Faculty Lucy Kerhoulas, Rosemary Sherriff, Kerry Byrne Geography Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry), Rosemary Sherriff (Geography), and Kerry Byrne (ESM) were recently awarded funds from PG&E to evaluate tree failure and environmental conditions along PG&E infrastructure throughout five counties in northwestern California. The project involves both undergraduate and graduate students during the summer and academic year for 3 years.

Faculty Lucy Kerhoulas, Rosemary Sherriff, Erik Jules Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Lucy Kerhoulas (Forestry), Rosemary Sherriff (Geography), Erik Jules (Biology) are co-leading a new project to map the vegetation of the Klamath ecoregion along with undergraduate and graduate students, and collaborators from the California Native Plant Society and Michael Kauffmann (alum; Backcountry Press). The project involves sampling ~ 1600 locations across the 3-year project.

Faculty Justin Luong Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Dr. Justin Luong received a $520,000 grant to study how managed cattle grazing can provide benefits for wetland plant and animal communities at the Willits Bypass in Mendocino County. Managed grazing is a powerful tool for land management and has the potential to bolster biodiversity and carbon storage. Dr. Luong will work with local land agencies to assess how grazing exclusion affects special status plant species, overall plant communities, biodiversity, and soil carbon storage through traditional field study methods and aerial imagery. Collaborators include Drs. Sharon Kahara and Buddhika Madurapperuma. Funding comes from the California Bountiful Foundation.

Faculty Robert W. Zoellner, Tara S. Caso Chemistry Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner and his former student, Tara S. Caso, have published their third peer-reviewed article, together, entitled "The DFT computational investigation of the β-sila-α-amino acids and their β-permethylsila-analogs:  Silicon-containing amino acids as a viable foundation for silicon-based life”:  T. S. Caso, R. W. Zoellner, Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 2023, 22, 47–61.

Faculty Meenal Rana, Beth Phelps, Lonny Grafman Environmental Resources Engineering Meenal Rana, with co-authors, Beth Phelps and Lonny Grafman, has received the SSSP Best Paper Award in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the paper, “Youth-Adult Partnership in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement: A Case Study of Daula Village in India.” at the Society's annual conference in Philadelphia (Aug 18-20). The works adds to the literature by demonstrating ways the youth-adult partnerships can benefit the communities in their social entrepreneurship goals. The data comes from the "Rural Youth Volunteers in India", an international experiential learning project, in which Humboldt and Indian students and faculty worked for 11-weeks in two rural communities. 

Faculty Kamila Larripa Mathematics Kamila Larripa was selected to participate in the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics collaborative research workshop in data science.  She worked on tensor decomposition methods for machine learning.

Faculty Jeff Kane Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Dr. Jeff Kane received a grant to support restoration efforts for a rare tree species in the Plumas National Forest, the Baker Cypress, whose population was extirpated by the 2021 Dixie Fire. Currently, there are only 11 known Baker cypress populations worldwide. Under the project, Cal Poly Humboldt faculty and students will work towards re-establishing this population, collecting cones from the remaining mature stands of Baker cypress in northern California and southern Oregon. Additionally, students and faculty will be engaged with relevant research projects that can inform and improve gene conservation and restoration efforts for Baker Cypress.

Faculty Hunter Harrill Forestry, Fire & Rangeland Management Hunter Harrill (Assistant Professor) received a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service to assess the recently completed and present forest stewardship operations in western high-risk fire landscapes. The project will develop productivity models for fuel reduction operations, and make them publicly available for land managers to predict the cost of forest operations. The work will support the USFS Wildfire Crisis Strategy and is funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The research is also part of a larger multi-disciplinary team, collaborating with Northern Arizona University, West Virginia University, and Washington State University.

Faculty Robert W. Zoellner and Tara S. Caso Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner and his former student, Tara S. Caso, have published their third and final peer-reviewed article entitled "The DFT computational investigation of the β-sila-α-amino acids and their β-permethylsila-analogs:  Silicon-containing amino acids as a viable foundation for silicon-based life”:  T. S Caso, R. W. Zoellner, Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 2023, 22, 47–61.

Faculty Kamila Larripa, Bori Mazzag Mathematics Kamila Larripa and Bori Mazzag received a California Learning Lab grant to build critical mass in data science at Cal Poly Humboldt. Project team members include Enoch Hale, Rosanna Overholser and Angela Rich. The grant activities coincide with the launch of a data science major in Fall 2023, and will help move data science into the larger campus community.

Faculty Micaela Szykman Gunther Wildlife Dr. Micaela Szykman Gunther received funding from CalTrans to assess the efficacy and statewide applicability of an electronic elk detection system along a section of Highway 101. The system is designed to detect elk and activate warning signs to increase driver awareness when elk may be on or near the highway. Dr. Szykman Gunther will work with both students and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who will collar target elk, to monitor elk movement and survival. If successful, this system would increase elk movement between fragmented habitats, increase habitat permeability and survivorship, and decrease risks to passing motorists.

Faculty Rosemary Sherriff, Lucy Kerhoulas and Kerry Byrne Drs. Rosemary Sherriff, Lucy Kerhoulas and Kerry Byrne received a grant from PG&E to study tree health, vegetation, and fuel characteristics in five dominant forest types throughout five counties in Northern California. Research findings will identify conditions that are commonly associated with tree mortality and breakage, which will help PG&E prioritize vegetation management efforts to vulnerable areas. Sara Hanna (Forestry) is also a key collaborator for GIS analysis, as well as two graduate and five undergraduate students.

Student Jacob Aguilera, Elizabeth Aparicio, Lisa Elconin, Dennis Lindelof, Jane Martinez, Emily Shiver, Jacky Baughman, Melanie Michalak Geology Jacob Aguilera, Elizabeth Aparicio, Lisa Elconin, Dennis Lindelof, Jane Martinez, and Emily Shiver presented their original research in Reno, NV at the Geological Society of America Section Meeting. They participated in a pilot one-year long program integrating quantitative, field and lab-based geologic research into the Geology curriculum, led by faculty mentors Jacky Baughman and Melanie Michalak, funded by an NSF AGeS-DiG grant. They presented two posters; i) on their investigation of the effects of a 52 million year old tectonic plate shift on the northern Klamath Mountains, and ii) what the research cohort collaboration was like from their experience.

Student Daniel Abel, Osvaldo Bustos-Perez, Derek Cohen, Regina Khoury, Jane Martinez, Rebecca Reibel, Giorgio Vitti, Melanie Michalak Geology Daniel Abel, Osvaldo Bustos-Perez, Derek Cohen, Regina Khoury, Jane Martinez, Rebecca Reibel, and Giorgio Vitti co-authored and presented their original research in Reno, NV on May 17th at the Geological Society of American Cordilleran Section Meeting. Their research used statistical approaches from geochemical data to reconstruct the geologic and tectonic history of the Montgomery Creek Formation, an ancient river system that is found today in the eastern Klamath Mountains Province. The original work was incorporated into a Methods in Geochronology course taught by Melanie Michalak (Geology); students travel was supported by the Geology Moory Opportunities Fund. 

Student Taylor Bell, Cortland Navarette and Jacob J Taylor Environmental Resources Engineering For over two decades, School of Engineering students have competed in the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) annual Mathematical Modeling Contest (MCM) and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM).  Over 11,000 teams from thousands of universities and 21 different countries participate in the 4-day competition and produced a report summarizing their solution to one of six possible problems. The team consisting of Taylor Bell, Cortland Navarette, and Jacob J Taylor, selected a problem focused WORDLE. The team was awarded the score of Honorable Mention, with only 10% of the teams receiving a higher score. Photos

Faculty Dr. Jose Marin Jarrin, Dr. Andrew Kinziger, and Michelle Schuiteman Fisheries Biology Dr. Jose Marin Jarrin, Michelle Schuiteman, and Dr. Andrew Kinziger received a grant to develop a population baseline of fish communities in the lower estuary of the Klamath River. The study will ensure that changes in the Klamath River estuary due to climate change and dam removal will be measurable, and will also develop a working group that can continue to tackle coastal marine issues in Northern California, including Klamath estuary monitoring. The project will be led by the Yurok Tribe Fisheries Department, with support from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and US Fish and Wildlife Service staff.

Student Abby Keltz, Alexandra Papesh Physics & Astronomy Physics & Astronomy majors Abby Keltz and Alexandra Papesh presented research at the 2023 April Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS), held in Minneapolis, MN from April 15th - 18th. Keltz presented the talk "Testing Gravitational Interactions Below 50 Microns," while Papesh presented a poster describing a collaborative project with Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis (IUPUI) entitled "Improved Measurement of the Newtonian Gravitational Constant G." Keltz was recognized as one of the "Outstanding Undergraduate Presenters" by the conference organizers. Both projects are supported by the National Science Foundation.

Faculty Kamila Larripa Mathematics Kamila Larripa has been awarded a 3 year National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences grant for $307,661 to study immune cell activation using multi-scale mathematical models.  The project includes collaborating biologists at other institutions and will incorporate and train undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research techniques.

Faculty Dr Peter Goetz Mathematics Will give a talk titled "Frobenius extensions, Artin-Schelter regular algebras and Azumaya loci" at the Spring Western Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society at CSU, Fresno on Sunday, May 7, 2023. The Azumaya locus of a polynomial identity algebra is an algebraic variety that parametrizes the irreducible modules of maximal dimension. Typically the Azumaya locus is very hard to determine. Dr. Goetz will describe results from his current research project on using Frobenius extensions to compute Azumaya loci.

Faculty Dr. Oscar Vargas Biological Sciences Dr. Oscar Vargas collaborated in the assemblage and annotation of a spiral ginger genome. Authors sequenced the nuclear genome of two species of plants in the family Costaceae. The study provides a draft annotation for the genome by mapping the transcriptome (RNA, expressed DNA) of one species to its draft genome. This study provides useful genetic resources for the study of non-model organisms. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad018