News
2018
Jim Schiffbauer acts like a kid in a candy store when demonstrating the capabilities of the new equipment his lab has acquired at the Department of Geological Sciences. “We’re doing really cool work here,” he says, while showing observers the lab’s new X-ray microscope (also known as microcomputed X-ray tomography, or micro-CT) and a customized scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Producing recordings is a regular part of the creative achievement music professors work on but to have three professional recordings being released by three different music labels in one semester is a significant recognition for the School of Music. Last week, three MU School of Music professors held a CD release party at Hitt Street Records in downtown Columbia to promote the success and official release of these recordings. Much like a book is to a professor of the humanities,

(l-r) Associate Dean Ted Tarkow, Associate Vice President for Human Resources Marsha Fischer, Associate Professor Jim Schiffbauer, Geology Department Chair Alan Whittington, and University of Missouri President Mun Choi congratulate Schiffbauer on winning the President’s Award for Early Career Excellence. The group surprised Schiffbauer during a lecture in Keller Auditorium April 16.
Monday, April 16, University of Missouri System President Mun Choi awarded UM System President’s Awards to James Schiffbauer, an assistant professor of geological sciences at MU; and William Wiebold, a professor of plant sciences at MU.
University of Missouri System President Mun Choi announced a new initiative, the Presidential Engagement Fellows, that is designed to fulfill the university’s land-grant mission by sharing research discoveries with Missouri citizens in every county. Marshall Stewart, vice chancellor for Extension and Engagement at MU, will lead this initiative.
The sights and sounds of a rural Ozark community will fill the stage at the Rhynsburger Theatre later this month when the MU Department of Theatre performs The Rimers of Eldritch by Pulitzer Prize-winning Missouri playwright Lanford Wilson. But Professor David Crespy, who directs the play, says audience members should not expect to see a version of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Many employers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals are requiring new hires to communicate their research to the general public. However, most schools and graduate programs do not provide communication training to STEM students.
Meg Phillips Crespy had become a bit frustrated. An award-nominated actress with a long résumé, she was having difficulty getting cast in local theater productions, but then a theater scheduled a musical revue with which she was not familiar.
Benton Kidd, the curator of ancient art at the Museum of Art and Archaeology, says there is little left of the Phoenician domination of the Mediterranean region because conquering Greeks and Romans obliterated the Phoenicians’ homes and businesses, and often built their own homes over the ruins. Kidd says what we’re learning about the Phoenicians, many of whom were traders, is that, like their Greek neighbors, they could have very loud taste, at least by contemporary standards.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander Cartwright and Commerce Bank Chairman and CEO Teresa Maledy today awarded three of the 2018 William T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander Cartwright and Commerce Bank Chairman and CEO Teresa Maledy today awarded one of the 2018 William T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence to David J. Schulz, a professor of biological sciences in the University of Missouri College of Arts and Science.
The College of Arts and Science Student Council has presented its 2018 Chalk Awards to two professors and a graduate teaching assistant in recognition of their excellence as instructors and advisers. The student council solicits nominations from students for their favorite instructors and advisers, and the council’s executive committee makes the final selections.
Purple Chalk Award
A team of University of Missouri neuroscientists are inching closer to developing the tools needed to decipher the brain. In 2015, the team received a National Science Foundation Early Concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) award to investigate a newly discovered class of proteins that are turned on by heat.
The McKee Gymnasium on Hitt Street was once home to the women’s natatorium or swimming pool on campus. Now home to the MU Theatre’s Studio 4, the first full production to be performed in the new venue maintains that aquatic connection.
In May 1804, Army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and a hardy bunch of explorers, French boatmen, soldiers, and Clark’s slave, York, began their momentous journey from St. Louis, traveling up the Missouri River to explore the new lands acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Following their return to St. Louis in 1806, both men were instrumental in creating the future state of Missouri, although only Clark lived long enough to witness statehood in 1821.
The College of Arts and Science hosted its 37th Annual A&S Banquet at the Reynolds Alumni Center Feb. 23 to honor four distinguished alumni: Marcia Chatelain, BA ’01 religious studies, BJ ‘01; Thomas Fomby, MA ’73, PhD ’75 economics; Beth Snyder, BFA ’02 art; and Jim Williams, BA ’51, MA ’52 geology. A&S students presented undergraduate research and study abroad poster presentations, and the A&S Student Council recognized three Chalk Award recipients.
The 1970 murder of a Kansas City civil rights activist, which was solved by two reporters from The Kansas City Star 41 years later, is the subject of a new play opening at the Rhynsburger Theatre this week. Leon Jordan was a co-founder of the Kansas City-based civil rights organization Freedom, Inc., a state legislator, and a police officer.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The underrepresentation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields occurs globally. Although women currently are well represented in life sciences, they continue to be underrepresented in inorganic sciences, such as computer science and physics.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Using more than 1,000 different chemicals, unconventional oil and gas (UOG) operations combine directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release natural gas from underground rock.

College of Arts & Science Student Ambassadors
Back - Stacie Davis, Ethan Tyrrell, Chris Verbrugge, Connor Dakich, Abe Drury, Marcelese Cooper, Darian Doser
Front - Amira Harmon, Mackenzie Prewitt, Kate Turmo, Morgan Magid, Madison Wright, Sabrina Heffern, Emily Abbene, Yasmeen Taranissi, Mikhayla White
Sixteen students who have declared Arts and Science (A&S) majors make up the inaugural class of the college’s new Student Ambassador Leadership Program. These students will represent the college and the A&S student body and student experience at admission, recruiting, donor, and other major events hosted by the college, such as its Beyond Campus events in St.
When it comes to faculty advisers, Bill Horner has been the go-to guy in political science. Every few years, the MU professor says he has been approached by members of a student organization seeking a faculty adviser. Horner says it started about a dozen years ago, when a student asked him to be the faculty adviser for Mizzou’s Model United Nations (UN) organization.