{"id":2176,"date":"2026-05-20T15:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T15:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/science\/?p=2176"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:19:21","slug":"may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/science\/newsletter\/may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"College<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Research<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Honors<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Visibility<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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News<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Events<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Smiling<\/span>
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Words from the Dean<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

May 202<\/strong>6<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Words from the Dean<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

May 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear College of Science colleagues, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am thrilled to announce that Ethan Minot has accepted my offer to serve as head of the Department of Physics<\/a>. Ethan\u2019s interim leadership over the past nine months has been highly valued by both me and the department. Ethan has accomplished quite a bit, including leading a new tenure-track faculty hire, and developing plans for strengthening core introductory course sequences. I look forward to working with him well into the future. Please join me in congratulating Ethan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent most of my time over the past few weeks on the Strategic Resource Renewal (SRR). I remain very optimistic about that effort (contrary to my usual cynicism), especially about the fact that the idea pool is almost entirely bottom-up instead of top-down. I hope that many of you had a chance to join some of the ideation sessions last week. I know we got pages and pages of really insightful comments in response to the retention workstream survey (some of them identifiable as from the College of Science). The next phase will be picking projects and project \u201cowners\u201d \u2014 people who are passionate about moving particular initiatives forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another important way you can contribute your ideas right now is to participate in the 2026 Biannual Employee Climate Survey. It is available through June 5. The confidential, institution-wide survey helps Oregon State better understand employee experiences related to belonging, inclusion, well-being and workplace climate. Results inform both institutional decision-making and unit-level planning. Learn more about the survey.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you have any \u201cspare\u201d time left over after all that, you might want to give some thought to directory profiles and LinkedIn profiles. It\u2019s becoming clear that LinkedIn is taking an important place in scientific discussion and networking, in ways that used to be served by Twitter, lab web pages, and other virtual venues. My own LinkedIn is pretty minimalist, but I\u2019m planning to beef it up and start using it for College communication \u2014 to call out great things the College is doing, reach out to potential collaborators, etc. If you don\u2019t have time for LinkedIn, at least take a look at your directory profile on the College website. That\u2019s often the first thing people see when they Google you. Are they seeing something that makes them want to reach out? Collaborate? Give your grant a good score?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, two pieces of good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n