Latest Achievements

Professor Cliver gave a talk at the 13th Biennial Meeting of the Textiles Society of America in Washington, D.C. September 20. The talk, entitled "Politics and Production in China's Silk Industry during the Korean War (1950-1953)" was part of a panel on the effects of war on textiles and was well-received by the conference attendees.

Two HSU students (Dawn Albrecht, Masters Environment & Community) and Claudia Velasco (Geology BS) are the recipients of the first two RCTWG Internships through the State's Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA). These internships will provide $7000 to each of these students to work on earthquake/tsunami preparedness issues. Dawn will be working to promote wider ShakeOut participation in the RCTWG area, and also with vulnerable populations (elderly, disabled etc.) to create disaster plans and promote resilience. Claudia will be developing Spanish language versions of much of our material and helping to develop a Spanish outreach program. Claudia grew up in Fortuna in a bilingual home and has strong connections to the local Hispanic community. She is also completing a senior thesis project on the impacts of the 1964 tsunami in Crescent City.

Rae Robison, of the Department of Theatre, Film & Dance is directing the season opening, Humboldt Premiere of the 2010 Pulitzer prize nominated "In the Next Room" (or the Vibrator play) for Ferndale Repertory Theatre. The play revolves around a doctor who treats women's "hysteria," his neglected wife, their marriage and his patients.

The Humboldt State football team was recently featured in a NY Times article by HSU Alum Matt Krupnick ('98, Journalism) about its current season, and the administration's decision to continue funding football despite its cost, for the sake of campus and community morale: http://nyti.ms/Oom6JY.

Associate Professor C.D. Hoyle co-authored a paper in the journal "Classical and Quantum Gravity" with colleagues from the APOLLO collaboration:
"APOLLO: millimeter lunar laser ranging," T.W. Murphy, Jr., E.G. Adelberger, J.B.R. Battat, C.D. Hoyle, N.H. Johnson, R.J. McMillan, C.W. Stubbs and H.E. Swanson, Class. Quant. Grav. 29 (2012) 184005.

Judy Sears, Humboldt State University graduate student in the Social Sciences master’s degree program, Environment & Community, received the 2012 Mary Fran Myers Scholarship from the the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Sears attended the 37th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in July in Broomfield, CO and the following two-day Natural Hazards Mitigation Association Practitioners Meeting. The Mary Fran Myers Scholarship is awarded to “outstanding individuals … who are committed to disaster research and practice and who have the potential to make a lasting contribution to reducing disaster vulnerability.”

In 2011, Sears took part in the development of the Regional Training Institute-Community Disaster Preparedness (RTI) in the Office of Distance & Extended Education at HSU. RTI offers preparedness classes for the five northern California counties.

Both student athletes were named 2012 Collegiate All Americans for USA women's rugby. They were two of the twenty five collegiate players in the nation to be invited to travel to the women's national elite camp in Colorado this past summer. Aoibheann and Adriana played for HSU this last spring, when Humboldt made it to the sweet sixteen finals.

Dan Pambianco received the 2012 Fred S. Stabley Sr., District 8 Writing award for his feature article, "Remembering 9/11," a look back on the circumstances surrounding Humboldt State's football game the Saturday following the terrorist attack on its 10th anniversary. The visiting team's quarterback was a native of Afghanistan, and the game was one of only three played in the West Region that weekend.

Ronald L. Mize, Ph.D., in the Department of Sociology, was recently featured in the Columbia University Press's blog for a post on the federal election and immigration politics. The original post appeared at the Univesrity of Toronoto Press Publishing Blog at this link: http://utpblog.utpress.utoronto.ca/2012/06/28/author-footnotes-with-ronald-l-mize/.

The post on the Columbia University Press blog is here: http://www.cupblog.org/?p=7187

HSU economics major and 2012 Economic Fuel winner Alister Shirazi has been inducted into the Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka with an honorary one-year membership. Shirazi won the $5,000 Economic Fuel prize, which will help him expand his Arcata business “iPhone Surgeon,” a repair service for iPhone, iPod and iPad devices. He plans to open an Arcata storefront in the near future.

The Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka awards an honorary membership to one Economic Fuel winner annually. The organization awards $117,000 in seed capital each year to local college students who compete in the business plan challenge. Click on www.economicfuel.org.

Professor Jianmin Zhong in the Department of Biological Sciences has been awarded a $353,500 R15 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The title of Professor Zhong's project is Symbiotic Rickettsia Species as a Model System for the Study of Folate Biosynthesis.

Prof. Steve Martin published a peer-reviewed paper with former graduate student Kristen Pope titled, "The Influence of Hand-Held Information and Communication Technology on Visitor Perceptions of Risk and Risk-Related Behavior" in "Wilderness visitor experiences: Progress in research and management" Rocky Mountain Research Station-P-66. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

William Wood was the winner of the “Most Likely to Change the World” award for his research commentary on The Academic Minute. This broadcast was part of Northeast Public Radio’s daily program on research from campuses around the world.

Lonny Grafman will be following up his presentation at the Bronx Museum of the Arts with a presentation at Poe Park in the Bronx, New York on the Flock House and a Dominican Schoolroom: Local Resources for Building Resilient Homes, Schoolrooms, and Communities.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/poepark/events/2012/07/27/flock-house-…

Yvan Delgado de la Flor, class of 2013 with a major in Wildlife Conservation & Management, is working with a faculty mentor to study Biotic Change in Declining Hemlock Forests.

The 11-week Harvard Forest summer research program, with funding from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and several universities, has been running for more than 20 years. Working with a faculty mentor, each student completes an independent project during the course of the program. Students then present their work at the annual research symposium.

HSU student Conor Handley is taking an educational leave for fall 2012 to run in the Peace and Dignity Journey 2012. Runners start simultaneously from both ends of the continent in Chickaloon, Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, Argentina traversing the Western Hemisphere by foot, from community to community and, joining together for a final gathering in Guatemala. The 2012 run is dedicated to water, reminding those who have forgotten that water is an important and shared resource for all.

Handley writes on his blog, "Whatever sacrifices I have made for this run now seem like a such a small price to pay for all the blessings and love that Ive received along the way. There are no words in this language to truly describe the magnificence of this land. Every stone, tree and withered elder is a library of unimaginable vastness. I feel like i could spend the rest of my life with every place we travel. But I know the day is coming when I will begin to learn the teachings my own people, my ancestors. The cultural genocide that has left me blind to my own traditions ends here. No prayer is ever left unanswered."

Learn more about this journey at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1568213893/peace-and-dignity-journeys-2012

Psychology Professor Chris Aberson was recently named Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology (JASP). Published by Wiley-Blackwell, JASP is devoted to applications of experimental behavioral science research to problems of society. Dr. Aberson joins JASP after completing a four-year term as Executive Editor of The Journal of Social Psychology (JSP). In honor of his service with JSP, Dr. Aberson was named Executive Editor Emeritus, making him the youngest person to ever hold an Emeritus title.

The work of Geography Dept. faculty member Monica Stephens was featured recently in an article in The Atlantic. In "Where Do the World's Tweets Come From?," associate editor Rebecca J. Rosen, explores new research that graphically depicts 4.5 million tweets and their geolocations captured in March 2012. For the full article, including the map of the world's tweets, visit "The Atlantic":http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/where-do-the-worl….

Emeritus Forestry Professor Larry Fox has completed a volunteer project investigating the death of more than 1500 people fleeing Libya across the Central Mediterranean using geospatial and remote sensing technology. Fox and researchers from the University of London produced a report on a particular case of migrants’ death involving 63 people, where the military and other actors failed to provide assistance to seafarers in distress.

The report was the basis for a legal case against France and may be used to file cases against other countries that participated in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. The full report is available at: http://www.forensic-architecture.org/homepage/fields/investigations/sea. The project was supported by GISCorps, which coordinates short term, volunteer-based GIS services to underprivileged communities.

Associate Professor in Wildlife Micaela Gunther co-authored a paper with colleagues from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute entitled, "Inbreeding Avoidance Influences the Viability of Reintroduced Populations of African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus)."

This research, published in the online journal PLoSONE, matched genetic data with behavioral observations to determine that African wild dogs employ a mechanism to avoid inbreeding. Combined with the isolation of wild dog populations, inbreeding avoidance can rapidly lead to the extinction of small and reintroduced populations of this endangered species.

Food Studies at HSU

Routledge, one of the leading academic presses, has published a book on food studies, co-edited by Professor Michael S. Bruner from the HSU Department of Communication:

"The Rhetoric of Food: Discourse, Materiality, and Power" edited by Joshua Frye and Michael S. Bruner New York and London: Routledge, May, 2012, ISBN 13: 978-0-415-50071-5 (hbk)

The book begins with a Foreword by Raymie McKerrow, the Editor of The Quarterly Journal of Speech, and contains fifteen chapters on all aspects of food studies, including a reprint of an historic chapter by Sir Albert Howard, the founder of the organic movement. Other chapters address diverse issues, including images designed to raise money to fight hunger, community gardens, the slow food movement, Michelle Obama's "Let's Move," and cannibalism.

In addition to Dr. Bruner, two other HSU professors are involved in this book project. Dr. Maxwell Schnurer has a chapter in the book on "greenwashing" and farm subsidies. Dr. Laura Hahn has a chapter in the book, comparing the organic movement to the vegetarian/vegan movement.

The book should be useful to HSU readers who are interested in Communication, food studies, Environment and Community, media influence, social movements, and related areas.

Learning Center staff members Donna Clark and Arianna Thobaben received national certification as Supplemental Instruction (SI) Supervisors following four days of training in Kansas City, Mo., in May 2012. The University of Missouri, Kansas City is where SI was originally conceived. This peer learning program has had a positive effect on student success in targeted Biological and Physical Science courses at HSU. Twenty-seven sections of SI will be offered Fall 2012 under Donna’s coordination. Visit http://www.humboldt.edu/learning/si/ for more information.

The Service Learning Center donated over $4,000 worth of food to Food For People, Humboldt County’s food bank, through its annual Meal Points Food Drive.

During the end-of-the-semester event, service-learning interns gather unused meal points from HSU students. This year, they collected over 300,000 points from students in the residence halls, at the “J”, the Depot and the HSU Bookstore.

The points will be used to purchase healthy protein options for the food bank.

Iris is a graduate student (class of 2012) presenting her research on oak woodland restoration at the Society for Ecological Restoration conference at UC Davis, May 15-17. The title of the presentation is "Landscapes in Transition: Private Lands Oak Woodland Management in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion." This research was a collaborative project between HSU, private landowners, and numerous agencies and organizations who are concerned about oak woodlands in this region.

Michael S. Bruner, Professor, HSU Department of Communication, received word from Delta State University in Nigeria that his article, “News Framing in the United States of the Violence in Jos, Nigeria,” appears in the Volume 4, Number 1 (April 2012) issue of the Journal of Communication and Media Research.

Bruner’s analysis compares news framing, especially culturally-embedded frames, in The New York Times and The Washington Post with news framing in several Nigerian newspapers. This study is part of the ongoing work in HSU’s Department of Communication on international and interculural communication.

Journalism lecturer Hank Sims has been chosen to serve as a judge for the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia "AltWeekly" awards.

The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is an organization of 130 alternative newspapers and websites across the USA and Canada, and includes the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and many other respected alt-weekly newspapers.

Wildlife Chair Matt Johnson was nominated by the California State University to be featured on its (STEM)2 website, which highlights the science, technology, engineering and mathematics service-learning work of California State University faculty members. Johnson's service-learning course engages students in a local wildlife research project relevant to local land managers. (STEM)2 is a grant-supported initiative in the CSU that promotes student success in STEM disciplines. For more information, visit http://calstate.edu/cce/stem/.

Student volunteers from HSU’s Waste Reduction and Resource Awareness Program (WRRAP) helped collect over 80,000 pounds of electronic waste from more than 650 participants during the Humboldt Waste Management Authority's (HWMA) annual electronic waste collection event held April 28 at HSU. The e-waste was recycled through ECS Refining, which dismantles electronic waste in California and is certified by the Basel Action Network (BAN), an organization that monitors the environmental conditions surrounding e-waste exports. The annual event provides convenient, low-cost e-waste recycling for students and the public.

Graduate students Joshua Peterson and Michael Stobb with faculty members Ethan Gahtan and Bori Mazzag published a paper on a graph theoretical model for the posterior lateral line sensorimotor pathway of a zebrafish in PLoS ONE. To the authors' knowledge, it constitutes the largest and most complete identified neuron connectome model described in any vertebrate.

Assistant Geography Professor Matthew Derrick was selected as a grantee by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Eurasia Program Title VIII to participate in its “Summer Workshop in Quantitative Methods” in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, this June. As a participant in the workshop, which is designed to enhance training in quantitative methodology and increase familiarity with existing data sets among scholars of the region with policy-relevant interests, Derrick will further develop an in-progress article examining the territoriality of religious temples in Russia. His research will be considered for inclusion in the SSRC Eurasia Program Title VIII Policy Brief Series.

Matt Mitchell is a winner of Patricia O. McConkey Award for outstanding graduate thesis: A Comparison of Invertebrate Communities Occupying Spartina Invaded and Restored Salt Marshes of Humboldt Bay, CA.

Associate Professor Paul Cummings has authored several entries in the most recent volume of "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band," published by GIA. This publication is unique in the series, as it includes only solo works with wind band accompaniment. Cummings contributed eight biographical sketches of composers, along with annotated listings of their works for solo instrument and band. He studied numerous monographs and journal articles, communicated with living composers and reviewed liner notes from a variety of recordings. http://www.teachingmusic.org/bandSolos.cfm

Humboldt State’s Child Development Lab has been re-accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children through 2017. The Lab received 100 percent on seven of the ten standard domains and above 90 percent on the remaining three. The CDL staff are: teachers Jillian Mooney, Jennifer Mager, Maddie Torrey, Jesika Mitchell and faculty supervisors Mary Ann Hansen and Carol West.

Sondra Schwetman will hold a solo exhibition at the Curris Center Gallery at Murray State University in Murray, KY from June 8 - July 30, 2012. For images of her work, visit www.Sondra-Schwetman.com.

Hayden Thomas and Brandon Durr were selected as the winner and runner-up, respectively, of the 2012 David Kalb Awards. Established by former Associated Students President David Kalb ('76, Political Science), the awards recognize students who have demonstrated personal commitment and leadership by taking an active role in student government.

The Humboldt State Climbing Team placed 10th in the USA Collegiate Climbing Series (CCS) National Championships April 21 in Everett, Mass. Coming off of a recent win at the 2012 Northern California Regional Championships, the team sent six climbers to the event: Alex Borst, Kyleen Carey, Nolan Kloer, Taylor Knott, Arielle Rensink, and Lydia Zowada. Borst placed fourth overall in the national event among 80 male competitors. Based on their cumulative individual scores, the team ranked 10th among 30 schools at the competition. The ranking includes all Division 1, 2, and 3 schools.

Junior Nicholas Klein-Baer was one of 12 U.S. students awarded a fellowship by the Russian Geographical Society to conduct archeological fieldwork in Tuva, Russia. Nick will spend June 2012 at the "Valley of Kings" camp near Kyzyl, the capital of the Tuva province. His work will focus on salvaging cultural artifacts before the construction of a new railway connecting Kyzyl to the Kuragino transportation node in Krasnoyarsk. The international expedition aims to bring together Geography and Archeology students from around the world.

Adjunct Wildlife Faculty Member Sharon Kahara co-authored an article in _Great Plains Research_ titled "Wetland Hydrodynamics and Long-term Use of Spring Migration Areas by Lesser Scaup in Eastern South Dakota." The research modeled spring wetland use based on surveys carried out over two decades. Results dispelled scaup preference for semipermanent wetlands and established the importance of permanent, hydrologically dynamic wetlands for long-term use and therefore conservation concern.

Assistant Geography Professor Matthew Derrick co-authored an article titled “A Splintered Heartland: Russia, Europe, and the Geopolitics of Networked Energy Infrastructure” in _Geopolitics_. The paper interrogates the geographical logic of Russia’s role as an energy provider to Europe by focusing on the provision of gas to Europe via Nord Stream, an underwater pipeline that went online last year. The paper describes a rapidly evolving networked space that effectively “splinters” the territorial integrity of the region and thereby complicates notions of Eurasian geopolitics that emphasize proximity, territorial hegemony and state-centric international relations.

Brian McElwain presented two workshops entitled " 'I Don't See Race': An Exploration of the Psychology of White Privilege" at the 13th annual White Privilege Conference March 30, 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The workshops explored ways that anxiety, fear, guilt and shame make it difficult for white people to discuss and acknowledge racism.

Professor William Wood and student co-authors Jay A. Brandes, Brian D. Foy, Christopher G. Morgan, Thierry D. Mann and Darvin A. DeShazer published a report on the maple syrup odor of the candy cap mushroom. The project culminated 25 years of research, since identification of the chemical responsible for the unique odor has been elusive. The odor causing chemical, quabalactone III, is not present in living candy cap mushrooms. It is only found in dried mushrooms and likely results from the reaction of a rare amino acid on desiccation.

This research was published in Biosystematics and Ecology [Volume 43, 51-53 (2012)].

Student writers for The Osprey and Lumberjack received several awards at the California College Media Association's Awards Banquet held April 21 at CSU Fullerton. The annual event honors the best in student media at community colleges and universities around the state.

The Lumberjack placed second in the Infographic and Photo Illustration categories and took home third in the General Newspaper Excellence, Back to School or Orientation Issue, Sports Story, General Newspaper Excellence, Photo Series and Special Section categories. Alum Derek Lactaoen's ('11, Journalism) April 27 Lumberjack story also nabbed first place in Arts and Entertainment. The Osprey took home second in the Magazine Review category and third in General Magazine Excellence.

Studio Art senior Alex Anderson was one of forty students from around the country be included in FUSION, the 2012 Society of North American Goldsmiths Conference Student Exhibition. Anderson has been in the jewelry and small metals program for three years and the honors program for a year and a half. Her work is on display through May 12 at the HSU Annual Juried Student Exhibition.

The HSU Speech and Debate Team was named the 2011-2012 Northwest Forensics Conference Division II Debate Sweepstakes Champion. The team was also named the 2011-2012 Northwest Forensics Conference Sweepstakes Bronze Medal Program.

Ashley Randall and Hoshimi Tominari presented original research at the Bay Area Undergraduate Communication Research Conference held at Santa Clara University on April 21. Ashley presented "'Pumps vs. Pants': The Construction of Gender in 'The Real L Word' " a feminist criticism of the television show "The Real L Word." Hoshimi presented an ideological criticism of the Japanese fashion magazine "Vivi" entitled "We Are Barbie Girls, In the Japanese World."

Kathryn Wiles, Ecology junior, has been selected to receive a 2012 CSUPERB Presidents’ Commission Scholar Award to fund her summer research project titled, ”Investigation of Horizontal Gene Transfer and Biogeography among Thermoacidophilic Isolates from Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, USA.” Wiles' faculty mentor, Dr. Patricia Siering, was instrumental in writing the proposal. Her adviser is Dr. Erik Jules. A committee of CSUPERB faculty and deans selected 25 proposals out of 67 submitted. The CSUPERB Presidents’ Commission will meet award winners and mentors in August 2012 at the CSU Chancellor’s Office in Long Beach.

A team of HSU Environmental Resources Engineering students gained a meritorious score in the recent Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications (COMAP) Mathematical Modeling Contest. HSU ranked in the top 11%, competing against more than 3,350 teams from the U.S. and overseas universities.

Only 27 schools received a higher ranking than Humboldt State. Each team prepared a report detailing its solution to one of three candidate modeling problems. HSU teammates Andy Harris, Craig Lorenc and Solomon Homicz addressed the problem of determining the best schedule for whitewater rafting visitors to a remote and scenic river.

Associate Professor Nicole Jean Hill's photography series Artifacts & Incidents is featured in the spring issue of Exposure, the photography journal published by the Society for Photographic Education. Hill's large format color photographs explore human and animal activity along the periphery of rural communities throughout the American West along the boundary between public and private spaces. Assistant Professor Julia Alderson provided the accompanying essay.

The photography series will be exhibited at the Piante Gallery in Eureka from May 4-26 and The Front Gallery in New Orleans from June 9 - July 7.

Humboldt State’s Science on Tap series, organized by Physics Professor C.D. Hoyle, was recently recognized by the SPS Observer for “being an especially good example of what science cafés are great at: helping the public understand physics in a world where science is an integral part of life.”

Science Cafes are international programs held in informal settings designed to promote scientific discussion. The Observer is the national magazine for the Society of Physics Students.