CNSM Highlights from the Office of the Dean

Volume 1, Number 1 :: Spring 2007 :: February 5, 2007

Welcome Back to the Start of an Exciting New Semester

A warm welcome back to all faculty and staff as we begin the Spring 2007 semester! There are many good things happening in this College and I hope to highlight and celebrate our successes throughout the academic year using this semimonthly email as my information vehicle. All too often we only hear of student, faculty and staff success long after the special event or accomplishment takes place; we miss the opportunity to congratulate our colleagues and recognize their achievements. The Dean's Commission on Excelling in Research (DCER), a team composed of faculty from all six CNSM departments, has given me some initial feedback from the faculty indicating we should take more time recognizing hard work and achievements in this College. I do believe that we in the College have always prided ourselves in our strong students, faculty and staff. Thus, I commit to recognizing the excellence we have in this College in a more frequent and public way. In each semimonthly email there will be spotlight sections on students, faculty and staff along with a section titled College, Campus, and Community Highlights and Events. I look forward to regularly sharing the good work of our College family through this new CNSM Highlights Email. Let's begin this new tradition now in February, 2007!

Have a great semester!

Laura

Laura Kingsford, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
California State University Long Beach

Spotlight on Students

Beckman Scholars Program: In 1997, the Beckman Foundation initiated the Beckman Scholars Program, which recognizes outstanding undergraduate students in chemistry, biochemistry, biological and medical sciences research at select universities and colleges throughout the United States. Between 1998 and 2006, 479 students at 67 universities have received these prestigious awards. CSULB was selected last year as one of the 13 institutions nationwide to be the recipient of the prestigious 2006-2009 Beckman Scholars Program Award. In the award letter, Ms. Jacqueline Dorrance, Executive Director of the Beckman Foundation, wrote that "the thirteen 2006 Beckman Scholars Program Institutional Award recipients have convincingly demonstrated excellence, distinction and distinctiveness in their undergraduate research capabilities and commitments as well as in their plans and activities for their Beckman Scholars." As a note of distinction, this is the third time CSULB has received a Beckman Scholars Program Award. The goal of the Beckman Scholars Program at CSULB is to advance the education, research training, and personal development of students who have the potential to achieve distinction in their academic field, as well as become outstanding leaders in their careers and professions. Support is provided for five students working toward bachelor's degrees in chemistry, biology, or physics in the form of student stipends, laboratory supplies and funds for travel to appropriate scientific meetings. Depending on the laboratory chosen for the research experience, students will receive rigorous training by faculty members in the use and applications of a variety of different techniques involved in nucleic acid research, protein biochemistry, biophysics, etc. The program will also provide counseling and career opportunities for entrance into higher degree programs in the sciences. Our current Beckman Scholars are Meena Haghmoradkhan (Judy Brusslan, Mentor) and Cassandra Cox (Steve Mezyk, Mentor). We are very proud of our Beckman Scholars!

Program Directors for the Beckman Scholars Award are Dr. Editte Gharakhanian (PI, Department of Biological Sciences) and Dr. Douglas McAbee (Co-PI, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry).

Supporting our Beckman Scholars are our Beckman Scholars Program faculty mentors. The following CNSM faculty members are program participants/mentors to our Beckman Scholars (by department):

Department of Biological Sciences: Dr. Judith Brusslan, Dr. Kay Lee Fruman, Dr. Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Dr. Bryan Rourke, Dr. Kelly Young.

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry: Dr. Xiahui Bu, Dr. Lijuan Li, Dr. Stephen Mezyk, Dr. Krzysztof Slowinski, Dr. Paul Weers

Kudos go out to our Beckman Scholars and their faculty mentors! You can learn more about this program at http://www.csulb.edu/depts/biology/beckman/index.html.

Spotlight on Faculty and Staff

Judy Brusslan, a faculty member from the Department of Biological Sciences, has been appointed chair of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Women in Plant Biology Committee and also is serving on the ASPB Executive Committee. Her work in developing experiments that can be tailored to simultaneously teach plant physiology to elementary and college students earned her ASPB's Education Booth Award at this year's annual meeting. She has twice served as a panelist for the Society's Career Workshop seminar. She was first appointed to the ASPB Women in Plant Biology Committee in 2004. ASPB has 5,000 members from the U.S. and nearly 60 other nations and publishes the journals The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology.

Many THANKS and a fond farewell go out to Marguerite Smith, the Fiscal Officer in Biological Sciences. Marguerite has retired after 33 years of outstanding service to the University. We welcome Catherine Durham, formerly of Academic Affairs, to take on the responsibilities of this important job.

Congratulations go out to Bill Straits, a faculty member in Science Education, who recently received the Innovations in Teaching Science Teachers Award from the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE). This international organization selected Bill for this award based on his 2006 JSTE publication titled, 'Using Historical Non-Fiction and Literature Circles to Develop Elementary teachers' Nature of Science Understandings'. Bill co-authored this article with his colleague Dr. Sherry Nichols.

College, Campus and Community Highlights and Events

Kudos to CNSM Faculty Seeking and Acquiring External Funding: We speak often of the importance of soliciting and acquiring external funding support for our faculty and student research in the College, but all too infrequently do we recognize the hard work put into writing and submitting proposals. It is also rare that we publicly recognize faculty success when a grant is awarded. We need to do both – recognition of both hard work and grant writing success is well-deserved and I will continue to publish these public recognitions monthly throughout the academic year. Please congratulate your CNSM colleagues when you see them on campus.

CNSM Faculty Members who have submitted grants during January, 2007:

• Roger Acey, Thioindoles and Indolines as Selective Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Funding Agency: NIH
• Elizabeth Eldon, Signaling in Drosophila ovarian follicle cells, Department of Biological Sciences, Funding Agency: NSF-RUI
• Eun Heui Kim, Nonlinear Free Boundary Problems, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Funding Agency: Dept. of Energy
• Chuhee Kwon, Using Xassini Data to Compare the Roughness of the Two Hemispheres of the Lapetus, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Funding Agency: NASA
• Simon Malcomber, Evolution of Graminoid Poales Based on Inflorescence Development and Developmental Genes, Department of Biological Sciences, Funding Agency: NSF-RUI
• Bruno Pernet et al, MRI: Acquisition of a Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope for Research & Training in the Natural Sciences at CSULB, Department of Biological Sciences, Funding Agency: NSF-MRI
• Young Shon, Controlled Synthesis of Nanoparticle-Cored Dendrimers for Dendritic Encapsulation of Functional Molecules, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Funding Agency: NSF-RUI
• Krzysztof Slowinski, Electrical mapping of cytochrome c, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Funding Agency: NSF-RUI

CNSM Faculty Members who have been Awarded Funding during January, 2007:

• Flora Banuett, Regulation of Nuclear Migration and Position in the Dimorphic Fungus Ustilago, Department of Biological Sciences, Funding Source: NIH MBRS SCORE Program
• Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Developing an Alternative Animal Model System for Visual Social Perception, Department of Biological Sciences, Funding Source: NIH MBRS SCORE Program
• Laura Henriques, Science Experience for children at St. Joseph Elementary School, Department of Science Education, Funding Source: Clancy Foundation
• Robert Mena et al, Math Day at the Beach, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Funding Sources: Beckman Coulter and Pacific Life Insurance Company
• Mike Myers, The Role of Maxi-K Channels in a Viral Therapy for Glioma Cell Cancer, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Funding Source: CSUPERB

CSU Foundation Announces Availability of More Than $350,000 in Scholarships for students for the 2007-08 Academic Year – Please pass this information and link on to your students – many deadlines are fast approaching.

President's Commission on Status of Women at CSULB seeks nominations for its Fifth Annual Advancement of Women Awards. The commission will honor a student, staff member, faculty member and an administrator who have actively contributed to the advancement of women at the university. Deadline is February 23rd – Please think about nominating someone from our College.

CSULB Engineering, Science and Technology Job Fair is scheduled for February 28th from 12noon-4:00pm in the Student Union Ballroom. Please let our CNSM students know of this important event. During the next few weeks students can stop by the Career Development Center to learn how to prepare resumes and discuss interviewing techniques and strategies.

Upcoming Local Science-Related Events of Possible Interest:

Feb. 9: UCI astrophysicist Manoj Kaplinghat will give a public talk titled "Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Cosmology" at 7:15pm in Irvine Lecture Hall, Chapman University. The talk is sponsored by the SoCal Science Cafe.

Feb. 21: Ecologist Tim Bradley will discuss "The Geology and Biology of Mono Lake: A Natural Wonder," 11:15am, University Club, UCI.

Feb. 21: Award winning writer-producer Tom Levenson will give a talk titled "Good Science and Good Television: A Natural Fit?", 7:00pm (Location TBA). Levenson -- whose latest book is "Einstein in Berlin," will discuss what the late physicist, chocolate and the U.S. Capitol have in common. He'll also discuss storytelling in his role as associate professor of science writing at MIT.

Feb. 28: Eugenie Scott,the physical anthropologist who directs the National Center for Science Education, will discuss "The Evolution of Creationism," 7:00pm. Scott is co-author of "Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools." The talk will be at the Beckman Center, 100 Academy Way in Irvine. For more information contact Janet DeMint at jdemint@nas.edu.

Feb. 28: Karla Heidelberg, a marine biologist at USC, will discuss, "Coral Reefs: Trouble in Paradise," 7:00pm, Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach.

If you know of information that you feel should appear in future issues of my semimonthly emails, please email Maureen McMahon, CNSM Director of Research and External Support, at mmcmahon_csulb@yahoo.com.