Maroon MEMO: Employee News (Mississippi State University)

Mississippi State President Mark E. Keenum and members of the university’s Indian Student Association met last week to discuss student life on campus. Pictured in the Office of the President are (front, left to right) Mukti Patel, ISA vice president and a doctoral student in mechanical engineering; Pronnoy Tarafdar, ISA public relations officer and a sophomore mechanical engineering major; President Keenum; Harshini Devi Sampath Kumar, cultural secretary and a sophomore biochemistry/pre-medicine major; (back, left to right) Gaurav Nag, ISA social secretary and a junior mechanical engineering major; Ravi Kiran Akula, ISA treasurer and a master’s student in industrial engineering/manufacturing systems; Saurabh Shevante, ISA president and a master’s student in aerospace engineering; Shubham Chaudhari, ISA cultural secretary and a sophomore mechanical engineering major; Karin Lee, MSU director of international recruitment and retention; and Ajinkya Nawarkar, ISA general secretary and a junior computer science major. PHOTO: Russ Houston | Public Affairs

National Science Foundation grant to fund I-Corps Site on campus
The number of startup businesses formed around technology developed within Mississippi State University is set to increase thanks to a $495,300 National Science Foundation grant. The grant from the NSF will launch a new I-Corps Site at MSU, helping the university broaden the economic reach of its research and innovation. “We are very excited that we have been selected as an NSF I-Corps site,” College of Business Dean Sharon Oswald said. “The I-Corps site helps us elevate MSU faculty entrepreneurship to the next level and raise the stakes for building businesses that help solve the world’s biggest problems.”

Dutta leading project to discover best measurement for ‘Big G’
A Mississippi State physics professor will lead a multi-institutional, multi-discipline effort as part of a larger National Science Foundation project studying the least precisely known, but very common, fundamental constant in physics. Dipangkar Dutta, professor in MSU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, will serve as principal investigator with the help from a collaborating nuclear physicist and co-principal investigator from Indiana University. They will conduct research on an alternate material to measure G, Isaac Newton’s gravitational constant, also known as “Big G.”

Hail State Giving Days tops expectations again
Mississippi State University's fourth annual online giving event, Hail State Giving Days, again marked success by exceeding its goal of total donors. For the 2017 event, MSU overwhelmingly surpassed 1,000 donations for areas across campus over a two-day period. During April 10-11, a total of $653,195 flowed in from 1,319 donors in 42 different states over 48 hours. “We are excited and grateful to exceed our goal of desired donors for Hail State Giving Days for the fourth consecutive year,” said Jana Berkery, director of annual giving for the MSU Foundation.

Annual Giverny Book Award winner announced, exhibit unveiled
For the first time in its 20-year history, the winner of the 2017 Giverny Award was announced at Mississippi State University. The Giverny Award is a national children’s science picture book award presented annually and established in 1998 by Jim Wandersee and Elisabeth E. Schussler, who were at that time affiliated with the 15 Degree Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Renee Clary, MSU associate professor of geosciences, became director of the 15 Degree Lab in 2014. A display for the Giverny Award, located across from the Dunn-Seiler Museum in Hilbun Hall, was unveiled last week.

EPA raingarden ribbon cutting marks observation of Earth Day
Mississippi State faculty and students are celebrating the realization of a dream four years in the making. Three cross-college departments commemorated a new raingarden at the university with a ribbon cutting last Friday in observation of Earth Day. The raingarden is located in the courtyard of the Landscape Architecture Facility on the Starkville campus. Cory Gallo, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, said the raingarden manages one-fourth of the building’s rainwater runoff, but the project’s main purpose is to serve as an educational showpiece that teaches students, faculty and the broader community about green infrastructure technologies.

Policy addresses employee political activity
With local political campaigning underway this year, Mississippi State's Office of General Counsel reminds employees to be aware of the university's policy on political activities. There are several basic guidelines that university employees should keep in mind when engaging in any form of political activity. MSU employees are encouraged to review the policy in its entirety and to understand their rights and responsibilities.

LEAP program now accepting applications
The 2017 Leadership Excellence for Accomplished Professionals (LEAP) program at Mississippi State is now accepting applications. The goal and purpose of LEAP is to empower new supervisors and extremely high performing professional staff with a heightened self-awareness, advanced knowledge, and value-added leadership in a secure, but challenging environment. As a result of the program, participants increase the capacity to lead themselves, other individuals, and a university unit or organization.

New opportunities with Maroon Volunteer Center
The Maroon Volunteer Center at Mississippi State details a number of volunteer opportunities for the campus community on its website and in its newsletter this week, including the Maroon Graduation cord program, Get Ready to Run, Canoe Day at the Noxubee Refuge, MSU Community Garden Service Days, Starkville Manor Prom Throwback, Operation Gratitude, Habitat for Humanity, and more.

Policy reminders from University Health Services
University Health Services at Mississippi State reminds the campus community of several important policies for its patients to keep in mind when seeking treatment, parking, refilling a prescription, privacy and more.

This Week in Mississippi State Sports, 04/24/17
Baseball visits Trustmark Park in Pearl for the 2017 Governor's Cup against Ole Miss on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., and then hosts Auburn for an SEC weekend series with games on Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at noon. ... Men's Tennis opens play in Knoxville on Thursday in the SEC Championship at 5 p.m. against Alabama or Vanderbilt ... Softball is on the road for an SEC series against Auburn with games on Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. ... Track & Field competes Friday and Saturday at the SEC Relays in Baton Rouge.

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Mississippi State selected to lead Homeland Security UAS test site
Mississippi State University will lead a major research and development project for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a rigorous and highly competitive review process. The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has selected Mississippi as the new base of operations for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), commonly known as drones, and a Mississippi State-led partnership will oversee the initiative. “This is a great win for not only Mississippi State University, but our entire state,” said MSU President Mark E. Keenum.

Keenum, Cochran work to grow partnership opportunities in Morocco
U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Mississippi State University President Mark E. Keenum were part of a recent U.S. delegation to Morocco that explored U.S.-Morocco relations and their implications across the African continent, as well as ways to grow beneficial partnerships. Earlier this year, a Mississippi State partnership with the Université Internationale de Rabat received the Institute of International Education’s Andrew Heiskell Award for International Partnerships. The collaboration between the two universities is now featured as a “best practice” in international education by the IIE.

Marcum receives Inria international research chair
A professor from the Bagley College of Engineering has been named to an international chair by a French national research institute. Dave Marcum, the chief scientist at MSU’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and a professor of mechanical engineering, has been awarded an Inria International Chair for 2017-2021. As the French national institute for computer science and applied mathematics, Inria offers an environment for eminent researchers to pursue topics of interest, develop collaborations and gain visibility for research findings.

Faculty honored by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
Four faculty members in Mississippi State’s College of Architecture, Art and Design recently received national awards for their exemplary work in architectural education. School of Architecture associate professors Hans Herrmann and Alexis Gregory and assistant professor Emily McGlohn, along with Building Construction Science assistant professor Michele Herrmann, were formally recognized with two Architectural Education Awards by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture during the organization’s 105th annual meeting in Detroit, Michigan.