CNSM at Home - October 2020
A Message from the Dean
Dear Faculty and Staff,
Welcome to another newsletter!
This month we are celebrating a CNSM Halloween, and I hope all of you are finding ways to relax and enjoy the day. Our student council is hosting a costume contest, and I was hoping to compete until I realized that I can’t find my Phantom Tollbooth Mathemagician costume. Yes, a few years ago I got my nerd on and used fabric paint to decorate a “robe” with all sorts of ghoulish mathematics including the Peterson graph (which looks a little like a pentagram), scary mathematical formulae, and the first 30 digits of Pi.
I never did find a 6 foot pencil to use as a staff, however…
For those of you who are wondering, I did manage to make it down and up the Grand Canyon two weeks ago. Seeing the dawn come up over the canyon was amazing with the glorious colors and views. Those views and colors were good to remember as I was hiking up the 4,500 feet from the bottom of the canyon. Being there during the pandemic meant that a lot of amenities were closed, including the shuttle from the top of the trail back to my hotel. It’s funny how despite being flat, that last mile and half did me in. Overall, it was a great trip, and if you haven’t ever been to the Grand Canyon, I highly recommend it.
I know we are all tired of political ads as we close in on the election, but I urge all of you who can to take part and vote. At this time, it is important that all of us do our civic duty and look at the California ballot propositions to make up our minds about what we believe will best help society move forward during this difficult time.
As always, my thanks to all of you for working so hard for our students, our college, and our university.
Be save, be well, and be just,
Curt
Ghoulish Greenhouse
Get into the Halloween spirit and check out some of our spooky residents up in the greenhouses.
Faculty Features
Electrifying Skin Cells
Dr. Kasha Slowinska is working with Shiseido, a Japanese Cosmetic Company, to discover innovative methods of skin rejuvenation with the ultimate goal of developing a commercially available, in-home EF device.
Nobel Season 2020
The 2020 Nobel Laureates were announced during the week of October 5. See what some of our faculty members had to say about the incredible work that was rewarded this year.
Keeping Up with CNSM - Hobbies and Interests
Since COVID-19 took over our lives, my family and I have been exclusively eating at home.
Eating in has given me the chance to rekindle my love of smoking meats on my Big Green Egg. I smoke all kinds of things including salmon, ribs, chicken, turkey, brisket, and tri-tip. I also use my Big Green Egg to grill steaks, seafood, sometimes vegetables. Smoking meat is an hours long affair, (some meats require more than 12 hours of smoking) but the end result is absolutely worth it.
I enjoy the entire process of smoking meat - from seasoning and forming the "bark"to seeing the smoke ring that develops and finally enjoying the food! It also gives me a chance to send food home with my family and friends - something I hope they enjoy as much as I do.
On weekends, I try to shift my focus from “Science Education Department Chair” to artist – to reset and refresh mentally. I create post-impressionist and abstract work in oil or watercolor.
As an undergraduate college student, I thought I was going to be an art major until I took an optional field trip as part of a General Education course in physical geology that changed my life forever.
Even so, I still love creating art. You can follow me on Instagram at @lisamartin.artist or on my artist website.
Scholarship Recipients in CNSM AY 2020-2021
Robert K. Sprague Foundation Scholarship
- Abbas Abdulhasan (Biology – Molecular Cell/Physiology; Minor: Chemistry)
- Kayla Landers (Chemistry)
Georgia Griffiths/G2 Software Systems Endowed Scholarship
- Mika Wong (Mathematics - Applied Mathematics; Minor: Computer Science)
James L. Jensen Undergraduate Research Fellowship
- Andrew Alvarez (Biochemistry)
Glenn M. Nagel Undergraduate Research Fellowship
- Kevin Choi (Biology – Molecular Cell/Physiology)
James Stephenson Scholarship
- Yingqi Ni (Marine Biology)
Linnea Bucher Endowed Student Award
- Alyssa Choe (Biochemistry)
- Galilea Luquin-Estrada (Biology – Molecular Cell/Physiology)
Carl E. Riley Endowed STEM Award
- Luz Sesmas (Geology)
Richard D. Green Dean Endowed Graduate Fellowship Program
- Jessica Shinn (Biochemistry)
- Andrew Le (Applied Statistics)
- Parker Richardson (Biology)
- Francisco Ramirez (Physics)
- Derek Bergner (Physics)
- Aaron Sugimoto (Biology)
- Hannah Rabitoy (Biology)
- Daanish Kulkami (Biochemistry)
- Noemi Castro (Biochemistry)
- Heather Hershberger (Biochemistry)
- Christina Meadows (Geology)
- Justin Arakaki (Geology)
- Matthew Winger (Mathematics – Applied)
- Irabiel Romero (Mathematics – Applied)
- Victoria Lim (Mathematics – Applied)
- Ryan Russell (Mathematics)
- Jaaziell Lopez De La Luz (Mathematics)
- Carlos DeJesus Lima (Physics)
- Aytana Sanchez (Physics)
- Alyssa Bjorkquist (Science Education – Informal)
- Spencer Wonder (Science Education – Informal)
- Rick O’Connor (Science Education – Informal)
Home Work Spaces
Suellen Jacob - Vertebrate Technician, Department of Biological Sciences
Danny Ames - CNSM Web Master
Genna Beckenhaupt - CNSM Development Coordinator
Stay Safe & Healthy CNSM!
