August 12, 2025

The August 2025 issue of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute (MTTI) newsletter is now available on the MTTI website. This issue provides updates on current MTTI member activities and highlights innovative research from two of our principal investigators.

Topics featured in this issue include:

• Michigan Tech Hosts 2025 “Tracks to the Future” Rail and Intermodal Summer Youth Program
• Colin Brooks (MTRI) Appointed to State Commission
• MTTI Researchers Awarded New Funding
• Upcoming: Midwest Rail Conference
• Researchers Needed: Join Us in Telling Your Rail Story
• MTTI Becomes Part of New Tier I Institute
• Highlights: Dr. Dave Watkins’ work on Michigan Hydraulic Calculation Procedures
• Highlights: Dr. Pasi Lautala’s research on Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) Development, Framework, Data, Tools, and Implications for Multi-Modal Transport Decisions

This Sunday's Aug. 17 production system maintenance window has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. to midnight. The following production services will be unavailable during that time:

• apps.mtu.edu
• Banner
• Banweb
• MyMichiganTech
• Aspire
• Course Tools
• Degreeworks
• Experience
• Fischer/mylogin.mtu.edu
• mtu.edu/tips
• OAP Rental System
• Oracle Reports
• Papercut Printing
• Perceptive Content (Imagenow)
• Pinnacle
• Sunapsis
• UC4/Appworx
• Virtual Cashiering
• WebFocus

If you have any questions or concerns, we can help. Email IT at it-help@mtu.edu or call 906-487-1111.

Dear MTU Campus Community,

Memorial Union staff members are excited to start a games collection at the MUB, and we need your help to make it happen.

If you have any of the following items you no longer use and would consider donating, we’d be incredibly grateful:

• Board games (Monopoly, Scrabble, or newer strategy games)
• Card games
• Puzzles (jigsaw puzzles, brain teasers, etc.)
• Bag toss (cornhole)
• Other fun games students might enjoy, including game consoles

Items should be in good, useable condition. It's OK if a few pieces have been lost — just let us know what's missing!

Donation Details:

• Drop-Off Location: The Memorial Union Office (MUB 101)
• Need a Pickup? Contact Matt or Trevor at mubrooms@mtu.edu

Every donation helps us create a more inviting MUB space where students can relax, connect and have fun. Thank you for supporting this initiative and enhancing student life at the MUB!

Get your running shoes ready! The Arnold Air Society, a Michigan Tech registered student organization, will be hosting the annual POW/MIA 5K Run on Sept. 13.

All proceeds will benefit the VFW in Hubbell to support local veterans in need.

The run will begin at the ROTC Building on Michigan Tech's campus. The route will take participants to the Portage Lift Bridge and back.

To preregister for the 5K, please contact seddy@mtu.edu to request a QR code. Registration will also be available on the day of the race from 8 a.m. until the race begins at 9 a.m. Registration cost is $20.

Bonus: The first 50 registrants receive a free T-shirt.

Mark your calendar and join us in honoring those who have served and sacrificed.

Hailey Tennant ’25 and Mark Rhodes (SS) are the authors of an article recently published in Lagoonscapes: The Venice Journal of Environmental Humanities hosted by Venice University Press.

The article is titled "'Demasiado Poco Homenaje': The Eva Perón Tomato and Absence within Living Memorials."

Tennant, a recent B.S. in Psychology graduate with a minor in Law and Society, was a 2023 McNair Scholar mentored by Rhodes. Her work, exploring the memorialization of Eva and Juan Perón via varieties of fruit and vegetables named in their honor, found patterns of absence and erasure.

Using archival methods and content and discourse analysis, Tennant found that not only is Eva Perón perpetually forgotten by seed savers and companies, but the relatively popular tomato variety, the Peron Sprayless tomato, had originally been named the Eva Perón tomato.

The article is the product of not only Tennant's summer working with the MTU McNair Scholars program, but an additional year of refinement, justification and revision of the work.

Great Lakes Research Center graduate student members are presenting their research findings at the 155th American Fisheries Society Meeting, being held Aug. 10-14 in San Antonio, Texas, with the theme “Headwaters to Saltwater: Understanding the Past, Protecting the Future, 155 Years of AFS.”

Presenters:

• Ph.D. student Hunter Roose (biological sciences) will present “Fatty acid tracers reveal temporal resource use patterns in brook trout.” Co-authors include James Junker of the University of North Texas, Gord Paterson (BioSci/GLRC) and Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC). Student travel award provided by the Ecosystem Science Center.

• Ph.D. student Elizabeth Jahn (biological sciences) will present “Trophic dynamics: sharks, finfish, and forage species in the New York Bight.” Co-authors include Oliver Shipley and Michael Frisk of Stony Brook University, and Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC). Student travel award provided by the Great Lakes Research Center.

• Ph.D. student Greyson Wolf (biological sciences) will present twice:
  1. “Lawyer up: protecting Lake Superior’s native Burbot.” Co-authors include Gord Paterson (BioSci/GLRC), Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lauren Stigers (MSU/GLRC) of Michigan Sea Grant, and Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC).
  2. “Assessing the role of Burbot in coupling nearshore and offshore habitats of Lake Superior.” Co-authors include: Ph.D. student Grant Dlesk (BioSci), Gord Paterson (BioSci/GLRC), Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Brandon Gerig of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Kristin Brzeski (CFRES) and Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC). Student travel award provided by the AFS John E. Skinner Memorial Fund Award and AFS Travel Awards.

• Ph.D. student Grant Dlesk (biological sciences) will present “Assessing genetic population structure among Lake Superior Burbot (Lota lota).” Co-authors include Ph.D. student Greyson Wolf (biological sciences), Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC), Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Kristin Brzeski (CFRES), Brandon Gerig of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Gord Paterson (BioSci/GLRC). Student travel award provided by AFS MI Chapter and AFS Travel Awards.

• M.S. student Quinn Angus will present “Using otoliths to track climate responses in Lake Superior Lake Trout.”
  Co-authors include Shawn Sitar of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Jill Olin (BioSci/GLRC), Gord Paterson (BioSci/GLRC) and Steve Volker (CFRES).

The Cool Down mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about using sunflower seed flour to both enrich bread and reduce the environmental impact of the sunflower oil industry. A MTU research project exploring the potential of turning plastic into food through plastic-devouring microbes was mentioned as another example of transforming waste streams into edible products.

*****

The Daily Mining Gazette mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about the Copper Country Rock and Mineral Show, held at Houghton Elementary School on Aug. 8-10. Nathalie Brandes, former MTU Ph.D. student and graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, gave a presentation on the prehistoric dimetrodon at the event.

*****

Northwestern Ontario’s 93.1 CFOB-FM mentioned Michigan Tech in a story about former hockey defenseman Elov Seger being posthumously inducted into Fort Francis Sports Hall of Fame. Seger was a member of MTU’s 1961-62 NCAA championship team.

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