Dear colleagues,

I am the first generation in my family to go to college—my parents didn’t graduate from high school—and though I was interested in science as a kid, I didn’t think much of my intellectual capability. I had no college aspirations. I planned to continue farming, like my parents. From roughly 5th through 8th grade, I went through a period where I was bullied quite a lot. This helped to make me an anxious kid, and my grades—even in science—were in the C range.

In seventh grade, though, my social studies teacher, Mr. Jaffries, told me in front of the class that he was reading a book about Albert Einstein and that it reminded him of me. He told me a couple of other times that year that he thought I was bright and encouraged me in other ways. That year, my grades improved, and stayed good for the rest of my time in school. (I later learned that, in truth, he probably had a more modest view of my intellect. I called him in college to thank him, and he didn’t remember who I was.)

A few of us in the College leadership have been reading a book, Whispering Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do, by Claude M. Steele. Dr. Steele is a psychology professor at Stanford University. He has studied what he termed, “stereotype threat.” Dr. Steele and his students showed empirically that stereotypes of a group impact that group’s achievements when they think the area of stereotype is being measured. For example, he found that high-achieving black students who are equally as good at mathematics as high-achieving white students underperform on mathematics tests when they believe that intellectual ability is being tested. However, when the students do not think that intellectual ability is being tested, or are told that black students perform just as well as white students on the test, the underachievement completely disappears. What he showed was that if we think others think poorly of us in a particular area (whether it is true or not), we tend to underperform in that area if we think we are being measured or evaluated.

What Mr. Jaffries did for me was to eliminate the stereotype threat that I had. He convinced me that I was a good student—and then I became a good student.

In our work, part of our job is to convince students that they can be successful in science. At the very least, it is our job to not cause any students to experience the stereotype threat. The old trope, “Look to your left, look to your right … one of you won’t be here next year,” probably has a negative influence on academic performance, particularly for underrepresented groups. Reminders to students of high rates of failure in a class may be partly responsible for generating high rates of failure, at least for students who are unsure of their abilities or who feel their group is negatively stereotyped in academic achievement.

We want the College of Science at Oregon State University to be a place where everyone excels. Since nearly every student takes our classes, we play an outsized role in student success at OSU. What we say in class or a meeting can have a surprisingly large role in the success of our students—and they may hear and internalize messages we don’t intend. Let’s use our teaching and advising to encourage and elevate everyone.

Roy Haggerty
Dean, College of Science

Research Highlights

Read more of the most recent research happening on our iMPACT blog site.

Biologist Jaga Giebultowicz’s new study published in Aging and Mechanisms of Disease suggests that the blue wavelengths produced by light-emitting diodes damage cells in the brain and retinas. Prolonged exposure to blue light, such as that which emanates from phones, computers and household fixtures, could affect people’s longevity.  

Entomologist George Poinar Jr.’s latest research presents a rare look at “mold pigs,” a group of invertebrates from 30 million years ago. The findings reveal information about a previously unknown clade of invertebrates, along with their fungal food source and other animals that lived in their habitat.

Biochemist Colin Johnson and his team discovered a protein mutation that causes profound hearing loss and also alters the growth and wiring of certain neurons. The findings were published in Nature Scientific Reports this month.

Research Funding

Ecologist Sally Hacker received three Sea Grant awards from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Hacker was awarded a 2-year, $230K grant with co-PI biologist Felipe Barreto for the project, “From genes to dunescapes: genetic and ecological consequences of a new “super beachgrass” hybrid for U.S. Pacific Northwest coast ecosystem services.” 

Hacker also is co-PI on a 3-year $748K project, “Optimizing the ecosystem services of U.S. Pacific Northwest coastal beaches and dunes through adaptation planning.” And she is co-PI on a $230K grant for the project, “How do beachgrasses build dunes? Exploring foredune stability with native and invasive grasses to guide management practices on the Oregon coast.”

Chemist Rich Carter received a $438K grant from the National Science Foundation to study adding innovation and entrepreneurial achievements into the criteria for higher education faculty promotion and tenure. 

Microbiologist Stephen Giovannoni received a 3-year $261K grant from the Simons Foundation for his project, “Genetic Code Expansion Enables Metabolic Augmentation and Protein Evolution in Marine Microbial Ecosystems.”

Physicist Davide Lazzati was awarded a one-year, $236K grant from the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin to support his work with the NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center.

Mathematician Elise Lockwood is part of a $141K one-year grant from Google to enhance and increase integration between computer science education and mathematics teacher education.

Elise Lockwood also received a 28K award from the University of Georgia for her project, “Generalization Across Multiple Mathematical Areas – Classrooms and Teaching.

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

Two physics graduate students—Tyler Parsotan and Robert “Jake” Jacobs—received prestigious 2019 Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) grants, providing them with $45K annually for up to three years for contributions toward reaching science, technology and exploration goals. 

Chemistry Ph.D. student Ana Arteaga was one of three graduate students at OSU to receive a prestigious GEM Fellowship in 2019. Arteaga, who works in the May Nyman Lab conducting nuclear research, worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory this summer gaining valuable experience in a scientific setting working alongside top researchers.

College Honors

Biology senior Kristofer Bauer was the first student to receive the new Alexei Lubchenco Menge Undergraduate Research Fellowship award, which supports new opportunities for biology and zoology students interested in ecology and field work. 

Biologist Jaga Giebultowicz’s research connecting blue light usage with premature aging has garnered widespread media coverage. Her work was shared widely by local, national and international media, including Fox12 (KPTV), Fast Company, U.S. News and World Report, Yahoo! News, Oxford Mail, IndiaToday, International Business News, and many others. Outstanding!

Marine ecologists Kirsten Grorud-Colvert and Jane Lubchenco reported at the Our Ocean 2019 conference in Oslo, Norway that world governments and other leadership bodies are taking vital steps to protect the ocean, but more progress is urgently needed. The conference, held Oct. 23-24, brought together global leaders of governments, industry, youth and civil society to tackle problems that threaten the health of the ocean.  

Jane Lubchenco and her collaborators published a paper in Science Magazine that explained how ocean-based actions have greater potential to fill in gaps in climate change mitigation than previously appreciated. The paper seeks to connect the dots between two new international reports, one highlighting the devastating impact of climate change on the ocean, the other an analysis of ocean-related solutions to climate change. Lubchenco collaborated with Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and Eliza Northrop from the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. 

The paper by Lubchenco and the reports by the International Panel on Climate Change, issued last month in Monaco and New York, and the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, released in late September in New York at a meeting Lubchenco presided over, are among the key elements of international Climate Week.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it is awarding $4.4 million for research on sea level rise and flooding, and ecologist Sally Hacker was awarded $748K of that for her project, “Optimizing the ecosystem services of U.S. Pacific Northwest coastal beaches and dunes through adaptation planning.” The news was also promoted by U.S. Representative Peter Defazio’s office.

Statistics alumnus Ben Lyons (Ph.D., ’97) has carved out a successful career in the biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. Lyons is the global biometrics team leader at Genentech, a leading research-driven biotechnology firm headquartered in San Francisco and a subsidiary of Roche.

Last summer senior mathematics major Rachel Sousa did a research internship at the National Cancer Institute at the University of Utah where she used mathematical modeling of cancer cell plasticity to understand induced drug resistance and cancer immune cell therapies.

OSU is implementing a new curriculum proposal system this fall called CIM (pronounced ‘Kim’), replacing the current system. The university will offer training opportunities throughout fall term and into next year. Check the CIM Training Schedule for dates and times. The CIM transition resource offers more details and contact information.

Upcoming events

November 1
5 p.m., Memorial Union, Horizon Room
Join us for a very special retirement celebration! Four faculty who have served a combined 136 years in the Microbiology Department have recently retired or are retiring: Peter Bottomley, Theo Dreher, Bruce Geller and Walt Ream. Please join us to celebrate their service to the university and to science! Appetizers and drinks will be served. RSVP requested.

November 21
4:30 p.m. Registration, 5 p.m. Ceremony
Memorial Union, Horizon Room
The College of Science will host its 2019 Fall Faculty and Staff Awards to recognize academic and administrative excellence. Please join us for the awards ceremony and a reception honoring the awardees following the event. Dean Haggerty will offer welcome remarks and announce his priorities for the 2019-20 academic year. RSVP today.

Recent Events

Chemist May Nyman and her graduate students hosted the 6th International Frontiers in Metal Oxide Cluster Science Meeting in August. The conference attracted attendees from around the world, including 55 established science researchers and 25 top young researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe and Israel, in addition to the United States.

The College of Science celebrated extraordinary achievement and leadership at its 2019 Alumni Awards Ceremony and Dinner held on October 10. Congratulations to the four winners, of whom we are very proud:

Warren Washington (Physics, ’58, Meteorology ’60), Lifetime Achievement in Science Award. Washington, a pioneering climate scientist, was one of the first developers of groundbreaking climate models and is a recipient of the National Medal of Science from President Obama. We are proud to count him as one of our own. 

Zelma Long (General Science, ’65), Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award. Long is one of America’s best-known winemakers and the winner of the James Beard Award of Wine Professional of the Year.  

Megan Cook (Biology ’09), Young Alumni Award. Cook’s career has spanned research, marine operations, media communication and ocean education. She manages Ocean Exploration Trust and Exploration Vessel Nautilus’ suite of at-sea and onshore education programs and partnerships.

Edward and Janet Chen and John Donnelly, directors of the Wei Family Foundation Scholarship,received Distinguished Service Award. The Wei Family Foundation Scholarship established by the first female Ph.D. graduate at OSU, physics alumna Chung Kwai Lui (’41), has supported many undergraduate and graduate students of Chinese heritage at OSU over the years.