22 research outputs found
Mentoring for Faculty from Working-Class Backgrounds
Faculty mentoring across gender, race, and culture is facilitated by formal mentoring programs. Mentoring across the cultural differences associated with social class, however, represents a largely unaddressed gap in the provision of formal faculty mentoring. Based on a pre-program needs survey, we designed and delivered a pilot program that served working-class faculty with mentoring on career self-efficacy. Assessment showed that working-class faculty mentees made gains in this important construct. Our concluding discussion reflects upon the role of mentoring in the experience of working-class faculty
Diversifying for Sustainability: Repurposing a Targeted Pilot Faculty Mentoring Program
For most junior faculty at Indiana University – Purdue University Columbus, dissatisfaction with traditional mentoring, that is, pairing with a senior departmental colleague for open-ended mentoring, was a fact of faculty life. In 2015-16, the authors addressed this ineffective reality by implementing a grant funded pilot program to provide targeted mentoring on career self-efficacy for under-represented, pre-promotion faculty. Mentors received training and were matched with mentees. Assessment demonstrated program effectiveness. Participants made measurable gains in general self-efficacy; increasing their self-confidence, establishing more robust social supports, and learning new strategies for career success. Upon program completion, we sought a sustainable modification of the program to more broadly serve all faculty. Feedback from focus groups led us to diversify the program by creating a “mentor bureau” and conducting mentee-only peer mentoring sessions. The bureau helps mentees form a local mentoring network or “map” (Rockquemore, 2013). We asked mentors to identify areas of expertise and mentees to choose from among these topics. In 2016-17, the mentoring bureau enlisted 15 mentors who mentored 11 mentees. Including program leaders, 44% (27 of 62) of full-time faculty participated in the bureau. Peer-mentoring was conducted through informal discussions at monthly mentee-only lunches. Feedback indicates satisfaction with both program components. Mentees reported that they gained expertise through the mentoring bureau and built relationships in the peer mentoring meetings. We are pleased to have the opportunity to share our sustainable and diverse mentoring model that successfully complements traditional mentoring
Career Self-Efficacy Mentoring for Pre-Promotion Underrepresented Faculty
posterThis poster describes the progress and lessons learned as a result of newly implemented Faculty Mentoring Program at Indiana University – Purdue University Columbus
Time-of-flight mass measurements of neutron-rich chromium isotopes up to N = 40 and implications for the accreted neutron star crust
We present the mass excesses of 59-64Cr, obtained from recent time-of-flight
nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
at Michigan State University. The mass of 64Cr is determined for the first
time, with an atomic mass excess of -33.48(44) MeV. We find a significantly
different two-neutron separation energy S2n trend for neutron-rich isotopes of
chromium, removing the previously observed enhancement in binding at N=38.
Additionally, we extend the S2n trend for chromium to N=40, revealing behavior
consistent with the previously identified island of inversion in this region.
We compare our results to state-of-the-art shell-model calculations performed
with a modified Lenzi-Nowacki-Poves-Sieja interaction in the fp shell,
including the g9/2 and d5/2 orbits for the neutron valence space. We employ our
result for the mass of 64Cr in accreted neutron star crust network calculations
and find a reduction in the strength and depth of electron-capture heating from
the A=64 isobaric chain, resulting in a cooler than expected accreted neutron
star crust. This reduced heating is found to be due to the >1-MeV reduction in
binding for 64Cr with respect to values from commonly used global mass models.Comment: Accepted to Physical Review
Mass Measurement of Sc-56 Reveals a Small A=56 Odd-Even Mass Staggering, Implying a Cooler Accreted Neutron Star Crust
We present the mass excesses of 52-57Sc, obtained from recent time-of-flight
nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
at Michigan State University. The masses of 56Sc and 57Sc were determined for
the first time with atomic mass excesses of -24.85(59)(+0 -54) MeV and
-21.0(1.3) MeV, respectively, where the asymmetric uncertainty for 56Sc was
included due to possible contamination from a long-lived isomer. The 56Sc mass
indicates a small odd-even mass staggering in the A = 56 mass-chain towards the
neutron drip line, significantly deviating from trends predicted by the global
FRDM mass model and favoring trends predicted by the UNEDF0 and UNEDF1 density
functional calculations. Together with new shell-model calculations of the
electron-capture strength function of 56Sc, our results strongly reduce
uncertainties in model calculations of the heating and cooling at the 56Ti
electron-capture layer in the outer crust of accreting neutron stars. We found
that, in contrast to previous studies, neither strong neutrino cooling nor
strong heating occurs in this layer. We conclude that Urca cooling in the outer
crusts of accreting neutron stars that exhibit superbursts or high temperature
steady-state burning, which are predicted to be rich in A=56 nuclei, is
considerably weaker than predicted. Urca cooling must instead be dominated by
electron capture on the small amounts of adjacent odd-A nuclei contained in the
superburst and high temperature steady-state burning ashes. This may explain
the absence of strong crust Urca cooling inferred from the observed cooling
light curve of the transiently accreting x-ray source MAXI J0556-332.Comment: Accepted to Physical Review Letter
Mass Measurements Demonstrate a Strong N = 28 Shell Gap in Argon
We present results from recent time-of-flight nuclear mass measurements at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University. We report the first mass measurements of 48Ar and 49Ar and find atomic mass excesses of −22.28(31) MeV and −17.8(1.1) MeV, respectively. These masses provide strong evidence for the closed shell nature of neutron number N=28 in argon, which is therefore the lowest even-Z element exhibiting the N=28 closed shell. The resulting trend in binding-energy differences, which probes the strength of the N=28 shell, compares favorably with shell-model calculations in the sd-pf shell using SDPF-U and SDPF-MU Hamiltonians