Five South Professors Recognized for Research
Posted on October 30, 2024
Five University of South Alabama faculty members were honored Oct. 24 at the 3rd annual Technology and Research Showcase for their research in fields ranging from sustainability to cyber security and marine sciences to lung biology.
Dr. Todd McDonald, professor of computer science; Dr. Alison Robertson, associate professor of marine sciences and senior marine scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab; Dr. Tory Stevens, professor of physiology and cell biology; Dr. Bret Webb, professor of civil, coastal and environmental engineering; and Dr. Shenghua Wu, associate professor of civil, coastal and environmental engineering were recognized for their work.
“The Research and Technology Showcase is South’s opportunity to show our community the cutting-edge research that is being conducted by our faculty,” said Dr. Michael Chambers, interim vice president for research and economic development and chief economic development officer. “Our faculty bring in millions of dollars in external funding every year to improve patient care and outcomes, to create novel technologies and to safeguard our national security and our environment.”
Lt. General William J. Hartman, U.S. Army, deputy commander of USCYBERCOM, and South alumnus, was the keynote speaker. USCYBERCOM directs, synchronizes and coordinates cyberspace planning and operations to defend and advance national interests in collaboration with domestic and international partners.
Hartman spoke about attending South and how it impacted his life, including earning a scholarship through the University’s Army ROTC program and meeting his wife during his final semester on campus.
Hartman also talked about global cyber threats to the U.S. and its interests, noting that collaboration between industry, education and the military is critical to the nation’s defense.
“Cyber Command is building a culture of innovation and forward thinking and we’re doing it with partners and a professional workforce, just like what’s occurring here at the University of South Alabama,” Hartman said. “Challenges in cyberspace are simply too vast to tackle alone. We’re dedicated to bringing together unique knowledge, skills and talent from all our partners.”
In addition to the faculty honorees, District 1 Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood was recognized for her steadfast and continued commitment to the University’s research and programming.
The faculty researchers honored were:
Dr. Todd McDonald
Dr. Todd McDonald, a professor in the School of Computing, has published over 100 papers and journals related to secure programming, software and hardware-based protection, systems assurance, anomaly detection and malware analysis. In his academic career, McDonald has shared in over $27 million of grant funding from the National Science Foundation, Department of Interior, National Security Agency, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, U.S. Army and Air Force Research Laboratory related to cybersecurity education, cyber infrastructure development, predictive analytics, software protection, hardware assurance and workforce development. He has taught over 80 college mathematics, computer science and information security courses in the past 25 years, chairing 39 master’s degree committees and 11 doctoral committees.
McDonald is the interim co-editor in chief for Association for Computing Machinery Digital Threats: Research and Practice and an associate editor for Elsevier Computers and Security. He is the principal investigator for National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program and past director of National Security Agency sponsored GenCyber camps. He has served as the faculty sponsor for the USA DayZero student organization that aims to develop future cybersecurity professionals. He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel after serving over 21 years as a communication and cyberspace operations officer specializing in cyber systems defense, research and education.
McDonald received his Ph.D. in computer science from Florida State University in 2006, received his master of science degree in computer engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2000 and his bachelor of science degree in computer science from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1990.
Dr. Troy Stevens
Dr. Troy Stevens is a professor and Lenoir Louise Locke chair in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology in the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine. When SARS-CoV-2 infections spread across the world in 2020, the numbers of infected patients, mortality and recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infections were all tracked closely by healthcare professionals. Recent estimates suggest there have been approximately 705 million coronavirus cases since 2020, with 7 million deaths. This also means that most patients have recovered from coronavirus infections, yet these recoveries have not been without incident. Roughly 19 percent of patients who recover from SARS-CoV-2 infections exhibit protracted impairment in end-organ function, prominently lung, heart, kidney, brain and muscular dysfunction. The SARS-CoV-2 survivors who exhibit protracted end-organ dysfunction have been called long-haulers.
Stevens team’s work has revealed a previously unknown host response to lower airway infection, where viruses and bacteria elicit generation of cytopathic amyloid and tau variants within the lung that can injure multiple organs. These findings identify a mechanism of end-organ dysfunction in the aftermath of critical illness and provide a novel molecular target for development of medical therapy to treat adverse outcomes during and after infection. This work encourages investigators to reconsider our current ways of thinking about the causes of various chronic diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies.
Dr. Alison Robertson
Dr. Alison Robertson is an associate professor in the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences and senior marine scientist II at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Robertson is the graduate coordinator for a master’s program in environmental sciences at South, and is the director of a large trans-ocean international partnership in ciguatera research and education, funded by the National Science Foundation. Robertson is also a lead investigator in metabolomics and biomarker discovery in the Oceans and Human Health: Greater Caribbean Center for Ciguatera Research led by Florida Gulf Coast University and co-funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Robertson has been fascinated by organisms that produce toxins and venoms for 20 years, working in a variety of different ecosystems all over the world including the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Her research has taken her to Australia, North America, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, Indonesia, the Florida Keys, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Antigua, Saba, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, Belize, and many other Caribbean nations.
Robertson’s research focuses on understanding the biological role and environmental drivers of natural marine toxins in marine microalgae and the mechanisms by which they exert their effects in other marine organisms. The goal of this work is to develop methods and tools to better predict, manage and prevent the impacts of benthic and pelagic harmful algal blooms on population, ecosystem and community health.
Additionally, her research characterizes the spatial, temporal and food web dynamics of benthic and pelagic harmful algal blooms and how marine organisms and people might adapt and respond at a molecular, physiological and behavioral level to low level environmental exposure to the natural toxins they produce. Over the past decade, Robertson’s major focus has been on unravelling the complexity of ciguatera poisoning, which is one of the most prevalent seafood-borne illnesses globally and affects coastal communities in the tropics and subtropics, and well as more temperate zones that rely on fishes from these warmer regions.
Robertson’s research is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Alabama Restore Program, Alabama Center of Excellence, the Bonefish Tarpon Trust, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and others.
Dr. Bret Webb
Dr. Bret Webb, a professor in the College of Engineering, has more than 20 years of experience as a civil/coastal engineer including considerable time in both consulting and academia. Webb is a licensed professional engineer in Alabama and Florida. He is board certified by the Academy of Coast, Ocean, Port and Navigation Engineers as a Diplomate, Coastal Engineering.
Webb’s area of research and professional practice deals with coastal resilience. Within that broad topic, he focuses on resilience of the built environment to extreme events and climate change and the benefits provided by nature-based solutions. Since 2007, Webb has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 30 research projects and has secured more than $7.5 million in funding.
Webb has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications and has given over 120 technical presentations on coastal resilience topics. Some of his publications include engineering design guidance for the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration; the Transportation Research Board; the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine; and the US Global Change Research Program. He is also serving as a co-author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s First National Nature Assessment, and as a technical reviewer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ technical guidance for the design of nature-based solutions.
Webb received his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering, his Master of Science in coastal and ocean engineering, and his Ph.D. in coastal ocean engineering all from the University of Florida prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Alabama.
Dr. Shenghua Wu
Since joining the South faculty in the College of Engineering in 2017, Dr. Shenghua Wu has successfully secured over $7.8 million in research funding from federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Science Foundation, as well as from state agencies and industry.
His research areas include construction materials characterization, sustainability and resiliency and an interdisciplinary approach to addressing emerging complex issues. He serves as the director for the Interdisciplinary Center for Sustainable Engineering, the Solid Waste Sustainability Hub and the Gulf Coast Center for Addressing Microplastics Pollution. He is also the founding faculty advisor for the student Society of Sustainable Engineering.
Wu has published 67 peer-reviewed journal articles and 11 technical reports and has presented at over 56 conferences and 33 invited talks. He is a committee member for the Transportation Research Board and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society for Testing and Materials and the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering. He also serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Testing and Evaluation and the International Journal of Pavement Research and Technology. Recently, he was appointed as associate editor for the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering and has been recognized as an outstanding reviewer three times for this flagship journal.
Additionally, Wu is a registered professional engineer in Alabama. He has prepared a free Fundamentals of Engineering exam course for engineering students to help them better prepare for obtaining licensure as professional engineers. In 2023, he received the Tau Beta Pi Professor of the Year and Mortar Board Top Prof awards, and in 2001 received the Excellence in Teaching Award in the College of Engineering.
He received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Washington State University in 2016.
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