- Daniel Parker, operations manager for the fermentation facility and lecturer (Chemistry and Fermentation Sciences) produced 115 gallons of hand sanitizer to supplement university needs using 2500 lbs of beet sugar and a 300 Liter steam-jacketed-pot-still to distill fermented sugar water into ethanol during the process.
- J.P. Jameson (Psychology), has been working on a system of contact tracing to assist in helping trace COIVD cases in schools. He offered a course to prepare students to be hired by local health agencies ready for the field, with working knowledge and students are seeing successful outcomes upon graduation.
- Dr. Maggie Sugg (Geography and Planning) along with the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS) collaborated on a study titled “Short-term effects of specific humidity and temperature on COVID-19 morbidity in select US cities,” that was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The authors wrote that, compared to solar radiation and temperature, the humidity was the most predominant predictor of COVID-19 transmission in U.S. cities considered among early hot spots in the pandemic.
- Students in Appalachian’s Psychology Club and chapter of Psi Chi, the national honor society in psychology sponsored by the American Psychological Association, developed a strategy to motivate students to adhere to infection control behaviors. In the App State vs. COVID campaign, students observe and anonymously report behaviors using a model of “no name, no blame, no shame.” The campaign encourages students to download a mobile app called Habitood and use it to report positive and negative observations of these behaviors. More than 200 people are using the app, and the group’s goal is to gain 5,000 participants. The co-owner of Habitood, alumnus Tim Miller ’13, is allowing App State to use the software free of charge.
- Dr. Brooke Christian ’05, assistant professor; alumnus Harrison Esterly ’19 and senior Dane Shovlin (Chemistry and Fermentation Sciences) co-authored research on more cost-effective storage and delivery methods for life-saving drugs and vaccines — including a future COVID-19 vaccine.
- Ann Kaplan (Interdisciplinary Studies) was named a consultant on a COVID-19 Artists Documentary Project at the Philippines Women's University, in partnership with the Department of Cultural Affairs, Philippines.
- The IOHRM master’s program (Psychology) hosted the annual Appalachian Human Resources Summit in October 2020 with around 100 participants in the virtual format which focused on racism in corporate America; mental health challenges due to COVID; misinformation; the post-COVID workplace.
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