IMPACT Fall 2023 - Student, Faculty, Alumni and Research News

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

VOLUME 8, ISSUE 2 • FALL 2023

Plugging in to the future of materials

Contents

Fall 2023 Editor Tamara Cissna

Writers

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Mary Hare Hannah Ashton

Designer

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Passion and Purpose

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Thinkers and Doers

Faculty and student excellence

Science alumni transform the world

Sharon Betterton

College of Science Vrushali Bokil, Interim Dean

Publisher College of Science 128 Kidder Hall Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331

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Create your legacy.

Help transform the College of Science by naming

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retirement plan assets, like an IRA or 401(k). It’s you’ll feel great knowing you’re giving others the amazing opportunities that OSU gave to you.

Contact us today.

Jeff Comfort Vice President of Principal Gifts and Gift Planning osufoundation.org/giftplanning

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Feature

Leveraging new materials to produce clean energy

By All and For All

How the College is working to improve equity and inclusion.

Discover

Research breakthroughs and highlights

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led by Oregon State University.

The center uses the galaxy as a detector of gravitational waves, hunting for the signal of coalescing supermassive black holes, like the one at the center of our galaxy.

From the Dean

Dear Friends,

College of Science physicists Xavier Siemens, the co-director of NANOGrav, and Jeff Hazboun, along with 20 undergraduate and graduate students participate in this research. NANOGrav collaborators here and around the world received global attention when they reported evidence that a background hum of gravitational waves permeates our universe, as Einstein theorized over a century ago. This result brings us closer to understanding supermassive black holes and how galaxies evolve. (See OSU’s story at today.oregonstate.edu/news).

Nation will support them as they move forward with their lives.

This is an exciting time for the College of Science! As we anticipate another academic year, once again we reaffirm our commitment to developing the next generation of science leaders, mentors and culture shapers and harnessing the power of science to improve the health of our planet and its people.

We are proud of our 629 ambitious undergraduate students who graduated in June with baccalaureate degrees, including 91 Honors graduates. We also commend our incredible graduate students, including 80 students who received master’s degrees and 45 who earned Ph.Ds. We are proud of their hard work, resilience and commitment. We know Beaver

Over the last year, faculty and students in our College have made cutting-edge research discoveries addressing local, regional and global challenges, some of which you’ll read about in this issue. For a more comprehensive look, please review our digital magazine at science. oregonstate.edu/impact. We are grateful for the trust of College friends, foundations and agencies who contribute funds to further our globally impactful research.

As this issue was going to press, we shared exciting news from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), an NSFfunded Physics Frontiers Center

The news was shared by The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, NPR, AP News, The Indian Express and NASA among countless others. On Yahoo News, the discovery garnered over 136 hundred million views.

It brings me great pleasure to celebrate the many outstanding accomplishments of our community.

I hope you will take the time to read some of the senior profiles on p. 3 and meet our diverse graduates who will change the future of science. Together, we are extending the reach and impact of science, Moving Science Forward locally and regionally in Oregon and making a lasting impact on the world.

Spread the word – Science Matters!

Vrushali Bokil Interim Dean, College of Science

We wish to acknowledge that Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Mary’s River or Ampinefu Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon.

Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon (grandronde.org) and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians (ctsi.nsn.us).

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OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

Kimberly Truong (left) and Fernando Angulo Barba excel in their fields

Passion and Purpose STUDENTS AND FACULT Y

Another Goldwater scholar from Team Science!

NSF awards high-achieving science grads

Kimberly Truong has been named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar – the nation’s highest award for undergraduate students in natural science, engineering or mathematics. Double majoring in mathematics and computer science, Truong intends to obtain a Ph.D. in machine learning and pursue a university faculty position that will allow her to conduct research at the intersection of machine learning and software engineering.

Four College of Science graduate students have been selected for the prestigious NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program.

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 in honor of Barry Goldwater, a U.S. senator from Arizona. Truong is the 45th student in OSU history to receive this award and the 25th from Team Science, building on the College’s impressive track record of training high-achieving undergraduates.

Luke Bobay is an integrative biology Ph.D. candidate at the Hatfield Marine Science Center Plankton Ecology Lab. He currently explores the climate change effects on northern anchovy populations off the Pacific Northwest coast.

Olivia Burleigh is an integrative biology Ph.D. candidate working with Virginia Weis. She studies the symbiotic relationship between coral and algae and its implications for coral health.

Caroline Hernandez is a microbiology Ph.D. student working with Maude David. She studies the interactions between sensory gut cells and neurons,

particularly in the context of autism spectrum and anxiety disorders.

Sunni Patton is a microbiology Ph.D. student working with Rebecca Vega Thurber. Her work focuses on understanding microbiome resilience and sensitivity in response to environmental stressors in endangered Caribbean coral.

GEM Fellowship recipient says he’ll pay it forward Mathematics Ph.D. student Fernando Angulo Barba received the GEM Fellowship, a prestigious national program promoting the participation of underrepresented groups in postgraduate science and engineering.

As a father to a one-year old son, the support is especially appreciated. Now, he aims to help others. “I’ve been lucky and fortunate enough to get support while being a minority

IMPACT FALL 2023

in STEM, so being a professor or someone who works in a lab would allow me to pay it forward.”

Top 1,000 female scientist gives 2023 Gilfillan Lecture Trailblazing physics professor Heidi Schellman presented the 2023 F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Lecture, “Dealing with big data: What to do when your neutrino detector is the size of a building.”

Schellman shared her personal journey as a scientist and her fascination with neutrinos – mysterious particles that could hold answers to the universe.

Her current research, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, focuses on using neutrinos to study why the universe is made up of matter instead of antimatter.

The F.A. Gilfillan Award is the College’s highest research award, honoring faculty whose scholarship and scientific accomplishments have extended over a substantial period of time.

In January, Schellman was one

of two OSU researchers to be included in a list of the world’s top 1,000 female scientists, compiled by Research.com.

A prestigious award for esteemed chemist In June, chemistry professor May Nyman joined a prestigious group of 26 other chemists to be honored by the American Chemical Society with the F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. Since 2004, the society has annually recognized one individual for their distinguished and outstanding accomplishments.

World-renowned coral reef pioneer named an AAAS Fellow University Distinguished Professor Virginia Weis has been elected a fellow of the esteemed American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society.

Honored in the category of biological sciences, Weis was

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commended for her distinguished contributions to the field of coral reef biology. She is the 19th College of Science faculty member to be elected as an AAAS Fellow.

Tuning in to songbird survival Inclement weather hits differently when you weigh less than 50 grams.

As storms increase in frequency and severity, understanding birds’ survival mechanisms may be critical to protecting them.

Assistant Professor Jamie Cornelius received a coveted National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award to measure the energy and fitness costs of metabolic and behavioral strategies used by songbirds during inclement weather.

Cornelius will use her five-year, $1.5 million award to study songbirds within different seasonal contexts. CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious in support of early-career faculty.

Congratulations, Class of 2023!

We’re proud to congratulate our newest alumni! This year’s graduating class includes 667 undergrads and 127 grad students.

Jessica Lopez, a biohealth sciences graduate who spent the height of COVID-19 caring for nursing home patients.

Sullivan Bailey-Darland, a double major in physics and mathematics who begins graduate school at Cornell University next fall.

For many of them, the pandemic began late in their freshman year.

But they made the most of Zoom lectures and pushed through unexpected challenges. What a testament to their determination!

Ebunoluwa Morakinyo, a biochemistry and molecular biology graduate who’s also a home chef, writer, director and actress.

Catherine Raffin, a biology graduate with a colossal insect collection and a deep passion for the outdoors.

Madison Collins, a mathematics graduate aimed at helping other students gain confidence in their mathematical abilities.

Amelia Noall, a microbiology graduate captivated by microbes, the French language and human interactions.

Read more about the Class of 2023 in our senior profiles!

Lopez

Morakinyo

Collins

Bailey-Darland

Raffin

Noall (R)

Learn more about our graduating class: science.oregonstate.edu/class-of-2023

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OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

“It feels really good that I’ve been able to provide something that can be used by a lot of people” Manuela Huso (M.S., ’88)

Kacey Little

Stephanie Busch

Sasha Rose

Justin Ihara

Charlotte Soderberg

Thinkers and Doers ALUMNI AND FRIENDS Statistics alum honored for pioneering wildlife conservation solutions Research statistician emerita and alumna Manuela Huso (M.S. ’88) received the highest honorary recognition for U.S. Department of the Interior employees. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Award last fall for her “significant and highly impactful advancements in biological statistics and wildlife conservation ecology.”

rates based on detection probability.

This helps determine if mortality rates are too high for successful management of a species. Huso put the software into packages for public use, making these tools accessible to everyone. Those programs, GenEst and Evidence of Absence, are often required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within the permitting process for incidental take of wildlife at wind-energy facilities.

Huso led the creation of statistically robust estimators of wildlife fatalities associated with windenergy development.

“It feels really good that I’ve been able to provide something that can be used by a lot of people. Whether you’re in a rich country or poor, it’s still accessible,” she said.

The program Huso helped design tells government agencies and industry the probability of mortality

Huso’s passion for creating useful tools for scientists and industry started on a much different path.

After graduating from Whitman College with a B.A. in Biology, Huso joined the Peace Corps, where she had a “life-changing” experience in Burkina Faso. She started to think about opportunities that would combine her interests in mathematics and biology.

She later attended the University of Oregon, receiving her master’s in theoretical ecology. But after entering the job market, she realized her skills in statistics were worth more. She chose OSU to earn a second master’s degree in statistics, staying on to work as a consulting statistician in the College of Forestry for 15 years.

Huso is now employed with the U.S. Geological Survey in Corvallis.

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Science graduates land rewarding careers Kacey Little (’19) initially chose a biohealth sciences major to prepare for physician assistant school, but has since realized her greater passion for epidemiology. Last year Little received her Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology from OHSU and is now Epidemiologist and Research Coordinator at Comagine Health.

Stephanie Busch (Biology ’09) is an Injury Prevention Manager at the Vermont Department of Health. She works on opioid overdose prevention efforts, suicide prevention and a variety of provider wellness and safety initiatives.

She is also a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sasha Rose (Biology ’08, Ph.D. Microbiology and Immunology ’16) grew up wanting to be a doctor, but after participating in immunology research as an undergrad he discovered his true calling. He is now Research Director at Insmed Inc., where he is part of the discovery pharmacology research group.

Justin Ihara (’09) graduated with degrees in mathematics and computer science, which have served him well in his career as a manufacturing execution system architect at Axonics Inc. He says his experience in mathematics helped him better understand how to approach problems and work collaboratively to find solutions.

BioHealth Sciences alumna Charlotte Soderberg (B.S. ’16, Ph.D. ’20) chose a pharmacy career to incorporate chemistry, anatomy and biology. “Each day, I use my foundation knowledge and experience from the College of Science, along with clinical knowledge and experience from the College of Pharmacy to make decisions that impact patients’ care,” said Soderberg.

The Bergs Giving back to the institution that brought them together Coming to OSU for graduate school changed Ron and Ann Berg’s lives forever. Now, they’re giving back to the institution that brought them together.

Ron Berg (M.S. ’71, Ph.D. ’74) grew up and attended college in San Jose, California, where he conducted undergraduate research in applied microbiology.

“That really piqued my interest in furthering my education,” he said. “Oregon State University was one of the few universities at the time offering graduate studies in applied and industrial microbiology.”

In 1968, Ron began a journey that led to advanced microbiology degrees guided by Andy Anderson and Bill Sandine.

Fifteen months later, Ann Berg (née Moran) earned her biology degree from Marymount Manhattan College. She sought a new adventure for graduate school. When Ann was admitted to OSU’s the College of Science’s microbiology graduate program, she packed her bags and headed toward a new chapter in Corvallis.

There, she met Ron. Their first date: An OSU-Stanford basketball game. They were engaged three months later and married in 1971.

The couple moved to Ohio in 1974, where Ron began a satisfying 34-year career with Procter & Gamble, becoming the worldwide microbiology technical leader for its paper products.

Last year, they celebrated 50 years of marriage, returning to where it all started: the Willamette Valley and OSU. “We went on campus, ate at some restaurants and re-created some of our favorite dates,” said Ann. Last winter, the Bergs endowed a new lecture series hosting noted microbiologists. In April, the inaugural Berg Lecture hosted Dr. Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of WisconsinMadison and former science advisor to President Obama.

“The hope is for it to continue long after we’re gone,” said Ann, “as long as the university is there to continue this.”

Leveraging new materials to produce clean energy Photos by Karl Maasdam and Hannah O’Leary Chemist Xiulei “David” Ji demonstrates the practicality of his new battery chemistries with a pouch cell created with the dimensions of commercial cell phone batteries.

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Over the last century, our society has witnessed extraordinary progress and transformations.

Many benefits are obvious – advancements in medicine have nearly doubled life expectancy at birth, as an example. However, as we relentlessly push the boundaries of what is possible, the extraction of resources and degradation of the environment are pushing our systems close to a breaking point.

In the College of Science, many materials scientists are eager to prove that while technological development may be driving this problem, it may also provide innovative solutions to reverse these trends. Harnessing the potential of new materials can contribute significantly to the generation of more sustainable energy solutions.

Our scientists are hard at work to improve efficiency, reduce waste and find alternatives to rare earth minerals. Situated at the heart of a flourishing ecosystem of entrepreneurship and highimpact scientific and technological innovations, they are collaborating as team players across the disciplines to create new sustainable technologies and meaningful products.

Seed funding from the College has helped finance fundamental research discoveries with potentially revolutionary applications through the College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS) Program funds. University programs such as the OSU Advantage Accelerator have also provided support for many startup companies that address critical problems in the environment, energy and healthcare, while bringing jobs to the community.

A safe, sustainable battery alternative The growing desire to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy has created an explosion in demand for electric vehicles, as well as largecapacity batteries to store solar and wind energy. However, the battery boom is not without consequences of its own. Traditional batteries rely on mining rapidly declining minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel – devastating to the environment and provoking human rights abuses.

Enter materials chemist Xiulei “David” Ji, who made headlines in 2022 when he was awarded $3 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to explore the development of a new

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rechargeable battery technology that bypassed the need for rare elements. In March 2023, Ji and collaborators had a breakthrough discovery, successfully developing a new electrolyte able to raise the efficiency of zinc batteries to nearly 100 percent. Their findings were published in Nature Sustainability.

A battery stores electricity in the form of chemical energy and through reactions converts it to electrical energy. Every battery has an electrolyte and two electrodes – the anode, from which electrons flow out into an external circuit, and the cathode, which acquires electrons from the external circuit.

The electrolyte is the chemical medium that separates the electrodes and allows the flow of ions between them.

Relying on a metal that is safe and abundant, zinc batteries are one of the leading candidates for large-scale energy storage. During charging, Ji explains, zinc cations in the electrolyte gain electrons and get plated on the anode surface. During discharge, the plated anode gives up electrons for the workload by being dissolved into the electrolyte. Coulombic

As demand for energy storage increases, Ji’s breakthrough with cheaper, safer zinc batteries is poised to revolutionize how we store energy on a large scale.

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Ethan Minot’s research — which has recently yielded the first ‘spectrometer on a chip’ — continues to reveal interesting and useful optical and electronic properties of 2D semiconductor materials.

efficiency, or CE, is a measure of how well electrons are transferred in batteries, the ratio of the total charge extracted from the battery to the charge put in over a full cycle.

Lithium-ion batteries can have a CE in excess of 99%.

Until now, the biggest obstacle has been the poor reversibility performance of the zinc anode, which significantly reduces the battery’s cycle life. “The primary challenge with zinc batteries is that zinc reacts with water in the electrolyte to generate hydrogen gas in what is called a hydrogen evolution reaction,” Ji said. “This parasitic reaction causes a short cycle life and is also a potential safety hazard.”

The new electrolyte, however, restricts water’s reactivity and nearly shuts down the hydrogen evolution reaction by forming a “passivation layer” on the surface of the anode, enabling an efficiency of 99.95 percent. “The breakthrough reported here heralds the nearfuture commercialization of the zinc

metal batteries for large-scale grid storage,” Ji said.

Ji’s research was assisted by chemistry colleagues Chong Fang and Kyriakos Stylianou, as well as HP Inc. and GROTTHUSS Inc., an OSU spinout company led by Ji.

Optical spectroscopy: Revolutionizing how we measure light In 2022, physicist Ethan Minot contributed to a study resulting in a powerful, two-dimensional spectrometer that fits on a microchip and is operated using artificial intelligence. A collaboration with scientists from Finland’s Aalto University, the discovery could improve everything from smartphone cameras to environmental monitoring.

While traditional spectrometers require bulky optical and mechanical components, the new device is small enough to fit on the end of a strand of hair. It is also 100 percent electrically controllable regarding the colors

of light it absorbs, which gives it massive potential for scalability and widespread usability, from medicine to environmental monitoring.

Minot now wants to bring 2D technology home to Oregon State.

In spring, he received seed funding through the College of Science Research Innovation Seed (SciRIS) Program which he hopes will grow the new field of research.

2D semiconductors have tremendous potential for reducing power consumption in our daily electronics, from smartphones to critical medical equipment.

Minot is eager to contribute to developing low-power electronics and is part of an effort at OSU working on the Regional Innovation Engines NSF Engines Development Award: Advancing Semiconductor Technologies in the Northwest.

A dual-purpose catalyst: Producing clean energy and purifying polluted water One promising clean energy alternative is hydrogen fuel, which

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emits only water vapor when used in fuel cells or combustion.

Hydrogen fuel is primarily sourced from water, making it a sustainable and readily available resource.

Now, chemist Kyriakos Stylianou leads a team in developing a photocatalyst that not only is capable of producing hydrogen, but can also purify herbicide-tainted water simultaneously. Published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Catalysis, the findings are important because water pollution is a major global challenge, and hydrogen is a clean, renewable fuel.

Among an array of compounds in which hydrogen is found, water is the most common, and producing hydrogen by splitting water via photocatalysis is cleaner and more sustainable than the conventional method of deriving hydrogen – from natural gas via a carbon-dioxideproducing process known as methane-steam reforming.

Photocatalysts are materials that absorb light to reach a higher energy level and can break down

organic contaminants through oxidation. Using titanium dioxide photocatalysts derived from a metal-organic framework, or MOF, Stylianou was able to select for properties that not only generated hydrogen but also degraded the herbicide glyphosate.

Made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic “linker” molecules, MOFs are crystalline, porous materials with tunable structural properties and nanosized pores. They can be designed with a variety of components that determine the MOF’s properties.

Glyphosate, also known as N-phosphonomethyl glycine or PMG, has been widely sprayed on agricultural fields over the last 50 years since first appearing on the market under the trade name Roundup in 1974.

“Water is a rich hydrogen source, and photocatalysis is a way of tapping into the Earth’s abundant solar energy for hydrogen production and environmental remediation,” Stylianou said. “We are showing

In the Stylianou Lab, a new zirconium-based metal-organic framework has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in capturing and degrading glyphosate, a commonly used herbicide known as “Roundup,” to less toxic molecules

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that through photocatalysis, it is possible to produce a renewable fuel while removing organic pollutants, or converting them into useful products.”

Advancing sustainability science and technology, while training the next generation of environmentally conscious scientists and innovators remains a top goal for the College of Science. In addition to the breakthroughs highlighted above, our faculty and students engage in other research aimed to make the planet cleaner – such as converting waste heat to energy, exploring 2D materials for quantum computing, creating porous nanomaterials that scrub carbon from smokestacks, investigating water purification, among other innovations.

By unlocking the capabilities of new materials, we have the power to transform energy generation, storage and fuel production, decrease resource consumption and even counteract damaging environmental impact – and pave the way for a more sustainable and greener future.

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Pernot participants practiced using pipettes, collected cheek cell swabs, extracted DNA from potato salads, toured wastewater treatment and applied microbiology to arts and crafts.

By All and For All EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN SCIENCE

Summer microbiology camp bolsters inclusivity Microbiology graduate student Savanah Leidholt understands the importance of diversity.

“As a Hispanic woman who grew up in rural Montana, I can attest firsthand to the lack of STEM opportunities available for these demographics,” she said.

While attending Montana State University-Bozeman, Leidholt was a McNair Scholar, a program funded through the U.S. Department of Education to increase graduate degree awards for students from first-generation or underrepresented segments of society. Now a Ph.D. student in Rebecca Vega Thurber’s

lab, she is helping to create similar opportunities for other young people. “Just as microbial diversity is fundamental to the maintenance and conservation of global genetic resources, academic diversity is equally important,” Leidholt said.

Last summer, Leidholt set out to create a summer “bootcamp” for area high school students to draw more students from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, low-income and other diverse backgrounds to the study of microbiology. For one week, she led 20 local high school students through the Pernot Microbiology Camp. Named after and funded in part by Vega Thurber’s endowed position in the department, the immersion camp introduced

students to microbiology disciplines such as agricultural, food, medicinal and marine science. The Pernot Camp will be held again this July, with a special focus on environmental microbiology. Field trips will include visits to the Animal Aquatic Health Laboratory and Hatfield Marine Center on the Oregon Coast.

“This camp is aimed to give students an opportunity to learn about the wide field of microbiology through a lived experience,” said Vega Thurber. “We eliminated many financial, logistical and conceptual barriers young students (particularly students of color) face by providing transportation and student stipends.”

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Empowering a culture of belonging Chemistry professor Marilyn Rampersad Mackiewicz presented the inaugural 2022 College of Science Inclusive Excellence Lecture, “Empowering Cultures of Belonging: Thriving, Innovating and Solving Global Challenges.”

Created in 2019, the Inclusive Excellence Award recognizes the outstanding work of a faculty, staff or student in advancing inclusive excellence at Oregon State. This award was created in support of the College of Science ethos that science should be by all and for all — informed by various perspectives, backgrounds and experiences.

In her talk, Mackiewicz shared her scientific research on the development of clinically safe nanomaterials and systems-level understanding of nanoparticlebiological interactions and toxicity – as well as her science journey as an immigrant to the U.S. and a first-generation student. She also discussed efforts within the Department of Chemistry to build a community that embeds inclusive excellence within every initiative and action.

Since arriving at Oregon State in 2020, Mackiewicz has created and implemented two undergraduate courses focused on fostering a sense of belonging and inspiring leadership development. One of those courses, “Careers in Chemistry,” discusses strategies for success in the study of chemistry and the many career opportunities in the

Savanah Leidholt

field. Topics range from surviving first-year chemistry to study abroad opportunities and internships.

Receiving the Inclusive Excellence Award and hosting the inaugural lecture is an honor that Mackiewicz cherishes. “I represent so many people, including my students and my department, who have been incredibly supportive to me.” Her goal is to embolden every member of the College of Science to take small steps toward creating the culture of inclusion they want to see and feel.

Celebrating identity, embracing opportunity Oregon State University students were among the thousands of attendees from across the nation invited to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the National Diversity in STEM Conference last term, hosted by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science.

OSU’s SACNAS chapter spent a weekend immersed in conference experiences. Keynote speakers and Puerto Rican cultural lessons on Puerto Rico echoed the celebration of identity at its core.

Graduate student Jenna Bustos welcomed the return to the conference she had first attended in 2019 while at New Mexico Highlands University. Meeting chemistry professor May Nyman there helped solidify her decision to

Marilyn Mackiewicz

Jenna Bustos

attend graduate school at Oregon State and join Nyman’s lab to study radiochemistry. After a prestigious internship at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during the summer of 2022, Bustos was invited to give a talk on the field and her internship experience at the 2022 NDiSTEM conference.

Reflecting on her successful graduate career, Bustos said “if it weren’t for this conference and this symposium, I wouldn’t have known the opportunities available to me.”

‘Math for All’ Three years ago, mathematics professor Swati Patel and two colleagues wanted to do something to counter systemic racism and inequities in mathematics.

They founded the Math For All conference at Tulane University in New Orleans, where Patel was then working as a postdoc.

Math For All is now a national conference that hosts annual local programs throughout the country – including Corvallis! The free conference took place in late February at Owen Hall, where talks and discussions covered everything from human rights in data science to the mathematics of paper folding. The date marks the conference’s second year at Oregon State University with the highest attendance on record.

Swati Patel

Discover RESEARCH

Kalia Bistolas

Rebecca Vega Thurber

Microbiology studies offer hope for coral restoration Coral reefs are found in less than one percent of the ocean but are home to nearly one-quarter of all marine life.

They are made up of interconnected animal hosts called polyps that house microscopic algae inside their cells. This coral-algal symbiosis is the foundation of the entire coral reef ecosystem; in exchange for protection, the algae provides food that the corals need to survive.

This relationship is also what makes corals so sensitive to the

Elisar Barbar

Kayla Jara

Joe Beckman

effects of climate change. The algae, dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae, can be stressed by warming oceans to the point of dysbiosis – a collapse of the host-symbiont partnership, which results in a phenomenon known as coral bleaching.

infections within their genomes, and they can be passed down from generation to generation. “They are also like stealthy parasites,” she said. “Sometimes when an organism is stressed, the viral genetic material can jump out of an organism’s genome and turn on its host.”

In a study co-led by Kalia Bistolas, a postdoc in Rebecca Vega Thurber’s lab, found viral genetic material in the resident algae that could shed light on how these interactions work. Nearly all organisms carry a historical record of past viral

Vega Thurber and her team have also received a $500K grant to help grassroots conservation groups in French Polynesia identify ideal sites for coral restoration. Along with ecologists from the University of California Santa Barbara, the

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team will conduct field and lab work at 200 sites across the island of Moorea. They will use environmental DNA, which comes from cellular material shed by organisms into the environment, to collect data on biodiversity rates, nutrient levels and more.

The research will be available to Coral Gardeners, a conservation group founded in 2017 by local young adults who witnessed coral bleaching first-hand.

Biophysicists shed new light on Alzheimer’s A new study, published in eLife, represents important progress in understanding neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

Head of Biochemistry and Biophysics Elisar Barbar and former grad student Kayla Jara led a deep dive into dynein, a cellular motor protein. Motor proteins are like miniature vehicles that transport cargo, controlling cell activity in the nervous system. Nerve cells can be very long and are heavily dependent on motor proteins to transport material between the cell body and the tip of the axon. Mutations in the

dynein motor can cause dysfunction, and neurodegeneration.

Working with scientists from OSU and Lewis & Clark College, Barbar and Jara took a closer look at one of the dynein’s subunit proteins, the intermediate chain, or IC. This was no easy task. IC has remained largely unstudied due to its large size and disordered structure.

Due to these challenges, many biophysical techniques were used in combination, which resulted in a blueprint for how to study other, similar protein complexes.

“Dynein malfunction is an early feature in disorders such as ALS and Alzheimer’s,” said Jara. “Knowledge about the dynein structure and how it works will contribute to our understanding and treatment of these disorders.”

Agilent acquires e-MSion, revolutionizing mass spectroscopy Joseph Beckman, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, founded the OSU spin-off company e-MSion Inc. in 2015 with the idea that he had a product that could fundamentally change the field of mass spectroscopy.

This spring, the company announced it would be acquired

by Agilent Technologies, a leading manufacturer of analytical scientific instruments. The purchase is a massive vote of confidence for the company’s novel electron capture dissociation technology and a testament to the innovative science fostered at Oregon State.

ECD is the most advanced protein characterization technology available for mass spectroscopy, but has previously been too expensive and difficult to use for all but the most specialized – the problem e-MSion Inc. sought to solve when they successfully adapted the ExD cell, a compact add-on device for mass spectrometers, to be compatible with virtually any type of mass spectrometer. Now, many labs and biopharma researchers could access an unprecedented level of data analysis and visualization.

“The talented team at e-MSion has created an important technology in accelerating biopharma development,” said Jacob Thaysen, president of Agilent’s Life Sciences and Applied Markets Group. “Our customers will see tangible benefits from these unmatched capabilities.”

Are black rockfish more resilient than predicted?

Known for lifespans that can reach triple digits, rockfish are a diverse species of ecologic and economic importance for Pacific Coast communities. Their variable survival during early life stages, when they’re highly sensitive to environmental conditions, has made them an object of concern as ocean ecosystems continue to change.

“We found that despite fears of doom and gloom with recent anomalous warming of the waters off Oregon’s coast, some young black rockfish grew faster as the temperature increased and, surprisingly, there was both high and low survival during different years of the heat wave,” said Will Fennie, the study’s lead author.

Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, a new study found that black rockfish larvae fared better during two recent years of unusually high ocean temperatures than had been feared.

Fennie, a former Oregon State integrative biology doctoral student now at the NOAA, worked with College of Science researchers Su Sponaugle and Kirsten GrorudColvert on the study.

Together, we can make things better.

Team Science harnesses the power of science to improve the health of our planet and its people.

Leading in discovery – championing collaboration – driving inclusive student success – building tomorrow’s leaders.

Did you know there are creative ways to support the College of Science through the OSU Foundation?

Gifts of donated property such as real estate, trusts, gift annuities, insurance, retirement assets and in-kind gifts may be immediate or planned gifts. Explore the ways your cherished possession can make a difference for your favorite science programs. Learn more about how you can meet your philanthropic goals at our Planned Gifts page.

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