COLLEGE OF SCIENCE • WINTER 2019
Impact Winter 2019.indd 1 11/12/18 8:01 PM WINTER 2019
Editor Debbie Farris Contents Writers Katharine de Baun Srila Nayak Passion & Purpose Faculty and student excellence Designer Sharon Betterton Thinkers & Doers College of Science Science alumni transform Roy Haggerty, Dean the world.
Publisher College of Science 128 Kidder Hall Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331
Synergies Unleashed An interdisciplinary approach to human health and disease On the cover — High-population cities like Miami (pictured) have longer-lasting flu seasons. Climate conditions actually play a relatively smaller role in flu transmission. Read more on p. 9.
News Science that matters Real Estate = Real Opportunity Your gift of property can open doors at OSU
Learn how you can boost your retirement Discover Research, breakthroughs plans through a life-income gift, eliminate capital gains taxes, and create life-changing and innovation opportunities for students. All with real estate! Contact us today.
Julie Irmer, 800-336-8217 • [email protected] osufoundation.org/giftplanning
Impact Winter 2019.indd 2 11/12/18 8:01 PM a science degree. I believe that Science offers students, and society, the greatest opportunity for innovation, creativity and discovery to solve the 21st century problems that affect us all.
As an example, the College Salary Report states that the average mid-career employee with a biology degree earns $77,200 per year. Employees with a biochemistry and molecular biology degree average $103,400 per year. For physics graduates, it is $110,000 per year, similar for those with mathematics degrees. Most of these employees do not hold jobs with titles like “biologist, “physicist” This fall, we welcomed 700 first-year has forced students and parents to or “mathematician.” However, students. My hope for them is that examine the return on investment the training that these graduates they, like you as alumni of Oregon of a college degree. As a result, received is highly valued by State, will appreciate the value of enrollment in academic programs employers, often for positions with their science degree and experience like engineering and business have vastly different job titles. firsthand its powerful impact on surged, while academic programs their career and their lives. Since in the humanities and arts have A science education at OSU gives 2008, more students are seeking declined. We have held steady students the best long-term degrees with titles that sound in Science, with flat or slightly insurance for successful careers in like jobs, a lingering aftereffect declining enrollment. innovation, entrepreneurship and of the Great Recession. Whereas leadership. In this newsletter, read many students once sought an The message we need to about the extraordinary impact education to broaden their minds communicate is that investing in a science alumni, students and faculty and perspectives and as a means science degree is a good decision. at Oregon State University are to better navigate the world, now It is valuable both as a means to having on our world. students are feeling tremendous get a good paying job and to better economic pressure to get a degree understand our world. But many that will land them a well-paying job. students and their parents do not Roy Haggerty The escalating cost of college tuition realize the incredible rewards of Dean, College of Science
from last year; and 16 percent are first–year women students in science underrepresented minorities. since 2013.
The College of Science is thrilled to Parsing the numbers further shows Class of 2022: welcome the most high-achieving a strong correlation between a first- students in its incoming class ever: year student’s ethnicity and their 68% women 50 percent — up from 47 percent parents’ educational background: 19 last year and 29 percent in 2016! percent of the 193 first-generation These students enter OSU with a students are also underrepresented This fall the College of Science high school GPA of 3.75 and above. minority students. Of the 375 high- welcomed 744 new first-year The College has the highest number achieving students, only 19 percent students and 180 transfer students, of high-achieving students at OSU. are first-generation students, an a nearly 7 percent increase over last increase of 9 percent from last year; fall’s enrollment. Twenty-six percent, The majority of the class of 2022, and just 7 percent are minority or 193 first-year students, indicated roughly 68 percent (502 students), students. Five percent of our high- they are first in their family to identified as female, which achieving students are both minority attend college, a 12 percent increase constitutes the highest number of and first-generation students.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 1 11/12/18 8:01 PM National recognition for mentoring, diversity commitment
Javier Rojo (left), the Korvis Professor of Statistics at OSU, is the recipient of the 2018 Dr. Etta Z. Falconer Award for Mentoring and Commitment to Diversity. Rojo received his award at the Infinite Possibilities PASSION & Conference at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated a professional PURPOSE commitment to mentoring and increasing diversity in Faculty and student excellence the mathematical sciences.
Rojo leads and directs the nationally recognized and his systematic study of the Research for Undergraduates Global recognition for nuclear reactions that create Summer Institute of mathematician super-heavy elements has provided Statistics. This program Mathematics professor powerful tools for nuclear scientists. has garnered national Juan Restrepo was named a 2018 accolades as a model Fellow for the Society of Industrial program for encouraging and Applied Mathematicians (SIAM). National Science Board undergraduates to pursue He was one of 28 researchers in recognizes Lubchenco for graduate studies in the SIAM’s 2018 Class of Fellows. He lifetime achievement mathematical sciences and was recognized for his research Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco for increasing the numbers of contributions to the mathematical was honored by the National Science underrepresented minorities and computational modeling of Board with its 2018 Vannevar Bush and women in mathematics ocean and climate dynamics. This Award, recognizing “lifelong leaders and statistics. has had substantial impact in in science and technology who have computational geosciences. made substantial contributions to the welfare of the nation through public service.” Distinguished Professor, the highest Famed nuclear chemist academic honor the university can elected ACS Fellow Lubchenco, a distinguished bestow on a faculty member. Tate’s Chemistry professor Walter Loveland university professor and marine research stimulated the Oregon was named an American Chemical studies advisor to President Ed State invention of the transparent Society (ACS) Fellow, one of 51 in Ray, is one of the world’s most oxide transistor, the enabling 2018. The ACS Fellows Program highly cited ecologists and served technology for the Retina 5K display recognizes ACS members for their as administrator of the National found in many Apple products. She outstanding achievements in Oceanic and Atmospheric has received more than $5 million in and contributions to science, the Administration from 2009–2013. research grants. profession and the Society.
For over four decades, Loveland, who Physicist named OSU Taking top OSU honors joined the chemistry department at distinguished professor The College is proud of our eight OSU in 1968, has made pioneering Oregon State has named professor science faculty who received contributions to nuclear chemistry of physics Janet Tate a 2018 OSU’s most prestigious awards for
Impact Winter 2019.indd 2 11/12/18 8:01 PM iMPACT WINTER 2019 3
scholarship, teamwork, mentoring courses, a leading predictor of the Science graduates win and service at 2018 University Day. success of STEM students. Fulbright awards Microbiology professor Michael Microbiology alumni Dang Duong Kent received the OSU Alumni Grad students win (’18) and Grace D’Angelo (’17) Association Distinguished Professor national fellowships are two out of seven Oregon State Award for his superior academic We congratulate Ph.D. students students selected for the 2018–19 performance, professional renown Rebecca Mostow in integrative Fulbright U.S. Student Program. and service to OSU and the public. biology and Julia (Grace) Klinges The Kent Lab is developing zebrafish in microbiology for receiving Duong was awarded an English as models for infectious diseases in prestigious National Science Teaching Assistantship to humans. They demonstrated that Foundation Graduate Research Kazakhstan. He is engaging zebrafish can become infected with Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) with students in and out of the Toxoplasma gondii, a pathogenic awards in 2018. classroom to share the American parasite that is the second most language and culture. significant cause of lethal food- Mostow’s award-winning research borne infections in the U.S. This project focuses on unearthing D’Angelo graduated with was the first time this infection was the mechanisms of hybridization microbiology honors and minors reported in a fish. that underlie beachgrass invasion in music and chemistry. She and proliferation on the U.S. will use her Fulbright toward Chemist Xiulei (David) Ji received Pacific Northwest Coast. Klinges’ an M.S. in marine microbiology two awards — the Excellence in project examines the mechanisms in a joint program of the Max Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, of disease transmission and Planck Institute for Marine for outstanding mentoring of development in the critically Microbiology, the University of postdoctoral scholars and the endangered staghorn coral Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Promising Scholar Award for his (Acropora Cerviconis), a crucial reef- Institute-Helmholtz Center for pioneering work in developing new building coral. Polar and Marine Research, and battery technologies that hold the Jacobs University Bremen. promise for more sustainable, high- power energy storage. Biochemistry student “Team Math” faculty Sara Clark, nets Goldwater Scott Peterson, Lyn Riverstone, Scholarship Daniel Rockwell, Katy Williams, Delaney Smith, a junior David Wing and other campus biochemistry and biophysics colleagues received the 2018 major, received the Barry Student Learning and Success Goldwater Scholarship for 2018, Teamwork Award. They worked to the top undergraduate award in improve student performance and the country for sophomores and learning in introductory precalculus juniors in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Smith, who received a Goldwater Honorable Mention in 2017, is an OSU Presidential Scholar and Honors College student pursuing Fulbright scholar Grace D’Angelo a double major in biochemistry/ (above) and Goldwater Scholar Delaney Smith (below) biophysics and education as well as a minor in chemistry. Her research in the molecular mechanisms of alcohol addiction is driven by having watched a family member suffer from alcoholism.
She expresses gratitude for her OSU education: “I couldn’t have asked for a better education.”
Impact Winter 2019.indd 3 11/12/18 8:01 PM 4 OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
THINKERS & DOERS Science alumni transform the world
“My years at OSU were two of the best years of my life.” — Nancy Scherich (M.S. ’13) Photography by Dean Morales
dimensional spaces. So naturally, In her essay “Turning Math into Communicating math she created a dance to explain Dance: Lessons from Dancing through aerial acrobatics it with aerial silk acrobatics and my Ph.D.,” Scherich writes about Mathematics alumna Nancy Scherich glowing hula hoops.” employing dance to communicate (M.S., ’13) has bridged the worlds abstract mathematical concepts to of art and math to great acclaim. Scherich began learning aerial the general public. In the summer of 2017, she was silks acrobatics at the Santa adjudged the overall winner of the Barbara Dance Center in 2016, “From a mathematical perspective, international “Dance Your Ph.D.” which allowed her to combine her the very language we use to contest. The 10-year-old competition love of dance with mathematics describe abstract concepts are is a challenge laid down by Science in a math-dance video for the words of movement: rate of Magazine and the American competition. She is trained in change, flows, mappings, loops, Association for the Advancement of ballet, modern and ballroom twist, motion groups, level Science for researchers to explain dance and musical theater. curves, continuous deformations, their work with dance moves. In all, Her award-winning dance, etc. Dance is a stunning and 53 scientists from around the world “Representations of the Braid novel choice of expression to submitted dances. Groups,” has been viewed over communicate these ideas of 81,000 times on YouTube. movement and relationships.” Currently a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Scherich’s unusual and creative Scherich arrived at OSU after Barbara, Scherich’s research interpretation of mathematics completing her undergraduate is in topology with a focus on through the medium of dance studies in mathematics at the representations of the braid group. has been featured in prestigious University of California, Los Angeles. media outlets. She was She wrote her thesis, “The Alexander Science wrote of Scherich, “She interviewed by WGN Morning Polynomial,” under the guidance of spends her days with ‘paper News Chicago and the Canadian Bill Bogley. She recalls OSU fondly. and pencil’ to find the rules that Broadcasting Corp. Her dance determine the unique representations victory was covered in Newsweek “My years at OSU were two of the of twists and knots in high- and The Wall Street Journal. best years of my life. I loved living
Impact Winter 2019.indd 4 11/12/18 8:01 PM in Corvallis and the unforgettable numerical analysis courses with Dr. Robert Higdon. I made some life- long friends in my master’s program and learned a lot of great math.” Science in the tropics Alumni win national fellowships for research An eco-expedition to Two recent science alumni have won Belize and Guatemala prestigious 2018 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awards: Trevor Shear (Chemistry, ’16), now at the University of Oregon, and Jeanne Poised among Central America, learning adventure in the Klein-Gordon (Microbiology, ’16), the Caribbean Sea and heart of Belize and Guatemala. at the University of Florida. Guatemala, Belize delights the Program highlights include traveler with its abundance the lagoons and savannas A second-year doctoral student, of national parks, nature of Crooked Tree Wildlife Shear conducts research focused reserves, Mayan ruins and Sanctuary, learning about on optimal ways to create plastics teeming species of wildlife and climate change at the Belize and make them more beneficial birds. Roy Haggerty, the dean Zoo, the awe-inspiring Mayan to the public. He hopes to make of the College of Science at ruins at Cahal Pech, hiking and these plastics using a unique OSU, is leading an eight-day bird-watching at Mountain Pine characteristic of some molecules eco-expedition through these Ridge Forest Reserve and Tikal called ‘self-assembly.’ lush ecosystems of Belize and National Park and more. Guatemala April 5–12, 2019. A non-traditional student, Shear A distinguished earth scientist, arrived at OSU as an undergraduate The Oregon State University Haggerty learned Spanish while student after a five-year career Alumni Association (OSUAA) living on a farm in Costa Rica in the U.S. Navy. At OSU, Shear invites alumni to join the as a teenager. He has lived and found ample opportunities to exciting international traveled widely in the Spanish- engage with substantive research expedition “Neotropical speaking world, including projects and amassed advanced Birds and Mayan Ruins” to hitchhiking the length of Central laboratory experiences. He experience the rich biodiversity America in the 1980s. worked as a mass spectrometry lab of these two countries. technician, training undergraduates If you are interested in joining in operational procedures If you are hardy, inquisitive this international excursion, while maintaining three mass and possess a love for nature you just need to be an OSUAA spectrometers. and conservation, then you member. To learn more, visit will enjoy this unforgettable osualum.com/travel. Klein-Gordon is in her third year of doctoral studies in plant pathology at the University of Florida. She aspires to work as a scientist on plant pathology solutions that will impact the global economy. She studies the bacterial spot disease in tomato populations in Florida via phenotypic expression and genome sequence analyses. The College of Science launched a new LinkedIn page and encourages all science alumni to connect with each other, current An OSU Honors College student, students, faculty and others on this platform. We are eager to she graduated magna cum laude grow our connections among our more than 28,000 science with a B.S. in microbiology. As an alumni and learn about your professional endeavors. undergraduate she co-authored articles with her advisors for the Find us at company/osuscience on LinkedIn and stay in touch with Journal of Plant Pathology. other science alumni and the College!
Impact Winter 2019.indd 5 11/12/18 8:02 PM SYNERGIES UNLEASHED An interdisciplinary approach to human health and disease
Impact Winter 2019.indd 6 11/12/18 8:02 PM iMPACT WINTER 2018 7
The mysteries of human health and disease are as numerous as they are elusive. They pose complex problems that demand complex solutions. As science becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, the edges blurring and blending faster than we can name those evolutions, the challenges of human health require that we examine them from multiple perspectives, from biohealth, bioinformatics and biochemistry to chemistry, mathematics and biology.
In the 21st century, human health and disease require that we as scientists working in the life, physical and mathematical sciences collaborate. That we put our heads together, step outside the traditional academic boundaries to ignite new thinking and spur innovative solutions to address the most pressing problems in human health.
The proliferation of data is transforming the scientific landscape. Scientists are grappling with how to analyze and integrate data quickly across disciplines. With the mounting need for better, faster ways to harness vast amounts of information, mathematical and statistical researchers make for natural partners who are well trained to manage and interpret data to deepen understanding of the scale of health issues. This approach enables scientists to test more theories and manage more data to develop a greater, more sophisticated understanding of human health.
This fall the National Science Foundation’s Division of Mathematical Sciences and the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine launched a Joint Initiative on Generalizable Data Science Methods for Biomedical Research to support the development of innovative and transformative mathematical and statistical approaches to address data- driven biomedical and health challenges.
OSU researchers are harnessing the power of global collaborations to deepen understanding of and to address our most important concerns in human health.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 7 11/12/18 8:02 PM 8 OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
(Far left) Viviana Perez’s team studies the biological processes of aging. (Left) LC8 plays an important role in many cell processes and Elisar Barbar's team works to better understand its production. (Below) Bruce Geller’s team tested a PPMO against Klebsiella pneumonia, a difficult-to-kill pathogen.
compound rapamycin that, with its unusual properties, The chemistry behind aging may help address neurologic damage. Biophysicist Elisar Barbar and team discovered that the intrinsically disordered state of the protein Barbar and Nyarko’s work uses nuclear magnetic resonance ASCIZ, a key transcription factor in cells, plays a to describe molecular structures of proteins. They major role in regulating production of the protein also focus on protein informatics, from the analysis of LC8, a hub protein regulating over 100 other experimental mass-spectrometry evidence for proteins to proteins critical to a wide range of life processes the integration and curation of large-scale data warehouses from viral infection to tumor suppression to cell of protein sequence and functional annotation. death. Her work on intrinsically disorganized proteins, a hot frontier of research in biochemical and medical research today, has far-reaching Genetics and bioinformatics implications due to their critical role in a vast array Our bioinformatics researchers are working on of cellular functions. groundbreaking developments at the nexus of data science and human health. David Hendrix developed a neural Colleagues Afua Nyarko and Viviana Perez are network program that illuminates connections between studying the chemistry behind the biological mutant genetic material and disease. His team used deep processes and the synthesis of biologically active learning to decipher which ribonucleic acids (RNA) have molecules. Nyarko studies protein interactions and the potential to encode proteins, an important step toward their role in the formation of tumors. She is one of better understanding RNA, one of life’s fundamental, a handful of scientists worldwide studying proteins essential molecules. Unlocking the mysteries of RNA means from a structural biology perspective, where knowing its connections to human health and disease. detailed information on the structure of specific amino acids can reveal how tumor suppressor Hendrix compares it to a tool similar to calculus or linear proteins inhibit specific growth-promoting proteins. algebra, but one used to learn biological patterns. Deep learning is helping his team manage vast amounts of data Perez studies the biological processes of aging, and learn new biological rules that distinguish the function specifically the protein aggregation in of these types of molecules. He recently teamed up with neurodegenerative diseases and protein the Barbar group to develop an algorithm that will predict misfolding. She discovered a new function for the new proteins that interact with LC8. This validates the
Impact Winter 2019.indd 8 11/12/18 8:02 PM iMPACT WINTER 2019 9
importance of LC8 in many systems and opens up new interactions to study, underscoring the power of big data to guide new experiments.
David Koslicki recently discovered that the blood of patients with schizophrenia features genetic material from more types of microorganisms than the blood of people without the debilitating mental illness. His team performed whole-blood transcriptome analyses on 192 people, including healthy people and people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and Lou Gehrig’s disease. The findings showed that microbiota in the blood are similar to ones in the mouth and gut. There appears to be some permeability there into the bloodstream.
Koslicki and his collaborators received an NIH grant to build a biomedical translator, a software system that connects various distributed databases of biomedical knowledge Big cities have longer, and that can “reason” over these data sources to answer sporadic flu seasons relevant biomedical questions. This is one example of how mathematical and computational sciences are syncing Population biologist Ben Dalziel and with biomedical research to accelerate translation for the his global research team analyzed six scientific community. years of flu incidence data from 603 cities of varying size and structure, examining patterns of where people Fighting disease live and work. Microbiologist Bruce Geller scored a monumental win against antibiotic resistance. He crafted a compound known The scientist studied the role a as a PPMO that genetically neutralizes a pathogen’s ability key weather metric — humidity to thwart antibiotics. His team designed and tested PPMOs — played in flu epidemics. Flu against Klebsiella pneumonia, an opportunistic pathogen is transmitted by virus-bearing that’s difficult to kill and resistant to many antibiotics. A moisture droplets that people platform technology, PPMOs can be quickly designed or exhale, cough out or sneeze out, modified to kill nearly any bacterium. They are not found in creating a “cloud of risk” that nature so bacteria have not developed resistance to them. emanates from an infected person. PPMOs may be highly effective therapeutics. They found flu cases are more Geller expects that the wave of the future will be spread out in large metropolitan molecular medicine, a broad field that draws on areas, showing up early and late physical, chemical, biological, bioinformatics and in the season when weather is medical techniques to describe molecular structures and not ideal for transmission. For mechanisms, identify molecular and genetic errors of example, New York City and Miami disease and develop interventions. OSU scientists are have a more prolonged flu season, combining these experimental and mathematical tools to whereas smaller cities have short develop anti-viral drugs. flu seasons tightly clustered around the usual peak in winter. Microbiologist Thomas Sharpton made a key advance toward understanding which of the trillions of gut Forecasting and controlling microbes may play important roles in how humans and influenza is important for public other mammals evolve. His global team created a new health, and Dalziel cites an algorithm and software to taxonomize and clarify key additional reason to study the flu: microbial clades, or groups of microbes that appear “It’s a classic example of a complex frequently across mammalian species. A Western lifestyle system on Earth.” tends to reduce microbial diversity so knowing which clades have been evolutionarily conserved opens up Figure reproduced from Science. Vol. potential health interventions. 362, Issue 6410, pp. 75–79.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 9 11/12/18 8:02 PM Physicist Ethan Minot mentors undergraduate Dublin Nichols. Oregon State Physics wins national award for undergraduate education
The American Physical Society (APS) has chosen the Department of Physics as one of three top universities for improving undergraduate physics education in 2018! The APS Award for Improving NEWS Undergraduate Physics Education recognizes Science that matters excellence in undergraduate physics education to support best practices in education at the undergraduate level. Past awardees have shown significant State University received a impact on undergraduate Science faculty selected significant impetus with a five- physics students. to advance equity in year $1 million grant from the STEM at OSU Howard Hughes Medical Institute The award recognizes Congratulations to mathematics (HHMI) to improve instruction departments that engage in professor Vrushali Bokil and in undergraduate STEM (science, undergraduate educational professor of integrative biology technology, engineering and transformation, improve Robert Mason who were named mathematics) classrooms. The student understanding Oregon State ADVANCE Faculty ambitious project is called Inclusive of physics, increase Fellows for 2018. Their efforts will Excellence@Oregon State. the number of physics help the College and the university majors and the number enhance awareness about diversity OSU was one of 33 universities of underrepresented and inclusion, which are important that HHMI selected this year for its minorities and women issues in STEM fields. Inclusive Excellence Initiative. in physics, and prepare students for careers. Supported by the National Science Martin Storksdieck, director of Foundation with $3.5M for five OSU’s Center for Research on For more than 20 years, years through June 2019, the Lifelong STEM Learning, is the OSU’s Department of Oregon State ADVANCE program principal investigator (PI) on the Physics has been a national seeks to create an equitable and project. Co-PIs include faculty model for its holistic socially just academic climate members Mary Beisiegel in approach to improving the for women scientists and other mathematics and Lori Kayes in educational experience for underrepresented minorities who integrative biology. undergraduates, from the are faculty in the university. nationally recognized upper- The grant supports OSU’s efforts to division Paradigms in Physics develop a cohort-based professional curriculum, to lower-division $ million grant to learning community for designing reform, thesis research increase inclusion and STEM curricula that will increase the experiences for all majors, success in STEM performance of underrepresented and attention to co-curricular Ongoing efforts to increase minority and first-generation community building. inclusion, access and excellence students in critical science and in science education at Oregon mathematics courses.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 10 11/12/18 8:02 PM iMPACT WINTER 2019 11
New leadership for mathematics Mathematics professor Bill Bogley Science is the new head of the Department of Mathematics. Bogley replaces worth Enrique Thomann, who served as spreading head of mathematics from 2014–18. Bogley joined OSU’s Department of Mathematics in 1990. His research is in the areas of combinatorial and Professor Corinne geometric group theory. He served Manogue is a pioneer as head undergraduate advisor in in physics research the Department of Mathematics for and education. many years.
An exceptional teacher and mentor, Bogley has received numerous graduate and undergraduate teaching awards, including the Loyd Carter and Fred Horne Awards in the College of Science and the Honors Manogue is perhaps best College’s Outstanding Professor Catalyzing the known for her pioneering role Award and Eminent Professorship, transformation of in establishing and leading the an honor he received twice. science learning Paradigms in Physics project Physics professor Corinne established in 1996, which has Bogley brings significant leadership, Manogue presented the College brought about far-reaching teaching and administrative of Science 2018 F.A. Gilfillan changes in how students learn achievements to his new role. Memorial Lecture, “Catalyzing physics at OSU and nationally. He has been active in shared the transformation of science governance and served in many learning at OSU.” capacities, including the faculty What do the senate’s executive committee, In her talk, Manogue employed Nobels mean? associate head and lead advisor for her experiences leading a highly The Nobel Prizes in science attract the department, associate dean of successful curriculum redesign public attention in a way that no the Honors College and director of of the physics major as a model other scientific award does. To Academic Programs, Assessment to explore the possibilities for enhance the visibility of science’s and Accreditation at OSU. learning reform in science, highest award, the College technology, engineering and of Science partnered with the Bogley received his bachelor’s degree mathematics (STEM) in the Corvallis Public Library to present from Dartmouth College and earned university. The talk opened up an evening of talks and discussion his master’s degree in mathematics new ways of understanding entitled, “What do the Nobels from the University of Oregon. physics and the path to Mean?” last spring. educational transformation. The College hosted the special Borrowing a page from student evening of inspiration to New Mathematics engagement strategies used in her help illuminate the meaning Head Bill Bogley classroom, Manogue engaged the behind the Nobel Prizes. Three is a strong audience in an active exploration OSU scientists, physicist advocate for of how physical or external Davide Lazzati and biochemistry student success. representations can be used to professors Elisar Barbar and understand concepts in physics. David Hendrix, presented talks on the 2017 Nobel Prizes in Highly skilled both in theoretical physics, chemistry and medicine quantum gravity research and and the exciting scientific in physics education research, advances they represent.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 11 11/12/18 8:03 PM 12 OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
“If we can learn the secret for why replica of YInMn Blue created by the Fungi-produced pigment those fungi-produced pigments Japanese paint company Holbein and future semiconductor are so stable, we could solve a christened Soma Blue. material? problem that exists with organic Physicist Oksana Ostroverkhova electronics,” Ostroverkhova said. Soma Blue is the brainchild of is studying a highly durable “Also, many organic electronic Tokyo-based singer-songwriter and organic pigment, xylindein, materials are too expensive to guitarist Fukiko Nakamura, who goes used by humans in artwork for produce, so we’re looking to do by her stage name, Love. For the hundreds of years, as a promising something inexpensively in an last seven years, Love has organized semiconductor material. ecologically friendly way that’s good annual concerts in Osaka and Tokyo for the economy.” to support the children of Fukushima Xylindein is secreted by two wood- affected by the nuclear disaster. eating fungi in the Chlorociboria She set up a crowdfunding page genus. Any wood that’s infected by Japanese musician uses and succeeded in raising money for the fungi is stained a blue-green color, YInMn Blue to help Holbein to create Soma blue. and artisans have prized xylindein- children of Fukushima affected wood for centuries. YInMn Blue — the pigment Impressed both by the beauty discovered in 2009 by Oregon of the pigment and its scientific The pigment is so stable that State University chemist Mas attributes of stability, durability decorative products made half Subramanian — has become a part and its ability to absorb ultraviolet a millennium ago still exhibit its of new beginnings in northeastern radiation, the musician felt YInMn distinctive hue. It holds up against Japan after it was rocked by the Blue would send an uplifting prolonged exposure to heat, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. message of optimism and reassuring ultraviolet light and electrical stress. permanence to the people of Soma, Two beaches along the Tohoku whose world shifted in 2011. coastline in the city of Soma, located close to the Fukushima nuclear YInMn Blue, or Soma Blue, is poised power plant, reopened after seven to become a part of the new Soma years in July 2018. The beach landscape in a significant way. opening also debuted an exact Over the next three years, Love will collaborate with Soma officials to use the blue pigment to color the parks, playgrounds, walls and buildings that will be rebuilt on the beach.
“Hopefully it will be a big project that will let the world see that it is an eternal blue and that it came from America,” she said. DISCOVER Research, breakthroughs and innovation Artisans have prized xylindein-affected wood for centuries.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 12 11/12/18 8:03 PM iMPACT WINTER 2019 13
Science with Physicist finds evidence (45%) and National Institutes of distinction for gamma-ray bursts Health (23%) leading the list. Astrophysicist Davide Lazzati has Several science faculty received confirmed that the union of two substantial research grants to neutron stars — observed in fall pursue research projects critical to 2017 by scientists working on the human health and technological Biophysicist Weihong Qiu Laser Interferometer Gravitational advancement, including building solved a longstanding puzzle Wave Observatory — caused a short biomedical translator software concerning the design of molecular gamma-ray burst. that connects databases to answer motors called kinesin-14, paving the urgent health queries; developing way toward new cancer therapies. The findings represent a key sustainable optoelectronics with step forward in astrophysicists’ fungal compounds; experimenting understanding of the relationship on the deafness-associated protein between binary neutron star otoferlin; and developing a protein mergers, gravitational waves and structure imaging apparatus to Physicist Heidi Schellman leads short gamma-ray bursts. advance biomedical research. software and computing efforts to classify neutrino interactions for Commonly abbreviated as GRBs, the global Deep Underground gamma-ray bursts are narrow Neutrino Experiment. beams of electromagnetic waves Steelhead’s repeat of the shortest wavelengths in the spawning aids fitness electromagnetic spectrum. GRBs and survival are the universe’s most powerful For steelhead trout, electromagnetic events, occurring reproductive choices billions of light years from Earth and represent a collection of Biologist Felipe Barreto’s genetic able to release as much energy in a few trade-offs. From spawning research sheds light on how seconds as the sun will in its lifetime. once or doing it multiple populations of the same species times, no decision comes evolve toward reproductive without risks and benefits. incompatibility and thus become Research grants top separate species. $M last year Research by Michael Blouin, Faculty across life sciences, professor of integrative chemistry, physics and mathematical biology, and scientists at sciences were awarded $11.3 million Purdue University shows in new research grants and awards that steelhead that make Entomologist George Poinar, Jr., found that floral scents originated in 2018. Most of the funding was the daunting journey to sea in flowers 100 million years ago to awarded by federal agencies, with more than once to spawn attract pollinating insects. the National Science Foundation repeatedly have greater than double the lifetime reproductive success of fish that spawn a single time.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to more effective conservation efforts.
The research involved more than 12,000 winter-run steelhead from Oregon’s Hood River, with the scientists looking at number of lifetime spawning events and age at first spawning.
Impact Winter 2019.indd 13 11/12/18 8:03 PM science.oregonstate.edu
@OSUScience @OSUScience company/osuscience @OSUScience
Impact Winter 2019.indd 14 11/12/18 8:03 PM