(Posted May 11, 2004)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Six members of the Juniata College faculty received promotions in the 2003-2004 academic year recently at the annual Juniata College Board of Trustees spring meeting.

Jill Keeney, associate professor of biology, was promoted to full professor; Paula Martin, associate professor of environmental science, was promoted to full professor; James Borgardt, assistant professor of physics, was promoted to associate professor; Randy Rosenberger, assistant professor of management, was promoted to Swigart Associates Associate Professor of Management; Xinli Wang, assistant professor of philosophy, was promoted to associate professor; and David Widman, assistant professor of psychology, was promoted to associate professor.

Jill Keeney joined the Juniata faculty as an assistant professor in 1994, after working as a postdoctoral fellow in genetics and molecular biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has established a major undergraduate research program at Juniata. Over her time at Juniata, she has received several research grants from the National Institutes of Health, including a 2002 three-year $123,650 grant to study retroelements within yeast that behave in similar fashion to infectious viruses. Previously she received an NIH for $75,000 for similar research. She also received a six-year $432,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant from the National Science Foundation to funds research on related genetic issues within the cell structure of yeast.

She teaches courses on microbiology, immunology, biology research and molecular techniques. She maintains an active research publishing career and many of her student assistants have published research papers.

She was promoted to associate professor in 1999. In addition, she received the 1999 Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service for junior faculty. She earned a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Penn State University in 1985 and earned a doctorate in immunology from Washington University, in St. Louis, Mo., in 1990.

Paula Martin came to Juniata as an associate professor in 1998 from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., where she was interim director of the Human and Natural Ecology Program. She earned a master's degree and doctorate, both in entomology, from the University of Massachusetts, in 1989 and 1993, respectively. She earned a bachelor's degree in entomology from the University of California at Berkeley.

She teaches courses in conservation biology, environmental monitoring, insects and human society, water issues, environmental biology, quantitative insect ecology, entomology and aquatic entomology. Martin is chair of the Department of Environmental Science, where she has overseen the expansion of Juniata's environmental science curriculum as well as the expansion of the Raystown Field Station. In 1995 she received a Fulbright Research Scholarship to study water quality in Kenyan streams.

She has published her research in a variety of professional journals, including the "Bulletin of Contamination and Environmental Toxicology," "Journal of Medical Entomology" and "Hydrobiologia."

Randy Rosenberger joined the Juniata faculty in 1997 as an instructor in business. He was promoted to Swigart Associates Assistant Professor of Management in 1998. Before returning to earn a doctorate in management science from Penn State in 1999, Rosenberger worked as a certified public accountant and as an investment analyst.

He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Dickinson University in 1980, and went on to earn a master's of business administration degree in 1985 from Cornell University.

After working in the private sector, Rosenberger returned to teaching in 1989, working as an instructor in business at Delaware County Community College, St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pa. and Penn State University. He teaches one of Juniata's most popular courses, "Behavioral Analysis of Organizations" (also known as HOBO) and a variety of other management and business courses.

Xinli Wang was hired at Juniata in 1999 as an assistant professor of philosophy. He started his academic career as a scientist in 1982 as an instructor in geophysics at Xian College of Geology in China.

He earned a bachelor's degree in geophysics in 1982 from the Changchun Institute of Geology in China. He went on to earn a master's degree in philosophy in 1988 from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Connecticut in 1999.

Before coming to Juniata, Wang worked as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Connecticut from 1992 to 1997. He also worked as a visiting lecturer in philosophy at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. from 1997 to 1999.

Wang is particularly interested in the philosophy of science and has published articles in such academic journals as "Prima Philsophia," "Journal of Dialectics of Nature" and "Dialogos."

He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Connecticut in 1996. He is one of the professors who team-teach one of Juniata's most popular courses, "God, Evolution and Culture."

David Widman came to Juniata as an assistant professor of psychology in 1999. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyo. in 1987. He went on to earn a doctorate in biopsychology from the State University of New York-Albany in 1992.

He started his academic career in 1995 as a part-time assistant professor of psychology at Indiana University. From 1996 to 1999, he was an assistant professor of psychology at Kalamazoo College, in Kalamazoo, Mich.

He teaches a wide range of courses at Juniata, including Introduction to Psychology, Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Biopsychology and Sensation and Perception. His research centers on animal learning and behavior.

Widman has published his research in such journals as "Physiology and Behavior," "Society for Neuroscience" and the "Journal of Comparative Psychology."

Widman also serves as a reviewer for a variety of academic journals and holds memberships in the Eastern Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.