Category: Faculty

Stories about UCCS LAS faculty.

Faculty in Technical Communication and Information Design Receive Cybersecurity Grant

A team of faculty in Technical Communication and Information Design (TCID) received a UCCS Faculty Cybersecurity seed grant to support their research. Sean Williams, Director of TCID, led the team that includes Alex Ilyasova, Associate Professor of TCID, Janice Thorpe, Senior Instructor of Communication, and Gurvirender Tejay, Associate Professor of Business. The project is titled “Exploring the User Experience Design of Commercially Available Cybersecurity Products for Personal Mobile Devices.” Continuing reading to view the project abstract.

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Communications Faculty Member Honored by Former Student on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Cathryn Supplee

Cathryn Supplee, Lecturer for the Department of Communication, was honored by a former student who sent a note of thanks through The Civics Center, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on high school voter registration and civic engagement:

“Thank you for your commitment to improving and educating people on intercultural communication. I can say with certainty that your work has improved this world and spread awareness for important issues.   -Fischer Kirwan

On behalf of The Civics Center, you inspire us, too. Thank you for the amazing work you have done to support your students and community.”

Pyszczynski Receives Career Contribution Award

Tom Pyszczynski

Tom Pyszczynski, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, was recently honored by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology with the Career Contribution Award. He was honored along with his close collaborators, Jeff Greenberg of the University of Arizona, and Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College. Together they developed Terror Management Theory, which has exerted a strong influence on social psychology.

“Flat Out Amazing” Sherry Marshall of Sociology

Sherry Marshall, Instructor, Department of Sociology

The following email was sent by a student to the Dean of Students, who forwarded to LAS leadership:

“To Whom it May Concern, 

This semester has been hard on me, being that it was all online. With that being said, I had the best professor this semester that I just need to tell someone about. I am in the Criminal Justice program here at UCCS and I cannot say enough good things about our professors. I have not had a bad teacher here. I feel extremely lucky for that. However, one teacher has stood out to me this year. Her name is Sherry Marshall who taught my Social Research Methods class. No matter the hour, she would answer my emails. She always responded with a thoughtful and thorough response and gave every student the opportunity to make up points that were lost if they were willing to put in the work and communicated with her. I just think she is flat out amazing. I love her willingness to help and her dedication to her students. This is a teacher that listens to her students and bases her plans off her student’s lives. She is everything anyone could need in a professor. Do not get me wrong, her class is very challenging and has a lot of work. But she walks with the students and does not expect more than we can handle. That right there is an outstanding professor! I just thought I would let someone know.

Thanks, and happy holidays!

Karson Horan”

Our thanks to Karson for sending this, and for permission to post it to the news feed.

Robert von Dassanowsky Becomes LAS’s Sixth Distinguished Professor

Robert von Dassanowsky

Dr. Robert von Dassanowsky, Professor of German and of Film Studies, was recently named a CU Distinguished Professor. Read more in the Communique.

Dr. von Dassanowwsky joins the following Distinguished Professors in LAS:

  • Robert Camley, physics and energy science, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
  • Zbigniew Celinski, physics and energy science, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
  • Paul Harvey, history, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
  • Thomas Pyszczynski, psychology, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
  • Thomas Wynn, anthropology, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Aging Center Receives Large Grant to Assist At-Risk Seniors

Dr. Magdalene Lim, Director, UCCS Aging Center

The UCCS Aging Center, housed within the Department of Psychology, has been awarded $247,141 by NextFifty Initiative to fund its one year project called “Next Steps: Identifying Barriers and Optimizing Independence of At-Risk Seniors.” Read more in the Communique story, “UCCS Aging Center receives NextFifty Initiative grant to advance independence for at-risk seniors,” written by Jared Verner.

The Aging Center is featured in the Indy Give campaign: UCCS Aging Center IndyGive page.

Psychology Faculty Recognized for Research Productivity and Research Mentoring

Tom Pyszczynski
Kristi Samuelson

At the closing ceremonies for the 2020 Mountain Lion Research Week, organized by the Office of Research and the Center for Student Research, two Psychology faculty members were recognized for their contributions to research at UCCS. Dr. Kristi Samuelson, Associate Professor of Psychology, was named to the UCCS Million Dollar Club, a recognition for UCCS researchers who have earned more than $1M in external funding. Dr. Tom Pyszczynski, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, received the Research Mentor Award for 2020. Read more about Dr. Pyszczynski and his mentoring in this recent story in the Communique.

Geography & Environmental Studies (GES) Faculty: Making Local and Global Impacts

Irina Kopteva

Dr. Irina Kopteva, Assistant Professor of Research in GES, received an award from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Western Region program. In partnership with the Douglas County School District, Dr. Kopteva will work on the project entitled Remote Teaching of Earth and Environmental Science with Primary Sources. The project team will address challenges of distance education during pandemic and will develop curriculum that connects social studies and science with the use of primary sources. The curriculum will be presented to high school environmental science teachers at the professional development online workshops. 

David Havlick

Dr. David Havlick, Professor of GES, will be giving a talk at a UN conference in December. He will be speaking during the “Diverse approaches to harmony with nature in the context of peace making in borderlands” session of the Development, Environment and Peace Nexus (DEEPEN): Peace Making In Borderlands international conference in Cheorwon, South Korea. For more information see the conference website.