Congratulations to the Oregon State College of Science Class of 2021! This class faced enormous challenges due to the pandemic. On the spur of the moment, the class of 2021 transitioned to remote learning, virtual interaction with professors, mentors, peers, friends and experiential learning in online formats. They have also faced increased financial burdens and other stressors. Our students have persevered, showing admirable determination, resilience and fortitude that will serve them well in their lives and careers.

Succeeding against odds while making history, College of Science graduates have found ways during this pandemic to participate and make an impact on state-wide public health endeavors through the TRACE-CVOID-19 project. They have gained enduring skills and done outstanding work in adapted science labs and with science communication in the virtual domain. Our seniors have been instrumental in helping Oregon State succeed at remote teaching in their roles as peer learning assistants and tutors.

Science graduates have led the way by dint of their academic achievements, selfless service and committed leadership. Supported by awards, scholarships and dedicated advisors, our seniors have collaborated with faculty mentors to create new knowledge and achieve major scientific breakthroughs.

Check out our Commencement page to celebrate our graduates. Read their compelling stories below containing reflections on undergraduate experiences at Oregon State and their dreams for the future.

This year’s graduates include Fulbright and Ford Foundation Fellows, Gilman International Scholars, NOAA Scholars, published scientific authors, future doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, teachers and informed, engaged world citizens. We are exceptionally proud of our students and all they have achieved during their career as undergraduates in the College of Science at Oregon State.

By the numbers

The College graduated 670 undergraduate students with baccalaureate degrees in 2020-21, including 68 Honors graduates. More than 80% (538) of our graduates were in the life sciences, with Biology having the most graduates at 199. BioHealth Sciences came in second with 152 graduates; biochemistry and molecular biology had 71 graduates; Zoology 63; Mathematics 56; Microbiology 43; Chemistry 42; Physics 34, and; Biochemistry and Biophysics graduated 10 students.

Of the total baccalaureate graduates, 11% are underrepresented minorities and 26% are first-generation students. In addition, 10 of the 2021 baccalaureate graduates are military veterans.

The College will also award 52 doctoral degrees, 66 master’s degrees and seven certificates in online Data Analytics.

Of the 52 doctoral degrees, Chemistry had 16 Ph.D. students, followed by Integrative Biology at 11; Mathematics 9; Physics 6; Microbiology 5; Statistics 4, and; Biochemistry and Biophysics graduated one doctoral student.

The Department of Statistics awarded 15 master's degrees in statistics and 19 M.S. degrees in data analytics. Chemistry and Mathematics awarded 10 master's degrees each. Physics had 6 master's degree recipients; Microbiology three; Biochemistry and Biophysics two, and; Integrative Biology awarded one master's degree this year.

Celebrating the Class of 2021

We invite you to read the profiles of our seniors. These outstanding graduates represent an inclusive and diverse learning community in the College of Science. Here they share their inspiring and unique journeys as science majors.

• Simone Burton, Integrative Biology
• Devonte Casey, Zoology
• Gabriela Cortes Cortes, BioHealth Sciences
• Ilana Gottfield-Lee, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Rohal Kakepoto, Physics
• Kendra Krebs, Microbiology
• Seth Pinckney, Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Jennifer Smucker, Mathematics
• Linus Unitan, Chemistry

In recognition of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, held on February 11, we acknowledge the women faculty, students and alumnae of the OSU College of Science. The world’s population is 50% women, and yet only 30% of scientists identify as women.

“Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and, therefore, also half of its potential. Gender equality, besides being a fundamental human right, is essential to achieve peaceful societies, with full human potential and sustainable development.” (Source: https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day)

The UN main event will take place online. Additionally, the 6th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly will be held at the United Nations Headquarters virtually.

The UN theme for 2021 is “Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19”. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women academics, including women scientists, who may face significant career damage, extending the gender gap in science and highlighting unequal effects and existing systemic inequities. In fact, if we are to learn from past pandemics, women are most affected by pandemics.

The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) endorsed an open letter, published by the European Women in Mathematics which emphasized the unequal effects of this pandemic on all women academics, especially untenured women and caregivers. They offered suggestions for universities, government and funding agencies to proactively support their most vulnerable populations.

"We did not experience the crisis equally. Untenured faculty lost more. Women lost more. Caregivers lost more. The more vulnerable the population, the greater the disadvantage. No one chooses a pandemic, but now we can choose how to respond." -- the EWM Standing Committee and the EWM Working Group on the Corona Crisis

It is also important to recognize that we cannot fold the experiences of all women into one. Covid-19 has its deadliest effects at crossroads of differing axes of oppression. To meaningfully address issues of equity and inclusion requires that we respond to the unequal effects at the intersections of race & ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, among other social axes of oppression.

And yet, women have made critical contributions to understanding and combating the virus and mitigating its effects on disadvantaged populations.

During this International day of Women and Girls in Science, we take the opportunity to highlight the contributions of OSU College of Science women, both alumnae and current faculty and students, to the fight against Covid-19.

Science faculty, students and alumnae making a difference

Oregon State University researchers have received a $2 million grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to create a national TRACE Center that will expand the OSU’s COVID-19 public health project to other states.

The center will harness the power of public health departments, universities and other institutions around the country to help measure the prevalence of the virus that causes COVID-19 by combining community surveillance sampling, wastewater analysis, viral sequence data and mathematical models of SARS-CoV-2 prevalence that OSU TRACE researchers have developed.

“In most communities across the country, it is still very hard to get reliable estimates of how many people are actually infected,” said TRACE leader Ben Dalziel, a population biologist in the OSU College of Science. “The TRACE Center will support a network of university-community partnerships that monitor local prevalence and develop new approaches for community-based COVID monitoring. We are extremely grateful to the Packard Foundation for helping us expand this work to other institutions and communities.”

Chad English, Science program officer for the Packard Foundation, said OSU’s TRACE work is different than most coronavirus testing strategies that rely on “trailing indicators” and provide more information about past infections than who is currently infected.

“The TRACE study and its approach to tracking the prevalence and spread of the coronavirus have proven invaluable to communities in Oregon," said English. “With the data and other insights that TRACE provides, public health leaders now have a powerful tool in their hands to better assess the threat of the virus and make decisions in the best interest of their community.

“We at the Packard Foundation are thrilled to support the expansion of this effort to other states and universities around the country.”

Dalziel said more than 100 research universities across the nation have the capacity to help scale up the TRACE project.

“Many universities have untapped capacity to help their states tackle the coronavirus,” he said. “The TRACE team at Oregon State University is looking for universities and public health departments interested in adapting the TRACE model to their states and their communities.”

Anyone interested in partnering on the TRACE project is encouraged to reach out to the TRACE Coordinating Center at [email protected].

Team-based Rapid Assessment of Community-Level Coronavirus Epidemics, or TRACE-COVID-19, was launched by OSU in April with door-to-door sampling in Corvallis, home to Oregon State’s main campus, and expanded to other cities around the state while also adding a wastewater testing component.

In late September, at the start of the academic year, TRACE also started conducting prevalence testing among OSU students, faculty and staff in Corvallis, at OSU-Cascades in Bend and at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, along with wastewater analysis of effluent from university buildings for COVID-19 viral markers.

“It’s been fantastic to merge sewer surveillance of the virus with the sampling and modeling going on in TRACE,” said project co-leader Tyler Radniecki of the College of Engineering. “Now we have the ability to extend our impact well beyond Oregon’s borders, and that’s a huge opportunity and honor.”

The TRACE project began as a collaboration of five OSU colleges – Science, Agricultural Sciences, the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, and Public Health and Human Sciences – plus the OSU Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing. The project has functioned in partnership with county health departments around Oregon.

“Oregon State faculty, staff and students have really come together and mobilized to take on the hard work necessary to understand and combat this pandemic,” said OSU epidemiologist Jeff Bethel, also a project co-leader. “And of course we can’t take on this kind of challenge without the kind of support we’re receiving from the Packard Foundation and our other funders.”

PacificSource Health Plans and the Oregon Health Authority have also supported the TRACE project, whose diagnostic testing component operates through a partnership between the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, which is located at OSU, and Willamette Valley Toxicology.

“One of the most exciting things about this project is that it shows how a land grant university can fulfill its potential to serve communities statewide – and nationally,” said Justin Sanders, a molecular pathologist at the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine who is overseeing testing operations at the OVDL and is a member of the TRACE leadership team. “This project brings together experts from a broad range of fields motivated to quickly fill a critical public health need, and now we get the chance to take that to the national level.”

The national partnerships and collaborations afforded by the grant from the Packard Foundation, which comes on top of the $1.15 million it contributed to help launch the project, are critical in responding to a disease as widespread and deadly as COVID-19, said Javier Nieto, dean of OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

“This pandemic requires all of us to do everything we can to mitigate the spread and damage of COVID-19,” said Nieto, a TRACE co-leader as well as a physician and epidemiologist. “If ever a situation demanded that we pool our resources, both at OSU and around the globe, this is it.”

The data gathered and analyzed by TRACE researchers provide important guidance for local and state officials deciding which public health actions make the most sense in protecting their communities, said Katie McLaughlin, an applied statistician in OSU’s colleges of Science and Agricultural Sciences and another TRACE co-leader.

“Among its other effects, COVID-19 is generating volumes of data that need statistical interpretation so our leaders can use the information for maximum benefit,” McLaughlin said. “Thanks to all of the support we continue to receive, and thanks to Oregon State’s overarching spirit of collaboration and service, we’re able to play a key role in helping communities stay safe.”

TRACE has tested traditionally underserved and racially diverse populations, Dalziel noted, adding that outreach materials and messaging have been made available in a variety of languages.

“We want to engage communities to get folks tested who might not otherwise be getting tested and as rapidly as possible,” Dalziel said. “We seek to have our samples be truly representative of the whole community, not just a portion of the community. In partnering with communities to monitor prevalence rapidly, we are achieving something that hasn’t been done very many other places during this pandemic. We hope the value of this approach appeals to others as well.”

The College of Science is pleased to announce Vrushali Bokil as the new associate dean for research and graduate studies, effective October 19. Bokil brings outstanding leadership strengths, exceptional energy and research experience, and a deep commitment to inclusive and equitable excellence in research and teaching.

A member of the Oregon State faculty since 2006, Bokil is a professor in the Department of Mathematics who has served in many leadership roles during her tenure. Bokil’s primary research interests are in the numerical solution of wave propagation problems. She is also currently working on several problems in mathematical ecology that involve the construction and analyses of deterministic and stochastic models for applications in population dynamics, epidemiology and spatial ecology. She has worked on other topics in applied mathematics, scientific computing and numerical analysis, as well. Her most recent grant is a $225K NSF-funded project, "Computational and Multi-Scale Methods for Nonlinear Electromagnetic Models in Plasmas and Nanocomposites."

Bokil previously served as associate head of the Mathematics department during 2018-2019. She was an Advance Faculty Fellow in 2018, facilitating the implementation of equity, justice and inclusivity training seminars within the College of Science. She currently serves as an OSU faculty senator and was a Faculty Senate Executive Committee member from January of 2018 to January of 2020. She also serves as a member of the Career Opportunities Committee of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

“I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Bokil as our Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies,” said Roy Haggerty, dean of the College of Science.

“Given Vrushali’s wide-reaching research contributions and effective collaborations with scientists and mathematicians at OSU and beyond, I am confident she will have a significant impact on the College’s research excellence, transformative educational opportunities, initiatives for faculty innovation, and productive collaborations across departments and colleges.

“I know she also will be an effective catalyst for advancing equity and inclusion for women scientists and others from historically underrepresented groups, making a positive difference in the College of Science and in Oregon State’s broad scientific community.

“I want to thank all the search committee members, including chair Elisar Barbar, head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, for their roles in appointing Dr. Bokil.”

As associate dean, Bokil will advocate for and provide a vision for the College’s research and graduate student educational opportunities in the College’s context as a major contributor to the educational and research mission of Oregon State University and the state of Oregon. She will contribute to day-to-day fiscal policy and budget implementation. In each and every aspect of her position, she will further the College’s commitment to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

"It is my distinct pleasure to be selected to become a part of the leadership team in the College of Science and to work with Dean Haggerty in providing direction for our research and educational missions,” Bokil said. “I am particularly honored to have the opportunity to help craft policies and programs, which are evidence-based, compassionate and holistic, toward our shared mission to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable scholarly and instructional environment."

Born and raised in India, Bokil earned her Ph.D. from the University of Houston and her master of science from New Mexico State University. She was a postdoctoral associate at North Carolina State University.

Doug Keszler, who served in this role since 2014, announced in July that he would step down. He will continue his materials science research in the Department of Chemistry.

“I want to thank Doug for his leadership and service over the last six years,” said Haggerty. “While serving in this capacity, Doug was highly instrumental in advancing the College’s research excellence and particularly in accelerating high-impact, collaborative research that addresses societal and marketplace needs. He also was effective in fostering industry partnerships with the College and connecting industry expertise with Science students.

“I know he is looking forward to having more time for research and innovation, and I am certain he will continue to mentor and inspire future chemists and entrepreneurs.”

The College of Science is proud to congratulate the following faculty for receiving promotions and /or tenure for the 2019-20 academic year. These faculty have achieved excellence in teaching, research and outreach. They have made an impact through scholarly accomplishments and their dedication to exceptional teaching.

I am very proud of our faculty who have received a promotion or tenure,” said Roy Haggerty, dean of the College of Science. “Their outstanding research, teaching, mentorship and service have enriched their fields and enhanced student success in the College and at OSU.”

Tremendous consideration goes into each promotion and tenure decision. The Provost’s Office, the College of Science Dean’s office, department heads, Promotion and Tenure Committee members, faculty, external reviewers, student evaluation committees, and individual faculty members all spend many hours preparing, processing and reviewing the documentation.

Special thanks to our College of Science Promotion and Tenure Committee for devoting a significant amount of time engaged in the intense review process.

Congratulations to the following science faculty:

Chemistry Department

Dr. Paula Weiss was promoted to Senior Instructor II of Chemistry. She currently teaches general chemistry, advises chemistry majors and serves as a mentor to chemistry education students. An advocate for improved STEM education, Weiss has been an Action Research Fellow through the ESTEME@OSU Project and is currently an Inclusive Excellence Fellow for the IE@OSU project.

Integrative Biology Department

Dr. Matt Orr was promoted to Associate Professor of Integrative Biology and granted indefinite tenure. He works at the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend, Oregon, and conducts research in topics spanning behavioral ecology, restoration ecology, and the application of restoration ecology to medicine. Being a scientific generalist has helped him to explore fields from a trans-disciplinary perspective and offer undergraduate students a wide array of research experiences that match their interests.

Dr. Kirsten Grorud-Colvert was promoted to Associate Professor, Senior Research. She is a marine ecologist who studies what happens when areas of the ocean are protected and how we can use that information to improve ocean conservation and management. She works at both the global and local levels, and her interests span research, policy, and outreach.

Dr. Stephanie Bollmann was promoted to Senior Faculty Research Assistant I in Integrative Biology. For the past five years, Bollman has worked in Michael Blouin’s lab in the Department of Integrative Biology, studying the genetic basis for resistance to Schistosoma mansoni in Biomphalaria glabrata, aquatic snails which are an obligate host for the human parasite which infects millions of people worldwide. She also studies the negative effects of current hatchery practices on the reproductive fitness of steelhead salmon.

Brittany Poirson was promoted to Senior Faculty Research Assistant I in the Menge–Lubchenco Laboratory. She studies the interactions of intertidal invertebrates and algae along the Oregon and California coasts and is involved with the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans, the Long Term Research in Environmental Biology and the Seastar Tragedy and Recovery Study projects.

Dr. Nathan Kirk was promoted to Senior Instructor I of Integrative Biology. Kirk is a molecular ecologist interested in coral symbioses ranging from mutualism (where both partners benefit) to parasitism. He is also keenly interested in the incorporation of educational best practices to increase equity and inclusion in the classroom. In 2019, Kirk received the Loyd Carter Undergraduate Teaching Award for his effective and inspirational approach to teaching undergraduate biology students.

Mathematics Department

Dr. Filix Maisch was promoted to Senior Instructor II of Mathematics. Maisch is a Peruvian-American from California who earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He loves to teach others about the beauty and elegance of mathematics.

Physics Department

Dr. Davide Lazzati was promoted to Professor of Physics. The Lazzati Group performs research in theoretical astrophysics and is currently focused on understanding the physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts and of Cosmic Dust.

Dr. Ethan Minot was promoted to Professor of Physics. He focuses on experimental physics, investigating applied physics questions related to nanoscale systems such as carbon nanotubes and graphene. This line of research impacts a range of industries, from solar energy harvesting to medical diagnostics.

How can we better understand how devastating plant diseases are spread? Is there a better statistical model to predict HIV prevalence in a city? Is there a way we can detect toxic algae blooms in freshwater and marine ecosystems before they occur? And of the hundreds of thousands of different metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in the world, how can we can better find the ones that are most useful for storing and separating gases, like CO2 from industrial plants?

Curiosity is critical for discovery. Asking the questions above led five faculty members to receive College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS-ii) and Betty Wang Discovery Fund awards this February to pursue answers over the course of the next year. Their proposals all showed transformative potential and progress toward new frontiers of science and aimed to strengthen collaboration with external research partners. Below is more detail about each of their proposals.

Mathematics Professor Vrushali Bokil was awarded $8,000 to use modeling techniques to understand the spread and control of plant diseases caused by coinfecting viruses. She will focus on Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), an emerging disease in Kenya and other parts of Africa that is caused by coinfecting viruses and spread by insects called Thrips, as a test case. Her team’s goals are to use stochastic models and optimal control theory to understand the mechanisms that drive patterns of coinfection in plant populations and effective techniques for controlling the spread of disease in crops and natural grasslands.

In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Statistics Assistant Professor Katherine McLaughlin received $10,000 to explore the use of new statistical methodologies to estimate the number of people who inject drugs in metropolitan areas. The research project, supported by the privately-funded Disease Mechanism & Prevention Fund at the OSU Foundation, has a goal of refining current methods to produce improved population-level demographic, behavioral, disease prevalence and population size estimations. This will aid the CDC in their efforts to contain or slow the rate of HIV in metropolitan areas across the U.S.

Microbiologist Kimberly Halsey was awarded $10,000 to examine the potential for real-time, automated volatile organic compound (VOC) detection as early-warning signals of toxic harmful algal blooms (HABs) in freshwater and marine ecosystems. HABs are increasing in intensity and severity due to climate change and nutrient loading from agriculture and other human-related activities. Some HABs can become toxic to humans and animals. Halsey will use data integration to merge aquatic microbiome data with environmental properties and VOC signatures to identify determinants and trajectory of the annual toxic HAB at Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon.

Physicist David Roundy was also awarded $10,000 to develop new flat histogram Monte Carlo molecular simulation methods to accelerate the discovery of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for applications in storing and separating gases. MOFs are crystalline materials that harbor nano-sized pores that have the potential to be used in a variety of clean energy applications, from hydrogen and natural gas storage to capturing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plant flues. His study aims to enable scientists to accurately predict the absorption properties of hundreds of thousands of MOFs and accelerate the rate of MOF discovery for clean energy applications.

In addition, chemistry professors Kyriakos Stylianou and May Nyman, along with Todd Miller from the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute (ATAMI), received $30,000 from the Betty Wang Discovery Fund to purchase a microwave reactor to integrate on the continuous flow reactor to accelerate the discovery and production of inorganic materials like MOFs. The Betty Wang Discovery Fund supports equipment acquisitions and laboratory infrastructure improvements to advance fundamental discoveries in science. Microwave heating has recently emerged as a powerful method for the preparation of inorganic materials at the laboratory scale, reducing synthesis time down to a few minutes without affecting the product quality or reaction yield. The new machinery will allow the team to investigate the potential of new MOFs to capture carbon in laboratory and industrial applications.

The projects will run for one year, ending next February 2021.The SciRIS program provides funding in three stages for high impact collaborative proposals that build teams, pursue fundamental discoveries and create societal impact. The awards range from $10,000 to $125,000 for various stages of the program and are supported in part by generous alumni and friends, and grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and National Institutes of Health.