The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

• Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
• Publications of books or articles.
• Professional awards.
• Presentations at conferences.
• Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today. 

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized during the spring 2020 semester.

Awards and Honors 

Tracy Lachica Buenavista (Asian American studies) is being recognized as a champion of social justice at the 10th annual Equity Summit and Social Justice Awards, receiving a Community Engagement and Scholars Activism Award.

CSUN’s Communications program was featured on GradReports’ list of 2020 Best Master’s Communications Degrees. GradRepords’ ranking is based on student debt, total salaries earned post graduation and the number of students who completed their degrees. Department Chair Sakilé Camara (Communications Studies) was contacted directly by GradReports about this news.

Nanci Carr ​(Business Law) was awarded third place in a Best Paper competition for her article, “How Can We End #CancelCulture — Tort Liability or Thumper’s Rule?,” after presenting it at the 2020 Annual Conference of the Pacific Southwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business.

CSUN Business Honors students placed first in the Consulting Project of the Year at the 2020 Small Business Institute Competition and Conference, held from February 27 through March 1 in New Orleans. Recognized for their small business consulting project with the client, World Empanadas, based out of Burbank, CA, team members Jenna Flynn, Vanessa Arriaza, Angeline Gomez, and Alexander Brankovic completed the project as part of the spring 2019 Business Honors Capstone course, taught by management lecturer Drew Foley. The team’s final client report was selected for its analysis and recommendation for improvements to World Empanadas’ Operations, Human Resources, and Marketing functions. CSUN also placed on the graduate level reaching second place for its marketing plan for beverage accessory start-up Dorfman Designs. This team was led by finance professor Mangshar Hussein and marketing professor Mariam Beruchashvili; the students were Michelle Gieblar, Patricia Lopez, Valerie Taylor Stoner and Patoo Teamtad. In 2019, the Business Honors Program, led by management professor Silvina Bamrungpong, took the Small Business Consulting Program to a new level through its partnership with FoundLA and the Wurwand Foundation. The partnership includes a five-year commitment between the foundation, the CSUN David Nazarian College of Business and Economics, and the Business Honors program to work together for the benefit of local small businesses led by underrepresented groups.

Strength United Executive Director Kim Goldberg-Roth (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received the 2019 Armand Arabian Award presented by the Encino Chamber of Commerce.

Jade Huell (Communication Studies) was selected by the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender for one of their 2019 awards.

Gagik Melikyan (Chemistry) was awarded the distinction of Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for distinguished contributions to the field of organic and organometallic chemistry, particularly for transition metal-mediated radical reactions.

CSUN’s Matador AMA American Marketing Association chapter was recognized in numerous ways at the International Collegiate Conference. Six students worked with Amy Wen (Marketing) over the past months to develop research posters, which were accepted for presentation at the virtual conference. Matador AMA students submitted a short video to promote AMA to the public, for the purpose of recruiting new members. Matador AMA won third place for “Best Recruitment Video” for this submission. The chapter was given the honor of Outstanding Marketing week, in recognition for the Marketing Week held in Fall 2019. The purpose of this week is to spread the word about AMA and marketing careers, and Matador AMA was recognized for providing a variety of activities that engaged CSUN students. Matador AMA was also invited to present at the conference to share how to develop and execute a successful Marketing Week on campus. Matador AMA won recognition for exemplary Chapter Performance for Professional Development, based on the chapter plan they submitted for this past year. They were honored specifically for the variety and high number of professional development activities they offered students this year. Mariam Boyadjian won a $3,000 AMA EBSCO scholarship, which was given to her based on her leadership of the chapter over the past year.

Publications

Nanci K. Carr and Hilary Silvia (Business Law) published their article “When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance” in the Michigan Technology Law Review on May 5, 2020. This college impact journal publication details how virtual world games and software can affect real world property.

Soraya Fallah (Center for Teaching and Learning), Bronte Reynolds (Educational Leadership and Policy Studies) and Wendy Murawski (Special Education) published their book Learning Challenges for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students With Disabilities through IGI Global: International Publisher of Information Science and Technology Research. This reference publication identifies ways in which CLD families can be involved with schools to help build educators’ cultural competence and explores the idea of disabilities as a social model with a focus on strengths rather than a medical model focused on needs and weaknesses.

Multiple students and faculty in the Department of Biology and the CSUN Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology published the article “A Kinetic Assay for Drug Discovery: Part 2, Sodium Sulfate” in the American Journal of Applied Scientific Research. The authors are Kristel Crocker, Jonie Deleon, Lucy Telliyan, Kevin Aprelian, Aryeh Rosenberg, Nikole Pouri, Gerard Beltran, Vivian Ramirez, David Kaufman, Arpineh Petrosyan, Deanna Nazarian, Monikajane Magistrado, Suren Matinian, Daniel Hanna, Sera Eskandari, Faisal Atanante, Adees Nerses, Greg Zem, and Steven Oppenheimer.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $63,449 from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in support of the project “Nanobiologic Targeting of Metastatic Breast Tumors: Crossing Multiple Barriers.”

Elizabeth Adams (Undergraduate Studies) received two donations from the University of Pittsburgh, $13,272 and $26,544, in support of the project “Scaling Student Support with Conversational Artificial Intelligence.”

Andrew Ainsworth (CARE Center for Assessment, Research and Evaluation) received $9,988 from Parents Anonymous Inc., in support of the project “Evaluation of the Parents Anonymous Program.”

Alyssa Arentoft (Psychology) (received $145,000 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of the project “Predicting risk behavior in HIV+ individuals: examining a neurocognitive model.”

Meeta Banerjee (Psychology) received $145,000 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of the project “The Relations Between Neighborhood and Family Factors in the Healthy Development of African American Youth.”

David Bermudes (Biology) received two donations from the National Institutes of Health, $97,875 and $10,875 in support of the project “Tumor-Targeting Salmonella Expressing Tumor-Selective Cytotoxic Proteins in Combination with Protease Inhibitors.”

Annette Besnilian (Family and Consumer Sciences) received $60,000 from the Northeast Valley Health Corporation, in support of the project “WIC-based Dietetic Internship Program.”

Abdelaziz Boulesbaa and Joseph Teprovich (Chemistry and Biochemistry) have received $29,945 from the Savannah River National Laboratory, in support of a project entitled “Nanocomposite Spectroscopy Characterization for Solar Batteries.”

David Boyns (Community Health and Wellbeing), Nathan Martin (Recreation and Tourism Management) and Teri Todd (Kinesiology) received $111,675 from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in support of the project “Valley GO! Adaptive Sports Program.”

Danielle Bram and Regan Maas (Geography) received $35,000 from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in support of the project “Geological and Geophysical (G&G) Dataset Improvement.”

Nancy Burstein (Special Education) received $103,500 from the LA Unified School District, in support of the project “Teacher Residency Grant.”

Mary Cecil and Richard Heermance (Geological Sciences) received $278,858 from the National Science Foundation, in support of the project “RUI: Collaborative Research: Early Cenozoic basin development in the southwestern US: a record of extensional collapse following subduction of an oceanic plateau?”

Matthew d’Alessio (Geological Sciences), Brian Foley (Secondary Education) and Norman Herr  (Science Education), Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology) and Li Ye (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $39,000 from The Regents of the University of California, Office of the President, in support of the project “San Fernando Valley Science Project ESSA.”

Steven Dudgeon and Janet Kubler (Biology) received $45,351 from California Sea Grant, in support of the project “Laminaria farlowii, a new species for sustainable aquaculture in California: nursery methods, climate change resilience and preliminary market assessment with outreach through the California Seaweed Fair.”

Rafi Efrat (Accounting and Information Systems) received two donations of $16,750 from New Economics for Women, in support of the projects “CSUN VITA Clinic @ New Economics for Women — Canoga Park” and “CSUN VITA Clinic @ New Economics for Women — Van Nuys.” Efrat also received $95,000 from the US Department of Treasury, in support of the project “The Bookstein Low Income Taxpayer Clinic.” Efrat received a fourth donation of $14,350 from Friends of the Family, in support of the project “The CSUN VITA Clinic @Friends of the Family.”

Michael Eller (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received three donations of $5,000 from the Intel Corporation, in support of the project “Nano-scale molecular analysis of materials for Intel.”

Tara Fahmie (Psychology) received $8,339 from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, in support of the project “Function-based assessments and interventions for problem behavior.”

Joyce Feucht-Haviar (Tseng College) received $100,000 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of the project “ReLAY Institute.”

Kim Goldberg-Roth (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received three donations from the LA County Department of Children and Family Services: $30,905 in support of the project “Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Intervention and Treatment (CAPIT) — West San Fernando Valley,” $31,306 in support of the project “Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Intervention and Treatment (CAPIT) — San Fernando Valley” and $36,209 in support of a project entitled “Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Intervention and Treatment (CAPIT) — Santa Clarita Valley.” Goldberg-Roth also received five donations from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services: in support of the project “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM NW16,” $200,000 in support of the project “Campus Sexual Assault (CT) Program,” ​$275,555 in support of the project

“Child Abuse Treatment (AT) Program,” $173,094 in support of the project “UNSERVED/UNDERSERVED VICTIM ADVOCACY AND OUTREACH (UV) PROGRAM” and $194,036 in support of the project “CalOES (XY) Underserved Unserved Child And Youth Advocacy.” Goldberg-Roth, as part of the Van Nuys Charities Leadership Cohort on Domestic Violence Prevention, helped secure a $100,000 Van Nuys Charities grant to fund a project researching the intersections of child welfare and domestic violence in Los Angeles County. The research will culminate in a series of recommendations and identification of national best practices to be shared with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Goldberg-Roth also received $250,000 from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, in support of the project “CalOES Child Advocacy Centers (KC).” Goldberg-Roth also received $23,040 from Friends of the Family, in support of the project “Friends of the Family: Prevention and Aftercare Services/Activities.” She also received two donations from the County of Los Angeles, $30,000 in support of the project “Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, Intervention and Treatment (CAPIT) — San Fernando Valley,” and $130,000 in support of the project “Country Victim Services (XC) Program.”

Kim Goldberg-Roth and Jennifer Pemberton (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received $646,603 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of the project “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM VN16.”

Pete Goldschmidt (Educational Psychology and Counseling) received $105,214 from the State of Mississippi, in support of the project “Evaluating English Language Progress Models: The Sensitivity of Claims about Progress Across State Models.”

Jina Gonzalez and Shiva Parsa (Educational Opportunity Program) received $75,000 from the Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation/Pritzker Foster Care Initiative, in support of the project “College Pathways San Fernando Valley Network.”

Xiyi Hang (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Bingbing Li (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management), Li Liu (Computer Science) and Mark Rajai (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) received $54,326 from  University of California Irvine, in support of the project “Establishing Smart Connected Workers Infrastructure for Enabling Advanced Manufacturing: A Pathway to Implement Smart Manufacturing for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).”

Julia Heinen, Danielle Spratt and Svetlana Tyutina (Community Engagement) received $1,750 from Bringing Theory to Practice, in support of the project “Creating a Crucible Moment: Building an Integrative Civic Engagement Pathway Between California’s Post-Secondary Systems.”

Jonathan Kelber (Biology) received two donations from the National Institutes of Health, $326,250 and $36,250, in support of the project “Non-Transcriptional Mechanisms of PEAK1 Action During TGFbeta-Induced EMT.”

Kah Chun Lau (Physics and Astronomy)  received $100,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, in support of the project “Data-Driven Solubility Model Development of Concentrated Non-aqueous Electrolytes.”

Ariel Malka (Management) received $61,000 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of the project “Program Evaluation and Customer Satisfaction Surveys.”

Kathleen Marsaglia (Geological Sciences) received $52,671 from The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, in support of the project “U.S. Science Support Program Office associated with the International Ocean Discovery Program (USSSP-IODP).”

Thomas Minehan (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $9,000 from Organic Synthesis, in support of the project “Intramolecular cycloaddition reactions of unsaturated ketenes: rapid access to complex polycyclic frameworks for organic synthesis.”

Kerry Nickols (Biology) received $27,703 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in support of the project “Benefits beyond biomass: Bio-physical feedbacks within Marine Protected Areas may promote ecosystem resilience in the face of global climate change.”

Ignacio Osorno (Electrical and Computer Engineering) received three grants from Aerojet Rocketdyne in the amounts of $15,000, $16,243 and $25,500 in support of the project “Development of Internship Honors Co-Op Program.”

Radha Ranganathan (Physics and Astronomy) received $108,750 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of the project “Membrane Deformation and Mechanism of Stimulation of Phospholipase A2 by Oxidized Lipids.”

Luca Ricci (Physics and Astronomy) received $90,351 from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, in support of the project “Investigating the future potential of an upgraded ALMA to image planet-forming disks at sub-au scales.” Ricci also received $16,653 from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in support of the project “Following the multi-isotope trail to understanding the formation and early evolution of our Solar System.”

Jeanne Robertson (Biology) received $284,516 from the National Science Foundation, in support of the project “Mechanisms and dynamics of premating reproductive isolation along a speciation continuum.”

Kathleen Rowlands and Jennifer Wolfe (Secondary Education) received $39,082 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of the project “California Subject Matter Project Grant for the Cal State Northridge Writing Project.”

Dong-Ning Sheng (Department of Physics and Astronomy) received $120,000 from the US Department of Energy, in support of the project “Novel Fractional Quantum Hall Effect and New Topological Phase in Interacting Systems.”

Jacklyn Stallcup (College of Humanities) received $38,673 from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in support of the project “Hispanic Serving Institutions: Pathways to the Professoriate.”

Mark Steele (Biology) received $367,626 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in support of the project “SONGS Mitigation Monitoring Program, 2020-2021: Reproductive output, growth, and food-chain support of fishes on the Wheeler J. North Artificial Reef.”

Melissa Takahashi (Biology) received $145,000 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of the project “Discovering novel antimicrobial agents that target sRNA regulated antibiotic resistance mechanisms.” 

Daniel Tamae (Chemistry and Biochemistry) received $109,440 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of the project “Metabolic targeting of cancer cells via the methylglyoxal detoxification systems.”

Shari Tarver-Behring (College of Education) received $14,017 from the LA Unified School District, in support of the project “Professional Development Services in Support of Private Schools.”

Claudia Toledo-Corral (Health Sciences) received two donations from the University of Southern California, $17,016 and $6,363, in support of the project “ECHO (LA-DREAMERS).”

Achievements