Dr. Marilyn Strutchens, Emily and Gerald Leischuck Endowed Professor & Mildred Chesire Fraley Distinguished Professor in the College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Teaching, has been named chair of the advisory committee for the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR). The advisory committee membership includes about two dozen STEM education experts, and the group provides guidance and oversight for the NSF’s programs for education and human resource development.

Dr. Alice Smith, the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of industrial and systems engineering and joint appointment professor of computer science and software engineering, is the editor of a new book celebrating women who have contributed to the field of industrial and systems engineering. The book, titled "Women in Industrial and Systems Engineering," was published by Springer and covers real-world applicable topics, including analytics, education, health, logistics and production. With 25 chapters and over 60 authors and collaborators from around the globe, the book covers the span of women’s impact on this field of engineering.

Dr. Daniel Tauritz, associate professor in Auburn’s Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering and an expert in artificial intelligence, has been appointed as a guest scientist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In this role, Tauritz will develop Auburn research programs to help solve the national security issues that LANL addresses and will also work with undergraduate and graduate students and other Auburn University faculty and LANL scientists on both research and workforce development.

Dr. Ryan Comes is the first recipient from Auburn University selected for the Air Force’s Young Investigator Research Program Award. Comes joins a cohort of only 40 researchers in 2019 given this prestigious honor as one of the most promising scientists and engineers who received a doctoral degree during the last seven years and demonstrated exceptional capabilities for conducting research that can advance military interests. The award of $450,000 in funding over the next three years will support the project titled "Metastable Oxides for High-Mobility and Spin-Orbit 2D Electronics." The grant will also provide funding for graduate student and postdoctoral researchers in the Films, Interfaces and Nanostructures of Oxides (FINO) Lab in the Auburn physics department.

A new book by Dr. Sunny Stalter-Pace, the Hargis Associate Professor of American Literature and director of graduate studies in the Department of English, is slated for release on May 15, 2020. Imitation Artist: Gertrude Hoffman and American Popular Performance, published by Northwestern University Press, explores the dancer and choreographer’s work of popularizing European performances among early 20th century American audiences. Stalter-Pace received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University and specializes in the interdisciplinary study of modernist performance, literature and urban space.

In fall 2019, Auburn University Culinary Science Director Dr. Mark Traynor showcased American cuisine in an immersive international program for the greater good of culinary education and the industry’s economic impact. Through a U.S. Department of Agriculture Cochran Fellowship for Gastronomy Education and Promoting U.S. Cuisine for Ukraine, Traynor led five fellows representing leaders of the Ukrainian culinary world with a focus on the diverse gastronomy of the southeastern U.S. Traynor, as principal investigator of the first program to feature contemporary American cuisine in the Southeast designed to increase U.S. exports in areas of the world that would benefit from American products, crafted an experience that showcased the diversity, creativity and quality of U.S. cuisine. The fellows on the program learned about restaurant functions, culinary trends, cooking techniques, innovative marketing, food production, U.S. food products, food and drink pairings, crop seasons and U.S. food quality standards.

Three Auburn faculty members and their international co-researchers have received a major National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to lead a study on climate and global changes that will affect the sustainability of food, energy and water, or FEW, resources for the rapidly growing populations in the United States, China and beyond. Professors Dr. Hanqin Tian and Dr. Shufen “Susan” Pan of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences and Dr. Ruiqing Miao of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology in the College of Agriculture, along with their fellow researchers in China, received a $1 million grant, jointly funded by the NSF and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The group will conduct research on both the Mississippi River Basin and China’s Yellow River Basin.