Past Research in Action Events
The MSU Research in Action! Workshop Series connects K-12 educators with Montana State University researchers. Attendees learn about current MSU research projects and hear personal STEM stories from the researchers. Educators will be equipped to bring back to their students authentic stories from real people about relevant STEM projects. Recordings of past workshops are available below.
For more information, email Dr. Jeannie Chipps with SMRC at jeanette.chipps@montana.edu or call the Science Math Resource Center at (406) 994-7476.
November 1, 2023 · Ghazal Vahidi
MSU Research in Action! continues with Ghazal Vahidi, a PhD candidate who studies bone density in the MSU Norm Asjbornson College of Engineering. Vahidi is a researcher in Dr. Chelsea Heveran's Biomechanics & Bio-inspired materials lab and a PhD candidate in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Her research interests include bone quality, bone fractures resistance and aging, and osteocyte perilacunar remodeling.
In addition to Vahidi’s research, teachers will hear stories of STEM identity, a sense-of-belonging, and how these experiences translate to the classroom to inspire diverse and equitable opportunities for future STEM students.
Recording not available
October 4, 2023 · Sarah Morris
Dr. Sarah Morris, Assistant Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Montana State University,specializes in experimental fluid dynamics and runs the Experimental Fluids Research Laboratory. Her research interests include aerodynamics, biological flows, fluid-structure interactions, and flow visualization. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and her B.Eng. and B.A. from Monash University, Australia. Dr. Morris shares information about her MSU research as well as stories about her STEM Journey. Join us!
Recording for Workshop with Dr. Morris Coming Soon!
March 2023 · Mathematician Bree Cummins
Dr. Bree Cummins is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Montana State University, where she conducts research in several areas of mathematical biology. She grew up in Boise, ID and attended Boise State University where she double majored in Biology and Mathematics.
In 2009, she received her PhD in Mathematics from Montana State University, where her thesis focused on modeling the interaction between air flow and the cricket sensory system that enables fast escape response. She then worked as a postdoc at Tulane University in New Orleans on a project modeling mosquito motion in response to wind-blown plumes of carbon dioxide.
Returning to Montana to be near her husband’s family, she became a postdoc at Montana State University, and later an Assistant Research Professor. Her current research interests include modeling the genetic control of cellular processes, modeling social processes related to disease spread, and most recently, using artificial intelligence to understand complex biological systems.
December 2022 · Esther Stopps
Meet Esther Stopps, a doctoral candidate in Chemical Engineering. She is originally from Idaho Falls, Idaho, and graduated from Montana State with B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Stephanie McCalla,Esther is researching how to make more definitive and accurate diagnostic tests for disease-related DNA and RNA molecules.She measuresthe reaction speed for different engineered DNA binding reactions. Information gained is used to design amplification reactions with a larger, conclusive burst of signal in the presence of a disease target.
Esther is specifically detecting small RNA molecules associated with Alzheimer's disease, but her research is broadly applicable to many types ofdisease diagnostics, such as cancer screenings and viral infection monitoring.
November 2022 · Cailin Casey
Join Cailin Casey, a doctoral student in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, who uses high-tech methods to seehow flying insects could inform advances in engineering. Casey isa third-year PhD student who leverages her cross disciplinary studies to understand the role of the thorax cuticle in insect flight by examining its microscale properties and performing macroscale mechanical testing.
She graduated with a B.A in biology and Spanish and a minor in mathematics from Gettysburg College.
September 2022 · Dr. Emily Dieter
Dr. Emily Dieter obtained herBachelor’sof Science in Biochemistry at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, VT. She then completed her graduate work in Biological Chemistry at the University of Washington, under the guidance of Dr. Dustin Maly. Following the completion of her PhD, Emily then moved to Sydney, Australia where she worked at the Children’s Medical Research Institute investigating alternative drug targets for a pediatric sarcoma.
She currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher under Dr. Joan Broderick at Montana State University, working to understand how methanogens use pyrite as a nutrient source.
March 2022 · Dr. Susy Kohout and Dr. Robert Carson
Meet Dr. Susy Kohout, who will tell us about her research as it applies to biology and neuroscience. We will also discuss how the cross-cutting concepts in the new science standards manifest in her work.
We will also hear from Dr. Robert Carson about his research. ProfessorCarsonstudies the History, Philosophy, Sociology, and Psychology of Education, and of the various academic disciplines taught in schools. If the brain is the physiological substrate of human thought, then the mind is the personification of its many functions. Together, educators work amidst the capabilities and the limitations of both.
Dr. Carson asks, “How did humans acquire the ability to create symbols, invest them with meaning, and cultivate the human mind through the development of language, mathematics, science, technology, literature, art, and our various intellectual disciplines and cultural systems? What can we learn from these kinds of ‘foundational’ questions that might enhance our ability to teach? Let’s find out!”
And we will talk about other aspects of neuroscience and the brain, like neuromyths and neurodiversity in honor of Brain Awareness week.
