Dear colleagues,

I hope your Spring term is going well. This Thursday, we have the opportunity to hear a fascinating lecture by one of the world’s top 1,000 female scientists. I hope that you join me and the rest of the College at the annual Gilfillan Lecture (5/19) featuring eminent particle physicist Heidi Schellman. 

In the talk, Heidi will share her personal journey as a scientist and discuss her work with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and how Oregon State is building tools to deal with massive amounts of data. I am looking forward to honoring Heidi for a career of significant achievements. Register here.

I also want to invite you to join me for a town hall meeting for a college-wide presentation of the College of Science 2023 Financial Plan. Our intent for this meeting is to facilitate transparency and College-wide understanding of the budget and other policy changes.

In this informational meeting, you will receive  updates on OSU’s budget model news, University Institutional Technology (UIT) developments, and provide opportunities for discussion.

You can view the 2023 Financial Plan and previous budgets in advance of the meeting.

Please join us from noon to 2 p.m. on Wed., May 31, in the Memorial Union Multipurpose Room (MU13). Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by May 24.

During lunch, I will share highlights of the College’s financial situation within the context of OSU’s budget and potential future modifications to COS’s budget model. 

Mark Johnson, interim financial planning manager, will present the state of the College budget, followed by a panel discussion with the College of Science’s financial Strategic Services team, and a Q&A session. Andrew Wheeler, University IT director of customer experience, will also address critical University IT matters.

Town Hall Agenda

• Noon –12:30 p.m.
  Lunch and brief introduction by Interim Dean Vrushali Bokil
• 12:30 – 1:15 p.m. 
  Finance: 20-minute presentation by Mark Johnson, Interim Financial Planning Manager. Followed by a 25-minute Q&A with the following panel members:
  • Vrushali Bokil, Interim Dean
  • Mark Johnson, Interim Financial Planning Manager
  • Mark Dunbar, Interim Financial Strategic Partner, and
  • Lisa Silbernagel, Associate Director of Research Administration and Accounting
• 1:15 – 2 p.m.
  University IT: 20-minute presentation by Andrew Wheeler, UIT Director of Customer Experience, will address IT issues. Followed by a 25-minute Q&A session.

In this informational meeting, we will discuss key challenges and opportunities for achieving our collective goals in the coming fiscal years. We also will review how the College’s financial strategy, revenue generation and investment will be guided by our diversity action plan (DAP) and our 2022-2027 Strategic Plan. I hope you will join us!

There is much to look forward to and much work ahead. Thank you for all that you do to advance equity and inclusion in our College and to extend the reach and impact of science.

Vrushali Bokil
Interim Dean, College of Science

Research Highlights

Assistant Professor of Biology Jamie Cornelius received a coveted National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award that will enable her to measure the energy and fitness costs of metabolic and behavioral strategies used by songbirds during inclement weather. She also recently received a National Geographic Society Explorer grant to study the “acute impacts of fire and smoke on bird behavior, physiology and survival.”

Pernot Distinguished Professor of Microbiology Rebecca Vega Thurber and her team recently received a $500K grant to help grassroots conservation groups in French Polynesia identify sites for coral restoration. Along with ecologists from the University of California Santa Barbara, Oregon State researchers will conduct field and lab work at 200 sites across the island of Moorea. The research will be available to Coral Gardeners, a local conservation group founded in 2017 by young adults who witnessed coral bleaching firsthand.

Research Funding

Marine biologist Bruce Menge received $190K from the Oregon Ocean Sciences Trust for a project entitled, “Do Tipping Points Loom? Extending 20+ Years of Long-Term Monitoring to Assess Impacts of Climate Change on Rocky Shore Macrophyte Assemblages.”

Marine biologist Kristen Grorud-Colvert received $169K from the Oregon Ocean Sciences Trust for a project entitled, “The missing link: Quantifying juvenile dynamics of key commercially and recreationally important fishes along Oregon’s nearshore.”

Biophysicist Bo Sun received $352K from the National Institutes of Health for a project entitled, “Understanding the control mechanisms of 3D cell migration from new dimensions.”

Chemist Chris Beaudry received $481K from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled, “Connective Stereospecific Generation of Alkenes Continued.”

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.

University Honors

Congratulations to 17 faculty on receiving promotions and/or tenure this year! Countless hours of consideration and analysis goes into every promotion decision. Thank you to everyone that helped to make this possible for our well-deserving faculty.

National Honors

Four graduate students were selected for the prestigious NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), which recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in STEM who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in the U.S.

Sunni Patton is a microbiology Ph.D. student in the Vega Thurber lab and an ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Scholar. Caroline Hernandez is a microbiology Ph.D. student in the David lab. Luke Bobay is an integrative biology Ph.D. candidate at the Hatfield Marine Science Center Plankton Ecology Lab. Olivia Burleigh is an integrative biology Ph.D. candidate working with Virginia Weis.

Dam successful

The College of Science broke our own Dam Proud Day records in the university-wide crowd-finding event on April 26 – with 123 donations and more than $53,368 raised! The Science community unlocked every single matching gift and made us all dam proud. The Undergraduate Research Frontiers Fund raised $21,205, the Dean’s Scholarship Fund raised $10,495, the Biochemistry/Biophysics Excellence Fund raised $5,250 and the Microbiology Strategic Fund raised $7,638.

Happy birthday, Survey Research Center!

The Oregon State University Survey Research Center is celebrating 50 years of helping state agencies and academics with writing, distributing and analyzing surveys. The center has worked with over 15 different agencies in Salem including the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon State Marine Board and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Visibility for Beckman company

University Distinguished Professor Joe Beckman appeared in Labmate Online regarding the announcement of the acquisition of his company eMSion. Acquired by Agilent Technologies, eMSion works on electron capture dissociation technology, known as the ExD cell. This device is used by mass spectrometers and could alter the future of drug development.

Pernot Microbiology Camp

Microbiology graduate student Savanah Leidholt created a summer “bootcamp” for area high school students to draw more students from diverse backgrounds to the study of microbiology. Registration is open for year two of the Pernot Microbiology Camp.

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Math for All

Two College of Science faculty helped organize the second Math For All satellite conference in Corvallis. Assistant Professor Swati Patel formed the national conference three years ago in response to systemic racism and inequities in mathematics. Patel and Axel Saenz Rodriguez welcomed people from across western Oregon to learn about how mathematics applies to everyday life and experience a sense of belonging to a powerful scientific community.

Upcoming Events

Gilfillan Lecture
Thursday, May 18, 5:30–7 p.m.
(Hybrid) LaSells Stewart Center, Construction & Engineering Hall 

Physicist Heidi Schellman will be presenting the annual Gilfillan Lecture. Schellman will share her personal journey as a scientist and her fascination with neutrinos – mysterious subatomic particles. She will discuss her work with the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and how Oregon State is building tools to deal with massive amounts of data. RSVP today!

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Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium Spring Student Symposium
Friday, May 19, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center

Interested in future NASA opportunities? This symposium will highlight OSGC-funded NASA Interns and students who participated in a variety of fellowships and programs. Students will present their research projects and share their experiences. The keynote speaker is Daniel Raible, electronics engineer at NASA John H. Glenn Research Center. Learn more here.

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CoSCIES 2023 Education Research Showcase Extravaganza
Tuesday, May 23, 1–5 p.m.
Memorial Union, Journey Room 104

CoSCIES is a peer learning community in OSU’s College of Science focused on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Join us on May 23 to learn more about SoTL, ongoing education research projects in COS, and the CoSCIES Fellows program and future events. This event will feature talks and posters by OSU researchers studying STEM teaching and learning. Food and beverages provided. RSVP today!

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Mathematics Department 38th Annual Lonseth Lecture
Thursday, May 25, 5–6 p.m.
LaSells Stewart Center 

Entitled “Mathematics of Inclusive Insurance,” Professor Corina Constantinescu (Ph.D, ’06) will explore the benefits of partnerships between governments and private insurers in the context of inclusive insurance (also referred to as microinsurance), as powerful and cost-effective tools for achieving poverty reduction. Constantinescu is a professor of mathematics and director of the Institute for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics at the University of Liverpool. The lecture will be preceded by the department’s annual award ceremony beginning at 4:30 p.m.

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College of Science Town Hall: FY22 Financial Plan and UIT
Wednesday, May 31, noon–2 p.m.
(Hybrid) Memorial Union, Multi-purpose Room 13

Join Interim Dean Vrushali Bokil in this college-wide informational meeting detailing the College’s budget and addressing IT issues. Mark Johnson, interim financial planning manager, will present the state of College budget followed by a Q&A session. Andrew Wheeler, UIT director of customer experience, will address critical IT concerns.

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College of Science Commencement Celebration
Tuesday, June 16, 3–5 p.m.
The Valley Library Quad

Graduating students in the College of Science, their families and their friends are invited to attend a graduation celebration.

Recent Events

Science Pro
The College of Science held a career exploration event to connect students with professionals working in biotechnology fields. The event included 15-minute sessions for engaging in small group discussions with community partners.

Health Professions Fair
The Health Professions Fair was an opportunity for students to connect with professional schools and programs to learn about graduate education and careers in healthcare.

Berg Lecture featuring Jo Handelsman 
The inaugural Berg Lecture, featured internationally acclimated microbiologist Jo Handelsman. In her lecture, “A world without soil: Science and stewardship of our endangered natural resource,” she addressed the impacts of climate change on the world’s soil loss and suggested practices to improve soil health now.