Spotlight: News Briefs

Professor Honored for Superior Achievement

Earth and Environmental Studies Professor Yang Deng received the 2019 Superior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists in April for his research on emergency water treatment with ferrate(VI) in response to natural disasters.

The Academy’s awards competition honors the best environmental engineering and science in the country.

With the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters increasing globally, clean water is a top priority after catastrophic events for survival and disaster relief.

“But the invented technology is expected to be applied anywhere for production of safe and clean water after natural disasters,” says Deng, whose work includes student researchers and is supported by the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies and New Jersey Water Resources Research Institute.

Studying Italy’s Migration Experience

Immigration is a hot button issue making daily headlines both in the United States and abroad. Associate Professor of Italian Teresa Fiore, the Inserra Endowed Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, recently published an exploration of the Italian migration experience that has garnered international acclaim.

Pre-Occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy’s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies explores Italy’s formation and development on a transnational map through a cultural analysis. As Fiore sees it, today, Italy and the United States face similar immigration issues — from border closings to views of immigrants. “Such belittling and exclusion [that is seen in both countries] only compounds problems by creating divisions and a deeper sense of frustration,” she says.

Published by Fordham University Press, the book has won the American Association of Italian Studies Book Prize and was a finalist for the international 2018 Bridge Book Award.

Professor Receives National Award

Information Management and Business Analytics Professor Ethne Swartz was inducted as a Justin G. Longenecker Fellow at the annual conference of the United States Association for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship in January and will be a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa this summer. With her induction, Swartz joins a select group of 66 distinguished educators, researchers, government officials, small business advocates and trade association leaders who have received the Association’s prestigious award since 1986.

“I’m honored to be recognized for my contributions and to be among some of the most eminent educators in the United States,” Swartz says, noting that academic research focused on the importance of women entrepreneurs has made its mark on state and national government policy. “I’m proud that those of us who pushed for equity in treatment of women-owned companies have helped to create support for these companies.”

Tracking Income Inequality

Because the Federal Reserve’s mandate is a low unemployment rate, the Federal Reserve has often lowered interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the economy. While lowering interest rates may do just that, it is not clear that all income groups experience equal growth in incomes because of the policy stimulus, says Assistant Professor of Economics Edmond Berisha, whose research on income inequality and household debt has been published in both The Social Science Journal and the Journal of International Money and Finance.

“From our empirical work, we find that household debt and equities are inversely related to interest rates and associated with higher levels of income inequality,” he says.