Points of Pride - College of Science

  • Scott Ishman, professor of geology, was appointed to the Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research Board of Directors.
  • Justin Filiberto and Sally Potter-McIntyre, assistant professors of geology, along with graduate student Jake Crandall, have been awarded a National Geographic grant to investigate magmatic intrusions into sulfur-rich sediments as analogs for Martian exploration and potential habitability.
  • Justin Filiberto has been appointed as a Visiting Fellow at the Open University in the United Kingdom to develop international collaborations between the OU and SIU focusing on research in planetary geology, as well as undergraduate education.
  • Eric Ferré, professor of geology, recently completed his three-year term on the International Ocean Discovery Program Science Evaluation Panel. He has also been selected to participate in IODP Expedition 368 South China Sea Rifted Margin.
  • Jason Williams, a graduate student, has recently been awarded the Lunar and Planetary Institute Early Career Development award as well as a NASA Astrobiology Institute scholarship to attend the International Astrobiology summer school in Santander, Spain, in 2016.
  • Lauren Schwartz, a graduate student in plant biology, was first author on a paper that was voted 2015 Outstanding Paper of the Year in the journal Weed Science by the Weed Science Society of America.
  • The College of Science each year plays host to the Expanding Your Horizons program. In 2015, it held the 25th such program, which brings more than 120 young women to campus for workshops in STEM-related fields.
  • The College of Science has hosted “Science in the South” for more than 20 years. This program for K-12 teachers brought together more than 200 participants from all over Southern Illinois in 2016, with this year’s theme centered on the 2017 solar eclipse.
  • SIU played host to the 2016 Illinois Junior Academy of Science Region 8 Science Fair, which brought more than 330 students in grades 7-12 to campus to display their science projects.  Each year, some 300 faculty, graduate and undergraduate students help out by judging, adding scores, and helping with the logistics to make the fair run smoothly.
  • Each year the Department of Mathematics plays host to Math Field Day, which brings in more than 700 high school students who compete for prizes and scholarships by taking a two-hour mathematics exam.