Nine veteran faculty members have been promoted to professor, following confirmation Thursday by the ASU System Board of Trustees. Congratulations to Claire Abernathy, theatre; Dr. Mohammad Abrar Alam, chemistry; Dr. Koushik Biswas, physics; Dr. Scott Bruce, athletic training; Dr. Anahita Izadyar, chemistry; Dr. Jonathan Merten, chemistry; Dr. Edward Salo, history; Dr. Ilwoo Seok, mechanical engineering; and Dr. Amy Shollenbarger, communication disorders. Fourteen individuals were promoted to associate professor, and 12 attained tenure. Details are online.

Dr. Fabricio Medina-Bolivar, professor of plant metabolic engineering and director, environmental sciences and molecular biosciences graduate programs, was invited to speak at the Pharmacology Webinar Series hosted by the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. Medina-Bolivar showcased his team's research on leveraging plant stress to generate bioactive compounds, which they are investigating for their promising potential use as adjuvants in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

Dr. Gregory Hansen, professor of folklore and English, presented a paper on the storytelling of Florida Folk Heritage Award winner Richard Seaman at the annual International Country Music Conference in Nashville. The presentation looked at the one of Seaman’s tall tales as a prose poem and as a source for an early country song titled “Fisherman’s Luck.” Also, a volume Hansen co-edited, Sustaining Support for Intangible Cultural Heritage, is now available in paperback.

Dr. Topeka Small Singleton, assistant professor of educational leadership, completed the first year as a Boundless Learning Leader in the Arkansas Co-Teaching Project, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. Through an electronic learning community with support from Boundless Learning Leaders and Johns Hopkins Center for Technology in Education (CTE), the blended professional development provides training on building a co-teaching partnership. Singleton also provided support to teachers in the program.

Dr. Mohammad Abrar Alam, professor of chemistry, is co-author of an article published in the ACS Omega journal. He and fellow researchers have written about their work in the article, “Efficient Synthesis of Thiazole-Fused Bisnoralcohol Derivatives as Potential Therapeutic Agents.” They reported on a number of novel compounds that have been synthesized and studied for their potential anticancer and antibacterial properties.