Research

Arcata - Drs. Patricia Siering and Mark Wilson of Humboldt State University's Biology Department have won a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to study organisms living in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet: the boiling acid pools and hot acidic lakes of Lassen Volcanic National Park, Mineral, CA.

Arcata - The value of Humboldt State University’s Advancement Foundation investment assets has reached more than $21.4 million, a near doubling of the $10.9 million recorded in early 2005, according to an investment performance report by the University’s Advancement Foundation for the period that ended June 30, 2007.

Arcata – Full-time Humboldt State Lecturer Justus Ortega (’97) of the Department of Kinesiology and Recreation Administration has won a $1,000 professional award for his milestone research of the mechanics and energetics of walking in elderly adults. (Energetics is the scientific study of energy and its transformations.)

Arcata - “What I love about soil is how it unifies terrestrial life and scientific disciplines,” wrote Humboldt State University student Rosemary Records in an essay that has won her the $1,000 Paul J. Zinke Memorial Scholarship from the California Forest Soils Council (CFSC).

Arcata – The Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has awarded $23,600 to Humboldt State University’s Micaela Szykman Gunther, Assistant Professor of Wildlife Management, to conduct genetic research of the critically endangered African wild dog.

Alexander Eaton, a master’s candidate in Environmental Systems at Humboldt State University, has won a $15,000 Fellowship from the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation, Belfast, Maine, in support of his research as Executive Director of the International Renewable Resources Institute (IRRI) in Mexico City.

The Redwood Science Project (RSP) of Humboldt State University and regional K-12 partners have received a four-year, $550,000 federal grant to support secondary science teachers. The project helps alleviate the statewide shortage of science teachers with support for individual faculty and their middle school and high school science departments.

James Kealey, a student from HSU's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, recently won a "best talk" award (and a $50.00 check) at the West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference (WCBSURC) at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Keeping Humboldt State University in the forefront of United States renewable energy research, President Rollin Richmond presided at a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday, May 2, to commission the student-led Solar Radiation Monitoring Station (SoRMS) project, which will gather detailed data about the North Coast's solar energy resource.

Psychology Department students and faculty will present 17 posters and an invited workshop at the Annual Western Psychological Association (WPA) conference in Vancouver, BC, May 3rd -7th . The meeting is the nation’s largest regional psychology conference with 1500-2000 attendees each year.

Some of HSU's most outstanding undergraduates, nominated in eight categories of excellence by faculty, staff and fellow students, were recognized at the recent Outstanding Student Awards ceremony in the Kate Buchanan Room on April 23.

A map created at Humboldt State by Cassandra Hansen, 2006 Geography alumna, has been selected for the 2007 National Geographic Award in Mapping by the Association of American Geographers. According to the head judge, Hansen's “entry was part of the most eclectic and accomplished group of entries in the three years I have been a part of the review process. For the first time, we invited entries from Europe and the United States.” The award comes with a $1200 cash prize.

In its first year, the HSU Department of Government and Politics' Model United Nations program garnered three Meritorious Delegation awards at the 2007 Model United Nations of the Far West conference in San Francisco last weekend. The Meritorious Delegation Award recognizes academic excellence in preparation and participation at the conference. The three awards earned by HSU placed it in the conference’s top three performers.

Stephen C. Sillett, Professor and Kenneth L. Fisher Chair in Redwood Forest Ecology at Humboldt State University, is one of the key figures in The Wild Trees—the latest book by Richard Preston. Preston is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, and is widely considered one of the world's leading science writers.

Humboldt State University Geography Professor Stephen Cunha, Director of the California Geographic Alliance and latter-day Marco Polo of "living geography," has won a prestigious California State University Wang Family Excellence Award of $20,000.

Dr. Steven Steinberg of HSU's Environmental and Natural Resource Science Department has been selected President-Elect of the Northern California Region of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). The region includes members and chapters in Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii.

Dr. Tasha R. Howe, HSU Associate Professor of Psychology, has won a Fulbright Scholarship, January to June, 2008, in Cyprus to work at the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies in Nicosia, a non-profit organization. Dr. Howe will train social workers in violence prevention skills, using the American Psychological Association's ACT Against Violence curriculum, for which she is a nationally certified trainer.

Humboldt State University Geography Professor Stephen Cunha was honored with the Hilda Taba Award at the California Council for Social Studies annual meeting in Oakland.

Amber Gaffney, Humboldt State University alumna ('06), was awarded the Western Psychological Association’s 2007 Christina Maslach-Philip Zimbardo Research Award in Social Psychology. Ms. Gaffney, a doctoral student in Social Psychology at the Claremont Graduate University, was recognized for research conducted in a Senior Honor’s Thesis under the direction of Dr. Gregg Gold (HSU Psychology).

HSU Alum Timothy Baroni ('72, '74), an international expert in the field of mycology, has been appointed a Distinguished Professor, one rank above Full Professor, by the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Cortland. It is the highest academic rank in the SUNY.

College of Professional Studies at HSU is hosting an awards reception April 19 honoring community partners and students who have demonstrated excellence in academics and community service.

HSU Geography lecturer and alumni Christopher Haynes was named Outstanding Educator by the California Geographic Society at its 61st annual conference Mar. 16-18 in Borrego Springs, CA . This prestigious award recognizes one outstanding geography instructor from a field of kindergarten through university educators. Haynes joins an impressive list of past recipients including professors from the University of California.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded Humboldt State nearly a half million dollars to finance a new scholarship program aimed at encouraging more students to enter the science and technology fields. Humboldt’s scholarship program is part of a new national effort to help the United States regain its prominence as a leader in fields such as engineering and computer science.

Justin Williams, an Interdisciplinary Studies major at Humboldt State University, has won first place and a nearly $1,000 prize in a major international essay competition on environmental politics, inaugurated by Keele University in Staffordshire, the United Kingdom.

Dr. Chris Aberson, HSU Associate Professor of Psychology, has joined the editorial board of "Teaching of Psychology," regarded as the field's top outlet for information on the scholarship of teaching. The journal is considered indispensable as a source of teaching methods and a forum for new ideas.