The CUR Speakers Bureau features nearly 20 speakers and over 40 topics. The Bureau provides an opportunity for institutions to host speakers who can talk first-hand about the high caliber research in several disciplines being conducted at primarily undergraduate research programs. CUR speakers can share insights and excitement with a broad audience, and they provide CUR with yet another way of strengthening science, science education, and other academic disciplines at primarily undergraduate colleges and universities.

Invitations should be extended directly to the individual speakers, and all travel arrangements are to be worked out in advance between the host institution and the invited speaker. Each speaker requires full reimbursement of travel expenses and subsistence. We ask the host institution to confirm arrangements with the speaker in writing, with a copy sent to the CUR National Office.

CUR members interested in participating in CUR’s Speakers Bureau should submit their vita, their e-mail address, and a short biography suitable for use in our Speakers Bureau listing and seminar abstracts.

Any questions should be directed to the CUR National Office at cur@cur.org.

CUR is pleased to provide these names of CUR members who have volunteered to participate in its Speaker's Bureau. The CUR National Office has reviewed the basic credentials of the speakers and titles of their talks for appropriateness. However, CUR does not endorse the content of the talks nor do the speakers necessarily represent the views of CUR. Their views are their own.

Mary Mennes Allen
Department of Biological Sciences
Wellesley College
Phone: (781)-283-3068
E-mail: mallen@wellesley.edu

The Joys of Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research as the Best Way to Learn Microbiology

Ancient Microbes Through 21st Century Eyes

Dr. Allen, a past president and one of the first two Fellows of CUR, carries out research on cyanobacterial biochemistry with her undergraduate colleagues. She has been a department chair and serves now as Director of Biological Chemistry, an interdepartmental major. She received the Carski Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching from the American Society for Microbiology and her research has been supported by NSF, NIH and Research Corporation.

George T. Barthalmus
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research
North Carolina State University 412 Clark Hall, Box 7576 Raleigh, NC 27695-7576
Phone: (919) 513-4187
Email: george_barthalmus@ncsu.edu

Creating an Undergraduate Research & Creativity Conference for your entire state

Consider creating an all day research and creativity conference for your state. The model developed for North Carolina will be presented and include details related to leadership, funding, partnering, advanced planning, reporting, the website needs, and more. The State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium supports all 111 institutions of higher learning in North Carolina and it is free to all; over 800 attended in 2009. Locations rotate between public and private institutions; the 6th annual symposium will be November 20, 2010 at Meredith College, Raleigh, NC.

Developing an Undergraduate Research Office and Program at a Large Research University

Undergraduate research has occurred for decades across the campuses of large research universities and small colleges; however, most campuses had developed neither a coordinated, comprehensive program, detailed website, nor a faculty support initiative until the last 10 years. The issues related to faculty contracts, annual faculty activities reports, and support within the promotion and tenure arenas will be discussed.

George T. Barthalmus received a B.S. in Biology at Bloomsburg University (Pa) and both his M.S. and Ph.D. in Zoology at the Pennsylvania State University. He joined the Zoology Department at NC State in 1970 and worked through the ranks to Full Professor. In 1994 he joined the Academic Programs Office of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences as Assistant Director of Academic Programs. In 1998 he became Associate Dean and Director of Academic Programs. Dr. Barthalmus retired after 31 years in June 2001 to become Professor Emeritus of Zoology. In 2002-03 he was invited to serve as Interim Director of the University Honors Program. He then created the Office of Undergraduate Research and serves, to date, as its director within the Division of Undergraduate Affairs. He taught over 16,000 NC State students during his 40 years at NC State. In that time he won three University Outstanding Teaching Awards, the Distinguished Alumni Undergraduate Professor Award, the Outstanding Academic Adviser Award, and the Provost’s Award for Excellence. He served as the campus President of Phi Kappa Phi in 2000-2001, and as Chair of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers. His past research focused on the behavioral toxicology and pharmacology of amphibian skin secretions.

Michelle M. Bushey
Professor of Chemistry
Trinity University
715 Stadium Drive
San Antonio, TX 78212
Phone: (210) 999-7318
Email: mbushey@trinity.edu

Faculty Careers at Undergraduate Institutions and How to Apply for Them

Integrating Capillary Electrophoresis and HPLC Throughout the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum – A NSF-CCLI A&I Project

Porous Polymer Monoliths for Use in Capillary Electrochromatography

Dr. Bushey’s undergraduate research program revolves around biochemical applications of capillary electrophoretic separation methods. She has supervised 57 students working on research projects. Her research has been supported by Research Corporation, Petroleum Research Fund, NIH, Dreyfus Foundation, and Dow.

Julio C. de Paula
Dean of the College
Lewis & Clark College
Phone: (503) 768-7100
Email: casdean@lclark.edu

Laser Spectroscopy of Novel Porphyrins with Applications in Tumor Therapy and Molecular Electronics

Planning and Designing Science Facilities: An Example from Haverford College

New Approaches to Teaching Physical Chemistry to Undergraduates

Dr. de Paula specializes in the study of the photophysics of a number of novel porphyrins that are capable of efficient triplet-triplet energy transfer and ultrafast intramolecular charge separation

Shelia M. Kennison, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology 
Oklahoma State University
Phone: (405) 744-7335
Email:shelia.kennison@okstate.edu 

Language and the Brain

This talk is most appropriate for college/university Psychology Departments.

Acquiring 1st and 2nd Languages

This talk is most appropriate for college/university Psychology Departments.

Myths about Bilingualism

This talk is most appropriate for community groups.

Shelia received her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She studied cognitive neuroscience as a post-doc at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Her research focuses on topics in Cognitive Science, including Psycholinguistics, specifically the acquisition and processing of 1st and 2nd languages. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation. She has authored or co-authored 22 publications in scholarly journals, 6 book chapters, and 17 book reviews. She has made over 50 presentations at professional conferences. She reviews manuscripts for 13 scholarly journals. She is also a member of 8 professional societies.

Her research interest is language acquisition and processing for 1st and 2nd languages. Specialty areas include reading comprehension, reading development, and bilingualism. She has also mentored numerous studies in research formally as part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates that is funded by the National Science Foundation and also informally as a faculty member at Oklahoma State University. Her students have received funding for their research projects from Sigma Xi and Oklahoma State University’s Wentz Foundation.

Arthur J. Lidsky

AICP, President
Dober, Lidsky, Craig and Associates, Inc.
E-mail:ajl@dlca.com
Home Page: www.dlca.com

Planning Science Facilities-New and Renovated: Process, Guidelines, Checklists, Suggestions, and Cautions

Dober, Lidsky, Craig and Associates, Inc., is a professional firm that specializes in college and university campus planning, facility planning, and facility programming, and has worked with over 450 educational institutions world-wide. Prior to his consulting assignments, Arthur Lidsky was Assistant Director of Long-Range Planning for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served on facility review panels for the National Science Foundation, and has given lectures, presentations, and invited papers at such organizations as the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP), Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), International Association for College Unions, No Name Facility Conference, Quality Education for Minorities Network, and the Municipal Art Society of New York.

He is an active leader and faculty member with the Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Workshops on Facilities. He has given lectures and papers on campus planning and science facility planning and programming as part of Project Kaleidoscope. He has also been a science facility consultant for the PKAL/Keck reviews. Over the past decade, he has planned and programmed over 60 science, technology, engineering, and math related facilities.

Robert P. Marande
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Bloomsburg University
Ben Franklin 13
400 East 2^nd Street
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Phone: (570) 389-5333
Email: rmarande@bloomu.edu

Use of the Moessbauer Effect on Liquid Crystalline and Polymeric Materials

How Undergraduate Research Can Influence Academic Programs

Establishing Administrator Support for Undergraduate Research

The Industrial Connection

Dr. Marande and his research group use the Moessbauer Effect to investigate the glassy phases of liquid crystalline and polymeric materials. As dean he has worked with different department chairpersons in integrating undergraduate research into the curriculum based on his past experience as a faculty member and department chairperson. He has engaged in research in the private sector resulting in the establishment of several patents.

Exploring the wane of childhood amnesia with adult recollections of childhood

This talk is most appropriate for college/university Psychology Departments.

The effects of source monitoring on memory illusions: Evidence from older and younger adults

This talk is most appropriate for college/university Psychology Departments.

Myths of aging

This talk is most appropriate for community groups.

Kristi received her B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Princeton University. She studied aging on a 3-year post-doc at Washington University in St. Louis and for another year on a post-doc at Duke University.

Kristi started at Davidson College in the fall of 1996 where she teaches and does research in the areas of aging and cognition. She has authored or co-authored 14 publications in scholarly journals and one book chapter, has made 30 presentations at professional conferences, and reviews manuscripts for 14 scholarly journals. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa and 11 professional societies.

Her research interest is in cognitive aging, particularly the mechanisms that are responsible for memory changes and, in some cases, the lack of memory changes in healthy older adults. Specialty areas include source memory (where did you learn information--a friend, the TV?) and inhibitory control (e.g., what we use to name the color of ink for the word RED "black"). She also enjoys helping students develop research projects in aging that are not necessarily linked to cognition (e.g., social partner choices made by younger and older adults) and projects in cognition that are not necessarily linked to aging (e.g., determining the childhood age at which we begin to have personal memories of our experiences that we can recall as adults).

James F. O’Brien
Chemistry Department
Southwest Missouri State University
Phone: (417) 883-3821
Email: jimobrien@missouristate.edu

Famous Mad Hatters

The Scientific Sherlock Holmes

Absinthe: A Chemical and Artistic History

Dr. O’ Brien’s research interests are molecular orbital calculations on inorganic and organometallic species, and the history of chemistry.

Jeffrey M. Osborn
Dean
School of Science
The College of New Jersey
Phone: (609) 771-2790
Email: josborn@tcnj.edu

Pollen: More Than Something to Sneeze At

Getting Started in Undergraduate Research: Advice for New Faculty and Administrators

The Undergraduate Research Program at Truman State University

Dr. Osborn and his students are interested in paleobotany and the functional morphology and evolution of vascular plants.

Terry Oswalt
Associate Dean of Research
Dept of Physics/Space Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
Phone: (321) 674-7325
Email: oswalt@luyten.astro.fit.edu

Prospecting in the Stellar Graveyard

The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA) Observatory at Kitt Peak and the Future of Small Telescopes at National Sites

In the Asteroid's Shadow

Star Bright, Sky Brighter: The Problem of Light Pollution

Opportunities for Astronomers and Physicists at the National Science Foundation (faculty and students)

Getting Started in Undergraduate Research: Advice for New Faculty and Administrators

Dr. Terry D. Oswalt, an astronomer, is Professor of Physics and Space Sciences and Associate Dean for Research at Florida Institute of Technology. He recently served two years at the National Science Foundation as program officer for Stellar Astronomy and Astrophysics. He earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy at The Ohio State University specializing in photoelectric and spectroscopic studies of binary star systems, late stages of stellar evolution, minor planets, and comets.

Since coming to Florida Tech in 1982, Dr. Oswalt has taught astronomy and physics, while continuing his primary research interest in studies of collapsed stars called white dwarfs. Because such objects are very faint, this work often takes him to Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, where telescopes as large as 4-meters (156-inches) are available on a competitive basis to scientists. This project was also awarded observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope in collaboration with a dozen other scientists specializing in white dwarfs.

Oswalt established an asteroid occultation program at Florida Tech which involved several dozen students in expeditions to various parts of the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. A collaborative expedition involving scientists and students at Florida Tech and M.I.T. produced the first and currently most accurate measurements of Ceres, the largest known asteroid.

Oswalt serves as the founding Chairman of the Southeast Association for Research in Astronomy, a consortium of universities which operates an automated 1-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. He also has been director of the SARA summer internship program, which brings undergraduate students from around the U.S. to the SARA faciltiy at Kitt Peak each summer to do research in astronomy. Dr. Oswalt has written numerous scientific articles and edits the I.A.P.P.P. Communications, an international journal for advanced amateurs, students, teachers and professionals who collaborate on research and educational projects in astronomy.

Julio J. Ramirez, Ph.D.
R. Stuart Dickson Professor
Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience
Department of Psychology
Davidson College
Phone: (704)-894-2888
juramirez@davidson.edu

Developing an Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience: Four Blueprints

Neuroscience as a Component of an Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum

Are Broken Brains Doomed to Dysfunction?

Dr. Ramirez, one of the first two fellows of CUR, has involved his student colleagues in research on recovery from central nervous system injury since 1981. He has been an active participant, over the last ten years, in national dialogues aimed at the development of undergraduate curricula in neuroscience.

Gary Reiness
Biology Department
Lewis & Clark College
Phone: (503) 768-7513
Email: reiness@lclark.edu

The Road Less Taken: Non-classical Secretion of a Neurotrophic Factor

Building a Research-Active Science Department

Dr. Reiness and his students study the mechanism by which cells export ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), a protein essential for proper formation of synapses in the developing nervous system. They have shown that CNTF is secreted by a novel mechanism, distinct from the customary pathway traversed by most secretory proteins. A former CUR Councilor, Dr. Reiness has served as Chair of Biology and Associate Dean of Faculty at Pomona College, and as Chair of Biology at Lewis & Clark College, where he is currently Dean of the Mathematical and Natural Sciences.

Beheruz N. Sethna
Professor of Business Administration, President
The State University of West Georgia
Phone: (770) 836-6442
Email: BSethna@WestGA.edu

Review of Tom Friedman's "The World is Flat" -- Implications for Higher Education

The Ugly American in Comparative Education Systems

The Dearth of an Academic Culture in American Lives and Messages

Early Entrance Opportunities in Gifted Education

Electric / Hybrid Vehicles -- The Time is Now

Beheruz N. Sethna is a Professor of Business Administration, and President of the University of West Georgia.  He is the first person of Indian origin to become President of an U.S. University, and the first of any ethnic minority to become President of an IHE (non-HBCU) in Georgia. Remaining active in teaching and scholarship, he considers among his highest honors, being elected Honors Professor of the Year (1999) and being the faculty advisor for the student research team winner at Big Night and at the National Social Sciences Association (2003). His research areas include gifted education and business. He was associated with the start of the Texas Academy for Leadership in the Humanities, and later started the Advanced Academy of Georgia, a full-time residential program for gifted youth of high-school age. He is the author or coauthor of over 55 papers and a book entitled, Research Methods in Marketing and Management.  View his full biography.

Brad Stith
Biology
University of Colorado at Denver
Phone: (303)-556 3371
E-mail: brad.stith@cudenver.edu
Web site: http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~bstith/

Justification and Development of Faculty Research Programs at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions

Having been an external reviewer of departments at various universities, Dr. Stith has found that increased research expectations at many primarily undergraduate institutions (PUI) can lead to friction among faculty who are skeptical of this change and worried about a negative impact upon teaching.  Dr. Stith addresses these concerns with increased research demands in a three part presentation: (1) defining various types of undergraduate research, (2) new data supporting the idea that undergraduate research may be the best form of teaching, and (3) specific ideas on how to develop a successful undergraduate-based research program.  Dr. Stith has successfully given this program to PUI faculty facing increased research expectations.

Julio Turrens
Department of Biomedical Sciences
University of South Alabama
Phone: (251) 380-2714
Email: jturrens@usouthal.edu

Biochemical targets for the treatment of parasitic diseases

Mitochondria: from energy production to cell suicide

Oxidative metabolism in biological systems

Teaching bioethics and research integrity to undergraduates

Julio's research is focused in two fields: a) free radical metabolism in mammalian cells, and b) basic metabolism of trypanosomatids (parasitic protozoa). His studies in this area of free radical metabolism have been focused on identifying both sources and methods to detect their formation. The second area of interest focuses on the intermediate metabolism of Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasites responsible for Chagas disease, an incurable disease that affects 18 million people through the Americas. They have identified various metabolic differences with mammalian cells including: a) organization and substrate preference in the electron transport chain, and b) an enzyme (NADH-fumarate reductase), not found in mammalian cells, which may in the future become targets for an effective anti-parasitic chemotherapy.

In 1998, Julio designed a campus-wide program for undergraduate research and has directed this program since then. For more information, please visit the web page at: http://www.southalabama.edu/biomedical/ucur/.

Quinn Vega
Assistant Professor
Deptartment of Biology and Molecular Biology
Montclair University
Phone: (973) 655-7178
Email: vegaq@mail.montclair.edu

Molecular Research in an Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory

In this project, students complete a research project while learning molecular biology laboratory techniques. Specifically, students are asked to create and analyze a chimeric construct. This project is funded through an NIH AREA grant.

The function of RET with respect to ligand binding and co-receptor activation, downstream signaling and transcriptional regulation.

Joann Waite
Director of Sponsored Research and Programs
Gonzaga University
Phone: (509) 313-5870
Email: waite@gonzaga.edu

Implementing a successful sponsored research office
Succeeding as a research administrator
Facilitating collaborative projects across disciplines and across the country
Why have a sponsored research office?
Who should be hired as a research administrator at your institution
Evaluating your research office’s effectiveness

Joann Waite, MOL, PhD (c), Director of Sponsored Research and Programs at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.  She specializes in the development of research administrators effectiveness for faculty at predominately undergraduate institutions or for departments of larger research institutions. Her research administration career began in the Oregon University system as an Institutional Researcher and then moving to Sponsored Research.  She has two bachelors’ degrees from Oregon, in Marketing and in Psychology and a master’s degree from GU in Organizational Leadership.  After receiving her Masters at Gonzaga she accepted a position at Gonzaga.  She implemented a full sponsored research office including pre and post award processes.  Joann has several published articles included in the National Council for University Research Administrators (NCURA), the International Society of Research Administrators, Catalyst and continues to present for the International Society of Research Administrators, NCURA, and was invited as the only research administrator to speak at the Council for Undergraduate Education, Dialogues conference, in DC and at the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning.