News & Events

Dr. Craig Looney, associate professor in the department of physics, gave a presentation entitled “Making high-quality videos on an inexpensive DIY Lightboard (with technical tips relevant to all budgets)” at the Spring 2023 meeting of the New England Section of the American Physical Society.

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.

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.

Mechanical Engineering Department assistant professors Anthony Di Carlo and Rickey Caldwell Jr., and former student Courtney Videchak ’19, have co-authored the paper, “Optimization of Spatially Distributed Soil Conductivities for Horizontal Ground Heat Exchanger” which has been accepted by the journal Applied Thermal Engineering.

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.

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.”

Five faculty members were awarded tenure in January by President Christopher E. Hopey. They are:Jimmy Franco, assistant professor of chemistry;Brittnie Aiello, assistant professor of criminology;Sally Shockro, assistant professor of history;Susan Marine, associate professor and program director in the higher education master’s program; andSirkwoo Jin, assistant professor of management.

Peter Ellard, the dean of student success and academic support, who also teaches environmental ethics and religious studies, had his article “Don’t Think Your Campus Needs to Prepare for Climate Change? Here’s why you’re wrong” published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. He argues that colleges and universities must adjust to weather changes caused by climate change.

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.

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.