Faculty

George Antonious is Interim Chair of the Division of Environmental Studies and Sustainable Systems.  He is a Professor of water quality and environmental toxicology in KSU's College of Agriculture, Food Science and Sustainable Systems. He holds three degrees from Egypt’s University of Alexandria, including a PhD in Pesticide Chemistry and Residue Analysis and MSc and BSc in Agriculture and Pesticide Chemistry. He has taught courses in chemistry, biochemistry, organic chemistry, the chemistry of ordinary things, human impact on the environment, and environmental science and bioremediation techniques. In the past decade he has published more than 45 papers in high-profile journals and attracted more than $2.4 million in external funding to KSU. Antonious’ research interests include botanical pesticide development and the environmental impact of pesticides. He serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the University of Kentucky department of horticulture.

Buddhi “Raj” Gyawali is Assistant Professor in the Division of Environmental Studies & Sustainable Systems. His research broadly relates to human dimensions of natural resources, such as geospatial modeling of land use and land cover change, climate change adaptation and mitigation, valuing of ecological goods and services, agroforestry, microenterprise development, regional poverty, land tenure and fragmentation, community capital and resilience, and sustainability indicators. Dr. Gyawali also has outreach experiences in community development and evaluation of rural development and health projects in Nepal. He has published multiple papers on participation behavior of limited resource farmers in agricultural programs, regional disparities, income and wage convergence, and human well-being, land cover change, and community capital. Dr. Gyawali is a member of numerous professional organizations related to natural resources, Economics, Rural Sociology, GIS, Remote sensing. Dr. Gyawali’s teaching interests include Applications of GIS and Remote Sensing, Landscape Ecology, Geostatistics, Climate Change, Agribusiness Management, Agricultural Policy and Marketing, Forest Resource Economics, Statistics in natural resources. Dr. Gyawali earned his Ph.D. and M.S. from Alabama A&M University, and M.A. in International Development and Social Change from Clark University, Massachusetts.

Maifan Silitonga is an Associate Professor and Special Assistant to the Dean, assisting in the systems advancement for the College of Agriculture, Food Science and Sustainable Systems. She holds a a Bachelor Degree in Biology from National University in Jakarta, Indonesia, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Science from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Silitonga currently serves as the Chair for the US Department of Agriculture-National Institute for Food and Agriculture, Southern Regional Water Program. She also pioneered a regional research effort in conducting prescreening or qualitative analysis of pharmaceuticals in the southern region, engaging 11 universities (1890s and 1862s). Research areas of interest include groundwater modeling, watershed management, environmental risk assessment, drinking water and human health, and nutrients fate & transport in the subsurface.

Michael Bomford is an Associate Professor and extension specialist in organic and sustainable agriculture for the KSU's College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable Systems. He holds a PhD in plant and soil science from West Virginia University, a MPM (Master of Pest Management) from Simon Fraser University, and a BSc (Agriculture) in plant science from the University of British Columbia. His research has focused on developing practical solutions for organic farmers. Bomford developed and taught West Virginia University’s first course in organic crop production, and co-taught the first introductory sustainable agriculture course at the University of Kentucky, where he serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of horticulture. Bomford has published work on practical organic pest management solutions in a range of local and internationally-recognized journals and is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.

Kirk Pomper is the Associate Research Director in KSU's College of Agriculture, Food Science, and Sustainable Systems. He is a Professor of horticulture and curator of the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository for pawpaw species. He holds a PhD in horticulture from Oregon State University, and MS and BS degrees in horticulture from the University of Minnesota. His research has focused on evaluating genetic diversity of pawpaw across its native range in the southeastern United States using DNA-based marker systems. As manager of KSU’s Core Molecular Genetics Facility he has cooperated on projects including the evaluation of genetic diversity in aquaculture species and identification of honeybee pathogens. He has published 29 refereed publications and 58 abstracts in the past decade. Pomper teaches a senior course in understanding biotechnology that integrates lecture and laboratory training in molecular biology.

John Sedlacek is Interim Chair of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He holds a PhD in entomology from the University of Kentucky, MEn (Master of Environmental Science) in applied ecology from Miami University, and a BS in biology from Baldwin-Wallace College. His research program promotes sustainable insect pest management by identifying minimally disruptive pest management approaches that conserve biodiversity in sweet corn agroecosystems. One of Sedlacek’s current projects uses multi-trophic insect studies to assess the ecological impact of organic, conventional, and genetically engineered (BT insect-protected) sweet corn production systems. Future studies will examine the impact of plant biodiversity on beneficial insect diversity and pest insect damage in organically and sustainably-grown fruits and vegetables; test the efficacy of beneficial insect attractants; determine insecticidal activity of biologically-based compounds; and determine the long-term sustainability of BT-protected vegetable crops.

Sid Dasgupta is a Professor in KSU’s Aquaculture Research Center. He holds a PhD in agricultural economics and a MS in mathematics from Texas A&M University; and a BS in mathematics and computer science from Angelo State University. His research areas are agricultural economics and marketing in which he had over 25 peer-reviewed journal articles, 20 extension articles, and 7 online publications. His research experience includes 13 grants, over 30 professional presentations, and serving as a journal editor. His research experience spans Texas A&M University, University of Idaho, University of Arkansas, and Kentucky State University. Dr. Dasgupta has taught mathematical statistics, biostatistics, nonparametric statistics, agricultural economics and marketing in multiple universities. He is the major professor of two graduate students and has served on graduate committees of several other students. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Kentucky.

Kazi Javed is an associate professor of chemistry at KSU. He holds a PhD and MS in chemical engineering from Clarkson University, and a BS in physics and chemistry from Dickinson College. He directs the KSU Center for Environmental Education, which is a member of the Kentucky University Partnership for Environmental Education, a joint partnership between all eight of Kentucky’s public universities. He has worked as an engineer for the University of Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, overseeing and monitoring environmental remediation and restoration activities at the U.S. Department of Energy nuclear processing plant in Paducah, Kentucky. Javed’s work in hazardous and radioactive waste treatment technology included the use of a new process to immobilize radioactive components and prevent leaching during long-term storage.

Tamara Sluss is an assistant professor of biology at KSU. She holds a PhD in environmental biology, and BS and MS degrees in biology from the University of Louisville. She teaches ecology and aquatic ecology at KSU. Her research has focused on zooplankton in lotic systems and the effect of turbulence on the structure of these communities. She has presented her results at the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography meetings. Sluss has studied stream macroinvertebrates, indices of biotic integrity, and water quality. Her additional interests include biofuels, climate change, biodiversity, land-use, alteration of aquatic systems (channelization and dams), and environmental education.

George W. Shields is a professor of philosophy and former chair of the Division of Literature, Languages, and Philosophy at KSU. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago, where he wrote a doctoral thesis on twentieth-century American philosopher Charles Hartshorne, before pursuing further study at Oxford University. Shields has published three books, including: Process and Analysis: Whitehead, Hartshorne, and the Analytic Tradition; Science, Technology, and Religious Ideas (with Mark Shale); and Faith and Creativity: Essays in Honor of Eugene H. Peters (with George Nordgulen). He has authored more than 100 articles and given more than 80 scholarly addresses. Shields has a broad range of teaching and research interests in the fields of history, philosophy and ethics, with a current focus on process philosophy, which he believes has a major role to play in debates on environmental ethics. He was elected KSU’s Distinguished Professor of 2000-01.

Ronald Mawby is a professor in the Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies at KSU. He holds a PhD in cognitive and developmental psychology from Clark University, a MA from Clark University, and a BA from St. John’s College. He worked in educational research and artificial intelligence before coming to the “great books” Honors Program at KSU, where he teaches mathematics, natural and social science, literature, and philosophy. His intellectual interests are wide and he has published in both the sciences and the humanities. He has served as an interim co-representative to the Kentucky University Partnership for Environmental Education. Environmental issues are included in his courses on professional ethics and on ethics and leadership. Mawby has a special interest in the multiple, and sometimes conflicting, concepts of nature used in environmental studies.

Tom McPartland is director of the Whitney Young School of Honors and Liberal Studies at KSU. He holds an interdisciplinary PhD in intellectual history from the University of Washington, integrating work in the fields of philosophy, history, classics, and bio-medical history. Before coming to KSU he taught in both philosophy and history departments. McPartland has taught in the seminar, language, and math/science components of the Honors Program, focusing recently on core math/science courses and on a seminar dealing with ideas of nature. He has taught special topic seminars on the philosophy of law, the history of revolutions, African history and culture, and Lonergan's Insight. He has delivered numerous papers and published articles and a book on the ideas of Bernard Lonergan, whose philosophy emphasizes the normative significance of the process of questioning, an approach at the heart of the seminar-based learning of the Honors Program. He was elected KSU’s Distinguished Professor of 2002-03.