Displaying items by tag: department of history faculty news

In 2022, 22 faculty members published or edited 20 books across the Arts and Humanities, Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics. With scholarship ranging from aging to communication in political campaigns to poetry, faculty authors contributed valuable research, insights, and creative activities to their respective disciplines.

On April 10, 2023, the College hosted an event at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts to celebrate the faculty authors and also acknowledge the winners of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2023 Michel de Montaigne Endowed Prize in the History of Ideas.

Congratulations to the following faculty members for publishing or editing a book in 2022.

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Natasha Zaretsky, Ph.D.The recipient of the 2023 Michel de Montaigne Endowed Prize in the History of Ideas is Natasha Zaretsky, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of History. This prestigious academic award acknowledges her notable essay "The War on Fatigue: Women, Work, and Energy in the 1980s." Zaretsky’s UAB colleagues on the selection committee chose her work for this honor.

The selection committee remarked that, "We found 'The War on Fatigue' to be a beautifully written essay with a clear intervention in the way 20th century feminist movements can be read. Its intersectional approach worked through evidence against a backdrop of not only gender and race, but also family make up, diet culture, and economics. The argument it makes is profound, and it's argued in a way that resonated with the committee."

The Michel de Montaigne Endowed Prize in the History of Ideas includes a $1,000 award, as well as a plaque to commemorate Zaretsky’s achievement.

Karolina Mukhtar, Ph.D.After a competitive national search, Karolina Mukhtar, Ph.D., has been named the chair of the Department of Biology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The Department of Biology is home to the second-largest undergraduate major on UAB’s campus and boasts the top-ranked biological sciences graduate program in the state of Alabama. Within the department, 26 full-time faculty and eight adjunct faculty are dedicated to research and teaching with broad scientific interests ranging from the molecular to the ecological level.

Mukhtar’s research explores the molecular underpinnings of plant immune systems and cellular responses to climate change-triggered environmental stresses. After earning her Ph.D. at the Max-Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany, she completed post-doctoral training at Duke University and began her faculty position in UAB’s Department of Biology in 2010.

“Dr. Karolina Mukhtar is a highly accomplished scientist, teacher, and academic leader. She has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles and received national and international recognition for her outstanding work,” said Kecia M. Thomas, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Mukhtar received a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2014 and the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers. She was the first UAB faculty member to receive the PECASE distinction.

She and her students have presented their research at meetings worldwide, including the 2007 XIII International Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions in Sorrento, Italy; the 2019 International Society of Plant-Microbe Interactions international conference in Glasgow, U.K.; and the 2022 32nd International Conference on Arabidopsis Research ICAR2022 in Belfast, Ireland.

Mukhtar is a member of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC), serving on the “Plant Immunity” subcommittee. In addition, she pursues a very active educational outreach program for K-12 science teachers, and she directs PEER-BUDS, a summer bridge program funded by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education.

“Dr. Mukhtar has served in many leadership roles across UAB. She has served as past chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Senate Caucus, and she has been a member of the UAB Faculty Senate’s Executive Committee, the UAB Commission on the Status of Women, and the Blazer Core Committee,” said Thomas. “Her excellence has been recognized through the 2022 UAB Graduate Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentorship, the 2019 UAB President's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the 2019 CAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching.”

While at UAB, Mukhtar has also served in many roles for the Department of Biology, including Associate Director of Graduate Programs (2017-2018), Associate Department Chair and Undergraduate Program Director (2018-2022), and Interim Department Chair (2022-present).

“I have been privileged to work alongside the biology faculty, staff, and students at UAB for nearly 13 years. The opportunity to steer my home department into the next chapter of growth is a tremendous honor and responsibility,” said Mukhtar. “Working closely with the leadership of the College of Arts and Sciences, we will build on our academic, research, and outreach excellence to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment for developing the next generation of STEM leaders. Additionally, I look forward to growing the department and building on the culture of diversity, equity, respect, and belonging that we have established.”

“We are extremely fortunate to have someone of her professional stature and leadership experience leading the Department of Biology into its next era,” said Thomas. “We are also grateful to the search committee and its chair, Dr. Richard Dluhy, for their due diligence.”

Data science was born centuries ago when vast amounts of astronomical data first became available. To draw actionable conclusions from the information, new approaches for analyzing data had to be invented. Today, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and other data science techniques offer new opportunities for analyzing big data to solve problems impacting society.

In the last decade, data science has become truly interdisciplinary, with accelerating applications in many different fields and data scientists coming from diverse disciplines. For example, ML and data-driven approaches are used by physicists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to solve challenging science and engineering problems, holding promise to revolutionize current technologies and advance fundamental knowledge that will change our world.

Specifically, UAB’s Department of Physics is integrating data-enabled materials and photonics research with workforce training to prepare graduates for a data-driven technical market. For example, faculty members Renato Camata, Ph.D., and Cheng-Chien Chen, Ph.D., were part of the “Roadmap on artificial intelligence and big data techniques for superconductivity,” a paper that lays out how AI and big data drive superconductivity research and development (R&D) to spark a tech revolution. This roadmap was published as an invited paper in the Institute of Physics’ journal Superconductor Science and Technology, and it showcases 18 short pieces produced by 40 researchers from 25 institutions around the world. Together, these articles offer a comprehensive guide on how the power of machine learning can help overcome present obstacles that have held back the creation of new technologies built with superconducting components.

This data-enabled research has also provided new opportunities for UAB students. For example, a recent physics Ph.D. graduate found a job as an R&D associate in AI-enabled synthesis of novel materials at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Other graduate students have been using machine learning to visualize and decode complex experimental data acquired with electron microscopy and advanced laser spectroscopy. In addition, physics undergraduate students have been using AI to model financial stress in the banking system and adapt AI codes to analyze hyperspectral data for energy applications.

The Department of Physics is offering new Blazer Core Curriculum and elective courses for all students. Such courses promoting data fluency and computational modeling instruction include “Understanding the World Through Data,” “Reasoning through Modeling and Simulation of Data,” and “Machine Learning Applications in Physics and Materials Science.” Also, data visualization and analysis tools are now embedded in introductory physics courses that serve many undergraduate majors, such as “General Physics I & II” and “Computation, Theory, and Measurement in Quantum Physics and Relativity.”

The department is also reaching the community through programs like the Magic City Data Collective (MCDC). The MCDC internship program connects future data professionals with purpose-driven organizations, including many local companies and non-profits. In this innovative data training program, UAB student teams from a wide variety of backgrounds and majors realize the synergistic benefits of their varied disciplinary perspectives by solving problems of civic importance.

By emphasizing fundamental data science and computational skills together with critical thinking and creativity, the Department of Physics prepares students to tackle real-world, complex problems across a variety of disciplines, including physics, data science, biology, business, and finance. Centuries ago, Copernicus and Kepler were the first “data scientists” who figured out planetary orbits from astronomical data. Now, physicists are using data science to enable the fourth industrial revolution.

Given the department’s recent national award from the American Physical Society, as well as being named one of the 25 Best Online Accelerated Physics BS/MS degrees, great progress for addressing the challenges and opportunities of today’s knowledge-based economy and society has been made through these efforts.

Heith Copes, Ph.D.As a qualitative researcher, Heith Copes, Ph.D., interviews and observes people to learn about and better understand the nuances of their lives and communities. He first developed an interest in this form of research during his time as a graduate student at the University of Tennessee.

“Tennessee had a sociology/criminology program, so I went there,” said Copes a professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice. “I worked with a Neal Shover. He was one of the big qualitative criminologists at the time. So that… got me interested in doing qualitative research.”

At first, Copes’ thesis focused on mapping auto theft. Given his proximity to Shover, he pivoted away from studying the broader trends related to theft and, instead, worked to better understanding the people who were committing the acts.

“For my dissertation, I started interviewing people who steal cars,” said Copes. “This methodology is more of how I see the world as compared to quantitative research. I’ve stuck with qualitative [research] since then.”

Copes finished his Ph.D. in 2001 and, soon after, accepted a faculty position in the J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Department of Criminal Justice (which was known as the “Department of Justice Sciences” at the time). When he arrived at UAB, Copes continued to conduct qualitative research with a focus on decision making among those who commit crime. He notes that his approach shifted after an eye-opening interview with a person who had stolen a car.

The topic of drug use emerged during the conversation, and the interviewee was quick to let Copes know that there are important distinctions and nuances embedded in the language others use to describe their lives and experiences.

“Insiders make important distinctions among themselves that outsiders may not recognize at first,” said Copes. “I’m interested in the symbolic boundaries that people make among each other to define themselves in positive ways.”

Copes carried this question with him as he continued to interview people about their lives and behavior for over a decade, and, by 2015, he decided to explore something new. While editing a book on qualitative criminology, he discovered a chapter on visual criminology. The method felt exciting and different to him — in addition, Copes is a self-described fan of “street photography,” so he saw an opportunity to connect that passion with his work. He decided to channel his excitement into a new research project that combined documentary photography and qualitative criminology (also known as “photo-ethnography”).

Since Copes is not a photographer, he invited Jared Ragland—a professional photographer and former staff member in the UAB Department of Art and Art History—to work with him on a photo-ethnography focused on people who use methamphetamines.

 “It’s a method that’s not very common in criminology... I would do interviews, and Jared would take documentary photography,” said Copes. “When we started, the goal [was] to act as a counter-visual and a counter-narrative to what most people think of people who use meth — [we want] to show the humanity and complexity and nuance of these people’s lives,” said Copes.

Throughout their partnership, Copes and Ragland have been intentional about reflecting on and amending their approach to photo-ethnography, ensuring that participants have voice and agency in the research. With that in mind, Copes invites the participants to review and comment on the photos and also share their own images.

“They get to direct the nature of the research in some way,” said Copes. “We don’t want to romanticize them, but we also want to portray them with some humanity. That’s the balance we’re trying to strike.”

Using the photographs and qualitative data from the project, Copes published the first-ever photo-ethnography in his discipline’s premiere journal, Criminology.

“People are really interested in the photo-ethnography,” said Copes. “Mainstream criminology is becoming increasingly detached from those who engage in crime and those who are victimized by it. The photographs pull you in. It’s hard to escape them. It reduces the detachment.”

In addition, Copes published an innovative video (accompanied by an essay) in the Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology. Another first in his field.

And, clearly, his work is making an impact. So much so, that the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences awarded Copes and his colleagues (Jacob Erickson and Andy Hochstetler) “Paper of the Year” in 2021. They received the award for a paper they published in Justice Quarterly titled, “Meth Cooking as a Job: Identity and Dirty Work.” It was the first qualitative paper to receive the award.

After completing his project on people who use methamphetamines, Copes shifted the focus of his research. Specifically, he and Ragland have spent the past two years interviewing and photographing people who use peyote in religious ceremonies. Much like his past work, he developed relationships with the participants and created space for them to open up about their lives. He hopes to publish the research in the near future.

Moving forward, Copes plans to continue iterating on his approach to photo-ethnography. He and Ragland are interested in equipping future participants with technical skills and cameras so they can photograph moments in their lives, then, hopefully, display their work in a public setting. For Copes, it’s a way to create opportunities for the participants to further shape the work and the narrative.

“The bigger method is about giving back to participants, empowering the participants to shape the direction of the research,” said Copes.

While growing up in Central Alabama, William Price, D.M.A., relished opportunities to collaborate with his fellow students and friends on musical projects. From writing percussion parts for the marching band at Jemison High School to playing drums in local bands, Price was constantly making music with other people.

“It was always a good feeling to be able to contribute to the overall songwriting or composing process,” said Price, now Professor in the UAB Department of Music.

As a teenager, Price was an avid music listener too, often enjoying genre-defying artists that challenged the ways in which he thought about and wrote music. One artist that profoundly influenced him was Frank Zappa.

“I started analyzing his music. How does it work? What are the cultural influences within his music?” said Price. “He’s influenced by a lot of different music: rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, early doo wop, and classical—that spoke to me as well.”

As Price examined these “stylistic dichotomies,” he began to discover other artists who also transcended labels, including the post-modern composer John Zorn and, later in life, Tom Waits.

Eventually, Price brought his musical talents and scholarly interests to the University of North Alabama where he studied music education. After completing his bachelor’s degree at UNA, Price enrolled in Louisiana State University and pursued his Master of Music in Music Composition. He continued his studies at LSU and eventually earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Composition in 2004.

After LSU, Price moved back to Alabama and continued composing while also serving as an adjunct instructor at the University of Montevallo. Around this time, he joined the Birmingham Art Music Alliance where he met Mike Angell, former Associate Professor of Music Technology at UAB. Price was familiar with UAB because his father, uncle, and wife all studied at the institution, and, during his conversation with Angell, he learned that a new position was about to open in the Department of Music.

“[Angell] said, ‘Well, our theory professor is retiring and we’re going to open it up to a visiting professor search, and you should apply for it,’” said Price. “I applied for the job… and it worked out well and they offered me the position. I was a visiting assistant professor for a year. Then, they opened it up to a full-time tenure-earning position. 17 years later, I’ve still been in the position. UAB is a good place to be.”

During his nearly two-decade career at UAB, Price has taught a range of courses (including music theory, music composition, and orchestration) and actively conducted research. In addition, Price has composed music for several of his colleagues in the Department of Music. His most recent collaborative project is with James Zingara, D.M.A., Associate Professor in the department and a world-class trumpet player.

“Jim has been a great collaborator,” said Price. “He said, ‘Hey, would you mind writing something for piccolo trumpet and electronics?’”

Electroacoustic music compositions are often built with a computer and later performed in a concert hall. Price liked the idea of combining live instruments with samples and other pre-recorded elements, so he agreed to compose the piece which is now titled “Hit and Run.” When composing the piece, Price notes that he found inspiration from many different sources, including ambulance sirens.

“I started incorporating things that sounded a little bit like an ambulance,” said Price. “As the trumpet goes up and then back down, the general contour of the trumpet line alludes to a siren—not a literal representation of the ambulance but something similar to it.”

Although Price is still tweaking the balance of the live version of “Hit and Run,” he has enjoyed watching Zingara perform the piece recently. Specifically, Zingara shared the composition at the 2021 National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Conference in Denton, Texas; this year’s Pensacola ComposerFest at Pensacola State College; and at a recent faculty recital in the Hulsey Recital Hall at UAB.

As Price looks ahead, he sees plenty of opportunities to collaborate with more musicians at UAB and across the country. It is the same spark that brought him to music in the first place. He is currently editing a new piece for solo clarinet with Denise Gainey, D.M.A., Professor of Music and Associate Chair in the Department of Music, and composing a new work for the UAB Chamber Trio.

“I’ve grown more as a composer and as an artist when I’ve collaborated with other musicians,” said Price. “In the end, I’ve learned more from collaborating with my colleagues at UAB and outside of UAB than anything.”

Explore the following the videos to hear some of Price’s compositions:

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For Lauren Wickman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics, calculus is far more than numbers and equations.

“What I want to get across to students is that you have to know calculus if you’re going to understand the universe at all,” said Wickman.

Hence why she is pursuing a mission to make “Calculus I” more accessible for UAB students. Currently, she is working closely with faculty members in the Department of Mathematics to develop and implement new curriculum that ensures more consistency (and engagement) in all “Calculus I” classrooms.

The new curriculum includes pre-written notes and worksheets. Wickman created these resources so students can engage with their professors and fellow classmates and not focus on copying down comprehensive notes during class. Wickman believes this approach will create more opportunities for “inquiry-based, hands-on learning.”

“We want to encourage students to see math as this thing that is to be discovered…and that’s it’s still growing,” said Wickman. “The way to learn math is you have to do it—they say math is not a spectator sport.”

Wickman uncovered her interest in inquiry-based learning during her time with the UFTeach Program at the University Florida. Through UFTeach, Wickman majored in mathematics and minored in education and developed skills that would later help her in the classroom. After completing the program, she taught math in high schools in both Palmetto and Sarasota, Florida, and saw the benefits of creating an engaging classroom environment.

“[It] helps them discover math the way it’s meant to be,” said Wickman.

Although she enjoyed teaching high school students, she also wanted to deepen her knowledge of mathematics by pursuing a terminal degree. So, with that in mind, she reenrolled in the University of Florida and earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics.

“As I was getting my Ph.D., I was really learning more about what it meant to be a real mathematician and how it’s more than just, ‘Here’s the formula plug it in,’” sad Wickman.

After earning her Ph.D., she explored career opportunities at universities that emphasized both research and teaching. That exploration eventually led her to UAB.

“The research that they do here—that was the one thing that jumped out to me. I like the community of research that they have,” said Wickman. “I am also really into teaching, and [the department] has a big emphasis on teaching.”

She arrived at UAB in Fall 2022 and immediately started coordinating the new “Calculus I” curriculum. In addition, she has identified more opportunities to use technology in the classroom—specifically, online graphic calculators. By doing so, Wickman and her fellow faculty members are ensuring students can visualize their work.

“Calculus is a very visual subject, so you need to see pictures of the graphs at all times to have any idea of what’s going on,” said Wickman. “They’re starting [with a] conceptual understanding before we get into the procedural understanding and notes.”

As she continues to make “Calculus I” more accessible, she also hopes to build a community for mathematics at UAB. In the future, she is interested in establishing an Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) chapter at UAB. AWM’s mission is to “create a community in which women and girls can thrive in their mathematical endeavors, and to promote equitable opportunity and treatment of women and others of marginalized genders and gender identities across the mathematical sciences.”

“I hope to create a community… that encourages people to do math without making it seem like it’s just for credit or just for putting on a resume,” said Wickman. “It’s a fun and enriching thing to do. It opens your mind.”

Although Wickman is still in her first semester at UAB, it’s clear her approach will influence the ways in which students (and faculty) view mathematics—both inside and outside of the classroom.

It’s not easy to convince students and their parents that a degree in theatre will ensure success in life. If I can be totally honest with readers, the majority of students who graduate with degrees related to theatre don’t go on to achieve fame and fortune in a job related to theatre. There… I’ve spilled the beans. This isn’t an industry secret that I have foolishly disclosed. And I suspect this is true for many disciplines. With this in mind, we often ask our students what they will do if they can’t do the thing that drew them to theatre. What is their plan B or the “other” option? Specifically, what will they do to pay their bills so that they can continue acting, designing, or, in some other way, creating theatre?

A student in my Theatre Cornerstone class last year, I’ll call them Pat, told me, “A plan B is for losers.” A lot of responses rolled through my head, but I settled on, “You go, Pat!” It didn’t seem like the right moment to pull Pat back down to earth. Pat might actually achieve fame and fortune in theatre. They are very talented, focused, and driven. While I admire Pat’s passion and confidence, the reality is different for most of our students. Most of them are starting this journey in a whole different place. For the record, I’ve always had a plan B, so...

Oddly enough, I believe a theatre education is more valuable for students who do not have Pat’s gifts. Pat is a triple threat who can act, sing, and dance—they are kind of a unicorn, though. So, why do students who might not become professional theatre performers enroll as theatre majors? If you gather 20 of them in a room and ask that question, you’ll get 20 different answers. There will be similarities, but every answer will be nuanced. Some have a true passion for theatre and want to pursue a career as an actor, designer, director, stage manager, or another role required to produce live theatre. It might surprise readers to learn that many students enroll as theatre majors because it’s a community that accepts them the way they are. It’s a safe place. It would require all my fingers and toes to count all the students who have told me that theatre saved their life in high school. Sadly, they are being literal my friends. It’s sad but it’s also gratifying to know that I work in a field that has that power. The theatre community doesn’t just tolerate diversity—we embrace it and celebrate it. Creative high school students find a home in theatre departments because they feel valued. But it’s not enough to feel safe and valued—we also need to be thinking about the future.

I think graduates from our programs fall into three groups. Group one includes those who find success after graduation in the theatre industry. They are the smallest group. Then, there are those who find success in allied industries like film, dance, music, and opera. Also in this second group are the graduates who pursue careers in industries that value the technical skills our graduates learned studying theatre, including education, event management, fashion design, marketing, content creation, graphic design, public relations, politics, interior design, and many others. There are elements of theatre in all these industries. Students in the third group find work in fields that seem totally unrelated to theatre—the key word is “seem.” Because the thing that contributes more than anything to the success of our graduates in all three groups is the development of soft skills.

Do a search for “soft skills” on your web browser, and you will find hundreds of lists. Narrow the search to “soft skills employers value,” and you’ll find dozens more. Some of the soft skills that you’ll typically find on these lists are critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, social skills, poise, confidence, communication skills (verbal and written), listening, collaboration/teamwork, resource management, introspection, and adaptability. These are skills and character traits that are important in any setting, and our majors develop these skills and character traits doing theatre. Every play we produce presents a new set of challenges and requires all of us working as a team to create a new world onstage to tell stories that enlighten and entertain our audiences.

We tell our new students that the jobs they will pursue in four years don’t exist today. So, what are we doing with them for four years? In the Department of Theatre, we are preparing our graduates to be employees who can adapt and learn new things. We are preparing them to be creative thinkers who can work independently and collaborate as a member of a team. We are training them to communicate effectively with the written and spoken word. We are helping them develop the poise, confidence, and introspection required to be effective leaders. And, most important, we provide opportunities to explore the lives of others so that they will be empathetic human beings.

It may sound like a magic elixir, and in some ways, it is.

By Kelly Allison, chair of the Department of Theatre

Margaret “Maggie” Amsler, M.S., a polar marine biologist and researcher in the Department of Biology, was recently named a 2022 Sigma Xi Fellow. In total, only ten scientists received this distinction in 2022. The cohort will be recognized during the International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE), which will take place in Alexandria, Virginia on November 2-6.

Sigma Xi is a Scientific Research Honor Society, and it was founded in 1886 at Cornell University. Currently, the honor society has approximately 60,000 members across the world. According to Sigma Xi, “[t]he Fellow of Sigma Xi distinction is awarded on a competitive basis to members who have been recognized by their peers. Fellows must be an active (dues-paying), full member for the last 10 years continuously, or a life member, with distinguished service to Sigma Xi and outstanding contributions to the scientific enterprise.”

Amsler arrived at UAB in 1996, and she has visited and conducted research in Antarctica for over 30 years. She has researched various subjects during her many visits to Antarctica, ranging from Antarctic krill to deep-sea king crabs. She works alongside her spouse, Charles Amsler, Ph.D., and Jim McClintock, Ph.D., Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology — both faculty members in the Department of Biology. After a brief hiatus from traveling to Antarctica, Amsler will return in December 2022 to further research the impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms.

According to Sigma Xi, Amsler received the fellow distinction “for distinguished accomplishments and personal rejuvenation of the University of Alabama at Birmingham chapter of Sigma Xi and integral involvement in growth of membership.”

For Amsler, the distinction is significant. “I am truly honored to be recognized by Sigma Xi for my scientific accomplishments and service to the Society,” said Amsler.

“I am particularly pleased to be recognized for my scientific contributions. As a career marine biologist with a master’s degree, it is really quite special to be distinguished with a cohort of Ph.D.’s,” said Amsler. “My fellow chapter officers and I strive to support Sigma Xi’s mission by hosting monthly seminars ranging the science and engineering disciplines and encouraging our invited speakers to share the zeal and passion for their research with attendees who include undergraduates to emeriti and members of the general public.”

Learn more about Amsler’s research.

John Mayer, Ph.D.If you step into a class taught by John Mayer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Mathematics, you will hear very little lecturing. Instead, you are likely to witness an engaging environment where students do most of the talking.

“A 20-minute lecture from me would be a pretty long lecture in a classroom,” said Mayer.

His passion for cultivating dynamic classrooms emerged during his time as a mathematics Ph.D. student at the University of Florida (UF). His major professor at UF, Beverly Brechner, Ph.D., embraced inquiry-based learning—a pedagogy where students often speak more than their professors. It was a fresh approach that catalyzed his interest in topology.

“[Topology] is the understanding of place or space. It’s more flexible than geometry,” said Mayer. “I was drawn in by the way in which I learned topology [inquiry-based learning]. It was partly the subject matter… and it was partly the way it was being taught.”

As Mayer’s knowledge of topology deepened, he sought a future career in higher education where he could work alongside colleagues with similar research interests. Eventually, he gravitated to UAB because he knew Lex Oversteegen, Ph.D., a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics who was also interested in topology. It was a perfect match.

“I came to UAB for research reasons,” said Mayer. “I thought I’d find a happy research home.”

When Mayer arrived on campus in 1984, he was a bit surprised by UAB’s class schedule. In the early 1980s, students attended two-hour classes twice a week, resulting in lengthy lectures and, at times, disinterested students. Mayer immediately sought ways to avoid disengagement with his students, so he circled back to inquiry-based learning.

Through this approach, Mayer limits lectures to a small fraction of his classes. Instead, students spend most of the time learning from each other via group projects and presentations.

“The idea is to do this in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” said Mayer. “I believe that inquiry-based learning is for everybody… especially for those who are afraid of mathematics. The process—and having a respectful community in which to do it—can help build their confidence.”

Mayer’s commitment to inquiry-based learning is emblematic of a broader strategy that he embraces: identify effective practices being leveraged elsewhere and collaborate with others to apply them at UAB. Hence his motivation to plan and implement two groundbreaking programs at the university: the Mathematics Fast-Track Program and UABTeach.

Through the fast-track program, students can earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in an abbreviated time period (often five years or less). In the early 1990s, Mayer had witnessed other schools leveraging the model, so he decided to adapt it for UAB with the goal of retaining strong mathematics undergraduate students. He and his collaborators launched the program in 1993, and, within a couple of years, they received a grant from the National Science Foundation to support and expand the work.

“I believe the Mathematics Fast-Track Program was the first combined bachelor’s/master’s program [at UAB],” said Mayer.

In addition to the fast-track program, Mayer collaborated with faculty and staff in the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Engineering, Education, and Public Health to conceive of and implement a program to expedite the process by which students become secondary STEM teachers. Again, Mayer looked for examples of effective programs at other institutions and discovered UTeach at the University of Texas at Austin.

In 2014, Mayer—along with his collaborators—used the UTeach model to develop and launch a program called UABTeach to reduce the course load for students who aspire to become STEM teachers. The goal was to maintain academic rigor without requiring students to earn two majors. It was an innovative strategy that received a $1,450,000 grant from the National Mathematics and Science Initiative, as well as over $2.75 million in local philanthropic support from several local foundations including the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

“The motivation was to make it easier for students to decide to become teachers,” said Mayer.

“Apart from the Fast Track program, I’m most proud of getting UABTeach off the ground.”

Although Mayer celebrates his past accomplishments at UAB, he’s also quick to look forward and seek out new approaches to make mathematics accessible for all students. With that goal in mind, he plans to launch a new course in Fall 2022 entitled, “Linear Algebra: Data and Models.” The course, MA 160, is designed to support students who may face challenges with calculus.

“Linear algebra makes calculus with several variables much easier,” said Mayer. “Linear algebra can be more widely applied in the age of computers. It has implications in data science and in mathematical modeling. The idea that someone could learn linear algebra without first having taken calculus was attractive to me for the course I’m designing now.”

Students who are interested in taking the course can learn more via the UAB Course Catalog.

When asked to describe his approach to innovating in the classroom and on campus, Mayer jokingly says it’s similar to fitting a square peg in a round hole. Thankfully, throughout his time at UAB, he’s never let inflexible shapes and barriers stop him from trying new things that will benefit his students.