Faculty Center Awards

We are proud to award Dr. Peter Park the Faculty Center Award in Innovative Pedagogy.

To summarize some of Dr. Park’s innovations:

He regularly employs a variety of active learning tools and evidence-based teaching methods to engage students in the course material, such as: real-time polling, to assess knowledge acquisition, and group activities that allow students to apply their knowledge as they build phylogenic trees and create Linnean Classification schemes. He encourages students to develop a strong repertoire of study strategies that can be applied to future classes including concepting mapping, developing of summary tables and drawing illustrations to learn key adaptations and evolutionary trends.

As part of his higher level courses he focuses on teaching students real world, practical scientific skills and applications with original inquiry based labs. This work culminates in a student research symposium where students have the opportunity to present posters summarizing their knowledge and research from the semester.

The Faculty Center presents his award for his application of active learning strategies in entry level Biology classes and introducing the virtual lab to the Biology curriculum.

We are proud to award Dr. Deborah Durbin the Faculty Center Award in Innovative Pedagogy.

To quote Dr. Durbin:

“The most common statement I hear upon entering an introductory chemistry class is one of fear or dread about the upcoming semester. Many students and adults dislike and fear chemistry because of a negative experience in school or college. 

I think the largest challenge facing chemistry instructors is enhancing accessibility and learning experience to make chemistry more meaningful and understandable, while simultaneously stimulating strong material comprehension and ensuring laboratory safety.”

The Faculty Center presents her award for her implementation of active learning “How-To” sessions in her 100 level chemistry classes and the creation of a new in-house manual to increase safety in entry level chemistry classes.

We are proud to award Prof. Eric Anderson the Faculty Center Award in Outstanding Mentorship.

To quote Prof. Anderson:

“I aim to guide and advise students to engage in hands-on experiences through mentoring that instills both competence and confidence. I guide them in navigating interactions with industry professionals, equipping them with the skills necessary for success in their evolving careers. Because we serve many first-generation students, I work to set an example in professional engagement, problem solving, and communication required for developing emerging talent. To bridge the gap between academia and the professional realm, I have guided students to competitions sponsored by industrial partners (through the regional project competition for the Associated Schools of Construction) and extracurricular activities with non-profit groups (such as Habitat for Humanity) with authentic parameters, constraints, and clients, thereby affording students a genuine experience reflective of their future careers. In fostering an environment of mentoring, I frequently invite external experts to engage with students, creating invaluable opportunities for networking and professional growth.”

The Faculty Center presents his award for his work organizing and mentoring students in applied learning projects with the Associate Schools of Construction, mentoring student national conference participation through the American Society for Engineering Education and involving the students in community service work with Habitat for Humanity.

We are proud to award Dr. Jack Simonson the Faculty Center Award in Outstanding Mentorship.

Quoting from his nomination: “He is engaged in mentoring undergraduate and high school students in authentic physics research, guiding students as primary and co-authorship to publish articles in peer-reviewed journals. 

He is particularly dedicated to mentoring historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students and has entered into an enduring partnership with New York State’s STEP and CSTEP programs, which are designed to prepare students from these underserved populations to enter STEM careers.”

The Faculty Center presents his award for his work in mentoring students to participate in the research process, mentoring students to engage in graduate study research based on their experiences at Farmingdale, and for creating opportunity for students from marginalized communities to engage in the research process. 

We are proud to award Dr. Kathryn Hauschild the Faculty Center Award for her Outstanding Scholarly Publication in the Social Science and Humanities.

To quote Dr. Hauschild:

“Facial emotion recognition differences in autism spectrum disorder are well-documented. However, far less is known about vocal emotion recognition in this population. Reported findings indicate that autistic youth had more difficulty accurately identifying vocal emotional expressions compared to their non-autistic peers. 

This study provides a vital foundation for the ongoing examination of how vocal emotion recognition behavior and underlying neural mechanisms offer a unique, underexplored avenue of insight into social perception and cognition in autism. Despite apparent difficulties in the vocal domain, the majority of work on emotion recognition interventions focuses on facial emotion recognition across neurodevelopmental disorders, learning disabilities, and mild cognitive impairment. 

This work provides a first step in characterizing the concurrent differences in vocal emotion recognition and facial emotion recognition abilities with the ultimate goal of better fostering multimodal social skill acquisition for autistic youth.”

The Faculty Center presents her award for her research on the impact of vocal emotion recognition on autistic youth.

We are proud to award Dr. Travis Holloway the Faculty Center Award in Social Science and Humanities Publication.

To quote his work: How to Live at the End of the World “How do we live at the end of the world? How do we write the story of our species differently? Or construct a democracy that does not belong to human beings alone? As we face down a new era of climate change, we require nothing short of a philosophy for the end of the world.”

The Faculty Center presents his award for his work in asking questions reach beyond the scope of a single discipline and address the very ideas of the spaces we inhabit and what are the rules that guide them and how do we create new rules around space and what types of spaces are needed in the future.

We are proud to award Dr. Kimberly Riegel the Faculty Center Award her Outstanding Scholarly Publication in a STEM field.

To quote Dr. Riegel:

“The return of supersonic travel is imminent as companies develop new supersonic aircrafts. Boom supersonic has already sold several aircraft to United Airlines and American Airlines with the anticipation that they will begin to fly in 2027. However, these aircraft are traditional supersonic aircraft with a loud sonic boom signature that is unacceptable to fly over land due to the negative impact that the noise would have on communities. 

In order to ensure that the impact is minimal to the residents of the coastline, the aircraft slows down several thousand feet from the coastline to ensure that they are not creating dangerous sounds as they fly over. However, when Concorde was flying a phenomena called secondary sonic booms where the sound that usually travels upward bends back down toward the earth due to specific atmospheric conditions caused unexpected complaints from communities. 

The significance of this paper is to predict when and where the secondary sonic booms might occur as these new aircraft are approaching the coastlines allowing the FAA to prepare for the secondary booms and require the aircraft to slow down further from the coastline to ensure no negative impact to residents.”

The Faculty Center presents her award for her research on the impact of secondary sonic booms on urban communities.

We are proud to award Dr Cristina Casa-Levine and Dr Luisa Nappo-Dattoma the Faculty Center Award in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Publication.

To quote their work: Upon graduating, dental hygienists are expected to enter the profession possessing the skills necessary to evaluate their performance, and implement changes that will improve their practices and patient care. This is supported by the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

The Faculty Center awards Dr. Cristina Casa-Levine and Dr. Luisa Nappo-Dattoma for their publication in the Journal of Dental Hygiene where they show the effects of self-assessment on clinical competence in dental hygiene education. 

This work serves as an example of how self-assessment can affect the professional practice of clinical workers through their experiences in school and as they move into the professional field. 

This work is a starting point for research on how self-assessment can be used in programs that lead to professional certifications and career tracks in STEM.