FIU researchers featured on national program

FIU researchers taking on the world’s greatest challenges are sharing their findings with a national audience during FIU Week on The Academic Minute, Sept. 2-6, 2024, a radio show and podcast. The three-minute program features researchers from colleges and universities around the world. FIU’s experts are explaining their work in the areas of law enforcement, health, child development, environmental resilience, and STEM education.  

Monday 

Kenneth G. Furton, executive director of the Global Forensic and Justice Center and FIU’s chief scientific officer,  talks about a potential new tool in the law enforcement toolbox – the ability to detect a person’s sex assigned at birth from hand odors, with almost 100 percent accuracy.  

Tuesday 

Diana Azzam, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences in Stempel College is battling the number one killer of children – cancer – through a functional precision medicine approach that targets cancer by combining genetic testing with a new way to test individual drugs on tumor samples.  

Wednesday 

Well-meaning medical providers sometimes tell parents of preemies to stick to one language. Melissa Baralt, a Center for Children and Families researcher and associate professor of Modern Languages in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, discusses how speaking more than one language can actually boost the cognitive and executive functioning skills of kids who were born preterm.  

Thursday 

Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez, postdoctoral research associate with the FIU Institute of Environment, discusses how floating flower farms could be the answer to combatting pollution in our waterways.  

Friday 

Laird Kramer, founding director of FIU’s STEM Transformation Institute, discusses a new, more effective way to teach calculus – a math course that strikes fear in the hearts of many students.

Later in September, Academic Minute also featured FIU Law professor Alex Erwin, discussing how he researched the effect of hunting on mountain lions, working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife   

Produced by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, The Academic Minute is hosted by Lynn Pasquerella, President of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.  The program airs on 70 stations around the United States and Canada.  Segments are also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.