Illinois State University announced the winners of the Outstanding University Researcher and the Outstanding University Creative Activity awards. Also honored are the winners of the Research initiative Awards and the Creative Activity Initiative Awards. Recipients for these awards are selected from competitive pools of candidates.
Outstanding University Researcher
The Outstanding University Researcher Award recognizes faculty members for excellence in research. Candidates for this award must be nominated by their college dean and must be previous recipients of the Outstanding College Research Award.
Wolfgang Stein, School of Biological Sciences
Dr. Wolfgang Stein received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Kaiserslautern in 1998. From 1998 to 1999 he was a postdoctoral fellow in the biological cybernetics laboratory of Dr. Hulk Cruse at the University of Bielefeld, before starting a postdoc with Dr. Michael Nusbaum at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. In 2012, Stein accepted an assistant professor position in the School of Biological Sciences at Illinois State University, where he received tenure in 2015 and was promoted to full professor of neurophysiology in 2019.
Stein’s research interests concern the mechanisms by which nerve cells and brain circuits produce long-lasting and stable activity, and the processes that neuronal systems have evolved to make this activity robust against challenges that animals face in their everyday lives. The Stein lab uses electrophysiology, optical imaging, and molecular tools to investigate the cellular mechanisms that make neuronal activity stable. A current focus of the lab is the study of neuropeptides, a class of chemicals released in the brain that allow neurons in cold-blooded animals to withstand the temperature challenges imposed by climate change. Stein’s NSF-funded research has received over $1 million in grant support and resulted in over 30 peer-reviewed papers since his arrival at Illinois State.
Eric Peterson, Geology, Geography, the Environment
Dr. Eric Peterson is a professor of hydrogeology and the graduate coordinator for the Hydrogeology M.S. program at Illinois State University. Peterson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 2002. From 2012 to 2015, Peterson served as interim chair for the Department of Geography-Geology. He has advised 53 theses and served on the thesis committees of 54 students.
Peterson served as secretary-treasurer of the Hydrogeology Division of the Geological Society of America and has served the Illinois Groundwater Association in numerous capacities, including chair and secretary. Peterson is a Geological Society of America Fellow. In 2018, Peterson was named a University Professor.
Kelly Laurson, Kinesiology and Recreation
Dr. Kelly R. Laurson earned his master’s degree at Illinois State University in 2005, then re-joined Illinois State in 2008, after completing his doctoral work at Iowa State University. Laurson is currently a professor of exercise science in the School of Kinesiology and Recreation, where he teaches courses in exercise physiology, research methods, and statistics. Laurson’s research training combines physical activity epidemiology with the study of childhood growth and maturation. These interests collectively focus on understanding how physical activity and physical fitness in childhood are associated with chronic diseases, and how these factors might prevent outcomes like metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, and osteoporosis into adulthood.
Much of this research centers on evaluating and designing criterion-referenced standards to promote healthy targets of aerobic and musculoskeletal fitness across the pediatric age range. These standards are widely used to provide health-based feedback to youth, parents, and practitioners in the U.S. and abroad.
Outstanding University Creative Activity
The University Outstanding Creative Activity Award is given to experienced faculty who have established a national/international reputation for creative work in their field. This award recognizes consistent and sustained contributions to the profession, discipline, or field.
Roy Magnuson, Music
The music of Roy David Magnuson has been performed throughout the United States and Europe at venues such as the World Saxophone Congress, NASA, WASBE, CBDNA, the RED NOTE New Music Festival, and the Robb Composers’ Symposium. Magnuson is an associate professor of composition and creative technologies at Illinois State University, where he also coordinates the development of extended reality (XR) as the co-director of XR at Illinois State.
Magnuson is the creator of the virtual reality composition software solsticeVR, and co-creator of the virtual reality conducting pedagogy RibbonsVR: Virtual Reality Assisted Conducting. Magnuson is a member of ASCAP, and his music is recorded on Albany Records, NAXOS, and Tonsehen Records.
Research Initiative Award
The Research Initiative Award recognizes new faculty members (within their first five years) who have initiated a promising research agenda early in their academic careers.
John Blakeman, Mennonite College of Nursing
Dr. John Blakeman is an assistant professor at Mennonite College of Nursing. He has been a nurse educator since 2015, recognized in 2019 as a Nurse Educator Fellow by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Blakeman conducts research related to cardiovascular disease and symptom science, especially the ways that individuals conceive, perceive, attribute, react to, and manage symptoms of different types of cardiovascular disease. A secondary component of his program of research is related to health care professionals’ knowledge and behaviors related to cardiovascular disease symptoms. Blakeman has particular interest in acute coronary syndrome and heart failure. A strong component of his program of research is a recognition of sex, gender, racial, and ethnic differences across the cardiovascular disease symptom experience.
Blakeman has published 19 peer-reviewed manuscripts in a variety of well-respected journals and has secured over $20,000 in research funding. He has presented his work at a variety of regional, national, and international conferences. Blakeman is a member of the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing, the Midwest Nursing Research Society, the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, and Sigma.
Jan-Ulrik Dahl, School of Biological Sciences
Dr. Jan-Ulrik Dahl joined Illinois State University as an assistant professor of microbiology in the Spring of 2019. Dr. Dahl’s interest in microbial physiology evolved during his master’s and Ph.D. training at the University of Potsdam in Germany, where he discovered two novel sulfur carrier proteins in the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. During an internship at the CNRS Laboratoire di Chimie Bacterienne in Marseille, France, Dahl was trained in gene regulation. Dr. Dahl completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan, where he studied how bacterial pathogens respond to and defend themselves from environmental stressors.
At Illinois State University, Dahl continues to explore novel bacterial stress defense systems. Dahl identified an essential component that uropathogenic Escherichia coli, the main culprit of urinary tract infections, employs to protect themselves from antimicrobial compounds generated by our innate immune system. His lab integrates biochemical, structural, microbiological, genetic, and molecular approaches to investigate bacterial stress response systems and their impact on microbial physiology and received funding from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as well as the National Science Foundation.
Linsay DeMartino, Educational Administration and Foundations
Dr. Linsay DeMartino currently serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations in the College of Education at Illinois State University. As a former PreK-12 educational practitioner in Tucson, Arizona, she served as a special education teacher, inclusion specialist, special education department chair, and as an instructional data and intervention administrative coordinator.
DeMartino’s current research examines transformative educational practices, collaborative community engagement, and justice in schools. DeMartino is particularly interested in educational practices and policy grounded in just schooling and contextual alternatives rather than “best practices” and trends. Relatedly, she teaches coursework on leadership for diverse learners, community relations seminar, and advanced topics in research methodology.
Laura Finan, Psychology
Dr. Laura Finan is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Illinois State University. Her interdisciplinary training spans psychology, human development and family science, and prevention science.
Finan’s research interests include how social-ecological factors contribute to adolescents’ and young adults’ health and health risk behaviors. She is particularly motivated to understand how these factors contribute to experiences of mental health problems and use of alcohol, tobacco, and other substances given the immense burden of disease stemming from these problems and behaviors. The goal of Finan’s research program is to identify prevention and intervention targets to support young people, who are some of the most vulnerable populations across the lifespan.
Chang Su-Russell, Family and Consumer Sciences
Dr. Chang Su-Russell joined the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at Illinois State University as an assistant professor of human development and family science in 2018. Su-Russell has two lines of research: (1) how contextualized factors influence parents of young children to make decisions in socializing their children in challenging social contexts in the U.S., and (2) what factors influence Chinese parents’ childbearing decision-making in mainland China in the post-one-child policy era. Su-Russell has published 12 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals and one book chapter and has had 35 juried peer-reviewed national/international presentations since hired.
Su-Russell has guided 218 undergraduate students from five academic programs as they developed individual research papers and group research projects through FCS 200 Research Methods in Family and Consumer Sciences. Su-Russell research was recently recognized at the national level with an award from the Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Families section of the National Council on Family Relations. Currently, Su-Russell is on the editorial board for Journal of Family Psychology and is the chair for the Asian/Asian American Family Focus Group at NCFR.
Alec Foster, Geography, Geology, and the Environment
Dr. Alec Foster joined the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment at Illinois State University in the Fall of 2018. He earned his Ph.D. in geography and urban studies from Temple University and completed postdoctoral training in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan prior to joining Illinois State. Foster is a broadly trained human-environment geographer whose research seeks to understand the social impacts of urban environmental change. Foster conducts innovative mixed-methods research that combines advanced geospatial and geostatistical analyses with qualitative methods and social theory, with an empirical focus on postindustrial cities in the United States.
Foster has published in leading urban geography and planning journals such as Landscape and Urban Planning, Cities, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Foster’s research seeks to make impacts beyond academia by collaborating with and developing knowledge that is useful for planners, policymakers, and practitioners working towards sustainability and justice.
Creative Activity Initiative Award
The Creative Activity Initiative Award recognizes faculty who have initiated promising creative activities early in their careers. Creative contributions include, but are not limited to painting, sculpture, film, drama, musical composition, choreography of a dance, poetry, a novel, creative non-fiction, and creative media programming.
Matt Caplan, Physics
Dr. Matt Caplan has been an assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University since 2019. Caplan is a theoretical physicist, earning his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 2017 and winning the Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics from the American Physical Society. Prior to joining Illinois State, he was a fellow at the McGill Space Institute.
In addition to his research, Caplan is a prolific writer of popular science online. As a script writer and scientific consultant for In a Nutshell by Kurzgesagt and PBS Space Time by PBS Digital Studios, Caplan has contributed to over 50 videos with combined view counts exceeding 750 million on topics such as spaceflight, aliens, nuclear weapons, and astrophysics. Caplan’s most recent credit comes from the nature docuseries Our Universe produced by the BBC for Netflix and narrated by Morgan Freeman.
Kee-Yoon Nahm, Theatre and Dance
Kee-Yoon Nahm is assistant professor of theatre studies at Illinois State University and festival dramaturg at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. He has a DFA in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University. Nahm works as a dramaturg and theatre translator in the United States and South Korea.
Nahm’s translations have been presented at the National Theatre Company of Korea, the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Illinois State University, Texas State University, Coalescence Theatre Project, and Yale Cabaret. Nahm’s dramaturgy work includes productions at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, TheatreWorks Colorado Springs, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Yale Cabaret, the Korean National Gugak Center, and the National Dance Company of Korea.
