Dear colleagues,

All great universities do five things well: generate knowledge, disseminate knowledge, apply knowledge, preserve knowledge, and create opportunities for everyone with knowledge. The last of these is the reason that we are focused on equity, access and inclusion: We need to create more opportunities for those who, historically and in the present day, have not benefited as much from the metaphorical and literal wealth that knowledge brings. This month, I want to bring you news about progress across the College to advance equity, access and inclusion. 

We are so fortunate to have Kameron Kadooka join us as our first permanent Director of Equity, Access and Inclusion. Kameron will provide leadership to help all of us implement our Diversity Action Plan. With his hiring, our proposed actions under Goal 1.1 are complete, and work is underway on all parts of Goal 1. The next two areas of focus are holistic admissions for graduate students (a significant part of Goal 2.1) and training for graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) to advance all of Goal 3. Not only will these actions further diversify our graduate students, but since GTAs spend so much time teaching and training undergraduates, better training for GTAs should result in more equity, access and inclusion for undergraduate students. Furthermore, since graduate students are the future professoriate, a more diverse and equity minded graduate student body should increase diversity in the professoriate in the future. 

Please take a few moments to read our interview with Kameron about how he is leading our College to advance equity, access and inclusion. 

One of our goals (3.2 in the Diversity Action Plan) is to “broaden the image of a scientist,” to ensure inclusion of minoritized communities who face systemic barriers to careers in science. To this end, our Gender Equity Committee is pleased to be partnering with graduate students from Integrative Biology next Tuesday, May 10, at 4:30 p.m. to screen Picture a Scientist. The screening will be in LPSC 125 – please join me there! 

We continue to raise funds to advance our goals in the Diversity Action Plan. Goal 2.3 is to expand support services to aid in student retention, including increasing need-based scholarships. As just one example, on Dam Proud Day last week, we raised more than $22,000 from 104 gifts to support three student scholarship funds (SURE Science, Science for All, and BB Excellence), all of which help students in need. As a second example, one of our alumni and long-term supporters, Judy Faucett, recently committed to making a $60,000 gift to create the Leonardo Fund to support LBGTQIA students in Science. A particular focus of this will be to address unexpected needs of these students in our community who experience unanticipated challenges. Thanks, Judy!

Lastly, please join us at the Inclusive Excellence Spring Showcase in the MU Horizon Room from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be a poster session and some food and beverages. Several Science faculty will be presenting their work, along with others across campus, as Inclusive Excellence Fellows.

Thanks for all you are doing to advance equity, access and inclusion in the College of Science.

Roy Haggerty
Dean, College of Science

Research Highlights

In honor of Earth Day, the College of Science published a three-part series highlighting a few areas, among many, of our scientists’ promising climate-related research. The series focuses on advances in materials science to create a more sustainable future, harnessing complex data to better understand challenges and potential solutions, and how marine scientists are addressing the consequences of climate change and ecological degradation.

Research Funding

Microbiologist Rebecca Vega-Thurber received $365K from the State of Florida for a project entitled “Tracking viral infection status in Lower Keys and Dry Tortuga Corals using TEM and Meta-transcriptomics.”

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.

Global Honors

Congratulations to marine biologist Virginia Weis for receiving the Eminence in Research Award from the International Coral Reef Society. The most significant award in this discipline, it is given annually to a scientist with more than 25 years of post-Ph.D. research in the field.

National Honors

Biochemistry and molecular biology major Gretchen Fujimura is one of two Goldwater Scholars at Oregon State in 2022. Her research in the Barbar Lab looks at interactions between rabies virus proteins and host cells, contributing to vaccine development for viruses that cause pneumonia in vulnerable populations. She is heading to Japan this summer to undertake a biomedical internship.

Regional Honors

Congratulations to Rachel Souza (’20, Mathematics) for recently winning University of California – Irvine’s Grand Slam Award for her research related to immunotherapies. Souza is a second-year Ph.D. student in Mathematical, Computational, and Systems Biology at UCI.

Zoology Ph.D. alumna Karina Nielsen was featured in Cannon Beach Gazette. A marine ecologist whose research focuses on the ecology, oceanography and biogeochemistry of ecosystems at the edge of the sea, Nielsen has been named director of Oregon Sea Grant.

Marine ecologist Francis Chan was featured in Oregon Business for his work to launch the Ocean Cluster Initiative that helps keep seafood local. The COVID-19 disruption of supply chains left the fishing industry unable to provide seafood to its own communities.

Marine ecologist Bruce Menge’s work to study intertidal zones along Oregon’s coast was featured in Hakai Magazine. “We thought the system was in pretty good shape,” Menge says. “As it turns out, we’re not so sure that’s the case anymore.”

Chemist May Nyman’s work to capture carbon was featured in Yamhill County’s News Register. Nyman’s team explores how some transition metal complexes can react with air to remove the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. These complexes appear to extract an impressive amount of carbon dioxide – four molecules for every transition metal ion – and convert it to a stable solid, a metal carbonate similar to what is found in many naturally occurring minerals.

Kameron Kadooka, the College of Science’s first director of equity, access and inclusion, discusses how collaboration, transparency and accountability will build a more diverse and equitable College of Science. He is charged with leading the implementation of “Embedding Equity, Access and Inclusion,” the College’s Diversity Action Plan. The plan, authored by the Diversity, Equity, Justice and Inclusion Working Group, is a community-wide initiative. In this Q&A interview, Kameron shares his vision for the plan’s implementation and outcomes.

On May 15, the Department of Mathematics will host the Oregon Invitational Mathematics Tournament (OIMT), an opportunity for outstanding high school mathematics students in Oregon to come together for a day of competition, learning and fun! Students were invited to OIMT based on their performance at the regional contests held at other higher education institutions across the state. The top 12% in each category from each regional site were invited.

Update your professional headshot! The College marketing department is offering free appointments to have your portrait taken this month. Sign up for a timeslot here and reach out to Cari Longman if you have any questions.

The College of Science YouTube site has had some additions! The marketing team has been at work creating “Meet a Major” videos for each major. Check out our amazing BioHealth Sciences, Microbiology and Mathematics students. They inspire us, and we hope they inspire future scientists and mathematicians to come to Oregon State. Coming soon: Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Physics!

We have also created videos highlighting the Weis coral research lab and the Anatomy and Physiology lab. In each of these incredible labs, Science graduate and undergraduate students are gaining critical hands-on experiences that are shaping their future careers.

Finally, we created a series of videos for Dam Proud Day to highlight the power of undergraduate research and support for our non-traditional students. Check out Alice and Grace’s stories as they describe their SURE Science experiences, and hear from Jai about how the extra support she received from her advisors made all the difference in helping her graduate.

Picture a Scientist screening
Tuesday, May 10, 4:30–6:30 p.m. LPSC 125

Join us for Picture a Scientist, a documentary that chronicles the experiences of women in science. Together with the graduate students from Integrative Biology and the Gender Equity Committee from the College of Science, we offer this screening as part of our aim to further explore the impacts of being underrepresented in science. The recently released Diversity Action Plan includes Action 3.2 to broaden the image of a scientist. This film provides a way for us to deepen our understanding of this action and enhance our conversations.

Inclusive excellence fellow showcase – May 13
Friday, May 13, 4–7 p.m. Memorial Union Horizon Room

Join 2021-2022 Inclusive Excellence Fellows as they showcase the innovative changes they made in their classrooms this year in support of inclusive excellence. If you are curious about ways to incorporate inclusion and equity into your work with students, join us for this fun and interactive poster session. College of Science IE Fellows include Carmen Harjoe, Gabs James, Phil McFadden and Clayton Petsche. RSVP.

Henri Jansen Retirement Party!
Friday, May 13, 4–7 p.m. 4 Spirits Distillery

After an exemplary 37-year career, Henri Jansen is retiring. Join us to celebrate his career of service to the physics department, the College of Science and Oregon State University. RSVP by May 9. Please also add your thoughts and farewells for Henri on this KudoBoard before or after the event.

2022 Education Research Showcase Extravaganza
Friday, May 20, 9 a.m. to noon. Memorial Union Journey Room (MU 104)

Interested in learning more about the science of teaching and learning? This event will feature talks and posters by OSU researchers studying that very topic! Register today.

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Recent Events

Gilfillan Memorial Lecture
May 3, 2022
Faculty, alumni, friends and family celebrated the career achievements of Distinguished Professor Michael Freitag, this year’s Gilfillan Award recipient. He presented a lecture entitled “Our lives among the peaks: Tales of ChIPs, enrichment, and decay.” More than 100 people attended in person, with 61 joining virtually.Dam Proud Day

April 27, 2022
The College of Science community joined together on April 27 to raise more than $22K through 104 gifts on Dam Proud Day. Gifts supported three student scholarship funds: SURE Science undergraduate research experiences, a new fund called Science for All to support non-traditional students, and the Biochemistry and Biophysics Excellence Fund. Thanks to everyone who participated to help make the day a success!CIC Ideation Session

April 15 and 18, 2022
In order to best plan for the types of innovative research that may take place in the CIC, the university hosted an ideation session for presentations on collaborative research at OSU ongoing at any campus or location, involving researchers from multiple colleges or centers/institutes, with results that can be brought to bear in solving some of humanity’s biggest challenges.

Collaborative Innovation Complex (CIC) University Forum
April 7, 2022
OSU Provost Ed Feser and other OSU leadership shared about progress on the new CIC building and imagining the research infrastructure it will house. Situated in the heart of campus, the CIC will host OSU’s most advanced research infrastructure, with a goal of supporting team-based interdisciplinary research and education. This session provided an opportunity for questions and input.

Science Pro
April 5, 2022
Students met with alumni and other professionals from Pfizer, Intel, academia and more at this career preparation event.