Last week the university announced alumni Charlotte and Buddy Beck have endowed two new professorships at A-State. Dr. Mohammad Abrar Alam, associate professor of chemistry, was named as the inaugural recipient of the Beck Professorship in Chemistry. The focus of Alam's research group is the development of new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections. He joined A-State’s faculty in 2015. Details about the Beck Professorships are online.

A research article co-authored by Dr. Guolei (Jason) Zhou, professor of cell biology, has been published in the international journal Cellular Signalling. Through collaborations with Dr. Jianfeng Xu, research professor in agriculture, and Dr. Jennifer Y. Xie, NYITCOM, their study unravels molecular mechanisms underlying the fundamental cell function of CAP1, which also is involved in the invasiveness of human cancers. Seven undergraduate and graduate students are co-authors, including the lead authors.

Senior accounting major Melanie Fortson and three accounting faculty members secured a data access grant from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) Research Institute. Fortson and Dr. James Doering, HCJ CPAs & Advisors/Louis and Ann Schaaf Professor of Accounting and department chair, Dr. Steve Muzatko, H.B. Foster Bowdon Chair of Accounting and associate professor, and Dr. Hrish Desai, assistant professor, are using the grant to access ACFE’s Reports to the Nations database for their study. More details are online.

Congratulations to Paula Miles, retired assistant director of Heritage Sites, who will be honored this month with induction into the Arkansas Tourism Hall of Fame. She will be recognized at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism in El Dorado. Called a “passionate advocate for the Delta,” Miles was highly involved in A-State's restoration of numerous historic properties. She now serves as executive secretary and treasurer for Arkansas Delta Byways. Details are online.

Dr. Michael B. Dougan, professor of history emeritus, spoke at the quarterly meeting of the Craighead County Historical Society. His topic was the origins of Jonesboro street names, including Allis Street. It is named for Horace G. Allis, a 19th century Arkansan who was a star baseball player, head of a corporation that once owned the Arkansas Gazette, and a bank president in Little Rock before his criminal trial.