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- M. Boyd and Giron host the 2025 Hosted the Pre-Freshman Program in Engineering and
Science Program where students engaged in a comprehensive curriculum that blended
rigorous academics with immersive, hands-on engineering challenges.
- CSU Chemistry was awarded continuing accreditation as an ACS approved program following
submission of periodic report in June!
- Three CSU STEM students presented posters at the Summer 2025 Purdue Undergrad Research
Symposium after completing their summer research internship. These internships were
a direct result of these students participating in the CSU-Purdue research program
the previous summer with Drs. Lhota, Mardis, and Gana.
- Lhota and Sabella attended the 2025 PhysTEC Meeting, the American Association of Physics
Teachers Meeting, and the Physics Education Research Conference in Washington DC and
presented two posters, one oral presentation. Six student coauthors contributed to
these presentations. Lhota and Sabella also presented on the current status of the
CSU Capacity Building Grant and built connections with other similar institutions.
Sabella with colleagues on the AAPT DEI Council organized a Physics Access and Belonging
Resource Room and Lhota organized a session on "Sharing Strategies for Responsive
Supportive Classrooms" in the space.
- Peters, through an external grant participated in research and data acquisition for
magnetic materials development at Argonne National Lab.
- CSU QuBBE participated in Chicago Tech week, hosted by CSU. The Team consisting of
Stevens, Boyd, Goss, Holman, Jarrett, Jones, McClendon, Franklin, Ward provided labs
tours and quantum activities for students. In addition members of QuBBE attended summer
high school teacher end of program Quantum presentations
- Members of Chemistry and Physics, along with other CSU departments hosted visitors
from the MacArthur Foundation. Visitors had a chance to tour the research lab and
engage with student researchers.
- Goss invited to attend the 2025 Summer Gordon Conference on Quantum Control of Light
and Matter, at Salve Regina University, in Newport, RI.
- Van Duzor and Sabella complete external evaluations for faculty at Kean University
(Promotion to Associate Professor), the University of Florida (Promotion to Instructional
Associate Professor) and City College of New York (Distinguished Professor in Science
Education).
- Ten CSU students participated in 5 weeks at CSU of professional development, research
activities, and field trips to UChicago, Abbvie, BESI, and the international Sustainability
Research and Innovation Congress conference, followed by 9 students experiencing 10
days of summer research rotations at Purdue University.
- Sabella gives invited talk at the 2025 American Physical Society Thriving Physics
Symposium held at the University of Chicago. His talk, to approximately 50 Physics
Chairs from around the country, focused on the topic of undergraduate recruitment
and retention.
- Peters, Goss, Stevens, Agyebo-Gilberts, Boyd, and QuBBE research group organized a
two-week quantum sensing summer program in June 2025.The program introduced high school
students to various career paths in the quantum information science field. Participants
were trained to gain hands-on laboratory experience essential for research in Quantum
Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE), as well as general laboratory practices
vital for high school STEM students. Participants were taken on tour to Fermilab'
SQMS Center, at Batavia, IL, Quantum labs at University of Chicago, Chicago Quantum
Exchange (CQE) and 2025 Juneteenth Celebration at The DuSable Black History Museum
and Education Center, Chicago IL.
- Agyebo-Gilberts, Stevens and L Boyd participated the Chicago Public Schoo's multiple
Network 17 event held at the CSU's Jones Convocation Center on Friday, May 9, 2025.
The team represented CPE and QuBBE at the exhibitor/academic booth for recruitment
purposes.
- Agyebo-Gilberts and L. Boyd, participated in the Perspectives Leadership Academy Career
Day on April 25th, 2025, and shared information about Quantum Sensing and the summer
camp for high school students and teachers.
- Agyebo-Gilberts participated in the Advocate Community Health Meeting and Community
talk and shared information about Quantum Sensing and the summer camp for high school
students with some parents and participant. This program was held on Jan. 15, 2025
at the Compassion Baptist Church,2650 E. 95th St.
- Agyebo visited Bronzeville Institute HS to talk to students about Quantum Sensing
and the summer camp for high school students.
- Van Duzor and Mardis served on strategic teams focusing on Supporting Inclusivity:
Developing Learning Ecosystems for HMGs in Key Areas and Supporting Inclusivity: Removing
Barriers to Professional Development respectively, at the POGIL National Meeting (PNM).
- Sabella attends the American Institute of Physics 2025 Championing Inclusion and Expanding
Opportunities Summit as one of the representatives of the American Association of
Physics Teachers. Sabella serves as Chair of the AAPT Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Council.
- Lhota and Sabella attend the 2025 American Institute of Physics TEAM UP Together Workshop
in Anaheim, CA. CSU CPE is a new grantee for the TEAM UP Together project.
- Sabella serves as external reviewer for Northeastern Illinois University Physics Program
Review. Sabella engaged with students, staff, faculty and administrators and prepared
a report on the program.
- CPE hosts seminars on
- Richter selected to participate in the Illinois Math and Science Academy High School
Research program. One student from the program will be working with him this summer
and next fall.
- Four CSU Chemistry majors obtain summer internships at the Army Core of engineers
CERL Laboratory at the University of Illinois.
- Van Duzor with colleague Teresa Bixby (Lewis University) present worskhop on "Using
the Learning Cycle in Classroom Activity Design to Structure Student Engagement" at
the Chicago Symposium Series Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Science: Research
and Practice at Northwestern University.
- M. Boyd and Giron participated and attended the Future City High School Program Competition.
- M. Boyd and Giron ran and operated the Pre-Freshman Program in Engineering and Science
Saturday Academy in spring 2025.
- PREP and CSU Students attended the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 2025
National Convention, held in Chicago, IL, at McCormick Place. At the NSBE Convention,
students actively participated in several STEM competitions, including VEX Robotics,
Ten80 Education, TryMath, and Kidwind.
- During the spring 2025 session also PREP students participated in the NAACP Act-So
competition and won 1st place in the follow categories: Health and Medicine, Engineering,
Physics, and Computer Science.
- The PREP Program won the 2024/25 Ten80 Education Points Race Competition.
- Mardis, Peters, Garcia, Sabella, Dean Smith attend meeting at Fermilab to discuss
and plan for engagement in FermiForward Project. CSU is a partner on the FermiForward
Project.
- Stevens, Agyebo-Gilberts, L. Boyd represent QuBBE and the department at Morgan Park
H.S career fair, Gwendolyn Brooks H.S and Kenwood Academy.
- Stevens, Agyebo-Gilberts, Boyd, Peters, Goss attended the Argonne Quantum Education
Summit. Stevens and Agyebo represented QuBBE and the department during the expo.
- QuBBE group participated in the ILSAMP conference with poster presentations with three
of the seven poster presentations winning in their division. QuBBE high school research
students also attended the conference.
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- Peters and collaborators from Argonne National Lab and Northwestern University publish
two papers:
- Journal Advanced Materials Technologies entitled "Ion Migration Enhances the Performance
of Perovskite CsPbBr3 γ-Ray Detectors". DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.202401548.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) entitled "Unveiling the Monoclinic
Phase in CsPbBr3–xClx Perovskite Crystals, Phase Transition Suppression and High Energy
Resolution γ-Ray Detection" Vol 146(46) p 31836. DOI: ttps://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c10872
.
- Drs. Boyd, Davenport and Fenner, CSU Alumni, who have recently recieved their PhDs
in Chemistry and Physics from Louisiana State University, Georgia Tech, and the University
of Texas - San Antonio.
- Dr. Garcia-Solis who has been elected a 2024 Fellow of the American Physical Society:
For outstanding efforts in promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in the field
of physics, advocating for physicists from underrepresented backgrounds, and providing
global research opportunities for undergraduate students.
- Drs. Harton and Peters for their induction into the Sigma Pi Sigma National Physics
Honor Society!
- Chemistry Learning Assistants (LAs) co-author article with Dr. Van Duzor on "Supporting
Chemistry Students with the Learning
Assistant Mode" for the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society Newsletter
- CPE congratulates all the Chemistry and Physics Majors who were acknowledged at the
2024 CSU Honors Convocation as well as all the University awardees!
- CSU Faculty attend the 2024 Chicago Excellence in Math and Science Symposium at Loyola
University to hear about best practices in the teaching and learning of STEM.
- SPS and NSBE organize the Solar Extravaganza event to observe the 2024 solar eclipse.
About 200 people attended from the campus and the community came out, enjoyed great
weather, experienced 94% totality, and shared protective glasses!
- Chicago State SPS attend the 2024 SPS Zone 9 Meeting held at Illinois Tech. At the
Meeting we met math and physics majors from a bunch of schools in the region. Special
thanks to the organizers at IIT.
- Students and Faculty from CSU Chemistry and Physics attend the April and March American
Physical Society Meetings in Sacramento and Minneapolis.
- Lhota had paper accepted into Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, Mist-control
of polyalphaolefin (PAO) lubricants using long pairwise end-associative polymers (preprint).
- Mardis published a paper in Chemical Science, Decorrelated singlet and triplet exciton delocalization in acetylene-bridged Zn-porphyrin
dimers, Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 1736-1751.
- Sabella appointed vice chair of the American Association of Physics Teachers Diversity,
Equity and Inclusion Council.
- Cox (CSU Biology major and LA), Van Duzor, and Sabella conduct workshop on the LA
Model at the University of Illinois - Springfield.
- CSU Physics majors, Thomas Sieka and Xavier McGowan awarded the ComEd Scholarship
at the February Award Ceremony.
- Mardis and Gana awarded year two Sloan grant to continue Inclusive Mentoring Project.
- Van Duzor participates in POGIL podcast with Laurie Langdon and Valarie Otero (from CU- Boulder) to discuss using Learning
Assistants with POGIL.
- CSU Alumni, Greg Curry, Jamia Whitehorn, Ember Smith, and Mel Sabella, with colleague
Angie Little from Michigan State University, publish a paper in the Physics Teacher Magazine.
- CSU Chemistry, Physics and Engineering Studies host dinner and discussion with physics and biology alumni teaching High School Physics.
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- Dr. Geradline Cochran, Associate Professor of Physics at Ohio State University and
CSU Physics Alumni, talked to CSU students about her STEM pathway, her career, and
her research in STEM Education.
- CSU Chemistry, Physics and Engineering Studies students and faculty host science fair
preparation workshop with over 50 middle school students (Grades 5-8).
- Dr. Vand Duzor, with her colleague at DePaul University, present session on "Visible
Teaching in Chemistry - Sharing Learning Objects and and Professional Development
through IONiC/VIPEr" at Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Science:
Research and Practice.
- Dr. Valerie Goss was selected as the 2023 Crain's Chicago Business Notable Women in
STEM for her efforts in increasing access to STEM opportunities for underrepresented
students. 2023 Crain's Notable Women in STEM.
- The Chicago State University (CSU) NSBE Team "BEAST XLR8" wins the 2022-2023 Ten80
STEM Challenge Points Race. The CSU Team, coached by
 Marnie Boyd at Chicago State University, retained their title of Ten80 Points Race
Champions. The team has claimed the top award for many years, and it is a direct reflection
of the dedication and high expectations of their coach, Marnie Boyd.
- Gabriel Brown (physics major) receives TEAM-UP Together Scholarship (2022) from the
American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT), American Astronomical Society (AAS),
American Institute of Physics (AIP), American Physical Society (APS), and the Society
of Physics Students (SPS). https://www.teamuptogether.org/scholarship-recipients.
- Jose Savin (physics major) won best oral presentation in Physics at the 2023 ILSAMP
Symposium. Savin presented on the research he conducted at the University of Arkansas
in the Summer 2022.
- Dr. Mardis was featured on a POGIL podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/thepogilpodcast/
What Do You Do in Your Classroom? Talking With Others About POGIL.
- Dr. Van Duzor had a reflection essay "Shh...don't tell anyone. I'm not an inorganic
chemist!" posted to the VIPEr website as part of her professional development as a
Cohort-2 VIPEr Fellow
- Dr. Sabella gave invited presentations at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis,
the University of Kansas, and the 2023 Organization for Physics at Two Year Colleges
(OPTYCs) TEAM-UP Together and TYCs workshop focusing on building inclusive physics
and STEM learning spaces that leverage student expertise and voice.
- Joann Roberts (CSU Physics alumna) and Dr. Sabella had a paper published in the Physics
Teacher Magazine focusing on "Creative Astronomy: Broadening the Scope of an Online
General Education Course by Leveraging an Authentic Collaboration between Learning
Assistant and Instructor" 61, 43 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0080890
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- Drs. Mardis and Gana receive grant from the Sloan Foundation to the Chicago State
Foundation to establish a joint mentoring program that aims to reduce barriers to
graduate education and facilitate systemic change across Chicago State and Purdue
Universities.
- Dr. Goss attends the White House National Quantum Initiative Centers Summit, held
in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Dr. Goss participated in a roundtable
discussion on Quantum Workforce and Outreach.
- CSU Pre-Freshman Engineering program Scholars share their invention "Ambrosia Auto"
on PBS NewsHour.
- Drs. Goss and Peters presented at the NSF QuBBE Quantum Academy Symposium - attendees
were CPS Science HS Teachers for a discussion on CSU research and teaching at the
University of Chicago.
- Dr. Van Duzor coleads workshop with colleagues from Tufts University on "Teaming up
with undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs) to foster active and inclusive chemistry
learning environments" at the Biannual Conference on Chemistry Education.
- Paul Agyebo-Gilberts joins the CSU team as laboratory manager and recruiter for the
NSF QuBBE - Quantum sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering.
- CSU Chemistry major Adriana Benford wins the Fran Seabright Award from the Women’s
Chemistry Symposium.
- Dr. Mardis is co-author on a manuscript with collaborators at Argonne National Lab
entitled: "Electronic Structure of Molecular Cobalt Catalysts for H2 Production Revealed by Multi-frequency
EPR".
- Mya Powers-Nash, Andrea Van Duzor and Mel Sabella led a full-day virtual workshop
on the Learning Assistant Model for the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania including
three institutions: Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, and Mansfield universities.
- The PREP Program was recognized by the
 (National Society of Black Engineers) as the Pre-College Program of the Year!
- Marnie Boyd, Assistant Director for the Engineering Studies Program, is the honoree
for the 2022 National Society of Black Engineers Golden Torch Award for the Pre-College Initiative Director of the Year Category. She was honored at
the NS
BE National Conference in Anaheim, CA.
- Physics Professor Edmundo Garcia and CSU Physics Major Olessen Cesalien, with colleagues
from Dominican University and La Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, traveled
to Mexico to map archaeological pyramid structures at the El Castillo pyramid in Mexico!
- Chemistry Professor, Kristy Mardis was the co-author on the published manuscript with collaborators at Argonne National Lab titled: "Electronic Structure of Molecular
Cobalt Catalysts for H2 Production Revealed by Multi-frequency EPR."
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- The PREP program sponsored two teams during the 2020-21 Ten80 Education Competition
season. Ten80 is a student race competition where students use 1:10 scale RC cars
to learn STEM. The teams competed during the NSBE National Convention. During the
match, both teams won special awards: MicroBeast won the 1
- st place awards; BEAST XLR8 won the 2nd place award during the NSBE Ten80 Education
competition. The students competed against 25 teams.
- Dr. Valerie Goss published a paper on ceramic nanofiber materials in the journal Physical Review Accelerators and Beams with colleagues from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
- Dr. Archie Peters and recent physics graduate Orelle Bulgin published a paper on excitons
in CsPbBr3 Halide Perovskite in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters with colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University.
- Dr. Valerie Goss and Dr. Archie Peters, along with collaborators at University of
Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Harvard University were awarded
a National Science Foundation grant for the Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Quantum Sensing in Biophysics and Bioengineering. Over 2 million dollars will
be used at CSU to fund basic research and workforce development.
- CSU students, who participate as Learning Assistants, Christopher Chaney (psychology),
Andrew Stephens (computer science), Nisrein Khawaled (math), Mya Powers-Nash (chemistry)
and faculty Jacquelyn Benchik-Osborne (education), Jubilee Dickson (psychology), Joni
Jackson (business), Elaina Khasawneh (math), Natalie Szabo (music), Michael Wannah
(education), Andrea Van Duzor (chemistry), Mel Sabella (physics) presented at the
2021 International Learning Assistant Alliance Conference on interdisciplinary education
work at CSU using the Learning Assistant Model.
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 Felicia Davenport (pictured) and Prof. Mel Sabella were appointed to the nine member
Learning Assistant Alliance Leadership Council, which includes faculty and staff from
colleges and universities around the country. In November, they attended 2017 International
Learning Assistant Conference at the University of Colorado Boulder. Felicia served
on two panels at the conference, co-presented a session on LA Weekly Preparation,
presented a poster at the conference, and met with the Alliance NSF Grant Advisory
Board. |
Drs. Pittman, Harton, Peters, Sabella, and Akujieze were awarded a National Science
Foundation grant for their project Connecting Physics and Engineering through a Modernization of the Advanced Laboratory
Curriculum.The grant will provide $298,727.00 to implement student-centered experiments and
activities that integrate physics and engineering.
Dr. Sabella, Dr. Van Duzor, and physics major Felicia Davenport received a Notable Paper award from the Physics Education Leadership Organizing Council for the 2016 Physics Education Research Conference (PERC) Proceedings. Only four
of the 98 proceeding papers were awarded the title notable. The paper titled "Leveraging
the expertise of the urban STEM student in developing an effective LA Program: LA
and Instructor Partnerships" was recognized for its characterization of the relationships
between Learning Assistants and faculty, and was cited as an important contribution
to understanding the factors that promote effective LA programs.
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