Faculty Focus

The beauty of bugs

Daniel Kariko, assistant professor of fine art photography, School of Art and Design

Daniel Kariko uses some unlikely equipment to capture his subjects: a microscope.

His subjects aren’t typical either. For the past few years, Kariko has photographed common insects in larger-than-life detail. Ants. Beetles. Flies. Crickets. The images are brightly colored and a little creepy. But also beautiful.

Kariko started the ongoing project, called “Suburban Symbiosis,” after attending an open house for the university’s biology department. He was shown how the microscopes worked in the lab and thought about how he could use them for his art.

Much of Kariko’s work is in environmental landscapes and portraiture. When he started noticing little insects around his house, in the yard and on the walkways to and from work, an idea was born.

“I decided to experiment with the notion of environment by doing portraits of these almost invisible creatures around us,” he said. To most, insects are something to be ignored or even squished. In fact, insects represent the largest percentage of the world’s known species.

“My project is meant to bring awareness to what’s around us,” Kariko said.

The “portraits” are composites of a number of exposures with a scanning electron microscope, which gives the hyper detail, and a stereoscopic microscope, which provides color. Kariko carefully arranges each bug and adjusts the lighting to achieve a portrait-like effect inspired by the 17th-century Dutch masters. One photo can take 15-20 hours, he said.

Originally from Serbia, Kariko first began a career in mechanical engineering, but he transitioned to fine art after moving to the United States in 1994. He’s worked at ECU since 2011. Technical research still fascinates him, as does the notion of art and science working together to create new forms of knowledge.

“Fine arts and photography specifically is a really great visual communicator of real-world ideas,” he said. “In collaboration with artists and scientists, wonderful things can happen.”

See a gallery of Kariko’s work at danielkariko.com/suburbansymbiosis.

Faculty News

Paul Schwager has been named dean of the ECU College of Business. He begins July 1. Schwager has served as the college’s interim dean since the summer of 2018, when former dean Stanley Eakins returned to the faculty. Schwager joined ECU in 2003 as a faculty member in management information systems. In 2009, he was named assistant dean for assessment, accreditation and curriculum. A year later, Schwager was named associate dean. As the new dean, Schwager will also serve as the W. Howard Rooks distinguished professor, established to provide additional support for the dean. Schwager has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Palm Beach Atlantic University, an MBA from Florida Atlantic University and a doctorate from Auburn University. He has published more than 30 journal articles and conference proceedings.

Carroll V. Dashiell Jr. was among 50 African-American musicians, writers and artists honored in February by Gov. Roy Cooper and First Lady Kristin Cooper in celebration of Black History Month. The event was hosted by the N.C. African American Heritage Commission and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Dashiell was among 13 musicians recognized during the event. He is an associate professor of music at ECU, where he teaches string and electric bass and jazz in the School of Music. He is director of the award-winning ECU Jazz Ensemble A and founder and director of ECU’s Billy Taylor Jazz Festival. He is a recipient of ECU’s Robert and Lina Mays and Robert L. Jones Distinguished Alumni Teaching Excellence Award.

Dr. Mark Stacy was named vice chancellor for the ECU Division of Health Sciences in December. He had served as interim vice chancellor since mid-2018. Stacy will oversee a division that comprises the Brody School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Allied Health Sciences, the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, the East Carolina Diabetes and Obesity Institute and Laupus Health Sciences Library. He will continue to serve as dean of the medical school and senior associate vice chancellor for medical affairs.

Dr. Michael Lang, clinical associate professor of internal medicine and psychiatry and behavioral medicine, received the 2018 Outstanding Service Award from the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry during its recent annual meeting in Chicago. Lang directs the internal medicine-psychiatry residency program as well as ECU’s electroconvulsive therapy and transcranial magnetic stimulation programs. He also serves as secretary of the AMP and is co-chairing the planning committee for the group’s next annual meeting.