As the new academic year begins, the Iowa State University College of Human Sciences announces four tenure-track faculty members who definitely have joined the college in 2018.?
All looking to expand human potential and improve people’s lives, their expertise ranges from educational technology to safe food packaging to sustainable functional apparel to how genes are expressed and effect disease.
Evrim Baran
Associate Professor in Education
Research Area:
Educational Technology
- The intersections of educational technology, human computer interaction, and teacher education
- Multimodal strategies to developing and tracking teachers’ knowledge in technology enhanced STEM classrooms
- Transforming college degree with web, mobile, and flexible learning environments
Dr. Baran said, “As an individual scientist, my ultimate goal is to converge different disciplines to reply to complex problems in education. My research focuses on the intersections of educational technology, human computer interaction, and teacher education. A different wave of technological innovations which include wearable sensors and eye trackers enables educational researchers to mix data from physical classroom activities and physiological responses with a lot more traditional educational data. My recent research uses multimodal methods for developing and tracking teacher knowledge and behavior in technology enhanced classrooms. A multimodal and interdisciplinary strategy to data collection and analysis will enhance our expertise in the complex nature of teacher knowledge and behavior and formulate evidence-based best practices for effective technology integration in classrooms.”
Greg Curtzwiler
Assistant Professor in Food Science and Human Nutrition
Research Area:
Sustainable packaging and coatings for any food industry
- Bio-based and biodegradable polymers
- Polymer recycling
- Sustainable sources of direct food contact packaging
- Coatings
Dr. Curtzwiler said, “My studies is aimed at developing safe and sustainable solutions for utilizing polymers and coatings during the food-packaging and food service industries. As most plastics utilized for packaging and food industries may not be biodegradable, the near permanent contamination of Earth’s lands and oceans boosts without alternative options. I am about to alleviate a number of the stress designed into environmental surroundings from polymer use and simultaneously improve people’s lives through proper material selection for well-designed products.”
Rachel Eike
Assistant Professor in Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management
Research Area:
Apparel, Merchandising, and Design
- Functional design
- Sustainability-focused creative design
Dr. Eike said, “As somebody’s Scientist, I study human factors regarding creative and functional apparel, all the while considering environmental impact and social responsibility of design decision-making practices to encourage sustainability. I conduct design-based research to help you improve people’s lives although the functionality with their clothing and products C ensuring there’re ergonomically which is designed to meet their performance needs while being comfortable into their near environment. I aim to integrate challenging design opportunities for current and future students to flourish their human potential in order that they might, positively impact others’ lives. Now i’m happily and humbly here to provide my Iowa community.”
Elizabeth McNeill
Assistant Professor in Food Science and Human Nutrition
Research Area:
Nutritional Science
- Function of microRNAs in tissue development and contributions to some disease conditions
Dr. McNeill said, “The extensive complexity of tissue development and maintenance elicits questions about the genome encodes for your great cellular diversity and morphological flexibility vital for healthy function. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a category of small non-coding RNAs have emerged as key regulators of gene expression, however biological functions remain largely unexplored. Like a human scientist, the aim of my principals are to elucidate the aim of miRNAs in development, and also to understand their contribution to a particular human disease conditions. My lab accomplishes this through a multi-disciplinary experimental platform using versatile transgenic technologies, genome engineering techniques, molecular biology, bioinformatics, fluorescence imaging, and optogenetics.”
