FIU researchers who are addressing society’s biggest environmental, health and technological challenges have been named among the nation’s most impactful scholars and experts by the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEML).
James W. Fourqurean — Distinguished University Professor and director of the Institute of Environment’s Coastlines and Oceans Division — was inducted as a new member for his decades of work protecting Florida’s coastlines.
Fourqurean is a foremost expert on seagrass ecosystems and blue carbon, which describes carbon captured by the world’s oceans and coastal ecosystems. He’s also one of the lead scientists in the International Blue Carbon Working Group, as well as scientific representative to the International Blue Carbon Policy Working Group. These teams set out to have seagrasses recognized as a valuable resource in climate change mitigation, critical to helping slow the rise of C02 in the atmosphere. They’ve helped to include these coastal ecosystems in national greenhouse gas inventories.
In addition, three professors were selected as “Rising Stars,” based on their contributions to their fields, and potential to become future academy members.
“These ‘Rising Stars’ have made significant contributions to science, engineering and medicine,” says Angie Laird, the ASEMFL secretary and FIU distinguished university professor. “ASEMFL is excited to recognize the outstanding talent of mid-career researchers in the State of Florida. At FIU, the accomplishments of Drs. Sutherland, Sheehan and Ibrahim are a testament to their commitment to scholarship of the highest quality, as well as research that has a direct impact on society."
The other FIU honorees include:
Matthew Sutherland
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
College of Arts, Sciences & Education; Center for Children and Families (CCF)
Sutherland’s research program focuses on delineating brain and behavioral mechanisms that lead to and maintain substance use with an emphasis on nicotine and cannabis. His work investigating human brain function has identified neurobiological aberrations among those using nicotine associated with reward processing alterations, working memory dysfunction and affective dysregulation. Better understanding of the brain processes linked with substance use offers the potential to inform development of improved treatments for addiction, strategies to match people with the best treatment options, and efforts to prevent vulnerable individuals from initiating substance use. Sutherland’s research has been supported by multiple NIH grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health disparities.
James Fourqurean has spent 40 years researching seagrass ecosystems around the world. It all started in 1982. Fourqurean was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. One day, his professor asked for a volunteer to join him on a trip to map the distribution of seagrasses in Florida Bay. There were two requirements. Availability that summer and to know how to drive a boat. Fourqurean was in the front row and immediately raised his hand. He already had two jobs lined up and didn’t have a clue how to drive a boat. But that boldness got him to the Everglades, and that summer spent with the seagrasses changed everything. Fourqurean has not spent more than nine months away from South Florida since.
Read the full story here.
Diana Sheehan
Associate Professor
Department of Epidemiology
Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work
Sheehan’s current NIH-funded studies are developing and assessing the efficacy of Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions and stepped care interventions for improving antiretroviral therapy adherence among Latino men. In addition, as part of the NIH-funded Research Center in Minority Institutions (FIU-RCMI), she’s currently mining and interpreting data to understand whether the pandemic has exacerbated HIV disparities among minority populations. Sheehan’s current work is funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Ahmed Ibrahim
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
College of Engineering & Computing
Inspired by brain networks and neurological disorders such as autism, Ibrahim has designed wireless networks that enable self-driving vehicles and drone-assisted post-disaster recovery. He is the director of the Wireless Innovation Lab at FIU. He’s also received an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award to develop short-delay “gray-box” machine learning models and low-complexity optimized networks necessary to support connected vehicles and augmented reality applications, which are essential in remote health care.
Founded in 2018, Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida is committed to addressing key issues and challenges impacting Florida, including the environment, sustainable energy, STEM education, healthcare and more. The academy provides expert advice and helps shape sound policies, inform public opinion and advance developments in science, engineering and medicine. ASEML members are also considered for future induction into the prestigious National Academies — the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine.
Other members of the academy from FIU include:
- Mike Heithaus, vice Provost for environmental resilience and for the Biscayne Bay Campus at FIU, as well as executive dean of the College of Arts, Sciences & Education.
- Tomás R. Guilarte, dean of FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work
- Kenneth G. Furton, FIU executive director of the Global Forensic and Justice Center
- Evelyn Gaiser, the endowed George Barley eminent scholars chair and aquatic ecologist in the FIU Institute of Environment
- Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh, director of FIU’s Biomolecular Sciences Institute
- William E. Pelham Jr., the late founding director of FIU’s Center for Children and Families