Dear Colleagues,

JMU held a remembrance ceremony earlier today to mark the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001. I appreciated the opportunity to honor those who lost their lives and remember how that tragedy prompted so many to join together in service to others.

Yesterday, I joined the crowd at the Grand Reopening of Carrier Library. The high temperatures didn’t dissuade the faculty, students, administrators and guests who attended the ceremony, held outside Carrier’s McCormack Historic Entrance. It was moving to be part of such a significant event for Academic Affairs. My thanks and congratulations go to Dean of Libraries Dr. Bethany Nowviskie and her entire team for the perseverance they’ve shown since the work began in Fall 2022. You can see the details of the entire renovation online.

Let’s wrap up this week with some of your highlights.

• Dr. Jason Rosenhouse, a professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, is the new Editor-Elect of The American Mathematical Monthly and will assume the role of editor on Jan. 1, 2027. Published by the Mathematical Association of America, the journal – established in 1894 – is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes high-quality, original expository research.
  
  
• This was a busy summer for CISE professor Dr. Karim Altaii, who worked on three projects with 14 undergraduate students and two recent JMU graduates resulting in three published peer-reviewed papers. In May, he presented  “Biomedical Device for Back Pain Relief” with several undergraduate students and an Engineering alum at the 2026 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium. For June, he – along with a recent Engineering grad – presented “Undergraduate Engineering Students Creating Low Cost Labs and Demonstrations of Fluid Mechanics Principles Through At-Home Experiments” at the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference. In July, he attended the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Summer Heat Transfer Conference to present “An Enhanced Predictive Model for a Prototype Atmospheric Water Generator” with several undergrads.
  
  
• The Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences awarded the Hassenzahl-Smith Mid-Career Award to Dr. Rob Alexander, professor of Political Science, in recognition of his significant contributions to environmental studies and sciences and his leadership within the field. The Hassenzahl-Smith Mid-Career Award honors mid-career individuals who have made significant contributions to environmental studies or environmental sciences for at least ten years.
  
  
• The latest edition of Science Education featured an article by Department of Biology associate professor Dr. Joe Harsh and alum Isobel Cobb and coauthors. “Who Can Afford to Fail? Investigating Science Students' Perceptions of Failure Through the Lens of Their Identities.” As past work centering on student failure in undergraduate science education rarely addressed the role that students’ identities play in shaping their coping, these authors sought to answer the question: How do students see their identities as informing their perception of failure in science settings?

There are many more notifications of your excellent work still in my inbox, but please continue to send your highlights to provost@jmu.edu.

Sincerely,

Fletcher