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The medical and science communities are always seeking new ways to study and monitor organs and common diseases to improve human health and quality of life.   While there is a seemingly endless need for versatile, low-cost, yet highly sensitive biochemical sensor devices, there are many steps to take between initial research and clinical application.   At ������, Dr. Björn Lüssem, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics, and the graduate students in his laboratory have taken some of those initial steps toward the goal of ...

Today’s Flashes of Inspiration comes from Lisa Strom, ������’s head women’s golf coach, who offers a pep talk to all in the university community struggling under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Strom talks about finding ways to stick to a healthy routine, even as social distancing continues for months.    The Golden Flashes women’s golf team was ranked No. 5 in the nation when the pandemic forced an early end to college sports. The team was hoping to make a run at the national title, having already beaten No. 1 ranked Texas in late February at t...

Dear Golden Flashes, ������’s reopening committees continue to work for a safe return to our campuses this fall. We plan to resume residential living and in-person classes in August, and we are developing several scenarios to ensure an outstanding and safe experience for our students, faculty and staff. Although we will be together in person, there will be notable differences during the next school year. Students will likely enroll in a combination of face-to-face and remotely taught courses. When possible, we will allow faculty who wish to teach in person to do so, w...

A native of England, Brent Hicks, M.S. ’19, the School of Information’s Alumnus of the Year, has been involved in the health information field for much of his life. After earning degrees in computer science and technology and design at Sheffield University in England, he took a job with the National Health Service (NHS) as a developer/programmer. “I jumped at the chance to work for the NHS, to actually have an impact on patient care,” he recalls. Years later, Brent applied for a Green Card to work in the United States for the Veteran’s Administration office in Chicago, programming electroni...

For nearly 11 years, Alfreda Brown, ������’s vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, has been a powerful voice for making sure no one in the university’s wide-reaching system is marginalized, discriminated against or left behind. With a heart for caring, Brown has worked to ensure that everyone feels welcome, appreciated and understood at Kent State. Now, as her retirement looms at the end of May, Brown is even able to empathize with graduating seniors, athletes and others who have seen their senior years and winning seasons dashed by the COVID-19 pandemi...

The ������ Board of Trustees will hold its next regular business meeting remotely on Wednesday, June 3, to consider the recommendations of the standing committees, proposed personnel actions and new business. All actions of the Board will be taken at this business meeting. Due to ongoing efforts to safeguard the health and safety of the community and directives by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to practice social distancing and limit in-person meetings, this meeting and the preceding standing committee meetings will be conducted virtually via Zoom Meetings. The meetings are being cond...

Two student journalism competitions have named ������ students among the best in the nation for 2019-2020. In the Hearst Journalism Awards — often known as the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism — Kent State placed seventh in the nation for radio/TV news and eighth in the nation for photojournalism. Placements were determined by the total number of points students earned in categorical competitions. Individually, senior journalism major Nathaniel Bailey will be one of six semifinalists in the nation competing in the Photo Championship. With the in-person competition ...

From making her mark on campus during Destination Kent State to joining the recreational skate team, Marissa Belock, a sophomore biology major, has already created so many amazing memories during her college career. Thanks to her mother and Kent State alumna, Lori Belock, ’86, these memories are now wrapped up in a beautiful quilt of blue and gold T-shirts. “I first saw a post on social media about a T-shirt quilt. I thought, ‘I can do that!’” Lori said. “This is my sixth T-shirt quilt and I get better every time.”   Lori included one of her daughter’s favorite Kent State T-shirts...

Experiencing the burn of a leather car seat in the heat of the summer or catching a nosy neighbor peering into your kitchen window could soon be things of the past with the new dual-mode liquid crystal smart glass material. Yingfei Jiang, a College of Arts and Science graduate student in the Chemical Physics program and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI) at ������, and his advisor Deng-Ke Yang, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Physics, have invented the first ever dual-mode smart glass technology that can control both radiant energy flow (he...

Alum Dulcinea Avouris, PhD (2018) awarded Elsevier Early Career Scientist Award for 2019 Dr. Avouris's paper "Validation of 2015 Lake Erie MODIS image spectral decomposition using visible derivative spectroscopy and field campaign data" has been identified as outstanding by the editors of Journal of Great Lakes Research, so you have been awarded the Elsevier Early Career Scientist Award for 2019 which includes a cash prize of US$750. You can read her paper here.  ...