On Aug. 13-14, Drs. John Niedzwiecki, Roger Jackson and Chris Barton, of the Biology Department, attended the iPlant Bio Genomics in Education Workshop hosted at Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. At the workshop they learned strategies for incorporating the latest genomic and bioinformatics technologies and methods for the undergraduate classroom. Genomics in Education focuses on DNA Subway, a website that introduces students to sophisticated bioinformatics though an easy-to-use interface.
This free workshop empowers college faculty to integrate modern methods for genome analysis into courses and student research projects. All the resources presented in the workshop are produced by the iPlant Collaborative, a National Science Foundation-funded project to develop a computer infrastructure for plant research. Instruction, workshop materials and lunches are provided by NSF grant funding.
After serving as Metro Nashville and Davidson County District Attorney General for 27 years, Torry Johnson will retire Aug. 31 and prepare for joining 
Don’t call it a “small, liberal arts college” anymore. Today Belmont University announced a Fall 2014 enrollment of 7,301 students, putting the thriving University at more than double its enrollment from 2000 (2,976 students) and up 5.5 percent from last fall’s total of 6,915. Applications for undergraduate and graduate admissions for Fall 2014 also saw an increase of 12.5 percent and resulted in the University’s largest freshman class to date with 1,420 students.
Following a thankful message from Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and a charge to find their purposes through service from Belmont President Bob Fisher, students in Belmont’s Class of 2018 along with transfers students volunteered throughout Nashville through the University’s annual SERVE Project on Monday afternoon.
Belmont alumna and country music newcomer 
Twenty Belmont students and three faculty spent the first summer session traveling and studying in China from June 11 to July 2. During their stay in the city of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, students enjoyed a homestay with faculty members from Zhengzhou University’s School of Foreign Languages and their families. Zhengzhou University is the largest university in Henan Province with over 50,000 students, and it is one of Belmont’s partner institutions in China. Belmont’s Dr. Qingjun Joan Li, assistant professor of Chinese language and Asian studies, set up the home stays, coordinating with Professor Victor Wang Shengli, dean of the School of Foreign Languages. Wang will teach at Belmont this Fall Semester as a Visiting Scholar. Belmont students were assigned in pairs, two persons to each Chinese family. They enjoyed a wide variety of activities while staying with their Chinese families including making Chinese dumplings called jiaozi, boating on the Yellow River, joining their little Chinese siblings in birthday parties, learning calligraphy from their Chinese parents, teaming up with their Chinese families to sing Chinese and American songs in karoke, fan dancing and doing taiji quan with their families in the park in the evening as well as visiting with Chinese senior citizens who had never met any Westerners.
After 27 months of construction, Belmont University administrators, trustees and student representatives officially cut the ribbon today to signify the grand opening of the Wedgewood Academic Center, a 186,000 square foot structure plus 159,500 square feet for parking located on the corner of Wedgewood and 15th Avenues. From the five-level underground garage fit to hold 430 vehicles to the Fifth Floor Conference Room offering a perfect bird’s eye view of Nashville’s skyline, the building stands as a new cornerstone for the University that seeks to serve both its growing student body and its dynamic hometown.
“The Wedgewood Academic Center provides a perfect visual testimony of just what a unique and challenging education Belmont offers,” said Dr. Fisher. “Where else can science, liberal arts and religion students and faculty interact so easily? I believe the building itself will quickly become a Nashville icon—it is spectacular.”
Today Belmont University unveiled its new campus Chapel, the first space on the ecumenical Christian university’s campus intentionally designed for worship services. Located on the ground floor of the new Wedgewood Academic Center at the corner of 15th and Wedgewood Avenues, the Chapel sits as a focal point within a larger structure that will house three of the University’s Colleges: Liberal Arts & Social Sciences, Sciences & Mathematics and Theology & Christian Ministry. The Chapel will host services three times a week during the fall and spring semesters, as well as special services of worship throughout the year. 
On Aug. 7, Motion Pictures Chairman and Assistant Professor Will Akers presented a paper at the University Film & Video Association annual conference at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. On the panel “Narrative Trends in 2014: Enhanced Content, Expendable Characters, Anime Undertones, Creative License,” Akers spoke on his paper topic “Turning Real Life into Drama: The Joys and Pitfalls of Discovering a Story in the Past.”
The New York Times cited Belmont Honors Professor Joseph Byrne in an article published Tuesday about a government quarantine of cities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to stop the spread of Ebola. Their method, “cordon sanitaire,” keeps people from entering or exiting the infected area and was common during the Black Death. Byrne is a historian who teaches the medieval and early modern sections of the Honors interdisciplinary humanities curriculum and in the article discussed a voluntary cordon in Eyam, England in 1665. 