Category: Professional Notes

Nicole Crowder, assistant professor of chemistry, presented the results of her research at the 244th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, held in Philadelphia, Penn., August 19 to 23.

Her presentation, in the Inorganic Catalysis session, is entitled “Characterization and Quantitative Determination of Surface Loading of Phosphonate Monolayers on Copper for Electrocatalytic Applications.” These results are part of her larger research project that aims to artificially replicate photosynthesis to use carbon dioxide as a carbon feedstock material.

In early August, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Jangwoon “Leo” Lee presented “The h-p Version of Stochastic Galerkin FEM for Stochastic Optimal Control Problems” at the US-Korea Conference 2012 in Los Angeles, Calif.

The University of Mary Washington has named David A. Rettinger as executive director of the newly formed Center for Honor, Leadership and Service. Rettinger, a member of UMW’s psychology faculty since 2006, will remain in his role as associate professor.

As executive director, Rettinger will promote collaboration between faculty and student services, develop new programs and coursework and facilitate communication on campus about honor, service and leadership. He also will conduct research on academic integrity and serve as the content expert on honor.

The center aims to enhance and deepen student learning through best practices, educational competency and skill sets for leadership and service grounded in the core value of honor. Starting with the fall semester, the center will involve students in the areas of honor, leadership and service through leadership training and development, an annual leadership conference, honor training, service learning opportunities and immersion experiences, as well as special programs and events throughout the year.

“Honor, leadership and service are at the heart of UMW’s ethos and the center was created with the goal of placing these three virtues at the heart of the Mary Washington experience,” Rettinger said. “Our goal is to provide students with opportunities both within and beyond the curriculum to develop as leaders in pursuit of an honorable life in service to communities great and small.”

Rettinger has been the faculty advisor to the UMW Honor Council since 2008. An expert on moral decision making and academic integrity, his research on student cheating and academic honor issues has been widely published in academic journals, including most recently in Ethics & Behavior and Research in Higher Education.

In February, Rettinger presented “Impulsivity and Emotion: Leveraging Individual Differences to Reduce Cheating” at an international higher education conference in Germany. Also at the conference, Rettinger gave a presentation on UMW’s honor system and honor code.

Rettinger received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For more information about the Center, visit http://students.umw.edu/chls/.

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and Director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies, was a featured guest on PBS NewsHour on Wednesday, August 15.

In the segment “Campaigns Vie for Virginia Voters, Especially Women,” he discusses Virginia’s importance in the upcoming presidential election and explains the role of Northern Virginia voters to the campaigns.

In “Virginia’s Boom Town — and Lots of Votes — Just Outside the Beltway,” Farnsworth explains the political dynamics of Northern Virginia and the strategies each campaign would need to employ to influence voters.

As an associate editor for the website Statistics on the Web, Professor of Mathematics Debra Hydorn recently published two lesson plans.  Titled “The Taste of Yellow” and “How Long is 30 Seconds?” these lesson plans serve as exemplars that follow the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education from the American Statistical Association and also meet standards set by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the Common Core for State Standards for Mathematics Practice.