovascular disease later in life. Also as a result of the project, SUNY Oswego’s Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Center will receive a new LDX analyzer, which will enable Bendinskas and MacKenzie to collect biochemical blood profile data. The sample collection and processing will include 70 Saturdays of work over the next four years.

Wenjing (Sherry) Cai and Yongyue Wang arrived last week to begin a year as visiting scholars in the School of Business. Cai is a doctoral candidate at Wuhan University of Technology in China. She received an award from the China Scholarship Council to pursue research in the United States. Her research will focus on emergency management in network economics and supply chain management. Ding Zhang is her faculty sponsor. Wang is an associate professor in the School of Business Administration at Zhejiang Gongshang University in China. Wang’s research will focus on the psychological contract breach and voice behavior in an organization with SUNY Oswego faculty as part of the Zhejiang Gongshang University Blue Sky grant program. Barry Friedman is the faculty sponsor.

Carolina Ilie of the physics department went to American Physical Society’s March international meeting in Baltimore, March 18 to 22. This is the largest physics meeting in the world, focusing on research from industry, universities and major labs, attended by 9,000 scientists and graduate and undergraduate students. Ilie presented “Desorption Kinetics of Water from Poly (methyl methacrylate) Films and other Polymer Films,” co-authored by students Thorin Kane, Ross Netusil and Anastasia Yorke. Ilie ‘s students Katharyn Christiana, Yorke (both from physics) and Netusil, a chemistry major, attended the meeting and presented three talks and one poster. Christiana presented “Designing Drops, Loops, and Hills: The Physics Behind Roller Coaster Design” with co-author Ilie. Yorke presented the theoretical poster “Capillary Condensation Transitions for Various Geometries,” with co-authors Ilie, Marie Romano and Christiana. Netusil presented “Pentacene Derivatives: Electronic Structure and Spectra,” co-authored by Ilie, Kane and Fehmi Damkaci of the chemistry faculty.
Lawrence Spizman of the economics department presented a paper “An Application of the Next Generation Educational Attainment Model for a Minor Child” at the American Academy of Economic and Financial Experts last month in Las Vegas. Spizman is the leading forensic economic expert in the nation dealing with issues of torts involving minor children. The model that he and John Kane, also of the economics department, developed and published is used to estimate the probabilities of alternative levels of educational attainment for a minor child. Spizman is often requested to estimate the earnings losses of children born with neurological disorders. The United States attorney general, the New York state attorney general as well as attorneys from across the United States have requested Spizman to determine the economic impact of these disorders on children. At the presentation to forensic and vocational experts, Spizman explained the mechanics of how to use the model. This widely used model is recognized by the legal system as the seminal work in this area.

Susan Viscomi has been selected as director of athletics, effective June 1. She brings more than 30 years of intercollegiate athletics experience as a coach, as an associate athletic director and, most recently, as athletic director at Hilbert College in Hamburg. “I share Oswego’s vision for excellence and believe it’s important to develop student-athletes who strive for exemplary academic achievement, competitive excellence and a commitment to serve the communities in which they live,” Viscomi said. She was the head Laker women’s soccer coach for seven years during which she was twice named State University of New York Athletic Conference Coach of the Year (1991 and 1996). Viscomi became Hilbert’s first female athletic director in 2010. She also served as the associate athletic director and senior woman administrator at Hamilton College for 13 years, as well as the interim athletic director in 2006-07. Her other collegiate experiences include a stint at Plattsburgh as an assistant professor of physical education, head women’s soccer coach and assistant coach of men’s and women’s track and field. Viscomi has served in numerous capacities with the NCAA at the national, conference and institutional level since 1995. She earned her master’s degree in counseling from Colgate University and bachelor’s degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland.

K. Brad Wray, professor of philosophy, recently co-authored a paper with Samuel Arbesman, senior scholar at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Their paper, “Demographics and the Fate of the Young Scientist,” appears in the April issue of the journal Social Studies of Science.

(Posted: Apr 04, 2013)