Research

Spreadsheets, research groups and a large portion of the class grade were not the only outcomes of the second research project in Lonny Grafman’s ENGR 308 class.

As the Schatz Energy Research Center settles into its new building, researchers have welcomed a new piece of equipment as well. The machine–a torrefier–is on loan from Renewable Fuel Technologies (RFT), a San Mateo, Calif., start-up business, and is used to transform biomass into renewable energy. RFT and the center are expected to have the machine up and running in late March.

Primitive stone tools found on California coastal islands are evidence of seafaring and island colonization 12,000 years ago by Paleoindian peoples, according to a new report in Science magazine co-authored by Humboldt State University Professor of Anthropology Todd Braje.

Humboldt State University undergraduates are busy investigating local water quality, marine sedimentation and ocean nutrients under a CSU pilot project that harnesses federal work/study funds. Student research is under way at multiple locations, including Humboldt Bay, the Eel River and off Trinidad Head.

There is an old pirate legend about a forgotten place on the Trinity River named Sailor’s Bar. The place has all but disappeared in the riverside undergrowth, but historical memory of the saga has been newly revived—and revised—by a Humboldt State University undergraduate.

Budget cuts, low salaries and staff reductions are depriving Humboldt County families of needed child care, leaving preschoolers short-changed and making it harder for employers to fill jobs, according to a new analysis by Humboldt State University’s California Center for Rural Policy. The report was commissioned by the Local Child Care Planning Council.

In the old “Yogi Bear” cartoons, you had to be “smarter than the average bear” to steal a camper’s food. But Kate McCurdy (M.S. NRPI, ’06), found that improperly stored food can attract even the average bear to a backpacker’s campsite.

Death rates from all causes in the four-county redwood region were the highest in the state, 2000-2008, and Humboldt County’s was the highest of all, according to key trend data brought together for the first time by the California Center for Rural Policy at Humboldt State University.

Humboldt State University student Du Cheng has received the American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship. The prestigious program recognizes highly competitive students who intend to pursue Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D. degrees.

HSU undergraduate students won several awards for best poster at the SACNAS conference (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) held on September 30 to October 3 in Anaheim, Calif.

Humboldt State Wildlife Management Professor Matthew Johnson, HSU’s 2009/2010 Scholar of the Year, will deliver a free public lecture, “Farms & Feathers: Linking Bird Conservation, Agriculture, and Education,” on Wed., Oct. 27, at 5 p.m. in Van Duzer Theater. An informal reception will follow in the theater lobby.

The North Coast’s growing senior population is consistently more prone to falls than the rest of California’s aging, and an array of preventive measures could reduce falls by 20-30 percent, according to findings of Humboldt State University’s California Center for Rural Policy.

Portions of Humboldt County need more food stores, expanded transportation and greater spending power to supply threatened families and children with adequate food and healthy choices, according to the California Center for Rural Policy at Humboldt State University.

When activated to respond to a major oil spill, the Marine Wildlife Care Center at Humboldt State University becomes a birdbath.

Humboldt State University Department of Politics professor Noah Zerbe has won $2,500 in state-of-the-art instructional technology to continue and expand his use of electronic and online learning in the classroom.

Humboldt State track and field athlete Megan Rolland is California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Students from Humboldt State University’s Service Learning Center organized a collaborative, regional food drive this spring that raised more than $2,000 for Food for People, the Eureka food bank.

Humboldt State history professor Robert Cliver will accompany a group of local students and teachers on a four-week academic excursion to China this summer. The trip was made possible by a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects grant of nearly $73,000, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The participants will experience first-hand the everyday life of modern China, as well as study its history and language.

Nearly 40 years since it was last spotted on the surface of the Moon, a team of scientists, including C.D. Hoyle, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Humboldt State University, located Soviet reflector Lunokhod 1.

This spring the Mu Alpha Theta (Mathematics) Contest continued with its format that included a section of shorter problems along with a section of more challenging problems. Students worked on the examination for three hours on a Saturday morning, April 17th. As in the past there are two categories distinguishing more advanced (B category) mathematics students who have completed more than one upper division mathematics course from beginning (A Category) mathematics students who have not completed more than one upper division mathematics course. The contest was organized and judged this year by Professors Jeff Haag and Martin Flashman of the HSU Mathematics Department.

The Department of Biological Sciences has announced the recipients of the Department’s numerous awards and scholarships.

Humboldt State University researchers have confirmed that the prolonged invasion of coastal woodlands by sudden oak death poses an acute new forest fire threat to large portions of southern Humboldt, and Marin and Sonoma Counties.

United Indian Health Services Inc. honored HSU with its Friends Are Good Medicine award at its 40th anniversary brunch and award ceremony on March 31 at the Blue Lake Hotel and Casino’s Sapphire Palace.

A team of Humboldt State University students from the Renewable Energy Student Union has won a $75,000 technology design award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a prototype smart-grid electrical system in Bhutan, a landlocked developing country between India and China.

Even the grueling 80-degree heat couldn’t stop HSU’s cycling team on Sunday in Hollister, Calif. The team was crowned champion of the Division II Western Collegiate Cycling Conference.