Spotlight on the Distinguished Research Masters and Distinguished Dissertation Award Recipients
05/11/2020
BATON ROUGE – LSU Office of Research & Economic Development, or ORED, honors the exceptional research and scholarship of two LSU faculty as Distinguished Research Masters each year. LSU’s Thomas & Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor Heather McKillop was recognized for her scholarship in the arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences. LSU Professor of Physics Joseph A. Giaime, who leads the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, in Livingston as the observatory head, was recognized for his research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
In addition, the LSU Alumni Association and the Graduate School sponsor the Distinguished Dissertation Awards presented to two doctoral students whose research and writing demonstrate superior scholarship. Angela Farizo McCarthy, who received her Ph.D. in political science, earned the award in arts, humanities and social sciences for her doctoral dissertation on how religion influences Americans’ attitudes toward social and economic public policy. Julie Butler, who received her Ph.D. in biological sciences, earned the award in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for her doctoral dissertation on how increased noise pollution impacts fish behavior, physiology, communication and development.
The Distinguished Research Master and Distinguished Dissertation Awards reception was postponed this year due to the coronavirus and campus closure.
Heather McKillop, Distinguished Research Master — Arts, Humanities, Social & Behavioral SciencesGeography & Anthropology, College of Humanities & Social Sciences
Heather McKillop is a Canadian-American archaeologist, academic and Maya scholar, who is noted in particular for her research into ancient Maya coastal trade routes, seafaring, littoral archaeology and the long-distance exchange of commodities in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Since the 2004 discovery of ancient Maya wooden architecture and a wooden canoe paddle preserved in a peat bog below the sea floor, McKillop and her team of LSU students and colleagues have been focused on the discovery, mapping, excavation, sediment coring and analyses of the waterlogged remains. She started the DIVA Lab, or Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology, in 2008 to make 3D digital images of the waterlogged wood, pottery and other artifacts from the underwater Maya sites that comprise the Paynes Creek Salt Works. Since 2016, McKillop has been the Thomas and Lillian Landrum Alumni Professor in the LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology.
Joseph A. Giaime, Distinguished Research Master — Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
Physics & Astronomy, College of Science
Joseph A. Giaime’s research focused on laser interferometer design and vibration isolation systems for interferometric gravitational wave detectors. He worked for three years at JILA at the University of Colorado before going back to MIT to spend a year working on the initial LIGO installation. In 1999, he joined the LSU faculty, where he now holds the position professor of physics and astronomy. With Caltech, he is currently the observatory head of LIGO Livingston. Giaime was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2009 for his contributions to gravitational wave physics, in particular key aspects of LIGO.
Angela Farizo McCarthy — the Josephine A. Roberts Alumni Association Distinguished
Dissertation Award in Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Angela Farizo McCarthy’s dissertation, “The Religious Impact: Understanding the Influence of Religiosity on Attitudes toward Policy Issues,” sheds light on the influence of religion on Americans’ attitudes toward policy concerns. It addresses how denominational affiliation, religious participation and religious beliefs influence one’s views on social and economic public policy. In a comprehensive analysis, McCarthy discovered the importance of including the religious dimensions in models of public policy attitudes. She offers considerations for developing a unified theory that involves the influence of the clergy and religious social groups and religious beliefs as the driving force behind many policy opinions. Collectively, she demonstrates that religious belonging, religious behaving and religious believing are important considerations when studying public opinion on policy concerns.
She currently is a permanent lecturer in the University of Florida’s Department of Political Science, where she teaches Religion and Politics; American Public Opinion; Policy, Leadership and Ethics; Environmental Politics; and Conduct of Inquiry, which is a research methods course for Master’s students. She is the director of the undergraduate research program called Junior Fellows as well as the experiential learning coordinator for the political science department. Her scholarly work has been published in Political Research Quarterly, The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Geographical Review.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in general studies, master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science from LSU. She received a Master of Arts degree in history from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Julie Butler — LSU Alumni Association Distinguished Dissertation Award in Science,
Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
Julie Butler’s dissertation, “The Impact of Anthropogenic Noise on Fish Behavior, Communication and Development,” found that human-caused noise had negative impacts on the social behaviors, acoustic communication and juvenile development in fish. Human activities, such as shipping and oil exploration, have caused underwater ambient sound levels to rise more than 30 decibels in most fishes’ hearing range. Noise exposure resulted in altered territorial interactions, lower spawning rates, decreased parental care behaviors and higher juvenile mortality. Overall, Butler’s data indicate that increased background noise, similar to that found in a shipping lane or harbor, can have negative impacts on fish species’ success and persistence.
Butler is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, where she is investigating how sensory information informs complex social decisions. While at LSU, she was very involved in BioGrads, the biology graduate student organization, and was one of the founding members of LSU Women in Science.
She received Bachelor of Science degrees in biology and forensic and investigative sciences from Texas A&M University. She was awarded a Louisiana Board of Regents Fellowship and a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in support of her graduate work at LSU. She received her Ph.D. in 2019.
Contact Alison Satake
LSU Media Relations
510-816-8161
asatake@lsu.edu