Latest Achievements

Five Humboldt State University students passed the rigorous “Fundamentals of Soil Science” exam offered on April 15, 2013, becoming Associate Professional Soil Scientists, according to test results from the Council of Soil Science Examiners. Zoe Merrill, Kyle Garvey and Braden Pitcher graduated with degrees in Wildland Soils in the Rangeland Resource Science major. Stephanie Winters graduated with the Rangeland Resources option and completed sufficient soils courses to be a federal Soil Scientist. Rachelle Dilley graduated with a degree in Botany.

The national pass rate for the spring 2013 exam was 63%. Those who pass the fundamentals exam will be eligible to take the Professional Practice exam after five years of professional experience, an additional step in becoming a Certified Professional Soil Scientist. Recent Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) discussions about program self-certification have included the fundamentals exam as one indicator of program quality. Humboldt State University Wildland Soils students (an option under the Rangeland Resource Science major) spend more than 200 hours in field or laboratory learning experiences, honing hands-on skills and field judgment of soil properties, limitations, and capabilities.

Harvey Kelsey, a research associate in the Geology Department, has been named a fellow of the Geological Society of America. Honorees are nominated by existing GSA Fellows for their contributions to the geosciences. Contributions may include publications, applied research, teaching, administration of geological programs, public education, editorial, bibliographic and library responsibilities.

Kelsey was honored for using field investigations of coastal environments to make important contributions to our understanding of the history and processes of great subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis in Cascadia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Sociology lecturer Anthony Silvaggio was recently mentioned in a New York Times article examining the environmental impacts of marijuana production. Silvaggio created a Google Earth video showing the environmental damage caused by industrial pot farms.The video was later enhanced by Mother Jones: http://bit.ly/VDoT01.

Environmental resources engineering student Monica Napoles was recently selected for the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis' (NIMBioS) highly competitive Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).

The 2013 NIMBioS REU program runs for eight weeks, from June 10 – Aug. 2, and includes 19 undergraduates from universities across the United States. Participants live on campus and work in teams with NIMBioS postdoctoral researchers and UTK faculty on research at the interface of mathematics and biology. The research projects for the 2013 program are mathematical modeling of fetal electrocardiograms; modeling animal disease from coronavirus; automatic detection of rare birds from audio recording; modeling the environmental transmission of E-coli in cattle; modeling protein translation and genome evolution; and modeling animal social network dynamics. More information about the REU program can be found at "nibios.org/reu":http://www.nimbios.org/reu/.

NIMBioS is a National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative to foster interdisciplinary research at the interface between mathematical and biological sciences. Additional NIMBioS sponsors include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Department of Mathematics recently named several scholarship recipients for the 2012-13 academic year. They are:

Mathematics students Natalya Jackson and Wilson Jarrell; winners of the Harry S. Kieval Scholarship, awarded to junior-level students.

Melanie Kaitlyn Weaver; winner of the Mathematics Department's Harry S. Kieval Transfer Scholarship for outstanding performance in college level courses at a two year college in preparation for a mathematics major.

Kyle Steslicki; winner of both the Orval M. Klose Scholarship and the Robert S. Chambers Scholarship for full-time undergraduate mathematics majors.

Anne Adams and Elizabeth Bell; winners of the Travis Jepsen Memorial Scholarship for full-time mathematics majors.

Austin LaComb; winner of the Michael Tucker Scholarship for outstanding junior or senior mathematics major, and

Valerie Yellam; winner of the awarded the Elmo Moore Memorial Mathematics Scholarship for mathematics or mathematics education majors.

Kendall Lewis was named Outstanding Student of the Year '12-13 for the Department of Computer Science.

Oceanography professor Christine Cass was recently named one of the top 20 women professors in California by statestats.org and partner website onlineschoolssalifornia.com. The two sites set out to find post-secondary educators who had been recognized recently for excellence in the classroom, on campus and in the community.

Cass joins professors from Stanford, UC Berkeley and Loyola Marymount in earning the distinction. Cass has served as an assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography since 2011. Her research focuses on changes in West Coast zooplankton brought about by seasonal variations.

Geology student Bobby Voeks was recently accepted into the U.S. Geological Survey/National Association of Geoscience Teachers Cooperative Field Training Program. The USGS/NAGT program is the longest continuously running internship program in the earth sciences. Bobby will work as a hydrologic technician measuring sediment inputs into the Chesapeake Bay. He will be based at USGS headquarters in Reston, VA.

Geology student Claudia Velasco recently accepted a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Summer Internship studying glacial sedimentology in Brazil and surficial geology in west central, Minnesota for Native American women. Claudia will help an active research project on the origin and history of surficial deposits in west central Minnesota and the late Paleozoic glacial units of Brazil (the Itarare subgroup). Her research will focus on the influence of climate on ice stream movement, the significance of marine interaction and ice sheet grounding, and the nature of ice stream flow (sliding vs. deformation).

Geology student Michelle Robinson was recently accepted into the U.S. Geological Survey/National Association of Geoscience Teachers Cooperative Field Training Program. The USGS/NAGT program is the longest continuously running internship program in the earth sciences. Michelle will be based in Portland, OR working with USGS scientists on water-quality conditions in the Columbia River Basin. He work will focus on "toxics," including anthropogenic-indicator compounds, pharmaceuticals, PBDEs, pesticides and legacy compounds.

Erin Quinn recently accepted a Smithsonian Graduate Student Fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History. Erin will conduct high-temperature, high-pressure experiments on rocks from Chaos Crags, Lassen Volcanic National Park. Erin’s work will be the first experimental phase equilibrium study on Chaos Crags and will provide important constraints on magma storage conditions at Chaos Crags. This is important for better understanding the volcanic hazards within Lassen Park.

Geology student Kelly Morgan will serve as seasonal hydrologic technician with the Rocky Mountain Research Station for summer 2013. Kelly will conduct surveys of geomorphic features in the Upper East Fork Weiser River in central Idaho using GPS and other methods. She will use the Geomorphic Road Assessment and Inventory Package (GRAIP), a process and set of tools for analyzing the impacts of roads on forested watersheds. GRAIP combines a detailed road inventory with a powerful GIS analysis tool set to predict road sediment production and delivery, mass wasting risk from gullies and landslides, and road hydrologic connectivity.

Geology student Joe Camacho Jr. received the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Summer Internship. Joe will use surface observations to search for blind (subsurface) faults in the North American platform in central Tennessee. He will present his summer research at the fall meeting of the Geological Society of America in Vancouver, BC.

Ryland Karlovich, Talisa Rodriquez, Miles Ross, Matthew Eiben, and Amelia Egle and Dept. of Geography Faculty Members

In May, Geography students and faculty returned triumphant from the 67th California Geographical Society Meeting at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Over 400 academic, NGO, agency, and private sector geographers attended.

The ever-popular student research competition included students from four states and 31 institutions (including 13 CSU and 5 UC campuses).

1st Place
In the student research competition, senior Ryland Karlovich’s gained some identity by analyzing how England's Historic Counties are Losing Identity. Ryland continues this effort as a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh next fall.

Talisa Rodriquez’ year-long effort documenting Primary Succession and Edge Effects in a Northcoast Coastal Dune Habitat took home the Geosystems Award for the best undergraduate physical geography paper.

Miles Ross, Matthew Eiben, and Amelia Egle captured second place in Digital Mapping for their effort on The Geography of Hate: Placing Racist, Sexist and Homophobic Sentiment in Online Social Media. Their effort, prepared under the direction of Professor Monica Stephens, was published May 10th in The Guardian, one of the UK’s leading periodicals.

Eight other students presented a paper, poster or cartographic effort. Faculty members Matt Derrick (who presented a paper) and Stephen Cunha accompanied the students.

sdaf asfsadf asdfsadf

Matthew Lutwen and Ellyn Henderson were recently selected as the 2013 David Kalb Award recipient and runner-up, respectively. Matthew was the recipient of a $1,000 award and Ellyn received a $250 award. This award was established by David Kalb, an alumnus of Humboldt State University. He was a political science major and served as president of the Associated Students. The award is open to any student who has demonstrated personal commitment and leadership by taking an active role in student government.

Senior Holly Leopardi was presented the award for "Exceptional Scholarly Achievement" in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. The annual award honors outstanding Physics & Astronomy Majors at the junior or senior level. The award includes a commemorative hardcover edition of "The Feynman Lectures on Physics."

Bill Reynolds, Professor of Psychology recently published two journal articles. One article, co-authored with colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Ohio State Medical School titled: “Suicide risk in youth with intellectual disability: The challenge of screening” appeared in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Along with Jessica Black (MA, HSU), their research paper on “Examining the relationship of perfectionism, depression, and optimism: Testing for mediation and moderation" was published recently in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

In addition to these journal articles, the second edition of Bill’s book, the Handbook of Psychology, Volume 7: Educational Psychology, which he co-edited with Dr. Gloria Miller of the University of Denver was published in January by John Wiley & Sons. In addition to coediting the book, Bill also contributed two chapters to this 600 page volume. In collaboration with A. Bӑlaj, Bill recently published the Scala de evaluare a tulburӑrilor din adolescentӑ – Forma scurtӑ. APS-SF Manual pentru specialist. Adaptarea si standizarea APS-SF pe populatia din Romania, a Romanian edition of his Adolescent Psychopathology Scale that was standardized and validated with adolescents in Romania. Recently, Bill along with coauthors Kenneth Kobak and Daniel David published the book: HDI Hamilton Depression Inventory inventarul de depresie Hamilton: Manual tehnic si interpretative. In April, Bill presented two papers at the national conference of the Society for Personality Assessment in San Diego. One of these papers described 25 years of international research with the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale.

Also in April, Bill along with undergraduate and graduate research assistants (including Molly Blahausz, Rebekah Becker, Carlos Gonzalez, Esperanza Alcazar, Erin Harris, Melissa Nielsen, Sarah Murphy, Terri McCaben, and Jessica Kirby) presented five research papers at the annual Western Psychological Association conference in Reno, NV. Later this month, Bill and Jessica Black with present a research paper at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in Washington, DC on the assessment of moral identity.

Joshua Peterson received the Mathematics Department Outstanding Teaching Award for AY 2012-13 for teaching lower division courses while completing his master's degree.

Sondra Schwetman has a piece accepted into the Marin Museum of Contemporary Arts' Summer National Juried Exhibition. The show runs June 1 to July 14th.

Kori Sabalow, who is studying International Studies with an emphasis in Globalization, was selected by World Languages & Cultures faculty as the 2013-2014 recipient of the Benavides-Garb Family International Travel Award, which honors a student accepted to participate in an HSU-approved study abroad program.

Owen Krebs, who is studying International Studies with an emphasis in Globalization, was selected by World Languages and Cultures faculty as the 2013-2014 recipient of the Frank B. Wood Scholarship, awarded for academic excellence in language study.

Communication majors Nicole Sheldon and Hayley Connors-Keith contributed to a conference paper, "Prop 37 and the Debate Over 'Natural' Foodways," presented at the "Traditions and Transformations: Interdisciplinary Food Studies Conference" at CSU Fullerton, April 19-21, 2013. Sheldon was a presenter and one of the authors, along with Communication professors Michael Bruner and Laura Hahn. Connors-Keith created the graphics and the slides for the presentation. This project illustrates how faculty and undergraduate students can collaborate on research and is part of the wide range of work on Food Studies being carried out in the College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences.

Alison Holmes, leader of the International Studies Program, was awarded a summer fellowship at the University of London where she will be conducting archival research for 'Global Diplomacy,' a textbook for Westview Press.

Three HSU faculty members recently received 2012/13 CSU Quality Online Teaching & Learning (QOLT) awards for creating exemplary hybrid/online courses. Anthropology faculty members Mary Scoggin & Rebecca Robertson were awarded for their online course "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology." Communication faculty member Tasha Souza was awarded for her hybrid course "Intercultural Communication."

The CSU QOLT program was developed to assist faculty, faculty developers, and instructional designers to more effectively design hybrid and online courses.

History majors James Garrison and Sydney Hinton are the 2013 recipients of two $750 William R. Tanner History Scholarships. The scholarship was established in memory of William R. Tanner, professor of history at Humboldt State University from 1970 to 1999; founder of History Day at the university; and author of “A View from the Hill,” a history of Humboldt State University.

History major Adam Hioki was selected by History Department faculty as the 2013 recipient of the Dr. John Hennessey Award, which honors a graduating history major who has demonstrated academic excellence in the study of history. The award was established in memory of Dr. John Hennessey, a professor of History and department chair at Humboldt State University who, after his retirement from the History Department, provided many years of service to the university.

History majors James Garrison, Sean Mitchell, and Nicholas Gunvaldson were awarded first, second and third place, respectively, in the Charles R. Barnum History Contest, with their combined cash prizes totaling $2,500. The Barnum History Awards celebrate original historical research of Humboldt County. The awards were established in 1952 by a grant from Charles Barnum, a realtor and insurance broker in Eureka who was a member of the Humboldt State College Advisory Board from 1946 to his death in 1953.

History-Social Science Education major Victoria Munguia was selected by History Department faculty to receive the 2013 Johnston-Aronoff Award, which is given each year to an outstanding student pursuing a career in teaching history at the K-12 level. The award was established by Guy Aronoff, a lecturer in the HSU History Department, and his wife, Judy Johnston, in memory of Guy’s father, David Aronoff, and Judy’s mother, Aldy Johnston.

Assistant politics professor Stephanie Burkhalter, and politics major Jaycob Bytel presented "Going Public in Advice and Consent" at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 11-14, in Chicago.

HSU graduate student Leslie Scopes Anderson and Ken Burton have just completed a bird guide entitled "Common Birds of Northwest California – Humboldt, Del Notre & Trinity Counties." Over a year in production, the book is 176 pages and contains over 500 photos, (most by Leslie) as well as habitat charts and informative text about the birds. The guide is published by Redwood Region Audubon Society and will soon be available in local book stores.

Graduate student Leslie Anderson recorded a first-ever sighting of a rare Red-bellied Woodpecker in the state of Nevada. It is also the second western-most sighting in the US of the bird, bested only by one in Idaho in 2003. Leslie noticed the woodpecker in June near the historic Bressman cabin at Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge and documented it with high-quality photographs. The first-sighting was later confirmed by local bird expert Ken Burton and the Nevada Bird Records Committee. An article about the find will appear in the April-May issue of Western Birds.

Two teams of Environmental Resources Engineering students recently took high honors in the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications Mathematical Modeling Contest Jan. 31 to Feb. 4. Both teams worked on the same problem, which required building a mathematical model for an effective, cost-efficient water strategy to meet the United States' projected water needs in 2025. In particular, the model was required to address water storage and movement, desalinization and conservation.

The first team--consisting of Lianna Winkler-Prins, James Courtney and Ryan P. Dunne--earned an honorable mention ranking. The second team--consisting of Kevin Kipp, Britlandt Abney and Andrew Preiksa--was awarded a meritorious ranking. Each team prepared a detailed report that included one of three possible modeling problems.

The manuscript "Medical device compendium for the developing world: a new approach in project and service-based learning for engineering graduate students" by Kathleen Sienko and Amir Sabet Sarvestani of University of Michigan and Lonny Grafman of HSU was published in the Global Journal of Engineering Education.

The manuscript documents the work establishing the Global Health Medical Devices Compendium, a new open-source platform for presenting available medical devices designed for, or implemented in, the developing world at http://www.appropedia.org/Portal:Medical_Devices.

Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence awarded to _The Lumberjack_, _Osprey_ and KRFH Radio News

At a 4-state journalism contest April 13 in Las Vegas, Journalism Major Colleen Chalmers won First Place for Non-Fiction Magazine Articles for “Hazing Kills A Soccer Season.” Journalism Majors Connor Jepson, Lashay Wesley, Karel Vega & Xavion Bond won second place for Best Radio News Reporting for KRFH’s coverage of the California elections. _The Lumberjack_, _Osprey_ and KRFH Radio News walked away with second place awards for Best All-Around Non Daily Student Newspaper; Best Student Magazine; and Best All-Around Radio Newscast.

The Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources presented 22 of its students with nearly $28,000 in scholarships at its 15th annual Spring Awards banquet in April. Three graduating seniors were recognized at the ceremony: Zachary Carter, Academic Excellence Award; Noah Coonen, Professional Promise Award, and Celina Weeg, Most Outstanding Student Award in Rangeland Resources and Wildland Soils. Department Chair Kenneth (K.O.) Fulgham reported that faculty have gained more than $1.37 million in grant research awards in the past 18 months. He recognized retiring Professor John Stuart for his 30 years of service to the department. For the third year running, Stuart was voted “Outstanding Professor of the Year” by the department’s students.

Biology graduate student Rachael Olliff recently received a 2013 conservation grant from the Sequoia Park Zoo of Eureka. Olliff will use the grant to monitor the relationship between the native but seldom-studied dune silver bee and flowering plants on the North Spit of Humboldt Bay and publish informational pamphlets.

Oceanography faculty member Christine Cass recently received a 2013-14 California Sea Grant Focus Award. Cass will spend 18 months studying seasonal changes in the fat and protein content of zooplankton in northern California and southern Oregon. California Sea Grant is funded by the National Sea Grant College Program, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Noah Zerbe, Chair of the Department of Politics, presented a paper entitled "Engaging Students and Promoting Learning through Semester-long Simulations in International Relations" at the International Studies Association. The paper, which followed the implementation of a simulation in his Introduction to International Relations course, demonstrated that active learning strategies can have different but lasting impacts on student retention and engagement.

Isral Konopa, Environmental Resources Engineering undergraduate student, and Britany MacFarlane, Environmental Resources Engineering graduate student, have each received a 2013/14 scholarship from the California branch of the American Council of Engineering Companies.

ACEC invited scholarship applications from full-time students enrolled in California colleges and universities with an ABET-approved engineering program. From all the pplicants, only 5 undergraduate students and 3 graduate students were chosen to receive scholarships.

The Schatz Energy Research Center conference room has been named after SERC founding director Peter Lehman. A professor of environmental resources engineering, Lehman served as SERC's director from 1989 to 2012 and as faculty advisor to the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology from 1979 to 2000. The newly-dedicated room will also include a portrait of Lehman.

Edward Nuhfer, director of Educational Effectiveness at Humboldt State, in collaboration with emeritus professor of economics Dennis Muraoka (CSU Channel Islands), are founding editors of the newly announced peer-reviewed open access journal "_Student Learning through Mentored Scholarship (SLMS)_,":http://www.sagepub.com/press/2013/february/SAGE_publishesStudentLearnin… produced by SAGE Publications of Thousand Oaks, Calif.

The journal disseminates research on the successful experiences of higher-education faculty in support of innovative research and scholarship with peers and students.

Nuhfer and Muraoka collaborated for two years with support from SAGE in constructing concept documents, designing reviewers' rubrics and assembling a diverse and well-qualified national inaugural board of reviewers.

Campuses of the California State University are especially well known for supporting undergraduate research, civic engagement, and service learning done both through formal classes and through co-curricular projects in student academic clubs. These require a substantial investment of faculty time in one-on-one mentoring that is not widely recognized for its true value. Muraoka notes: "SLMS provides a much needed vehicle that will allow educators to convey mentoring ideas and models to other educators."

SAGE'S international reputation as a publisher of high quality journals provides a tremendous opportunity for collaborating mentors to co-author with one another and with their students on the exceptional kinds of learning experiences that are signature to campuses known for providing top-notch undergraduate education.

Penelope Shaw, study abroad coordinator, and Alison Holmes, International Studies program leader, presented a paper: "Developing International Studies on the Lost Coast" to the International Studies Association Annual Conference in San Francisco in April.

Biology graduate students John Mola and Rachael Olliff and Botany/Biology-Ecology undergraduate student Christopher Steenbock received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship on March 29th.

Biological sciences professor Amy Sprowles recently won an elevator pitch contest summarizing her research on stem cells. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's Elevator Pitch Challenge asked scientific researchers to explain what they do, why it’s important and why the public should care in 30 seconds or less. Sprowles and her students are studying how cancer genes may turn on stem cell like properties in normal adult cells. Their research is supported by CIRM's Bridges to Stem Cell Research Awards program. You can see the speeches on YouTube at #SciencePitch.

Nursing professor Marshelle Thobaben recently published an article and textbook chapter. The article, "Psychiatric Home Health Skilled Nursing Services," was published in the February 2013 issue of Home Health Care Management & Practice Journal: Vol. 25, Issue 1, February 2013, Pg. 32-34.

The textbook chapter, titled "People of Turkish Heritage" was published in Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach, 4th ed. Editor: Larry D. Purnell; 2013; F.A. Davis Publisher.

Professor Sing C. Chew was recently invited to an international conference in Singapore, "Plural Coexistence and Sustainability: Asian Experiences in Interdisciplinary Perspectives," sponsored by Nanyang Technological University and Kyoto University, Japan. He presented a paper entitled: Socioeconomic Structural Transformations, Climate, Ecological Changes, and Mobilizations in an Era of Global Crisis.

Dr. Sharon N. Kahara and Steven R. Chipps' paper "Wetland Hydrodynamics and Long-term Use of Spring Migration Areas by Lesser Scaup in Eastern South Dakota," published in the journal Great Plains Research (2012), was selected to receive the Charles E. Bessey award for the best paper in natural resources.

Sociology faculty member Ronald L. Mize's book "Consuming Mexican Labor: From the Bracero Program to NAFTA" has received glowing reviews from a number of recognized scholars. Comparative race historian Neil Foley provided a flattering assessment in the Pacific Historical Review, saying "the real strength of this work ... is the attention given to the growing dispersal of Mexican laborers in the last few decades from the American West to the Midwest ‘‘heartland’’ (Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, and so on), the hinterlands of the Northeast (especially non-metropolitan New York), the Northwest, and, most importantly, the South, where the greatest demographic changes have taken place. Mize's book, co-authored with Alicia C.S. Swords, is available on Amazon.