Achievements

Dr. Jason R. Patton

Geology

Dr. Jason R. Patton was invited to and participated in the research cruise CASEIS16. The goals of this cruise were to characterize the tectonics of the convergent subduction zone plate boundary along the Lesser Antilles in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. Dr. Patton provided essential advice to the chief scientist Dr. Nathalie Feuillet for cruise planning by helping Dr. Feuillet locate core sites; locate seismic profile locations; describe, sample, and archive sediment cores; and conduct preliminary stratigraphic analyses. Dr. Patton provided expert advice on the methodology of turbidite paleoseismology.

Here is Dr. Patton’s research cruise blog http://humboldt-jay.blogspot.com/

Dr. Jason R. Patton

Geology

Dr. Jason R. Patton is a recipient of the Geological Society of America's (GSA) Kirk Bryan Award, granted by the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Division. This is one of the most prestigious awards granted to geologists that study the Quaternary (from 2.56 million years ago to present). http://www.geosociety.org/awards/divisions.htm#kirkBryan

Dr. Patton was a coauthor to the Goldfinger et al., USGS Publication, "Turbidite Event History—Methods and Implications for Holocene Paleoseismicity of the Cascadia Subduction Zone." The award is presented to all coauthors. http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1661f/

The award will be presented at the September 2016 GSA national meeting in Denver, CO.

Emily Klee, Aaron Kent, Jake Coniglione, Daniel Burgett, Heidi Otten, Jason McMack, Patrick Hasset, Jax Gill, Jake Burns

Environmental Resources Engineering

Again this winter, the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) sponsored the annual Mathematical Modeling Contest (MCM) and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). Student teams from the HSU Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) department have participated in this four day long contest for the last 15 years, and did so again this year. Competing against over 12,000 teams from thousands of universities, each team produced a report summarizing their solution to one of six possible problems.

This year, three ERE student teams entered in the competition that began on Thursday evening, January 28, and ended on Monday evening, February 1. The team consisting of Emily Klee, Aaron Kent, and Jake Coniglione, and the team consisting of Daniel Burgett, Heidi Otten, and Jason McMack, selected a problem that required understanding the drivers of water scarcity as they created intervention strategies for a region of the world to mitigate the water crisis. Both teams' reports were awarded the score of Meritorious Winners. Only 9 (0.3%) of the 3,209 teams working on this problem scored higher, and 83% of the teams received lower scores.

The team consisting of Patrick Hasset, Jax Gill, and Jake Burns selected a problem that required they build a mathematical model to determine an effective strategy for a person taking a bath to add heated water to raise the temperature back to near starting levels while minimizing the overall use of water. Patrick, Jax, and Jake competed against 4,094 teams and were awarded a ranking of Meritorious Winners, awarded to only 8% of the entries. Only 13 teams received a higher score.

Congratulations to the members of all three teams for their high achievement in this event. We appreciate your efforts, which bring recognition to the Environmental Resources Engineering Department and to Humboldt State University.

Josue Candelario, Kelly Fuentes, Jacob Hurd, Tony Mitchell III, Joshua Martinez, Noe Martinez, Cristina Olivares, Yaad Rana, Raymond Rios, David Rivera, and Eunice Romero

Environmental Resources Engineering

Environmental Resources Engineering Department students' recently competed in the Mid-Pacific Student Conference’s (Mid-PAC) Water Treatment Competition. At the competition, Humboldt State took first place overall competing against Fresno State, San Jose State, Tongi University, University of the Pacific, UC Berkeley, Chico State, UC Davis, Universite Laval, University of Nevada, and Sacramento State. HSU students also took first place in the construction category, second in water quality, and third in presentation. Students who competed include: Josue Candelario, Kelly Fuentes, Jacob Hurd, Tony Mitchell III, Joshua Martinez, Noe Martinez, Cristina Olivares, Yaad Rana, Raymond Rios, David Rivera, and Eunice Romero. The conference and competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

"Mid-PAC is an international competition with multiple categories, such as: steel bridge competition (teams have to construct a 20' bridge), concrete canoe (teams must design and race a canoe), and waste water treatment that we participated in this year. Humboldt has historically been involved with the waste water filter competition and is now tied for most wins in this competition with UC Berkeley, and Reno,” says Yaad Rana, a ERE student who participated in the competition.

“The competition started in 1998 as part of the conference, and as an environmental engineering school we always expect to do great in the water treatment field as other schools focus on other civil engineering topics,” says Rana. “The design for the competition at HSU starts with small groups of students creating filters and testing them at a local competition held by the local chapter of ASCE members. After this period we join together to try and create the most effective design to take to the international competition. The local competition is really just to get ideas out there from the students who are willing to participate from HSU. When we are all together we hashed out the final design and continued testing and preparing the design report and presentation,” says Rana.

The team this year consisted of four poster presenters (Noe Martinez, Cristina Olivares, Josue Candelario, and Kelly Fuentes), twp PowerPoint presenters (Eunice Romero and Josh Martinez), two operators (Yaad Rana, Ray Rios, David Rivera, and Tony Mitchel III), and one construction manager (Jacob Hurd). So everyone had the opportunity to be involved. Rana was the team Chair, along with Co-Chairs were Josh Martinez and Eunice Romero.

This year we won the following awards: 3rd place presentation, 2nd place water quality, 1st place construction, and 1st place overall.

“We all worked really hard and had a blast doing it. I am also relieved because I am confident that next year's team will be in good hands, since this will be my last time participating. The younger students now have the passion for the competition, and that is key for HSU's continual success at Mid-PAC,” says Rana. “We represented Humboldt really well (at one point Josh was separating recycling at the competition as the other schools didn't seem to care that they were making a huge mess overflowing a trash can), and we brought home the trophy which was actually created at Humboldt (a wooden toilet bowl mounted on a redwood stump)!"

Here is a Google Drive link to photos from the competition that may be used in Humboldt State publications:
https://drive.google.com/a/humboldt.edu/folderview?id=0B-AEKEKoaMHxRHVv…

Brandon Browne, Raul Becerra

Geology

Brandon Browne and Raul Becerra ('16) presented research at the Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section meeting in Ontario, California April 5-7. Their research project focused on understanding the origin and eruption of volcanoes on the Kern Plateau in the southern Sierra Nevada.

Steven Martin

Environmental Science & Management

Steve Martin and former graduate student Jessica Blackwell ('15) published a peer-reviewed article in the April issue of International Journal of Wilderness -- Personal Locator Beacons--Influences on Wilderness Visitor Behavior.

Lori Jones

Environmental Resources Engineering

Lori Jones, a senior student in Environmental Resources Engineering and Applied Mathematics received a 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). This fellowship will support her plan to assess the environmental impacts of tidal energy conversion arrays. Jones will be comparing the natural variations in the sedimentary environment and sea-floor characteristics of test sites with the changes that would be caused by a tidal energy converter array. She will use a three-dimensional hybrid modeling approach, validated with a small-scale physical model, capturing near and far field effects of the flow regime and sediment transport.

Ian Kelmartin and Jay Staton

Fisheries Biology

HSU graduate students Ian Kelmartin and Jay Staton presented posters at the COAST-WRPI Student Research Poster Reception at the Chancellor's Office on March 8, 2016. COAST is the CSU system-wide affinity group for marine and coastal related activities.

Melanie Michalak

Geology

Melanie Michalak, Assistant Professor of Geology, recently published a paper with co-authors in the peer-reviewed, Geological Society of America journal "Lithosphere." The paper, entitled "(U-Th)/He thermochronology records late Miocene accelerated cooling in the north-central Peruvian Andes," investigates the relationship between large-scale tectonics and long-term climate changes reflected in the morphology and rock uplift of the Peruvian Andes Mountains. doi:10.1130/L485.1

Shannon Murphy, Daniel Barton

Wildlife

Wildlife graduate student Shannon Murphy won best overall student presentation for her talk "Parental care behaviors in Brandt's cormorant (Phalacrocorax pencillatus): effects on reproductive success and use as indicators of the marine environment" at The Wildlife Society - Western Section meeting in Pomona, California, with co-authors Stephanie Schneider, Richard Golightly, and Daniel Barton.