Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
A major focus of William Wood's research has been the investigation of antibiotics naturally excreted from mammalian skin glands. This December his latest contribution to this area was published in Scientia Pharmaceutica, the Austrian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It describes a series of antimicrobial compounds that were prepared using a compound from an African antelope as a model.
William F. Wood, “Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of Long-Chain 3,4-Epoxy-2-alkanones” Scientia Pharmaceutica 78, 745-751 (2010). doi:10.3797/scipharm.1009-02
Interviewed by Thrivable.net on Savoring Optimism - http://bit.ly/thr1ve.
Kim Hall, Director of Veterans' Affairs has been selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA) representing Region VIII. NAVPA works with the U.S. Departments of Education, Veterans Affairs, and Defense to promote the improvement and development of opportunities to veterans and their dependents. Her selection is an honor to her and HSU.
An article titled “Bird Photography” and 12 photographs was published in the November issue of Redwood Snapshots, a publication of the Redwood Camera Club.
Photographing birds has long been an important aspect of William Wood’s nature photography. In this article he describes techniques for successfully photographing these animals
Students and faculty from the HSU’s Department of Forestry and Wildland Resources recently travelled to Albuquerque to take part in professional meetings and compete in the Society of American Foresters (SAF) Quiz Bowl at the society’s annual convention in October.
HSU sent five forestry students, Whitney Butler, Whitney Schimke, Alexander Taylor, Ryan Camera and Tyler Hullquist, to compete. The contest brought together student teams from universities across the country to demonstrate their knowledge in a wide variety of forestry disciplines.
Forestry and Wildland Resources Department Chair Ken Fulgham and Professor Han-Sup Han attended the five day convention, where Fulgham presented a poster titled “Long-term, Post-Fire Dynamics of a Sagebrush Steppe and Western Juniper Community.” It summarized nearly thirty years of post-fire vegetation monitoring of sagebrush rangelands in Modoc County in Northeastern California. Dr. Han participated in the McIntire-Stennis meetings as the HSU-Administrative Technical Representative (AT-R).
Biology majors Kymberly Gustus and Annayal Yikum, along with Wildlife major Yesenia De León, won the award for best poster in Neuroscience at the SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) conference held on Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 in Anaheim, Calif.
The undergraduate student’s poster was entitled: The effects of histamine on escape behaviors and giant nerve fiber conduction velocity in the blackworm Lumbriculus variegatus. Their research was conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Bruce A. O’Gara. Annayal, Kymberly and Yesenia are interns in the Undergraduate Research and Mentoring (URM) Program in the Biological Sciences.
Humboldt State University’s highly successful Wildlife Quiz Bowl Team won the 2010 National Wildlife Quiz Bowl Oct. 5 in Snowbird, Utah, marking HSU’s ninth victory in 11 years in the national and regional contests.
In the latest 17-team national competition, Humboldt State blanked Michigan Tech 135-0, beat Texas A&M;120-55, trounced the University of Wyoming 110-15 and downed Penn State 95-20.
The tournament was part of the National Wildlife Conference in Snowbird, and the HSU team comprised five undergraduates: Sam Aguilar (Wildlife major), Phil Chaon (double major, Wildlife and Zoology), Brian Fagundes (double major, Wildlife and Geography), Dave Spangenburg (Geography major, Wildlife minor) and Amy Leigh Trost (Wildlife major).
Jeff Dunk co-authored the following paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management:
ZIELINSKI, W. J, J. R. DUNK, J. S. YEAGER, AND D. W. LAPLANTE. 2010. Developing and Testing A Fisher Landscape Habitat Suitability Model for interior Northern California. Forest Ecology and Management 260:1579-1591.
Rich Paselk (Chemistry) presented a paper (5 October 2010) at the XXIX Symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science in Florence, Italy : "The Display of 20th-Century Scientific Instruments at Humboldt State University,"
Along with HSU Environmental Systems - Geology graduate student, Paul Sundberg, participated in 10 day post-earthquake reconnaissance of the September 4, 2010, M 7.1 Darfield earthquake near Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand. Worked with members of New Zealand GNS Science, Canterbury University and Penn State University to describe and document surface rupture and strong motion evidence produced during the earthquake.
Named to the Board of Directors of the California Integrated Seismic Network, the automated rapid dissemination system of earthquake information for emergency responders and earthquake professionals in the United States.
Published an article in the journal Continental Shelf Research on the unusually high levels of bioavailable particulate iron and how it may be responsible for the high productivity found on the Bering Sea shelf.
Hurst, Matthew P., Aguilar-Islas, Ana M., and Kenneth W. Bruland (2010). Iron in the southeastern Bering Sea: Elevated leachable particulate Fe in shelf bottom waters as an important source for surface waters. Continental Shelf Research, 30, 467-480.
Dr. Han-Sup Han and Dr. Aaron Hohl, recently presented their research at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) World Congress meeting in Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Hohl presented his research on modeling the potential risk and implications of forest and grassland fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) in the Ukraine. Dr. Han presented his research on the collection and transportation of forest biomass for energy in the western United States.
Jeff Dunk (Environmental Science and Management) recently co-authored the following papers:
DUNK, J. R., AND J.J. VAN GELDER-HAWLEY. 2009. Red tree vole habitat suitability modeling: implications for conservation and management. Forest Ecology and Management 258:626-634.
CARROLL, C., J. R. DUNK, AND A. MOILANEN. 2010. Optimizing Resiliency of multi-species Reserve Networks to Climate Change in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Global Change Biology 16:891-904.
Publication of co-edited book:
Jason Philip Coy, Benjamin Marschke, and David Warren Sabean, editors, The Holy Roman Empire, Reconsidered (Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association 1), New York: Berghahn Books, 2010. (ISBN 1845457595)
Janet Finney-Krull of Plant Operation and Craig Kurumada of Math and Computing Science, both musicians and singers with the international band, Chubritza, completed a successful tour of Israel in June and have just released their second CD, entitled, "OPSA!" Chubritza can be heard regularly in Arcata and at dance festivals in California and Oregon.
Steve Martin was nominated by the California State Office of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) to participate in a national summit on the future of the National Landscape Conservation System, to be held in Nevada in November.
Drs. Steven and Sheila Steinberg and Sarah Keeble, a recent graduate of the Masters in Environment and Community published a short article titled: "Using PPGIS to Study Rural Ethnic Entrepreneurship" in the 2010 CSU Geospatial Review.
The Geospatial Review is available digitally at: http://csugis.sfsu.edu/CSU_Geospatial_Review/CSU_GeospatialReview.htm
Tasha published an article about her experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in Cyprus, working with Greek and Turkish Cypriots on issues related to child maltreatment. The article makes recommendations for social work instructors who wish to globalize their students' thinking and experience. The article is titled, "International Child Welfare: Guidelines for Educators and a Case Study from Cyprus." It was published in the Journal for Social Work Education, Vol. 46., No. 3, Fall, 2010.
Lindsay Weymouth, a recent graduate of the Master's Program in Academic Research (Developmental Psychopathology emphasis) was awarded the McConkey honor for outstanding thesis at HSU. Her thesis work evaluated a nationwide violence prevention parenting program. The American Psychological Association invited Lindsay to present her results to program implementers in Washington D.C., and her mentor, Dr. Tasha R. Howe, presented the work at the Conference for APA in San Diego.
Dr. Armeda C. Reitzel will give a presentation on teaching English as a Foreign Language in Nicaragua at the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages conference on Oct. 2, 2010. This presentation is based on her experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in Nicaragua spring semester 2010.
The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has selected Du Cheng from Humboldt State University as a 2010 award recipient of the ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship. This fellowship is aimed at highly competitive students who wish to pursue graduate careers (Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D.) in microbiology. Dr. Jianmin Zhong from HSU is Du Cheng’s mentor. The research title is: Study of Prevalence and Transmission Routes of Rickettsia species in Ixodes pacificus by Real-time PCR.
HSU alum Steven Dixon (’10, economics) has been named a 2010/2011 Capital Fellow by the Center for California Studies, Sacramento. Dixon will be one of 18 Jesse M. Unruh Assembly Fellows in the year-long, nationally-recognized public policy program, which offers participants hands-on experience in state government. Dixon, a former McKinleyville High School student, was the first president of the California State Student Association under a new constitution adopted in 2009. He is also former Humboldt County Human Rights Commissioner and a former member of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Sheila Steinberg (Professor, Sociology) and Dr. Steven Steinberg (Professor, Environmental Science and Management) published a book chapter, Global Women Superheroes: Place, Space and Action, in the September 2010 release: Women's Encounter with Globalization. Frontpage Publications, London, UK. ISBN: 9788190884181.
The chapter examines examples of how individuals, critically exploring their own space and place, achieved successful social and environmental change.
Kathleen Doty recently published “(Un)Becoming Conduct: Cotton Mather’s Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion and the Salem Witchcraft Crisis,” in _Instructional Writing in English_, eds. Matti Peikola et al., published by John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
Her article “Formulaic Discourse and Speech Acts in the Witchcraft Trial Records of Salem, 1692,” appeared in _Journal of Pragmatics_ 41:3, 458-469.
A paper has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Northwestern Naturalist. The lead author is Breanna Powers, who was part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at HSU. Other authors include Matt Johnson (wildlife faculty), Joseph LaManna (wildlife graduate student), and Adam Rich (biologist with the US Forest Service). Their research examined effects of cattle grazing on gophers in high elevation meadows on the Sierra Nevada.
John Powell presented two invited plenary-session papers at conferences in April at Manchester Univ. in England, and a revision of one is forthcoming in The Philosophers' Magazine. The first paper, appearing in TPM, at a conference on informal logic, critical thinking and argumentation theory, is entitled "What Are the Criteria of a Good Argument?" The second, at a conference on methods of Wittgenstein and Frank Ebersole, was entitled "How Subversive is Ordinary Language Philosophy?"
My images are included in the upcoming book "CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Factory Farms" published by Watershed Media. The book includes essays by major writers on the topics of food and agriculture, including Michael Pollen and Wendell Berry. The photographs documented purebred poultry and accompany the chapter on breed diversity.
Link to the book info: http://www.watershedmedia.org/cafo_overview.html
Steven Martin and former graduate student Kate McCurdy published a peer-reviewed article in International Journal of Wilderness on the use and effectiveness of bear resistant food storage canisters in Yosemite National Park.
Martin, Steven and Kate McCurdy. 2010. Wilderness food storage: Are bear-resistant food storage canisters effective? International Journal of Wilderness 16(1): 13-19.
Erik Jules published a paper in the journal Ecology on the effects of wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park on aspen forests.
Kauffman, M. J., J.F. Brodie, E.S. Jules. 2010. Are wolves saving Yellowstone’s aspen? a landscape-level test of a behaviorally mediated trophic cascade. Ecology 91:2740-2753.
Published an article in the journal Phytochemistry on the chemotaxonomy of plant species in the genus Pseudowintera, a New Zealand endemic genus.
Kjirsten A. Wayman, Peter J. de Lange, Lesley Larsen, Catherine E. Sansom, Nigel B. Perry, “Chemotaxonomy of Pseudowintera: Sesquiterpene dialdehyde variants are species markers”, Phytochemistry 2010, 71, 766-772.
Jun Zhu, Christian Dahlstrand, Joshua R. Smith, Sébastien Villaume, and Henrik Ottosson; Symmetry 2010, 2(3), 1653-1682
On the Importance of Clar Structures of Polybenzenoid Hydrocarbons as Revealed by the π-Contribution to the Electron Localization Function
An article titled "Candid Photographic Portraits" and 9 photographs was published in the September issue of Redwood Snapshots, a publication of the Redwood Camera Club.
Candid photography, sometimes called “street photography,” has long been an important aspect of William Wood's phtography. It involves taking photos of people acting spontaneously in their natural environment. These photographs preserve an instant in people’s lives when they are relaxed and behaving naturally.
HSU’s Department of Social Work has received $4,000 of a $40,000 award administered by the non-profit Council on Social Work Education to finance learning and small-group collaboration between eight elders from local indigenous tribes and all of the department’s undergraduate, junior-level students. Ten programs nationwide will benefit from the funding, provided by the John A. Hartford Foundation, which promotes the health and independence of America’s older adults. Department Chair Ronnie Swartz, Coordinator Jamie Jensen and Cultural Liaison and Social Work Faculty Member Michelle Rainer are administering the program.
Mary and Stephen Cunha published California: A Changing State. An Atlas for California Students. The effort includes over 90 original maps, diagrams, and tables completed by 14 HSU students under the direction of Mary Beth, along with Stephen's accompanying text and photographs. A grant from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund supported the project, along with additional help from the National Geographic Society and HSU. http://www.humboldt.edu/cga/california-student-atlas/
My chapter on "Learning and Teaching Dance in the Elementary Classroom" was published in the new edited volume: Artful Teaching: Integrating the Arts for Understanding Across the Curriculum, K-8 (Editors: David Donahue and Jennifer Stuart; Publisher: Teachers College Press; 2010.) Eight of us authors in the new book were partners in the Arts Education Initiative (AEI), a multi-year, regional initiative funded by the Ford Foundation.
A Television Spot directed by TFD Professor David Scheerer for CoxRassussen & Co. Marketing and Advertising of Eureka has won a Telly Award. Alicia Cox and Brent Rasmussen produced. The 30 second spot, titled "Leon's 007" plays on a James Bond theme. The Tellys honor regional and cable television commercials from more than 13,000 U.S. entries annually.
William F. Wood, Jeffrey P. Copeland, Richard E. Yates, Iman K. Horsey, Lynne R. McGreevy. (2009). Potential semiochemicals in urine from free ranging wolverines (Gulo gulo Pallas, 1780). Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 37: 574–578
William F. Wood, Aya Kubo, Tony B. Shaffer (2010). Antimicrobial activity of long-chain (E)-3-alken-2-ones. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 20: 1819–1820.
Dr. Robert Cliver (Assistant Professor, History) will give a talk at the Tenth International Women in Asia Conference in Canberra, Australia, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. His talk is titled "Red Silk Sisters": Working Class Women in the Chinese Revolution.
I had three book reviews published over the last academic year in The Sixteenth Century Studies Journal.
Professor Brent Duncan and colleagues from Chapman and Loyola Marymount universities recently presented two 3-day workshops – Providing Mental Health Services in Schools to an audience of over 120 professors and practicing professionals in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Vietnamese schools have experienced a recent increase in behavioral problems among youth including incidents of violence, problems with excess videogame and on-line behavior, depression and youth suicide.
James Floss is starring as David O. Selznick in Redwood Curtain's production of Moonlight at Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson from September 9th through the 25th.
Victor Golla recently published, at University of California Press, a comprehensive illustrated handbook on California’s indigenous languages entitled "California Indian Languages." This work, the first of its kind, stands to become an essential reference on California’s remarkable Indian languages, outlining the basic structural features of more than two dozen language types and mapping the incredible linguistic diversity of Native California.
Dr. Aberson recently began a second three-year term as Executive Editor of The Journal of Social Psychology.
He also began new terms on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and Teaching of Psychology.
Published the book: Aberson, C. L. (2010). Applied Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. New York: Psychology Press.
and the book chapter: Aberson, C. L. (2010). Diversity experiences and intergroup attitudes. In R. J. Crisp (Ed.) The psychology of social and cultural diversity. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Dr. Cliver's article "Minzhu Guanli: The Democratization of Factory Management in the Chinese Revolution," which appeared in Labor History (Vol. 50, no. 4, Nov. 2009), was awarded the prize for best article by scholar within five years of completing the Ph.D. The award from Routledge publishers included a prize of $500. The award was announced in the latest issue of Labor History.
Peer Reviewed Journal Publication:
Title: More like Ourselves: Indigenous Capitalism through Tourism
The American Indian Quarterly
Volume 34, Number 3, Summer 2010
New book, The Environmental Politics of Sacrifice, released by MIT Press this month http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12321.
Co-edited by Meyer, the book provides diverse disciplinary perspectives on the contested rhetoric of "sacrifice" in environmental controversies. Contributors include HSU alum Justin Williams ('09).
Published "Mexico: Revolution and Post-Revolution" in Volume 64 of "Handbook of Latin American Studies." This is a premier reference work in Latin American Studies, published by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and the University of Texas Press. Contributors are appointed by the Librarian of Congress. This is my 15th year as a contributing author and editor of the Handbook.