As a doctoral student in Design, Housing and Merchandising at Oklahoma State University, Joyce Nabisaalu has discovered a unique new material to use in natural fiber fabrics: banana stems. Her discovery comes at an opportune time; the demand for natural fiber fabrics rises, as the production of organic cotton, the primary source for natural fabrics, steadily declines. This necessitates the search for innovative alternatives that meet or exceed cotton fabric standards.

Nabisaalu’s finding began in her home country of Uganda, where bananas are a primary food source and part of at least one meal each day. The banana pseudo stems are left discarded in the fields. As Nabisaalu says, “using bananas as a channel for economic development is only practical.” The fibers derived from the banana stems are 100% organic, biodegradable, and highly sustainable. This research has the potential to grow Uganda’s economy by giving farmers another source of income. In addition to growing crops, they can learn how to extract fibers to use in fabrics.

Further research is needed to improve the banana fibers physical properties, including texture, bending properties, yarn fineness, and strength, but Nabisaalu’s discovery could be a new source of economic development for largely agrarian economies all over the world. To learn more about Joyce’s work, visit the Oklahoma State University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

**Photo Credit: Oklahoma State University Communications

As a master’s student and second-year Fellow in the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, Claire Taggart spends her days preserving art. Her work requires not only an appreciation for the value of art, but also skill in the scientific treatment and preservation of cultural artifacts. One of her recent projects involved a fabricated sculpture damaged during a courier trip, followed by immersion in Hurricane Sandy’s flood waters. The sculpture arrived at Winterthur in 23 pieces and after a technical study to figure out how, Ms. Taggart and a colleague put it back together. Automata No. 1, created by contemporary British artist Keith Tyson in 2005, requires additional work, but Taggart’s findings will aid in future restoration projects.

In addition to her graduate fellowship at the University of Delaware, Ms. Taggart has received several prestigious fellowships and internships. Taggart spent the summer of 2015 as a conservation intern with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, where she worked to restore a World War II Black Widow Compressor. She spent the summer of 2016 as an intern at the Dallas Museum of Art. And, she was awarded a 2017 Delaware Public Humanities Institute (DELPHI) fellowship to spend ten weeks in the objects conservation lab of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Ms. Taggart expects to graduate with her M.S. in Art Conservation in 2018. To learn more about Claire’s work, visit the University of Delaware website.

**Photo Credit: University of Delaware

During his freshman year at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Steve Jung took a class in ceramics engineering with Dr. Delbert Day that would dictate the next ten years of his life. Dr. Day, a well-known glass engineer at Missouri S&T, became Jung’s mentor through bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramics engineering and a doctoral degree in materials science and engineering. Jung secured 15 U.S. and foreign patents before receiving his doctorate and landed a prestigious job as chief technology officer at Mo-Sci Corp., a world leader in glass technology.

In those first ten years, Dr. Jung accumulated a long list of accomplishments, but his latest has incredible potential for the healthcare industry. A new medical product for wound care has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Jung’s doctoral research led to its invention. The Mirragen Advanced Wound Matrix, made of microscopic glass fibers the body can absorb, is a flexible, moldable, and customizable bandage. Clinical trials conducted at Phelps County Regional Medical Center demonstrated its potential to speed up healing time and improve overall wound care. “People who were looking at having amputations didn’t have to lose their limbs. Wounds that wouldn’t heal or would otherwise take months to heal were doing so in relatively short periods of time,” says Jung.

Jung’s research has also contributed to the invention of another product, Rediheal, that has been used by veterinarians over the last three years to help heal wounds in animals. To learn more about Steve’s work, visit the Missouri S&T website.

**Photo Credit: Sam O’Keefe/Missouri S&T

Table Information

Each exhibitor will be provided with a 6 foot skirted table, approximately two feet of space on either side, and access to electricity and internet connections at their exhibit space.

Set-up/Take-down

Set-up will begin on Wednesday, December 4 at 8:00 am. The exhibit hall will be open to attendees on both Thursday, December 5, and Friday, December 6, from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm and from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm. The exhibit hall will be closed for lunch from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm on both days. The room will be secured on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, December 4 and 5, from 5:00 pm until 8:00 am. Exhibitors are asked to completely take down their exhibits by Friday evening.

Shipping Information

Meeting and exhibitor materials are to be shipped to the hotel no earlier than Friday, November 29. Please label packages as follows:

Omni Nashville Hotel
C/O The UPS Store
Recipient's Name
Recipient's phone number
250 Fifth Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615) 761-3642
CGS Annual Meeting
December 4-7, 2019

Please note, the Omni Nashville uses an “in house” UPS office for box handling. CGS will help coordinate delivery of boxes to the exhibit space, the Broadway Ballroom West. For package handling and storage fees, click here.

More than two decades after earning his bachelor’s degree in English, Mark Terry returned to York University to pursue his graduate studies in the Humanities. Mr. Terry spent 25 years as a broadcast journalist and documentary filmmaker, and his current doctoral research focuses on “how documentary film can philosophically be mobilized as an instrument of social change.” One of his previous films documents climate research expeditions to Antarctica and the Arctic and has been used by the United Nations to create new environmental policy. His Youth Climate Report project was presented at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) in Morocco in 2016.

Terry’s work uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to showcase the latest climate research being done by climate scientists, researchers, and scholars around the world. A GIS allows us to visualize, analyze, and interpret data to understand relationships, patterns, and trends in more comprehensive ways and is being used by industries across the world. Terry’s innovative project brings together GIS and interactive documentary filmmaking and can be replicated. He works closely with United Nations Environment Program policy makers providing interactive mapping tools to serve delegates and negotiators.

Mr. Terry has received many accolades for his work, including the Diamond Jubilee Medal to honor his significant contributions and achievements to Canada. To learn more about Mark’s work, visit the York University website.

**Photo Credit: York University 

Two graduate students at North Dakota State University have invented a test that could the change lives of pancreatic cancer patients. James Froberg (doctoral candidate in physics) and Fataneh Karandish (doctoral candidate in pharmaceutical sciences) created the test using a computer chip that requires a single drop of blood to detect pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and most difficult forms of cancer to diagnose. The five-year survival rate is about 7% and a lack of early symptoms makes it very hard to detect.

Froberg and Karandish developed a microchip that uses nanotechnology to respond to the presence of pancreatic cancer cells in the blood. When electric current runs through the blood sample, the intensity decreases when cancer cells are detected. The two doctoral students recently won a $5,000 award for their finding in NDSU's Innovation Challenge, a student entrepreneurial competition. Forberg and Karandish are also part of the Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Strategies in Pancreatic Cancer, a broader team on campus focused on cutting-edge research to develop early detection and protocols for pancreatic cancer.

Froberg and Karandish’s innovation has the potential to revolutionize the future of cancer detection and treatment. Its simplicity and cost-effectiveness lend itself to at-home early diagnostic kits and could eventually be modified to detect other types cancer. To learn more about James and Fataneh’s work, visit the North Dakota State University website.

**Photo Credit: North Dakota State University

CGS Summer Workshop and New Deans Institute Final Program

Selected PowerPoint presentations from the 2017 CGS Summer Workshop and New Deans Institute are below. Presentations are in chronological order by each category. Presentations are offered as Adobe Acrobat PDF files.

New Deans Institute Presentations

Session II: Managing Operations: Time, Staff and Partnerships
Mark Garrison, Janet Rutledge, Carol Shanklin
Mark Garrison - Scenario 1 : Managing Operations - Valuing the Graduate School and Its Mission & Scenario 4 - Managing Policies
Carol Shanklin - Scenario 2: Managing Operations - Legal Issues Related to Sexual Harrassment
Janet Rutledge - Scenario 3: Managing Operations - Management Strategies Related to Workflow and Staff Management Responsibilities

Session III: Managing Budgets: Planning, Prioritizing, and Allocations
Robin Garrell, Andrea Golato, Christopher Sindt

Session IV: Managing Enrollment: Recruitment, Admissions, and Funding
David Berkowitz, Karen Butler-Purry, Sally (Sarah) Pratt

Session V: Advocacy 101
Mark Sheridan
Nancy Marcus

Summer Workshop Presentations

Dean Dialogues: Fostering Diverse PhD Careers in the Humanities
Charles Ambler, Carol Genetti

Dean Dialogues: Campus Climate: Strategies for Change
JoAnn Canales

ProQuest Breakfast Meeting
Austin McLean and Marlene Coles

Plenary II: Breaking the Code: Understanding the New Role of the States
Jeremy Anderson

Deb Peters

ETS Breakfast Meeting
David Payne

Dean's Toolboxes: Using Consultations to Improve Graduate Education
Lisa Armistead

Dean's Toolboxes: Basics of Data Visualization and Analysis
M.J.T. Smith

Plenary III: In Dialogue with our Publics: Research and Scholarship in 2017
Adam Briggle

Technical Workshop: From First Touch to Last: Using Technology to Support Student Success
Mary Farmer-Kaiser, Lorie Liebrock

Technical Workshop: Building a Robust Culture of Research Mentor and Mentee Training on Your Campus
Ernest Brother, Jeffrey Engler, Melissa McDaniels, Christine Pfund

Technical Workshop: Advanced Social Media Strategies
Karen Depauw
Frances Leslie

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg | (202) 461-3888/khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Project will Help PhD Programs Strengthen their Professional Development and Mentoring Efforts

Washington, DC – Twenty-nine universities have been selected to participate in a collective effort to gather and use data about the careers of PhD students and alumni, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced today. Grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF grant #1661272) and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support data collection about PhD careers in STEM and humanities fields.

The universities and consortia that have been selected to receive awards to participate as funded project partners are:

These universities collectively awarded over 8,000 PhD degrees in 2013-14 alone. CGS is expanding the scope of data collection by inviting other CGS doctoral institutions to participate as affiliate partners.

Over the course of the multi-year project, universities will collect data from current PhD students and alumni with surveys that were developed by CGS in consultation with senior university leaders, funding agencies, disciplinary societies, researchers, and PhD students and alumni. The resulting data will allow universities to analyze PhD career preferences and outcomes at the program level and help faculty and university leaders strengthen career services, professional development opportunities, and mentoring in doctoral programs.

Universities will also be able to use the data to communicate the career trajectories of PhD alumni to current and prospective students, helping them to make more informed selections of PhD programs.

“Today, universities recognize that PhD students aspire to a wide variety of careers, including academic research and teaching,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “Knowing what your alumni do— and how well they are prepared—is becoming the new paradigm, and our university partners are leading the way for the entire community of doctoral institutions.”

CGS will study the processes of survey administration and identify promising practices for implementation that will be shared with graduate schools nationally. Universities from across the country will be able to compare their data on PhD career preferences and outcomes with the national dataset analyzed by CGS.

Rush Holt, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), noted that the project will expand the country’s understanding of the U.S. STEM workforce. “We already know that PhD-trained scientists contribute to the STEM workforce in every sector. One of the important things this project promises to give us is a better picture of the skills needed to be successful in the wide variety of careers available to today’s and tomorrow’s graduate students.”

The initiative will also provide a deeper understanding of PhD careers in the humanities. “The initiative meshes well with comparable work on expanding career horizons and opportunities for humanities PhDs,” noted Jim Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association and a member of the committee that advised CGS on survey development. “This work will give us critically-needed information about diverse career pathways among humanists, many of whom pursue careers beyond the professoriate. Its results will empower doctoral students and alumni working to understand and expand the career options available to them.”

The first wave of the survey will be sent to PhD alumni in Fall of 2017, and CGS will begin publishing the first wave of survey findings the following Fall.

# # #

When studying climate change and potential consequences of rising temperatures, research on silicon is often overlooked by ecologists. Silica (the combination of silicon and oxygen) is more often an emphasis in science fields focused in water ecosystems: oceanography, marine biology, etc. Tim Maguire, a PhD candidate in biology at Boston University, decided to investigate the effects climate change is having on silica production in trees, and what he discovered is cause for concern.

Maguire has focused his work on sugar maple trees and their root systems. Trees act like pumps for silica: they suck it up from groundwater, convert it to a usable form, and then either store it or release it back into the ecosystem. Maguire’s work, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, found that sugar maples seem to pump more silica than originally anticipated. In addition, they appear to be more susceptible to the effects of climate change: rising temperatures lead to less snow accumulation which leads to root exposure and subsequent root damage.

So, what does this mean? In individual trees, silica plays many roles included providing structure to leaves, strong root systems, and protection from infections like fungi. At the ecosystem level, the potential effects have greater consequences: trees won’t pump enough silica required to maintain the marsh and ocean ecosystems. “A lot of times, when you do these types of studies, you get a statistical result that doesn’t amount to much in the real world,” says Maguire. “This is not the case here.” To learn more about Tim’s work, visit the Boston University website.

**Photo Credit: Boston University

Dorothy Johnson-Speight is currently working towards her EdD at Fielding Graduate University in California, but her path to get here has been harder than she ever imagined. In 2001, Johnson-Speight was thinking about her doctorate. Her son Khaaliq Johnson was entering a master’s program, and the two were making long-term plans to open a practice in their Philadelphia community to support at-risk kids. In December of that year, her life was devastated by the senseless murder of her son during an argument over a parking spot.

Johnson-Speight was determined to turn her grief into something positive. She began holding meetings at her local church with other mothers to talk about preventing violence in the community, and the response was overwhelming. Johnson-Speight founded the grassroots nonprofit, Mothers in Charge, an organization that “works to prevent violence through education and intervention.” Mothers in Charge has provided grief counseling, youth mentoring, anger-management and conflict-resolution classes, job-training courses, and more.

Johnson-Speight spoke at The Women of the World Summit in New York, was invited to meet the Pope during his visit to a Philadelphia prison, and was recently named a Soros Justice Fellow. Mothers in Charge has chapters in a dozen cities across the country and continues to grow. But, Johnson-Speight made a promise to her son, and now she’s finishing the work they planned to do together. To learn more about Dorothy’s work, visit the Fielding Graduate University website.