Distinguished Research Masters Highlight LSU Research and Scholarship Excellence

03/12/2021
BATON ROUGE – LSU Department of French Studies Professor Pius Nkashama Ngandu and LSU Department of Mathematics’ Nicholson Professor Robert Lipton have been selected as this year’s Distinguished Research Masters. The awards honor the exceptional research and scholarship of two LSU faculty each year from the Office of Research & Economic Development. 

“LSU faculty continue to strive for excellence in their research and scholarship, even throughout the global pandemic. So, it’s important to recognize the attainment of this excellence among our esteemed faculty. I extend my congratulations to Dr. Lipton and Dr. Ngandu for their achievements,” said Vice President of Research & Economic Development Samuel Bentley.

A virtual event featuring talks by both Distinguished Research Masters will be held on Wednesday, April 7 at 6:00 p.m. Central on Zoom. The event is open to the public and advance registration through Eventbrite is required. Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/distinguished-research-master-ceremony-tickets-144063763595.

 

The live event will be closed captioned, and a recording of the webinar will be made available on the LSU Research YouTube channel shortly after the event.

 

 

Pius Nkashama Ngandu, Distinguished Research Master — Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral Sciences
Department of French Studies, College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Pius Nkashama Ngandu is a distinguished professor of French language and literature in the LSU Department of French Studies and Comparative Literature. He was also the director of the Center for French and Francophone studies at LSU. 

The African Literature Association honored him with its most prestigious award, the Fonlon-Nichols Prize, for his commitment to democratic ideals, humanistic values and literary excellence in Africa in 2004. He received a “Baobab Attestation” Granted for the Excellence of his commitment and contribution to the Francophone Caucus, as noted by the African Literature Association at Yale University in 2017. 

Ngandu was a professor of literature at the Universities of Lubumbashi and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Algeria and in Limoges, France at the University of Paris III-Sorbonne. With degrees in philosophy and literature as well as a doctorate from the University of Strasbourg, France, Ngandu wears the mantle of poet, novelist, playwright and critic.

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Lipton, Distinguished Research Master — Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
Department of Mathematics, College of Science

Robert Lipton is an American mathematician and academic who is noted in particular for his research into the mathematics of materials and their translation to engineering applications. Lipton is a fellow of the AAAS, American Mathematical Society and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Lipton is editor-in-chief of the “Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal on Mathematical Analysis.”

Lipton and his team of LSU students, postdoctoral researchers and colleagues have developed new theory for identifying the strongest composites, the discovery of optimal multi-scale methods for the numerical simulation of heterogeneous media, rigorous mathematics describing heterogeneous media with imperfect interface, novel methods for opening band gaps in photonic crystals and rigorous theory for quantifying dispersion inside electromagnetic metamaterials exhibiting double negative properties. Most recently, Lipton and the LSU team have used mathematics to show that novel non-local equations can be used to model the growth and interaction of stress cracks inside solid structures. Since 2018, Lipton has been the Nicholson Professor in the LSU Department of Mathematics. 

In addition, the LSU Alumni Association and the Graduate School sponsor the Distinguished Dissertation Awards presented to two doctoral students whose research and writing demonstrate superior scholarship. Shanley Belle Treleaven received her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from LSU in December and garnered the dissertation award in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Andreas Michael received his Ph.D. from the Craft and Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering in December and is the recipient of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics dissertation award.

Shanley Belle Treleaven — the Josephine A. Roberts Alumni Association Distinguished Dissertation Award in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Shanley Belle Treleaven’s dissertation entitled “Verbal response inhibition and stuttering in adults” examined verbal response inhibition, or the ability to stop speech after its initiation, in adults who do and do not stutter. Results suggested that while there were not inhibition differences between clinical groups, and overt symptoms of stuttering were not related to verbal response inhibition, this was related to the lived experience with stuttering. Thus, a lifetime of experiences with stuttering may impact executive functions such as response inhibition. This supports emphasis on quality of life in the therapeutic setting, rather than sole focus on speech fluency. 

In May, Shanley is beginning a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Speech Neurophysiology Laboratory at the University of Michigan’s Medical School. There, she will continue stuttering research with an interest in executive functioning while learning neuroimaging techniques and neurological programming for speech fluency. Her scholarly work has been published in the Journal of Communication Disorders, Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics and Clinical Archives of Communication Disorders. 

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Disorders and her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Alabama. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from LSU. 

Andreas Michael — LSU Alumni Association Distinguished Dissertation Award in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

Andreas Michael received his Ph.D. in December 2020 from the Craft and Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering with a dissertation titled, “Fluid-Driven Fracture Initiation from Oil and Gas Wells Considering Lifetime Stresses.” He performed analytical and numerical research work on fracture initiation and geometric orientation during drilling, completions and loss of well control events, which are important for unconventional reservoirs and drilling safety.  Michael developed a workflow that helps evaluate a priori whether fracture initiation will take place for a given offshore drilling scenario and how the capping strategy can be altered in the shut-in schedule to avoid fracturing and subsequent seafloor broaching, which can prevent potential hazardous health and ecological consequences.

Michael was awarded the Louis Cagniard Award from the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers for 2020. He placed 2nd in the Ph.D. division at the Society of Petroleum Engineers, or SPE, International Student Paper Contest held in Calgary, Canada in 2019 and captained LSU’s team that won 1st Place at the International PetroBowl Championship. He is the Editor-in-Chief of SPE’s “The Way Ahead” magazine.

A native of Cyprus, Michael served the Cyprus National Guard for two years prior to receiving his bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. 

 

 

Additional Link: 

Register to attend the Distinguished Research Masters presentation on April 7 here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/distinguished-research-master-ceremony-tickets-144063763595

 

Contact Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
510-816-8161
asatake@lsu.edu