SPRING 2020 From the Dean Help Support College of The COVID-19 crisis brought unprecedented challenges to the university during spring semester. I am proud of how the Sciences Students College of Sciences successfully transitioned 809 lecture With the transition to remote instruction and rapid changes to and lab sections from in-person to remote instruction in the employment status of many of our students, supportive approximately one week. funding during this time is absolutely critical. If you are able, please consider supporting the Sciences Excellence & Oppor- I also congratulate students on their resiliency as they tunity Fund. Every gift is appreciated. adapted to remote instruction while simultaneously manag- ing personal hardship. Faculty, staff, and students also have Students whose education has been affected financially by been gracious with their time and expertise and donation of the COVID-19 pandemic will have the opportunity to apply supplies in support of the local public health effort. for these funds to help them continue their education. Funds could go towards meals, books and lab supplies, laptop pur- We miss seeing everyone on campus and look forward to chases or rentals, or other urgent student needs at this time. your return. Dean Eric Chronister Go to unlv.edu/sciences/support and select Make a Gift. UNLV Professor Helps Make Key Coronavirus Test Kit Component LIFE SCIENCES’ HELEN WING AND COLLEAGUES ASSISTING UNLV alumnus Michael Picker, who received his doctorate in SNHD WITH VIRAL TRANSPORT MEDIUM; OTHER FACULTY IN biological sciences in 2018, is a former student of Wing’s and COLLEGE CONTRIBUTE PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT. current microbiology supervisor at the public health labora- UNLV College of Sciences faculty are stepping up to sup- tory. He realized that the component was in short supply. He port the local health care community in its fight against received guidance for creating it from the national Centers for the novel coronavirus pandemic. Throughout the college, Disease Control and Prevention and reached out to Wing to see faculty and staff are contrib- if she would be willing to help. uting to the cause by donating personal protective equipment Wing jumped at the opportunity, from laboratories, and they’re as did fellow sciences professors using their expertise to create Boo Shan Tseng, Eduardo Roble- a needed component for test to, Brian Hedlund, and Ernesto collection kits. Abel-Santos; and lab technicians and students Monika Karney, Shoring Up Testing Supplies Holly Martin, Shrikant Bhute, UNLV scientists are assisting the Chandler Hassan, Amber Consul, Southern Nevada Public Health Lara Turello, Naomi Okada, Isis Laboratory by making viral trans- Roman, and Tatiana Ermi. port medium – a crucial part of specimen collection kits needed Wing and colleagues have to preserve coronavirus tests for already produced more than transport from testing locations 2,000 vials of viral transport to processing labs. Life Scienc- medium for use, with thou- es professor Helen Wing (pictured above) is overseeing the sands more in production. production of the kits, which frees up health officials to focus more time on testing and the overall response. Continued on Page 3 Key Coronavirus Test Kit Component Continued The public health lab will verify and approve each lot and • Ernesto Abel-Santos (chemistry and biochemistry) coordinate distribution throughout Southern Nevada ac- donated gloves and disinfectants to the UNLV Student cording to need. Health Center and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. This strategy frees up the Southern Nevada Health District and local hospitals to run tests as opposed to diverting • Laurel Raftery (life sciences) donated gloves to the resources to make the component. UNLV Student Health Center. “On a practical level, this is a chance for our team to use • The College of Sciences dean’s office donated 500 our scientific training and skills in the COVID-19 response, masks to the UNLV Student Health Center. and to put UNLV’s research infrastructure and facilities to use to help our beloved Las Vegas community in this time • Systems in the department of physics and astronomy that of need,” Wing said. are idle have been contributing computer processing time to Folding@Home coro- She added, “Since I navirus simulations. arrived at UNLV, I have educated and mentored • Brenda Buck and countless numbers of Rod Metcalf (geo- students who have gone science) donated on to be doctors or to protective equip- work in public health ment that included labs. This is my tribute a powered air-puri- to all of them, many of fying respirator, re- whom are on the front usable respirators, lines right now.” half mask and full mask protection Donating Crucial with numerous Equipment particulate filters, Faculty throughout the full body protec- College of Sciences have Aude Picard from the School of Lifes Sciences prepares gloves to be tive suits, booties, also donated protective donated to Sunrise Hospital. goggles, and N95 equipment from their labs to and N100 masks. the local medical community: “Donating was the very least we could do to try and help • Simon Jowitt (geoscience) donated surgical and N95 our community, and especially help our medical col- masks to a local hospital in March. leagues try to protect themselves while dealing with this pandemic,” Buck said. “Through other colleagues, I knew • Boo Shan Tseng (life sciences) donated gloves to what was going on in Italy, and I couldn’t imagine having the Cystic Fibrosis Center of Southern Nevada and to to be a medical practitioner trying to help patients without Sunrise Hospital. being able to protect themselves. The exhaustion, the fear, that they have to deal with every day is just unbe- • Aude Picard (life sciences) donated gloves to Sunrise lievable. The very least we could do was try to give them Hospital. everything we have to ease that burden even if just by a tiny bit. This was a no-brainer and we donated our materi- • Pamela Burnley (geoscience) donated face shields, als as soon as we possibly could. I only wish we had even booties and gloves to Sunrise Hospital. more to give.” PAGE 3 research into the interactions between rocks and water beyond Rock Stars our own planet. At the time, she was researching aqueous geo- PAIR OF GEOSCIENCE PROFESSORS AT THE FOREFRONT OF chemistry as a doctoral student at Penn State University. When UNLV’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO MARS EXPLORATION, BUT PLENTY the Opportunity rover sent back evidence of past water on Mars, MORE ACADEMICS ARE INVOVLED IN THE RED PLANET. the data resembled the type Hausrath was collecting on Earth. When the Mars 2020 mission launches this summer, the rover will travel more than 100 million through space to She and her advisor co-wrote a proposal that caught reach Earth’s nearest neighbor. For two UNLV geoscientists, NASA’s attention. The agency not only funded the rest of Mars is far more immediate – tangible, even. They’re part of Hausrath’s doctoral research into water/rock interactions a community of researchers at UNLV sharing their expertise and the implications for the geological history of Mars, with one another and the global scientific community to but also then welcomed her as a postdoctoral fellow at the advance our understanding of the Red Planet. Johnson Space Center. It’s common for “On Earth, those travelers to pocket interactions are a rock as a me- important to study mento from their for lots of environ- destination. The mental reasons,” Mars Persever- Hausrath said. “We ence rover isn’t far need clean drink- off from its human ing water, and we counterparts depend on the soil in that regard for all of our food. (except it doesn’t In terms of study- need a passport ing Mars, water is or tickets to get essential for terres- there). After it trial life. If we look lands on Mars in at environments February 2021, the that at one time rover will collect had liquid water, and store rock then they also have samples from the potential for the 30-mile-wide past life.” Jezero Crater for Elisabeth ‘Libby’ Hausreth, left, and Arya Udry, are both working with NASA to help return to Earth on better understand Mars. In fact, that’s a future mission. one of the return sample team’s top Elisabeth “Libby” Hausrath, an associate professor of geo- priorities: to collect rocks that could contain past biosignatures. science at UNLV, is on the team that will direct the rover’s collection efforts. She was chosen by NASA as one of just “If there was life on Mars, there is evidence that we could see in 10 scientists who will help select and cache Martian rock, labs back on Earth,” she said. “We also want samples that help us soil, and related samples. more broadly understand Mars, its past climate, and the internal magmatic processes that formed the planet’s igneous rock.” “I was so excited when I got the call — I jumped up and down,” Hausrath said. “I’ve been working on Mars data for a Hausrath had a hand in shaping those very criteria. She served long time and have applied several times before. I couldn’t on the Returned Sample Science Board, which provided sci- believe I had been accepted.” entific input into the design and implementation of the Mars 2020 rover mission. It was another Mars mission, the Mars Rover Exploration mission that launched in 2003, that first expanded Hausrath’s Continued on Page 5 Udry said. “I’d be able to actually touch Mars. (Now) I have Rock Stars Continued pieces of Mars in my office, and I get to study them every In preparation for the mission’s launch in July or August, day.