TAMPA, Fla. 鈥� Among these impressive discoveries and advancements, one researcher in USF Health has created a nationally acclaimed interactive dashboard to track COVID-19 and another is developing novel COVID-19 therapeutics. Another faculty member has received NASA funding to improve human spaceflight conditions, while her colleague is creating new defenses for wireless network security systems. And in USF Health Morsani College of Medicine a professor has made outstanding contributions relevant to Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
These are just a few of the faculty research achievements newly recognized with USF鈥檚 Outstanding Research Achievement Awards. This year鈥檚 awards recognize 26 faculty members鈥攖he largest group to date鈥攆or their important achievements.
鈥淭he 黑料老司机鈥檚 reputation as a top research university is powered by the discoveries and innovations of our faculty members,鈥� said USF President Rhea Law. 鈥淚 congratulate each of the outstanding awardees on all they have accomplished in their work of advancing knowledge, finding solutions and transforming lives.鈥�
The largest internal recognition of its kind at USF, the annual nominations are submitted by deans, department chairs, center and institute directors, and associate deans of research. The nominations are reviewed by members of the USF Research Council. Each faculty member receives $2,000 with the award and recognition at an event later in the fall.
Here are this year鈥檚 awardees:
Kathy Black, PhD, MPH
Professor, School of Aging Studies
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Recognized for extraordinary leadership in the promotion of equitable healthy aging in age-friendly community practice鈥攕tatewide, nationally, and internationally.
Dr. Black is a renowned expert on healthy aging in . Her research informs and inspires professionals across a range of disciplines in
the built, social, and service environment. In 2021, Dr. Black received a grant to
develop an Equitable Healthy Aging toolkit for the nation鈥檚 community health improvement
professionals, aligning the concepts of health equity and healthy aging to enhance
the capacity of the nation鈥檚 local health departments. The project extends Dr. Black鈥檚
leadership role in age-friendly public health practice at the state, national and
international level. Dr. Black also continued to lead Florida鈥檚 statewide age-friendly
community network in 2021, conduct advisory roles on healthy aging for the Florida
Departments of Health and Transportation, and manage the state鈥檚 Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease
and Related Disorders Training program through the Florida Department of Elder Affairs.
Patrice M. Buzzanell, PhD
Distinguished University Professor, Communication
College of Arts and Sciences
Recognized for numerous publications, a signed book contract, receiving two top national and international awards, and a ranking in the top 2% of cited scientists in the world by a recent Stanford University study.
Dr. Buzzanell is a world-renowned scholar in Organizational Communication, Resilience, and Design
in Engineering Education. Dr. Buzzanell鈥檚 research brings together organizational
sense-making, career theory, feminist workplace policies and practices, design for
diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and currently, theories of and scales for
resilience in organizational and relational spaces. A scholar, teacher, and mentor,
who has won nearly every available award in the discipline, Dr. Buzzanell continues
to research and publish at a rate unparalleled by her peers. In 2021, Dr. Buzznell
was ranked in the top 2% of scientists world-wide; she was honored with multiple national and international awards (two from the most recognized ones in the discipline), delivered keynote speeches
across the globe, published seven journal articles (in top-tier journals) and two
refereed engineering education proceedings, six book chapters, three non-refereed
journal articles, and signed a contract for a co-authored book project on ethics.
Stephanie Carey, PhD
Research Faculty, Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Recognized for seminal contributions in prosthetics and orthotics, in monitoring performance and situational awareness of military personnel and improving human spaceflight conditions.
Dr. Carey's investigations of prosthetics and orthotics led to journal and conference
articles and funding from the Department of Defense, U.S. Army, and Tampa VA in 2021.
She also received funding from USSOCOM to develop a monitoring and alert system and
will conduct another project to study performance limitations under cognitive load
for the military. In collaboration with the Department of Neurology and School of
Music, Dr. Carey filed a patent for a device for the treatment of dystonia. Dr. Carey
has expanded her research efforts to include the effects of human spaceflight which
has led to NASA funding to study and spacesuits, and an international provisional patent for a device to synthesize
compounds. Dr. Carey continues her efforts as the research coordinator for the and as a trained operator of the Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN)
system.
Yu Chen, PhD
Associate Professor, Molecular Medicine
Morsani College of Medicine
Recognized for significant contributions to studies of bacterial resistance against beta-lactam antibiotics and developing novel therapeutics against COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2.
focuses on targeting infection diseases and other human diseases. In 2021, he was awarded a
5-year R01 grant studying bacterial resistance against beta-lactam antibiotics with
a total funding of $3,803,725. He was also awarded an R21 grant studying the bacterial
pathogen S. aureus, as well as serving as co-Investigator on an R01 developing novel
therapeutics against COVID-19. Dr. Chen has made significant contributions to , a key antiviral target. In the past year, among a total of nine research papers,
he published four on inhibitor discovery against the main protease as corresponding
or co-corresponding author, in journals such as Cell Research (Impact factor, 25.62), Journal of American Chemical Society (IF, 15.42), ACS Central Science (IF, 14.55) and Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (IF, 7.45).
Jennifer Collins, PhD
Professor, School of Geosciences
College of Arts and Sciences
Recognized for distinguished contributions to the fields of geography and meteorology, particularly for her role on the team which discovered the first category 5 hurricane on record to make landfall in the United States as well as significant work on hurricane evacuation behavior during a pandemic.
had 15 publications in 2021 either published (nine of them), accepted, or submitted
then later accepted. On most, she lead authored or was supervisor of lead author graduate
students. She included several undergraduates as coauthors. These were significant
papers, such as one lead-authored by her masters student, highlighted in the Washington
Post, regarding identification of the first Category 5 hurricane on record to affect
the U.S. In 2021, she had three active grants, including two from NSF, and submitted
four grants. Dr. Collins鈥� work transects the fields of Geography and Meteorology.
She was voted as Fellow in 2021 in both of her major organizations: the American Meteorological Society and the American Association of Geographers. She also received a scholarship from
the Natural Hazards Center.
Lingling Fan, PhD
Professor, Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
Recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of power and energy, particularly for modeling and analysis of inverter-based resource penetrated power grids and providing fundamental understandings on real-world dynamic phenomena and mitigation solutions for reliability enhancement.
is an internationally recognized leader in the field of inverter-based resource (IBR)-penetrated
power grid dynamic analysis and control. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Electrification Magazine and is the PI on a multi-year $1.5 million DOE project on solar PV modeling and analysis
(2019-2023). In 2021, Dr. Fan published 10 articles in , the top journals in her field, and was corresponding author and supervisor in all
of them and lead author in 5. She also received a $350,000 grant from NSF on IBR dynamic
model identification using data and was elevated to IEEE Fellow for her contributions
to IBR stability analysis and control in November 2021. were cited 924 times in 2021 alone.
Howard Goldstein, PhD
Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Recognized for a sustained history of exemplary publications and distinguished contributions to communication sciences and disorders for intervention strategies to promote early development of language, literacy, and social skills.
Dr. Goldstein is an Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders.
His career accomplishments were recognized with the . His recent grants and publications advance knowledge of interventions to enhance
readiness of students in high poverty schools who are at risk for language and reading
disabilities. His research on how best to teach academic vocabulary and early literacy
skills to young children has expanded into written language development. His 2021
publications represent innovative practices for assessing and teaching writing skills
in kindergarten and first grade. He and his students investigated how the COVID-19
pandemic affected speech-language pathology services and provided important information
about the validity of telehealth assessments that had been called into question. His
leadership also was evident in the continued development of the USF (PRRN鈩�) and an associated publication on how universities can address global challenges.
Rasim Guldiken, PhD
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
Recognized for seminal contributions to acoustics, engineering education research, more specifically novel bridge inspection by ultrasound, as well as student-centered inclusive learning, metacognition, and reflection on STEM courses.
In 2021, served as the PI of a diverse research group focused on Acoustics and Engineering
Education Research composed of seven PhD students, including three females and one
student from an underrepresented group. Both research areas received external funding
in 2021 (one from NSF, one from the U.S. Department of Transportation through industry).
Along with his PhD students, Dr. Guldiken was issued two U.S. patents, filed for one
U.S. patent, published two journal papers, and was invited to speak about his research
on channel Fox 13. One of his PhD students received second place overall in Jabil's
Innovation Technology Challenge 2021 for his dissertation project. , shared on YouTube and supported by NSF funding, have been viewed more than 165,000
times and were watched for 10,000 hours by over 55,000 unique viewers in 2021.
Elizabeth Hadley, PhD
Assistant Professor, Language, Literacy, Ed.D., Exceptional Education & Physical Education
College of Education
Recognized for seminal work in children鈥檚 early literacy development, including vocabulary interventions, teacher language practices, early childhood vocabulary instruction, and research-based principles for choosing vocabulary words.
Dr. Hadley鈥檚 research focuses on supporting early language and literacy development in children
from marginalized backgrounds. Dr. Hadley received two grants from prestigious educational
organizations in 2021: a Spencer Foundation Small Grant Award鈥攁warded to less than
10% of applicants鈥攁nd an American Educational Research Association Seed Grant Award.
She published four articles as lead author in high-impact journals, including two
publications with a doctoral student co-author. In one article, Hadley and colleagues
reported findings from a vocabulary intervention; in another they examined teacher
language practices. In a third article, she systematically reviewed studies on early
childhood vocabulary instruction, and in a fourth article drew on these findings to
communicate principles for choosing vocabulary words. In 2021, Dr. Hadley continued
her commitments to community engagements with local non-profits and community partners,
including Pinellas County Schools (e.g., Pre-Ks, the Center for Literacy Innovation)
and Lutheran Family Services鈥� Head Start.
Micah Johnson, PhD
Associate Professor, Mental Health Law and Policy
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of behavioral health, particularly focused on childhood trauma, substance misuse, juvenile justice research, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
is a sociologist trained in criminology and psychiatric epidemiology. His research
centers around childhood trauma, behavioral health, and juvenile justice. In 2021,
Dr. Johnson published five papers and was awarded $2.3 million in NIH grants鈥攖hree
multi-year grants to create programs to enhance diversity in research: Substance Misuse and Abuse Research Traineeship (SMART), Scientific Training in Addiction Research Techniques (START), using Adolescent Brain
Cognitive Development study data, and Examining the Stress Processes Relating Ethnicity
and Sex to Substance Misuse and Service Outcomes (ESPRESSO). His research was cited
by the New York Times, ESPN, Senator Bernie Sanders, among others. Dr. Johnson published two books in 2021:
a picture book entitled Never Had a Friend, which helps to facilitate discussions of adversity and resilience, and the Little Book of Police Youth Dialogue: A Restorative Path Toward Justice, which is a leading resource for police-community relationships. Dr. Johnson also
served in federal courts as an expert pioneer witness of forensic sociology.
Stephen Liggett, MD
Professor, Internal Medicine
Morsani College of Medicine
Recognized for outstanding contributions in the study of molecular, cellular, and biophysical mechanisms of receptor signaling with fundamental relevance to Alzheimer鈥檚, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases.
is a Professor of Internal Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, and Medical
Engineering. In 2021, he obtained a new R01 grant from NIH, which explores the molecular
basis of biasing G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), a concept which he has pioneered.
The grant has highly molecular and computational methods, and also includes specific
studies aimed at novel asthma therapy. He published four papers on GPCRs or their
associated proteins, the most impactful being in PNAS which represents landmark findings
using molecular and cellular biology with unique, quantum mechanics-based, 3D modeling
of the biasing of a receptor complex. A patent application was submitted based on
this work in 2021. Other papers such as in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters revealed distinct elements of agonist-receptor interactions using site-directed mutagenesis
and innovative computational methods. Collectively his research is relevant to .
Zhuo Lu, PhD
Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
Recognized for significant research contribution in designing new ways to identify vulnerabilities and creating new defense strategies to enhance the security in today's computer and wireless network systems.
is an expert in . He received the NSF CAREER award in 2021 for his research project to create novel
data-driven approaches to design efficient and secure wireless networks with an award
amount of $500,000. His research on network design and security in 2021 was also supported
by NSF, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy (with funding totaling over
$1 million). Dr. Lu published six full research papers in top academic journals and
in conference proceedings, based on identifying new vulnerabilities and creating new
defenses for today's computer and wireless network security systems. In addition to
academic publications, his research results also produced four reports of vulnerability
and abusive behavior to major service providers in the U.S. in 2021.
Dinorah Martinez Tyson, PhD, MPH, MA
Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Science and Practice
College of Public Health
Recognized for exceptional contributions to the field of public health through efforts to address and reduce health disparities among ethnic minorities and underserved populations in the U.S. and Latin America.
is noted for her outstanding contributions in cross-cultural perspectives to the
study of cancer health disparities. focuses on identifying the best models and methods for adapting instrumentation and
proven interventions to address health disparities across the cancer continuum. She
led an exploratory sequential mixed method study, which employed a series of iterative
and group consensus-building approaches, to translate and culturally adapt the previously
validated CaSUN measure into Spanish, for Latino cancer survivors. In 2021, she was
awarded a highly competitive PCORI grant to develop a culturally adapted online couples'
communication program for Latina breast cancer patients, and brought together a diverse
and highly skilled academic and community-based research team to undertake this challenging
project.
Ambe Njoh, PhD
Professor, School of Geosciences
College of Arts and Sciences
Recognized for his distinguished contributions to the fields of International Development, Environmental Policy, Renewable Energy, and Public Infrastructure Systems with emphasis on questions of environmental and spatial equity, fairness and justice in Africa.
is an acclaimed authority on international development, urban planning, environmental
science and policy with a research focus on Africa. His publications frequently appear
on the reading list of international development, urban planning and environmental
courses throughout the world. In 2021, he was ranked among the top 2% of the most
productive scientific researchers in the world in a Stanford University study. Also,
he was an awardee of the United States鈥� Ambassadors鈥� Distinguished Scholar Program
(ADSP) and assigned to Mekelle University, Ethiopia. Professor Njoh's works were cited
390 times in 2021. He was the co-author or sole author of three peer-reviewed papers
published in 2021. He was the lead or sole author of four additional papers that have
been accepted and are awaiting publication. Additionally, Dr. Njoh is a member of
the editorial boards for the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, and the journal Habitat International.
Yashwant Pathak, PhD, BPharm, MPharm, Executive MBA, MSCM
Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, Pharmaceutical Science
Taneja College of Pharmacy
Recognized for election as a AAAS Fellow and distinguished contributions to the academia and research of pharmaceutical sciences.
was elected Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (FAAAS) in 2021. Elected as Adjunct Professor at University of Airlangga, Indonesia
and University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Dr. Pathak coordinated Honors College
course (spring and fall 2021) and a Risk Management and Nanotechnology graduate course
at Taneja College of Pharmacy. He edited three books: Emerging Technologies for Nanoparticle Manufacturing, Bioactive Peptides, and Nutraceuticals for Aging and Antiaging, contributed 13 chapters, and eight reviews in journals with impact factors ranging
from 4 to 8. Nine articles were published in journals with Honors College students
as first authors. One of his reviews published in Stem Cell Research and Therapy (impact factor 8.0) was cited 123 times. In 2021, he received two U.S. patents. He
presented several talks in International conference in 2021, mostly online due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Ruva, PhD
Professor, Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences
Recognized for distinguished contributions to Psychology and Law, particularly for research on pretrial publicity鈥檚 impact on a defendant鈥檚 Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, which resulted in an invitation to assist in writing an amicus curiae brief submitted to the United States Supreme Court.
Professor Ruva鈥檚 research focuses on examining the factors that bias juror decision making and exploring
mechanisms responsible for this bias, as well as possible remedies. This research
has significant applied importance as juror bias can compromise a defendant鈥檚 Sixth
Amendment right to a fair trial and challenge the prosecution鈥檚 ability to prove guilt鈥攖hus
having important implications for defendants and victims. In 2021, she published a
peer-reviewed article in a high-impact journal as lead author, with another accepted
for publication, and a third published for which she served as supervisor of research.
Additionally, she wrote two invited book chapters with the goal of giving the science
to practitioners in the field (e.g., attorneys and judges). Dr. Ruva was invited to
serve as lead author in the writing of an amicus curiae brief for the United States
Supreme Court, and as such, led a team of psycho-legal scholars to assist attorneys
in writing the brief, which was submitted to the court in August 2021. The brief鈥檚
focus was on cognitive bias resulting from exposure to pretrial publicity that 鈥渇undamentally
affects how jurors will process evidence during the trial and deliberate in the jury
room.鈥�
Jason Salemi, PhD, MPH, FACE
Associate Professor, Concentration Lead for the PhD Program in Epidemiology
College of Public Health
Recognized for seminal work in translational science related to COVID-19 transmission and mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic.