Greetings from the Chair
December 2023
Greetings fellow alumni and friends,
The end of the semester is upon us and exams are coming up. The ebb and flow of the academic year continues much the same as always. It was great to see many of you at homecoming in October, which as my 30th I personally found to be one of the most enjoyable. There were quite a few 1993 alumni back in the ‘Burg as well as many from the surrounding years. It seems more people are just getting out and about in 2023.
As I mentioned in the previous letter, we have been doing a lot of work to update our degree programs and our curriculum. If you are really into following the inner workings of the university, you might have heard that the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the Board of Visitors recently approved our proposal to offer two new degree programs BS – Health Sciences and BA/BS in Public Health. This news was probably overshadowed by the separate approval of a new school which will bring together Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Science and Physics. These proposals now go on to the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia for approval. I expect there to be some revision to these proposals as we go through this process, but we are hoping that we will be able to offer these new degree programs in the next academic year. Once that is complete, I will be sure to share links to the finalized details of the new program.
The department faculty and student co-authors continue to contribute to our understanding of the world in many ways including these two new publications since my last letter:
- Looft-Wilson, R. C., Stechmann, J. K., Milenski, K. G., Shah, V. M., Kulkarni, P. G., Arif, A. B., ... & Rice, S. K. (2023). Myoendothelial feedback in mouse mesenteric resistance arteries is similar between the sexes, dependent on nitric oxide synthase, and independent of TPRV4. American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology.
- Basak Tukun, Avonti; Rowe, Sarah; Johnson, LuAnn K; Love, David C; Belury, Martha; Conrad, Zach. (2023). Micronutrient intake from three popular diet patterns in the United States: modeled replacement of foods highest in added sugar and sodium using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2018. Frontiers in Nutrition, 10: 1217774.
Please remember you can always provide updates via our “Send Us Your News” link and I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. Go Tribe!
Sincerely,
Brennan Harris
- Brennan Harris, Ph.D. (B.S. Kinesiology ’93)
Chair & Ken Kambis Professor
Department of Kinesiology
William & Mary
mbharr@wm.edu
