IMPACT

Every summer, Oregon State’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) in the College of Science empowers students to turn curiosity into discovery, and in many cases, personal experiences into purpose. For Ashley Tran, it was finding a sense of belonging in a lab led by women of color.

The explosion of new lemur species that began when the first of those animals arrived on Madagascar more than 50 million years ago has not died down, according to scientists who’ve identified three different groups of lemurs with high speciation rates.

From lab bench to student outreach, Kaitlyn Kim built bridges — fusing curiosity with care to uplift others in every space she touched.

Professor of Physics Oksana Ostroverkhova is celebrated for her dedication to mentoring students and advancing interdisciplinary research in physics at Oregon State.

A College of Science alumna and a Ph.D. student have been awarded 2025–26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to conduct research abroad. They join 17 College of Science students and alumni who have earned Fulbright honors over the past decade.

Junior Natalie Donato earns national recognition for her dedication to marine conservation and science communication.

Audrey Bivens combined lab work, language immersion, and cultural exploration in Spain, gaining hands-on experience in crystallography while building confidence and career skills.

When she returned to college, senior zoology student Cierra Freese never expected she would feed a nocturnal kiwi chick in New Zealand or a barred owl in northern Michigan.

After growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska, Ella Bailey answered a calling that made others smile: training to be a dentist. But after her mother received a breast cancer diagnosis, Bailey wanted to drop out.

Two College of Science faculty members — Maude David and Oksana Ostroverkhova — are helping bridge science and art in FutureFarmers: Silicon Forest, a thought-provoking new exhibition exploring the entangled relationship between ecology, technology and human agency.

The College of Science is proud to announce that Alison Bain, assistant professor of chemistry, has been named one of the “Talented Twelve” by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. The honor celebrates early-career researchers who are making the world a better place through chemistry.

Auria Lee plans to go to medical school, but her training as a physician truly began as an undergraduate Honors biochemistry major at Oregon State.