Joel Beeson, Dana Coester, Christina Duncan and Jessica Hoover
4 extraordinary faculty customers at West Virginia College have been named 2021-2022 Benedum Distinguished Scholars in recognition of the superior caliber of their study and scholarly action.
Honorees include things like:
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Joel Beeson, professor of journalism, and Dana Coester, professor of journalism, (co-recipients) in the Reed School of Media
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Christina L. Duncan, professor of psychology in the Eberly Faculty of Arts and Sciences
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Jessica Hoover, affiliate professor of chemistry in the Eberly School of Arts and Sciences
The Benedum Distinguished Scholars awards, funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, are awarded on a yearly basis to college engaged in “creative research” in as lots of as four classes: behavioral and social sciences, biosciences and health and fitness sciences, humanities and the arts, and actual physical sciences and technological innovation. This 12 months, remarkable students ended up identified in 3 of the 4 classes with a person award jointly shared by two school associates.
“Once once more, we have an remarkable group of scholars getting acknowledged for their contributions to their fields,” stated Provost and Vice President for Educational Affairs Maryanne Reed. “This year for the 1st time, there are two co-recipients of the Benedum Scholar award, which speaks to the great importance of collaboration and the ability of transdisciplinary investigation. But all of these students have experienced a amazing impact on society, science and the larger local community.”
Beeson and Coester are the co-recipients of the 2021-2022 Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award in the Humanities and the Arts. They are recognized for their decades-prolonged collaborative research and imaginative investigative get the job done documenting the recruitment procedures of domestic white supremacist and extremist groups in Appalachia. In excess of the final 5 several years as journalists and editors of the electronic outlet 100 Days in Appalachia, Beeson, Coester and group users have generated National Murrow Award-profitable studies on extremism. They also manufactured and directed a significant characteristic-length documentary film, “Raised by Wolves,” which has gained funding from the Democracy Fund’s Just and Inclusive Culture method and the Ford Foundation’s Creativeness and Cost-free Expression program.
In the course of their resourceful performs investigating the digital behaviors of center and higher school youth and their exposure to extremism and hazardous material in the electronic ecosystem, Beeson and Coester have documented the chance of radicalization of Appalachian rural youth by social media and gaming platforms. The pair has furnished 3 testimonies just before Congressional committees, as very well as various shut-doorway briefings to other scientists and reporters from NBC, The New York Periods and other key media outlets. Beeson and Coester were being picked as participants in the Social Science Analysis Council’s Media and Democracy Application Workshop on Serious Ideal Radicalization On line: Platforms, Procedures, Prevention.
Duncan is recognized as the 2021-2022 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Behavioral and Social Sciences for her major contributions to the study in and observe of pediatric psychology. For the duration of her celebrated vocation at WVU, Duncan has turn into internationally and nationally recognized as a top translational professional in household-primarily based interventions that advertise optimum results and reduce the adverse influence of persistent circumstances on youth and their family members. She has devoted her occupation to understanding how finest to assistance and boost self-administration behaviors, adherence and good psychosocial results for youngsters and families with bronchial asthma, cystic fibrosis and burn injuries. Duncan employs revolutionary, effective, affected individual- and loved ones-centered techniques that aid to strengthen patients’ comprehending of and potential to stick to treatment ideas, ultimately reducing their danger of health care difficulties and owning a helpful influence on their daily lives.
She has acquired about $5 million in external funding for this study and has 72 peer-reviewed and e-book chapter publications, like several in large-effect journals. Duncan was not long ago chosen to provide as editor of a person of the flagship pediatric psychology journals, Scientific Observe in Pediatric Psychology, and is on the editorial board of the other main journal in this discipline, Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Even though at WVU, Duncan has offered medical service to youth with a range of health and fitness situations and produced a prolonged heritage of scholarship in improving clinical treatment. In addition, she has spent in excess of 25 several years educating the subsequent era of little one psychologists on how to carry out utilized, multidisciplinary analysis and proficiently supply evidence-based clinical treatment to individuals and their family members.
Hoover is honored as the 2021-2022 Benedum Distinguished Scholar in Physical Science and Systems. She is regarded nationally and internationally for her significant discoveries in inorganic, organometallic and organic chemistry, specially changeover steel catalyzed reactions. By pinpointing the very clear relationship in between reactivity and field outcome, Hoover has uncovered a new way for researchers to explain reactivity differences in organic and natural reactions not quickly defined making use of classical outcomes. She made use of this perception to broaden the scope of copper catalyzed decarboxylative couplings of benzoic acids, which will help scientists shift away from really high priced noble steel catalysts and their harmful byproducts. Hoover has also recognized that silver additives sort crucial intermediates in decarboxylative coupling reactions and uncovered methods to change them with oxygen gas – which is cheap, ample and harmless – as an oxidant. These types of innovations are essential since they uncover new concepts that govern catalysis more broadly and enable the use of uncomplicated, readily offered and cheap benzoic acids as coupling companions to access pharmaceutically suitable buildings under disorders that are environmentally benign and cost-effective.
Hoover has been identified with a Thieme Chemistry Journal Award and a MIRA (Maximizing Investigators’ Analysis Award) from the National Institutes of Overall health and was picked as a Kavli Fellow, a extremely distinguished recognition from the Countrywide Academy of Sciences. She has received in excess of $3 million bucks in grant funding from the Nationwide Institutes of Wellbeing and National Science Foundation, has mentored extra than 50 researchers and a short while ago facilitated chemistry-encouraged community art installations.
Each individual Benedum Distinguished Scholar will acquire a $5,000 skilled advancement honorarium. The Students Recipients will be identified by President Gordon Gee and Provost Reed for the duration of a college and team awards reception at Blaney Household this month and will be showcased in following year’s Benedum Distinguished Students Showcase. Details about the Showcase occasion will be shared at a later day in ENEWS.
Read much more about these and other awards on the WVU School internet site.