News & Events

Cynthia Carlson, assistant professor of civil engineering, was first author on a paper, “Storm-Water Management as a Public Good Provision Problem: Survey to Understand Perspectives of Low-Impact Development for Urban Storm Water Management Practices Under Climate Change,” that won Best Policy-Oriented Paper of 2016 from the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The paper explored how storm water could be thought of as a “public good” and be managed better.

Dr. James Kaklamanos, associate professor of civil engineering, was interviewed by The Washington Post in conjunction with their coverage of the Morocco earthquake that occurred in Sept. 2023. He appeared in parts of two portions of their live updates after the earthquake: (1) What to do in an earthquake, and (2) Why many buildings in Morocco were vulnerable to the earthquake.

Dr. Brandi Baldock and co-authors Dr. Anthony Fernandez, Dr. Jimmy Franco, Dr. Brian Provencher and Dr. Mark McCoy from Merrimack’s department of chemistry & biochemistry recently published an article in the Journal of Chemical Education entitled “Overcoming the Challenges of Remote Instruction: Using Mobile Technology to Promote Active Learning.”

The Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section (BSCES) honoredassociate professor of civil engineering James Kaklamanoswith the College Education Awardrecognizing his exceptional teaching and mentorship. The BSCES also named professor emeritus David “Doc” Westerling recipient of the Horne/Gaynor Award for his philanthropic activities in the public interest.

Eight faculty members from four schools at Merrimack attended the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies conference in Amsterdam last semester. They include associate professors Luis Saenz de Viguera Erkiago and Cinzia DiGiulio of the World Languages and Cultural Studies Department, Civil Engineering Department assistant professor Cynthia Carlson, visiting associate professor Ellen Fitzpatrick, Women and Gender Studies Department professor Simona Sharoni, Graduate Education Department associate professor Susan Marine, Accounting and Finance Department associate professor Ana Silva, and Education Department assistant professor Laura Hsu.

Five faculty members were awarded tenure in January by President Christopher E. Hopey. They are:Jimmy Franco, assistant professor of chemistry;Brittnie Aiello, assistant professor of criminology;Sally Shockro, assistant professor of history;Susan Marine, associate professor and program director in the higher education master’s program; andSirkwoo Jin, assistant professor of management.

George Heffernan, department chair and professor of philosophy, collaborated with his colleague Marco Cavallaro of the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany to collect the 14 papers from internationally renowned scholars, co-wrote the Preface, single-authored two major papers and translated several papers from German. The Existential Husserl: A Collection of Critical Essays is now in press and published by Springer.

Azam Noori, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, presented her research at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biology (ASPB) in Portland, OR. Her presentation “Lemna minor for Silver Nanoparticles Phytoremediation” focuses on using common duckweed (Lemna minor) in removing silver nanoparticles from an aquatic environment.

Azam Noori, associate professor of biology, was recently invited to serve as a guest speaker at the NASA Space Crop Production Team. Her research titled “Lycopersicon esculentum Molecular and Physiological Responses to Silver Nanoparticles” discusses using silver nanoparticles to improve crop production in space. Noori’s project was completed at Merrimack College with the assistance of the Department of Biology and several undergraduate students.

Dr. James Kaklamanos, associate professor of civil engineering, was one of two earthquake engineers interviewed by Interesting Engineering on the multitude of buildings that collapsed in Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquake.