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KU student Audrey Rips-Goodwin awarded Astronaut Scholarship two years in a row
LAWRENCE — Audrey Rips-Goodwin, a senior in chemistry and mathematics from Overland Park, is the University of Kansas’ 2024 Astronaut Scholar — receiving an award of up to $15,000. A graduate of Blue Valley Southwest High School, Rips-Goodwin was also named an Astronaut Scholar in 2023. This year the foundation awarded 71 scholarships to students from 48 universities across the nation.
Globe-trotting trumpet professor featured in Spanish Olympics fanfare
LAWRENCE — Musical talent, hard work and networking have taken Stephen Leisring, professor in the University of Kansas School of Music, around the world — recently to Madrid, where he played first trumpet on a piece for Radio Television Española’s upcoming coverage of the Paris Olympics.
New edition of book updates changing world of international trade law in free, open-access format
LAWRENCE — International trade law has transformed rapidly since 2019. A University of Kansas law expert is addressing those changes — including U.S. trade policy following the 2020 presidential election and Russia sanctions — with a new edition of his textbook that for the first time is available free of charge in an open-access format. “International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Sixth Edition,” by Raj Bhala, Brenneisen Distinguished Professor at the KU School of Law, is available through KU ScholarWorks.
I2S scientist receives NSF award for research focused on cardiac tissue ablations
LAWRENCE — Suzanne Shontz, computational scientist with the University of Kansas School of Engineering and Institute for Information Sciences, is part of a team of researchers that received $283,686 from the National Science Foundation to develop a scientific computing platform for characterization and monitoring of cardiac tissue ablations. The project will also feature educational and outreach initiatives to train the next generation of scholars and researchers.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Erin Wolfram, Office of Fellowships, 785-864-2308, [email protected]
KU student Audrey Rips-Goodwin awarded Astronaut Scholarship two years in a row
LAWRENCE — Audrey Rips-Goodwin, an Overland Park senior in chemistry and mathematics, is the University of Kansas’ 2024 Astronaut Scholar — an award of up to $15,000. Rips-Goodwin was also named an Astronaut Scholar in 2023.
“The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation has provided me with support and guidance for my academic and research endeavors. I am extremely honored to be awarded the Astronaut Scholarship and grateful to be a part of such an amazing community,” said Rips-Goodwin.
The Astronaut Scholarship was founded in 1984 by the six surviving members among the seven astronauts who were part of the Mercury program as a means to encourage students to pursue scientific endeavors. Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs have also joined the foundation.
This year the foundation awarded 71 scholarships to students from 48 universities across the nation. In August, Rips-Goodwin will attend the Innovators Symposium & Gala in Houston, where she will network with other scholars and be recognized by the foundation. Students interested in applying for the award in future years should contact the Office of Fellowships by email.
Rips-Goodwin is the daughter of Cheryl Rips and Stanley Goodwin and is a graduate of Blue Valley Southwest High School. After completing her undergraduate degrees, she plans to pursue a doctorate in computational neuroscience to study addiction and obesity.
After transferring to KU from the University of South Carolina in 2022, she joined Tera Fazzino’s lab and determined the accuracy of reported energy content of hyper-palatable foods, combining her research interests in both chemistry and psychology, leading to two presentations. In 2022, she was named a Kansas Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence program scholar to conduct independent research.
In summer 2023, Rips-Goodwin participated in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Department of Mathematics at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she worked on sensitivity analysis of agent-based models, or ABMs.
At KU, Rips-Goodwin founded and serves as the president of the Pop-Science Book Club and previously was a student ambassador for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She was also named a Bricker ChemScholar and is a recipient of the Frances H. Gayetta Lensor Scholarship awarded to an exceptional female student majoring in chemistry, the Steve and Susan Snyder Chemistry Award, and the Joan Kirkham/May Landis Scholarship from the Department of Mathematics. In spring 2023, she was a teaching assistant for Engineering Physics II taught by Sarah LeGresley Rush. Outside of research and academics, Rips-Goodwin serves as a weekend volunteer at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
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Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
Globe-trotting trumpet professor featured in Spanish Olympics fanfare
LAWRENCE – How does a trumpeter from Kansas wind up in Madrid leading an orchestra section recording an anthem for use in Spain’s television coverage of the upcoming Summer Olympics?
The old joke about practice has some relevance, of course. But Stephen Leisring, professor of trumpet at the University of Kansas, often points to a map of the world on his office wall covered with push pins when prospective students and their parents ask where a career in the arts can lead.
The pins represent places the professor has visited, and they show — even before Leisring became associate dean for global engagement and special performance projects for the School of Music in 2023 — that the trumpet has taken him to 20 countries on five continents.
“I didn’t plan any of this,” Leisring said. “It just happened through hard work and getting the right guidance. I truly believe you can make anything happen. Every generation has had to adapt. But if you’re really passionate, you can find ways to do it.”
A native of Connecticut and graduate of the University of North Texas and New York’s Mannes School of Music, Leisring said the twig of his internationally focused career was bent when he took part in a New York City audition immediately upon earning his master’s degree. He won an orchestra job in the Canary Islands, which is a part of Spain located just off the coast of Africa.
During 14 years with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Leisring learned Spanish and taught private lessons on the side, even as the orchestra traveled around Europe performing and recording.
When he returned to the states and embarked upon full-time teaching at KU in 2003, Leisring maintained and extended some of the connections he formed overseas.
Leisring was attending the annual International Trumpet Guild conference in May and June 2023 in Minneapolis when he met Marcos Garcia, who is a friend of a friend and who plays in the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. They hit it off.
“He invited me, since I was on sabbatical, to come play a three-and-a-half-week opera with him in the Royal Theatre in Madrid, and it was just phenomenal,” Leisring said. In March, the group performed rarely heard works by Francis Poulenc and Arnold Schoenberg to great acclaim, he said.
That led, on his day off, to another gig offered to Leisring by another Spanish musician he had met in Minneapolis, David Pastor.
“He found out I was going to be in Madrid, and I actually had a day off in between the operas,” Leisring said. “He was doing a recording session with the RTVE, the Radio Television Española, Orchestra. And it was his piece. He was the conductor. And he invited me to come play first trumpet on this Olympic fanfare that he was commissioned to write.”
Not only was the sound of the fanfare recorded for use in RTVE’s coverage of Spain’s participation in the Paris Olympics, but the musicians were recorded on video from every possible angle during the long session, Leisring said, presumably for interstitial use in RTVE broadcasts.
Leisring said Pastor “is already well known in Spain, but he’s becoming really well known outside of Spain, too, because of things like these performances. It was an honor for me to get to go there and play on this.”
Leisring then leveraged his personal opportunity to pursue his mission as associate dean — extending the KU School of Music’s relations with university-level yet freestanding conservatories in Europe and elsewhere. It’s the focus of his sabbatical year.
“I visited seven or eight conservatories this year already, just trying to make personal student and faculty connections,” Leisring said. “There were four or five schools in Poland and in Estonia, and I visited several in Spain when I was there.
“The kind of exchanges these relations make possible are very important. They change people’s lives, and so I want to try to do more of that for our students.”
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
New edition of book updates changing world of international trade law in free, open-access format
LAWRENCE — International trade law has transformed rapidly since 2019. A University of Kansas law expert is addressing those changes with a new edition of his textbook that for the first time is available free of charge in an open-access format.
Vaccine nationalism catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the globe, while new political regimes took power that challenged the dominant free trade consensus. Social justice movements pressed for enhanced human rights provisions in trade treaties, and the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system saw the demise of the Appellate Body. Those were among the shifts to inspire the publication of “International Trade Law: A Comprehensive E-Textbook, Sixth Edition,” by Raj Bhala, Brenneisen Distinguished Professor at the KU School of Law.
The “E” is a significant first. The new edition was published open access via KU ScholarWorks, KU’s online institutional repository of scholarly work by KU faculty, staff and students managed by KU Libraries.
The edition spans eight volumes over 188 chapters and more than 6,500 pages. The volumes can be used flexibly, such as in combination for basic and advanced trade courses, or as stand-alone books for specialty courses. The text explains and analyzes changes in the field, such as U.S. trade policy following the 2020 presidential election, the new iteration of the North American free trade agreement, the worsening Sino-American trade war, ramifications of Brexit, efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to liberalize India’s trade policies, the proliferation of trade measures against Iran following the end of the nuclear deal, new U.S. and European Union law forced labor prohibitions concerning merchandise or companies associated with China’s Xinjiang Province and more.
“We can’t forget Russian sanctions,” Bhala said in reference to actions taken following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “In Volume Four, titled ‘National Security,’ there are four chapters on Russian sanctions, which didn’t exist 2019. In Volume Eight, ‘Growth, Development, and Poverty,’ there are four new chapters on Indian trade issues. Across all eight volumes, a good deal of attention is paid to social justice issues, including how some free trade agreements now address rights for women and LGBTQ individuals. Across 32 years, since the first edition, the conceptual and practical patterns of world trade law have altered. This book says, ‘Here is where we were, here’s where we are now, and here’s where we’re headed.’ It encompasses the grand sweep of paradigmatic shifts in world trade law. Indeed, to help appreciate this sweep, Volume One, ‘Interdisciplinary Foundations,’ has three new chapters on international relations theory.”
The book’s format has changed since the previous version as well. Making it available via KU Scholar Works and SSRN eliminates the hefty price tag and simultaneously increases the work’s value.
“The value of information, regardless of format, comes from its ability to meet two criteria: reliability and shareability. Raj Bhala is one of the world’s leading scholars on international trade and has devoted his career to creating this text. The reliability goes without question. This leaves us with the value that come from shareability. By removing the financial barrier that comes with traditional publishing, we have made this text as valuable as we possibly can,” said W. Blake Wilson, assistant director of Wheat Law Library at KU.
Bhala praised colleagues in KU Libraries and KU Law’s Wheat Law Library who encouraged the open format publication and addressed the challenges of making a document the size of “International Trade Law” openly available.
“I’ve had students from across America and around the world say, ‘I want to take your class and buy your book, but I can’t afford it.’ When my library colleagues suggested publishing it via open access, I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s try it,’” Bhala said. “It’s a total win-win. All the reference and teaching materials are there. I think KU’s leadership in open access is outstanding. As far as I know, it’s one of the only law textbooks available open access, certainly in trade. This platform – KU ScholarWorks – helps ensure the international trade bar is open, inclusive and meritocratic.”
KU was the first public university to pass a faculty open access policy in 2009 that asserts faculty rights to make their published scholarly articles openly accessible, according to Marianne Reed, digital publishing and repository manager in KU Libraries.
“I applaud Dr. Bhala’s commitment to giving students and scholars open access to high-quality textbooks free of charge, and ScholarWorks will make sure that they are available for many years to come,” Reed said. “I hope that others will follow his lead in making their scholarship openly available.”
Students affected by the growing student debt crisis were top of mind in making the latest edition freely available.
“Excessive textbook costs pose a significant challenge for law students, so efforts like this represent a tangible way to help students focus more on the course material and less on their book budget,” said Chris Steadham, director of Wheat Law Library. “Legal publishing tends to value tradition and is not often first to adopt the latest fad. However, it is now clear that open access is here to stay and that it is a more-than-viable alternative for delivering scholarly information. This project is an excellent example of this evolution in legal education. When we have an internationally renowned professor publishing a leading textbook in this format, that reinforces the benefits of open access and promotes it as something that others might want to consider when they author a new textbook or a new edition.”
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Contact: Andrew Perkins, Institute for Information Sciences, 785-864-2284, [email protected], @I2SResearchKU
I2S scientist receives NSF award for research focused on cardiac tissue ablations
LAWRENCE — A computational scientist with the University of Kansas School of Engineering and Institute for Information Sciences (I2S) is part of a team of researchers that received $283,686 from the National Science Foundation to develop a scientific computing platform for characterization and monitoring of cardiac tissue ablations.
KU’s Suzanne Shontz, whose expertise is in parallel scientific computing with a focus on mesh generation and numerical partial differential equations (PDEs), will join principal investigator Cristian Linte, a biomedical image computing expert with the Rochester Institute for Technology, and partners to provide an understanding of the physiological mechanisms that govern heat transfer into biological tissues.
This understanding, according to the researchers, is essential to advancing research in developing less invasive treatment options than cardiac ablations, which convert abnormal heart tissue to scar tissue, so that abnormal heart electrical signal pathways are interrupted.
With as many as 50% of ablation patients experiencing reoccurrence of cardiac arrhythmias, the development of noninvasive methods to resolve the abnormal cardiac electrical signals promise to reduce these numbers. Although the project focuses on providing a solution to a particular problem, the methods and products developed to do so are expected to have broader applications. For instance, a better understanding of the physiological mechanisms that govern the transfer of heat into biological tissues by modeling and quantifying tissue responses to thermal energy could potentially lead to future tools to better guide and monitor cardiac ablation therapy.
“In fact, on the PDE solver side, uses could be even more expansive than for just medical purposes,” Shontz said. “Discoveries in heat transfer technology could be applied to mechanical or aerospace applications, for example.”
Joining Linte and Shontz on the NSF Computational and Data-enabled Science and Engineering Grant is RIT mechanical engineer Satish Kandlikar. In addition to the institutional support provided by I2S and RIT, the group also will work with cardiologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center and an ablation modeling expert at Medical University of South Carolina.
The project will also feature educational and outreach initiatives to train the next generation of scholars and researchers.
Shontz, who is also KU’s center director for the Mathematical Methods and Interdisciplinary Computing Center and the engineering school’s associate dean for research and graduate programs, will incorporate the mesh generation concepts and rapid PDE solvers into her parallel scientific computing course. Plans also include workshops to engage K-12 students on computational bioengineering topics and a summer camp to attract a diverse group of students, along with a one-day WE’re in Motion event for incoming female engineering students.
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