Natural Sciences News and Features

Faculty innovator: Sandra Johnson
January 22, 2021
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–Sandra Johnson remembers playing teacher as a child, in a classroom of make-believe students. “Gaining knowledge, and sharing it, were my ultimate goals,” she said. Today, as senior lecturer in the areas of allied health and health information management, she prepares real live students to enter a career that didn’t ...

IU Southeast School of Natural Sciences receives $1 million gift to create new scholarship
January 13, 2021
NEW ALBANY, Ind. – IU Southeast received a generous gift to the School of Natural Sciences by Mark Holloway in honor of his late wife and IU Southeast alumna Teresa Blessinger. The $1 million gift will create the Teresa Blessinger Memorial Scholarship for IU Southeast School of Natural Sciences students. “We are very grateful for ...

IU Southeast biology students to participate in SEA PHAGES program
December 7, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–IU Southeast biology students will now benefit from membership in a national research community. That community is called SEA-PHAGES, which is short for Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science. It is jointly administered by a research team at the University of Pittsburgh and the Howard Hughes Medical ...

Math department recalculates for fall success
September 22, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–How has the mathematics department adapted to the pandemic? Let us count the ways. The math lab, run by Senior Lecturer Cindy Light, has gone virtual, with free online tutoring via Zoom–extra equipment was purchased to enable student tutors to help their peers without leaving their safe spaces. Instructors Mildred ...

From New Albany to Bulgaria: James Hollenbeck brings e-learning insights to Eastern Europe
June 23, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–Last October, Dr. James Hollenbeck, professor and coordinator of secondary education, presented two papers and led a vigorous discussion on e-learning at the 48th Annual Conference of Chemistry Teachers with International Participation in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the time, Bulgarian educators were seeking new ideas for reform amid demographic contraction in rural ...

Subhranil De: Impressions of spring in Southern Indiana
May 26, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–For most of his students, Subhranil De is the associate professor of physics who teaches quantum mechanics and researches the statics and dynamics of classical mechanical systems. But in his photographs and personal blogs, he reveals another side: an aesthetic sensibility and a writer’s gift for expression. In a recent ...

Trustees Teaching Awards honor IU Southeast faculty
May 19, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–Five IU Southeast faculty have received IU Trustees Teaching Awards for the 2019 calendar year. The IU Trustees Teaching Awards were first awarded in 2000-2001 to recognize and enhance excellent teaching, especially at the undergraduate level. The awards are open to tenured and tenure-track faculty, as well as full-time lecturers ...

Jeannine Barr ’20 awarded certificate of special achievement by Botanical Society of America
May 12, 2020
By Steven Krolak (NEW ALBANY, Ind.)–Jeannine Barr, a graduating senior from Lanesville, Indiana majoring in biology with minors in plant science and chemistry, has received a Young Botanist Award, Certificate of Special Achievement from the Botanical Society of America (BSA). Barr is one of 16 students nationally and the first from IU Southeast to receive ...