THINK BIG: Six Campus Leaders Selected for President’s Fellowship Program

Six Tennessee State University faculty and staff members were selected for the University's President’s Fellowship Program, a seven-month program that combines service and mentorship.

An initiative designed to provide participants with an in-depth exposure to University administration and policy-making, the President’s Fellowship Program provides mentoring, networking, research opportunities, university service and guidance in preparation for career advancement for emerging leaders.

Open to all full-time employees who have been at the University a minimum of three years, the program lasts from October to April. Applicants may nominate themselves or be nominated by a co-worker. Each fellow completes a service project that will improve TSU or the surrounding community; the fellow also collaborates with a campus administrator as a mentor. At the culmination of the program, fellows make a presentation about their projects.

“One of the University’s goals is to prepare our students to navigate the global marketplace. In order to facilitate this goal, it is essential that we cultivate our employees to bring innovative ideas, services and programs to our students. The President’s Fellowship Program equips outstanding employees with more tools and knowledge to better serve TSU and the surrounding community,” said Sandra Keith, director of equity, diversity and compliance, who leads the program.

The 2009-2010 President’s Fellows are:

• Dr. Carolyn Caudle, associate professor in the department of biological sciences.
• Ginger Hausser-Pepper, assistant director of service learning and civic engagement
• Dr. Natalie Housel, associate professor of physical therapy
• LaKecia Hudson, assistant director of the career development center
• Dr. Reginald McDonald, assistant professor of music and associate director of bands
• Dr. Teresa Kent Todd, assistant professor of French and Spanish
• Anjetta Williams, coordinator of maintenance and scheduling for facilities management

L to R: Dr. Teresa Kent Todd, Dr. Reginald McDonald, Dr. Natalie Housel, Dr. Melvin N. Johnson, Ginger Hausser-Pepper, Anjetta Williams, and LaKecia Hudson. (Not pictured: Dr. Carolyn Caudle)

THINK BIG: Tennessee State University Welcomes Distinguished Lecturer George Curry

WHO:     
Tennessee State University will host its annual Distinguished Lecture Series with nationally acclaimed and multi-faceted journalist George Curry.

WHAT:   
The Tennessee State University Division of Student Affairs is delighted to continue the tradition of enlightening and inspiring students across the spectrum with the 2010 Distinguished Lecture Series. The annual lecture series has also featured Nikki Giovanni, Tavis Smiley and Judge Greg Mathis.

WHEN:   
Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 1 p.m.

WHERE: 
Tennessee State University Campus Center, Robert N. Murrell Forum Room 210

Read more about George Curry. 

ONE OF NATION’S TOP HOUSING OFFICIALS TO LAUNCH INNOVATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM AT TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John D. Trasviña and Tennessee State University President Melvin N. Johnson will kick-off a new National Collegiate Fair Housing Partnership Campaign on the campus of TSU at a press conference on Monday, January 18, 2010, at 2:15 p.m.

WHO:      
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasviña
TSU President Melvin N. Johnson

WHAT:

Press Conference announcing innovative National Fair Housing Collegiate Partnership campaign with colleges and universities


WHEN: 
2:15 p.m. Central Standard Time 
Monday, January 18, 2010


WHERE:
Tennessee State University
Gentry Center Complex, room 226 A
3500 John A. Merritt Blvd.
Nashville, Tennessee 37209

For more information, contact April Brown at (202) 402-2107 or april.a.brown@hud.gov



                

TSU Partners With Adventure Science Center For Alignment Nashville Program For Girls

Three Tennessee State University programs-the Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement, the Institute for Understanding Biological Systems (lUBS) and the College of Engineering-have entered a $1.35 million grant partnership with the Adventure Science Center and Alignment Nashville to provide tutors and summer camps for Metro Nashville Public Schools girls, grades 7-9.

The grant, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides support to the Art to STEM program. This program was created to promote girls' interests, skills and abilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

TSU will receive $5,200 for mentor recruitment, as well as $50,000 for hosting the summer camps in 2010 and 2011.

TSU faculty members, Dr. Todd Gary and Dr. Virginia Tickles, and the Center for Service Learning will provide student mentors to work with girls twice a week in an after school program to expose them to the STEM disciplines.

The week-long summer camps will allow Art to STEM participants to be on a college campus attended by many of their mentors. They will utilize the science, math, and aerospace labs, as well as the art gallery on campus and stay in the residence centers to experience college life.

Gary, who serves as co-director of the NASA Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SEMAA) program at TSU, said, "Having TSU students as role models and mentors will be a great asset to the program and will encourage more young women to pursue science careers."

Dr. Sue Fuller, director of the Center for Service-Learning and faculty member in the College of Education, said she views the partnership as a win-win opportunity for both students and their TSU mentors. She also said the program is a fine example of TSU's leadership role in P-16 activities in our area schools.

"The middle and high school students will be engaged in challenging and interesting learning activities while on our campus," she added.

To help recruit mentors, TSU will involve both student organizations-Association of Pre-professional Life Scientists (APLS) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

"Our students relish the chance to give back in meaningful ways," said Dr. Lonnie Sharpe, TSU's Massie Chair of Excellence. "They are exceptional, not only for their intellectual abilities but also for their character and maturity."

TSU has a strong and rich science tradition, including being recognized as the first University to directly detect a planet outside the solar system in 1999. Also, for many years, the University has offered summer camps on the campus to school-aged students in math and science. TSU has more than 400 female students majoring in a STEM related discipline.

Astronomers Find Second Smallest Exoplanet

Planet hunters, including Tennessee State University (TSU) astronomer Gregory Henry, have detected an extrasolar planet that is only four times the mass of Earth. The planet is the second smallest exoplanet ever discovered and adds to astronomers' growing cadre of low-mass planets called super-Earths.

"This is quite a remarkable discovery," said astronomer Andrew Howard of the University of California at Berkeley, or UCB. "It shows that we can push down and find smaller and smaller planets." He announced the discovery at the 215th American Astronomical Society meeting held Jan. 4-7, 2010 in Washington D.C.

Dubbed HD156668b, the planet orbits its parent star in just over four days and is located roughly 80 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hercules. Howard, along with California Planet Search team colleagues Geoff Marcy (UCB), Debra Fischer (Yale), John Johnson (CalTech), and Jason Wright (Penn State), discovered the new planet with the 10-meter Keck I telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawai’i.

The researchers used the radial velocity or wobble method, which relies on Keck’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph, or HIRES instrument, to spread light collected from the telescope into its component wavelengths or colors. The result is called a spectrum. When the planet orbits around the back of the parent star, its gravity pulls slightly on the star causing the star’s spectrum to shift toward redder wavelengths. When the planet orbits in front of the star, it pulls the star in the other direction. The star’s spectrum shifts toward bluer wavelengths.

The color (velocity) shifts give astronomers the mass of the planet and the characteristics of its orbit, such as the time it takes to orbit the star. Nearly 400 planets around other stars have been discovered using this technique. But, the majority of these planets are Jupiter-sized or larger.

"It's been astronomers long-standing goal to find low-mass planets, but they are really hard to detect," said Howard. Because low-mass planets produce such small spectral shifts, it is valuable to have complementary observations that support the discovery. CPS team member Gregory Henry (TSU) made repeated brightness measurements of the planet's host star with one of TSU's automatic telescopes located in the mountains of southern Arizona. "These observations show there is nothing intrinsic to the star, such as dark spots similar to spots on our Sun, that might mimic the observed spectral shifts," said Henry. "This provides additional evidence for the existence of the planet."

Howard added that the new discovery has implications for not only exoplanet research but also for solving the puzzle of how planets and planetary systems form and evolve. Astronomers have pieces of the formation and evolutionary puzzle from the discovery of hundreds of high-mass planets. But, "there are important pieces, we don’t have yet. We need to understand how low-mass planets, like super-Earths, form and migrate," Howard said.

The goal of the CPS Eta-Earth Survey for Low-Mass Planets, which was the brainchild of Marcy, was to find these super-Earths. So far the survey has discovered two near-Earth-mass planets with more on the way, Howard said.