Kathleen Dean Moore

Oregon State University professors Kathleen Dean Moore and Gary Ferngren have been selected by OSU’s University Honors College for its Eminent Professor Awards for 2011. These awards recognize outstanding OSU faculty for their academic achievements and service to the honors college and its students.

Moore, who holds the university’s “Distinguished Professor” title, is a faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and the founding director of the Spring Creek Project. She is a leading writer and scholar on environmental ethics and the author of several books and essay collections on the natural world. Moore has brought environmental philosophy to popular audiences and professionals, and engaged students on the topic.

During this past winter term, she taught a University Honors College course in “Practical Reasoning for the Environmental Professional,” that culminated in a March weekend spent in the snowy forests of the McKenzie River headwaters, where students discussed the moral issues ingrained in the daily work of natural resource professionals.

Ferngren was recognized as a 2011 Sandy and Elva Sanders Eminent Professor for his years of service to the University Honors College. He is a professor in the Department of History with research interests in the histories of religion, ancient medicine, and the relationship between science and religion. Like Moore, he is recognized as one of OSU’s top teachers, and has shown special commitment to the University Honors College.

Gary Ferngren

For more than 30 years, Ferngren has offered a colloquium in the works of C.S. Lewis, first for the OSU Honors Program and, since its founding in 1995, for the University Honors College. The course has become a favorite institution in the UHC curriculum, and it has consistently received superlative reviews from students.

The Eminent Professor awards are made possible through the support of donors, particularly Ruth Beyer and Joseph (Sandy) and Cheryl Sanders.

Crimp was the only OSU student to receive the recognition this year.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the late senator, who served for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate.

The scholarships are designed to encourage highly qualified students to pursue careers in science, mathematics and engineering.

Crimp, a native of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, arrived at Oregon State in 2007 after graduating from Lake City High School. She chose OSU because of the university’s actuarial sciences program, and because she wanted to attend a large university that would provide her with a lot of opportunities. During her freshman year she decided that she wanted to focus on a different area of science, choosing biochemistry/biophysics.

“The program offers a very challenging and rigorous curriculum,” she said, “and I always enjoy a challenge.”

After graduation, Crimp hopes to attend medical school and obtain an M.D./Ph.D dual degree in biochemistry so that she can conduct translational biomedical research and teach at a medical university. The Goldwater Scholarship has given her a real boost as she pursues that goal, she said.

“Winning the Goldwater scholarship was a tremendous personal accomplishment and really showed that all of my hard work over the past three years has paid off.,” she said. “I have remained extremely focused on my school work and have began to put a significant amount of time and effort into research as well.

“The commitment to these activities has really strengthened my overall experience at OSU,” she added, “and will surely help me accomplish my future career goals.”

~ Theresa Hogue

Freshman Emily Pickering is currently in the Bahamas studying lionfish with an OSU research team. She is the only freshman ever allowed on the trip, led by Mark Hixon. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Pickering, a University Honors College student and biology major, is the first freshman ever to accompany Hixon and his group to tiny Lee Stocking Island, where they will spend much of their summer underwater, surveying the invasive lionfish, which decimate other tropical fish populations and threaten coral reefs.

“As a long-time SCUBA diver, Emily is extremely enthusiastic to apply her underwater skills to studying coral reefs,” says Hixon.

Pickering will be heading to the Bahamas with grant money from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), which funds undergraduate research. “I was ecstatic when I got the grant,” Pickering says. “Writing it was an amazing experience. I felt so proud of the work I’d done.”

The first time Pickering heard about Hixon’s research at a lecture for incoming Honors students – she thought, “Wow, that could be me.”

From there, it was all about the legwork.

Pickering contacted Megan Cook, an undergraduate who had accompanied Hixon to Lee Stocking Island the year before. She spoke with biochemistry professor and HHMI Director Kevin Ahern, who mentored her throughout the grant process and gave her confidence that she had something to offer Hixon – despite her lack of lab experience and freshman status. And most importantly, Pickering contacted Hixon on her own.

“It was a little intimidating to approach Mark Hixon and say, ‘Hey, I want to work for you,’ but he quickly responded to my calls, and before I knew it, I was in his office talking about his work and being a part of his research team,” says Pickering. Hixon sent Pickering to graduate zoology student Mark Albins, who helped her with the HHMI grant proposal.

“I wrote my version of the proposal and sent it to Mark (Albins). It came back smothered in red ink. But it didn’t matter – I learned so much from the process and from the people I talked to that actually getting the grant almost seemed like an added bonus. It felt good to produce something I had put everything into and that I knew was my best work,”

During her three months on Lee Stocking Island, Pickering will be spending her days helping Albins survey lionfish and with his research on population dynamics. In the free time she has, Pickering will run her own experiments – she’ll be studying lionfish prey preference and digestion.

She will also be blogging about her experiences in the Bahamas, so that readers and students get an idea of what day-to-day life at a research station is like.

To read Pickering’s blog, go to http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/bahamas/

~ Celene Carillo

Many undergraduates working on research projects this summer

Many Oregon State University undergraduates will be spending time in the field this summer, working on research projects as varied and as important as many that their graduate student counterparts will be exploring during the break.

The stories of a handful of those undergraduate researchers will be shared in the summer edition of Terra research magazine, which you can find at http://oregonstate.edu/terra:

Here is a sample of some of the people featured in Terra.

Who: Ishan Patel, first year student in bioengineering and the University Honors College
What: Johnson Scholarship to work on an experimental model to simulate pressure drive bleeding at Oregon Health Science University.
What else: At OHSU, Patel will work with Owen J. T. McCarty, an expert in cell transport in arteries. Medical researchers have had limited success in simulating arterial bleeding, says Patel.

Who: Alexa Carey, sophomore in business, speech communications and the University Honors College.
What: Project manager for the annual Young Entrepreneurs Business Week summer camp, July 19-25 at OSU.
What else: Along with three friends, Carey has created Project Earth, a program to teach children how to run a business and create a marketable product and a set of long-term goals. They’ve already taken the project to Gold Beach, and hope to one day take it to Brazil.

Who: Shalynn Pack, junior in zoology
What: This summer she’ll work at Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya with the Kenyan Wildlife Service on protecting threatened wildlife.
What else: At OSU, Pack has studied molecular genetics in salamanders, served as a mentor in a science education program and volunteered for the Homeless Gardens Project.

~ Nick Houtman