Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Former NR-Wildlife graduate student Evelyn Lichwa had her thesis research published in the high-impact Journal of Mammalogy. The article is entitled "Ecological and social drivers of Mexican Wolf home range size across spatiotemporal scales". Coauthors include Cal Poly Humboldt Wildlife faculty members Micaela Szykman Gunther (mentor and graduate committee chair) and Ho Yi Wan (committee member), as well as collaborators from the Mexican Wolf Conservation and Management Program in New Mexico.
Former NR-Wildlife graduate student Holly Gamblin had her thesis research published in the journal Northwest Science. The article is entitled "Habitat Use and Distribution of a Recently Discovered Population of Humboldt Martens". Advisor Micaela Szykman Gunther is a coauthor.
Four Soil Science students from Cal Poly Humboldt—Tommy Dachauer, Derek Tremaine, Carter Daniel, and Nicholas Verhey—demonstrated their skills at the Region 6 Soil Judging Competition held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Competing against teams from across the region, the Cal Poly Humboldt team achieved an impressive third-place finish in the team category. Individually, Nick Verhey stood out, securing 7th place among 40 competitors. Their success highlights the dedication and expertise of Cal Poly Humboldt's Soil Science program in preparing students for the field.
David K Jacobs, Andrew Kinziger, Mira Abrecht, W Tyler McCraney, Benjamin A Hà, Brenton T Spies, Elizabeth Heath-Heckman, Mohan P A Marimuhtu, Oanh Nguyen, Colin W Fairbairn, William E Seligmann, Merly Escalona, Courtney Miller, H Bradley Shaffer, Reference genome for the endangered, genetically subdivided, northern tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi, Journal of Heredity, 2024;, esae053, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esae053
Michael Bruner, Professor Emeritus, Communication, recently published in the Journal of Communication and Media Research the article, "A comparative analysis of public discourse in and outside of Nigeria on the right to water."
Josh Meisel published an article, "The Cartel Mystique: Race and the Social Construction of the Cannabis Grower," in Sociological Inquiry. In his research, Josh examined emergent themes in the cultural representation of the Emerald Triangle cannabis grower since the early 1970s, with a particular focus on more recent claims of Mexican drug cartel influence in domestic cannabis cultivation. Changing representations of growers helped fuel moral panics about cannabis cultivation that constructed some groups of growers as “folk devils” and others as “folk heroes.”
Drs. Silvia Pavan and Pedro Peloso received a National Science Foundation grant to study the origin and evolutionary history of vertebrates inhabiting different landscapes on Marajó Island, the world's largest fluvial island, in eastern Amazonia. The project will involve field sampling on the island, and the acquisition of genomic data for samples from across mainland eastern Amazonia basin. Data will also be gathered from historical material available at natural history museums. Study findings will elucidate how and when vertebrate species colonized the Marajó island from the mainland, and how their populations are currently structured among different landscapes within the island.
Together with NASA collaborator Dr. Holly Leopardi, Dr. C.D. Hoyle (Physics and Astronomy) received a grant from NASA’s MOSAICS program, whose purpose is to increase research opportunities for undergraduates. Students, trained in Dr. Hoyle’s lab, will spend summer internships in Dr. Leopardi’s QuEST laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center. This work will focus on developing space-based systems using cold-atom interferometry and atomic clocks to improve the mapping of Earth’s water and ice movement, perform fundamental physics measurements, and improve navigation systems of future spacecraft. Dr. Leopardi is a CPH graduate, recognized as an Outstanding Student of the Year in 2014.
Dr. C.D. Hoyle, in conjunction with the APS Executive Committee, organized and hosted the 2024 American Physical Society Far West Section Meeting that was held at Cal Poly Humboldt on October 25-26th. Attendees from all over the western USA presented over 100 research works in physics, astronomy, and physical/mathematical sciences through oral and poster sessions, including many CPH students and researchers. Invited speakers included scientists from national laboratories, private industry, and large research universities. Corey Gray of LIGO, who graduated with CPH Physics and Applied Mathematics degrees in 1997, gave an engaging after-dinner lecture to over 120 meeting attendees.
Students Cheyenne Ty and Abigail Fenland presented a research poster at the American Physical Society Far West Conference. The poster summarized their math model of immune cell and neuron interaction in neurodegenerative diseases. They were advised by Kamila Larripa.
This month, Film Lecturer and Producer Nicola Waugh premiered the narrative feature film Lucky Star (Dir. Gillian McKercher) at two film festivals in Canada: Vancouver International Film Festival, and Calgary International Film Festival. It will be screening at the Windsor Film Festival and Reel Asian Film Festival in November, with a US festival run and wider digital release to follow. The film, starring Terry Chen, Olivia Cheng, and Andrew Phung was produced with Kino Sum Productions and Notable Content and is distributed by Game Theory Films.
Matias Solorzano, a graduate student in Academic Research in the Psychology Department was awarded the McCrone Graduate Fellowship Award in recognition of his research in neurodivergence in academia. The award not only recognizes Matias' dedication to research but will provide support for his research. Matias will be speaking on his research on Tuesday, November 12th during the McCrone Award Reception at the Plaza Grill from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Dr. Amber Gaffney along with alumni and current lecturer Benny Anjewierden and several other alumni published a paper in Groups Processes and Intergroup Relations. This paper details major theory and methodological developments in a social identity model of social influence. Anjewierden*, B. J., Syfers*, L., Pinto, I. R., Gaffney, A. M., & Hogg, M. A. (2024). Group responses to deviance: Disentangling the motivational roles of collective enhancement and uncertainty reduction. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations.
Justin Luong (FFRM) and colleagues recently published in Nature Ecology and Evolution on the how California grasslands are experiencing rapid shifts in response to climate change, resulting in plant communities that are more thermophillic, or adapted to warmer conditions. Understanding these plant community shifts to climate tolerances can help inform invasive species and conservation management. A link to the manuscript is here.
Sixteen students and faculty from Cal Poly Humboldt's Fisheries Biology Department attended the American Fisheries Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, joining over 2,000 global participants to share research and build collaborations. Humboldt representatives delivered ten presentations and chaired a symposium on integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge with genomic approaches in fisheries conservation. The department also hosted a gathering for alumni, faculty, and friends to reconnect and celebrate shared achievements. Travel and registration costs were primarily funded through grants, illustrating the professional development opportunities available to students through active research and involvement in major scientific events. Learn more
Recent Marine Biology alumni Jordyn Neal and Sam Rodrigues, with help from Assistant Professor Allison Bronson, co-authored a paper on the inner ear anatomy of sharks, published in the journal The Anatomical Record. Jordyn and Sam reconstructed the inner ear spaces within shark skulls using the on-campus CT scanning facility. This work, especially in the context of relatively sparse prior studies on these structures, serves as a strong baseline for future comparative anatomy research on the hearing and equilibrium apparatus of cartilaginous fishes.
Sebastian Evans, Natural Resources, was awarded the Harry & Shirley Bailey Award for an Outstanding Physical Geography Paper at the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers conference hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt for his paper titled, "Vascular and Nonvascular Plant Succession of a Recently Extinct Glacial Foreland in the Trinity Alps Wilderness of California." Sebastian's paper investigates vegetative expansion and successional change following rapid glacial retreat near Thompson Peak in the Trinity Alps Wilderness, using a chronosequence approach to analyze growth forms and species interactions.
Catriona Barr, Natural Resources, was awarded the Tom McKnight & Joan Clemons Award for Outstanding Paper at the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers conference hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt for her paper titled "What Does Recovery Look Like? Defining and Describing Post-Fire Recovery in Communities of Northern California and Southern Oregon." Catriona's study examines post-fire recovery in rural communities across northern California and southern Oregon, highlighting the gaps in recovery resources and emphasizing the critical role of community-based organizations in fostering resilience and long-term recovery.
Sangeeta Sarkar, Environment & Community, was awarded the Presidential Award for Outstanding Master's Student Paper at the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers conference hosted at Cal Poly Humboldt for her paper "Deconstructing Settler Narratives of the Schatz Tree Farm." Sangeeta's paper explores the Indigenous history of the Schatz Tree Farm, focusing on the Mawenok Tribe's relationship with the land and its ethnobotanical significance. It argues for the return of the land to the Blue Lake Rancheria, highlighting the importance of restoring these long-standing connections.
Dr. Rosemary Sherriff and Dr. Nicholas Perdue, Department of Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis, organized and hosted the 86th Annual Association of Pacific Coast Geographers Conference at Cal Poly Humboldt campus from October 3rd to 5th. The conference included local field trips, paper and poster sessions, and keynote speakers. Multiple Cal Poly Humboldt graduate and undergraduate students presented at the conference.
Dr Alison Holmes (PSCI) was invited to give a public lecture entitled: "The Rapid Rise of Subnational-ism: Should we be worried?" for an event hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Reform based at the University of Edinburgh. Expanding her work on California's international relations, Holmes is in Edinburgh to interview diplomats from other countries and Scottish Government officials as part of her next project.
Riley Nelson, a senior (Psyc), Amanda Johnson Bertucci, a recent graduate (CD), Sara Swenson, a senior (CD); and Angel Seguine, a recent graduate (Psyc) co-authored a peer review article with Dr. Meenal Rana, titled, "Building Resilience during Compassion Fatigue: Autoethnographic Accounts of College Students and Faculty," in the special issue of Education Sciences (accepted and in press), "Addressing Mental Health and Well-Being in Higher Education: Collaborative Insights from Education, Psychology, and the Learning Sciences." The conception of this manuscript started in CD 362 (Children and Stress) class in the fall of 2023.
Together with NASA collaborator Dr. Holly Leopardi, Dr. C.D. Hoyle (Physics and Astronomy) received a grant from NASA’s MOSAICS program, whose purpose is to increase research opportunities for MSI undergraduates. Students, trained in Dr. Hoyle’s lab, will spend summer internships in Dr. Leopardi’s QuEST laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center. This work will focus on developing space-based systems using cold-atom interferometry and atomic clocks to improve the mapping of Earth’s water and ice movement, perform fundamental physics measurements, and improve navigation systems of future spacecraft. Dr. Leopardi is a Cal Poly Humboldt graduate, recognized as an Outstanding Student in 2014.
A recent publication in the first-quartile (Q1) journal "Energy and Buildings": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778824008235
RRS undergraduate Dino Santia was awarded a $3,750 research award over this past summer to support his ongoing independent research project in Kerry Byrne's lab, entitled "Seed Bank Emergence Study."
RRS undergraduate Dino Santia has been awarded an $8,000 NEXTGEN research fellowship from the Agricultural Research Institute to support his independent research project in the Byrne Lab (ESM Dept), entitled "Seed bank Emergence Study."
Natural Resources graduate student Jesse Laine (ESM option) has been awarded a $25,000 NEXTGEN research fellowship from the Agricultural Research Institute to support his proposed study entitled "Insect biodiversity in a restored coastal grassland." Jesse is a first-year graduate student in Kerry Byrne's lab.
Dr. Eugene Novotney, Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre, recently travelled to Port of Spain, Trinidad, W.I., to serve as an adjudicator for the 2024 Trinidad and Tobago National Steelband Music Festival. Dr. Novotney served on a panel of judges consisting of scholars and musicians from the Caribbean and the Americas and adjudicated 12 steelbands that had successfully completed the qualifying round of competition. The festival was held at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain and was conducted by Prime Minister Keith Rowley and sponsored by Pan Trinbago and the Trinidad Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and the Arts.
Kyleigh Brine was a selected choreographer and performer for the Emergence Dance Festival held at the Gibney Theatre in New York this past Summer 2024. She performed original choreography titled "on the backs of hardworking women" which utilized jackets and blazers as a costume and prop to represent the invisible burden that most women carry.
Dr. Loren Cannon, Philosophy, was recently invited to submit an essay of his newest work to the Journal, “Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture.” His essay, “The Backlash Continues: How Two Recent SCOTUS Rulings Pose a Threat to LGBTQ+ and Especially Trans And Gender Non-Binary Persons” is in the newest volume of the journal In this essay, Cannon looks closely at two SCOTUS cases, 303 Creative v. Elenis and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. Cannon concludes that these decisions legally protect religious expression, even when it is both coercive and discriminatory in the marketplace.
Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts received a $600,000 grant from the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to support and strengthen their diversity recruitment mission. The Natural Resource Career Development Program will include educational workshops and activities organized by Cal Poly Humboldt’s COMPASS/INRSEP (Indian Natural Resources, Science & Engineering Program) staff. Focused outreach will center on Hispanic students who will receive guidance in NRCS career fields, required courses, resume building, and assistance in applying for federal internships and positions. This program will support Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students interested in becoming future leaders in agricultural fields
Faculty Karen Davy, viola, and Cindy Moyer, violin, play in the Watershed String Quartet, which is a community service group that volunteers 2 hours of performance for the highest bidder in fund-raising auctions for local non-profit organizations. On September 28, the Watershed quartet was auctioned off at the Eureka Symphony Gala, resulting in $2,350 added to the Eureka Symphony's funds. Previously, the quartet has been auctioned off by the Humboldt County Libraries and the Clark Museum, for performances at a memorial service and a student fashion show. Performance plans have not yet been arranged with the successful Eureka Symphony bidders.
Cheyenne Ty, Amanda Case, Emmanuel Mezzulo, Abigail Penland, and Kamila Larripa had their paper accepted for publication in the Spora: A Journal of Biomathematics. The paper is called "An Agent-Based Model of Microglia and Neuron Interaction: Implications in Neurodegenerative Disease" and explores the role of a type of immune cell in the brain through modeling.
Dr. Alison Holmes (Politics) was invited to present to the annual September Conference on the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC) based at Oxford University by a former colleague, Lord Alderdice (first Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, former Leader of the Alliance Party of NI and retired President of Liberal International). The paper, based on her current research, was entitled "Subnational-ism: the best hope for a peaceful collapse of the nation-state?" She was subsequently offered publication in a volume of selected conference papers.
Undergraduate students Wendy Kornberg and Claudia Alfaro Hernandez were each awarded an $11,000 California State University Agriculture Research Initiative-NEXTGEN in a systemwide competition to conduct independent research related to agricultural resources with Dr. Justin Luong. Wendy Kornberg will evaluate how indigenous microorganisms (IMO) inoculation can be used to benefit regenerative tomato production in south county. Claudia Alfaro Hernandez will evaluate how microhabitats created by solar microgrids shape plant communities and soil properties on local rangelands. The data will be used to inform ecological restoration plant selection for future management goals related to native plant diversity, pollinator habitat, and sheep grazing.
Dr. Joshua J. Frye and his co-author Dr. Steven R. Goldzwig (Professor Emeritus at Marquette University) have published a new scholarly monograph. Colleague and collaborator Dr. James F. Woglom provided original artwork for the book. Rhetoric and Democracy in a Post-Truth Era offers a timely examination of public communication and political culture in the United States and the systemic feedback loops that have amplified democratic dysfunction and violence. Frye and Goldzwig identify and analyze four key perils (post truth; polarization; [social media] platforms; and populism) in the interplay of complex systems.
PI Dr. Jieun Lee (University of Northern Colorado), along with co-PIs Dr. Gary Langham (American Assoc. of Geographers), Dr. Amy Rock (UCGIS), and Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian (CUNY-Staten Island) have received a $1 million NSF ADVANCE grant to support women in geography and geospatial sciences. Building on the Golden Compass project and UCGIS' TRELIS program, the 4-year project works with departments to support increased representation and advancement for women in STEM, specifically examining opportunities for equity and inclusion for foreign-born women faculty. More details can be found on the AAG site: https://www.aag.org/aag-embarks-on-national-partnership-to-support-fore…;
Nievita Bueno Watts received a $600,000 grant from the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to support and strengthen their diversity recruitment mission. The Natural Resource Career Development Program will include educational workshops and activities organized by Cal Poly Humboldt’s COMPASS/INRSEP (Indian Natural Resources, Science & Engineering Program) staff. Focused outreach will center on Hispanic students who will receive guidance in NRCS career fields, required courses, resume building, and assistance in applying for federal internships and positions. This program will support Hispanic undergraduate and graduate students interested in becoming future leaders in agricultural fields.
Drs. Andrew Stubblefield and Rosemary Sherriff are Coordinating Leads on California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment’s Regional Synthesis Report for the North Coast, focusing on how climate change is impacting six counties in northwestern California. The assessment is supported through the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and aims to inform on-the-ground implementation and decision-making at the local, regional, tribal, and state levels, focusing on communities most vulnerable to climate change. Lead authors include Dr. Daniel Lipe, Dr. David Narum, Dr. Keith Parker, and Jennifer Marlow.
Learn more about the assessment here.
Dr. Troy Lescher recently published “Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 2024” for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). This annual report, which included the participation of over two dozen national and international institutions, identifies and publicizes new researchers as well as their dissertation titles and topics.
Dr. Rouhollah Aghasaleh has been included as a biographical listee in Marquis Who's Who. In recognition of this prestigious honor, Dr. Aghasaleh will be featured in the organization's flagship hardcover registry, Who’s Who in America.
Marquis Who's Who, the world’s leading biographical publisher since 1899, continues its tradition of profiling individuals who have made significant contributions in their fields through notable achievements or positions of responsibility. The inclusion of Dr. Aghasaleh reflects the distinguished accomplishments that have garnered the attention of the Marquis Who’s Who Selection Committee.
Amanda Dinscore, a College of Professional Studies Librarian, and Dr. Debbie Gonzalez, Social Work, published an article entitled Addressing Barriers to Research-Informed Practice: A Library and Social Work Collaboration to Empower Future Practitioners, which describes the challenges social workers face, once they graduate, to utilize research to inform their practice. The article describes an approach to addressing these challenges through an open pedagogy assignment, the creation of the Humboldt Social Work Knowledge Commons.
Professor Josh Meisel (Sociology) gave a poster presentation on "Gender and Global Cannabis Cultivation" at the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy in Montreal in June with co-authors Julie E. Brummer and Thomas Friis Søgaard (Aarhus University), Gary Potter (Lancaster University Law School), and Jodie Grigg (Curtin University). The research draws on data collected as part of the 2020 International Cannabis Cultivation Questionnaire administered to small-scale growers in 18 countries.
Professor Hyun-Kyung You in Child Development and her colleagues published an article, “Revisiting Transnational Activities: Korean Immigrant Mothers’ Home Visit for Families,” in Sage Open. Continuing research on transnational families, this original research explores the return trip experiences of Korean immigrant women with children. Purposefully planned and coordinated trips to Korea were not only for children to enhance their Korean identity but also for their transnational relationship with aging parents.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21582440241240912
Co-authors are Yu-Jin Jeong (Jeonbuk National University) and Sungeun Yang (Inha University) in Korea.
Dr. Tristan Gleason received a $440,000 National Science Foundation grant to support collaborative research with the University of Oregon aimed at improving the retention of diverse students in undergraduate pre-service STEM teacher preparation programs. The project will examine systemic barriers and inequitable practices that impact the preparation of future STEM educators, and contribute to the general knowledge base about institutional transformations that support the development of a diverse STEM teacher population.
A library editorial team has published the 46th volume of the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations on the topic Academic Libraries Creating Global Community: Operating Outside of Traditional Roles and Spaces. Inspired by the work of our own amazing library, Kyle Morgan, Morgan Barker, Amanda Dinscore, Brianne Hagen, Carly Marino, Garrett Purchio, and Kimberly Stelter assembled some of the best library community work across the nation to celebrate the import of these critical efforts. We hope this publication will inspire librarians everywhere to tackle challenges beyond their own traditional library walls. Read at https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/hjsr/ or https://www.amazon.com/dp/1962081133.
Janelle Adsit was accepted to the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship, founded in Nigeria in 2018. As part of the 2024 cohort, she will collaborate with colleagues from 36 countries to pilot new programs that utilize the arts to support health justice and community wellbeing. Projects will be presented at the upcoming Global Arts in Health Festival. https://artsinmedicinefellowship.org/
Professor Chris Dugaw updated and published a new edition of the text Laboratories in Mathematical Experimentation: A Bridge to Higher Mathematics, which is used in Cal Poly Humboldt's Mathematical Experimentation and Proof course. This text is composed of a set of sixteen laboratory investigations which allow the student to explore rich and diverse ideas and concepts in mathematics. With the help and support of the original authors at Mt Holyoke and colleagues at University of Texas, El Paso he modernized it to use contemporary computer software. The text is freely available from The Press at Cal Poly Humboldt here.
Professor Sarita Ray Chaudhury published a qualitative analysis of online user-generated content (UGC) titled "Laugh like Surpanakha": Modern Literary Re-imagining of a Famous Villaness in Indian Folkloric Traditions, in the journal Cultural Analysis. This study explores how modern readers perceive Surpanakha’s characterization in Kavita Kane’s novel The Lanka’s Princess. Findings suggest readers’ willingness to accept Surpanakha’s villainous traits as expressions protesting mainstream expectations of the female ideal. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~culturalanalysis/volume22_1/pdf/Chaudhury…
Dr Gaffney along with three former Cal Poly Humboldt alum published a paper, Our group is worth the fight: Group cohesion is embedded in willingness to fight or die for relatively deprived political groups during national elections, in Translational Issues in Psychological Science. The first, second, and third authors all graduated from Cal Poly Humboldt with a Master's in Psychology from our Academic Research Program. One of the authors, Benjamin Anjierdwerden, is currently a lecturer in the Psychology Department.