AUM Faculty & Staff
Directory


Bridgette Harper
Professor | College of Sciences


John Hutchison
Associate Professor | College of Sciences
Ph.D. (2007) Organic Chemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
B.S. (2000) Chemistry, University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, IN
Dr. John Hutchison is an Associate Professor in the AUM Department of Chemistry. His area of expertise is Synthetic Organic Chemistry. His research interest lies in the synthesis of structurally interesting and/or biologically active organic molecules. Graduate and post-doctoral work involved the development of synthetic strategies towards the synthesis of eupomatilone-6, sclerophytin A, cladiell-11-ene-3,6,7-triol, antascomicin B, organometallic Ni and Pd-complexes, and CdSe nanoparticles. While at AUM his undergraduate research students have completed the total synthesis of three natural products gymnoascolide A, eutypoid A, and microperfuranone. Current undergraduate research projects involve short-syntheses of biologically active natural products and structure activity studies of antibacterial C-4 and C-5 substituted butenolides. Dr. Hutchison enjoys working with AUM students in both the classroom and laboratory. He is a good research mentor and he is an outstanding life guide for students.


Marilyn Jefferson
Administrative Associate | College of Sciences


Duk (Daniel) Kim
Department Chair; Professor | College of Sciences
Ph.D. (2003) Chemistry, Florida International University
MS (1987) Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
BS (1985) Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea
Dr. Daniel Kim is an organic Chemist. His current research interests lie in using ultrasound to accelerate slow chemical reactions, removal of resisting pollutants in polluted water. He applies ultrasound to measure the antioxidant capacity of natural materials. His background experience has a broad spectrum from synthesis of unusual organic compounds, nuclear chemistry using nuclear reactors or particle accelerators, environmental remediation using advanced oxidation technologies, and modification of solid materials using accelerated particle beams. Dr. Kim is the Chemistry Chair and advisor of the Chemistry Club.


Vanessa Koelling
Assistant Professor | College of Sciences
Ph.D. University of Georgia (2008), Genetics
B.A. Reed College (2000), Biology
Bio: Dr. Vanessa Koelling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science. She is a plant evolutionary biologist, which means that she studies how plant populations change over time in response to new environmental conditions. Within the field of evolutionary biology, she is particularly interested in the evolution of plant mating systems, the mechanisms of plant speciation, and in plant evolutionary genetics. Her work aims to understand which evolutionary mechanisms are most important in plant mating system evolution and speciation, and to understand the causal genetic changes underlying plant adaptations. She currently studies these topics using the common yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus), a wildflower endemic to the Western United States with many features that make it an ideal system for the study of evolution. She has also begun a new project to study the population genetics, ecophysiology, and evolution of two of Alabama’s native azaleas (Rhododendron cumberlandense and Rhododendron prunifolium). In addition, she is interested in eventually expanding her research into other Southeastern plants.
Dr. Koelling has published her work in distinguished scientific journals, such as Heredity, the American Journal of Botany, and The American Naturalist. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Botanical Society of America. (Scholar page)
Dr. Koelling is also an experienced teacher who has taught a range of introductory and specialized courses. She especially enjoys teaching topics in evolution, genetics, and applied bioinformatics. She incorporates inquiry-based and active-learning methods into her courses, and continually seeks new ways to engage and motivate students in her classrooms.


Tim Kroft
Associate Professor | College of Sciences


Olcay Kursun
Assistant Professor | College of Sciences


Douglas Leaman
Dean | College of Sciences


Enoch Lee
Associate Professor | College of Sciences
Enoch Lee is Department Head and an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics in the School of Sciences. His mathematical research interests include rings, modules, near-rings, semigroups, universal algebra, radical theory, number theory, cryptology, coding theory, etc. He was also a wireless engineer specializing IP traffics. Later he became an optical network system engineer, specializing MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) control plane. He has done research on Voice over IP (VoIP), streaming audio and video, Internet applications traffic characteristics, (G)MPLS, etc. He is also interested in applying computing technology such as distributed computing (as a form of high performance computing) in solving mathematical problems.


Wei Li
Lecturer | College of Sciences


Ting Lo
Math Lab Coordinator | College of Sciences
Dr. Lo earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Auburn University in 2003. After graduating from Auburn, he moved back to Montgomery, AL and served as an adjunct instructor with Trenholm State Community College since 2004. He was taught mathematics, physics and electronics course during those years.
Starting in 2013, Dr. Lo joined the Chemistry department at AUM. He teaches Physics and Physical Science. Before assuming the lab coordinator position, he taught the mathematics courses for the math department.
Dr. Lo enjoys playing Sudoku and working on computer hardware during spare time.


Steven Lobello
Professor | College of Sciences
BA, Christian Brothers College, Psychology
MS, Mississippi State University, Clinical Psychology
PhD, University of Southern Mississippi, Counseling Psychology
MSPH, University of Alabama in Birmingham, Epidemiology Education
Bio: Steven LoBello completed his PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1986. He began his career as a psychologist in clinical practice, specializing in psychological assessment of clinical cases requiring intellectual assessment. He is a licensed psychologist in Alabama. He joined the AUM Psychology faculty in 1989. His initial research program involved statistical issues in I.Q. tests and best practices in teaching test administration and scoring to graduate students.
In 1998, he returned to graduate school at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Attending classes on a part time basis, he earned a master’s degree in epidemiology in 2003. While at UAB, he was fortunate to become affiliated with the Injury Control Research Center as a Senior Scientist, and was principle investigator of a longitudinal study of rehabilitation outcomes. This project was planned and initiated by others many years earlier, and was brought to completion during this grant period. The project was a study of outcomes among individuals with spinal cord, head, and multiple trauma, as well as severe burns. The project was funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Dr. LoBello has an active research lab with graduate students who have a broad range of heath behavior interests. Research topics have included studies of quality of life among people with asthma who use alternative and conventional medicines, influenza vaccination among people with asthma, prevalence of depression among pregnant women, and the relationship of depression to chronic illness. In his research program, Dr. LoBello frequently uses the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data sets. He is a student of using population-based health survey data and epidemiological methods to investigate health behavior research problems.