News & Events

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.

Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Roselita Fragoudakis recently had a paper published in the International Journal of Structures Integrity and has a chapter to be published in the upcoming book “Engineering Failure Analysis.”

Isabelle Cherney, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, published a chapter, “Characteristics of Masculine and Feminine Toys and Gender-Differentiated Play,” in the book “Gender Typing of Children’s Toys: How Early Play Experiences Impact Development” (2018, American Psychological Association) by Erica S. Weisgram and Lisa M. Dinella.

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.”

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.

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.

Associate Professor James Kaklamanos was recently interviewed for a feature article on earthquakes in Turkey published on InterestingEngineering.com, a website that profiles the latest events, developments, and breakthroughs in engineering, science and technology. Kaklamanos teaches in the civil engineering department at Merrimack’s School of Science and Engineering.

Assistant Professor Rickey Caldwell contributed to a recent Zippia panel, Understand How the Pandemic Changed the Job Market. Caldwell was among thousands of experts surveyed across many different fields and his market insights were featured on the main page.

James Kaklamanos, assistant professor of civil engineering, was honored by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of this year’s 10 New Faces of Civil Engineering worldwide. The program recognizes the next generation of civil engineering professionals, 30 years and younger, who have demonstrated the potential to lead the field to new heights. Kaklamanos, who serves as faculty adviser to Merrimack’s ASCE student chapter, was cited for his exemplary work with students.

Paul Zipper, adjunct lecturer in criminology and a detective lieutenant atthe Massachusetts State Police, was interviewed for a May 8, 2017,Channel 4 I-Team report on how state investigators pinpoint the causes of fire. Zipper said each fire is like a mystery. “To simplify it, we are doing an autopsy,” he said. “We have a death of a building, and we try to figure out what caused it.”