Faculty Research Lightning Talks: Meet Chris Gulgas

The UCBA Library’s 3rd Annual Faculty Research Lightning Talks on March 10, 2020 featured four presenters and their discipline-based research projects via short, 15 minute presentations. In our Meet the Presenters series, each presenter shares some insights into their research project. 

Chris Gulgas| Associate Professor of Chemistry| ChemistryDepartment
Presentation: A Student Discovery Involving a Chemical that Changes Color Leads to a New Organic Laboratory Experiment

Chris Gulgas giving a presentation

Chris Gulgas discusses his research.

 

Research Project
A new organic laboratory experiment was designed and developed based upon the independent research of two undergraduate students investigating solvatochromism.  Bromothymol blue was found to exhibit a significant red shift across a series of solvents.  An organic laboratory experiment was then created to allow students to discover this effect as a class using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy.  Students built skills in recognizing functional groups and intermolecular interactions as well as analyzing data trends.  The undergraduate research process, design of the experiment and results from the first year of implementation into the curriculum were presented. 

Gulgas powerpoint slide

A slide from Chris’ A Student Discovery Involving a Chemical that Changes Color Leads to a New Organic Laboratory Experiment presentation. 

What excites you most about your research?
I am most excited about student-driven discovery that can be developed into something useful for learning.  Students were able to identify an unpublished property of a substance we had on hand, using equipment on hand.  This discovery turned into an experiment for all organic laboratory students to benefit from in learning about solvent properties and the nature of light. 

What are your next steps with your research?
I’d like to identify another compound that exhibits similar behavior for comparison and reinforcement. 

Additional Resources 

Reichardt, Christian (1994). Solvatochromic Dyes as Solvent Polarity Indicators. Chemical Reviews. 94 (8). 2319-2358. 

 

 by Lauren Wahman

From the Virtual Desk of….Christian Boyles

Like all of us, the Librarians and Staff at the UCBA Library have settled into a new routine of working at home.  We invite you to see how we keep the (virtual) lights on at the Library while still providing support to our UCBA community.

I’m Christian Boyles, the Collection Services Manager at your UCBA Library.  Here’s a quick tour of my new workspace.

Thanks for stopping by my office and I hope you are doing well, staying healthy, and I hope to see you soon again in the Library.

by Christian Boyles

Faculty Research Lightning Talks: Meet Carla Cesare  

The UCBA Library’s 3rd Annual Faculty Research Lightning Talks on March 10, 2020 featured four presenters and their discipline-based research projects via short, 15 minute presentations. In our Meet the Presenters series, each presenter shares some insights into their research project.

Carla Cesare | Assistant Professor of Art History | Art & Visual Communication Department

Presentation: Networks of Design: Women at Work

Professor Carla Cesare giving a presentation

Carla Cesare discusses her research.

Research Project
Networks of Design is a research project/book proposal that looks at a body of women who were working in the emerging design disciplines in America in the 1920s-30s. It does so through the contemporary lens of design thinking which includes research, making and marketing; uncovering the breadth of work women were doing and the network they were creating, unconsciously or not. By uncovering ‘anonymous’, women are brought to the foreground of design history, not just through biographies or even the objects designed, but by linking their educational and career trajectories and reconsidering the role women have played in making our daily lives through design.

Cesare Slide showing different advertisements

A slide from Cesare’s Networks of Design: Women at Work presentation 

Are there any opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration with your research? If already cross-disciplinary, are there opportunities to expand it?
There are two areas: Women’s history and the inclusion women of the design discipline; second, I think it could be a stepping off point for people looking at the history of retail and media as the evolution of organizational structures is pretty interesting.

What are your next steps with your research?
I’m currently revising a book proposal; a publisher contacted me and they think it’s viable and a fit. So hopefully a book is next.

Additional Resources
To date I’ve primarily used archives and libraries including:  UC’s Special Collections, Purdue University, Smith College, New York Public Library, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Henry Ford Museum, Cranbrook Academy of Art, University of Chicago and the Mattatuck Historical Society.

 

by Lauren Wahman

UCBA Faculty Share Research at 3rd Annual Lightning Talks

The UCBA Library hosted the 3rd Annual Faculty Research Lightning Talks on Tuesday March 10.  This year’s event showcased four presenters and their discipline-based research projects via short, 15 minute presentations.  UCBA facultystaff, and students enjoyed refreshments, learned about research outside of their disciplines, and asked thoughtful questions during the Q&A’s. 

Through the end of spring semester, we’ll highlight the presenters via individual posts in our first Meet the Presenters blog series! 

lightning talk presenters

L-R: Carla Cesare, Linda Wunderley, David Freeman, Chris Gulgas

Presentations: 

Carla Cesare| Assistant Professor| Art & Visual Communication
Networks of Design: Women at Work 

David Freeman| Associate Professor| Math, Physics & Computer Science
Geometry from Symmetry 

Chris Gulgas| Associate Professor| Chemistry
Student Discovery Involving a Chemical that Changes Color Leads to a New Organic Laboratory Experiment 

Linda Wunderley| Assistant Professor, Adjunct| Business & Economics
The Real Truth About What Determines Our Professional Performance 

 

by Lauren Wahman

UCBA Library Closed, Virtual Support Available

 

Image of the Coronavirus with links to CDC.gov.

In response to the ever-evolving COVID-19 events and news, the UC Blue Ash Library has closed.

Virtual support will be available Monday-Friday, 8am – 5pm. We reply to email and form questions within one day. Questions that occur outside of service hours will be addressed the following business day (if Friday, responses will be addressed on Monday).

Please visit COVID-19 Updates: UCBA Library Services & Support for a full listing of library services, hours, and up-to-date news.

 

 

by Kellie Tilton

COVID-19 Updates for the UCBA Library

covid-19 graphic

In response to the ever-evolving COVID-19 events and news, the UC Blue Ash Library has adjusted hours and services.

Virtual support will be available Monday-Friday, 8am – 5pm. We reply to email and form questions within one day. Questions that occur outside of service hours will be addressed the following business day (if Friday, responses will be addressed on Monday).

Please visit COVID-19 Updates: UCBA Library Services & Support for a full listing of library services, hours, and up-to-date news.

 

 

by Michelle McKinney

Spring Break Hours for UCBA Library

 

palm tree on a beach

The UCBA College Library will have the following hours during Spring Break:

Monday, March 16 – Thursday, March 19: 12:00pm – 5:00pm
Friday, March 20: 12:00pm – 4:00pm
Saturday, March 21 – Sunday, March 22: Closed

The Library will resume regular Spring Semester hours on Monday, March 23rd at 7:30am.

Please visit our hours webpage to view all UCBA Library hours, including holidays and any exceptions to our regular schedule.

Celebrating Women’s History Month

women's history month display at UCBA Library

The UCBA Library is celebrating Women’s History Month and the amazing global contributions of women!  This year’s displays (located in Reference area) showcase books covering a wide range of topics in the areas of journalism, science, art, business, politics, law, activism, education, technology, as well as social issues.  There’s also a selection of recent fiction titles by women writers.

Stop by and borrow a book from the displays during the month of March! You can also browse the list of books on the Library Displays at UCBA online guide.

Additional Resources for Women’s History Month:

 

by Lauren Wahman

March Book of the Month

Your UBCA Library’s Book of the Month  for March 2020 

All the Light We Cannot See 

By Anthony Doerr 

All the Light We Cannot See book cover

A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr’s gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. 

Is it checked out?  Don’t worrywe’ve got you covered: 

 The Secrets We Keep (PS3616.R463 S43 2019)At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak’s magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world — using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, but under Sally’s tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops, and invisibly ferry classified documents. Their story is intertwined with that of the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago’s heroine, Lara 

320 rue St Jacques : the Diary of Madeleine Blaess (ebook)In November 1939 Madeleine Blaess, a French-born, British-raised student, set off for Paris to study for a doctorate in Medieval French literature at the Sorbonne. In June 1940, the German invasion cut off her escape route to the ports, preventing her return to Britain. She was forced to remain in France for the duration of the Occupation and in October 1940 began to write a diary. Intended initially as a replacement letter to her parents in York, she wrote it in French and barely missed an entry for almost four years.  

Madeleine’s diary is unique as she wrote it to record as much as she could about everyday life, people and events so she could use these written traces to rekindle memories later for the family from whom she had been parted. Many diaries of that era focus on the political situation. Madeleine’s diary does reflect and engage with military and political events. It also provides an unprecedented day-by-day account of the struggle to manage material deprivation, physical hardship, mental exhaustion and depression during the Occupation. The diary is also a record of Madeleine’s determination to achieve her ambition to become a university academic at a time when there was little encouragement for women to prioritise education and career over marriage and motherhood. Her diary is edited and translated here for the first time. 

The Last Metro (streaming film): Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve star as members of a French theater company living under the German occupation during World War II in François Truffaut’s gripping, humanist character study. Against all odds, a Jewish theater manager in hiding; a leading man who’s in the Resistance; increasingly restrictive Nazi oversight, the troupe believes the show must go on. Equal parts romance, historical tragedy, and even comedy, The last metro (Le dernier métro) is Truffaut’s ultimate tribute to art overcoming adversity. 

 

by Christian Boyles

On Display: Black History Month and National African American Read In Titles

Black history month display

 

The National African American Read-In display represents a selection of “Must Read” books by African American authors available at UC Blue Ash Library. Books will be on display until February 28, 2020. Borrow a book and volunteer to read an excerpt from a book by an African American Author by visiting ucblueash.edu/readin. Rachelle Lawson, UC staff alumna and author of Girl, Get Yo’ Life is the special guest for this year’s National African American Read In on February 13, 2020 at 11:00 am in the Muntz Auditorium Lobby.