Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
HSU's Archaeology Research Laboratory recently acquired a drone to support student and faculty research. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, can serve numerous research functions. The drone can carry a range of different instruments including infrared pods and HD cameras. It can also create 3D maps of archaeological sites and gather aerial photos of larger areas. The drone will benefit students in numerous disciplines including Archaeology, Geology, Geography, Forestry, Environmental Planning, Wildlife Management and Conservation, Geospatial Sciences, Anthropology and Heritage Management Preservation.
Wildlife Professors Jeffrey Black and Micaela Szykman Gunther recently co-authored a paper with student Kristin Brzeski in _The Journal of Wildlife Management_ evaluating the status of river otters in Humboldt Bay. River otters have experienced dramatic population declines in the last century and relatively few studies have evaluated their status, especially in California. Black, Gunther and Brzeski evaluated the population of river otters in Humboldt Bay by extracting DNA from the animals' scat. They analyzed the scat in the lab to create unique river otter "fingerprints." They pooled that data with visual observations from a citizen science project and determined that the Humboldt Bay is home to a larger number of river otters than previously expected. It also has a higher density of the creatures compared to other coastal systems. To read the full paper, visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.610/abstract.
Georgia Kaufman, a Cellular & Molecular Biology major (adviser Professor Jacob Varkey) has been awarded the 2013 Jack and Maureen Yarnall Scholarship for a Student Athlete majoring in the Biological Sciences. Georgia is a junior and a member of the HSU Crew Team.
Jairo Luque Villanueva ('15, Environmental Resources Engineering) was one of 33 students nationwide to receive a prestigious GRO Fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency. GRO recipients are eligible to receive up to $50,000 over two years for their studies in the sciences and math. They also receive an EPA internship. Villanueva is interning with ERE professor Andrea Achilli. He is researching forward osmosis and membrane distillation wastewater treatment/water reuse. Villanueva previously served as a student assistant and tutor for HSU's Indian Natural Resource, Science and Engineering Program and as a summer research intern at the University of Minnesota.
HSU alum Jonathan Castro ('93, Geology) recently co-authored a paper that provides scientists with the first direct insight into the rocky lava known as obsidian flow. Castro, a professor at the University of Mainz in Germany, captured footage and images of a volcanic eruption in Chile in 2012. He and his colleagues found that contrary to popular belief, the lava kept moving more than a year after the eruption. The findings were published in recent issue of Nature Communications. For the BBC News article, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24821494.
HSU Cycling became the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference Mountain Bike champion Nov. 17, beating all Division I and II teams in the overall standings. It was a historic mountain bike season where HSU was the top ranked team every week all the way through conference championships. The following students raced this season: Ali Osgood, Steven Pearl, Alvin Garlejo, Sara Schneider, Justin Graves, Justin Gore, Derek Roelle, Tyler Green, Harry Ward, Eli Robinson, Clara Nilsen, Marina Marcroft, Caryn DeFrees, Cole Humphrey, Dylan Wright, Dylan Fluet, Justin Lowe, Ashely Hansen and Katelyn Hill.
On Nov.16, Saturday at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka, CA, HSU Music Faculty Gil Cline, Fred Tempas, John Chernoff and Daniela Mineva performed free and open to the public chamber music concert. This event is part of the concert series " HSU Music Faculty at Morris Graves Museum of Art" and it is organized by Humboldt Arts Council, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA and HSU Music Department.
Craig is playing the leader of the Kabuki muses in the Redwood Curtain Theatre's production of "Far East" by A.R. Gurney, directed by Craig Benson. The story is set in 1954 Japan where three American naval officers and one wife are stationed. Benson's interpretation has set the American play atop a traditional kabuki setting. For reviews of the play go to:
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/changing-times/Content?oid=24…
and
http://www.times-standard.com/entertainment/ci_24504326/edwood-curtains…
HSU students Denise Truong and Cody Miranda are also cast in the play. Look for their achievements under Students.
Jean O'Hara, faculty member for Critical Race,Gender and Sexuality, is the editor of the recently published anthology: "Two-Spirit Acts: Indigenous Queer Performances."
This anthology includes Waawaate Fobister's play "Agokwe," which was performed at the 2011 Social Justice Summit.
The link for the anthology is "available here":http://www.playwrightscanada.com/index.php/genres/aboriginal-drama/two-….
Marissa Mourer has just returned from presenting at the 66th annual national conference of the Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. Over 1,500 orientation professionals attended this conference and she was invited to present her outcomes-based orientation leader training program model.
Daniela Mineva, Associate Professor in the Music Department, was invited to perform a solo piano recital and present a piano master class from Nov. 5-8 at Marshall University in West Virginia. According to a Nov. 7 article in the Herald-Dispatch newspaper, "Her jovial and personable character, combined with flawless pianistic technique and intense musical expression, allows her to present new music in an exciting, adventurous way that is enjoyable for musicians and non-musicians alike."
Three HSU faculty members received Fulbright awards in 2013-14, making Humboldt State a leading producer of Fulbright scholars among U.S. master’s institutions. Tasha Souza, a professor in the Communication Department, will partner with the Instructional Development Unit at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill in Barbados to build faculty development programs, teach workshops and courses for faculty and lead faculty learning communities to enhance student learning and faculty innovation. Eileen Cashman, a professor in the Environmental Resources Engineering Department, will lecture and research hydroelectricity in Santarem, Brazil. Matthew Johnson, a professor in the Wildlife Department, will lecture and research the ecosystem of coffee farms in Bangalore, India.
Chris Aberson, Professor of Psychology, will begin a four-year term as Associate Editor of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations (GPIR). GPIR is a scientific social psychology journal dedicated to social psychological processes within and between groups. The journal’s editorial team includes leading scholars in social psychology of intergroup relations from around the world.
Dr. Aberson joins GPIR after a term as Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Social Psychology. He currently holds positions on the editorial boards of Teaching of Psychology and Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.
Araik Sinanyan (Cellular/Molecular Biology) and Gritidach Manakitivipart (Wildlife Management & Conservation) won Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation at the 2013 SACNAS National Conference. SACNAS stands for the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans. Sinanyan's winning poster was titled "BPA Slows Down Medial and Lateral Giant Fiber Conduction Velocity and Disrupts Regeneration in Lumbriculus variegatus." His advisor was Biological Sciences Professor Bruce O'Gara. Manakitivipart's poster was titled "Engineering Low Cost Ocean Observation Systems: Their Potential In The Field And Education." His mentors were James Manning and Ambrose Jearld Jr. of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Both students are part of INRSEP, HSU's Indian Natural Resource Science and Engineering Program.
will be performing as a Kabuki Muse in Redwood Curtain's production of Far East, a play by A.R.Gurney, directed by Craig Benson. The play runs Oct. 31 - Nov. 23, Thurs-Saturday, 8 p.m.
Dr. Daniela Mineva, Associate Professor in the Music Department was invited by Costa Rica Temorada Internacional de Piano to be Pianist-in-Residence from 10/21/13 to 10/27/13 in San Jose, Costa Rica. She presented solo piano recitals and piano master classes at Universidad Nacional Costa Rica and Universidad de Costa Rica.
Sarah Jaquette Ray published an article titled "Environmental Justice, Transnationalism, and the Politics of the Local in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead" in the Journal of Transnational American Studies. The link is available here: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3z89t6hc. Dr. Ray will also present a paper at the HSU Philosophy Forum on Ethics, Animals, and the Environment on November 9. The paper is titled "Rubtrees, Webcams, and GIS: The Hybrid Geography of Leanne Alison and Jeremy Mendes' Bear 71."
Professor Jayne McGuire's Leisure Programming class recently ran a High School Special Olympic Bocce Tournament and an Interpretive Kayaking event with Kayak Zaks to raise funds to renovate the boat-in camp ground across from Stone Lagoon.
Psychology students Leana Edwards, Brooke Bisel and Genni Kerwin will present a proclamation at the Nov. 6 Arcata Town Council meeting announcing Nov. 11-15 as National School Psychology Week. The students, who represent the public relations committee of HSU's School Psychology Club, initiated the proclamation to draw attention to the importance of school psychological services and children’s mental health. The proclamation also supports national efforts to promote the wellness of students; highlights HSU's nationally accredited school psychology program and acknowledges local school psychologists who help train HSU students.
Amanda Admire ('13, Environmental Systems) presented on her master's thesis at the International Tsunami Symposium in Göcek, Turkey on September 28.
Drs. Josh Meisel and Tony Silvaggio of the Sociology Department were invited to present on the "Social and Economic Issues Associated with Marijuana Cultivation in California" to the California State Board of Forestry in Sacramento on October 8, 2013. Their presentation provided an overview of key social, cultural and political forces shaping current cannabis cultivation practices and their negative impacts on the environment.
Geography professor Stephen Cunha contributed a chapter on “Agricultural Settlement and Landuse” to Mountain Geography: Physical and Human Dimensions, published by UC Press. Cunha draws on experience from six continents to show how mountains pose distinctive problems for human settlement and land use. The vast corn and wheat fields blanketing gentler topography, such as the American Midwest and Argentine Pampas, are absent here. In their place is a more intricate pattern of crops and animal husbandry that reflects adaptation to vertically compressed environments. The differences are especially sharp between high and low elevation, and the windward versus leeward mountain slopes.
Professor Terry Henkel was one of several authors who contributed to a paper in the Oct. 18 issue of "Science" titled "Hyperdominance in the Amazonian tree flora," a massive meta-analysis of tree distribution patterns over tropical South America based on data from 1,430 plots across the entire region. Terry contributed data from a number of these plots from the Guianas region, which were unique to the dataset in exhibiting the highest levels of single species dominance and lowest overall woody plant alpha-diversity.
Politics professor Sam Sonntag gave an invited plenary address at the Multidisciplinary Approaches to Language Policy and Planning Conference at the University of Calgary in early September.
HSU Cycling Club rider Ali Osgood remains undefeated, winning all four collegiate downhill mountain bike races this season. Osgood is currently one of the fastest women descenders on the West Coast, with her finish times faster than some of the men. Katelyn Hill is also ranked the top woman rider in the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference after winning all but one of the cross country and short track races at Fresno and Reno and finishing second in the XC and STXC at Stanford. As the top points earner she wears the yellow leader’s jersey.
The Humboldt State University team of fisheries biology major Graeme Lock of Arcata, and business major Derrick Hicks of Lincoln, Calif., won the FLW College Fishing Western Conference Invitational tournament on Clear Lake with a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 1 ounce. Their two-day total of 10 bass weighing 41-10 earned the club $4,000 and qualified the team for the 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
David Phelps ('89, Fine/Studio Arts, Ceramics) will be honored October 19 at the 36th annual Stockton Arts Commission Arts Awards ceremony for his sculpture titled “American Beauty." A contemporary American sculptor, Phelps' work appears in large scale public and private installations across the United States. He works primarily in bronze, steel and concrete.
Dr. Michael S. Bruner, Professor in the Department of Communication, is lead author of a book chapter entitled, "An Evolving Worldview: Culture-Shift in University Students," published in Jim Norwine (Ed.), "A World After Climate Change and Culture Shift," pp. 43-66 (Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, & New York: Springer, 2014).
Humboldt State University's Wildlife Quizbowl Team placed second in the student Quizbowl of the National Meeting of the Wildlife Society in Milwaukee. The single elimination tournament included 17 teams. HSU won the first match against University of Montana 95-25. The team won its second match against University of Wisconsin, Madison, 125-10, and its third match against Michigan Tech 85-70. The team was narrowly defeated in the final round by the University of Minnesota, Crookston, 105 to 100. This year marks the 13th time HSU competed at the National Quizbowl, with nine wins to date.
The quizbowl team included Phil Chaon (captain), Alisa Muniz, Justin Purnell, Felicia Aragon, and Andrew Wiegardt (alternate player).
The national meeting also included students presented "research in progress" posters. Muniz placed in top 20 (among 100+ posters, most by graduate and doctoral students). Student Brendan Higgins won several awards for some of his photos, including best of show.
Associate music professor Paul Cummings has been invited to present at the 2014 national conference of the College Orchestra Directors Association January 23-26, 2014 at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Over 200 conductors of college orchestras from around the country attend this annual conference, which features performances, master classes, and scholarly presentations. Cummings' presentation is entitled "Achieving Critical Mass: Strategies for Improving Recruitment and Repertoire Selection in the Small College (or College-Community) Orchestra."
Cara Owings (Native American Studies) has received a 2013 Rodney T. Mathews Jr. Scholarship. The scholarship provides up to $10,000 to assist California Indian students pursue their educational goals.
HSU Cycling continues to lead the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference after the second weekend of collegiate mountain bike racing at Sky Tavern near Reno on Sept. 28 and 29. The team also scored another milestone. For the first time ever, an HSU cyclist wears the conference points leader's yellow jersey. Kate Hill is ranked number one of all women cyclists in the conference. HSU is a Division II team, but Hill and the team are now ranked above all other Division I and II schools, including Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cal Poly and Reno. See the WCCC conference website for rankings: http://wcccycling.org/results.html
William Rich, Cultural Resources Facility Co-Director, presented at the Society for California Archaeology's Northern Data Sharing Meeting Saturday, September 28th in Trinidad. His paper is titled "Workin’ the Transect: A Look at the Humboldt State University Cultural Resources Facility."
Four students received the Undergraduate Research Creative Activity Fellowship: Alyssa Haggard, Spencer Mitchell, Erik Marinkovich and Matt Price. The projects are overseen by Dr. Marisol Cortes-Rincon in the Archaeology Research Laboratory at HSU. Haggard's project is “3D Virtual Curation: Archaeological Artifacts." Mitchell is researching “Maya Political Interactions through Monumental Display: Ancient Warfare Propaganda." Marinkovich will be examining “Ancient Roadways: Causeways in the Maya Lowlands" and Price will be exploring “Applied Experimental 3D Imagery Techniques on Artifacts."
Rangeland Resources Science majors Travis DiGennaro and Crystal Welch will share the $1,000 Paul Zinke Memorial Scholarship Award for 2013. Travis is an assistant for the introductory soils course, is enrolled in the Wildland Soils option of the range major, and hails from Napa, CA. Crystal Welch is also in the Wildland Soils option and has called Humboldt County and Port Orford, Oregon home. Travis and Crystal will be presenting an undergraduate research poster on actinomycetes found in mushroom compost at the Soil Science Society of America Annual Meetings in Tampa, Florida in November 2013. They join seven past HSU Zinke Award winners: Barbara Witmore (’05), M.S. New Mexico State University, currently employed by the Bureau of Land Management; Rosemary Records (‘06) now in a Ph.D. program at Colorado State University; Sarah Schuette (‘09), co-owner of Dirty Business Consulting of Arcata; Allison Rofe, (‘12) who is a rangeland management specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Ukiah, CA; Jasmine Westbrook (‘12), currently enrolled in a M.S. program at Montana State University; and Stephanie Winters (‘13), a seasonal employee with BKS Environmental of Gillette, WY.
Mark Colwell delivered an invited plenary talk on the challenges of conserving threatened species at the 5th Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia on 20 September 2013.
After the first collegiate mountain bike race of the season, the Humboldt State University Cycling Club leads the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference. A dozen HSU cyclists raced at China Peak Resort last weekend, winning several of the events. HSU senior Steven Pearl won the men's A cross country race. Katelyn Hill won the women's A short track cross country race. The A category races are at the highest level of collegiate cycling competition, and these riders will qualify to race at national championships in October.
Several other HSU cyclists also had podium finishes (top three in their category) including Ali Osgood and Eli Robinson, who earned the team points to catipult HSU to the top of the regional rankings above all division one and two teams. Other HSU cyclists who competed last weekend are Sara Schneider, Ashley Hansen, Alvin Garlejo, Dylan Wright, Justin Graves, Justin Gore, Derek Roelle and Tyler Green. Full results can be found at http://wcccycling.org/results.html. The HSU Cycling Team heads to Reno this coming weekend for the next round of mountain bike races in the WCCC.
Susan Rosen, director of Humboldt State University’s Children Center, has received a four-year $168,040 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support campus-based childcare services for low-income students. Funded under the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program, the award can be used for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, as well as before and after-school care for school-age children.
Wildlife faculty member Barbara Clucas recently co-authored a study suggesting that crows can recognize human faces. For the study, Clucas and her team approached crows in Seattle while directly looking at them and while averting their gaze. The crows scattered earlier when they were being directly stared at, suggesting that they have adapted to living in urban areas. The full article was published in the April issue of the journal _Ethology_.
Humboldt State University graduate Victoria Munguia, a Los Angeles native from an immigrant family, is a winner of the $3,000 William Randolph Hearst/CSU Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement 2013. Munguia graduated in May with a major in History and a double minor in English Literature and Teaching English as a Second Language. She plans to take up a career as a history teacher upon completing a student teaching credential program this fall in Los Angeles.
The Department of Kinesiology & Recreation Administration has received a five-year $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to expand its credential program in adaptive physical education. The grant will be used to fund student stipends, increase hands-on learning opportunities and support outreach and recruitment efforts.
Michael Kauffman, of HSU's Redwood Science Project, has published _Conifers of the Pacific Slope_, a contemporary field guide for identifying Pacific Slope conifers. The book includes color plates for identifying 65 species, photos, maps and destinations for finding conifers in the field. In 2012, Kauffmann published _Conifer Country_, a natural history and hiking guide to the biodiversity of the region—as seen through the eyes of conifers.
Students in Engineering lecturer Lonny Grafman's Practivistas Dominicana program recently returned from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where they worked with community members and local students to develop sustainable, appropriate technologies. Among the projects they completed this summer: designing and building a rural, public pharmacy from plastic bottles and blocks made from rice husks, rice husk ash, lime, cement and sand; redesigning and installing a rainwater catchment system to serve a grade school in the inner-city barrio of La Yuca; developing and constructing renewable energy systems for a local animal shelter. In 2014, students will return to La Yuca and in Las Malvinas, Dominican Republic.
Dr. Hunter H. Fine, a lecturer in the Department of Communication, has published a 20-page essay and 6-minute video on: “The Skateboard Dérive: A Poststructuralist Performance of Everyday Urban Motility.” The study appeared in _Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies_, Vol. 9, No. 3, June 2013. “Dérive” has been defined by Guy Debord as “a movement toward a new way of inhabiting space.”
HSU political science major Ninamarie Jeffrey of Hilo, HI wrapped up a year in Germany this summer as a participant in the U.S. Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX). She took part in the 29th CBYX program, which since 1984 has provided more than 1,700 Americans with the opportunity to gain cultural, theoretical and practical work experience in Germany. Jeffrey was one of 75 participants nationwide for the competitive government-sponsored fellowship for young professionals between the ages of 18 and 24. The program is designed primarily for young adults in business, vocational, engineering, technical and agricultural fields, though candidates in all career fields are encouraged to apply. The program is supported by Congress through the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the State Department and by the German Bundestag or parliament.
Mujtaba Zaidi ('11) has launched the Discovering New Artists (DNA) organization, a program that aims to provide free education to underprivileged children in Pakistan. Mujtaba launched the program in 2011 with help from a Project Smile grant. He credits HSU's Youth Educational Services program for teaching him how to engage and lead volunteers.
Mujtaba studied at HSU through IREX, a U.S. non-profit that provides international education, professional training and technical assistance. Mujtaba participated in IREX' Global UGRAD – Pakistan, which builds the capacity of a diverse group of youth leaders from underserved populations across Pakistan.
Two HSU students in the Practivistas Dominicana Program worked with a team to design and build solar power cubes for a hard-to-adopt animal shelter in Dominican Republic. The student project upcycles intermediate bulk containers and uses photovoltaics to power vaccine refrigeration, kennel lighting, cell phones and laptops.
The animal shelter project named Ghetto2Garden is still under construction in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The students work is highlighted by Inhabitat at http://inhabitat.com/students-transform-liquid-shipping-containers-into-solar-lighting-cubes-for-dominican-animal-shelter/ and documented on Appropedia at http://www.appropedia.org/Ghetto2Garden_solar_power.
Jacquelyn Bolman has received a 2013 Professional Mentor Award from the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) for her work as director of Humboldt State University’s Indian Natural Resource Science and Engineering Program (INRSEP). Bolman is one of five individuals from around the country who will be honored for her work on behalf of Hispanics and Native Americans in the sciences at SACNAS’s annual conference Oct. 3-6 in San Antonio, Texas.
Since 1997, the SACNAS Distinguished Awards program has honored over 80 scientists, educators, and program directors for their commitment to assisting Hispanic/Chicano and Native American scientists attain advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership in science. SACNAS is a Santa Cruz-based non-profit dedicated to fostering the success of Hispanic/Chicano and Native American college students and professionals in the sciences. For more information, visit sacnas.org.
Prof. Sam Sonntag co-organized a thematic section on "Governing Languages" at the French Political Science Association conference held at Sciences Po in Paris in July, at which she also presented a paper entitled "India's Linguistic Federalism as Language Policy." Also in July, she was invited to participate in a workshop on "The Economics of Language Policy" in Venice, sponsored by the Center for Economic Studies in Munich.
Faith Neff ('15, Environmental Resources Engineering) was one of 26 students from around the country to participate in the 2013 Harvard Forest Summer Research Program, an 11-week program in ecological research for undergraduate and graduate students.
Neff was part of a two-person team that created and designed an aerial tram under the supervision of Paul Siquiera, an engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts and Mark Van Scoy, a Harvard Forest research assistant. Neff will present their study, “Monitoring ecosystem physiology and vegetation structure in recent clearings," at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 9-13 in San Francisco.
The annual Harvard Forest Summer Research Program runs May to August in the Harvard Forest located in Petersham, Mass. Students conduct paid, supervised research focusing on the effects of natural and human disturbances on forest ecosystems, including global climate change, hurricanes, forest harvest, changing wildlife dynamics, and invasive species. The program is funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA and several U.S. universities.