Achievements

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. 

Angelina Garcia, Adam Canter

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Graduate students Angelina Garcia and Adam Canter were selected for a competitive USDA-ARS NextGen Fellowship. Angelina will examine how rangeland invasive species management affects soil properties and plant traits. Adam will study how invasive species management and small-scale control burns can be used to restore species culturally in coastal prairies important to Wiyot people.

Logan Holey

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Logan Holey was awarded a competitive undergraduate research grant from the Northern California Botanists to conduct research on how air temperature and photosynthetically active radiation vary and potential effects on rangeland plant communities across microhabitats at local solar microgrids in Arcata, McKinleyville and Kneeland.

Ismael Chowdhury & Dana Johnstun

Biological Sciences

Two graduate students from Dr. Sean Craig's lab in Biology have won awards at the International Bryozoology Association (IBA) meeting in Tokyo, Japan! Current student Dana Johnstun won an "outstanding presentation" award, while former student Ismael Chowdhury won a "travel award" to go to the meeting and give 2 presentations.  Both students will publish their work in the Conference Proceedings (along with 1 additional former student from Sean Craig's lab, Sheena Stephens-Norton)

Alex Juan, Andre Buchheister, Darren Ward, Rafael Cuevas-Uribe

Fisheries Biology

Congratulations to recent Fisheries Biology M.S. graduate Alex Juan (’24) on publishing his thesis research in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes! Co-authored with his advisor Dr. Andre Buchheister and two other Fisheries faculty (Drs. Darren Ward and Rafael Cuevas-Uribe), Alex studied the growth, maturity, and mortality of invasive Sacramento pikeminnow in the South Fork Eel River. His work provides the first documentation of sexual dimorphism in this species and offers critical life history insights that will support ongoing efforts to manage invasive pikeminnow and aid the recovery of threatened native fishes.  Check out his first peer-reviewed paper here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10641-025-01734-3.  

Justin Harden

Biological Sciences

Justin Harden, a graduate student in the Chin Lab, has been named a USDA-ARS NextGen Fellow. 

Pedro Peloso

Biological Sciences

Biological Sciences faculty Dr. Pedro Peloso was a senior author on a new paper addressing long-standing confusion in the naming of a group of South American tree frogs (genus Boana, family Hylidae). The study was led by Gisele Cassundé, one of Peloso’s former students from Brazil. Using a combination of genetic and anatomical data, along with an extensive review of literature spanning two centuries, the authors resolved a complex taxonomic puzzle—clarifying species identities and providing a foundation for the description of several new species. The paper was published in the journal Zootaxa.

Reference: Cassundé, G. F., M. J. Sturaro, A. O. Maciel, G. R. Lima-Filho, M. L. Lyra, M. T. Rodrigues, C. F. B. Haddad, A. Aleixo, and P. Peloso. (2005) "Neotype Designations for Hyla geographica Spix, 1824 and Hyla geographica var. sive semilineata Spix, 1824, and Comments on the Phylogeny, Taxonomy, and Diversity of the Boana semilineata Species Group (Anura: Hylidae)." Zootaxa 5660, pp. 505–528. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5660.4.3.