Academe welcomes news from WSU faculty and staff about research, teaching and service activities. This column recognizes grants, honors, awards, presentations and publications, new appointments, new faculty, sabbaticals, retirements and deaths of current and former colleagues. 

AWARDS/HONORS 

Pingfeng Wang, associate professor, Engineering, received national distinction for his work in design automation. Wang was recently presented with the ASME Design Automation Young Investigator Award. The award is presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering to an outstanding young investigator who is making noteworthy contributions in the area of design automation, with selection based on the nominee’s research contributions and impact on the field as attributed by prominent members in the field. 

Former WSU President Eugene Hughes was selected as the 2016 recipient of the prestigious Distinguished Service Award at Coconino Community College. Hughes was selected for his outstanding contribution to the mission of Coconino Community College. 

The Office of Financial Operations and Business Technology at Wichita State University won a Best Practice award from the Central Association of College and University Business Officers (CACUBO). The program recognizes colleges and universities that have successfully developed a best practice to respond to particular business problems. WSU received the award for a best practice developed in response to challenges of collecting all past due accounts receivable balances no older than seven years. 

John Perry, professor, Barton School of Business, received an Exemplary Course Status award from Blackboard for his online course Management 681. 

Roy Myose, Syed Raza, Klaus Hoffmann and Armin Ghoddoussi from the Aerospace Engineering Department recently received the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Best Overall Zone Paper Award during the 2016 ASEE National Conference. Their paper, "Correlating Engineering Statics Student Performance with Scores of a Test over Pre-requisite Material Involving Problem Solving," was chosen as the winner out of about 500 papers presented at ASEE’s regional and zone conferences during the 2014-15 conference year. 

PRESENTATIONS 

Neal Allen, associate professor, Political Science, delivered a talk on the Cold War and free speech for the public library’s big read, “Fahrenheit 451.” He discussed the tumultuous McCarthy era, the distrust of communist ideas and the rooting out of those who supported socialistic ideas. The government intrusion into the lives of dissidents was mirrored in the themes of “Fahrenheit 451,” first published in 1953. 

Kaye Monk-Morgan, program director, Upward Bound Math Science, and Joyce McEwen Crane, strategic development coordinator, Center for Community Support and Research, presented at the inaugural Know Your Worth: Women’s Leadership Conference at the Kansas Leadership Center. The conference connected women around a shared vision of their role in a more prosperous Kansas, and focused on professional leadership, building community and personal development. 

Ward Jewell, professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was a panelist at the Sloan Workshop on Electricity Distribution at the University of Chicago. The workshop was sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and organized by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago and University of California Berkeley. It brought together leading economists and engineers to discuss the future of electric energy distribution as increasing levels of distributed resources, particularly rooftop solar and energy storage, are connected to the system. Jewell's panel focused on recent developments in technologies and regulations that will both disrupt the system and mitigate those disruptions. The workshop will result in long-term collaborations among the participants to address the challenges faced by the distribution system. 

Arwiphawee (Sai) Srithongrung, associate professor, Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, presented results from a study exploring the strength of the creative sector, the growth of “creative class” employment and economic growth as a whole at the Economic and Social Impacts of the Arts dialogue presented by The Arts Council. 

Jody Fiorini, department head, Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology (CLES), and Susan Bray, assistant professor, CLES, presented "Gender Attitudes Toward Disability in Counselors-in-training" at the North Central Association for Counselor Education & Supervision conference in Minneapolis. Bray also co-presented a poster on collaborative Outcome Research Projects in Play Therapy: Implications for Counselor Education at the conference. 

Beata Latawiec, assistant professor, Educational Psychology, presented “Teachers’ Metadiscourse and Metatalk for Intersubjective ‘Inclusion,’ Autonomy and Argumentative Elaboration in Collaborative Reasoning Small Group Discussions” at the 26th annual Meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse in Kassel, Germany. Latawiec also presented “Socialization via Metadiscourse in Collaborative Reasoning Discussions and Essays, Inclusive of Quiet and Shy Children” at the annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Washington. 

PUBLICATIONS 

Donna Sayman, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, co-authored “Playing well with others: Co-Teaching in higher education,” which was recently published in The Journal of the Effective School Project. 

Danny Bergman, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, recently published “Puzzle boxes for 3D learning about natural hazards” in the National Science Teachers Association’s Science Scope peer-reviewed journal. 

Beata Latawiec, assistant professor, Educational Psychology, authored the chapters “Metacognition and a moving target of reading comprehension: Effective instructional practices and paradigms” and “Dynamic Assessment of Pan-Slavic Persuasive and Interactive Performance,” published in H. Kyuchukov’s “New Trends in the Psychology of Language: Lincom Studies in Language Acquisition and Bilingualism.” Latawiec also co-authored “Influence of Collaborative Discussions on metadiscourse in children’s essay” in the journal Text & Talk. 

David Xu, associate professor, Barton School of Business, published his paper, “Enhancing self0efficacy for career development in Facebook,” in “Computers in Human Behavior.” To read the article, go to http://www.wichita.edu/j/?5181. 

IN MEMORIAM

Maureen Hoag, 80, retired English instructor at WSU and Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School, died Aug. 25. She is survived by her sister, Ann; son, Bill; daughter, Alison; son-in-law, Dan; and granddaughter, Zoe. She loved teaching and had a passion for the success of her students. 

Jim Snyder, 70, passed away Sept. 11. Snyder was committed to both graduate and undergraduate teaching, and was very dedicated to his students. An active member of the community, Snyder brought more than $6 million in outside research funding and published 100 professional papers and chapters, most in his later years. Snyder was the recipient of the 2014 Child Champion award from Child Start for his work with Head Start and Early Head Start programs. He was also the Erker Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology. 

Patric Rowley, 92, loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather died Sept. 19. Rowley was an inspiring artist, writer, entrepreneur, Rotarian, civic volunteer, dog lover and friend to nearly every person he ever met during his 92 years. He was born in Fairland, Oklahoma, and grew up in the heart of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression. He served his country during WWII in the U.S. Navy in both the Atlantic and Pacific as an aircrew member of a Patrol Bomber. He returned home to Wichita, where he earned a degree in English from the University of Wichita. Rowley married Betty Lou Calkins, with whom he celebrated their 65th anniversary in July. Throughout his life he maintained a passion for art and was a skilled and recognized painter and writer. He shared that passion as an instructor at Kansas State University, Wichita State University and The Wichita Art Association. His paintings have been displayed at the Wichita Art Museum, Wichita Center for the Arts and numerous private collections. He contributed many columns to The Wichita Eagle as a member of its Writers Guild. 

William E. Unrau passed away Oct. 4 in Boulder, Colorado. He was born in Goessel, Kansas, Aug. 19, 1929, to William H. and Margaret Epp Unrau. Of Mennonite heritage, he grew up on a Kansas farm during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years near the historic Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church. He was a member of the Bethany College faculty in Lindsborg, Kansas from 1958 to 1965 and from 1965 to 1996 he was a member of the history faculty at Wichita State University, where he was named Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History. He was known nationally as one of the leading historians of Native Americans. As a prolific scholar, he published 11 books and numerous articles about federal Indian policy and Indian/White relations. Unrau’s gregarious personality, his sense of humor and enthusiasm for life will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He is survived by his wife, Millie; sister, Averil Leach (Bob) of Sacramento, California; two children and their spouses, Debbie and Tom McClellan of Wichita, and Bill and Pam Unrau of Boulder, Colorado; and grandsons, Andrew McClellan of Wichita and Rudy Unrau of Conifer, Colorado.