VIRGINIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE
PROPOSED SLATE OF OFFICERS FOR 2008-2009
Council has recommended this Slate of Officers for 2008 – 2009
|
President – |
Jim. Martin |
(jmartin@reynolds.edu) |
|
President Elect – |
Darcy Mays |
(dpmays@vcu.edu) |
|
Vice President – |
Arun Verma |
(Arun.verma@hampton.edu) |
|
Secretary – |
Michael Renfroe |
(renfromh@jmu.edu) |
|
Treasurer – |
Rodney J. Dyer |
(rjdyer@vcu.edu) |
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Education:University of
Virginia,
B.A., Biology, 1965; University of
Richmond, M.S., Biology, 1967; University of Tennessee, Ph.D., Zoology,
1970; N.I.H. Post-Doctoral Fellow -Department of Physiology, MCV-VCU;
Bio-space Training Program Wallops Island, Virginia. Honors:Fellow, Virginia Academy of Science; Distinguished Service Award -- Virginia Academy of Science; Distinguished Service Award -- Virginia Junior Academy of Science. Present -- Professor of Biology, School of Mathematics and Science, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College; Business Manager, Virginia Journal of Science 1984– ;Web Master, Virginia Academy of Science 1997 – ;President Elect, Virginia Academy of Science 2007-2008. Past --Editor, Virginia Journal of Science 1985-2002; Treasurer, Virginia Academy of Science 2005-2006; Vice President, Virginia Academy of Science 2006--2007; Instructor of Physiology, Medical College of Virginia, VCU, Richmond, Virginia; Instructor of Human Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses, University of Tennessee; Graduate Teaching Assistant (laboratory classes in General Zoology, Human Physiology, Cell Physiology, Comparative Animal Physiology), University of Tennessee Professional and Honorary Societies:American Association for the Advancement of Science;American Society of Zoologists; Association of Southeastern Biologists; American Institute of Biological Science; Virginia Academy of Science (member since 1971); Phi Sigma Society; Society of Sigma Xi. |
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Dr. Darcy P. Mays received his PhD in Statistics from Virginia Tech in 1993. He joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University later that year as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and was promoted to Associate Professor and tenured in 1999. In 2001 the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research was formed at VCU and Dr. Mays was appointed chair, a position that he still holds. Dr. Mays’ research areas include response surface methodology, design of experiments and regression analysis. Much of his research has focused on designs for processes that violate the typical assumptions associated with statistical procedures, primarily violations of the homogeneity of variance assumption. He has had papers published in the Journal of Quality Technology, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, Communications in Statistics – Simulation and Computation, Communications in Statistics: Theory and Methods, and Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, and has a supplemental textbook that is used in the general education statistics course at VCU. Dr. Mays currently serves the university as chair of the University Appeal Board and the chair of the Academic Regulations Appeals Committee. At the professional level, Dr. Mays is a member of the American Statistical Association and is the VCU representative to the Southern Regional Council on Statistics (SRCOS) and is president-elect of SRCOS. On two occasions he has organized and hosted SRCOS Summer Research Conferences, and has hosted the fall business meeting on one occasion. Dr. Mays has been a member of the Virginia Academy of Science since 1993, served as Academy Treasurer from May 1996 to May 1997, was President of the Statistics Chapter from May 1995 to May 1996 and was Vice President of the Statistics Chapter from May 1994 to May 1995. In the community Dr. Mays is active with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and in his church. |
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Dr.Arun Verma has been teaching mathematics at the undergraduate and graduate level for twenty-four years. In 2001, Dr. Harvey, the University president appointed him as an Endowed University professor of Mathematics. Dr. Verma earned his Ph.D. from the premier Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in Mathematics. He has several refereed publications in the fields of fluid mechanics, controlled thermo-nuclear fusion, and instruction technology in the journals of international repute. He is dedicated to promote interest in mathematics among students, teachers, and professors through his funded projects from the US Department of Education, State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, Virginia Department of Education, and other personal initiatives. He is an advocate of using meaningful technology in instruction. His name has been listed in Who’s Who in America, in World, in Science and Engineering, in American Education, and in American Teachers several times. Recipient of William C. Lowry Outstanding Mathematics Teacher Award, Dr. Verma has won E. L. Hamm, Sr., Distinguished Teaching Award, Provost Innovative Teaching Award, and Excellence in Mathematics Teaching Award from Quality Education for Minority Network, Washington, D.C. Dr. Verma coordinates the MathCounts Competition for middle school students of the Peninsula Region, administers annual math contests for the Hampton Roads Chapter of the National Technical Association, hosts Who Wants to be a Mathematician, and serves as a Faculty Associate of Technology for the Center for Teaching Excellence at Hampton University. Dr. Verma has served on numerous committees at the University, school, and department levels. He has served the Academy as a secretary and a treasurer. He has assisted the Junior Academy for the past several years. An active member of executive board of Peninsula Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Dr. Verma is also a member of Sigma Xi. |
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Michael H. Renfroe is a professor of Biology at James Madison University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University, and following a post-doctoral position at Texas A&M University, he has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses at JMU since 1986. Dr. Renfroe is involved in not only teaching biology majors, but also non-science majors and students studying to become public school teachers with an emphasis in science and mathematics. Dr. Renfroe also continues to be involved in teaching in a regional Governor’s School program. Dr. Renfroe conducts research on tissue culture propagation of rare and endangered plant species, and on antioxidant content in foods and beverages of plant origin. He has involved many undergraduate and graduate students in his research and has mentored numerous high school students in research. Dr. Renfroe has been active in the Virginia Academy of Science since arriving in the state and has served as Secretary, Vice Chair and Chair of the Botany Section. He serves on the Flora Committee and is on the Flora of Virginia Advisory Board |
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Dr. Rodney J. Dyer research
interests lie in understanding how genes move within and among
populations and how the ecology of the local environment shapes the
distribution of genetic variation within species. Rodney began
working on gene flow in 1995 as a Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research
Fellow studying recolonization dynamics of the pacific lupine, Lupin
lepidus, on Mount Saint Helens in Washington State. After
graduating with a BS in Biology in 1996 from Western Washington
University, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Victoria Sork at the
University of Missouri – Saint Louis. His graduate work focused
on developing and empirically testing models that allow the
estimation of landscape-level pollen movement using the southern
white pine, Pinus echinata. As a post-doctoral researchers, he
worked with Dr. John Nason at Iowa State University on post-Pleistocene
range expansion in several Sonoran desert plants and their associated
insects. Since fall 2004, Dr. Dyer has been an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth
University. To date, Dr. Dyer has received three National Science
Foundation Research Grants and has published 18 peer reviewed articles
and book chapters. His current research projects focus on
insect-mediated dispersal in the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida and
phylogeography of plants and associated insects in Baja Mexico. |