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Mentor

Siew Chan
Associate Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

I use psychological theories to examine individual behaviors in decision-making. I design computerized experiments and surveys to examine behaviors in various business decision-making contexts.

Current Projects

I am currently working on several multi-study research projects on how culture and technology influence judgment and decision-making in auditing and other business contexts. I am willing to train undergraduate students to conduct a comprehensive literature review, develop hypotheses with empirical tensions, design experiments and surveys, use appropriate statistical techniques to analyze data, and interpret the findings.

Mentor

Amanda Reynolds
Assistant Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Animal Physiology, Ecophysiology, Metabolism, Animal Performance, Muscle Physiology. 

Current Projects

• Diversity, Distribution, and Fitness of Native Crayfish Species (field and lab-based experiments)
• Emerging Metabolic Function of Parasitoid Wasps (lab-based experiments only)
• Economics and Finance

Mentor

Evan Lampert
Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

Entomology, including insect ecology, med-vet entomology, and forensic entomology.

Current Projects

Measuring preserved samples from the 2024 periodical cicada emergence.

Mentor

Isaac Agyekum
Assistant Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

Bioanalytical Chemistry

Current Projects

Catalyst Free Gas Phase Synthesis of Bioactive Compounds Using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry

Mentor

Ahmad Ghafarian
Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Various aspects of Cybersecurity, Network Security, and Digital Forensics

Current Project

Design an environment and methodology for detecting ransomware attacks

Mentor

Murthy Rallapalli
Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Security, Quantum Computing, AI

Current Project

Review of modern Generative AI tools to evaluate the hallucinations, performance and accuracy of each of the tools based on a pre-determined set of questions.

Mentor

Ruohan Wu
Associate Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

International Trade, Economic Development, Data Analytics

Mentor

Kamilah Williams 
Assistant Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

Financial markets, financial inclusion, banking and macroeconomics

Current Project

I am currently doing research on international banking. I am utilizing the MCCB's newly acquired Bloomberg terminals and am looking for an undergraduate student to work with me to collect and analyze the data. As a part of the process, the student will gain Bloomberg certification.

Mentor

Samuel Prestridge
Associate Professor of English
Oconee Campus

Research Interests

Rhetoric, poetry, composition, American literature, Southern studies

Mentor

Michael Rifenburg
Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Writing centers; teaching writing; qualitative research; workplace writing; designing new courses; study abroad; Christianity; the Bible; rhetoric

Mentor

Heath Harllee
Assistant Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research interests

Public Health, Epidemiology, Information Communication Technology

Mentor

Erin Bush 
Associate Professor of US and Digital History
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

I can help students looking to use data from historical sources in their work.

Mentor

Yunjuan He
Professor of Chinese Language and Linguistics
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Second Language Acquisition, Pedagogy, Sociolinguistics, Phonetics, Phonology

Mentor

Sarah Hubbel
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

My primary research interest is centered on sociolinguistic inquiries; that is, exploring how social characteristics of people and groups of people (i.e., social networks) affect the language that they speak. For example, how does the region that you live in influence the vowel sounds you produce? Or, how does your age impact the type and frequency of adverb usage? (For example, which intensifier do young people prefer-- really, very, so, or a new adverb altogether?) Though most of my previous research experience has been in Spanish and indigenous languages, like Quechua, I am willing to assist students in their linguistic research on any language.

Current Projects

I am currently in the very beginning stages of constructing Spanish for the Professions corpora. If any student has interest in collecting spoken Spanish data in the workplace, I would be happy for them to join me!

Mentor

Giuseppe Sanfilippo
Lecturer
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

My research interests focus on linguistics and how people learn languages like Italian, French, and Spanish, especially if their first language is English or another Romance language. I study how learners transfer rules from their native language to the target language and develop teaching materials to help overcome common mistakes. I can guide students in understanding the challenges and strategies for learning and studying these languages, whether they are interested in linguistics or language teaching. In addition, I have broad experience teaching Italian language and culture in different countries and currently serve as the Director of Study Abroad in Italy, for ¹ú²ú×ÔÅÄ. If students are planning to study abroad, I can also mentor them in making the most of that experience.

Mentor

Francisco Guzmán

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Astrophysics, plasma physics, computational astrophysics, spectroscopy.

Current Projects

Modeling of abundances of heavy elements in Planetary Nebulae, Primordial Helium abundances in early galaxies and dwarf Compact Galaxies, Influence of low temperature dielectronic recombination in the emission from high metalicity knots in astrophysical

Mentor

Bibek Chand 
Associate Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

International Relations (broadly defined), Security Studies, Foreign Policy, Indo-Pacific Affairs, International Relations of Asia

Mentor

Joseph “Joe” Gershtenson 
Assistant Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Quantitative (statistical) analyses of public opinion toward political/social/economic issues, elections, political behavior, political psychology

Current Projects

Presentation on political trust for annual meeting of Georgia Political Science Association in early November

Mentor

Scott McDonald
Assistant Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

I research the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China and the factors that go into decision-making. More broadly, I study security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Current Projects

I am currently seeking a Research Assistant for a chapter I am writing titled "Information Wars and Disinformation" in a book looking broadly at global security challenges in the next decade. The chapter is to provide a historical narrative of the problem, followed by a clear description of the research agenda moving forward. While it will address the issue globally, it will focus on the People's Republic of China as an illustrative case.

Mentor

Jing He
Assistant Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Gender Policy, big data, risk management

Current Project

One of my current research projects is about female leadership.

Mentor

Raluca Viman Miller
Associate Professor & Associate Department Head
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Comparative politics (migration, democratization, electoral behavior, extremist political parties, developing nations) International relations (security studies, conflict management, international institutions) European Politics (post-communist societies, Eastern Europe, migration, voting behavior, extremist parties)

Mentor

Diane Cook
Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

Personality (Five Factor Model), religiosity, close relationships

Mentor

Bryan L. Dawson
Associate Department Head and Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Diversity, Gaming, Leadership, Experimental Psychology! Industrial Organizational Psychology!

Mentor

John Dewey
Associate Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests 

Social cognition; cognitive psychology; experimental psychology (general)

Current Projects

I am more than happy to assist a student in developing their own proposal.

Mentor

Ralph Hale
Associate Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests  

Cognitive psychology

Current Projects

N/A; open to new student McNair projects and could help students develop their own project ideas.

Mentor

Abby Meyer
Associate Professor
Dahlonega Campus

Research Interests

Neuroscience, psychology, mechanisms of learning, memory systems, motivated behaviors, development throughout the lifespan.

Current Project

Neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration as they relate to diet and exercise; developing a new model for human memory.

Mentor

Efren Velazquez
Associate Professor
Gainesville Campus

Research Interests

Latinx emerging adult health

Current Projects

Latinx Emerging Adult Culture and Health Study: This study examines cultural values and their association with Latino/a emerging adult sexual and mental health outcomes.

Mentor

Naomi Latini Wolfe
Part Time Faculty
eCore

Research Interests

My research interests center on how technology, particularly AI, can be used to create more inclusive and compelling learning experiences. I'm also interested in how social factors like culture, race, gender, and socioeconomic status impact educational outcomes. I explore how to design learning environments and curricula that are responsive to the needs of diverse learners. This includes looking at how to make learning materials more accessible and create opportunities for students to engage with different perspectives. In addition, I'm interested in how we can use technology to address social problems and promote sustainability.