Focus on Folks, 8/18/2006

Presentations & Accomplishments

Francisco Aguiniga (civil & architectural engineering) presented the paper “Effects of Cyclic Loading on Structural Performance of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Reinforced Concrete Elements” at the American Society of Civil Engineers 2006 Structures Congress.

Faleh T. Al-Saadoon (chemical engineering) presented the paper “Economy of GTL Plants” at the SPE Hydrocarbon Economics & Evaluation Symposium in Dallas in April.

Shannon Baker (history) took three students to the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Scholars in Denver, where they presented papers based on their original research. This was all part of Baker’s QEP research seminar in Mexican American history. In addition, Baker, Leslie Hunter, Larry Knight and Roger Tuller (history) concluded a three-year participation as presenters in a U.S. Department of Education-funded Teaching American History grant institute.

Ashley J. Bennington (management and marketing) presented papers in June at the European College Teaching and Learning Conference and the European Applied Business Research Conference.

Jack A. Bradley (educational leadership & counseling) made a presentation at the Higher Education Collaborative in Austin in May. In addition, he and Karen S. Bradley (curriculum and instruction) presented at the International Reading Association Conference in Chicago in May.

Daniel A. Brown (University College) presented at the 2006 Southwest Regional P-16 Conference in Austin.

Lee Clapp (environmental engineering) presented a poster and gave a presentation at the National Ground Water Conference in San Antonio in April. In addition, Clapp presented the paper “Diversity in Environmental Engineering: The Good and Bad” at the 113 th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the American Society for Engineering Education in Chicago in June.

John daGraca (Citrus Center) was invited by Louisiana State University to give a seminar on citrus greening disease in April. In addition, he presented talks at the Texas Produce Convention in San Antonio in August.

Rebecca Davis (educational leadership and counseling) served as co-chair of the National Conference for the Commission on Adult Basic Education held in April.

Randall DeYoung (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) presented research results at the Quail VI International Quail Research Meeting in Athens, Ga.

Barry Dunn (King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management) presented at the Nebraska Grazing Conference in Kearney, Neb. In addition, he presented to the Padlock Ranch Board of Directors in Sheridan, Wyo.

Hector Estrada (civil & architectural engineering) conducted the Javelina Summer Engineering Institute June 5-9 and June 22-23 & 26-30 at A&M-Kingsville, with sponsorship from the Texas Transportation Institute. He and Sheryl Custer also conducted the workshop Advising – Beyond the Signature, presented by the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering and sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) STEP grant. Finally, Estrada worked with Katherine “Kit” Price Blount of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on the workshop Developing a Course Module, presented by the College of Engineering and sponsored by the NSF STEP grant.

Mohammed Faruqi (civil & architectural engineering) presented the paper “Modified Shear Equations for the Prediction of Strength Capacities of Doubly Reinforced Concrete Beams Bonded with External Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic Plates” at the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Processing Engineering in Long Beach, Calif., in May.

Dean Ferguson and Michael Houf (history) led their department’s co-sponsorship of the first Vietnam Experience Symposium.

Tim Fulbright (animal & wildlife sciences) presented papers at the Southeast Deer Study Group at Baton Rouge, La.

Dwight Goode (mathematics) oversaw the Whiz Kids Mathematics Summer Camp, co-sponsored by the Texas Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation and the Alliance for the Improvement of Mathematical Skills Pre K-16, of which he is project director.

Nirmal Goswami (history) presented this year’s Faculty Lecture, “Emerging Asia and the United States: The Shifting Sands of Global Influence.” Brenda Melendy (history) was selected as the Faculty Lecturer for 2007 and will speak on the topic, “Refocusing the Commemoration of Genocide.”

Arikka Gregory (music) was one of only seven teachers nationwide given the Young Leaders Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Paul Hageman (music) was granted the designation of Regents Professor by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.

Wei-Da Hao (electrical engineering & computer science) presented the paper “Recognizing Strict 2-Threshold Graphs through a Classification of their Edges” in June at the SIAM Discrete Mathematics Conference at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Cindy Horne (education) planned and presented at the ME² by the Sea Conference in June.

Leslie Hunter (history) distributed the spring issue (Vol. 19, #1) of the Journal of South Texas at the 53rd Annual Spring Meeting of the South Texas Historical Association (STHA) in Port Aransas. Published by Texas A&M-Kingsville for the STHA, Hunter serves as editor and Cecilia Aros Hunter (South Texas Archives) is design and layout editor.

Kuruvilla John, Saritha Karnae and Zuber Farooqui (Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering) presented papers at the 2 nd International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology in Houston.

Kim Jones (environmental engineering) traveled to the 17 th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering Symposium on Progress in Chemical Technology and Biotechnology in Prague to deliver the presentation “Biological Air Emissions Control for Alpha-Pinene and Formaldehyde for a Forest Product Industry Application with a Coupled Biotrickling Filter and Biofilter System.”

Yutaka Kono (music) led the Texas A&M-Kingsville Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble in a performance at the International Tuba Euphonium Association Conference held in Denver.

Shuhui Li (electrical engineering & computer science) presented the paper “Simulation Analysis of Double-Fed Induction Generator for Wind Energy Conversion Using PSpice” at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power Engineering Society 2006 General Meeting in Montreal, Canada in June.

Todd Lucas (art) presented his original exhibit, Acer, at the John E. Conner Museum.

Steven Lukefahr (animal & wildlife sciences) was invited by the South African Tuli Cattle Breeders Association to deliver genetics lectures at three regions of the country.

In addition, he presented an invited paper at the 3 rd Rabbit Congress of the Americas in August at Maringá, Brazil.

Alvaro Martinez and David Ramirez (environmental engineering) presented air and waste management research at the 99 th Annual Air & Waste Management Association’s Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans in June.

Lifford McLauchlan (electrical engineering & computer science) presented the paper “Coordinated Intelligence Adaptive Control of Legged Robots” in April at the 2006 International Society for Optical Engineering Defense and Security Symposium in Orlando, Fla. In August, he presented “Mathematics of Data Image Pattern Recognition, Compression and Encryption with Applications” at the International Society for Optical Engineering Symposium on Optics and Photonics in San Diego, Calif.

Patrick L. Mills (Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering) presented “Multidimensional Process Gas Chromatographic System for On-Line Analysis of n-C4 and 1,3-Butadiene Oxidation Reaction Products” at the Gulf Analytical Summit 2006 in Galveston in May.

John C. Pérez (Natural Toxins Research Center, biology) was selected as one of the most important Hispanics in Technology and Business by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

Kathleen Rees (human sciences) presented two research papers at the 16 th International Conference of the International Trade and Finance Association in Lodz, Poland, and presided over a session and attended meetings of the Board of Directors, of which she serves as a member.

The Rio Bravo Association17 th Annual Meeting, held in May, featured the following Texas A&M-Kingsville faculty as panel participants: Victoria Packard- Jernigan Library; Rebecca Davis, Darwin Nelson, Gary Low, Mark Walsh-educational leadership; Nirmal Goswami, Richard Hartwig-political science; Cecilia Rhoades-anthropology, sociology and Southwest Borderland Studies.

Alberto Ruiz (health & kinesiology) presented a professional poster at the AAHPERD Conference in Salt Lake City in April.

Sue Sabrio (mathematics) worked with the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) as co-author of the third edition of the text Transition Mathematics. An estimated 3.5-4 million students use UCSMP materials across the country.

Jacki Thomas (Center for Teaching Effectiveness, language and literature) was recognized by the French government as a Knight of the Order of Academic Palms.

Grants

Bart Ballard and William Kuvlesky (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) were awarded an interagency cooperation contract for $123,477 with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for “Dynamics of Bird Migration along the Lower Gulf Coast of Texas.”

Randall DeYoung (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) was awarded a four year research grant in the amount of $197,148 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service for “A Landscape Generic Approach to the Management of Feral Swine.” In addition, DeYoung, William Kuvlesky and David Hewitt (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) were awarded an interagency cooperation contract with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for $165,000 for the proposal “A Landscape-genetic Approach for Quantifying Dispersal Patterns and Effective Number of Breeders in Wild Turkeys: A Prerequisite for Regional-scale Management.” Finally, DeYoung and Michael Tewes (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) were awarded $7,000 from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for “Conservation Genetics of Hog-nosed Skunk in Southern Texas.”

Hector Estrada (civil & architectural engineering) was awarded an intrasystem cooperation contract with the Texas Transportation Institute for $17,000 for the 2006 Javelina Engineers Summer Institute.

Mohammed Faruqi (civil & architectural engineering) was awarded $22,906 from the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration for “Dwight Eisenhower Transportation/Structures Fellowship.”

Alan Fedynich (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) was awarded $2,000 from The ExxonMobil Foundation for “Enhancing Undergraduate Student Research Skills.”

Victor French (Citrus Center) was awarded $6,000 from ORO-AGRI, Inc. for “Investigation of the Efficacy of CitriKing in the Control of Major Citrus Anthropod Pests in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.” Also, French was awarded $23,497 from the Texas Department of Agriculture for “Expanded Survey for Diaprepes Abbreviatus in the Quarantined and Surrounding Delimiting Areas in South Texas.”

Rosa E. Garcia-Belina (migrant education, bilingual education) was awarded a contract for $67,500 with The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma for “Mid-Continent Comprehensive Center.”

Mary L. Gonzalez (Special Programs) was awarded a four-year grant for $880,000 from the U.S. Department of Education for “ Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Educational Talent Search." In addition, she was awarded $246,536 from the U.S. Department of Education-TRIO Programs for the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program.

Scott Henke (animal & wildlife sciences) was awarded $30,000 from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for “Habitat Preferences of the Maritime Pocket Gopher on Two Corpus Christi Naval Bases in South Texas.”

Fidel Hernandez (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) was awarded an Interagency Cooperation Contract with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for $74,966 for the proposal “Status, Distribution and Survey Techniques for Western Quail Species in Texas.”

David Hewitt (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) was awarded $60,000 from The Stedman West Foundation for “Support for the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute’s Deer Research Program.” Also, Hewitt was awarded $2,000 from The ExxonMobil Foundation for “ExxonMobil Foundation Intern for Stable Isotope Research.”

Kim Jones (environmental engineering) was awarded a $10,000 contract with Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program, Inc. for “Extension of an Ecological Engineering Approach to Shoreline Restoration at Loyola Beach.” Also, Jones was awarded a Grant Agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for $45,896 for “Waste Tire Reuse Technology for Highway Construction Applications.”

William Kuvleskyand Jose Ortega-Santos (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) were awarded an interagency cooperation contract with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for $104,534 for “Rio Grande Wild Turkey Site Occupancy and Abundance Estimation Using Presence-Absence Data, Aerial Surveys and Replicated Count Statistics.”

Shuhui Li (electrical engineering & computer science), Sangyong Lee (chemical & natural gas engineering), Selahattin Ozcelik (mechanical & industrial engineering), Venkatesh Uddameri (environmental engineering) and Jaehyung Yu (physics/geosciences) were awarded $200,000 from the National Science Foundation for “MRI: Developing a High Performance Computing Center through Acquisition of a PC Cluster for Cross-Disciplinary Research and Education.”

Eliezer Louzada (Citrus Center) was awarded $339,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “Agricultural Biotechnology Research Experiences for the Preponderantly Hispanic Population of South Texas.”

Thomas L. McGehee (physics/geosciences) was awarded $38,585 from the Army Corp of Engineers for “Optimization Analysis of Fate and Transport Model of the Former Sacramento Army Depot.”

Shad Nelson (agronomy & resource sciences) and Randy Stanko (animal & wildlife sciences) were awarded $296,000 from the Department of Agriculture for “Increasing Student Learning and Career Development through Agricultural and Natural Resources Based Research.”

John C. Pérez (Natural Toxins Research Center) was awarded a services agreement for $50,000 with Neurobiological Technologies for venom production.

Glenn Perrigo (biology) received a subaward agreement with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston for $3,000 for “Centers of Excellence.”

Allen Rasmussen (agriculture, natural resources and human sciences) was awarded $74,298 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “Student Leadership Program for Agricultural Students from Hispanic Serving Institutions.” Also, he was awarded $82,500 from the USDA/NRCS Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit for “Investigating Native Eco-typic Plant Species for South Texas.” Finally, he was awarded $72,168 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for facility expansion for the Center for Young Children.

Jianhong Ren (environmental engineering) was awarded $84,341 from the National Science Foundation for “Stream-Sediment Bed Exchange of Colloids and Colloid-Associated Metals in Acid Mine Drainage-Affected Environments.” Also, Ren was awarded $31,897 from the National Science Foundation for “CAREER: Effects of Particle Aggregation/Disaggregation and Precipitation on Sediment and Contaminant Transport in River Systems.”

Elda E. Sanchez (Natural Toxins Research Center) was awarded a sponsored research agreement for $15,881 with Wyeth for “Evaluation of Wyeth North American Coral Snake Antivenom on Two North American Coral Snake Venoms.”

Daniel Suson (physics/geosciences) was awarded an intrasystem cooperation contract with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station for $45,000 for “The Texas Partnership.”

Michael Tewes and Lon Grassman (Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute) were awarded an interagency cooperation contract with Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for $13,000 for the proposal “Spatial Distribution, Cover Type and Activity of Ocelot Prey.”

Venkatesh Uddameri (environmental engineering) was awarded a memorandum of agreement with Kenedy County for $25,000 for “Water Availability and Water Quality Assessments in Support of Kenedy County Groundwater Conservation District Management Plan.”

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