In the Spotlight: September 1 – 4
Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.
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- Jessie K. Finch, chair of sociology, authored a journal article titled Foreigners, fraud, and falling in love: 90 Day Fiancé viewer perceptions.
- Presidential Alumni Award recipient from the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences (CEFNS), Wayne Ranney, was interviewed by a Chicago television station regarding the recent flash flooding event in the Grand Canyon. The interview provides an example of his role as a well-known public educator and interpreter of the geology and natural history of the Colorado Plateau.
- NAU women’s golf ranked No. 1 in the Big Sky Women’s Golf Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The team was selected to repeat as women’s champions after winning the Big Sky Tournament last year.
- Guided by faculty advisor Ben Dymond, students Kaylnn Calvin, David Lucas Macaraeg, Lander Porter and Jonah Simminger finished in second place in the nation in the 2026 PCI Big Beam competition. They also won the Keith Kaufman Award for Best Report.
- Sam Hemmelgarn, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary (DAPS) Science, co-authored a study titled, The Non-Principal-Axis Rotation and Convex Shape Model of Earth Quasi-Satellite and the Target of China’s Tianwen-2 Mission.
- Will Grundy, a research professor in DAPS, co-authored a study titled Beyond Point Masses. VI. Spin-Orbit Evolution of the Centaur Binary Typhon-Echidna.
- NAU is a partner in the national node of the Asteroid 2029 International Year of Asteroid Awareness and Planetary Defense, sponsored by the United Nations. At NAU, both the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science and the Center for STEM Teaching and Learning (CSTL) are partners in this national and international network.
- Steve Tegler, professor in DAPS, is the lead author of an article titled Titania’s Deuterium Abundance and the Origin of Its Water, which includes Grundy, Ph.D. student Will Burris, professor Mark Loeffler, recent undergraduate Ryan Wochner and Hemmelgarn as co-authors.
- Several students from assistant professor Haley Saper’s research team received awards. Ph.D. student Michael Strane was awarded a Geological Society of America Graduate Student Research Grant. Undergraduate student Eli Resnick was awarded the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship and will be joining the research group as a Space Grant Student. Undergraduate student Kate Killebrew was awarded a CrustNet Seed Banks NASA summer Space Grant.
- Saper is a senior author of an invited paper published in mSphere summarizing the inaugural Microbial Dark Matter Symposium held last fall and featuring a full page illustration by Ecoss’ Victor Leshyk; a co-scientific organizer of the 2nd annual Microbial Dark Matter Symposium taking place in Laguna Beach this September; and a collaborator on a student paper titled Numerical validation of the impact-related sources of hydrothermal alterations in Toro crater, which was recently released in Icarus.
- DAPS chair David Triling co-authored a paper, Probing the Taxonomic Diversity of the Small Near-Earth Object Population, along with Ph.D. alum Andy Lopez-Oquendo and former NAU postdoctoral Michael Mommert.
- Soccer players Micala Boex and Lexi Saveski were named the Big Sky’s Player of the Week. Saveski earned Defensive Player of the Week, and Boex earned Offensive Player of the Week.