FSU celebrates faculty with Developing Scholar Awards

Florida State University has recognized four faculty members with the Developing Scholar Award, which honors the research contributions and creative work of associate professors.

Faculty were nominated by their respective academic departments. The awards, sponsored by the Council on Research and Creativity, include funding to promote the awardee’s program of research and creativity.

“Congratulations to these faculty members for their outstanding work and this well-deserved recognition,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “FSU is proud to celebrate their accomplishments and to support them in their scholarship.”

Robert Tomko, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine
Tomko studies the structure and function of a protein system called the ubiquitin-proteasome system and its role in normal and disease states. His laboratory works on the scale of individual proteins up to whole cells and integrates approaches spanning biochemistry, cell biology, genetics, structural biology, proteomics, biophysics and pharmacology. His goal is to identify new targets for treatment and to develop pharmacological modulators with potential therapeutic benefits.

Elizabeth Cecil, Department of Religion, College of Arts and Sciences
Cecil examines text, images, monuments and landscapes to investigate the history of Hindu religions across South and Southeast Asia. She is the primary research collaborator in the European Research Council PURANA project and co-editor-in-chief of the open-access journal PURANA Media. At FSU, she contributes to the Native American and Indigenous Studies Center and is co-director of the More-than-human Religion project, which explores the agency of nonhuman forces, entities and ecologies.

Aaron Wilber, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
As a faculty member in FSU’s Program in Neuroscience, Wilber researches the brain dynamics that allow us to derive a sense of location from a body-centered view of the world — how we get oriented in space so we can navigate our environment and understand what goes wrong when this system fails. His research examines how these brain systems participate in learning and memory and how neural networks are altered by mental and memory disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Yanshuo Sun, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Sun uses mathematical modeling and optimization methods to improve the planning, operations and management of transportation systems. His work touches several areas of transportation, including public transportation, freight transportation, airports, economics and transportation data analytics. Recent projects have examined how to improve the efficiency of on-demand mobility services in rural areas, the effects of fare capping for public transportation and how to strengthen data capabilities through academia-industry partnerships.

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