Achievements

Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray

Environmental Studies

Dr. Sarah Jaquette Ray interviewed Alexander Menrisky, author of a new book called Everyday Ecofascism, about the violent side of environmental politics for the University of Wisconsin web-magazine and podcast, Edge Effects.  You can find the interview and more about the book here: https://edgeeffects.net/alexander-menrisky/

J.R. Patton, S.W. Smith, A. Lomax, M. Hellweg, L. Dengler, D.S. Dreger

Geology

I have been invited by the United States Geological Survey to speak at their annual Northern California Earthquake Hazards Workshop (February, 2026) to discuss a recent paper of which I was lead author. The paper is entitled "Large Repeating Gorda Intraplate Earthquakes Occurring Along an Inherited Weak Zone near the Mendocino Triple Junction" and summarizes a new way to look at offshore earthquake hazards.  It was published in the Seismological Research Letters journal (DOI: 10.1785/0220250005).

Erika Anderson, Micaela Gunther, Marie Martin, Kristine Pilgrim, Scott Demers, Sean Matthews

Wildlife

Former wildlife graduate student Erika Anderson published her thesis research on state-endangered Humboldt martens in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. This research is published open access and aims to establish a baseline for an endangered population that will inform future monitoring to estimate apparent survival and recruitment, additional relationships to environmental conditions and change, and demographic trends over time. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2025.e03980

Melanie Michalak, Susan Cashman

Geology

Melanie Michalak (Geology) and Susan Cashman (Geology) published a paper in the Journal of Geology with co-authors Kevin Furlong (lead author; Penn State) and Paul O'Sullivan (GeoSep Services) titled "Tectonic Response to Siletzia Terrane Accretion Recorded in the Thermal and Displacement History of the Klamath Mountains Province". This work in the northeastern Klamath Mountains reconstructs how the landscape responded after a major tectonic terrane (the Siletz terrane) collided with the edge of North America about 50 million years ago. Their findings show that the effects of this collision were widespread over hundreds of kilometers and lasted tens of millions of years. Read the paper here.

Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler

Biological Sciences

Professor Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler's BIOL 412 General Microbiology class has published another successful volume of the Humboldt Journal of Microbiology, accessible at https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/hjm/. Congratulations to student authors Natalie S. Kozlowski, Leighanna Jake, Theo P. Murphy, Eve Wendley, Justice Laskowski, Tyler Paredes, Quigley D. Espinola, Scarlet Renner, Curtis Cline, Sophia Lopez-Orenday, Alex Yasumatsu, Mariska M. Kessler, Jocelyn Wolfinger, Destiny S. Alcaraz, Isabella N. Cerrone, Brooke Pirkle, Danielle Williamson, Gianna Vendrell, Chloe Kraft, Ryan A. Solorzano, Justin Paulin, Grayson Prater, Michael Lanier, Noah S. Schuhmann, Andrew McLaughlin, and Julian Barreran.

Elizabeth Meisman, Jadzia Rodriguez, Lauren Jackson, Ayla Zolwik, Matt Johnson

Wildlife

Four Wildlife graduate students (Elizabeth Meisman, Jadzia Rodriguez, Lauren Jackson, Ayla Zolwik) and their advisor (Matt Johnson) each presented their latest research findings at the 2025 Raptor Research Foundation's annual conference, held Oct. 13-18, in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Sherrene Bogle

Computer Science

Prof. Sherrene Bogle received a travel award from the University of Missouri, Kansas City to attend the 2025 Workshop on Large Language Models for CS Undergraduate Education. At the September 2025 workshop, she gave a presentation on “Experience Report of Generative AI for Contrasting Undergrad Courses”. This included how generative AI tools have evolved in the past two years to student prompts and best practices for incorporating the tool in both GE and STEM courses.

Sherrene Bogle, Cheyenne Ty

Computer Science

Prof. Sherrene Bogle, 2024-25 student of the year Cheyenne Ty and their collaborators in the NSF funded ACOSUS (AI Counseling System for Under-represented Transfer Students) research group had their double blind peer review paper entitled School or Student? A Mixed Method Analysis on Reddit Data for Transfer Barrier Identification was accepted for publication and presentation at the 2025 Decision Sciences Institute Annual Conference in November. The paper examines the institutional and student-based barriers faced by computing transfer students.

Monica Sheffer and Kerry Byrne

Environmental Science & Management

Graduate student Jesse Laine, with Drs. Monica Sheffer and Kerry Byrne, are investigating how grassland restoration shapes insect populations in Northern California’s coastal prairies. Insects are declining globally due to threats like climate change and habitat loss, with huge consequences for conservation and agriculture since they provide essential ecosystem services. Yet their biodiversity remains poorly understood. This project will help fill that knowledge gap while informing grassland conservation, agriculture, and management. It also builds on Laine and Byrne’s ongoing research into how prairie restoration affects plants, soil health, and forage production.

This project is funded by the CSU Agricultural Research Institute.

Jeff Kane and Jackson Carrasco (2024)

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Jeff Kane (Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management) and graduate student Jackson Carrasco (2024) published a research paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management entitled "Tree and stand characteristics moderate wildfire severity and promote resilience in secondary coast redwood forests". The findings of the research indicate that redwoods are highly resilient to wildfire but can result in substantial changes to forest structure and composition. However, the magnitude of forest changes was associated with tree and stand conditions, suggesting that management actions in these forests can be used to limit impacts from wildfire.