John Jaszczak Gives Keweenaw Mineral Days Keynote

John Jaszczak (Physics/Mineral Museum) gave a keynote talk titled "120 Years of the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum" during the annual Keweenaw Mineral Days' opening-day events on July 13.

Keweenaw Mineral Days is sponsored by the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum and Keweenaw Gem and Gift.

PhD Defense: Angela Walczyk, BioSci

Ph.D. in Biological Sciences candidate Angela Walczyk will present their doctoral defense at 9 a.m. tomorrow (July 21) in person in GLRC 202 and virtually via Zoom.

Walczyk's defense is titled "Investigating the Role of Genomic Material Costs in Ecological, Evolutionary, and Invasion Dynamics using the Solidago gigantea (Giant Goldenrod) polyploid complex."

From the abstract:
The overall goal of this dissertation was to evaluate how the genomic attributes of genome size and polyploidy independently and concurrently influence tolerance to nutrient availability as a means of better understanding the ecological and evolutionary role of genome size and the preponderance of polyploidy in invasive plants. Throughout a series of greenhouse, potted-field, and RNA sequencing studies using diploids, native-tetraploids, invasive-tetraploids, and hexaploids within the autopolyploidy Solidago gigantea system we found that: 1) Differences in morphology and physiology between tetraploids and diploids might equate to tetraploids being better competitors, regardless of the abiotic environment; 2) polyploids have greater material costs related to genome size than diploids; 3) polyploids exhibit strategies to reduce these material costs; 4) polyploids tended to show more phenotypic plasticity for growth traits than diploids in the most NP enhanced environments, but plasticity did not differ much between native- and invasive-tetraploid populations; and 5) tetraploids down-regulate more genes associated with costly traits (i.e., photosynthesis, defense) relative to diploids in low NP conditions, and differences in gene expression between native- and invasive tetraploids populations was marginal.

Volleyball Receives USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award

The Michigan Tech volleyball team received the USMC/AVCA Team Academic Award from the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) for 2021-22, earning the honor for the 10th straight season.

Tech held a 3.63 team GPA and was one of eight GLIAC teams honored.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Jordy Murray Named Michigan Tech Assistant Hockey Coach

Jordy Murray has been named an assistant coach with the Michigan Tech hockey team. Murray played collegiately at Wisconsin and was a volunteer assistant coach at Notre Dame during the 2021-22 season.

"I am excited to announce the addition of Jordy Murray to our staff," head coach Joe Shawhan said. "He comes highly recommended with the skills and desire to help us in the areas that we are most in need of improvement."

"Jordy has owned and operated an elite player development camp which is trend setting. Our student-athletes will greatly benefit from his innovative ideas," continued Shawhan. "In addition, Jordy has grown up in a hockey family with a father being a head coach in the NHL and a successful Division I college coach, and a brother who played both collegiately and in the NHL. Jordy has grown up in the game of hockey, he understands the importance of recruiting to the success of a program and will quickly make his mark in that area, which is our greatest need at this time."

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

New Funding

Scott Miers (ME-EM/APSRC) is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that has received a $45,000 research and development contract from the California Air Resources Board.

The project is titled "Design and Evaluation of a miniature Portable Emissions Measurement System (mini-PEMS).

Brian Eggart (APSRC) is a co-PI on this potential one-year project.

In the News

Tim Scarlett (SS) was quoted at length by the Daily Mining Gazette in a story about how pumped underground stored hydropower could solve the energy storage problem currently facing electrical grids everywhere.

Scarlett is one of a team of scientists based at Michigan Tech looking at using hydropump energy technology at abandoned deep-shaft mine sites.

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Hospimedica and 3Dnatives picked up a story about a collaboration between Michigan Tech and Canada's Western University resulting in an open-source design for a low-cost 3D-printed surgical table. The table can be printed at a cost savings of 98.5% compared to commercially available models.

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The Alpena News mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about a pollution response drill conducted July 19 in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Experts from state universities including Tech were expected to be on hand for the exercise, which tested local agencies’ response to a simulated chemical spill in Lake Huron. The drill was conducted at Rogers City’s Carmeuse calcite plant.

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The Sault News picked up a story about a late addition to Michigan Tech hockey’s 2022-23 schedule. The Huskies will host the Lake Superior State University Lakers on Oct. 1 at 2:07 p.m. at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena.

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WLUC TV6 mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about a four-week basketball training program for elementary, middle and high school students being held in Dollar Bay. Three MTU coaches are helping instruct the students.

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Michigan Tech was mentioned in a Daily Mining Gazette story about the winners of the 2022 Canal Run. Among the men, Gowtham (IT/CC) finished in third place and Stephen Eles, former director of media technology services, took first.

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WNMU-FM and WKQS-FM listed Michigan Tech as the site of a two-day economic roundtable being held July 25-26 at the Memorial Union Building.

Reminders

Important Notice to Panopto-Huskycast Users

Tomorrow (July 21) at 8 p.m. EDT, the Panopto-Huskycast system will require all Panopto recorder clients for Windows to be upgraded to version 12.0.0 or above, and MacOS recorder clients to be upgraded to version 11.1.0 or above.

Users on earlier recorder versions will be prompted to upgrade and will be unable to upload new recordings until they have upgraded. You can upgrade your Panopto recorder application any time before the deadline. Administrator rights to install software may be required for this upgrade.

For more information, please review Panopto's support article on the client application upgrade policy on Panopto Clouds. 

Contact Michigan Tech IT (it-help@mtu.edu, 906-487-1111) with questions or if you need assistance in upgrading the Panopto recorder on your computer.

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PhD Defense: Daniel Kulas, ChE

Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering candidate Daniel Kulas will present their doctoral defense today (July 20) at 1 p.m. in person in Chem Sci 211 and virtually via Zoom.

Kulas's defense is titled "Towards a Circular Economy: Liquid-fed Fast Pyrolysis of Waste Polyolefin Plastics."

From the abstract:
Plastic usage has quickly grown in recent years as plastics have become an essential part of everyday life. Unfortunately, recycling rates have not matched the increased growth, with the majority of waste plastic landfilled. The strategy of circular economy has been proposed to reuse the waste plastic to create new polymers, thus avoiding both landfilling and the use of virgin raw materials. Achieving a circular economy for plastics requires a new development of technologies capable of recycling plastic waste under a circular economy perspective. In this dissertation, a novel liquid-fed fast pyrolysis process is introduced towards achieving a circular economy. Recycled pyrolysis wax is used to dissolve waste polyolefin plastic and create a liquid feed to the pyrolysis reactor. The oil product from the pyrolysis reaction is naphtha-like in appearance and could be used as a feedstock for petrol-chemical facilities for the production of new polymers.

Today's Campus Events

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Senior 3 Man Scramble

Senior 3 Man Scramble *Some events and times may change

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PhD Defense: Daniel Kulas

Chemical Engineering Advisor: David Shonnard Towards a Circular Economy: Liquid-Fed Fast Pyrolysis of Waste Polyolefin Plastics Attend Virtually:...

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Adult Huskies Swim Training Summer 2022 Session 2 (Breaststroke/Butterfly Focus)

Adult Huskies Swim Training provides additional attention and competitive guidance to swimmers ages 18 and older who are looking to improve their swimming skills and fitness...

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KISMA Presentation to the DNR's Western UP Citizens' Advisory Council

Keweenaw Invasive Species Management Area (KISMA) employees will give a brief overview of KISMA's various projects, highlighting some of the important work currently being done.