September 3, 2015

In this issue…

• Current News
• Family Updates
• Personnel Updates

Current News

CBU professor’s theory on galaxy formation confirmed

Dr. Kyle Stewart’s theoretical prediction of a “gas spinning disk” that helps build a galaxy into a bigger one has been confirmed. It took two years of progressive research to validate his theory.

Galaxy formation is an elaborate affair and something Stewart has studied for almost 10 years.

“We still don’t fully understand all the physics involved in the process of galaxy formation,” said Stewart, assistant professor of physics.  

Stewart said scientists have run computer simulations to approximate how galaxies are formed for a long time. They recognize that cold gas is involved in the process but thought it had no structure. The idea was that gas falls into galaxies from all sides and then eventually that gas transforms into stars, he said.

More recent simulations showed something else. In papers published in 2011 and 2013, Stewart co-authored a study that claimed that gas can create a “spinning cold-flow disk.” This disk increases many times larger than the galaxy and then becomes the structure needed for a galaxy to expand. The gas is funneled into this disk by filaments, galactic string-like structures.

In 2014, researchers observed a galaxy and a filament. A different team of researchers took a closer look through a spectrograph, which takes light from a source and separates it by wavelength.

These researchers determined that half the gas moved toward the disk and the other half moved away from the disk, indicating a cold-flow disk. Their study was published last month in the international science journal Nature, validating Stewart’s prediction.

“It confirms the whole new picture of how we think galaxies are formed,” Stewart said. “This is a big verification that the simulations are doing something right.”

Stewart is also doing similar simulations with different programming codes to see if the results are the same.

“They are finding that the details vary, but the disk phenomenon seems to happen no matter the code,” Stewart said.

Stewart said astronomers can predict something and maybe a decade later will find out if they are right.

“To make a prediction and have it confirmed two years later is an amazing experience,” he said.

“We’re just now starting to get a picture of galaxy formation,” he said. “It’s an emerging field that didn’t exist until Hubble Telescope began taking pictures and giving us thousands of galaxies to look at.”

 

CBU receives grant to fund hands-on experiences in the lab

A $250,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation will help fund hands-on experiences in the field of sustainability and health technologies for the chemical engineering department at California Baptist University’s Gordon and Jill Bourns College of Engineering.

Dr. Mark Anklam, chemical engineering chair and professor, said a large portion of the funds have already been invested in purchasing new equipment to create additional chemical engineering labs.

These labs will allow students to work on sustainable technology projects such as CO₂ removal, reverse osmosis, fuel cells technology and purifying water, he said.

Anklam said today’s employers are very environmentally conscience. Chemical engineers must learn to design and operate processes with minimal side effects.

“Students will understand how to transform materials and chemicals for the benefit of humanity,” Anklam said.  “They will see engineering applications that can positively impact the environment and can also improve the quality of life for others.”

Some of the new labs are scheduled for introduction in the fall semester.

Stephen Dueck, a chemical engineering junior, interned during the summer for CBU’s chemical engineering department and helped install new equipment.

“It’s fascinating to go from textbook knowledge to seeing how different chemicals interact with each other through this equipment,” he said. “I already suggested switching out some chemicals a manual suggested for some more environmentally safe ones that I learned about in one of my classes.”

Dr. Mario Oyanader, associate professor of chemical engineering, expressed enthusiasm for the new equipment.

“It’s exciting to be a part of a program that is getting out-of-the-box equipment that is up-to-date on the latest technology being used in industry,” he said.

 

CBU events center scheduled to open on campus in 2017

A multi-use events center scheduled to open on the campus of California Baptist University in 2017 will become the school’s largest indoor gathering space to serve a variety of campus activities, CBU officials announced Aug. 31.

“An events center has been a dream at California Baptist University for many years, so it is incredibly exciting to see this vision becoming a reality,” said Dr. Ronald L. Ellis, CBU president. “It will be a wonderful addition to the campus and a source of great pride for many of the students currently enrolled at CBU as well as countless more who will follow for generations to come.”

Infrastructure construction is underway on the $73 million project that is being funded through gifts and financing. The events center is being built adjacent to the CBU Recreation Center located in Lancer Plaza near the corner of Adams Street and Diana Avenue. The center’s north-facing front entrance will be located on Lancer Lane.

The centerpiece of the 153,000 square feet building will be a 5,200 seat arena—expandable to more than 6,000 seats—that will showcase some of the CBU athletics teams competing in the PacWest Conference and NCAA Division II. These include men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, and men’s and women’s volleyball. The building also will feature locker rooms for home and visiting teams as well as new athletics offices.

The two-level events center is designed to complement the Mission Revival architecture style that is a hallmark of the California Baptist University campus. A100-foot tower will adorn the building’s north side.

“This center will be much more than just an arena for Lancers athletics,” Ellis said. “It will serve all of the CBU community through robust programming that supports the university’s academic mission as well as extracurricular activities.”

Besides athletics, the arena also will provide much needed space for CBU’s chapel program attended by nearly 5,000 students weekly during the academic year. Other uses planned for the events center include student orientation activities and commencement ceremonies that are held each spring and fall.

The CBU events center is scheduled for completion in April 2017, in time for spring commencement activities in early May.

 

WOK ON Pan-Asian cuisine coming to CBU at Brisco’s Cafe

California Baptist University continues to increase its dining options with the addition of WOK ON, a Pan-Asian inspired cuisine, that will be featured this fall at Brisco’s Café.

“We want to give our students a diversity of food choices and WOK ON will fill a missing piece and provide a new cuisine option to our campus community,” said Kent Dacus, CBU vice president for enrollment and student affairs.

WOK ON is the brainchild of Food Network’s celebrity chef Jet Tila. He has partnered with CBU and Provider Contract Food Service to create the Pan-Asian concept.

The new dining concept is scheduled to open on Aug. 31, with a grand opening celebration scheduled on Sept. 8 featuring an appearance from Tila.

Dining options will include a modern twist to Thai, Cantonese and Chinese wok-style or stir-fried cooking. Late-night items will include Asian fusion entrees such as Asian Tacos or Japanese and Latin “Dawgs” (hotdogs).

Kipp Dougherty, director of Provider Contract Food Service, said she is excited about the new addition to CBU’s campus dining. “Get your chopsticks ready to dive into some great Asian-inspired cuisine,” she exclaimed.

Brisco’s is located on the northeast side of campus in the Village at CBU. In addition to WOK ON, Brisco’s Café is open for lunch and dinner with cooked-to-order items such as subs, wraps and burgers as well as a selection of “Grab and Go” options.

 

Family Updates

Dr. Ronald L. Ellis, president, was keynote speaker at the Fall Colloquium of the University of the Southern Caribbean (USC) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Aug. 24. Ellis spoke on the topic “Building an Entrepreneurial University: The California Baptist University Story.” Dr. Mark A. Wyatt, vice president for marketing and communication, presented a workshop to the USC faculty titled “Marketing the University: Faculty Matters.”

 

 

 

Dr. Daniel Prather, professor of aviation science, taught a two-day Basic Airport Safety and Operations Specialist school on behalf of the American Association of Airport Executives to more than 80 airport professionals in attendance at the AAAE Airport Facilities Management Conference in Salt Lake City on Aug. 22-23.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Candace Vickers, associate professor communication disorders, co-led a webinar for American Speech Language Hearing Association on Aug. 19. More than 150 speech language pathologists participated in the webinar nationwide. The topic was Meaningful, Functional Goals for Persons with Aphasia and Dementia.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jong-Wha Bai, department chair and associate professor of civil engineering, presented two papers titled Sensitivity Analysis of Flexural Characteristics for Steel and Synthetic Fiber Reinforced Concrete and Probabilistic Shear Capacity Models for Concrete Members with Internal Composite Reinforcements at the 5th International Conference on Construction Materials in Whistler, British Columbia, Aug. 18-21.

 

 

 

The Online and Professional Studies’ Graphic Design and Digital Media program has been named No. 2 by BestColleges.com in its list of best online graphic design programs. The CBU program offers students a strong foundation in web and graphic and the curriculum has been refined to meet the needs of working adult students. The program culminates with the development of a professional portfolio and the completion of several hands-on projects, according to the BestColleges.com website.

 

Dr. Jeff Barnes, dean of academic services, has published a new book, The Wisdom of Walt:  Leadership Lessons from The Happiest Place on Earth.  The book has been featured in The Orange County Register, Riverside’s The Press-Enterprise and was recently ranked on Amazon.com as a #1 New Release.

 

 

 

Dr. Julie Browning, associate professor of accounting for the Division of Online and Professional Studies, presented two poster sessions at the American Accounting Association’s Conference for Teaching and Learning in Accounting, in Chicago on Aug. 8.  The sessions were titled Using a Credit Card Debt Assignment in a Principles of Accounting Course and Using Social Media Groups to Engage Students in Online Courses.

 

 

 

Dr. Monica O’Rourke, visiting professor of kinesiology for Online and Professional Studies, went to the 75^th annual Sturgis Bike Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, Aug. 3-8 as part of a Christian action sports team with Team Faith Ministries.  The team performed freestyle motocross as an outreach to share the Gospel to participants.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Anthony Chute, professor of church history, has co-authored a textbook on Baptist history with Michael Haykin, professor of church history and biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Nathan Finn, professor of Christian thought and tradition at Union University. The book, The Baptist Story: From English Sect to Global Faith (B&H Academic), details the global spread of the Baptist movement from its beginnings in the early 17th century.

 

 

 

Jennifer Zamora, the didactic coordinator for the master’s of physician assistant studies program, had a case study and research article published in July in Consultant for Pediatricians, a peer-reviewed journal. The title was A Teen’s Large Hemangioma: Successful Treatment with Propanolol.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Stephen Christie, assistant professor of accounting and finance, successfully defended his dissertation on July 9 for the doctor of philosophy in education degree at Claremont Graduate University, School of Educational Studies.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Andrew Herrity, professor of business and entrepreneurship, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with his wife, Terry Lynn, on Aug. 12 and 13.  Herrity said that the Peruvian government allows only a few dozen people each day to hike the 12-mile trail through the Andes Mountains, so most of the several thousand visitors each day to Machu Picchu arrive by train because there is no road to that part of Peru.

 

 

 

 

Reba Machado (’10, MS, nee Lacuesta), adjunct psychology professor, and Marc Machado (’11, MS), assistant men and women’s golf coach, welcomed their first child Aug. 22. Melody Joyce was born at 4:36 p.m., weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and was 21 inches long.

 

 

 

Personnel Updates