JMU - Feature Archive

Gray's Analyses: Decoding Data Using Constructed Cartography
On a standard map, Afghanistan and Iran share a border. But from James Madison University professor Lincoln Gray's perspective, the two countries are a world apart. That's because Gray's "constructed charts" don't map items based on their physical proximity to each other, but rather their relationship to common data points-in this case, rates of successful vaccination against diphtheria. Using constructed cartography, a technique he's been developing since his completing doctoral studies, Gray has helped researchers across several fields discern clear, understandable patterns from vast amounts of complex data.

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Published October 2009

A Real Eye Opener
Augustine Recounts Six-month Teaching Trip In South Africa
South Africa is a land of jarring contrasts. Most visitors arriving from the United States are surprised at the modernity. There are paved roads filled with BMWs and Mercedes, modern shopping malls, high speed internet, well-stocked grocery stores and nearly all of the conveniences of the modern world. Our Garmin GPS loaded with a southern Africa chip had turn-by-turn navigation, ATMs and petrol stations all fully programmed. Dig a little deeper and begin to see the other South Africa.

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The Latest List of Faculty Accomplishments

Published September 2009

The Evolution of Biology Education
JMU Professor Alters Techniques, Empowers Students
Carol Hurney, an associate professor of biology at James Madison University, was one of 20 faculty members from institutions across the nation selected to study biology education reform and the scholarship of teaching and learning in the National Science Foundation's Biology Scholars Research Residency in 2008.

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The Latest List of Faculty Accomplishments

Published August 2009

Biology REU Program Provides More Than Lab Experience
College students across the nation are enjoying hard-earned summer breaks. But a dedicated group of some of the country's brightest biology undergraduates are getting their feet wet in the world of research at James Madison University.

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The Latest List of Faculty Accomplishments

Published July 2009

JMU Undergraduate Takes Volcano Research to Capitol Hill
Hannah Shepherd, a senior from Mount Jackson, Va., was chosen to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in presenting her project at Posters on The Hill, an annual conference on Capitol Hill where students from all 50 states showcase the importance of undergraduate research directly to the nation's lawmakers.

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Published June 2009

JMU Gains Virtual Foothold in Second Life
Ever wish you could stay in bed all morning without missing your 10 a.m. lecture? Invite your friends from across the globe to hang out with you on the Quad? Fly over Wilson Hall to recreate the view from that famous "100" photo from the JMU Centennial Celebration? Now you can.

Thanks to an interdisciplinary team of JMU faculty, the James Madison University campus is open for classes, hanging out and, yes, flying, 24 hours a day, in the virtual world of Second Life.

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Published May 2009

Student’s Invention to Assist in Rebuilding African Village
Brick by brick, houses, community centers, sports facilities and churches are going up in the village of Gulu in northern Uganda. A rebuilding effort is under way in the African country as the people—former residents of a nearby Internally Displaced People camp—recover from two decades of civil war. The work requires lots of manual labor and moves along slowly, but the pace will soon pick up. In the coming weeks, the workers will start using a mixer designed by JMU junior Daniel Morgan to streamline the process of mixing the soil and cement used for making the bricks.

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Published April 2009

JMU Helps Discover New Breakthroughs in Lacritin Research
Ever since Madison Scholar checked in with Dr. Bob McKown about his research into the human tear protein lacritin more than three years ago, people have been calling to ask about the project. And for good reason, too. Now, not only is the four-institution research team nearing a partnership with big pharma, but also is continuing to discover new and potentially revolutionary uses for the little-known protein.

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Published March 2009

Centennial Dukes Establish Undergraduate Research Journal
Laurence Lewis knows the feeling of writing a research paper for very few eyes. That's why he and fellow 2008 alumnus Casey Boutwell founded the James Madison Undergraduate Research Journal, which will publish its first edition in April.

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Published February 2009

The Sound of Love:
Research Reveals Intriguing Abilities of Female Tree Frogs
Imagine having to choose a mate based partly on the chances of surviving the trek to make the first acquaintance.In the world of barking tree frogs, finding Mr. Right is about much more than just good looks—or mating call volume in this case.

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Published November 2008

Augustine Lands Fulbright To Teach Nanotechnology in South Africa
Brian Augustine, associate professor of Chemistry, will be heading to South Africa in January to teach and research nanotechnology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Augustine will combine lectures and laboratory experiments from a class he helped pioneer at JMU called "The Science of the Small: An Introduction to Nanotechnology."

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Published July 2008

The Past, Present and Future of Undergraduate Research
The practice of undergraduate research at JMU has been an evolutionary process that can be traced to the university's beginning.

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Background and Development of the University by Dr. David Brakke

Published March 2008

Physics Projects Seek To Advance Particle Experiments
The task is somewhat like trying to improve on an award-winning chili recipe, but in this case, the results won't be a matter of taste. The success of this recipe will be determined by aiming gamma rays at the creation, plastic disks doped with a special compound so they can be polarized and serve as both targets and detectors in particle acceleration experiments.

Published February 2008

A Mold For Teaching
JMU rapid prototype lab will make an educator's vision come to life.

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Published June 2007

Algae Oil Seen as Vaible Alternative to Petroleum
Years of research by the federal government, other universities and even private companies has proven algae to be a good source of oil, oil that can be used to produce biodiesel, a clean-burning alternative to petroleum diesel. Chris Bachmann and his students research ways to find the best algae for producing oil and the best ways to grow it.

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Published December 2006

A White Lab Coat and a Small Crustacean
Dr. Grace Wyngaard studies microscopic copepods that genetically adapt as their environment dictates. The tiny crustaceans answer — and pose — questions on the evolution of species.

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Published August 2006

Like Sand Through An Hourglass
Sitting there in glass vials on a laboratory shelf, the specimens look rather ordinary—no different, in fact, than the sand that takes you six months to clean out of your car after a trip to the beach. Ah, but there's so much more to sand than that, especially the sand shelved in the lab of JMU geology Associate Professor Kristen St. John.

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Published April 2006

The Point Is ... A Puzzlement
A mapping project at James Madison University’s first archaeological field school in the American Southwest yielded an out-of-place artifact that has left Director Julie Solometo and other anthropologists puzzled.

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Published January 2006

Just What the Doctor Ordered
Dr. David Jaynes might just be on the path to easing a dilemma for both doctors and the millions of patients who suffer from chronic wounds. For the past five years, Jaynes and his students have been working on a procedure that involves observing proteins collected from such wounds to determine treatment effectiveness.

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Published September 2005

Where The Wind Blows
A whistling wind whips the flags straight out, adding a biting chill to an already cool spring day. It seems to be a typical condition atop the hill that is home to James Madison University's East Campus, but wind surveys paint a different picture.

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Wind Row — Commentary by Jon Miles
Love of Math Brings National Teaching Honors to Professor

Published August 2005

NASCAR Nation
What's in a name? If it's the name of a product brand plastered across the hood, sides and trunk of the winning car on a NASCAR track, there's a lot in it -- a name that fans are likely to know and a brand they are likely to buy.

Published July 2005

Is It Rape?
A study by Dr. Arnie Kahn explains why more than half of all women who are sexually assaulted don't report it to law enforcement officials

Published June 2005

Ducts Out of Water
The waiting rooms of eye doctors throughout the United States are filled with patients seeking relief from one of the most common and irksome of ailments: dry-eye syndrome. Finally, research is under way that may give sufferers real, lasting relief and JMU is at the forefront of those efforts.

Published May 2005

The Physics of Dance
As one sits quietly in an audience at a dance concert and watches, transfixed by dancers' seamless movements, notions of how science, more specifically physics, plays a role in such an inherently free and beautiful scene are far off. Except if you're Dr. Christopher Hughes. This is the story of one JMU professor who is dedicated to teaching students that the physics of dance is free yet bound by laws.