September faculty and staff features

M. Samy El-Shall, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry, VCU Life Sciences 

El-Shall, professor of chemistry and affiliate professor of chemical engineering, has been awarded a Distinguished Research Award from the Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society for his significant contributions in advancing knowledge and research in chemistry.

For 20 years, El-Shall’s research has focused on the properties of gas phase clusters, gas phase and cluster polymerization, the design, synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles, and nanocatalysis. Clusters and nanoscience have become a heavy area of research in recent years due to current applications in chemical catalysis, advanced materials, renewable energy, solar cells, nanoelectronics and communication in addition to potential uses in medical applications such as sensors, imaging and drug delivery.

El-Shall and his team have developed new experimental methods, such as microwave irradiation, or MWI, to create nanomaterials and control the dimensions and properties of spherical particles, cubes, rods and wires that are just one billionth of a meter in size. They have applied their method to the synthesis of efficient nanocatalysts for the removal of chemical contaminants and harmful gasses such as carbon monoxide from the environment, and for the synthesis of new materials such as graphene, a single layer of graphite with the highest electrical conductivity among all known materials.

In the area of clusters, El-Shall’s group has discovered new mechanisms for the formation of complex organics in the gas phase and on the surfaces of nanoparticles. The work has important implications for the formation of complex organics in space and on the surface of interstellar dust particles.  

El-Shall’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, NIST, Petroleum Research Fund, Dreyfus Foundation, Jeffress Memorial Trust, Exxon, Dow Corning, Philip Morris and Afton Chemical. 

In 1999, El-Shall was honored with the Outstanding Faculty Award of the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia, Virginia's highest faculty honor.

He was honored during the September 2009 meeting of the American Chemical Society Virginia Section hosted by the VCU Department of Chemistry on Friday, Sept. 25. He gave a presentation titled, “CNN: Clusters, Nanoparticles and Nucleation – From Astrochemistry to Nanocatalysis.”

Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., VCU Department of Psychology
Eissenberg, professor of psychology, and a research team from the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid, Jordan, have received a National Institutes of Health grant totaling $190,356 to study trends and toxicants in waterpipe tobacco smoking.

The three-year project also will involve building related research capacity at the Jordan University of Science and Technology so that investigators there can continue to address and further understand waterpipe-related issues in their country.

According to Eissenberg, this project begins one of the first studies examining annual changes in the popularity of waterpipe tobacco smoking. Additionally, the team hopes to shed some light on the extent to which waterpipe tobacco smokers are tobacco/nicotine dependent and how that dependence changes over time.

Eissenberg, who is director of the VCU Clinical Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory and a researcher with the VCU Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, and another investigator, Purnima Mehrotra, a post-doctoral candidate with the VCU Department of Social and Behavioral Health, will travel to Jordan in late October to further develop the study.

In the past eight to 10 years, smoking tobacco with a waterpipe, also called a hookah or shisha, has grown in popularity in the United States, especially among adults 18 to 24 years of age.

Rita H. Pickler, Ph.D., RN, Department of Family and Community Health Nursing
Pickler, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Health Nursing, received the 2009 Association of Women’s Health Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses Award of Excellence in Research. The organization presents the award to a member who demonstrates a history of conducting federally funded research, has published research in peer referred journals, reflects its goals and standards in contributions to women and newborn health nursing research and demonstrates clinical applications in research.

Ken Wynne, Ph.D., Chemical and Life Science Engineering
Wynne, professor in the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering, has been selected as a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. He is among an inaugural class of 162 ACS fellows to be honored for their contributions to the chemical sciences and outstanding service to society. The program was established to honor excellence in science, to the profession and for outstanding service to ACS. Each fellow was honored in a ceremony during the ACS 238th National Meeting in Washington, D.C. 

Sandra Barker, Ph.D., Center for Human-Animal Interaction, Department of Psychiatry, VCU School of Medicine
Barker, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Human-Animal Interaction, was named the Bill Balaban Endowed Chair of Human-Animal Interaction.

Barker, a nationally recognized expert on the health benefits of the human-animal bond, has been studying the mental health benefits of interacting with companion animals. She and her colleagues at the VCU Center for Human-Animal Interaction have published a number of studies in the area. The VCU Center for Human-Animal Interaction is housed within the Department of Psychiatry in the VCU School of Medicine and is the only center of its kind based at a medical school. 

The Center for Human-Animal Interaction received a $1.4 million dollar gift to create the Bill Balaban Endowed Chair in Human-Animal Interaction. The endowment bequest was made by Roanoke resident Bill Balaban, long-time supporter of The Center and retired television producer and director. 

“This is an incredibly well-deserved honor. Sandy almost singlehandedly built this program and through her incredible energy has received national recognition for it. And in turn, what Bill Balaban’s gift did was to ensure in perpetuity, a program that is a wonderful recognition of everything this institution has done to look at a new and novel way to bring comfort to patients,” said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Medicine.

Barker’s research and clinical specialties are trauma resolution and the health benefits of human-companion animal interaction. She is a licensed professional counselor and serves as an adjunct professor at Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

In 2001, she was invited to present her research to the U. S. Surgeon General. In addition, she has made extensive presentations to professionals and the public across the United States and in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, France, Spain and Monaco.

The VCU animal-assisted therapy program, “Dogs On Call” involves certified therapy dog-handler teams that visit patients in several hospital units, including pediatrics, psychiatry and oncology.