2017 Faculty and Staff Award Recipients

Ben Dalton, laboratory supervisor in the Department of Biology, does consistently excellent work in a job that requires flexibility, patience and outstanding organizational skills. He serves the college as coordinator of the Region VII Science Olympiad with over 1000 students participating in 2016 and the SW Region of Missouri Junior Academy of Science. He also recruits and oversees the judges for the Ozarks Science and Engineering Fair. Ben serves the biology department by serving as an academic advisor for pre-vet students and coordinating many aspects of the department head’s research lab.

Sarah Morrissey, administrative assistant with Cooperative Engineering, is introduced during tours of the department in the following way: This is Sarah, the fountain of knowledge for the Engineering program. Sarah coordinates all of the administrative work for the cooperative engineering program – interacting with both Missouri State University staff and Missouri S&T staff on a regular basis. Sarah always has a smile on her face and that smile is the first thing you see when you enter the office complex for engineering.

Linda Allen, administrative assistant in the Department of Chemistry, goes above and beyond in performing her duties for chemistry. She organizes class schedules in consultation with the department head, administers most p-cards in the department and supervises office student workers. She provides administrative support to several departmental committees and takes care of all routine tasks – all of this with a level of professionalism that is exceptional. Linda is always willing to answer questions from her peers.

Matt Pierson, associate professor with Cooperative Engineering, serves as faculty advisory for the student chapters of American Society of Civil Engineers and Missouri Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE) as well as for the steel bridge and concrete canoe teams that compete each year. He serves on the Springfield/Greene County Environmental Taskforce and the City of Springfield Stormwater Taskforce. He plans and conducts Discovery Engineering Day each February and assists with Math Counts and model bridge contest – all MSPE events.

Matt Siebert, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, currently serves as immediate past chair of the Ozarks section of the American Chemical Society (the end of the three-year commitment). He reviews articles for two professional journals and is the administrator of the chemistry department’s website. Matt serves as faculty advisory for Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society and a co-advisor for the Premedical Society. He served as the campus champion for NSF’s Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program.

Brian Greene, associate professor in the Department of Biology, has chaired the university’s animal care and use committee for the past eight years. This committee requires significant time and effort including shepherding colleagues’ protocols through the review process. Brian also serves on the university’s honors and academic appeals committee, coordinates the department’s seminar series, and serves as the faculty sponsor for the University Running Club. Finally, Brian is active on committees for the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.

Brian High, senior instructor in the Department of Chemistry, chairs the department safety committee, which recently developed a safety checklist for lab TAs, students and stockroom workers. He also serves on the CNAS IT and Awards Committees. As a member of the departmental dual credit committee, Brian sponsored many visits by dual credit high school classes and many others. Brian is the departmental expert on the use of Camtasia, mastering chemistry clickers and Adobe products.

Michelle Bowe, senior instructor in the Department of Biology, is the curator of the MSU herbarium that requires supervision of students and active preparation and cataloging of specimens. She responds promptly to outside requests from the herbarium. She is the faculty advisor for the Optometry Club and serves on the college’s equipment repair committee. Michelle is professionally active in the Missouri Native Plant Society. 

Kyoungtae Kim, professor in the Department of Biology, has published six peer-reviewed journal articles with his students as co-authors in the last two years. Over the same time, his students have given 26 research presentations at both regional and national conferences. The lab’s research interests lie in understanding the molecular mechanisms of endocytosis and endocytic and recycling traffics. Understanding these mechanisms in budding yeast (similar to cancer) might help shed light on the mechanism responsible for cancer cell motility and providing alternative drug targets. 

Bob Pavlowsky, distinguished professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning, secured $522,000 in external funding in 2016 and supported seven graduate students in his research group. In 2016 the group published nine peer-reviewed publications and/or technical reports. The group made presentations at four regional/national conferences including Upper Midwest Stream Restoration Symposium, Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers, Annual Conference of the Geological Society of America, and the Binghamton Geomorphology Conference. These studies looked at Mark Twain National Forest, mining contamination along Big River in SE Missouri, continued studies in Jamaica and local studies of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and metal contamination in urban areas. 

Peter Plavchan, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science, studies the radial velocities of exoplanets. He has received funding from NASA, NASA-Missouri Space Grant Consortium and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 2016 he authored eight peer-reviewed publications and gave nine invited research seminar presentations in Missouri and California. He has involved many students in his work – high school students, undergraduate students and now graduate students. Peter is passionate about his research and transfers that passion to the students in his research group. Peter recently received funding from NASA to investigate the scientific feasibility of a space mission to search for exoplanets (planets like ours) orbiting nearby stars. 

Albert Barreda, assistant professor in the Department of Hospitality Leadership, has authored six peer-reviewed publications since the fall of 2015 and currently has six articles under review. He has made presentations at national and international conferences this past year. Albert’s research covers a number of diverse topics such as consumer perception of knowledge sharing in travel-related online social networks and who are the bulls and bears in global lodging markets. His most recent presentation looked at pricing practices in large-scale sporting events – a case of Rio de Janeiro during the FIFA World Cup. 

Mark Rogers, associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, has taught a variety of courses over the last five years to include MTH 138 (Pre-Calculus), MTH 181 (Trigonometry), MTH 261 (Calculus I), MTH532 (Introduction to Abstract Algebra), MTH 533 (Linear Algebra), and MTH 732 (Abstract Algebra II). Mark receives outstanding evaluations for each course and every semester he writes new lecture notes making his approach to classes fresh every time he teaches it. Last year Mark’s graduate student successfully defended his thesis. 

Laszlo Kovacs, professor in the Department of Biology, revised BIO 235 Genetics in the past year and has also developed a new course called Genome Biology. He also wrote the laboratory manual for genetics. Laszlo is currently working with two graduate and four undergraduate students in his research lab. Laszlo serves as advisor for 34 biology students. 

Brian Greene, associate professor in the Department of Biology, consistently receives outstanding evaluations from students across the range of courses that he teaches – including general ecology, conservation biology, animal population methods and herpetology. Brian also mentors students in his lab - seven graduate and two undergraduate students last year. His students were co-authors on four conference presentations (two state and two international). He also serves as advisor for 58 biology majors. 

Matt Siebert, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, has taught organic chemistry courses for the past several years. He has enhanced the classes with supplemental chemistry lectures on demand – videos which were funded by an internal FCTL grant. These videos allow students to revisit difficult concepts and study at their own pace. Matt developed the intersession course Preparing for Organic Chemistry that has been quite popular and submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Chemical Education highlighting the student success outcomes of the course. He advises all chemistry undergraduate students who have declared pre-pharmacy. 

Doug Gouzie, professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning, is graduate director for the department. Both his teaching and the well-being of undergraduate and graduate students are his main priorities. Student evaluations are consistently outstanding for principles of geology (100 level), speleology (300 level), and geohydrology (graduate level). Two of Doug’s graduate students successfully defended their MS theses and graduated in 2016. All good instructors in GGP lead field trips and Doug is no exception to this. He has led one-day and weekend field trips to Ouachita Mountains, Round Spring Cave and Bluff Dwellers Cave.

Raj Jutla, professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning, taught courses from 100 level to graduate level – understanding cities, geography of south Asia, history and introduction to planning, communication techniques in planning, and site planning and design. He completed the assessment report for planning 100 this past year and supervised five undergraduate students conducting independent research projects. Raj also plans appropriate field trips for his classes.