Achievements

Faith Neff

School of Engineering

Faith Neff ('15, Environmental Resources Engineering) was one of 26 students from around the country to participate in the 2013 Harvard Forest Summer Research Program, an 11-week program in ecological research for undergraduate and graduate students.

Neff was part of a two-person team that created and designed an aerial tram under the supervision of Paul Siquiera, an engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts and Mark Van Scoy, a Harvard Forest research assistant. Neff will present their study, “Monitoring ecosystem physiology and vegetation structure in recent clearings," at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 9-13 in San Francisco.

The annual Harvard Forest Summer Research Program runs May to August in the Harvard Forest located in Petersham, Mass. Students conduct paid, supervised research focusing on the effects of natural and human disturbances on forest ecosystems, including global climate change, hurricanes, forest harvest, changing wildlife dynamics, and invasive species. The program is funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA and several U.S. universities.

Zoe Merrill, Rachelle Dilley, Stephanie Winters, Kyle Garvey, and Braden Pitcher

Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management

Five Humboldt State University students passed the rigorous “Fundamentals of Soil Science” exam offered on April 15, 2013, becoming Associate Professional Soil Scientists, according to test results from the Council of Soil Science Examiners. Zoe Merrill, Kyle Garvey and Braden Pitcher graduated with degrees in Wildland Soils in the Rangeland Resource Science major. Stephanie Winters graduated with the Rangeland Resources option and completed sufficient soils courses to be a federal Soil Scientist. Rachelle Dilley graduated with a degree in Botany.

The national pass rate for the spring 2013 exam was 63%. Those who pass the fundamentals exam will be eligible to take the Professional Practice exam after five years of professional experience, an additional step in becoming a Certified Professional Soil Scientist. Recent Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) discussions about program self-certification have included the fundamentals exam as one indicator of program quality. Humboldt State University Wildland Soils students (an option under the Rangeland Resource Science major) spend more than 200 hours in field or laboratory learning experiences, honing hands-on skills and field judgment of soil properties, limitations, and capabilities.

Harvey Kelsey

Geology

Harvey Kelsey, a research associate in the Geology Department, has been named a fellow of the Geological Society of America. Honorees are nominated by existing GSA Fellows for their contributions to the geosciences. Contributions may include publications, applied research, teaching, administration of geological programs, public education, editorial, bibliographic and library responsibilities.

Kelsey was honored for using field investigations of coastal environments to make important contributions to our understanding of the history and processes of great subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis in Cascadia, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Japan.

Monica Napoles

School of Engineering

Environmental resources engineering student Monica Napoles was recently selected for the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis' (NIMBioS) highly competitive Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK).

The 2013 NIMBioS REU program runs for eight weeks, from June 10 – Aug. 2, and includes 19 undergraduates from universities across the United States. Participants live on campus and work in teams with NIMBioS postdoctoral researchers and UTK faculty on research at the interface of mathematics and biology. The research projects for the 2013 program are mathematical modeling of fetal electrocardiograms; modeling animal disease from coronavirus; automatic detection of rare birds from audio recording; modeling the environmental transmission of E-coli in cattle; modeling protein translation and genome evolution; and modeling animal social network dynamics. More information about the REU program can be found at "nibios.org/reu":http://www.nimbios.org/reu/.

NIMBioS is a National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative to foster interdisciplinary research at the interface between mathematical and biological sciences. Additional NIMBioS sponsors include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kendall Lewis

Computer Science

Kendall Lewis was named Outstanding Student of the Year '12-13 for the Department of Computer Science.

Christine Cass

Oceanography

Oceanography professor Christine Cass was recently named one of the top 20 women professors in California by statestats.org and partner website onlineschoolssalifornia.com. The two sites set out to find post-secondary educators who had been recognized recently for excellence in the classroom, on campus and in the community.

Cass joins professors from Stanford, UC Berkeley and Loyola Marymount in earning the distinction. Cass has served as an assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography since 2011. Her research focuses on changes in West Coast zooplankton brought about by seasonal variations.

Bobby Voeks

Geology

Geology student Bobby Voeks was recently accepted into the U.S. Geological Survey/National Association of Geoscience Teachers Cooperative Field Training Program. The USGS/NAGT program is the longest continuously running internship program in the earth sciences. Bobby will work as a hydrologic technician measuring sediment inputs into the Chesapeake Bay. He will be based at USGS headquarters in Reston, VA.

Claudia Velasco

Geology

Geology student Claudia Velasco recently accepted a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) Summer Internship studying glacial sedimentology in Brazil and surficial geology in west central, Minnesota for Native American women. Claudia will help an active research project on the origin and history of surficial deposits in west central Minnesota and the late Paleozoic glacial units of Brazil (the Itarare subgroup). Her research will focus on the influence of climate on ice stream movement, the significance of marine interaction and ice sheet grounding, and the nature of ice stream flow (sliding vs. deformation).

Michelle Robinson

Geology

Geology student Michelle Robinson was recently accepted into the U.S. Geological Survey/National Association of Geoscience Teachers Cooperative Field Training Program. The USGS/NAGT program is the longest continuously running internship program in the earth sciences. Michelle will be based in Portland, OR working with USGS scientists on water-quality conditions in the Columbia River Basin. He work will focus on "toxics," including anthropogenic-indicator compounds, pharmaceuticals, PBDEs, pesticides and legacy compounds.

Erin Quinn

Geology

Erin Quinn recently accepted a Smithsonian Graduate Student Fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History. Erin will conduct high-temperature, high-pressure experiments on rocks from Chaos Crags, Lassen Volcanic National Park. Erin’s work will be the first experimental phase equilibrium study on Chaos Crags and will provide important constraints on magma storage conditions at Chaos Crags. This is important for better understanding the volcanic hazards within Lassen Park.