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Deans Notes - November 25, 2021

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From Dean Pamela Jansma

Outstanding Students for Fall 2021 Semester Announced

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is proud to announce the students selected for recognition this semester:

Outstanding Undergraduate BS: Souha Tifour, Mathematics

Outstanding Undergraduate BA: Amy Vermette, Public Health

Outstanding MA Graduate:  Gabriella Mayne, Anthropology

Outstanding MS Graduate: Ian S. Arriaga MacKenzie, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Outstanding PhD Graduate:  Wenjuan Zhang, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

This Month’s CLAS Staff Council Profile of Outstanding Staff

Nara Chon – Professional Research Assistant in the Department of Chemistry

Nara Chon began her career as an immigrant from South Korea. Today, a proud graduate of CU Denver and CLAS, she’s been working for the Department of Chemistry as a Professional Research Assistant for the past three years.

When asked what she likes most about working in CLAS, Nara responded, “I like the friendly atmosphere here. I feel this way because I was a CLAS student as well. The faculty members at the Department of Chemistry who taught me in the past are now my co-workers, and they encourage me and help me to succeed.”  

Dr. Hai Lin, Professor of Chemistry and Nara’s supervisor, says “Nara’s passion about sciences is not limited to research. She is always willing to share her knowledge and experience with others…Nara helped me mentor ~10 undergraduate students…She also spent time patiently listening to them talking about lives, careers, struggles, and dreams…Many of these students have been accepted into medical/dental schools or are attending PhD programs.”  

Jeff Knight, Associate Professor of Chemistry, adds that “Nara is an outstanding research collaborator…she is also always interested in learning new things. I am impressed with how well she communicates on many levels…sharing her results with other scientists, and training the students she works with directly.” 

Nara is passionate about helping students and helping them to discover innovative ways to acquire new information. Among her impressive accomplishments include the publication of four papers in 2018 alone, with two more manuscripts in preparation.  

We proudly celebrate the achievements and dedication of Nara: an alumna, member of the CLAS staff, and our Lynx family.  

CLAS in the News

photo of catalina de onis

Reminders of Who is Most Impacted by Climate Change from Catalina de Onís

News

“People on the front lines of climate chaos have long documented that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, coastal and rural regions, and low-income and low-wealth communities are most at risk. These disproportionate impacts stem from centuries of colonial and imperial violence, neoliberal austerity measures, environmental racism, racial capitalism, and many other oppressive systems and structures that treat subjugated communities as sacrifice zones,” wrote Assistant Professor of Communication, Catalina de Onís, in this op-ed, commenting on the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26). In addition, her collaborative documentary, El poder del pueblo, was featured on Democracy Now as part of its coverage of the UN Climate Conference.

‘El Poder del Pueblo’: Puerto Rican Documentary on the Need for Environmental and Energy Justice
Latino Rebels (Futuro Media Group), Nov 4

photo of daniel rees

Daniel Rees Analysis On Impacts of Marijuana Legalization Cited

News

Earlier this year, Economics Professor Daniel Rees, with a colleague from Montana State University, performed a comprehensive review of public health consequences of cannabis legalization, encompassing dozens of published studies. On traffic safety, they found that “road safety improves when medical marijuana is legalized,” noting cannabis as a beneficial substitute for alcohol and opioids, which both statistically lead to impaired driving. 

Embrace retail cannabis, New York: Why localities should opt in 
NY Daily News, Nov 17

photo of jennifer reich

Perspective on the State of Parental Choice and COVID Vaccination from Jennifer Reich

News

“As we watch coronavirus vaccination become widely available to young children in the coming days, weeks and months, we will inevitably see some parents struggle to decide whether to vaccinate their children. Most of these parents are neither virus deniers nor anti-science. Rather, they are part of a group of parents that has had a different relationship with vaccines than did their own parents, viewing vaccines not as one of public health’s top achievements but as something to use as rarely as possible and only when it seemed to them to be totally necessary,” writes co-author of this piece, Jennifer Reich, Professor of Sociology.

Why cautious parents should choose vaccination for their children
Washington Post, Nov 9

Spotlight

Current GES Student and Alum Team Up on Internship with City of Denver to Bring Community Input to the Redistricting Process

Spotlight

Every 10 years, with the release of the US Census data, the Denver City Council redraws its city council boundaries to ensure that every person has a voice in electing their local representative. For the 2022 redistricting initiative the City Council wants to incorporate as much community input as possible, and that’s where two Geography and Environmental Department-trained GIS experts are stepping in.

As interns this semester and continuing into March 2022, Steven Geisbert and Clay Adams-Berger (MS/2020) have been given the primary task of processing, analyzing, and reporting on Communities of Interest (COIs). The Colorado Constitution defines a COI as “any group” that “shares one or more substantial interests that may be the subject of federal legislative action.”  Redrawing council district boundaries must adhere to rules from the US and Colorado Constitutions, as well as the Denver Charter; one of those rules is to endeavor to preserve COIs and...

Hamilton Bean Receives Book Award and Publishes on International Mobile Alert Harmonization

Spotlight

Hamilton Bean, Associate Professor of Communication, recently received the Sue DeWine Distinguished Scholarly Book Award for Mobile Technology and the Transformation of Public Alert and Warning (Praeger Security International) from the Applied Communication Division of the National Communication Association, an award which will be conferred later this month at the NCA annual meeting in Seattle. This award recognizes the top book published in applied communication over the past two years.

Additionally, the workshop report that Bean collaborated on titled, “Mobile Alert and Warning in the United States and Japan: Confronting the Challenges of International Harmonization,” has now been published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science.

3MT Award for Adelle Price

Spotlight

The Department of Mathematical and Statistical Science is pleased to announce that Statistics MS student Adelle Price won the campus' 3-minute talk (3MT) competition that took place earlier this month. Price presented a talk titled, “Bridging the Diversity Gap in Human Genetic Studies,” which is mentored by Audrey Hendricks as part of the Hendricks Research Lab.

Marino Resendiz Receives Prestigious Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award

Spotlight

Associate Professor of Chemistry, Marino Resendiz, recently received a Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award for 2021. These awards, from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, support the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences at undergraduate institutions. Based on institutional nominations, the program provides discretionary funding to faculty at an early stage in their careers. The award is based on accomplishment in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching, and provides an unrestricted research grant of $75,000. Resendiz’s award is for the program, “Structure-Function Relationships of Chemically Modified RNA: The Quest to Retain Students in Chemistry.”

Three Questions for Philosophy Guest Speaker Robert Talisse

Spotlight

Robert Talisse, a Vanderbilt University philosophy professor who specializes in democracy, spoke at the University of Colorado Denver recently about his most recent book, “Sustaining Democracy: What We Owe to the Other Side.” It’s a follow up to his 2019 book, “Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place.” The Colorado Sun ran a conversation with him in its recent newsletter titled, “The philosophy of a polarized democracy.”

GES Announces William M. Rodgers Undergraduate Geography Major Scholarship Winners

Spotlight

Geography and Environmental Sciences is very proud to announce the winners of the 2021 William M. Rodgers Undergraduate Geography Major Scholarships.

$1,000 Scholarship Award Winners
Ismaiel Elsayed
Elizabeth Kuhn
Valley Lopez

$500 Scholarship Award Winners
Jenna Griboski
Allyson Olson
Rayah Woodcock

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Deans Notes

Editor: Tracy Kohm
Marketing, Communication and Outreach Professional
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
tracy.kohm@ucdenver.edu

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