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Craig Gatto
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Gatto joined the Department of Biological Sciences in 2000. His research agenda focuses on the molecular mechanism by which cells regulate salt balance, specifically the animal sodium/potassium pump. Understanding this mechanism has direct implications for understanding and resolving human diseases such as heart failure and some forms of deafness. Recently, he has begun studying the role of the plant calcium pump. His line of research has been well-received in the field and could result in important applications in the management of industrial crops. Gatto publishes frequently in top-quality journals and presents his work often at professional conferences and invited seminars. “His record for external funding is one of the most remarkable success stories in the department for a junior faculty,” said Tak Cheung, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciencesjoined the faculty in the Department of Psychology in 2001. The purpose of his research “is to develop a better understanding of .
Scott Jordan joined the faculty in the Department of Psychology in 2001. The purpose of his research “is to develop a better understanding of the anticipatory, forward-looking nature of human cognition and the manner in which it expresses itself in individual consciousness, group communication, and the dynamics of culture as a whole.” Jordan’s research is highly interdisciplinary and remarkably productive. “Since arriving at ISU a scant seven years ago, Dr. Jordan has published 20 journal articles and 5 chapters in edited volumes…and his articles have very often been in some of the highest-tier, high impact journals in several areas of psychology, as well as philosophy and neuroscience,” observed Mike Leippe, Chair of the Department of Psychology. Recently, Jordan has established the Institute for Prospective Cognition, which will sponsor an international, interdisciplinary speaker series.
James M. van der Laan joined the faculty in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures in 1989. He has directed his research efforts to two main areas: eighteenth-century German writers and the role of science, especially technology, in the humanities. “2007 has to be considered the capstone of his career to this point and a banner year by virtually any measure,” said Dan Everett, Chair of the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. In that year, Dr. van der Laan published a peer-reviewed article, had another selected for re-publication, presented at three national or international conferences, and published his book Seeking Meaning for Goethe’s Faust. As Professor Steven Martinson of the University of Arizona points out, the large body of secondary literature that already exists on Goethe’s Faust makes it difficult to have a book on this topic published today. Dr. van der Laan was “one of the very few to have accomplished this feat.” His book was not only published in a well-known and highly reputable press, it has also “received the endorsement of the foremost Goethe scholar writing in English.”