 |
 
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
Dr. Tim Brunker, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has been selected as the third recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Brunker’s appointment to the Fisher Chair will commence on August 16, 2009 and will be for three years. |
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Timothy Brunker, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, has been selected as the third recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Brunker’s appointment to the Fisher Chair will commence on August 16, 2006 and will be for three years. As the holder of the Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair, he will be provided a monetary award for each of three years. This award may be used for, but is not limited to, a summer faculty stipend, professional travel, research equipment and supplies, undergraduate student support, and a three-hour course load reduction per annum in his teaching.
Dr. Timothy J. Brunker, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry in August 2008. Professor Brunker previously served as a lecturer in chemistry at Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts), a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts), and a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire). Professor Brunker holds both the Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Chemistry degrees from the University of Oxford (Oxford, United Kingdom).
Prof. Brunker teaches Organic Chemistry, and his research focuses on the synthesis of novel chiral metal complexes and their potential applications as chiroptical molecular switches. Chiral molecules are those that can exist in both left-handed and right-handed forms – they behave identically in almost every way except that they can display different chemical properties if they interact with other chiral molecules. This behavior allows the design and synthesis of chiral molecules that can be switched back and forth, making them potentially useful for the storage of digital information.
 |
|
Dr. Jennifer Scott, assistant professor of astronomy, is the second recipient of the Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Scott’s appointment to the Fisher Chair began on August 16, 2007 and will be for three years. |
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Jennifer Scott, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Astronomy and Geosciences, has been selected as the second recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Scott's appointment to the Fisher Chair began on August 16, 2007 and will be for three years. As holder of a Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair, Scott will be provided a monetary award for each of three years that may be used for, but is not limited to, a summer faculty stipend, professional travel, research equipment and supplies, and undergraduate student research support.
Dr. Scott received her B.S. (Highest Honors and Highest Distinction) in physics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1994 and her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University Research Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute of Johns Hopkins University and as a National Research Council Fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses on quasars – the distant, powerful galactic nuclei powered by accretion onto super-massive black holes – and the intergalactic medium, the gaseous matter between galaxies and the reservoir of material from which they formed. She has authored 15 peer-reviewed research papers published in top tier astronomical journals.
As one of the Fisher Endowed Chairs, Scott’s research plans include studies of quasar environments; examinations of the connections between galaxies and the intergalactic medium; and refinement of measurements of the ultraviolet background radiation field. She will conduct much of this work in close collaboration with her undergraduate students. Scott also intends to use the visibility of the Fisher Chair to promote community outreach and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education efforts by creating the first Project ASTRO network in the Baltimore-Washington area. Project ASTRO links astronomers to teachers by bringing inquiry-based astronomy activities to K-12 classrooms.
 |
|
Dr. Joy Watts, Assistant Professor of Biology, has been selected as the first recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Watts’ appointment to the Fisher Chair began on August 16, 2006 and was for three years. |
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Joy Watts, Assistant Professor of Biology, was selected as the first recipient of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences. Dr. Watts’ appointment to the Fisher Chair began on August 16, 2006 and was for three years. As the holder of the Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair, she was provided a monetary award for each of three years which was used for, but not limited to, a summer faculty stipend, professional travel, research equipment and supplies, undergraduate student support, and a three-hour course load reduction per annum in her teaching.
Dr. Watts received her B.Sc. (Hons.) in Applied Biology from Liverpool John Moores University and her Ph.D. in environmental microbiology from the University of Warwick. Before arriving at Towson in 2004, Dr. Watts served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Center of Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Watts is a leading expert in the use of molecular tools to examine the ecology and distribution of microbial communities associated with PCB dechlorination in the environment. Her research plans during her tenure as the Fisher Endowed Chair will include continuing studies of microbial communities in the Chesapeake Bay as well as new projects focusing on studies of new dehalogenating microorganisms that exist in symbioses with sponges from the Chesapeake Bay and identifying new microorganisms from catfishes that are associated with the degradation of carbon polymers in wood that normally resist degradation. Dr. Watts will conduct much of this work in close collaboration with her undergraduate students.
The Jess and Mildred Fisher Endowed Chairs in the Biological and Physical Sciences were established in June 2005 established by the Robert M. Fisher Memorial Foundation to honor the memory of Jess Fisher ’34, his wife Mildred, and their family, and to maximize the benefit of their philanthropy for students in the Fisher College of Science and Mathematics. A specific objective is to incorporate high quality research opportunities into students’ undergraduate learning experiences through the support of the scholarly growth of highly promising early-career faculty members in the physical and biological sciences. The Fisher Professor, who is selected by the Dean of the Fisher College, serves a term of three years.
The Jess and Mildred Fisher
College of Science and Mathematics
Smith Hall, Room 312 (campus map)
Phone: 410-704-2121
Fax: 410-704-2604
E-mail: fcsm@towson.edu
|
||
 |
Last Updated: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 | |
|
|