Dr. Everett Vieira III, assistant professor of political science, was one of four faculty nationwide to receive a Pi Sigma Alpha Best Chapter Adviser Award for 2021-22. The selection committee said it was especially impressed with how Vieira drew on his own research experiences to inform a chapter event focused on the ins and outs of conducting fieldwork. Vieira demonstrated a keen understanding of the importance of connecting political science knowledge and practice with student professional development and learning.

In addition, the National Political Science Honors Society awarded Fresno State’s Alpha Delta Beta chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha a Best Chapter Award for 2021-22. Out of 800 chapters, only five received this honor. The selection committee said it was impressed with the chapter’s achievements in developing activities supporting student research, especially given the significant challenges faculty and students around the world continue to face due to the COVID pandemic. This is the second year the Fresno State chapter has achieved this honor.

Daniel Cunningham, lecturer of mathematics, published his paper "On Forcing over L[R]'' in the Archive for Mathematical Logic. The paper is available online and will soon be assigned to an issue. The Archive for Mathematical Logic is a refereed journal that publishes research papers on mathematical logic and set theory.

In set theory, the method of forcing consists of extending a set theoretical universe M, called an inner model, to a larger universe M* that contains new sets that are not in the old universe M. However, there are forcing extensions that add too many new sets. In particular, virtually all nontrivial forcing extensions of the inner model L(R) do not satisfy the axiom of determinacy (AD), simply because such forcing adds too many new sets. A natural question to ask is: When can one use a forcing extension to add only a small number of new sets to L(R) and then obtain an inner model (of the extension) that satisfies AD? In his paper, Cunningham's shows that this can be done and provides examples of such extensions.

Paul Cohen developed the forcing technique to prove the independence of the axiom of choice and the continuum hypothesis from Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory. For his work in set theory, Paul Cohen received the Fields Medal which is awarded every four years on the occasion of the International Congress of Mathematicians to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement. Ever since Cohen introduced the forcing concept to set theory and mathematics, forcing has been seen by the general mathematical community as a subject of great intrinsic interest, but one that is technically forbidding except to those whose specialty is in set theory. Books and papers have been published to alleviate this misperception.

Dr. Bill Erysian, director of the new Global Agriculture and Food Security Initiative within the Jordan College, has just returned from Yerevan, Armenia where he met with Dr. Vardan Urutyan (left), Rector of the National Agrarian University of Armenia (NAUA).

The purpose of this visit was to reinvigorate the memorandum of cooperation between Fresno State and NAUA that calls for increased student/faculty mobility programs and joint research on food security challenges in the Eurasian region. Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, NAUA has emerged as the leading agricultural university in the region.

Fresno State has conducted several USDA-funded rural development and agricultural reform projects in Armenia over the past 15 years.

Dr. Janine Nkosi, lecturer of sociology, is one of the Faith in the Valley thought-leaders in Vienna, Austria this week as part of an intensive Social Housing Field Study organized by the Global Policy Leadership Academy.

The purpose of this visit is to learn about how Vienna became one of the most livable cities in the world and to bring that knowledge back to Fresno to find creative solutions for the California housing crisis. Nkosi will bring the Valley’s unique perspective to the delegation as they learn about deeply affordable mixed-income housing.