CNSM Highlights from the Office of the Dean

Volume 1, Number 2 :: Spring 2007 :: February 19, 2007

Spotlight on Departmental Colloquia and Seminars

Dear Faculty,

There is much to celebrate in this college – from the classrooms to the laboratories and out into the field – students, faculty and staff in CNSM are doing great things! I want to take a moment in this Highlights email to focus on our many opportunities for intellectual growth, sharing and socializing that we have right here in our College. I'm talking about our departmental colloquia and seminar programs. What a wealth of knowledge and experience the colloquia and seminar speakers have to share with us! Time is often our enemy as we struggle to attend weekly or monthly departmental talks; thinking about attending seminars in other departments is almost unthinkable. However, I want to encourage you to take time to engage with colleagues within your department and across the college. It is often through these talks and the informal conversations surrounding the talks that we are recharged and reenergized. Below you will find direct links to the departmental colloquia and seminars available for Spring 2007 across the college. Special thanks go out to those faculty and staff in each department who plan and host these seminar talks!

Departmental Colloquia and Seminar Links

• Biological Sciences: http://www.csulb.edu/depts/biology/pages/seminars.shtml
• Chemistry and Biochemistry: http://chemistry.csulb.edu/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=94&MMN_position=102:102
• Geological Sciences: http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/departments/geology/calendar.shtml
• Mathematics and Statistics: http://www.csulb.edu/depts/math/colloquia/Spring07.html
• Physics and Astronomy: http://www.csulb.edu/depts/physics/events/colloquium.shtml
• Science Education: http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/depts/scied/

On a related note, I want to take a moment to personally invite you to our upcoming Nobel Laureate talk to be held on Tuesday, March 6th, 11:15am-1:00pm in the University Ballroom. Our speaker will be Dr. Douglas Osheroff, 1996 Physics Nobel Prizewinner. Dr. Osheroff and his colleagues, Drs. Lee and Richardson, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. Dr Osheroff's upcoming talk is titled, "How Advances in Science are Made". I hope you are able to join us on March 6th for Dr. Osheroff's talk. Please take a moment in your classes to invite our students to attend as well.

Have a great week,

Laura

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

Spotlight on Students

2007 Howell-CSUPERB Scholars Announced! CSUPERB has entered into a long-term joint venture with the Doris A. Howell Foundation for Women's Health Research. CSUPERB and the Howell Foundation co-fund $2500 Research Fellows Awards for CSU undergraduate research students. Four of the eleven scholars for 2007 are from CNSM at CSULB - how wonderful! Below are the scholars' names along with their mentors' names. Please take a moment to congratulate the students and the faculty when you see them around the college.

Jennifer Casey – Brian McClain, mentor
Cassandra Cox – Steven Mezyk, mentor
Katy Swancutt – Steven Mezyk, mentor
Lisa Vrooman – Kelly Young, mentor

Mark Berkstresser, a secondary science credential candidate, was selected to serve as the student representative to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Committee on Preservice Teacher Preparation. Mark comes to CSULB's science teaching credential program with a variety of experiences - he is a Lt. Col. in the Air Force (having served time in Iraq), he's volunteered in the Peace Corps and participated in 5 Earth Watch programs. Mark is going to be a high school biology teacher when he finishes his secondary science credential program in the Department of Science Education.

Elizabeth Tran has paper accepted! Former HHMI student, Elizabeth Tran, recently had a paper accepted by Animal Behaviour. This is one of the top journals in Animal Ecology. The paper provides experimental evidence of light intensity serving as an environmental factor that can affect patch selection and anti-predator decisions in birds due to glaring effects on birds' eyes. Co-author, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, applauds Tran's work as a student in the HHMI Program and notes that this paper is an important contribution to the current literature.

Spotlight on Faculty and Staff

Flora Banuett, Biology Professor, is among researchers in a major study published in Nature journal. Banuett is involved with the Fungal Genome Initiative of the Broad Institute at MIT. Other collaborators include Bayer Crop Science, Exelisis Inc, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Germany, and many others. Banuett and a team of 25 researchers worked on their study titled "Insights from the genome of the biotrophic fungal plant pathogen Ustilago maydis," published in the November 2, 2006 issue of Nature.

Alan Colburn, a faculty member from the Department of Science Education, is part of the CSULB leadership team in our new CASTL Institutional Leadership Program. CSULB was one of 87 higher education institutions or networks of institutions worldwide selected to participate in a new program that has the goal of improving undergraduate and graduate education through The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL).

Bob Loeschen, CNSM Director of Instructional and Research Facilities, was recently interviewed for The Beach Review. Building the Foundation of Science is the Beach Review's article highlighting the importance of scientific research and the associated infrastructure needed to support faculty and students engaged in this research. Beth Eldon, her students and her lab are seen photographed for the article in The Beach Review.

Zoltan Papp, a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department, has been very successful since his arrival on campus three years ago. Since joining the faculty in CNSM, Papp has published 11 papers, including one in Physical Review Letters, two in Phys. Rev. A, one in Phys. Rev. C, and one in Nucl. Phys. A. Several of these are with Professors Hu and Hlousek, and one has a current graduate student, Firuz Demir, as a co-author.

College, Campus and Community Highlights and Events

Webcast of 2006 Fields Medal Winner Talk - UCLA Science Faculty Research Colloquium Series presents Structure and Randomness in the Prime Numbers [.smil], Talk by Terence Tao, Professor of Mathematics, Endowed Chair in Mathematics and 2006 Fields Medal winner. View a webcast of Tao's excellent Jan 17th, 2007 standing room only lecture at http://www.webcast.ucla.edu. [Note: You may have to download RealPlayer (free) to view the lecture.]

Fitness Opportunities for Staff, Faculty: The following activities and programs are available (for a nominal fee) to CSULB staff and faculty through the Department of Recreation and Club Sports: [Deep water exercise, Shallow water exercise, Lap swimming, Yoga, Pilates, Line dancing, Circuit workouts on weight machines, Walking, Cardio kickboxing, Faculty/staff fitness program, Golf lessons, Surfing lessons]. For more information or to sign up, stop by the Recreation Office in Physical Education, Room 20 or call (562) 985-2570. You may also visit its Web site.

The CSULB Alumni Association cordially invites you to Homecoming '07. Celebrating "Back to 49er Days: Pride and Tradition" bring your family and friends to the biggest celebration in town. Come and enjoy free activities for the whole family. Homecoming activities will take place on February 24th, 12-4pm in the Pyramid parking lot.

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-4pm 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 and Math-Related Events of Possible Interest

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

Feb 21: Nobel Laureate Robert H. Grubbs will talk on "The Design of New Selective Olefin Metathesis catalysis for Organic Synthesis", 4:15pm Seaver North Auditorium, Pomona College, 645 N. College Ave, Claremont, (909) 621-8448

Feb 22: Biochemistry Seminar, "Chemistry of the Molecules of Life—Total Synthesis of Proteins for Biological Research," Professor Stephen Kent, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago, 4:00pm-5:00pm, 147 Noyes, Sturdivant Lecture Hall, Caltech.

Feb 23: Applied Physics Special Seminar, "Intrinsic Noise Properties of Atomic Point Contact Displacement Amplifiers," Konrad Lehnert, associate fellow of JILA and assistant professor of physics, NIST, University of Colorado, 4:00pm-5:00pm, 104 Watson, Caltech.

Feb 26: Chen-Huang Sustainable Energy Seminar Series: A Conversation with Thomas Friedman, 12:00noon-1:30pm, Beckman Auditorium, Caltech. Nathan S. Lewis, Caltech's Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry will converse with columnist and author Thomas Friedman about energy security, energy independence, environmental security, economic security, and how they interrelate. Information: http://events.caltech.edu/events/event-4301.html.

Feb 26: Scripps Chemistry Lecture Series– "From the Insoluble Dye Indirubin towards Highly Active Soluble CDK2 Inhibitors", Rolf Jautelat, Ph.D.

Feb 27: KNI Nanoscience Colloquia Series, "Quantum Mechanics in the Information Age," Charles Marcus, professor of physics and director of the Center for Nanoscale Systems, Harvard University, 4:00pm-5:00pm, Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech.

Feb 27: Scripps Chemistry Lecture Series– "A Bio-based Electronic Switch and Digital Memory"; Yang Yang, Professor, UCLA Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

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.

Mar 6: 30th Nobel Laureate Talk - Dr. Douglas Osheroff, 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics. Dr. Osheroff's talk is titled, "How Advances in Science are Made". The talk will be in the CSULB University Ballroom, 11:15am-1:00pm. (more...)

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.