Dear colleagues, 

To live up to our mission of developing future leaders and providing solutions that improve life in Oregon and beyond, we rely on this incredible community to be visionary and bold. When we think big and step out of our comfort zones, we generate change — and we improve lives.

In the College of Science, we do this by pushing the frontiers of knowledge and possibility, practicing transformative teaching and advising, and building a community that embeds inclusivity in all we do.

Promoting these priorities motivates our celebration of colleagues who foster excellence at our annual awards ceremonies. Our inspiring award ceremony last week reminded us that the College of Science is an increasingly inclusive and powerful force for good.

You will read details about this year’s wonderful awardees below, but first I’d like to share a few thoughts. Changing the world for the better is hard work. In our College, there are many ways to be a change-maker – whether by improving systems and processes, developing and leading programs, championing student success, building an inclusive community, or choosing to do the right thing in a difficult moment.

Several awardees this year demonstrated the power of taking action outside of their comfort zones, discovering ways to implement change, embrace transformation, and disrupt the status quo.

To the leaders and change-makers doing this hard work in our College, thank you.

I also want to note the importance of going above and beyond to support our students. Teaching and advising awards, which are driven by student nominations, demonstrate the importance of supporting students and our teaching mission in the College. I think we were all moved by the incredible comments students made about our instructors and advisors.

Clearly, you are making a significant difference in students’ lives, including the many great teachers and advisors who were nominated by students but did not receive an award this year. Thank you to all who work so hard to support our teaching mission.

We also celebrate those who advance our research mission. These research awards and SciRIS grant recipients are making possible a new generation of discoveries that expand human knowledge and improve life – the foundation of a top-tier R1 research institution. Please read about this year’s impressive recipients in this newsletter and in Impact.

Our College is made stronger by these remarkable knowledge creators in the College, and we are committed to increasing our research capacity by providing resources to obtain funding and by strengthening our SciRIS program.

Finally, it was a joy to recognize colleagues who are working towards a world where everyone has access to engage in science and enjoy its benefits. I am very proud of the hard-working individuals who help shoulder our responsibility to achieve inclusive excellence. The College of Science is, at its best, a place where science is by all and for all — informed by a wide variety of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.

I am grateful for their tireless dedication and also for those of you who are working to advance inclusivity and equity within your spheres of influence and to bring our Strategic Diversity Action Plan into reality.

Please note that this year marks the first year that a lecture accompanies the College of Science Inclusive Excellence Award. I encourage you all to watch the outstanding lecture given by last year’s recipient, Marilyn Mackiewicz: “Empowering Cultures of Belonging,” delivered in February. I hope you will attend Kirsten Grorud-Colvert’s lecture next year!

This award and the new Gender Equity in Leadership Fund, which is open to any faculty member, exemplify how we have integrated the Diversity Action Plan into our new strategic plan, “Extending the reach and Impact of Science.” Ultimately, these plans and our awards center on how we build and grow our mission. I am eager to share details about this, the implementation plan, and our new website in the next newsletter.

Thank you so much to all you who nominated people for this year’s award. I encourage you to continue the tradition next year, and please remember the importance of recognizing and nominating our  junior faculty and staff.

I am proud of our commitment and the work we have done to improve the way we work together in the College of Science. Thank you for dedicating your time and talents to extending the reach and impact of science and embedding inclusive excellence in everything we do.

Vrushali Bokil
Interim Dean, College of Science

Research Highlights

Marine ecologist Sarah Gravem has put hard numbers on the rate at which sunflower sea stars feed on sea urchins (.68 per day). Their findings suggest that sunflower sea stars may be key in controlling sea urchin density and therefore kelp forest growth. While it has been known that sea stars prey on urchins, this was the first attempt to determine the rate of predation. The study was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Research Funding

Microbiologist Becky Vega Thurber received $528K from the National Philanthropic Trust for her project entitled “Integration of eDNA into island-wide reef ecological measures to identify conservation and restoration priority areas across the Moorea lagoon.”

Microbiologist Tom Sharpton received a $403K grant from the National Institutes of Health for a project entitled “Impacts of Benzo[a]pyrene on Microbiome Development across Lifespan and
Generations and the Behavioral Consequences.”

Population ecologist Ben Dalziel received a $26K grant from Cornell University for a project entitled “Epidemiology, transmission, and pathogenicity of Equine hepacivirus.”

SciRIS Awards

Several faculty received SciRIS awards this month. Congratulations to the following recipients:

SciRIS-ii

• Clayton Petsche “Exceptional Maps in Arithmetic Dynamical Systems”
• Bo Sun “Mechanical programming of four-dimensional tissue self-assembly”
• Ethan Minot “Ultra-miniaturized spectrometers”

SciRIS Stage 1

•  Yuan Jiang and Anna Jolles “Harnesses longitudinal microbiome data to define the ecological roles of host-associated microbes”
• Anna Jolles and Claudia Häse “Oysters, Vibrio and its bacteriophages: A model system for understanding population and coevolutionary host-pathogen- hyperpathogen dynamics”
• David Hendrix, Colin Johnson, Claudia Maier, and Patrick Reardon “Computational Discovery, Functional Characterization, and Structure Determination of microproteins (miPs)”
• David Lytle, Justin Sanders and Anna Jolles “Bioinformatics for integrated river health”

Disease Mechanism & Prevention Fund

•  Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer “Why is a fly a good model to study my grandmother’s tremors?”

Research Proposal Support

You can find funding opportunities on ECOS. To access a suite of tools and resources available to faculty, visit the College of Science Proposal Support webpage.

National Honors

Chemist May Nyman was recently awarded the F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry through the American Chemical Society (ACS). Nyman’s work is recognized for her “contribution to the synthesis and development of polyoxometalates and metal oxohydroxoclusters, including their structures, speciation, reaction mechanisms, and function.

Marine physiologist Virginia Weis has been named a 2022 American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of coral reef biology. She is one of just two faculty at Oregon State University to receive this honor in 2022, and just the 16th faculty member in the College of Science faculty member to receive this honor. 

College Honors

Congratulations to the award winners of the 2022 Combined College of Science Awards Ceremony. These awards celebrate the best of our College: distinguished contributions to science research, commitment to service and inclusive excellence, and deep dedication to the success of our students. The accomplishments of this year’s nominees and awardees bring tremendous credit not only to the College of Science, but also to Oregon State University.

• Olaf Boedtker Award for Excellence in Academic Advising – Jesus Vargas, Integrative Biology
• Loyd F. Carter Award for Outstanding and Inspirational Teaching in Science (UG) – Paul Ha-Yeon Cheong, Chemistry
• Loyd F. Carter Award for Outstanding and Inspirational Teaching in Science (Grad) – Marilyn Rampersad Mackiewicz, Chemistry
• Frederick H. Horne Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching Science –  Mary Beisiegel, Mathematics
• Milton Harris Award for Basic Research in Science – Xiulei “David” Ji, Chemistry
• F.A. Gilfillan Award for Distinguished Scholarship – Wei Kong, Chemistry
• Dean’s Early Career Achievement Award – Molly Burke, Integrative Biology
• Inclusive Excellence Award – Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, Integrative Biology
• Distinguished Service Award – Kari Van Zee, Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Champion of Science Dean’s Award – Lori Kayes, Integrative Biology
• Gladys Valley Award of Exemplary Administrative Support – Kelly Carter, Physics
• Outstanding Faculty Research Assistant Award – Zhen Yu, Biochemistry and Biophysics
• College of Science Gender Equity in Leadership Awards – Marilyn Mackiewicz and Paula Weiss; Elisar Barbar; and Katée Keen and Jennifer Olarra. 
• College of Science Industry Partnership Award – Kyriakos Stylianou, Chemistry

Statistician Ginny Lesser was featured in two news stories by Reuters and NPR on the shortage of native seeds needed to restore natural habitats damaged by weather events and wildfires. Lesser was on the committee that authored the mentioned report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) where her survey sampling expertise helped garner information from seed suppliers and native seed users. 

Chemist David Ji was mentioned in a feature article by OPB this month on the state’s need for new sustainable batteries to keep up with the state’s growing renewable energy infrastructure. “The more people who are thinking about this question, this challenge, the better the society will be in terms of addressing the energy storage challenge right now,” he said.

Marine ecologist Francis Chan was included in Science magazine’s February issue in a story on the impacts of warming oceans on marine life entitled “Breathless Oceans.”

Marine ecologist Sarah Gravem was featured in a story in the Register Guard and on KGW8 about the study determining the rate at which sunflower sea stars prey on sea urchins. “What we were trying to do is really put numbers on it and put cause and effect onto all of these uncanny coincidences of wasting disease and kelp forest declines,” Gravem said. Their findings: the sunflower sea stars in their experiment consumed .68 urchins per day. 

When the video came out of the brutal death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers, Interim Dean Vrushali Bokil wrote a letter to the community reaffirming the College’s commitment to systemic change and our work to increase the safety and community for Black members of our community. 

Research statistician emerita and alumna Manuela Huso received the highest honorary recognition an employee can receive within the U.S. Department of the Interior. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award last fall for her “significant and highly impactful advancements in biological statistics and wildlife conservation ecology.”

Meet Charlotte Soderberg, BioHealth Sciences alumna and clinical pharmacist for PacificSource Health Plans, Sascha Rose, Biology alumnus and research director at Insmed Incorporated, and Kacey Little, epidemiologist and research coordinator at Comagine Health. They are part of a series on Impact featuring College of Science alumni and where their degrees have taken them. 

Five of our seven departments – Biochemistry and Biophysics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Integrative Biology and Physics – have launched new websites! This multi-year-long project is an effort to improve the navigability of department sites, moving to a more modern, responsive template that is user friendly, accessible and in-line with the College of Science’s visual identity. 

The College of Science’s YouTube page has some exciting new videos! Our newest recruitment video, “Science is Better at Oregon State,” features faculty and recent alumni. And our second video, “Harnessing Team Science for a Healthy, Sustainable Planet,” highlights just some of our faculty working on the frontlines of climate work, from coral bleaching and ocean hypoxia to new types of batteries and CO2 capture.

We’re hiring! The College of Science is looking for mathematics and microbiology department heads. These are great opportunities to lead teams of talented faculty who are working to move science forward and create a culture of include excellence at Oregon State. 

Resources and Tools

Need some College of Science letterhead or a PowerPoint template to get you started on your presentation? Check out this College of Science-specific site with a variety of templates, from posters and programs to presentations and letterhead.

Recent Events

Inclusive Excellence Lecture
Jan. 26
Chemist Marilyn Mackiewicz presented the inaugural inclusive excellence lecture in which she shared her own personal journey, her current research and the chemistry department’s work toward building a culture of inclusive excellence. Watch Mackiewicz’s lecture on Youtube.  

College of Science Combined Awards ceremony
Feb. 22
The College of Science community gathered to celebrate excellence in research, administration, service, teaching, advising and more during a combined awards ceremony.