Three Illinois State University faculty members are being honored with the Cross-Disciplinary Team Research Award. Dr. Christopher C. Mulligan, Dr. Jamie R. Wieland, and Dr. Michael Gizzi were named the winners of the Cross-Disciplinary Team Research Award for their work applying and adapting portable mass spectrometric devices for use in areas of societal need.
The award recognizes exemplary collaborative research conducted by multiple investigators from different disciplines. This award recognizes research teams of two or more investigators for their nationally and internationally visible research of high quality that contributes to multiple professions/disciplines.
Christopher C. Mulligan
Mulligan is a professor of analytical chemistry who joined the Department of Chemistry in 2008. Through his research, Mulligan seeks to demonstrate the performance, impact, and practicality of portable mass spectrometric (MS) systems, featuring ambient ionization methods, for use in forensic evidence screening, the law enforcement/first response communities, and in environmental contaminant monitoring. Mulligan’s collaborative and interdisciplinary research on portable MS systems has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement. He has conducted field research with the Army Corps of Engineers, Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE) at RTI, U.S. National Guard Civil Support Teams, and various local and state-level police agencies. His research in areas of societal need was acknowledged by back-to-back selections to the 2017 and 2018 “Power List” by the Analytical Scientist Magazine and the 2021 American Society for Mass Spectrometry PUI Research Award. He earned a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Purdue University.
Jamie R. Wieland
Wieland is an associate professor in the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods. Dr. Wieland’s research interests are in applied statistics and computational modeling for purposes of decision analysis, policy evaluation, and systems optimization. Her research in the forensic sector has been supported by two National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grants, where she assessed the financial viability (via cost-benefit modeling) and error probabilities of broad field implementation of portable instrumentation for forensic evidence processing. In the College of Business, she teaches statistics, operations management, and applied tools for business decision making. She earned a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from Purdue University.
Michael Gizzi
Gizzi is a professor of in the Department of Criminal Justice Sciences. He taught criminal justice and political science at Colorado Mesa University from 1995 until 2008, when he came to ISU. Gizzi’s research is diverse, and focuses on privacy, vehicle searches, narcotic dog sniffs, and the intersection of technology and law. He also writes and researches on the usage of qualitative data analysis techniques. His interest in technology and law led him to the collaboration with Drs. Mulligan and Wieland on the policy sides of the use of the portable mass spectrometer. Dr. Gizzi’s most recent books are The Practice of Qualitative Data Analysis: Research Examples Using MAXQDA with Dr. Stefan Rädiker (MAXQDA Press, Berlin, 2021), and The Fourth Amendment in Flux: The Roberts Court, Crime Control, and Digital Privacy with Dr. Craig Curtis (University of Kansas Press, 2016). He uses qualitative and mixed methods methodologies in his work and is a certified trainer in the use of MAXQDA computer aided qualitative data analysis software in the social sciences. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University at Albany, SUNY.
