Achievements

Melanie Michalak, Susan Cashman

Geology

Melanie Michalak and Susan Cashman (Geology) were awarded a 3-year, multi-institutional National Science Foundation grant, with Eric Kirby (OSU) and Kevin Furlong (Penn State), to study geologic deformation in the Klamath Mountains. This research addresses both mountain building (long term deformation) and crustal strain associated with megathrust earthquakes (short term deformation). Principal investigators and students will partner with Hoopa Valley Elementary School’s 6th grade teachers for research-related activities and field trips for HVES 6th graders. HSU was awarded $158,636 to support graduate and undergraduate students, 6th grade teachers, supplies, and analyses.

Seafha Ramos

Wildlife

Seafha Ramos, Research Associate and Lecturer in the Wildlife Department, published an article, "Considerations for culturally sensitive Traditional Ecological Knowledge research in wildlife conservation". The paper will be included in the June 2018 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, the Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Chemistry Club

Chemistry

The Chemistry Club, "The Free Radicals" received two awards from The American Chemical Society. They received a commendable student chapter award and the green chemistry award! Students in this club actively participate in outreach and fun science activities as well as career building workshops.

Michael Vernon, Rosemary Sherriff, Jeff Kane

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Alum Michael Vernon (MS 2017) with Rosemary Sherriff (Geography), Jeff Kane (Forestry), and Phil van Mantgem (USGS) published a paper titled "Thinning, tree-growth, and resistance to multi-year drought in a mixed-conifer forest of northern California" in the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.03.043

Forestry and Wildland Resources Students

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Congratulations to our 2018 scholarship recipients in the Forestry and Wildland Resources Department! At the annual awards banquet, over $55,000 in scholarships were distributed thanks to the generosity of alumni and other donors. A new scholarship was created by the family of Allan Eugene Nilson, who taught for 14 years in the HSU Forestry department. The Nilson scholarship will support high-achieving students with financial need.

Special congratulations to Kristy DeYoung, recipient of the Professional Promise Award, and Mike Padilla, recipient of the Academic Excellence Award. Also congratulations to Dr. Kevin Boston, recipient of the student-selected Outstanding Faculty Member Award.

Mark Hemphill-Haley

Geology

Mark Hemphill-Haley is co-author on a recent publication in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America entitled "Onshore to Offshore Ground‐Surface and Seabed Rupture of the Jordan–Kekerengu–Needles Fault Network during the 2016 Mw7.8 Kaikoura Earthquake, New Zealand" It provides detailed observations of one of the most complex earthquake surface ruptures in history.

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article/530021/onshore-to-off…

Matt Brinkman, Dave Garcelon, and Mark Colwell

Wildlife

Former graduate student, Matt Brinkman, authored a paper in Wildlife Society Bulletin, co-authored with his graduate advisor, Mark Colwell. The paper describes a field experiment using Carbachol to condition Common Ravens to avoid eating quail eggs made to look like Snowy Plover eggs. While successful in the short term, ravens still ate real plover eggs in the area of the field experiment.

Mark Hemphill-Haley

Geology

Mark Hemphill-Haley (Geology) returned from two-week investigation of the 2016 M 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake, South Island, New Zealand. He joined HSU alumni Russ Van Dissen ('83) and Jessica Vermeer ('13 BS, '16 MS) and NZ researchers to investigate the deformation associated with more than 9 m (27 ft) of offset during the earthquake. The investigation involved trenching across the fault to assess fault structure and timing of previous earthquakes.

Ely Boone

Fisheries Biology

Undergraduate student Ely Boone received a second place award in the best science poster category at the 52nd annual American Fisheries Society Cal-Neva conference held in San Luis Obispo last week. Ely presented his summer 2017 research on environmental DNA, which he completed in the Rroulou'sik Program.

Claire Till

Chemistry

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Claire Till was awarded an NSF Ocean Sciences grant in collaboration with a group at Texas A&M. The $116,500 grant to HSU will fund the analysis of samples taken along a transect from Alaska to Tahiti for a suite of trace elements.