Dear colleagues,

As we head into Summer 2023, I hope you are all able to rejuvenate and take a well-deserved break. I want to express my gratitude for all you have done this year to advance knowledge and transform lives to create a thriving Science community. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead our College throughout this academic year.

I also want to take a moment to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the 20 College of Science faculty members who have been promoted and/or received tenure this year (see below). This represents significant milestones in your academic careers, and we are immensely proud of your accomplishments and look forward to your continued success. Thank you also to all of the committee members who served on the College of Science Promotions and Tenure Committee this year as well as the members of unit Promotions and Tenure committees who served diligently at the unit level. Moving our colleagues forward in their careers is one of our most important community efforts. Their success is our collective success. Please read on in this newsletter and in Impact-Faculty excellence to learn more about them.

During this transition year, Our College has achieved significant milestones together. I have been inspired by the tremendous care and investment that each one of you demonstrates in the College. Your dedication to our mission, our students and one another is remarkable, and it has been a privilege to witness how well this team works together.

This year, I charged Associate Deans Jessica Siegel and Virginia Weis, Director of Equity, Access and Inclusion Kameron Kadooka, and Project & Events Manager Tze-Yiu Yong, to jointly lead the initiative, Moving Science Forward. This initiative is a joint implementation of the College of Science’s two strategic plans developed over two years 2020-2022; Embedding Equity, Access and Inclusion and Extending the Reach and Impact of Science. I am very proud of these plans. They capture our commitments to our community and provide a roadmap for transformation in the college. You can view our progress in the new implementation reporting tool that our marketing and communication team has developed this year for transparent communication of our progress. Moving forward, let us collectively commit to continue to work on these plans together.

I’d like to also note the significant strides we’ve taken in our faculty recruitment process, creating best practices that reflect our values and help in recruiting a pool of strong and diverse candidates to our college. We have also strengthened other processes, such as implementing fair, transparent and just rubrics for awards to improve inclusivity and help ensure opportunities for all to engage in science. Our processes for hiring and dual hires have also seen notable improvements, and we are committed to further enhancing them. You can read about additional progress embedding equity, access and inclusion in our work here.

Working to create more financial stability and transparency in budgeting has also been a high priority for us this year, and we are taking steps to help ensure the fiscal health of the College. As I shared in the last newsletter, we are in the process of hiring a financial planning manager who will play a crucial role in achieving this. I invite you to read our FY23 Strategic Financial Report for detailed budget information, and to learn more about our new hires aimed to strengthen the College. 

Regarding the selection of a new permanent dean, we look to the Provost’s Office for updates. In his June 7 email to our College, Provost Ed Feser shared that “we are making progress, and I’ll send another update when there is substantive news to share.”

Once again, thank you for all your hard work throughout this year. It’s been a joy working with you as we harness Team Science for a healthier, more sustainable future. Wishing you a summer filled with adventure, relaxation and joy!

Warm regards,

Vrushali Bokil
Interim Dean, College of Science

Research Highlights

Physicist Heidi Schellman is included on a list compiled by Research.com of the world’s top 1,000 female scientists. This was the first edition of the annual ranking for top female scientists in the world. Schellman and a research team from four universities received a $3M grant in 2021 from the Department of Energy to lead the computing component of an international experiment, called the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE, to study the world’s smallest particles, called neutrinos.

Emeritus Professor George Poinar, Jr., has identified a new cockroach species encased in Dominican amber. The specimen, about 30 million years old, is the first fossil cockroach to be found with sperm cells.

Biologist Jaga Giebultowicz’s research on blue light exposure was one of Oregon State University’s top 10 stories of 2022. Her work uncovered that the damaging effects of daily, lifelong exposure to the blue light worsen as a person ages.

Research Proposal Support

Want to explore funding opportunities, or do you need a reminder on upcoming proposal deadlines? Check out ECOS, the College of Science’s funding and research news page. For assistance on identifying and preparing funding proposals, email the 

National Honors

GEM Fellow Fernando Angulo Barba, a mathematics graduate student, spent this past summer working with Idaho National Laboratory’s computational mechanics and materials group. He  ran sensitivity analyses on a program used to study nuclear fuels and on an open-source finite element-based platform for solving multi-physics problems.

Chemist David Ji was named to the 2022 list of Highly Cited Researchers compiled by international analytics firm Clarivate. Ji is a leader in developing new, more sustainable battery chemistries and just received a $3 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to explore batteries that don’t rely on rare elements such as lithium and nickel.Biochemist Elisar Barbar and GCE4All Program Coordinator Kayla Jara were featured in a story in the Corvallis Advocate about a research paper published in the journal eLife on their study of neurodegenerative diseases. Their work focuses on using a variety of biophysical techniques to learn more about a motor protein whose malfunction is associated with many disorders. 

Carol McKiel joined the Dean’s Office as the new College of Science recruitment coordinator. Carol has a Ph.D. in Education from Oregon State and joins us from the College of Education where she most recently served as a graduate student advisor, recruiter and instructor. You can reach her at carol.mckiel@oregonstate.edu.

Mark Johnson began working this month as the College of Science’s first Interim Financial Planning Manager. Mark will be half-time while the College conducts a national search for a full-time financial planning manager. Mark, who has over 32 years of experience in higher education accounting, retired from the Controller’s unit in December. He is helping with the transition of this new position to manage and improve the fiscal health of our College for the remainder of the fiscal year. You can reach Mark at Mark.Johnson@oregonstate.edu.

Meet Ron and Ann Berg, microbiology alumni who have endowed a new guest lecture series. While neither of them is originally from Oregon, they celebrated their 50-year anniversary last year by coming back to where it all began: Oregon State University.

Evolutionary biologist Dee Denver’s book, “The Dharma in DNA: Insights at the Intersection of Biology and Buddhism” explains his work to join science and Buddhism in the pursuit of an ethical foundation to guide the decisions scientists make. The book was published last year by Oxford University Press. 

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.

Upcoming Events

Biochemistry & Biophysics January Seminar featuring Marc Jamin
Wednesday, Jan. 25, 9 a.m.

Join this monthly online seminar hosted by the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. In January, Elisar Barbar will host the seminar with special guest Marc Jamin from the Université Grenoble Alpes in Saint Martin d’ Hères, France. Jamin will give a presentation entitled “Structural Insights into the Phosphoprotein and C Protein of the Non-Segmented Negative-Sense RNA Viruses and Implications for the Replication Process.”

College of Science Inclusive Excellence Lecture
Thursday, Jan. 26, 5-7 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center Construction & Engineering Hall

Save the date for the College of Science’s inaugural Inclusive Excellence Lecture featuring Assistant Professor Marilyn Mackiewicz, recipient of the 2022 Inclusive Excellence Award. RSVP today.

Integrating Research and DEI Excellence: A Conversation
Thursday, Jan. 26, Noon – 1:30
Linus Pauling Science Center 402

Integration of research and DEI excellence is an exciting space for Oregon State to excel in. Co-sponsored with the Office of Institutional Diversity, we invite faculty to an opening conversation about integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion in research, education, and community engagement programs.  The conversation will be a prelude to additional opportunities to reflect and develop your approach to DEI integration through workshops this spring. Register here or join via Zoom.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration keynote address featuring Jelani Cobb
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 7 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center, Austin Auditorium

Join Oregon State University’s 41st annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Commemoration’s keynote featuring Jelani Cobb. Cobb is a staff writer at the New Yorker as well as Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and Dean of Columbia Journalism School. Register by Jan. 27.

College of Science Non-Perishable Food Drive
The month of February
Dean’s Office, Kidder Hall

Donate canned and non-perishable foods any day during the month of February for the College of Science food drive. Check out this list of the most wanted foods (PDF) to get ideas on what the Linn Benton Food Bank most needs. Please bring your donations to the front desk in the Dean’s Office, Kidder 128.

School of Life Sciences Food Drive Chili Lunch and Baked Potato Bar
Wednesday, Feb. 1, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Coast Range Building Room 2196

Join members of the Department of Integrative Biology for their annual food drive chili lunch fundraiser. Your donation of $7 will support the Linn Benton Food Bank.

Universitywide Ignite: Climate change and human health
Friday, Feb. 10, 3:30 – 5 p.m. with reception to follow
Hallie Ford Center 115

The College of Science Office for Research Advancement, in collaboration with the College of Public Health and Human Sciences, will present a university wide Ignite Session: Climate Change and Human Health. Registration details pending. To receive updates regarding Ignite registration and all upcoming Research Advancement events, sign up for our newsletter.

School of Life Sciences Food Drive Farmers Market
Tuesday, Feb. 14, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Coast Range Building Room 2008

Come to the Department of Integrative Biology Farmer’s Market and raise critical funds for OSU’s Food Drive. This event is free to attend and will include a variety of items for sale. This is also the first day of the SLS Silent Auction, also benefiting the Linn Benton Food Bank, which culminates with a trivia night on Feb. 22. 

Microbiology Winter Term Seminar Series 
Tuesday, Feb. 14, Noon
ALS 4000

Join the Department of Microbiology for their regular seminar series featuring microbiologists from Oregon State and elsewhere. Next month, Dr. Melanie Spero from the University of Oregon will speak about bacterial pathogens. 

College of Science Winter Awards
Tuesday, Feb. 21
Memorial Union Horizon Room

Save the date for this annual event to join your College of Science colleagues as we celebrate excellence in teaching, advising, research and administration at our annual winter awards! More information to come. 

Recent Events

GCE January Webinar
January 19, 2023

The GCE4All Research Center hosts a monthly free webinar featuring talks focused on applications of genetic code expansion technologies. This month, they hosted Jamie Cate from UC Berkeley and Nediljko Budisa from the University of Manitoba.

Meet-and-Greet with President Jayathi Murthy
November 29, 2022

This event was an opportunity to hear from Oregon State University’s new president, Jayathi Murthy as she shared her vision for the university and how the College of Science might fit into it.

Microbiology seminar featuring Dr. Stilianos Louca
November 29, 2022

As part of the Department of Microbiology’ monthly seminar series, they hosted Stilianos Louca, assistant professor from the University of Oregon’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution, gave a talk entitled “Ecology and Evolution of Microbial Metabolism.”

Provost’s Lecture featuring Sam Quinones
November 15, 2022

As part of the Provost’s Lecture Series, journalist and author Sam Quinones gave a talk about the grim reality that fentanyl and methamphetamine have caused across the United States while also offering reasons for hope amid a crisis that he said is killing thousands annually.