Thank you to all who participated in the CFO interviews over the past few weeks. We appreciate your support.
As a reminder, the feedback surveys for the CFO candidates will close today, March 10, at midnight. We encourage you to provide your feedback via the anonymous comment forms provided on the CFO Search page.
Dear Researchers,
This is a friendly reminder that all undergraduate students engaged in research must complete the CITI Program Undergraduate Researcher Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training Course before engaging in any research activities. This is a requirement to ensure compliance with institutional and federal research guidelines.
Please ensure your undergraduate students complete the course at their earliest convenience. If you or your students have any questions accessing the CITI Program, please visit RCR Policies and Procedures for further instructions.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter, and for your commitment to maintaining ethical research practices.
Best regards,
Research Integrity Office
The Ecosystem Science Center's (ESC) Student Research Forum will be held from 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, in the Rozsa Center lobby. The forum is open to the public.
Graduate and undergraduate students will present posters on research related to ecology and the environment. This is the 20th year of the event, which provides students an opportunity to showcase their research and practice for poster sessions at regional or national meetings.
Carved and Crafted Catering at Michigan Technological University brings back the C-Cubed Luncheon for the '24-'25 school year, held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Thursday in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge (MUB 107). All faculty and staff, along with their guests, are invited.
Menu for Thursday, March 13:
The C-Cubed lunch buffet menus are created and prepared by Chef Luis Delgado and his culinary team. As the name suggests, the meals are meant to foster conversation, community and collegiality. Attendees may bring their lunch instead of purchasing the buffet. Fruit-infused water, coffee and tea are available free to all attendees. All vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items on the buffet are labeled for easy identification. Meals are for dine-in only, and personal containers and to-go meals are not permitted.
The buffet lunch is $15.50 per person. Cash, credit cards and gift cards are accepted. Gift cards can be purchased in the Memorial Union Office (MUB 101).
You can submit C-Cubed feedback using C-Cubed Survey/Comments form. To join the C-Cubed Luncheon Email List and receive weekly menus, please complete the sign-up form.
The Commencement Team is seeking volunteers for the Spring Commencement ceremony. We need volunteers to help with pre-ceremony setup, serve as greeters and ushers, coordinate graduate check-in, and assist guests with special seating accommodations. More information regarding the ceremonies can be found on the Commencement website.
Please sign up by April 16 if you would like to volunteer. Contact Tiffany Jaeger at tiffanyj@mtu.edu if you have any questions.
This special event cannot happen without the help of our amazing Michigan Tech community!
To give more students the chance to participate in the Graduate Research Colloquium (GRC) 2025, the registration deadline has been extended by one week! The new registration deadline is March 14.
Grad students can register to present at GRC 2025.
Faculty and staff can register to be a judge.
Important Dates:
• March 14—Registration closes
• March 14—Abstracts, posters, and slides due
• March 25—Oral presentations from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the MUB Alumni Lounge
• March 25—Poster presentations from 5-8 p.m. in the Rozsa Lobby
• March 26—Annual GRC Awards Banquet from 5-8 p.m. in the Rozsa Lobby
Participation Benefits:
Cash prizes are awarded to the top three presenters in both categories ($300 for first place, $200 for second, and $100 for third). The GSG will print all the posters for this year's GRC poster session.
Eligibility:
All graduate students are encouraged to participate, whether through oral presentations, poster presentations, or both.
For any questions, visit the GSG website or contact gsg-research@mtu.edu.
We look forward to your participation in making GRC 2025 a success.
Join us for Superior Fab Lab's MakerFest 2025 from 12-5 p.m on Saturday, March 15 at Houghton High School. This family friendly event offers exciting hands-on activities for all ages, including live demonstrations of woodworking, metalworking, textile crafts, electronics and more. Enjoy tasty food, vote on submissions from innovative makers and get ready for a big announcement from the Superior Fab Lab that will impact the entire Keweenaw community.
If you’re feeling creative, enter the MakerFest competitions and share your original projects in Wood, Metal, Textiles, Electronics, Plastics, or Youth categories — all with cash prizes. Sign up today.
Meet makers and discover opportunities for collaboration with Michigan Tech groups like The Alley Makerspace, the Open Source Hardware Enterprise, Husky Multi-Rotor, Copper Country Robotics, and the Husky Amateur Lego Organization.
Visit the MakerFest 2025 website to learn more. Don’t miss your chance to experience hands-on creativity, connect with local innovators and help shape the future of making in the Keweenaw. See you there!
The following Department of Physics graduate students will be presenting their research progress at this week’s Physics Colloquium:
Mahsa Najafi (advised by Petra Huentemeyer)
Tanner Sether (advised by Elena Giusarma)
Krishna Teja Vedula (advised by Tiffany Lewis)
This will be an in-person event. The students will give their talks at 4 p.m. on Thursday, March 13, in Fisher 139.
Read the students' presentation titles and abstracts at the University Events Calendar.
Please join the Center for Innovation in Sustainability and Resilience (CISR) for a research discussion with Mark Rhodes (SS), who will be presenting "Living Memorials: Environmental Humanities and Political Ecology Intersections with Commemorative Practices."
The discussion will be held at noon April 7 in person in AOB 201 or via Zoom.
Join the CISR Research Discussion on Zoom.
From the abstract:
Commemorative practices surround us in our daily lives: our money and stamps, streets and buildings, towns and lakes, and our surrounding landscapes filled with museums, parks, graveyards, and monuments. This work, however, explores a lesser-discussed realm of commemoration through the use of plants. While the American Ornithological Society has banned the use of eponyms, or a name honoring a person, in common bird names, no such regulatory body exists for varieties of plants. This presentation provides an overview of the Living Memory Lab’s efforts over the past four years to use historical, ethnographic, and text-based methods to better understand the haphazard processes, and potential impacts, of naming varieties of plants after people.
Join us this Friday, March 14, from 12-1 p.m. in the Petersen Library for a reading circle hosted by Holly Hassel, professor of composition and director of Michigan Tech's composition program.
The reading circle will focus on Hassel's recent publication in College English titled, "'Why Is It Like This?': Graduate Student Learning Outcomes for the Future of Literacy Work in the Academy."
All are welcome!
From the abstract:
This article adds to the decades-long scholarly conversations about the state of labor and the job market in English Studies. We draw from our research and experience in two-year colleges and other access-oriented institutions (AOI) to propose three core outcomes for graduates that are aligned with the professional responsibilities of teaching-intensive faculty positions. We propose both classroom and program-level strategies that can be adopted by graduate programs to more effectively prepare future faculty with the skills and knowledge required for postsecondary literacy work at AOIs.
Men's basketball head coach Josh Buettner earned his first GLIAC Coach of the Year honor, and Marcus Tomashek was named the GLIAC Player of the Year, the league office announced on Friday.
Tomashek was also selected to receive First Team All-GLIAC honors for the second straight season, Josh Terrian made the GLIAC All-Defensive Team for the second consecutive season, and Dawson Nordgaard earned Second Team All-GLIAC honors.
Read about our men's basketball honorees' accomplishments at Michigan Tech Athletics.
Michigan Tech women's basketball senior guard Isabella Lenz was selected to the All-GLIAC First Team and All-Defensive Team, the league office announced on Friday.
Lenz finishes her career as the 2021-22 GLIAC Freshman of the Year, a three-time All-GLIAC First Team selection and a two-time All-Defensive team member.
Read about Lenz's career accomplishments at Michigan Tech News.
Dalton Norris ’22 (M.S. Biological Sciences) and Gord Paterson and Jill Olin (both BioSci/GLRC) are co-authors of a research paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
The paper is titled “Trophic ecology and mercury bioaccumulation among Lake Superior lake charr (Salvelinus namaycush) ecotypes.”
Norris is the lead author of the paper. An additional co-author is Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Marquette Fisheries Research Station.
This research is the culmination of Norris’ M.S. thesis research conducted at Michigan Tech and demonstrates the importance of foraging ecology on the bioaccumulation of mercury in these Lake Superior fish.
University President Rick Koubek was quoted by Michigan Advance, Yahoo! News, and Iosco County News-Herald in a story about Michigan Tech joining the University Research Corridor. The partnership is intended to foster talent, attract business and prepare a skilled workforce for jobs demanded by industries of the future.
*****
SC4 News mentioned Michigan Tech’s Mind Trekkers in a story about STEM Fest at St. Clair County Community College on March 15. The event features hands-on exhibits focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with Mind Trekkers presenting interactive experiences.
*****
The Lansing State Journal, Hillsdale Daily News, the Sault News, and 16 regional outlets mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about Houghton being named one of the “most charming small towns” in the U.S. by HGTV.
Lisa Gordillo (VPA) will share the work of art “Widow in her un/natural habitat” on campus through Saturday, March 15. During this time, she will wear a shirt that clearly identifies her as a widow.
“Widow…” is a living portrait; with it, Gordillo hopes to raise awareness about the duration of grief and its mutifaceted nature, call attention to the invisibility that many grieving people feel, and create a bit more space for conversations about loss.
In the time since her husband Hugo’s death in 2023, Gordillo has become concerned with our culture’s inability to support grieving people and our unwillingness to sit with challenging stories. As a result, she is shifting her creative work toward themes of loss, comfort and support.
Gordillo welcomes conversation about this project, and about grief, throughout the project and after it.
*****
The MiCUP Scholars Program and McNair Scholars Program are currently seeking faculty to serve as mentors during summer 2025. Faculty mentors in these programs will assist students with research projects in their field of study, including engineering, technology, business, computer science, health science and more.
All faculty interested in facilitating undergraduate research with MiCUP or McNair program participants should complete the Summer 2025 Research Mentor Information Request form.
For questions about MiCUP or McNair, contact micup@mtu.edu or mcnair@mtu.edu.
*****
The Department of Humanities (HU) is pleased to be hosting candidates for on-campus interviews for the position of department chair.
The second candidate will present a department leadership seminar titled "Gather, Listen, Collaborate, and Act: Leadership in the Humanities" today, March 10, from 11 a.m. to noon in GLRC 202 and via Zoom.
The candidate will also present a research and teaching presentation titled "Scandal, Technology, and Periodicals in the Victorian Period" tomorrow, March 11, from noon to 1 p.m. in GLRC 202 and via Zoom.
Join the HU Department Chair Seminars on Zoom.
All members of the Michigan Tech community are welcome to attend.
*****
Environmental Engineering Faculty Candidate Seminar with James Conrad Pritchard
Please join the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering (CEGE) Tuesday, Mar. 11, from 10-11 a.m. in Dow 875, for a research presentation by faculty candidate James Conrad Pritchard, postdoctoral fellow at the Colorado School of Mines.
The title of Pritchard's presentation is "Runoff to Recharge: Tackling Organic Contaminants for Sustainable Water Supply."
From the abstract:
Drinking water supplies are expected to become increasingly stressed in the U.S. as we adapt to a changing climate. Groundwater aquifers, often used to augment surface water during drought, are being depleted at unsustainable rates across the country. Managed aquifer recharge presents an opportunity to capture stormwater runoff and surface water to replenish aquifers, providing storage for future drinking and irrigation needs while guarding against saltwater intrusion and land subsidence. However, stormwater runoff and surface waters often contain persistent, mobile, and toxic organic contaminants including pesticides, automobile and tire compounds, corrosion inhibitors, and surfactants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Insufficient treatment of stormwater runoff used to recharge aquifers has the potential to introduce such contaminants into aquifers, contaminating drinking water for those relying on groundwater (which traditionally is not treated for hydrophilic organic pollutants). This seminar explores improving stormwater treatment using biochar and regenerated activated carbon to protect receiving surface waters or groundwater aquifers. Pore diffusion transport modeling provides insights for effective filter design and quantifies the impacts of variable background dissolved organic carbon on filter performance. Additionally, other threats to groundwater quality are discussed including PFAS leaching from aqueous film forming foam-impacted former fire-fighting training areas.
*****
University Closure Payroll
Due to the weather-related University closure on Wednesday, March 5, the following FAQ’s should be used to help employees submit their time for hours reported on the current bi- weekly pay period.
University Closure FAQs:
Please contact Payroll Services at 487-2130 or by email hr-help@mtu.edu with any questions.
To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.
MICHIGAN TECH ART SERIES EVENT Enter into a world of artistic expression inspired by the wilderness of Isle Royale. The artworks showcased in this exhibition have all been...
*****Sustainable Communities Advisor: Chelsea Schelly Michigan's EV Policies and Energy Justice Attend Virtually: https://michigantech.zoom.us/j/86856918041
*****We offer free Hot Chocolate to all students from2 to 4pm near the Husky Statue every Monday!
*****Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar Greg Hoffmann, P.E., Director of Stormwater Services at the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) Abstract: Solar energy is a...
*****A beginners friendly guide to the ins and outs of Machine Learning. Lessons weekly every Monday at 4:00-5:00 PM in Fisher Hall 231 with a hybrid option availible.
*****Materials will be provided to come and create a masquerade mask for our upcoming Masquerade Ball on Friday, March 14th! (See our Masquerade Ball event for more info). We will...
*****Want to see how the bible handles emotions? How it instructs us in righteousness? Eat cafe food, talk through the psalms, learn and grow with Pastor Brandon Charbonneau.
