UNH Today

Christian Kastrup, University of British Columbia: Everything about being a professor is awesome, provided you like working hard.

Lahra Smith ’97, associate professor of political science in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, studies questions of equality and citizenship in contemporary Africa, a passion that began when she did research on Zimbabwe as a McNair Scholar at UNH.

Dipen Bhattacharya ’90G, professor of physics and astronomy at Moreno Valley College in California, is also a best-selling science fiction author in the Bengali language in his native Bangladesh.

Mohammad Salah, Hashemite University, Jordan: Professors get the chance to convey what we’ve learned to a new generation. That feels important; I can change students’ perspectives on science and engineering. Here in a public school in the Middle East, I teach a lot of students in each class (about 60) and have to grade all the exams for more than one course. This is the not-great part of academia. Trying to be fair in evaluating large numbers of students is really a hard task to do.

Kara Maki ’03, assistant professor of math at Rochester Institute of Technology, directs a summer camp that shows eighth-grade girls what’s cool about math. It’s called SMASH, for Summer Math Applications in Science with Hands-on experience for girls.

Marc Brackett ’03G, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, teaches around the country at One-Day University, recommending strategies for using emotional intelligence in daily life. He also serves on the advisory board of Lady Gaga’s anti-bullying group, the Born This Way Foundation.

Sam Bowring ’75, professor of geology at MIT, was called “a homicide detective trying to solve the ultimate cold case” in a New York Times story about scientists working to pinpoint how long it took 96 percent of the earth’s species to become extinct 252 million years ago.

Carole White Dennis ’71, occupational therapy professor at Ithaca College, is part of the Tots on Bots team, developing robot mobility devices that allow infants with motor impairments to move around and interact.

Erik Noyes ’97G, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, teaches an affordable design course in which students work with community partners, in the U.S. and abroad, to develop innovations aimed at alleviating poverty and meeting basic human needs.

Mike Nothnagel ’96, ’98G, associate professor at the Culinary Institute of America, teaches kitchen math, wrote a book on the subject, constructs crossword puzzles and hosts a public radio trivia show.

Susan Bauer-Wu ’90G holds an endowed professorship in “contemplative end-of-life care” at the University of Virginia School of Nursing. She researches the effect of chronic stress on patients with debilitating illnesses, and how mindfulness can help.

Robert Caret ’74G, president of the UMass system since 2011, will become chancellor of the University of Maryland system this summer.

Heather Miller Coyle ’89, ’94G, associate professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven, specializes in the use of both plant evidence and human DNA in criminal cases.

Kenneth Kiesler ’75, professor of conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music, has conducted orchestras around the world and runs a summer retreat for conductors in the woods of Maine.

Jennifer Beard ’98G, assistant professor in the Department of Global Health at Boston University, teaches science/professional writing and has conducted research on vulnerable populations (sex workers, children affected by HIV) in Ghana, India, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine, and Zambia.

William Darrow ’68G, professor of public health at Florida International University, had a 30-year career at the CDC during which he helped to establish how HIV is transmitted. The actor Richard Masur played Darrow in the movie of the book And the Band Played On. Bill gives a shout-out to FIU colleague Tim Page ’05, ’08G, who received tenure this year in the school of public health.

Gretchen Adams ’01G, associate professor of history at Texas Tech, was part of an international team that produced the first complete annotated collection of the legal records of the Salem witchcraft trials. Her book on Benedict Arnold in American memory will come out next year.