Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Andre and colleagues obtained a research grant from the Lenfest Ocean Program (a grantmaking program managed by The Pew Charitable Trusts) to study fisheries management options for an important fish species (Atlantic Menahaden) along the US East coast. Atlantic Menhaden (a fish in the herring family) supports the largest fishery on the east coast, but it is also a key prey for numerous species in the ecosystem. The study involves using an ecosystem model to evaluate the impact that Atlantic menhaden fisheries can have on the broader ecosystem, including predators like other fishes, marine mammals, and seabirds. The research grant is supporting an HSU Masters student, Max Grezlik.
Organized a colloquium at the national meeting of the Botanical Society of America in Rochester, Minnesota: "Fossil plants at the intersection of evo-devo and phylogeny: celebrating the contributions of Gar W. Rothwell to biodiversity and evolution"
Dr. Smith received a Fulbright Scholar Award and an American-Scandinavian Award to study triplet ground state Baird aromatic compounds in Uppsala, Sweden during the 2018-19 AY.
Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in STEM grant awarded to the CSU system wide from NSF and Chancellor's office. HSU's award for 2018/2019 is $40,000 primarily for student support.
Received travel awards from the Botanical Society of America to attend and present research at the 10th European Paleobotany-Palynology Conference in Dublin (Ireland), Aug 2018
Dr. Tomescu Co-edited a special issue of American Journal of Botany: "Tree of Death: The Role of Fossils in Resolving the Overall Pattern of Plant Phylogeny" (with G.W. Rothwell and I.H. Escapa). You can see the full article here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15372197/2018/105/8
Green Chemistry (4th year in a row) and Honorable Mention student chapter award for 2017-2018 AY from the American Chemical Society (ACS)
As part of a collaboration with GE & Southern California Edison, Anh Bui developed an algorithm using Python code for estimating the tension between shifting a customer load to benefit the grid versus shifting a load to reduce their bill. Anh also helped with the installation of our new Schatz Solar Array in September.
Craig provided construction observation at the Solar+ installation, tracking the canopy weight in real-time and serving as an onsite liaison between contractors and the Schatz microgrid team. As part of his observation, Craig recorded the installation’s actual daily labor and equipment requirements, to better define the needs for similar projects in the future.
These students have been developing a model to assess the current and future costs of building microgrids that integrate solar, battery storage, and fast EV charging. This model will help define which sites are good candidates for investment, and identify future research and development opportunities.
Carly Marino was invited by the California State Archivist to join the California Historical Records Advisory Board (CHRAB) as the College and University Archives Representative. The CHRAB serves as a central advisory body within California for historic records planning and coordination and reviews the National Historical Publications and Records Commission grant applications.
Dr. Joshua Frye, Communication, recently published an article entitled “Teaching future doctors to communicate: a communication intervention for medical students in their clinical year” in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare. Frye was a member of a communication consulting and research team alongside his colleague Dr. Joshua Hammonds from Rollins College that worked with Columbia University Medical School and Bassett Healthcare to develop a communication curriculum for third-year medical students during clinical training. The communication intervention was successful in improving the students’ communication skills, especially information giving, which is critical to enabling patients to make informed decisions in shared decision-making.
Kinesiology & Recreation Administration instructor and boating safety officer Steve Monk received the 2018 Outstanding Service Award from the National Association of Underwater Instructors. A recreational dive certification and membership organization, the association provide international diver standards and education programs. It promotes “Dive Safety Through Education” and its members are known and respected all across the industry for the quality of their teaching, concern for the individual student, and safety awareness.
Forestry Graduate Student, Alexis Bernal submitted a grant proposal to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and was awarded a research grant of $24,460 for studying the effect of variable density thinning and burning treatments on the spatial patterns of drought-related tree mortality.
Peter Lehman was awarded $120,000 from the Humboldt Transit Authority for HTA Long-Term Energy Planning.
Darren Ward was awarded $75,000 from UCSD for Freshwater Ecology Research Collaboration.
Dr. Tim Bean was awarded $118,000 from the Karuk Tribe for Marble Mountain Elk Ecology Collaborative Research.
Geography professors Matthew Derrick and Rosemary Sherriff co-edited the 2018 issue of The California Geographer, the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the California Geographical Society. The volume—weighing in at more than 270 pages the largest in journal’s nearly six-decade history—features articles from HSU Geography faculty, including Derrick Nicholas Perdue, and former students, including Nathaniel Douglass and Eric Fowler, as well as academic geographers from throughout the state. The 2018 issue marks the second year of Derrick and Sherriff editing the journal; it can be accessed at the following link: http://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.3/203086
Former graduate student Matt Delheimer published his thesis in the September issue of the Wildlife Society Bulletin, along with co-authors Keith Slauson, Micaela Gunther, and Bill Zielinski. His work documented the Use of Artificial Cavities by Humboldt marten, recently listed as an endangered species in California.
Alison Holmes, International Studies, attended the Global Action Summit in San Francisco as an accredited journalist for The American of London (where she has had a column for over 15 years). Her blog can be found at: http://www.theamerican.co.uk/pr/GCAS2018_index.php
Alison Holmes, International Studies, presented on two roundtables at the International Studies Association - West conference in Pasadena. "Academia in Contentious Times" discussing the research and practical concerns of the current political climate and as an invited panelist for the "Pay it Forward" mentoring program for young faculty. She also finished her term on the ISA-West Executive.
Dr. Eugene Novotney, Professor of Music, had eight new steelband arrangements published over summer 2018 by MauMau Music, the premier publisher of steelband music worldwide. Three of these publications are arrangements of compositions by Trinidadian artist, Ray Holman, who performed at HSU with the Calypso Band in Spring 2018, and two others are by Trinidadian legend, Clifford Alexis, who performed at HSU with the Calypso Band in Spring 2016. The other three publications are steelband arrangements of classic Trinidadian calypso and soca compositions by David Rudder, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, and Clive Bradley of the Desperadoes Steelband.
Amy Beltrán (Theatre major), Sammi Stowe (Theatre major), and Dr. Troy Lescher (TFD) researched, edited, and published the "Doctoral Projects in Progress in Theatre Arts, 2018" report in the June 2018 edition of Theatre Journal [Association of Theatre in Higher Education].
Dan Aldag has had two of his arrangements for jazz band published by Really Good Music. The arrangements are "Shimmer", composed by Allison Miller, and "Smack Dab", composed by Bobby Previte. Both compositions were originally written for small jazz groups and have been arranged for big band by Aldag.
Mark Colwell and Lizzie Feucht published a paper (Aug 2018) in Wader Study, an international journal dedicated to the ecology and conservation of shorebirds. Their work shows that Humboldt Bay hosts half a million shorebirds during spring migration alone! This information will be used to increase recognition of the bay under the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network.
Dr. Alstone presented the results of a multi-year study of grid flexibility to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy "Summer Study 2018" conference in Pacific Grove, California.
The conference paper is titled, "Integrating Demand Response and Distributed Resources in Planning for Large-scale Renewable Energy Integration."
You can download the paper at: http://aceee.org/files/proceedings/2018/
Jared D. Larson has just returned from the 40th Annual Conference of the Association for Contemporary Studies, of which he was co-organizer of the tri-lingual academic program, held at the School of Law of the University of Barcelona (5-7 Sept). Jared was the sole presenter of a co-authored paper (with Dr. Juliette Tolay of Penn State-Harrisburg) entitled "The Comparative Politics of Anti-Immigrant Sentiment: The Curious Cases of Spain, Portugal and Turkey."
Physics & Astronomy alumni published a peer-reviewed article in the Journal of Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Excellence entitled "Experimental Progress Towards Testing the Behavior of Gravity at the 20-micron Distance Scale." The work, whose primary author is Michael Ross ('15), focuses on research activities carried out in the HSU Gravitational Physics Laboratory primarily during the 2014-16 time frame. The article can be found here:
http://www.jurpress.org/s/J733FA17_Final_v4.pdf
Kamila Larripa's multiple myeloma research group had a paper accepted to the Journal for Theoretical Biology. A link to the paper is here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022519318304259
This fall, HSU journalism students will be able to take an in-depth reporting class from someone who wrote the book on investigative reporting – Professor Marcy Burstiner.
Burstiner’s second edition of “Investigative Reporting: From Premise to Publication” was published by Routledge in July. For this updated version of a text first published in 2009, Burstiner includes tips from not only veteran investigative reporters but also college students who had carried out successful investigations for their campus news organizations. The new edition includes extensive discussion of data reporting and analysis for investigative stories. It also directs readers to free, collaborative tools for collecting, organizing and analyzing information, and it guides readers through the process of public records requests, as well.
"So many guides to investigative reporting are geared to experienced journalists and scare away students," Burstiner said. "I felt it important to show students that they can do investigations themselves right out of beginning reporting, by introducing them to their own peers who have done just that."
This semester, Burstiner is teaching an investigative reporting course, during which students will look at housing issues for renters in Humboldt County.
“The need to train journalists to do accurate in-depth reporting on complex topics is fast becoming one of the most important tasks of our era," said JMC chair Deidre Pike. "We're fortunate to have a national leader like Marcy teaching this class."
HSU journalism alumnus Matt Drange, a reporter at The Information, calls the book “illuminating” and “accessible.”
“This book provides the building blocks for students to conduct and publish their own investigative reporting with or without the support of a traditional classroom environment,” Drange wrote. “The bullet-proof methodology and straightforward approach Burstiner outlines provide guidance for first-year reporters and veteran journalists alike.”
Humboldt County residents may best know Burstiner from her long-running Media Maven column in the North Coast Journal.
Before coming to HSU, Burstiner worked as a reporter and editor for a series of publications including the San Francisco Business Times, thestreet.com and The Deal financial magazine and website.
Here’s a link to the book’s page on Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Investigative-Reporting-From-Premise-to-Publication-2nd-Edition/Burstiner/p/book/9781138572164
Librarian Katia Karadjova presented at the Society for College & University Planning (SCUP) annual conference in Nashville, TN, July 14-17. She presented jointly with the Dean of Libraries at Drexel University, in a session 'Assessing Library Spaces as Learning Environments Goes Beyond Measuring Occupancy'.
Dr. Nievita Bueno Watts, INRSEP Director, published Groundwork article "Using place-based, community-inspired research to broaden participation in the geosciences" in the August 2018 v28 issue of GSA Today.
Dr. Bockover gave an invited presentation at the "Beyond Comparisons" conference held at East China Normal University in Shanghai in August 2018. The presentation was given in honor of her late teacher and mentor, Henry Rosemont, Jr.
Barbara has been accepted to the University of Exeter for her PhD. Her research will focus on textiles, tools, and experimenting with recreated tools and how they functioned.
Peter Goetz's paper, "The Koszul property for graded twisted tensor products", was accepted for publication in the Journal of Algebra in August, 2018. The paper will appear in print in the November 2018 issue. A sciencedirect link is
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021869318304423?via…
Professor Robert Cliver delivered a paper, "Labor-Capital Consultation and Factory Management in Chinese Capitalist Enterprises in the 1950s" at the World Economic History Congress at MIT, July 29 - Aug. 3, 2018.
Enoch Hale presented "Organizational Innovations to Open Pedagogy for Student Success" at the 2018 CSU Tech Conference (July 30-Aug 2) in Sacramento, CA.
Josh Callahan (Information Security Officer), Neal Fisch (CSU Channel Islands), and David Zeichick (CSU Chico) presented "A Common Approach to Vendor Security Reviews" at the 2018 CSU Tech Conference (July 30-Aug 2) in Sacramento, CA.
Bethany Rizzardi and Billie Herman presented "HSU IT Project Prioritization - Aligning IT Resources with Campus Priorities" at the 2018 CSU Tech Conference (July 30-Aug 2) in Sacramento, CA.
Breck Robinson and Brent Oparowski presented "Building the (Virtual) Lab of the Future with Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS)" at the 2018 CSU Tech Conference (July 30-Aug 2) in Sacramento, CA.
The Telecommunications and Network Services team has received a $10,000 innovations mini-grant from the CSU Office of the Chancellor. The team will develop tools that will support internal campus communications during an outage caused by a natural disaster. The grant also funds the concept design of portable kits to support outage communications in local neighborhoods.
Dr. Young Kwon has received a $10,000 innovations mini-grant from the CSU Office of the Chancellor for developing Augmented Virtual Exercise Physiology Laboratories (AVEPL) with real data using virtual reality cameras. This project will provide hands-on lab activities and help eliminate the place-bound and facilities bottlenecks for KINS 379 Exercise Physiology.
ITS Enterprise and Client Technology has received $50,000 worth of Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits from the CSU Office of the Chancellor. These credits will be used to explore cloud services to expand our Virtual Lab. For this project, we will focus on using AWS for computationally or resource intensive processes and applications.
Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, Inc. Biennium Convention Epsilon Upsilon Chapter & California Alumnae Association Humboldt State University.
The 2018 International Leadership Forum for the Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority, Inc. was held in Buffalo, NY June 28th - July 1st, 2018. This biennium convention was attended by nearly 400 delegates around the country and marked the kick off for Delta Phi Epsilon’s new strategic plan. The event included distinguished alumnae speakers, professional development workshops, and the opportunity to celebrate Delta Phi Epsilon’s 100+ years of sisterhood and service.
The Epsilon Upsilon Chapter at Humboldt State University sent delegates to represent the HSU Chapter, one of two active chapters on the west coast. HSU’s undergraduate delegates included current Chapter President Michaelah Cole (Marine Biology, Senior) and past Vice President Operations Jasmine Calvillo (Cellular Molecular Biology, Senior).
Additionally, the California Alumnae Association, primarily composed of HSU graduates, had five alumnae representatives from Humboldt State University attending.
The Epsilon Upsilon Chapter at Humboldt State University was chartered in 1988 and currently has close to 60 undergraduate members. A second chapter was recently established on the west coast at California State University, Los Angeles in fall 2016.
*Organizational Awards*:
Outstanding Alumnae Newsletter Award: Epsilon Upsilon, Humboldt State University
-- Awarded to the active undergraduate chapter with the most creative and engaging outreach program targeted towards their alumnae graduates.
Outstanding Senior to Alumnae Programming Award: California Alumnae Association, Humboldt State University & California State University, Los Angeles.
-- Awarded to the Alumnae Association that excels in preparing collegiate senior members for alumnae membership during the biennium.
*Individual Awards*:
Sisterhood Award: Margie Janes, Epsilon Upsilon, HSU Class of 2006
-- Presented to a volunteer who demonstrates loyalty and devotion to all aspects of Delta Phi Epsilon, including time, participation, commitment to communication, and contributes above and beyond the description of their position.
For more information about Delta Phi Epsilon at Humboldt State University visit
www.dphie.org or https://dphiehsu.weebly.com/
Tim Miller (Library), Sarah Fay Philips (Library), and Jessica Citti (Writing Studio / Learning Center) presented "Creating and Coordinating a Collaborative Workshop Program: Librarians and Writing Studio Coordinator Share Insights and Lessons Learned" at the Library Instruction West 2018 Conference (July 19-20) in Grand Junction, CO.
Melanie Michalak and Susan Cashman (Geology) were awarded a 3-year, multi-institutional National Science Foundation grant, with Eric Kirby (OSU) and Kevin Furlong (Penn State), to study geologic deformation in the Klamath Mountains. This research addresses both mountain building (long term deformation) and crustal strain associated with megathrust earthquakes (short term deformation). Principal investigators and students will partner with Hoopa Valley Elementary School’s 6th grade teachers for research-related activities and field trips for HVES 6th graders. HSU was awarded $158,636 to support graduate and undergraduate students, 6th grade teachers, supplies, and analyses.
Kerri J. Malloy, Lecturer in Native American Studies presented his paper “Marshall, Whitman and Baum: Selections from the American Terminal Narrative” at the "Words that Kill" conference organized by the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention at the American University of Paris (May 28-30) in Paris, France.
Seafha Ramos, Research Associate and Lecturer in the Wildlife Department, published an article, "Considerations for culturally sensitive Traditional Ecological Knowledge research in wildlife conservation". The paper will be included in the June 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, the Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Over the last year, students in GEOG 300, Global Awareness, and GEOG 301, Int'l Environmental Issues and Globalization, published papers on public blogs under the instruction of Dr. Laura Johnson.
Students in GEOG 300 created an 'Encyclopedia of Objects of Concern,' in which they creatively examined how seemingly mundane, ordinary objects connect people, places, and beings across the globe. Check it out here: https://humboldtglobalawareness.weebly.com
And in GEOG 301, students collectively developed case studies of resistance, re-imagining, and re-building, collaborating to probe innovative movements, organizations, and frameworks. Check it out here: https://reimaginetheworld.weebly.com
Emily Cobb attended and participated in the "Digital Meets Handmade" symposium in New York City on May 16th-18th. The symposium was organized by the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. She presented her paper abstract "Sleight of Hand: Digital Influence on Contemporary Jewelry Education" and was a member of the panel that discussed "Has CAD gone Bad?"