SEC Uses Athletics Platform to Celebrate, Support Conference Member Faculty

And the 2021 SEC Faculty Achievement Award winners are …

Dr. Catherine Roach, New College Professor of Cultural and Gender Studies at the University of Alabama, focuses on social justice around America’s changing norms of gender, sex, love and romance. She has written three academic books and two romance novels, both of which were informed by her research.

Dr. Scot Burton, Distinguished Professor in Marketing at the University of Arkansas, researches consumer health and well-being, consumer response to advertising and measurement issues associated with survey research. He has consulted with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

Dr. Mona El-Sheikh, Professor in Human Development and Family Science at Auburn University, leads a research program focused on child and adolescent functioning in family and socioecological contexts. She has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation since 1996, and she is a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. José Fortes, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, researches distributed computing, autonomic computing and computer architecture. A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Dr. Fortes has led the development and deployment of cyberinfrastructures for science, education and digital government.

Dr. Peggy Ozias-Akins, Distinguished Research Professor of Horticulture at the University of Georgia, investigates self-reproducing hybrids and peanut improvement using genetic techniques. She holds three patents and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Dibakar Bhattacharyya, Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky, is fueled by his desire to create clean water through advanced membranes and other separation technologies. A fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he holds nine U.S. patents.

Dr. George Voyiadjis, Boyd Professor of Engineering at Louisiana State University, is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Academy of Inventors. He researches plasticity and the damage mechanics of metals, metal matrix composites, polymers, biological tissue and ceramics. He has built global relationships as a foreign member of academies in Europe, Poland and Korea.

Dr. Greg Tschumper, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi, is an expert in the development of electronic structure techniques to describe weak intermolecular interactions and clusters. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he also leads the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the university.

Dr. Dipangkar Dutta, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Mississippi State University, researches experimental nuclear and particle physics. Several of his results have been spotlighted as exceptional research by Physical Review Letters and Nature. Dr. Dutta is also committed to diversity, using a bridge program he initiated to collaborate with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Dr. Kenneth Sher, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and he is working to define the “core” of addiction while developing methods to improve the diagnosis and assessment of alcohol and other substance use disorders.

Dr. Mark Weist, Professor of Clinical-Community and School Psychology at the University of South Carolina, focuses on interconnected practice, research and policy toward improved and expanded student behavioral health programming. He helped establish the National Center for School Mental Health, and he leads several communities of practice.

Dr. Gregory Stuart, Chancellor’s Professor in Psychology at the University of Tennessee, is a fellow in the American Psychological Association. His research focuses on intimate partner violence, sexual assault and substance misuse. He has secured a grant from the National Institutes of Health to mentor the next generation of violence and alcohol researchers.

Dr. Karen Wooley, University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and her research impacts sustainability, reduced reliance on petrochemicals and the production of biologically beneficial and environmentally benign natural products. She directs the Laboratory for Synthetic-Biologic Interactions and is co-founder and President of Sugar Plastics, LLC. Dr. Wooley was also named the 2021 SEC Professor of the Year.

Dr. James Crowe, Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University, is a board certified pediatric infectious diseases physician and viral immunology researcher who investigates the human immune response to infection. He has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense.