IMPACT

The College of Science is using research-backed pedagogy, interactive labs, and virtual kits to let students worldwide master science courses like chemistry, physics, and anatomy with the same rigor as in-person classes.

Nathan Clay-Ehart (‘24) had just graduated with a zoology degree when he boarded a plane to Aruba. The nine-day study abroad opportunity was his first chance to meet Oregon State classmates face-to-face after earning his degree entirely online.

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.

Faculty, staff and graduate students from the College of Science won nine awards at University Day, the celebratory kickoff to the academic year featuring an annual awards ceremony. These awards highlight excellence in teaching, advising, research and diversity advocacy, showing the College as a leader across the university.

Samantha Crockett's journey from a struggling college student to a thriving zoology graduate is a testament to the transformative power of online education. Faced with isolation and academic disillusionment, she found her stride at Oregon State University's Ecampus program, where supportive professors and flexible learning opportunities reignited her passion for zoology.

Thanks to the efforts of College of Science faculty, nearly 800 Oregon State students can now cross expensive anatomy textbooks off their to-buy list each year. Incredibly, so can the rest of the world.

Graduating this year with an online degree in zoology, Zoey Vagner hopes to use her education from Oregon State University to help raise public awareness about science to preserve the world we live in.

A wildlife research biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Brent Wolf couldn't be happier with the career path he's found.

Dickinson was working as an engineer at HP in Corvallis when she realized that a better understanding of data would make her work even more impactful. The value of data for industry really stood out to her, she said. Oregon State’s two-year online Graduate Program in Data Analytics gave her the flexibility to earn her credentials while still working full-time at HP.

When the global pandemic forced the closure of college science departments across the nation, Dr. Kari van Zee, Dr. Ryan Mehl, Dr. Rick Cooley, and graduate student Phil Zhu—department faculty and research members at Oregon State University—had to think fast to adapt their hands-on senior-level research methods course to support remote and hybrid models of learning.

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.

Lab work plays a critical role in many scientific fields – which is why this year, as classes moved online, Oregon State’s science labs moved quickly to adapt.