BOWLING GREEN, O.—Bowling Green State University recognized two scholars, one near the beginning of his career and the other already well established, at its annual research conference in November.

Dr. John Fischer, an assistant professor in the School of Teaching and Learning, was named the 2005 Outstanding Young Scholar. The award includes $2,000 in cash and an additional $1,000 placed in a research account for his use over the next year.

Dr. Felix Castellano, an associate professor of photochemical sciences, won the Olscamp Research Award, which comes with a $2,000 cash award and a reserved parking space for one year.

Since joining the College of Education and Human Development faculty in 2000, Fischer's research has involved the collection and analysis of qualitative data in three interrelated areas: urban education, international civic education and applied instructional technology.  

In the area of urban education, he focuses on democratic teaching practices and teacher involvement in the school restructuring process, looking especially at the experiences of social studies teachers. He has been instrumental in the College of Education and Human Development's work in East Toledo and has played a major role in the ongoing, multimillion-dollar GEAR UP grant whose aim is to increase the number of at-risk students going to college. He serves as site coordinator for school reform and staff development at East Toledo Junior High School.

Fischer's international efforts in civic education focus on the development of democratic teaching strategies. He developed teacher exchanges between the United States, Poland and Africa and for more than 10 years, his work has centered on a partnership with the Center for Citizenship Education in Warsaw, Poland. Fischer is now designing knowledge and attitude surveys, site-visit protocols and interview schedules to be used over the 2005-06 school year all across Poland.

For the African project, the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs funded a project in 2003 that brought Kenyan and South African teachers to Bowling Green. The grant resulted in the development of a collection of lessons and, most importantly, the development of a democratic framework that serves as a way of sharing the analysis and results of collected data with the targeted communities.

Fischer's work with applied instructional technology focuses on improved classroom teaching practices and enhanced opportunities for international experiences in teacher preparation. In collaboration with other colleagues, he has developed curricular materials that are now receiving national and international attention.  

Olscamp Research Award

The Olscamp Reseach Award is given annually to a BGSU faculty member for outstanding scholarly or creative accomplishments during the previous three-year period. The quality of research is evaluated in terms of significance within the discipline, national and international import, artistic or scholarly creativity, and contribution to knowledge, culture or professional practice.

In the words of his nominator, Castellano has maintained an exemplary record over the past three years in a variety of research areas in his discipline of inorganic and organometallic photochemistry.

Since 2002, he has secured nearly $1 million in extramural research grants and contracts. He is the recipient of a prestigious five-year National Science Foundation CAREER award and has received funding from both the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Department of Energy. He currently maintains 10 active collaborations and his work is known both nationally and internationally, with collaborators as far away as Italy, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and France.

Castellano has published 18 peer-reviewed research articles and a book chapter since 2002, and he currently has four manuscripts in progress. In 2002, he was named the BGSU Outstanding Young Scholar.

Castellano's work has both a fundamental and an applied side. His focus on the fundamental side has been on investigating the supra-nanosecond and ultrafast photophysical processes in certain chromophores. These metal-organic systems are of fundamental interest and may serve in a variety of applications, including optical power limiting, solar energy conversion and photocatalysis.   

On the applied side, working in collaboration with the Anzenbacher research group at BGSU, Castellano and his group have developed a new class of luminescence lifetime-based sensors for anions based on the metal-organic approach.

In accepting the award, Castellano thanked the more than 20 graduate and post-doctoral students who have worked with him on projects over the last seven years. “This award is as much theirs as it is mine,” he said. “On the fundamental side, we like to think our research builds on known concepts to inspire new research and applications for the good of humanity.”

(Posted December 20, 2005)