IMPACT

Two Ph.D. students in the College of Science have been selected for the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Biochemists have taken a key step toward new drugs and vaccines for combating COVID-19 with a deep dive into one protein’s interactions with SARS-CoV-2 genetic material.

One of the most highly cited marine ecologists in the world, Distinguished Professor Jane Lubchenco, will lead climate and environmental science efforts in the White House as the new deputy director of climate and environment.

A pivotal Oregon State chemistry project – funded by a $493K grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust – will create a distinctive collaboration center for academic and industrial researchers that will bring synthetic chemistry into the digital age.

On behalf of the College, we wish to express our strong, unwavering support for Asian students, faculty and staff in our community and affirm everyone’s right to a safe and healthy university.

An evolutionary and population geneticist with strong regional and global impact, Professor Michael Blouin will present the 2021 Gilfillan Memorial Lecture, “What Darwin couldn’t imagine: A personal journey through the ever-changing field of evolutionary genetics.”

2005 physics alumna and planetary geologist Briony Horgan's research was key to determining the location on Mars for the Perseverance rover to explore. Explaining the challenge her team faced, she said, "“If we had to choose just one spot on Earth to gather all the data about the entire history of the planet — well, where would you go?”

Oregon State University will conduct its sixth round of TRACE-COVID-19 door-to-door sampling throughout Corvallis the weekend of March 13 and 14 for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Heather Masson-Forsythe, a fifth-year graduate student in the College of Science, is a winner in the 13^th annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest organized by Science Magazine in the newly created COVID-19 category. "I think the arts in general are really, really valuable on their own but also to communicate science, and as someone who really loves dance, I think it’s one of the best ways to communicate," she said.

Meghan Holst, a 2014 marine biology graduate and a biologist at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, co-developed a tool to help aquarists make end-of-life decisions for the giant Pacific octopus, a popular species in aquariums across the U.S.

Research led by Bo Sun, associate professor in the Department of Physics, has revealed a crucial mechanism behind one of humankind’s most deadly physiological processes: the movement of malignant cells from one part of the body to another.

Tim Zuehlsdorff, an assistant professor in computational chemistry, computes simulations of the optical properties of complex systems. His insights can help understand how light-absorbing molecules in complex environments, such as the process of photosynthesis or light absorption of rhodopsin, the low-light pigment in the retina.