The OSU Exemplary Employee Award honors professional faculty members and classified staff members for their outstanding performance.

Sierra Hansen
Storekeeper
OSU Chem Store
College of Science

Sierra Hansen is the main storekeeper in ChemStores, a not-for-profit work center dedicated to providing essential lab and research supplies to the College and University at the lowest possible cost.

As storekeeper, Hansen is responsible for ordering, stocking, and maintaining inventory for all materials and chemicals. In addition, she monitors all purchase transactions and ensures that the system remains up-to-date with the current Indexes, available and ordered stock, and costs.

“When the pandemic first hit the Corvallis campus, Sierra quickly noticed the shortages of surface and hand disinfectants. Instead of lamenting a dire situation, or passively accepting the inevitable as occurred at nearly all peer institutions, Sierra worked with Chemistry and College leadership to develop a recipe for both of these sanitizers that used stores inventory and some locally sourced ingredients. She helped organize the staff into production and we began manufacturing the needed sanitizer products,” a nominator wrote.

“Because of her efforts, OSU enjoyed a continuous source of items such as spray bottles filled with either surface and hand sanitizers, and bulk availability of these chemicals for refill and distribution, as well as face masks, nitrile gloves, and disposable towels. Without ready availability of these essential items, resumption of on-campus activities would have been much more challenging, slower or even impossible. We might have seen many more cases of Covid-19 in the campus community.”

Reprinted in it’s entirety from: https://universityday.oregonstate.edu/award-recipients

 The Renewable Energy Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of the 2022 Scholarship season.  Last year we increased the number of scholarships we gave from 4 to 7, and the amount of each from $1500 to $2000.  This year we again expect to give at least seven $2000 scholarships, more if fundraising permits.  There will be at least one for an early undergraduate (preferable community college), at least one other undergrad scholarship, one for an early grad student, one for a diversity candidate, one for a First Nations student.  All aspects of renewable energy, including social sciences and humanities as well as sustainability and grid issues, are fair game.  The deadline for applications is Feb 15, 2022, and details can be found on our website.  The reality is that most students do not apply until near the deadline, but it does not hurt to get them thinking about it now.  Please encourage your top students to apply!

Cheers,

Dave Reingold, President

  Register today to attend the Sept. 13-14 SURS program presented virtually through Canvas. SURS is an annual showcase for OSU undergraduates to present their research and creative projects to the OSU community. Undergraduates from all academic disciplines, in all years of study, and all stages of research or creative work will be presenting. Registration to attend SURS 2021 is required and accessible only to OSU faculty, staff and students. For more info, visit the SURS website or contact OfficeofURSA@oregonstate.edu.

Northeastern Section

American Chemical Society, Inc.

The Gustavus John Esselen Award Committee

11 Thaxter Street                                              Phone  (617) 620-8315

Hingham, MA  02043                                             Email  JPiperGrady@gmail.com

                                                                                                                        August 15, 2021

TO:  ACS Section and Division Chairs, Editors of Newsletters, Industry Leaders, Research Directors, and Chairs of Academic Departments

FROM:  Dr. Karen Allen, 2022 Chair of the Esselen Award Committee

SUBJECT:  Request for Nominations for the 2022 Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest

The Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society is pleased to invite nominations of worthy candidates for the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest.  This award recognizes a chemist for outstanding achievement in scientific and technical work that contributes to the public well-being.  The award consists of a $5000 prize and a medal of recognition.  The presentation takes place at an award ceremony in April at Harvard University, followed by a formal address by the awardee.  The tentative date for this ceremony is April 14, 2022.

The award was established in 1987 to honor the memory of Gustavus John Esselen, a distinguished scientist, entrepreneur and member of the Northeastern Section.  The first awardees were F. Sherwood Rowland and Mario J. Molina, who subsequently received the Nobel Prize.  Since then, other Esselen Award recipients have also been Nobel awardees and many have been recipients of the most prestigious awards in their various fields.

Please note: any field of chemistry or affiliation is appropriate for nomination. The primary consideration of the committee is that the scientific work has been an important contribution to the public well-being and that the work’s significant value to society has become apparent within the last five years or so.

This letter is to seek nominations of colleagues whose work meets the criteria and purpose of the award. The enclosed brochure provides more detail on the nature of the award, a list of previous awardees as well as the criteria and procedure for nominations.  Additional information is available at http://www.nesacs.org/awards_esselen.html. 

The deadline for nominations is October 15, 2021.

We would appreciate you posting the award notice and circulating the information as appropriate.  Thank you in advance for your interest.

The Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, & the Arts (Office of URSA) is excited to announce this year’s call for faculty submissions for the 2021-2022 URSA Engage Program, which is designed to provide first- and second-year students, and transfer students in their first year at OSU, opportunities to pursue research or a creative activity under the guidance of an OSU faculty mentor.  

The mentor summary submission form can be found at this link. 

Below are the steps involved for the URSA Engage Program. More detailed information about eligibility and deadlines can be found on our website. 

1. Faculty submit the mentor summary form by Friday, October 15, 2021 at 11:59pm. 
2. The opportunities submitted by faculty will be posted on our website for students to view on October 22^nd. 
3. Students will read through mentor summaries and fill out a form that will be emailed to faculty mentors they are interested in working with.  
4. Faculty and students will then discuss shared interests and whether they want to work together on a project. We encourage faculty to host group Zoom session(s) to chat with students prior to allowing them to apply.  
5. Faculty will ultimately decide which student(s) they will allow to move forward with an application to the URSA Engage Program.
6. Students who have secured a mentor will then apply to the URSA Engage Program. The Office of URSA will evaluate student applications. 

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate your partnership and willingness to mentor students early in their careers at OSU!