Dr. Waneene Dorsey serves as the Ernest Everett Just Endowed Professor in the biology department. She
earned her Ph.D. in environmental science from Jackson State University. She has published 15 peer-reviewed articles and has nearly two decades of experience
in molecular biology research. Her research uses a toxicogenomic approach to identify
molecular targets that cause the onset of cancer. This methodology combines toxicology
and genomics to understand how molecular events lead to cancer through exposure to
chemicals. Ras mutation through signal disruption is seen in roughly half of all colon cancers and
90% of pancreatic carcinomas. Dorsey is studying the Ras/MAPK pathway, a key signal transducing system that facilitates cancer in mammalian
cells. She is identifying molecules that turn on cancer gene proteins in mouse liver
cells when they are exposed to chlorinated organic compounds. Once the molecular targets
have been identified, they can be blocked by various chemicals. These chemicals have
the potential to provide a medicinal tool to help prevent the onset of cancer.
Contact Information
Email: dorseywc@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2399
Dr. Paul Kim is an assistant professor in the biology department. He earned his Ph.D. in cellular
and molecular biology from Colorado State University. He has two years of postdoctoral experience in biomedical engineering and has worked
as a research consultant for a biomedical device company. He has published 9 peer-reviewed
articles, presented 9 abstracts at national meetings, and holds 4 patents related
to biomedicine. His research interest include studying obesity-related diseases, specifically
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is becoming one of the most common
liver diseases and, in some cases, NAFLD progresses to the more severe non-alcoholic
steatohepatitis, one of the leading causes of liver cirrhosis in the United States.
He is working with collaborators and mentors at Colorado State University and the
Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge Louisiana. The team is trying
to better understand the cellular mechanisms that lead to disease development and
progression.
Contact Information
Email: kimp@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-3738
Dr. Hung-tat Leung is an associate professor of biology. He earned his Ph.D. in neurobiology from the
University of Southern California and conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow and scientist at Purdue University for 12 years. He has published 23 peer-reviewed articles. He combines genetic and
electrophysiological techniques to investigate Drosophila photoreceptors and synaptic
transmission. He also makes double mutants to study interactions among genes.
Contact Information
Email: leungh@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-6296
Dr. Frank Ohene is a professor in the chemistry department. He earned a M.S. degree in physical chemistry
from Florida State University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Georgia at Athens. His research interests are in multiple areas. They include biotechnology and computational
chemistry. His current project in biotechnology involves the preparation and optimization
of methodology for the coating of the inner walls of 75 μm ID fused silica capillary
tube with non-crosslinked polyacrylamide gel, tailored for the separation of proteins
using capillary electrophoresis. He is using Gaussian computational software built
in function linear synchronous transit or quadratic synchronous transit approach with
the Density Functional Theory and 6-31G basis set. He is investigating the energetics
of the interactions between a variety of substituted dienes and different dienophiles
in a variety of geometries. Intrinsic reaction coordinate are being performed in order
to determine the activation energies of these reactions.
Contact Information
Email: ohene@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2338
Dr. Dagne Hill earned her Ph.D. in environmental science from Jackson State University, Mississippi. She has published 7 peer-reviewed articles. As a previous non gratis Research Associate
at Louisiana State University Agriculture Center (Hill Farm Research Station, Mastitis
Laboratory) Hill conducted various water quality studies involving the comparative
assessment of the physicochemical and bacteriological qualities of selected streams.
Her research focuses on studying the environmental factors that influence the prevalence
and distribution of coliform bacteria.
Contact Information
Email: hilld@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-3739
Dr. Naidu Seetala serves as the Edward Bouchet Endowed Professor in physics. He earned a Ph.D. in physics
from Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, India, and completed a post-doctoral experience at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is currently involved in nano-science research. Seetala has ~ 70 research publications
in refereed journals. His research interests are diverse. They include ultra-high
temperature ceramic composites, materials synthesis using additive manufacturing techniques,
nano-enhanced armor protection materials that can provide protection from explosions,
and polyimide-carbon nanotube composites for aerospace applications. Dr. Seetala also
studies nanoporosity in polymers and vacancy defects in metals (using positron annihilation
lifetime spectroscopy), microstructures and elemental analysis (using SEM/EDX system),
crystal phase composition and nanoparticle size analysis (using XRD), magnetization
studies (using VSM), and micro- hardness analysis.
Contact Information
Email: naidusv@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2574
Dr. Connie Walton is a professor of chemistry. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi. Her expertise includes the synthesis and characterization of molecules that exhibit
liquid crystalline behavior and polymer synthesis. Walton is a co-inventor on 2 U.S.
Patents and 1 German Patent Application. These patents target polymers for nonlinear
optic related applications. Walton has served as principal investigator on grant funded
projects received from NASA, NSF, and the U.S. Department of Education. Her research
includes the synthesis of biodegradable polymers and the characterization of their
properties.
Contact Information
Email: waltoncr@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2713
Dr. Yenumula Reddy is a professor of computer science. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from the
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. He is an IEEE Senior Member, ACM Senior Member & Life Member, and an IARIA Fellow.
Dr. Reddy has authored more than 150 papers in reviewed Journals, International Conference
proceedings that includes IEEE and ACM. He serves as editor-in-chief of the International
Journal of Information Processing and Management. His research interest includes Cognitive
Radio Networks-Security, efficient spectrum allocation using genetic algorithms, game
models, reinforce learning models, backpropagation models (neural networks), cross
layer design, cloud data security. He has expertise in Big Data-Security, document
selection, Hadoop distributed file systems, Deep Learning, and anomaly detection.
Currently his research focuses on the design and implementation of a Cognitive Radio
Cloud Network. Reddy is also working on high performance GP-GPU Computing in Federated
Hadoop Systems.
Contact Information
Email: ybreddy@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2421
Dr. Pedro Derosa earned his PhD in physics and his degree of Licenciado in physics (equivalent to BS+MS) from the University of Córdoba in Argentina. He then conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina. He serves as an associate professor in a joint appointment with Grambling State
University and Louisiana Tech University. Derosa has published 28 peer-reviewed journal
articles, 8 peer-reviewed conference proceedings, 3 book chapters, and edited 1 book.
His research is in the broad area of molecular modeling, including atomistic and coarse
grain simulation models. Derosa uses Density Functional Theory and Green functions
to study charge transport in a variety of molecules, polymers, and two dimensional
structures, including graphene and MoS2. In addition, stochastics models of carrier
transport in nanocomposites and conductive polymers have been developed by his research
team. He also studies molecular transport in nanostructures, using Monte Carlo coarse
grained models also developed by his research team. Currently, molecular storage and
release in clay nanotubes and hydrogels are being studied.
Contact Information
Email: derosap@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-3863
Dr. Frederick Semwogerere serves as a professor of mathematics. He earned a Ph.D. in operator algebras from
the University of California-Berkley. His research focuses on the exploration of methods used to teach mathematics concepts
to strengthen a student’s ability to construct and write mathematics arguments. Semwogerere
is writing manuals that will initiate the student into the art of writing valid logical
arguments.
Contact Information
Email: semwogereref@gram.edu
Office phone: (318)-274-2260