Instructors

Dr. Patrick Briggs (B.A., Cal. State Univ. at Sacramento; PhD, Univ. of Kansas) joined the faculty of The Citadel in 1981. He teaches astronomy, calculus-based introductory physics and advanced mechanics.  He has been extensively involved with both teachers and students in improving science education in South Carolina. He has coached Little League baseball and wishes he could spend more time working in his backyard. His primary research interest is solar and interplanetary ions.

Mrs. Elizabeth Bunn (B.S., M.A., M.S., Clemson Univ.) came to GSSM in 1993 from Cleveland State University (Ohio), where she taught in the Computer Science Department. She has also taught math and worked as a software engineer with Texas Instruments. She teaches computer science, engineering and robotics at GSSM and is the coach of the First Tech Robotics team. She has taught such diverse courses as digital editing, criminology, and non-Euclidean geometry during the GSSM interim semester. She and her husband have three sons, two in college. Her favorite pastimes are gardening, reading and camping in our state and national parks.

Mrs. Jessica Chewning (B.S., Lander University) has been a secondary science teacher at Darlington High School (DHS) since 2010. She has taught Biology Honors and Physical Science to ninth graders. In addition, Mrs. Chewning serves as the advisor for the DHS Science club. Prior to entering the teaching profession, she worked as an analytical chemist for IRIX Pharmaceuticals. In her free time she enjoys running, reading, cooking and spending time with her husband, Labrador retriever and cat.

Dr. Erin Eaton (B.S., University of South Carolina, PhD, Vanderbilt University) has been on the faculty at Francis Marion University since fall 2006. Her research interest is in molecular physiology and biophysics. She teaches a wide range of courses, including human anatomy, human physiology and molecular biology. 

Dr. Philip Fulmer (B.S., Francis Marion University; M.S., Ph.D., Texas A&M University) joined the Francis Marion University faculty in 2002 and now serves as Associate Professor of Physics. He teaches electronics, nuclear radiation physics and other introductory physics classes. In addition, Dr. Fulmer has served as a consultant in the nuclear and environmental industry for nearly 20 years, where he specializes in analyzing environmental impacts from industrial projects and radiation safety for workers and the public. He has been an electronics hobbyist since he was 12 and still enjoys building fun things from old electrical parts. He also enjoys model rocketry and flying homemade electric radio-controlled airplanes.

Dr. Blaine Griffen (B.S., Brigham Young Univ.; M.S., Oregon State Univ.; PhD, Univ. of New Hampshire) has been an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department and the Marine Science Program at the University of South Carolina since August 2008. Prior to that, he was a research scientist at the University of Georgia. His research interests are in species invasion, population extinction and understanding the responses of marine animals to environmental change.

Mr. Niru Maheswaranathan (B.S.E., Duke Univ.) is currently a graduate student in the neurosciences PhD program at Stanford University. His degree is in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering and is a GSSM and GoSciTech (SSP) alumnus. His research interests revolve around the fields of computational & theoretical neuroscience. In his free time, he enjoys reading, web design and soccer.

Mr. Keith McElveen (B.S., M.S., Clemson Univ.) began working for the federal government and now works in the commercial industry, where he helps develop tools and techniques used by federal, state and local law enforcement to investigate crimes and prosecute cases. He spends most of his spare time sharing the interests and activities of his four children, who range in age up to 16. His personal hobbies and interests include fencing, hiking, reading and blogging about general and forensic science.

Dr. Jacob Moldenhauer (B.A., The Univ. of the Ozarks; M.A., PhD, The Univ. of Texas at Dallas) joined the Physics and Astronomy department at Francis Marion University in August 2011. He was a postdoc at The University of Texas at Dallas and an Associate Faculty at Collin College in Plano, Texas, before moving to Florence, SC. He teaches Physical Science and Advanced Computational Physics and is interested in computational physics and cosmology.

Dr. Roger Newman-Norlund (BA, SUNY Geneseo; Ph.D., Dartmouth College) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina. His degree is in cognitive neuroscience, a branch of psychology that studies the biological foundations of mental phenomena. He uses 3-D brain imaging technology to study brain structure and function, and he uses non-invasive brain stimulation technology to create virtual lesions and/or drive neural plasticity in the brain. He is a father of three wonderful children and his outside hobbies and interests include collectible card games, legos, tennis and video games/computer programming.

Mr. Dewey Nguyen (AB, Duke Univ. in Political Science; Juris Doctor, Notre Dame Law School), is a licensed attorney currently serving as a law clerk to Chief Justice Toal of the SC Supreme Court in Columbia, SC. Originally from Rock Hill, SC, and a 2004 graduate of GSSM, he trained in law school in the areas of Trial Advocacy, Patent Law, Evidence and Constitutional Law. He has experience teaching trial advocacy and mock trial to gifted and talented young adults in the Duke TIP Summer Program, and has served as a judge for the mock trial advocacy competition in South Carolina.

Dr. Sid Parrish (B.S., Furman Univ.; M.S., PhD, Univ. of Florida) is the director of the Chemical Forensics Program at Newberry College. A native of Orlando, Florida, he previously taught in Nebraska. Although the Chemical Forensics program is only in its seventh year, it is already gaining regional attention. His hobbies include golf, hiking and training his dog to go to hospitals and nursing homes to help with physical therapy. His research has involved both chemical education and energy relaxation pathways in photovoltaic nanoparticles/nanoclusters.

Dr. Charles Rains (B.S., The Citadel; PhD, Clemson Univ.) has been teaching college since 1988 and currently a professor of Physics at Anderson University.  He enjoys gardening, fishing, reading mysteries, and relentlessly following baseball. His research focuses on building apparatus for physics demonstrations.

Dr. George Rudolph (B.S., M.S., PhD, Brigham Young Univ.) joined The Citadel faculty in 2003, after several years in industry as a software engineer and architect at Motorola, Inc. in Arizona. His hobbies and interests include martial arts, hockey, chess, general science and foreign language. He and his wife have five children, ranging in age up to 18 years old. He conducts basic and applied research in neural networks and machine learning, exploring how machines can learn and adapt without being explicitly programmed.

Dr. Gary Salazar (B.S., Baylor University; PhD, Louisiana State Univ.) joined the GSSM faculty in January of 2008. Prior to that, he served as a visiting assistant professor at Trinity University in San Antonio for six years. At GSSM, Dr. Salazar serves as the sponsor for many of the academic teams including the Math Team, Mock Trial and Quiz Bowl. His research interests include coding theory and polynomials over finite fields.

Dr. Gary Senn (B.S., two M.S. degrees, Ed S, and PhD, Florida Institute of Technology) was a secondary school teacher and Program Director of the East Central Florida Center of Excellence in Science, Mathematics, Computers and Technology before joining the USC Aiken faculty in 1992. His hobbies include hiking, astronomy and camping. He is director of the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center and the DuPont Planetarium at USC-Aiken. His research deals with the effective use of technology in education.

Dr. Lorianne Stehouwer Turner (B.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Ph.D., Temple University, Philadelphia) joined the faculty at Francis Marion University in 2009 following her post-doctoral training at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Turner's research interests include alterations to cell function in cells that over-express the enzyme acid ceramidase.

Mr. Steven Weingartner (B.A., Vanderbilt Univ.; MBA, Univ. of Texas, Dallas) currently teaches at Florence-Darlington Technical College. He also previously taught at the University of South Carolina, Coker College and South Carolina State University. His many hobbies and interests include painting, bowling and chess.

Dr. Paul Zwiers (B.S., Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA; Ph.D., University of Maryland) is an assistant professor at Francis Marion University. He is currently teaching biology classes to new biology students (many of them first year college students) and non-biology majors. His research interests include studying the diversity of traits found in birds of Australia, New Guinea, and the Galapagos Islands, and the bird diseases found in those areas. He is interested in studying similar questions in frog populations in South Carolina.