Updates about the latest accomplishments—including latest research, publications, and awards—by students, faculty, and staff
Four HSU Geospatial Science graduate students, Nicolas Ramirez (Environmental Science and Management), Jason Barnes (Environmental Science and Management), Brian Huggett (Forestry and Wildland Resources) and Chantell Royer (Forestry and Wildland Resources), were awarded a top prize of $25,000 in the annual Economic Fuel competition on April 29 at the Warfinger Building. Their winning concept Humboldt Cartography, a geospatial planning solutions firm, will offer mapping and spatial analysis solutions to business, federal, state, and local agencies. Their planned operations include cartographic design, and geographic information services including database development and management, geospatia
Student Robin Ray was selected to represent HSU in the 2011 Panetta Congressional Internship Program. The Panetta congressional intern is an outstanding student from any major who has demonstrated how the internship will benefit their plans for public service. Tuition, travel, living expenses and a stipend are paid by the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
Students Ryder Dschida and Michelle Kiso were named the 2011 Hennessey Award winner and runner-up, respectively. The Dr. John Hennessey 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. The award is given each year to a history major and graduating senior who has demonstrated academic excellence in the study of history.
Student Levi Mogg is the 2011 recipient of the Johnston-Aronoff Award. The Johnston-Aronoff Award is given each year to an outstanding student from Humboldt County who is pursuing a career in teaching history at the K-12 level. The award was established by Guy Aronoff, a professor in the HSU History Department, and his wife, Judy Johnston, in memory of Guy’s father, David Aronoff, and Judy’s mother, Aldy Johnston. Both were lifelong learners, and while neither were native Californians, they both very much loved California as their adopted home.
Students Matthew Herrera and Monica Mays won first and second place, respectively, in the 2011 Charles R. Barnum History Contest. The Charles R. 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. Up to $2,500 in prize money is distributed each year.
Environmental Science students Rosalinda Gonzalez, Daniel Hernandez, and Jeremy Rude have all been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for graduate study next year. The students receive $30,000 per year stipend and $10,500 cost of education allowance for three years at any institution in the US.
The Environmental Resources Engineering team claimed the top prize at the American Society of Civil Engineers Mid Pacific Regional Conference Water Treatment competition. The HSU-ERE team had an outstanding performance and a first place win over eight other university teams including UC Berkeley and UC Davis. Students were tasked with treating “polluted” water for common water quality problems in a timed, competitive setting. Designs were scored on cost, speed, efficiency, final water quality as well as an accompanying presentation and report. Local sponsors include ASCE North Coast Chapter, LACO Associates, Pierson’s, Winzler & Kelly and the President’s office.
Lori Dengler presented a paper "The Effects of the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami on the California Coastline" (with 22 co-authors including HSU Geology grad student Amanda Admire) at the Seismological Society of America Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee April 15.
Lori Dengler, HSU Geology alums Hans Abramson-Ward and Carrie Garrison Laney, and Geology emeritus professor Gary Carver were co-authors with Curt Peterson and Ken Cruikshank on a paper "Evaluation of the use of paleotsunami deposits to reconstruct inundation distance and runup heights associated with prehistoric inundation events, Crescent City, southern Cascadia margin" in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. (DOI:10.1002/esp.2126)
Yang Yang, a Geography and International Studies major at Humboldt State University, has won the $250 “Outstanding Student Paper” award from the Ethnic Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers in 2011. Yang has also presented this paper at the annual conference of the Association of American Geographers in Seattle on April 15th, 2011, and has received the award as an invited guest at the awards Luncheon. Yang will be pursuing her Master in the Human Geography Research program at the London School of Economics and Political Science this fall.
Ryan Ziels, Environmental Resources Engineering major, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for graduate study next year. Ryan will receive $30,000 per year stipend and $10,500 cost of education allowance for three years at any institution in the US. Ryan will be pursuing his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington.
Again this year, two HSU Environmental Resources Engineering teams entered the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) Mathematical Modeling Contest. The contest ran from February 10 to February 14, 2011, with over 3,500 teams competing from U.S. and foreign universities.
One team, consisting of Patrick Fox, Sam Speet and Jason Crowley, addressed the problem of determining the shape of a snowboard course (“halfpipe”) to maximize the production of “vertical air” by a skilled snowboarder. This team competed against 2,775 other teams and was awarded a "Successful Participant" ranking.
The other team, consisting of Zak Stanko, Brenda Howell and Rick Bailey, chose to address whether the widespread use of electric vehicles is feasible and practical. This team competed against 735 other teams, and received the highest award, "Outstanding Winner," one of just six teams to be honored with this designation.
More information on the Math Modeling Contest can be found at http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/contests/2011/results/#c.
HSU ERE students Zak Stanko, Brenda Howell, and Rick Bailey received the highest award, "Outstanding Winner" in the 2011 Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) Mathematical Modeling Contest. They were one of just six teams to be honored with this designation for their category. The contest ran from Feb. 10-14, 2011, with over 3,500 teams competing from US and Foreign universities. The team developed a model of the environmental, social, economic, and health impacts of the widespread use of electric vehicles and detailed key factors to consider to support the development and use of these vehicles.
The Lumberjack Newspaper took second place for General Excellence in the California Newspaper Publishers Association 2010 Better Newspaper Contest at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 16. It came in second in the state, in the university category, to The Daily Bruin at UCLA. The contest was judged on three consecutive issues of the newspaper produced by a team of students led by graduating journalism major Sara Wilmot. The Lumberjack Newspaper is produced as part of JMC 327: The Newspaper Laboratory at Humboldt State.
John W. Powell, Philosophy, will have his article, "Conceptual and Other Problems with Outcomes Assessment," appear in the American Association of University Professors May 2011 Journal of Academic Freedom.
He will also present to the East-West Philosophy Center conference, held every five years at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, on the topic "Theory as Authority," May 18th.
Ashley Randall and Ezra Hayman presented research papers at the 3rd Annual Bay Area Undergraduate Communication Research Conference at San Jose State University. Randall's paper was a neo-Aristotelian rhetorical criticism of Harvey Milk's 19789 "Hope" speech, and Hayman's was an ideological rhetorical criticism of identity construction on Facebook user profiles. Both of them began their research for a Communication Research methods class in Fall 2010.
The paper "Effects of Harbor Modification on Crescent City, California’s Tsunami Vulnerability" authored by Lori Dengler and Burak Uslu (NOAA) was published in the journal Pure and Applied Geophysics. http://www.springerlink.com/content/81jlg83h80qg0r50/
In June, O’Hara will direct an indigenous spoken word performance at the Alainait Festival in Canadian Arctic, specifically in Iqaluit, Nanuvut. She will also be presenting the paper "Performing Borderlands: Agokwe's Investigations of Post-Colonial Impacts on Aboriginal Communities" at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference in August. She will also be presenting on the panel "Buddies in Bad Times Redefines Queer Theatre in Canada" at this same conference.
Bruner & Meek are happy to report that their book chapter, "A Critical Crisis Rhetoric of Seafood," appears in Janet Cramer, Ed., "Food as Communication" (Peter Lang: New
York and Bern, February 2011), pp. 271-295.
HSU Children's Center will be celebrating 40 years of service to the students of Humboldt State at a potluck picnic on May 6, 2011 from 5:30-7PM at Redwood Park. The Children's Center was started in 1971 by a group of student parents who needed child care in order to attend classes. It is a nationally accredited program and serves around 100 families each semester. Another 60 or so students work in the center, which also serves many departments as a service learning site and a child observation site.
William Wood, Terrence McGlynn (CSU Dominguez Hills) and the student, Thuy-Tien Hoang, reported their research on the alarm pheromones of Costa Rican turtle ants ants.
Volatile components from the mandibular glands of the turtle ants, Cephalotes alfaroi and C. cristatus. William F. Wood, Thuy-Tien Hoang, Terrence P. McGlynn. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 39, 135-138 (2011).
Dr. Marisol Cortes Rincon presented on her research at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) on April 1st, 2011. Her paper is titled “Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Settlement Survey Project: Preliminary Findings.” The research is based on her archaeological work in Belize, Central America.
Additionally, three of her students also presented at the SAAs: Sarah Nicole Boudreaux – (University of Texas at Austin) “Overview of Settlement Survey Studies at Programme for Belize Archaeological Project (PfBAP)”; Robert Gustas (HSU) “Peoples of Humboldt County – A Cultural Center”; and Jeff Bryant (HSU-CRF) “Spatial Visualization: Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao Settlement Survey.”
Micaela Szykman Gunther and colleagues had a paper published in Conservation Genetics:
Spiering, Penny A., Szykman Gunther, Micaela, Somers, Michael J., Wildt, David E., Walters, Michelle, Wilson, Amy S. and Maldonado, Jesus E. 2011. Inbreeding, heterozygosity and fitness in a reintroduced population of endangered African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). Conservation Genetics, 2011(12): 410-412.
William Wood and Warren Wood (University of Portland) and three of their undergraduate students had their research on western thatching ants published.
Chemical analysis of the defensive secretion from the western thatching ant, Formica obscuripes. Gloriane W. Faith, Brian G. Solliers, Rachel M. Feeny, Warren J. L. Wood and William F. Wood. Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 10, 15-17 (2011).
Received a Global Health Fellowship with USAID (US Agency for International Development) where he will work as an HIV/AIDS home-based care nurse in Uganda for 3 months. In the capital, Kampala, Ilan will work with TASO (The AIDS Support Organization) in local communities helping carry out their mission of "living positively with AIDS."
Lonny Grafman presented about Appropedia, a site for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development through the use of sound principles and appropriate technology, at the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance Open 2011 Conference in Washington, DC on March 24th, 2011. He also co-facilitated a panel session on Fantastic Failures from the Field: Lessons learned in abroad programs.
May Patino and Graeson Harris-Young will present their research on mona monkeys at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists' conference in Minnesota in April 2011. Their paper is titled “Comparison of Boom Calls in Cercopithecus mona in Benin and Grenada”. This research is based on vocal analyses done in the Biological Anthropology Research Laboratory with Professor Mary Glenn. May and Grae also plan to submit this paper for publication in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Sandy Strayer presented her research at the Society for California Archaeology symposium on March 12th, 2011. Her paper is titled “Ribar High 2 Ground Stone Tool Analysis”. Her research is based on lithic analysis which she carried out as part of a course taught by Professor Marisol Cortes-Rincon. Sandy was invited to submit her article for publication in the Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology.
Drs. Sheila and Steven Steinberg contributed a book chapter entitled "Geospatial Analysis Technology and Social Science Research" to the newly released book: Handbook of Emergent Technologies in Social Research, edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Oxford University Press, 2011.
David Stacey will attend the 8th Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society at Clemson University on May 26-29, 2011, where he will present a paper entitled "Listening to Jazz with Kenneth Burke: Identification as Improvisation."
Sam Sonntag's article, "The Changing Global-Local Linguistic Landscape in India," has just been published in English Language Education in South Asia, edited by Lesley Farrell, Udaya Narayan Singh and Ram Ashish Giri (New Delhi: Foundations Books, an imprint of Cambridge University Press India, 2011).
The Dean's office in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences has awarded the following students with an Undergraduate Research Fellowships in the Anthropology department: David Sandrock, Uri Grunder, Graeson Harris-Young, and May Patino.
HSU student, Leslie Scopes Anderson recently completed a beginner's fossil guide for Humboldt County entitled "Unearthing Evidence of Creatures form Deep Time". The work details five sites in our area where ancient marine fossils can be found, complete with maps, photos, descriptions and directions. It will be used for fossil classes in the geology dept., and is also available for download by any student at the Geology website. The project took three semesters to complete, under the direction of Dr. William Miller.
Professors Kenneth Ayoob and Steven Hackett have been chosen to participate as fellows in the Inaugural Executive Leadership Academy, co-organized by the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Inc. (AAHHE).
The Inaugural Executive Leadership Academy, to take place Feb. 28 - Mar. 2, will embark on an ambitious plan to train leaders of colleges and universities to steer their institutions in an increasingly multicultural global environment. The Academy is designed to enable persons of all backgrounds who may be interested in appointments to executive positions such as provosts and presidents.
The Marketing & Communications staff, et al., was recently named a silver medalist for the CASE District VII Special Program Publications Packages for the Parents & Family Program at HSU. HSU Admissions and Student Affairs were also instrumental in developing the program.
The staff will be honored at an Awards Luncheon held in conjunction with the CASE District VII Conference on Friday March 4, 2011 in Los Angeles.
CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) District VII annually recognizes excellence in the District. The Awards of Excellence recognize the best practices in alumni relations, fundraising, public/government relations, advancement services, special events and outstanding communications.
Doc Stull's Sports Today and in the Day Show on ESPN Sports Talk Radio 1340 AM every day at 7:55 AM and again during the day.
Sports Today and in the Day - A highly entertaining and informative cultural commentary on the world of sport. From baseball to boxing, from the athlete of the future to the those in ancient Greece, from steroids to Sparta, Sports Today and in the Day shows us the past is truly prologue!
Campus Photographer Kellie Jo Brown was recently named a silver medalist for the CASE District VII Photographer of the Year competition. She will be honored at an Awards Luncheon held in conjunction with the CASE District VII Conference on Friday March 4, 2011 in Los Angeles.
CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) District VII annually recognizes excellence in the District. The Awards of Excellence recognize the best practices in alumni relations, fundraising, public/government relations, advancement services, special events and outstanding communications.
On February 9, William Wood, HSU Chemical Ecologist gave a lecture to the California Native Plant Society: titled “Chemicals – the Language of Plants.” This talk covered how plants use chemical to "talk to other plants.” It also covered many of the toxic compounds plants make to keep from being eaten. Humans now use many of these toxic plant compounds as modern medicinal drugs.
The HSU School Psychology Program received national approval from the National Association of School Psychologists through December 2015.
Faculty submitted a folio describing the program, containing comprehensive data regarding graduate student outcomes including scores on the ETS national licensing exam, practica and internship performance, and a comprehensive and culminating portfolio.
This approval means that HSU meets the highest national standards for training sub-doctoral school psychologists, and can compete nationally for top graduate students. It also means that HSU graduates automatically qualify for their credential as a nationally certified school psychologist upon graduation.
Staff and Faculty lend their voices to raise $10,000!
James Floss (Communications), Pamela Lyall (Library), Peggy Metzger (Financial Aid), Rebecca Kalal (Admissions) and Clint Rebik (Registrar) recently raised $10,000 for a local arts organization during “The Road to ZOUNDS-ibar” live radio show.
Described as “Prairie Home Companion collides with Saturday Night Live in a Humboldt County twist” the original show was written in part by Floss, Metzger, and Rebik, and featured zany characters, songs, and sketches created by the ensemble.
The show is available as a podcast from the KHUM website. Link:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/liveatkhum
Lori Dengler represented the United States at the 7th International Workshop on Coastal Disaster Prevention, held January 26 - 28 in Tokyo Japan and presented a paper "Building Tsunami-Resilient Communities in the United States".
Brent Duncan recently returned from a research trip to Vietnam, his second in the past 6 months. In addition to delivering an invited paper to the 2nd International Conference on School Psychology in Vietnam, he visited 4 universities regarding collaboration with US universities to train school psychologists for work in Vietnamese public schools. With colleagues from Long Beach Unified School District, CSULB and Chapman University, he then conducted a 32-hour training on delivering mental health services in schools, sponsored by Hanoi National University of Education. More than 40 university lecturers and school-based psychologists from throughout Vietnam attended the workshop.
"Sweet Mother of God", a ten-minute play written by Theatre Arts graduate student and Office of Admissions staff member Kristin Mack, was selected as a finalist for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF) for Region 7. It was one of only 6 plays selected in our region, which includes Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, northern California and northern Nevada.
KCACTF will be hosted on-campus at HSU this year, February 14-18th.
Published a paper in Marine Ecology Progress Series this week entitled:
"Role of the sea anemone Metridium senile in structuring a developing subtidal fouling community"
Vol. 421: 139–149, Jan 17th, 2011
link to full paper (open access):
Wilson, C.A., & M.A. Colwell. Movements and fledging success of Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) chicks. Waterbirds 33:331-340.
Co-authored several recent papers, including:
Colwell, M.A., N.S. Burrell, M.A. Hardy, K. Kayano, J.J. Muir, W.J. Pearson, S.A. Peterson, and K.A. Sesser. 2010. Arrival times, laying dates, and reproductive success of Snowy Plovers in two habitats in coastal northern California. Journal of Field Ornithology 81:349-360.
Muir, J.J., & M.A. Colwell. 2010. Snowy Plovers select open habitat for courtship scrapes and nests. Condor 112:507-510.
Mullin, S.M., M.A. Colwell, S.E. McAllister & S.J. Dinsmore. 2010. Apparent survival & population growth of Snowy Plovers in coastal northern California. Journal of Wildlife Management 74:1792-1798.
Wilson, C.A., & M.A. Colwell. Movemen
Humboldt State University’s Logging Sports team captured first and second overall in the annual California Conclave competition in November, hosted by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and held at the Cal Poly Swanton Pacific Ranch just north of Santa Cruz. A contingent of 24 HSU students participated and many of them placed first in individual events. They competed with teams from Cal Poly, UC Berkley, Modesto Junior College and Central Oregon Community College. HSU senior Jess Engle captured the Belle of the Woods award for the overall best female competitor.
The event set the stage for the 72nd annual Association of Western Forestry Clubs Conclave, which will be hosted by Cal Poly at its San Luis Obispo campus March 21-25, 2011. It will feature competition among 12 schools from the Western U.S.
Jeff Dunk co-authored the following article which recently appeared in the journal Conservation Biology:
CARROLL, C., D. S. JOHNSON, J. R. DUNK, AND W. J. ZIELINSKI. 2010. Hierarchical Bayesian Spatial Models for Multispecies Conservation Planning and Monitoring. Conservation Biology 24:1538-1548.
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.