Faculty and Staff Accomplishments

Dr. Nicholas J. De Lillo , professor of mathematics and computer science, served as a session chair and reviewed three papers for the 23rd Annual Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, Eastern Conference at St. Joseph's College this past October. He also served as a reviewer for three papers to be presented at the 39th Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education of the Association for Computing Machiners, which will be held in Portland, Ore., in March 2008. De Lillo's latest paper "Implementation of Rotations in AVL Trees Using Java.util" will be published as a forthcoming technical report of the Ivan G. Seidenburg School of Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University.

Dr. Thom Gencarelli , associate professor of communication and chair of the communiation department, was invited to teach the course Media, Society and Research in Lviv, Ukraine in July 2007. The course was offered at Ivan Franko Lviv National University to junior faculty from Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe. It is part of the Media Literacy in Post-Communist Countries project administered by the Open Society Institute's Higher Education Support Program and Regional Seminar for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Zella Moore , assistant professor of psychology, recently authored The Psychology of Enhancing Human Performance: The Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment Approach. The text was published this past summer by Springer Publishing Company. Moore also was invited to Australia during this past summer to consult with the psychology department of the Australian Institute of Sport (Australian Olympic Committee). She spent two weeks training 11 Olympics psychologists in her methods to enhance elite competitive performance while assessing, conceptualizing, and treating psychological barriers related to anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress, eating disorders and developmental/adjustment issues.

Dr. Anirban De , assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, co-authored the paper "Centrifuge Modeling of Surface Blast Effects on Underground Structures," which appeared in the September 2007 issue of the peer-reviewed Geotechnical Testing Journal, published by the American Society of Testing and Materials. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Thomas F. Zimmie of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Robert M. Geraci , assistant professor of religious studies, published the paper "Cultural Prestige: Popular Science Robotics as Religion/Science Hybrid" in the book Reconfigurations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion in a Post-Secular Society.

Dr. John Tomer , professor of economics, recently published two articles: "Why We Need a Commitment Approach to Environmental Policy" in the May 2007 issue of Ecological Economics. and "What Is Behavioral Economics?" in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of Socio-Economics.

Dr. Mohammad Naraghi , professor of mechanical engineering, was honored by the Computer in Education Division of the American Society for Engineering Education for his article "VBA/Excel: An Alternative Computer Programming Tool for Engineering Freshman."

Dr. Robert Sharp , professor of environmental engineering, published the paper "Effects of Starvation on Bacterial Transport Through Porous Media" in the Elsevier Press peer-reviewed Journal of Advances in Water Resources. The paper was co-authored by Al Cunningham and Robin Geralac of Montana State University, and Frank Caccavo of Whitworth University.

Dr. Nada Marie Assaf-Anid , professor of chemical engineering, and Dr. James Patrick Abulencia, assistant professor of chemical engineering, attended two workshops this past October: Funding Biotech Companies, hosted by the New York Biotechnology Association, and Green Chemistry and Green Engineering in the Pharmaceutical Industry, organized by the Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 office.

Daniel A. Vellone , adjunct instructor of civil engineering, was presented the 2007 Douglas R. Piteau Young Member Award for distinguishing himself in "technical practice, his academic involvement and his community spirit" at the 50th annual meeting of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists in Los Angeles , Calif. The award is given to an outstanding member of the association who is under the age of 35 and has excelled singly or in combination in technical accomplishments, service to the association and/or service to the engineering geology profession. Vellone also presented the paper "Determination of Mechanical Properties of New York City Rocks Using a Schmidt Rebound Hammer" in the session on rock mass characterization. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Charles Merguerian, chairman and professor of geology at Hofstra University.

Drs. Hung W. Chu and Yassir M. Samra , assistant professors of management, Dr. Jonathan B. Hartman , assistant professor of marketing, and Dr. Carolyn E. Predmore , associate professor of marketing, presented papers at the Association on Employment Practices and Principles 15th Annual International Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., this past October. Chu's presentation "Are Baby Boomers Prepared for Retirement?" was co-authored by Dr. Richard Fitzpatrick, professor of management. Samra and Hartman presented their paper "Where Does an Entrepreneur Have the Best Shot? The Effects of Market Stage and Concentration Ratio on New Venture Entry in the Healthcare Sector."Predmore presented "Backdating of Stock Options: Do Corporate Ethics Matter to Consumers and other Stakeholders?" on behalf of her co-authors: Alfred Manduley , assistant professor of marketing; Dr. Fred Abdulahad , associate professor of economics and finance; and Dr. Ahmed Goma , associate professor of accounting.