Cnrs

Welcoming New Faculty

Humboldt State welcomed more than 70 new tenure-track faculty, temporary faculty, and staf members at the annual Fall Welcome.

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Jerry Partain: Dedicated to Forest Management

Professor Emeritus Jerry Partain, who helped establish Humboldt State’s Forestry bachelor’s degree and turn the program into a longstanding success, died on July 4 at the age of 91.

Ecology Expert Joins HSU As New Natural Resources, Sciences Dean

Richard Boone, Professor of Ecosystem Ecology in the Department of Biology and Wildlife and the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), will join Humboldt State University as the next Dean of the College of Natural Resources & Sciences. His appointment begins July 25, 2016.

Seaweed Shed Light on the Evolution of Green Plants

A deep-water seaweed, some of which grow in depths of over 200 meters in clear tropical oceans, are the earliest diverging lineage of green algae and the oldest known multicellular green plant, according to a new study co-authored by Humboldt State University Associate Dean and Biology Professor, Rick Zechman.

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McCrone Award Winners Honored for Creative Scholarship

Three distinguished faculty members—Tim Bean, Jeffrey Kane, and Meredith Williams—have been selected as recipients of the 2016 McCrone Promising Faculty Scholars Award. Selected for exhibiting potential in a specific field, each faculty member will receive $1,500 to assist his or her program of creative activity, scholarship, or research. This year’s recipients will be formally honored at a reception where they’ll deliver short presentations of their research.

Electric Vehicle Charging Network Expands on North Coast

Please Join the Redwood Coast Energy Authority and Schatz Energy Research Center to celebrate the Grand Opening of nine new public electric vehicle charging locations on the North Coast Electric Vehicle Charging Network. The ribbon cutting will be held on Thursday, April 28 from 12pm to 1 pm at St. Joseph Hospital located at 2700 Dolbeer Street, Eureka.

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On Remote Island, Surprise Evidence of Big Tsunamis

A seemingly insignificant find has led to evidence of prehistoric tsunamis on the remote Aleutian island of Sedanka. It also raises the possibility that this section of the Aleutian subduction zone could generate a large earthquake and a powerful tsunami.

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Schatz Lab Team to Study Uganda’s ‘Energy Staircase’

A study in Uganda by Humboldt State University researchers will explore what happens after people make the switch from kerosene lamps to solar-powered products and how flexible financing influences adoption of off-the-grid technology.

Dissecting the Recovery of Endangered Species

How does a species move from “endangered” to “non-threatened” status and what are the implications of that move? Ecologist and conservation biologist Dan Doak will discuss the recovery of imperiled species in the annual Lamberson Ecology Lecture, a free public event on Friday, Feb. 19 at 6 p.m.

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Study: West Nile Virus Has Struck Millions More Birds Than Thought

In the first in-depth study of the virus’s impacts on bird populations, Wildlife professor emeritus T. Luke George and a group of researchers discovered the disease killed millions of birds—many more than previously thought—and had a major, and sometimes persistent, impact, on bird populations.

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Local Birds in the Spotlight in PBS’s ‘Natural Born Hustlers’

Coming to primetime: Your neighborhood Steller’s jays. PBS' “Natural Born Hustlers” recently featured Steller’s jays from the HSU campus among other animals that rely on mimicry, disguise, and trickery to thrive in the wild. The pgoram is a three-part wildlife documentary in the station's long-running "Nature" series.

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HSU Students Take Top Honors at STEM Conference

Growing up in Bangkok, Thailand, Gritidach Manakitivipart (Matee) wasn’t exposed to the opportunities beyond the urban environment and to life sciences at school. “That wasn’t really promoted as a career as much as it is in the U.S. Even so, I was still very interested in nature,” says Matee. Today, he’s not just pursuing his love of nature as a Wildlife major at Humboldt State. He’s also being recognized for his research on a small, relatively unstudied songbird.

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For the Baker Cypress, Fire Suppression Could be Fatal

Four years of drought has turned much of California into tinder, and the resulting wildfires have torched vast swatches of forest. Fire suppression efforts have saved valuable commercial timberland, but another tree is being threatened by humans’ effort to control nature.

Series: Meet Humboldt's New Faculty – Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo

Over the course of the fall semester, Humboldt State NOW has been profiling our new tenure-track faculty. In this final edition, we introduce Professor Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, who lived most of her life in Madrid, Spain and specializes in Astrophysics.

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Research Points to Bright Future for Biomass

A potential revolution is unfolding on out-of-the-way logging roads. Foresters and researchers are innovating unique ways to make use of forest residues—low quality trees, tree tops, limbs, and chunks that formerly would have been left in slash piles and burned, or worse, left to rot.

Math Lecture Explores Moving Robots Efficiently

The Humboldt State University Department of Mathematics welcomes Professor Federico Ardila from San Francisco State University and the University of the Andes in Colombia to deliver a lecture on the use of high-dimensional geometry to move robots efficiently from one position to another. The talk will also look at high-dimensional "spaces of possibilities". Mathematicians have studied these kinds of spaces and have developed "remote controls" to navigate them in their complexity. This talk will describe these techniques, and show their implementation. It will be accessible to a general audience, and assume no previous knowledge of the subject.

Series: Meet HSU’s Newest Faculty Members

Over the course of the fall semester, Humboldt State NOW will be profiling our new tenure-track faculty. In this edition, we introduce Professor Melanie Michalak, Dept. of Geology, whose expertise is in tectonic geomorphology, landscape evolution and geochronology, and Professor Troy Lescher, Dept. of Theatre, Film, & Dance, who holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts from Texas Tech University.

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Mercury Research Keeps Scientists In the Fog

Fog is as much a part of Humboldt County as the redwoods. In fact, with their unusual ability to take in water through both roots and needles, redwoods directly benefit from the mist-laden air.