Latest Achievements

Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff

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Gilbert Trejo, Geography

Gil won first place in the Print Cartography competition at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with his map The Southern California Coast.

Danielle Kirkland-Shatraw, Geography

Danielle won first place in the McKnight Student Paper Contest for best undergraduate geography paper at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with her work Cartography and Resistance: Counter-mapping in Palestine.

Kevin Greer, Geography

Kevin won the Geosystems award for best paper in physical geography at the California Geographic Society Annual Conference in Big Bear Lake, CA with his research "Determining Factors That Contributed to the Carr Fire."

James Floss, Communication

James Floss, in AY 18-19 studied undocumented immigrant experiences locally, within the state of California, and internationally. The stories, originally published on KHSU are now available through NPR One. The guests were from Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Columbia, El Salvador and the United States. Some were undocumented, some were legal residents, one was a newly minted citizen and one was deported two days after being recorded.

Andrew Stubblefield with Co -PI Genevieve Marchand, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Received USDA Multicultural Scholars Award to provide outdoor leadership training and scholarships to Forestry Students ($162,000)

David Baston, Susan Marshall, & Lucy Kerhoulas, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Received Agricultural Research Institute Grant to study Phytophthora ($60,518).

Kevin Soland, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Presented poster at HSU's INRSEP/CNRS Scientific Research Symposium: Physiology, growth, and immediate response to thinning in a second-growth redwood forest.

Gabriel Goff, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Selected to represent HSU at the CSU Research Competition with his investigation of conifer encroachment in northern California oak woodlands

Erin Kelly & Lucy Kerhoulas, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Principal Investigators for Save the Redwoods League's Redwoods Rising Apprenticeship Program ($174,430).

Lucy Kerhoulas, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Received an RSCA Award to purchase a cavitation chamber for measuring tree drought resistance

Susan Edinger Marshall, Joseph Seney (lecturer), Students: Nic Anderson, Tiffany Perez, Miles Ritch, Alexandra Urban, Daniel Guzman, Monica Pina, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

HSU participated for the first time in the Collegiate Soil Contest hosted by CalPoly SLO. Overall the HSU Team placed 19th out of 26 teams nationwide, but ranked #1 among teams from the 11 western states; higher than Land Grant Institutions such as Colorado State, Utah State, and University of Wyoming.

Jeffrey Kane, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Became a member of the Northwest Scientific Association's Board of Directors

Tim Bean (co-authors Laura Prugh, Nicolas Deguines, Joshua Grinath, Katherine Suding, Robert Stafford, and Justin Brashares), Wildlife

Published paper in Nature Climate Change "Winners and losers in response to extreme drought"

Thomas Starkey-Owens, Environmental Science & Management

ESM graduate student Thomas Starkey-Owens presented a poster: "Benthic macroinvertebrate drift and juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) diet response to pulse flows on the Trinity River below Lewiston Dam" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa, CA on April 25th.

Katherine Stonecypher, Environmental Science & Management

ESM undergraduate Katherine Stonecypher presented a poster: "Assessing Salmonid Migration Risk Using the Riffle Crest Thalweg" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa, CA on April 25th.

Melissa Collin and Sean Fleming, Environmental Science & Management

Environmental Science & Management undergraduates Melissa Collin and Sean Fleming presented, "Modeling Flows in Northwest California Watersheds with VELMA - 2.0" at the 2019 Salmonid Restoration Conference in Santa Rosa on April 26th.

Dr. Young Sub Kwon, faculty, and students, School of Applied Health

HSU was recognized as one of 139 universities/colleges worldwide by Exercise is Medicine® for its efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus. A leadership team of Kinesiology faculty and students helped earn the bronze-level designation by launching a daily walk/run 5K program on campus for faculty, staff, and students over a 10-week period this semester. Goals included promoting physical activity as a vital sign of health and making movement a part of the daily campus culture. More than 40 students, staff, and faculty participated. All gold, silver and bronze universities/colleges will be recognized on May 29 at the 2019 Exercise is Medicine World Congress.

Armeda C. Reitzel, Communication

Armeda Reitzel has been selected to serve as the Midwestern Culture subject area chair of the Midwest Popular Culture Association.

Tyler Ladinsky, Harvey Kelsey, Melanie Michalak, Geology

Tyler Ladinsky (MS '12), Harvey Kelsey and Melanie Michalak were awarded a one year grant through the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program to conduct a paleoseismic investigation on the Little Salmon Fault in Humboldt County. Their proposal, "In Southern Cascadia, Do Upper-Plate Faults Rupture in Concert with Subduction Zone Earthquakes: A Paleoseismic Investigation of the Little Salmon Fault Zone" is a collaborative effort between HSU faculty and students, the California Geological Survey, and United States Geological Survey to evaluate the chronology and style of earthquakes on the Little Salmon Fault in context of the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

Collegiate Soil Judgers, Rangeland Resource Science, Environmental Science & Management

HSU Collegiate Soil Judgers Place #1 in 11 western states (overall 19th out of 26).

HSU's first National Collegiate Soil Contest team traveled to San Luis Obispo last week for four days of practice pits, followed by two days of individual and team competition among 26 universities in attendance. HSU team members included Nic Anderson (RRS), Daniel Guzman (ESM), Tiffany Perez (RRS), Miles Ritch (RRS), Monica Piña (RRS), and Alex Urban (ESM) and was co-coached by Joe Seney and Susan Edinger Marshall. Judging consisted of morphology, soil profile characteristics, site characteristics, soil classification, and land use interpretations. While host team Cal Poly San Luis Obispo did not compete, HSU outperformed land grant universities such as Utah State, Colorado State, and University of Wyoming. Humboldt State's Wildland Soils option (under the Rangeland Resource Science major) qualifies graduates as federally qualified Soil Scientists.

Clare O'Connell, Biological Sciences

Received a grant from Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument

Mary Carlquist, Devon Michels, Anna Davis, and Issac Henderson, Wildlife

The HSU Wildlife Conclave team placed second in the The Wildlife Society's Northeast Student Conclave Wildlife Quiz Bowl, in Portland, ME, in a close final with SUNY-ESF.

https://sites.google.com/maine.edu/twsnortheaststudentconclave/home

Cara Appel (former grad student), Pairsa Belamaric (current grad student) and Tim Bean, Wildlife

Published paper in Journal of Mammalogy "Seasonal resource acquisition strategies of a facultative specialist herbivore at the edge of its range"

Stella Yuan, Biological Sciences

Received grant from American Society of Mammalogist Grant-in-Aid of Research Grant

Caroline Martorano, Jeffrey Kane, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Presented a paper entitled "Long-term effectiveness of fuel reduction treatments in oak and chaparral stands of northern California" at the 90th annual conference of the Northwest Scientific Association in Lewisonton, ID.

Jeffrey Kane, Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Presented a paper entitled "Effectiveness and impacts of girdling treatments in a conifer-encroached Oregon white oak woodland" at the 90th annual conference of the Northwest Scientific Association in Lewisonton, ID.

Mihai Tomescu (with A. Elgorriaga, I.H. Escapa, G.W. Rothwell, N.R. Cuneo), Biological Sciences

Published paper "Origin of Equisetum: Evolution of horsetails (Equisetales) within the major euphyllophyte clade Sphenopsida"

Ivy Widick (former grad student) and Tim Bean (advisor), Wildlife

Published paper in Diversity and Distributions: "Evaluating current and future range limits of an endangered keystone rodent (Dipodomys ingens)"

Steffen Peterson with co-authors Daniel Barton, Jared Duquette, and Micaela Gunther, Wildlife

Wildlife Graduate student Steffen Peterson presented a paper "Using spatially explicit capture-recapture techniques to determine black bear (Ursus americanus) density and space-use in an arid mountain ecosystem" at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA.

Jade Morning Sky Little, Daniel Barton, Shannon Brinkman, Claire Nasr, Wildlife

Presented paper "Pelagic cormorant nesting success and oceanic conditions in northern California" at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA

HSU undergraduate wildlife students Samuel Vassallo, Devon Michels, Alex Lewis, Evan Miller, and Marcie Mathieu and faculty member Daniel Barton, Wildlife

HSU's Wildlife Conclave team was featured in the two ways in The Wildlife Society's national magazine, The Wildlife Professional. The 2019 National Championship team (Samuel Vassallo, Devon Michels, Alex Lewis, Evan Miller, and Marcie Mathieu) are photographed and featured in an article on quiz bowl, and faculty member Daniel Barton wrote a short article entitled "A proud quiz bowl tradition at Humboldt State" for the magazine.

https://sites.google.com/view/bartonlab/lab-news?authuser=0

Claire Nasr, Wildlife

Wildlife Graduate Student Claire Nasr Presented paper "Measuring relative disturbance risk to marine wildlife in northern California" at Pacific Seabird Group Annual Meeting, Kauai, HI.

http://www.cvent.com/events/psg-2019-kaua-i/custom-18-bb8e62d508874406a…

Adam Mohr, Wildlife

Wildlife Graduate Student Adam Mohr presented talk at The Western Section of the Wildlife Society Annual Meeting in Yosemite, CA, "Tule elk habitat selection in the Carrizo Plains Region"

Jackson Stillman ('19), Physics & Astronomy

Jackson Stillman was granted a travel award by the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Gravitational Physics to present his research on "Progress on Short-range Tests of Gravity at Humboldt State University" at the 2019 APS April Meeting in Denver, CO April 11-16.

C.D. Hoyle, Physics & Astronomy

Presented research on "A New Multi-mode Apparatus to Determine G" and "Progress on Short-range Tests of Gravity at Humboldt State University" at the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver, CO April 11-16.

Robert Gearheart, Environmental Science & Management

Robert Gearheart was awarded a National Wetlands Award for Science Research. The ceremony will be in Washington DC in May.

Armeda C. Reitzel, Communication

Armeda Reitzel presented her paper titled "Voices of Fayetteville, Arkansas: Down-home Stories with a Touch of Hollywood Pizzazz" at the Popular Culture Association conference in Washington, DC on April 17, 2019. This paper was based on research that she conducted during her sabbatical leave spring semester 2018.

Michael Perez, Environmental Science & Management

Michael Perez was selected for the Panetta Congressional internship for fall 2019. One student from each CSU campus is selected each year for this prestigious internship in Washington D.C. Michael hopes to learn about and ultimately contribute positively to the policy-making process regarding climate change.

Tim Miller, Sarah Fay Philips, Library

Tim Miller (Digital Media and Learning Librarian) and Sarah Fay Philips (former Coordinator of Instruction and Reference, currently Librarian, OSU Cascades) published a book chapter about the SkillShops program and collaborating across campus to create co-curricular learning opportunities for students, entitled "Designing a Collaborative Cross-Campus Drop-in Workshop Series to Motivate Lifelong Learners," published by ACRL Press.
Download: https://works.bepress.com/tim-miller/8/
Borrow: https://humboldt-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01CALS_ALMA71506180950002901&context=L&vid=01CALS_HUL&search_scope=01CALS&tab=books_csu&lang=en_US

Cutcha Risling Baldy, Native American Studies

Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy's 2018 book We Are Dancing for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women's Coming-of-Age Ceremonies, published by the University of Washington Press, received an honorable mention this year for the Labriola Center American Indian National Book Award. More information is available here: https://lib.asu.edu/labriola/bookaward

Benjamin Funke, Art + Film

Benjamin Funke has been selected by the US Bureau of Land Management - King Range National Conservation Area as the 2019 Artist in Residence.

This opportunity will place him atop the King Range for 31 days, reflecting on the natural landscape and building a new body of artwork. Additionally, he will be leading two workshops for the general public on 3d imaging, design, scanning and printing.

H. Eve Robinson and Mark J. Henderson, Biological Sciences and Fisheries Biology

Eve Robinson (Biological Sciences) and Mark Henderson (Assistant Unit Leader of the California Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, and Fisheries Biology) co-authored a peer-reviewed paper in Marine Ecology Progress Series (https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v614/p125-146/). Their research combined quantitative approaches through behavioral experiments and generalized linear models to understand how larval fish capture evasive plankton prey.

Rachael M Heller, Anthropology

On April 18th Rachael Heller will be presenting her paper "Leeroy Jenkins; Identity Formation, Investment, and Social Structure of a Guild in World of Warcraft" at the Pop Culture Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Based on research over the course of a year, this work contributes to existing scholarship on online sociality by providing insight into the role online gaming plays in connecting people across time and space in new forms of community.

Len Mazur, Environmental Science & Management

ESM student Len Mazur has been awarded a North Coast Native Plant Society Research Grant for his project entitled "Biological Assessment for Two Darlingtonia Fens in the Mill Creek Watershed in Del Norte Redwoods State Park"

Stacy Becker, Center for Community Based Learning

The Center for Community Based Learning hosted a Community Partner Luncheon on March 27 at the Humboldt Area Foundation. It was a huge success! There were approximately 40 community partners in attendance sharing their perspectives and best practices on Service Learning and Academic Internships with participating faculty, students, and each other. Stacy Becker did a tremendous job preparing and facilitating the event. The event proved to be a positive experience for all those in attendance.

Vincent Biondo, Religious Studies

Associate Professor Vincent Biondo's paper presentation at the November, 2018 Parliament for the World's Religions was published as the article "Faith and History: Wilfred Cantwell Smith's Theory of Religion for the Twenty-First Century" in the Toronto Journal of Theology: .

Phoebe Cellitti, Social Work

Social Work Instructor Phoebe Cellitti presented at the March 30 TEDxHumboldtBay event. Her presentation, titled Embracing the Grey is described as:

"Drawing from my experience as a social worker I am going to be talking about embracing the in-between parts of life, the places between joy and heartbreak, beautiful and brutal... how people like to categorize things as good or bad, how that leaves very little room for the nuances of life and ultimately leaves us disconnected from ourselves and each other. I will also be relating it to our current political climate and the ways we disconnect from each other."

Melanie McCavour, David Greene, Forestry and Wildland Resources & Environmental Science and Management

David F Greene and Melanie J McCavour of the departments of Forestry and Wildland Resources & Environmental Science and Management were invited to speak March 7-9th, 2019 at the International Monarch Conservation Symposium in Toluca, Mexico, and at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Presentations were on: fire ecology of California; the CEQA, landuse planning, and pollinator habitat; and the ecology of Abies religosa.

Cindy Moyer, Karen Davy, Sherry Hanson, Garrick Woods, Music

On Monday, March 18, the Arcata Bay String Quartet traveled to Ukiah to perform for the Ukiah High School Orchestra.

Michael Le, Office of Institutional Effectiveness

Michael Le, Research Associate in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness won the California Association for Institutional Research (CAIR) 2018 Best Presentation winner for: “Data‐Informed Conversations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Michael received the highest overall scores for the best overall presentation. Michael’s presentation will be featured at AIR 2019 in Denver, CO as CAIR Best Presentation and he will receive a $2,000 travel grant. This is Michael’s third time winning the award. Past wins were in 2015 and 2017. https://cair.org