Pressure from encroaching modernization is threatening traditional patterns of migration and collaboration in Inner Mongolia.
Category » Student Research
May 3, 2013
Biochar video
Learn how biochar is made, sequesters carbon and protects water quality
Perry Morrow, student in the Oregon State University Water Resources Graduate Program, produced this video on biochar, the carbonized remains of plants. Turning low-value wood and other biomass into biochar sequesters carbon from the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The resulting material may also benefit water quality by absorbing pollutants such as copper, lead, zinc [...]
May 3, 2013
Learning to Fly
More parents provide support for their adult children
For many first-year college students, going to a new school represents “leaving the nest.” They are now responsible for housing, bills and their own education. But according to Heidi Igarashi , a research assistant at Oregon State University, most are still in their parents’ nest and will be for several more years. “Parents used to [...]
April 11, 2013
Four Oregon State students honored by Barry M. Goldwater Foundation
Three Oregon State University students have been awarded the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, an annual award given for the nation’s top undergraduate student research scholars in science, math and engineering by the federally endowed Goldwater Foundation. A fourth student has received an honorable mention, making this OSU’s most successful year ever in the annual [...]
February 26, 2013
Roots of Relationship
Under the pine needles lies one of the secrets to forest health
The summer is warm and sunny in Corvallis, but my travels draw me east. Over and past the Cascades is an open land where the cold sparkling waters of a river flow north, and the sweet smell of Ponderosa pine blends with the fresh scent of lodgepole — the Deschutes National Forest. My one-person tent [...]
February 8, 2013
SimCity for Your Greenhouse
USDA Gives Technology Award to Forestry Student
When Lee Buckingham’s dad brought home a broken HP computer, Lee took it apart and fixed it. He was 15 years old. Through high school and college, the Oregon State graduate student in Forest Engineering, Resources and Management fed his appetite for technology (“I like to build them from parts”) and taught himself to write [...]
January 23, 2013
The Glove Goes Wireless
Student team wins national award for innovative design
A student-designed “wireless hand sensor” may not only help reduce hand and wrist injuries associated with repetitive motion but may have applications in robotics, medicine and computer gaming.
January 23, 2013
Ice Core Diaries
Records from the past carry warnings for our future
We are slowly beginning to understand the anatomy of global climate and how it changes, its geographic fingerprint and its tempo. Ice cores paint a complex and sometimes surprising picture, one that generations of scientists will spend decades trying to fully understand.
January 18, 2013
Student Researcher Aims to Give Kids a Boost in School
Sara says, "jump!"
Playing games may be fun and exciting for young children, but researchers have found they also can be academically beneficial. Human Development and Family Studies Ph.D. student Sara Schmitt is finding out just how much. “One of the primary studies I’ve been involved in here at Oregon State is trying to develop a screening tool [...]
January 18, 2013
Long Life and Naked Mole Rats
An undergraduate researcher searches for the key to long life
At 7 a.m., Minhazur Sarker is the first person to arrive in Tory Hagen’s lab on the third floor of the Linus Pauling Science Center. Hagen, a renowned researcher with the Linus Pauling Institute, studies the human healthspan. The research that takes place in his lab is focused toward a lofty goal: promoting healthy, less [...]
November 6, 2012
Octo-Enchantment
Finding solace and stress relief in an elusive cephalopod
A volunteer told me later that the nocturnal octopus rarely comes out during the day.
October 12, 2012
Far and Away
Oregon State students make discoveries from French Polynesia to the African savannah
When you play fetch with a killer whale, it makes an impression. When you play fetch with a killer whale and you’re only 7 years old, it can change your life. For Renee Albertson, the change was a long time in the making. But as she tried first one career and then another, she never [...]
September 17, 2012
Risk Assessment
When Annika Swanson arrived as a freshman at Oregon State in 2010, she already had a life purpose: join the ranks of research faculty studying the causes and effects of environmental pollution. “I’ve always had a deep interest in the environment and in environmental toxins and pollution. This began when I was younger and my [...]
July 11, 2012
Horns of Africa
Dylan McDowell studies endangered rhinos in Tanzanian reserves
In the place where Dylan McDowell grew up, wildlife meant sea lions, sandpipers, salmon and passing pods of spouting whales. Where he’s going this summer, wildlife means something else entirely, something reminiscent of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, exotic and fearsome: wildebeests, jackals, baboons, leopards, warthogs. And rhinos that have been poached nearly [...]
July 11, 2012
Sea Urchin
Caitlyn Clark takes her love of ecology to Ireland's first marine reserve
On her first-ever research trip, Caitlyn Clark trudged up and down hundreds of spongy hummocks spanning miles of arctic tundra, all the while swatting at giant mosquitoes and scanning for hungry polar bears. She was in Manitoba to collect data about the habitats of boreal frogs and stickleback fish for Earthwatch Institute Student Challenge Awards [...]
July 11, 2012
The Milky Way
Mais oui! Rachel Miller puts French ice cream to the taste and texture test.
When Rachel Miller was shadowing a pie scientist in her hometown of Spokane, Washington, no one — not her teachers, not her parents, and certainly not she herself — could have predicted that her high school job shadow would lead to possibly the coolest summer internship in the universe: tasting ice cream in France. OK, [...]
July 11, 2012
The Earth Burps and Burns
WeiLi Hong measures methane emissions in Korean ocean waters
When the Earth burps, WeiLi Hong listens. Whether Earth’s gaseous emissions bubble up from “mud volcanoes” on the planet’s surface or seep out of fissures on the ocean floor, the Oregon State University Ph.D. student has his monitoring gear to the ground. And sometimes, he’s actually in the ground. “I fell in twice,” Hong admits, [...]
July 11, 2012
Legacy of a Whale
Renee Albertson’s childhood encounter led her, decades later, to French Polynesia
Rain was pouring hard the day Renee Albertson first connected, face-to-face, with a marine mammal. She was a 7-year-old visiting British Columbia’s Sealand aquarium (Canada’s now-defunct answer to California’s SeaWorld) with her mom and dad. The daily show had been cancelled because of the downpour. The usual crowds were absent. As the soggy trio from [...]
July 3, 2012
Dolphin Defender
Rebecca Hamner boats New Zealand’s coastline collecting DNA from endangered dolphins
A dolphin’s dorsal fin can be as distinctive as a human fingerprint. As the fin slices through the sea, its unique pattern of pigments, nicks and scars relays the animal’s personal story to observers on the surface. Often, scientists can use these markings to ID individual dolphins. But for some species, fin IDs are not [...]
June 27, 2012
Labor of Love
Master's student aims to solve health-care puzzle
The resilience of the women was surprising, as was their appreciation for just being heard. After all, they are at the bottom of the social hierarchy in one of the world’s poorest countries. No one had shown much interest in their stories until an Oregon State University student showed up last winter. Bonnie Ruder, a [...]
June 6, 2012
Fisher of Rivers
Haley Ohms wades into Dolly Varden research in Japanese streams
A river runs through Haley Ohms’ life. Actually, a whole bunch of rivers. So spending the summer hip-deep in fast-moving water will feel familiar to the Oregon State University graduate student — even if those cold, tumbling waters flow on the other side of the Pacific Rim. The fish will seem familiar, too. The Dolly [...]
June 5, 2012
Pumped Up
Zachary Dunn helps bring clean water to Kenyan farmers
How far would you go to help someone get a glass of clean water? Zachary Dunn knows exactly how far he’d go: 9,000 miles. And that’s just one trip, one way. By summer’s end, Dunn and fellow Oregon State University students had traveled almost 36,000 miles — greater than the Earth’s circumference — to help [...]
May 26, 2012
Data Driven
Chris Patton uses computer modeling to help build world-champion racecars
When Chris Patton was helping his Formula SAE team design a racecar for international competition, he made an unusual suggestion: angle the rear wheels outward in relation to the car. Common knowledge would warn against that move. Turning the rear tires outward makes the car less stable. But Patton, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering [...]
May 25, 2012
Green mulch
More veggies and more fruit = more plastic mulch on farms. Oregon State students look for alternatives.
Bear with me; here’s the problem. Plastic mulch — those shiny sheets spread across row upon row of veggies, strawberries and other crops — enables farmers to produce more types and greater quantities of food. It makes farming more profitable, preserves soil moisture, reduces weeds and saves on labor costs. But this type of mulch [...]
February 21, 2012
Quartet for the Earth
Four students bring distinct perspectives to climate change research
A mountaineer, a world traveler, an athlete and a Chinese scholar pursue answers to climate change questions.
December 8, 2011
OSU undergraduate solves long-standing problem in organic chemistry
Sam Bartlett's findings make chemical synthesis faster, more efficient
When Sam Bartlett, an Oregon State University senior in chemistry, put on his lab coat, goggles and latex gloves in the summer of 2010, he didn’t expect to wind up helping organic chemists around the world. With guidance from Chris Beaudry, assistant professor of chemistry, he developed the most efficient and productive method yet reported [...]
December 6, 2011
Mapmaker for the climate
OSU grad student will help Web users visualize climate data
If you love 3-D graphics, the daily TV weather maps just keep getting better. With the sweep of an arm, an announcer can set winds and weather systems in motion like the master of ceremonies in a three-ring circus. We can sit back and watch clouds, rain and snow swirl over landscapes from local to [...]
November 28, 2011
Vital contributions
When Angelica Grizzle started college, her idea of research was scientists in lab coats looking into microscopes. When she found out that there were opportunities for undergraduate students to work with young kids on school readiness research, she jumped at the opportunity. Grizzle says the research seed was planted during her first year at Oregon [...]
October 31, 2011
Bridging the Nuclear Divide
Historian connects scientists and Navajo people
Nothing could have prepared Linda Richards for her visit to the Navajo Nation in 1986. The landscape was littered with piles of uranium debris. Signs warning of radioactive contamination were hung on playgrounds and living areas. The water wasn’t safe to drink. Families were living in homes made of radioactive materials. “Many of the people [...]
October 4, 2011
Birth Knowledge
Master's student aims to solve devastating maternal health problem in Uganda
As a midwife in Eugene, Ore., Bonnie Ruder has overseen more than 150 successful homebirths. When she leaves for Uganda with her family in November, she will be investigating circumstances when things don’t go so well.
