Research

U.S. Water Sector Vulnerable to Cyber Threats, Professor Says

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, drawing attention to potential threats and the importance of having adequate safeguards in place to thwart hackers. Critical infrastructure components can be primary targets because any disruptions in their operation can have a widespread impact. Northern Michigan University assistant professor of political science Jongeun You recently wrote an article for the IBM Center for the Business of Government that contends the U.S. water sector is particularly vulnerable.
Assistant professor Jongeun You

Mittlefehldt Receives Magnaghi Research Grant

Northern Michigan University Professor Sarah Mittlefehldt has been awarded the Grace Magnaghi Upper Peninsula Research Grant for her project, “Distilling the Forest: A History of Liquid Biofuels in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.” The project focuses on the production of methanol out of wood, the unintended consequences of doing so, and what can be learned from what was once the largest wood distillery in the world—the Cliffs Dow Chemical Company in Marquette, Mich.
Mittlefehldt in front of her wood pile at camp.

NMU Receives $413K Instrumentation Award to Advance Neuroscience Research

Northern Michigan University's Department of Psychological Science has received a $413,000 National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award to facilitate a new frontier in human neuroscience research that could transform the field. NMU will use the funds to acquire an integrated system that assesses the cause-and-effect brain-behavior relationships underlying social interactions and other aspects of human behavior, which could have implications for those with depression, anxiety or addiction disorders. 
Graduate student Elijah Nieman places the current 64-electrode EEG on a research subject. The new integrated system will feature two high-density EEGs with 256 electrodes each.

You Researches Nile River Conflict Policy

The Nile River in northeastern Africa is heavily relied upon for survival and livelihood. It supplies drinking water, irrigation for crops, fish and hydroelectricity. But the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Upper Nile, which represents Africa's largest hydropower project, is at the center of a conflict involving Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan. Northern Michigan University assistant professor Jongeun You examined the policy setting related to the GERD conflict, which could apply to comparable cases across different contexts. His research paper was published in World Water Policy.
Jongeun You

Student Researches Freshwater Acidification

Northern  Michigan University biology student Maddy Saddler will address freshwater acidification and its implications for the Great Lakes ecosystem during a Thursday, July 27 presentation in her hometown of Alpena. She will give details about her role as a research intern working on the ongoing freshwater acidification monitoring project with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, and Michigan Sea Grant. 
Maddy Saddler (Alpena News photo by Darby Hinkley)

Cumberlidge Attends Workshop in Berlin

NMU BIology Professor Neil Cumberlidge recently attended a week-long freshwater crab workshop at the Museum für Naturkunde (Natural History Museum) in Berlin, Germany. He joined international colleagues working on new collections of freshwater crabs resulting from the group's biological surveys of three central and West African biodiversity hotspots in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.
Workshop participants at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. From left: Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo (Douala, Cameroon in Central Africa); Kristina von Rintelen, Curator of Crustaceans, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin; Thomas von Rintelen (Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Museum für Naturkunde); Paul Clark (The Natural History Museum in London, UK); and Neil Cumberlidge (NMU).

NMU Researches Hemp for PFAS Remediation

Northern Michigan University researchers are exploring the feasibility of using hemp to remediate soil contaminated with PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals that make a wide range of industry and consumer products non-stick, greaseproof and flame retardant. NMU Chemistry Professor Lesley Putman said the hope is that hemp will not only draw up PFAS from the ground, but ultimately be able to degrade them, unlike the typical and more costly remediation methods using granular activated charcoal or reverse osmosis.
NMU researchers (front L-R) Schick and Dotson and (back L-R) Wells and Professor Putman

Three Minute Thesis Winners Announced

Northern Michigan University held its annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, during which students present their research in a compressed format using a single slide and layperson-friendly language. Nathan Joyal, an integrated biology major, finished first in the graduate student category for summarizing his research on the relative commercial viability of growing cannabis in “organic super soil” compared with soil treated with salt-based commercial fertilizer. Adan Mulvaney, a communications major, took top honors among McNair Scholars for her research on female-identifying youth in scouting.
Joyal and Mulvaney, winners of the graduate student and McNair Scholar categories.