Research and Sponsored Projects – CSUN Today https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu California State University, Northridge Thu, 28 Mar 2024 16:52:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.30 CSUN Partners with Fernandeño Tataviam Band to Build Urban Forests in Disadvantaged Communities https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-partners-with-fernandeno-tataviam-band-to-build-urban-forests-in-disadvantaged-communities/ Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:07:15 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55471

Aerial view of North Hollywood and Burbank in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California.

CSUN is partnering with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Tataviam Land Conservancy to battle the impact of climate change in disadvantaged communities throughout the San Fernando Valley by establishing “urban forests.” Photo by trekandshoot, iStock.


California State University, Northridge is partnering with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Tataviam Land Conservancy to battle the impact of climate change in disadvantaged communities throughout the San Fernando Valley by establishing “urban forests.”

With the support of a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Urban and Community Forestry Program, university officials and tribal leaders plan to tap into the tribe’s traditional ecological knowledge to establish tribal nurseries and workforce development programs that focus on growing and planting culturally significant native trees in low-income communities that are disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution.

“As the caretakers of our native land in the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys, this grant will enable us to use our traditional ecological knowledge, in tune with current climate data, to bring back the forest and breathe new life into our communities,” said tribal president, Rudy Ortega, Jr. “We will do this by engaging with our Elders, tribal citizens and other stakeholders to ensure that the trees that we plant are sustainable and resilient.”

Crist Khachikian, a professor of civil engineering and construction management at CSUN and one of the project’s leads, elaborated on the project’s objectives.

“Our efforts are geared towards enhancing the urban tree canopy,” Khachikian said. “Which is essential for cooling our cities and mitigating the effects of climate change in vulnerable communities.”

Khachikian stressed the importance of an inclusive approach.

“Centering traditional ecological knowledge in our project allows us to pursue goals of equity, sustainability, and the creation of meaningful workforce development opportunities for marginalized youth,” he said. “Through urban forestry, we are not just addressing the pressing need for climate mitigation but are also nurturing a sense of cultural pride and environmental stewardship among the next generation.”

While CSUN is taking the lead in the project, in close collaboration with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, communication studies professor Daisy Lemus emphasized that the project is designed to be collaborative — drawing not only on the skills and knowledge of tribal members and faculty, students and staff in disciplines across the university, but also on the talents of members of local governmental agencies and nonprofit organizations.

“This deliberate cooperation among the parties involved is a direct result of CSUN’s sense of stewardship of place and strong alliances with key partners such as the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians,” Lemus said. “We all coexist in a large urban region that is their ancestral home and encompasses CSUN’s campus, a region that is also particularly susceptible to urban heat island effects, while also presenting sizable urban reforestation opportunities.”

The Tribal Nursery and Tree Planting Project’s goals include establishing a tribal nursery of culturally appropriate and sustainable species; developing a regional network with partnerships that promote the benefits of native trees in the region; planting 750 trees in disadvantaged communities while engaging the community members in tree planting and maintenance education; and creating and implementing a nursery training program that includes academic workshops and symposia that focus on workforce development. The project’s organizers also hope to leverage the created partnerships to promote knowledge sharing to increase workforce awareness and skills in urban forestry.

“What’s exciting is that we’re breaking down silos, not just on campus but in the region, in a collaborative effort to deal with the impact of climate change today and environmentally plan for the future,” Khachikian said.

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Fellowship Supports CSUN Prof’s Efforts to Improve Offshore Energy Safety https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/csun-leaders/fellowship-supports-csun-profs-efforts-to-improve-offshore-energy-safety/ Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:59:56 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55160

Maryam Tabibzadeh

Maryam Tabibzadeh

Maryam Tabibzadeh is in the process of developing a digitized, data-driven, early-warning system that could prevent disasters like the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — considered the largest marine oil spill in history — which devastated the Gulf Coast and killed hundreds of thousands of marine animals.

To help her achieve her goal, Tabibzadeh, an associate professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management at California State University, Northridge, has been named an Early-Career Research Fellow in Offshore Energy Safety by the Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

“It is quite an honor to receive the fellowship, and it is an affirmation that the work I am doing is important,” said Tabibzadeh, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.

The GRP Early-Career Research Fellowship helps researchers to further develop their professional career. Fellows receive a $76,000 financial award along with mentoring support to provide them with independence, flexibility and a built-in support network as they take risks to research ideas, pursue unique collaborations and build a network of colleagues.

Tabibzadeh and other recipients of the fellowship will be working to improve the understanding, management and reduction of systemic risk in offshore energy activities.

Her research focuses on risk analysis in complex safety-critical and technology-intensive industries such as the offshore drilling sector. Specifically, Tabibzadeh is investigating the roles human and organizational factors play, along with technological elements, in offshore drilling failures.

“When a disaster happens, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we tend to look at the ultimate, technical failures that led to the drilling accident,” Tabibzadeh said. “In many cases, we ignore the soft components, the human and organizational factors, that may have actually been the root causes of those incidents. Even the technical failures have roots in human and organizational factors, or those factors played a critical role in related errors.”

Tabibzadeh has developed both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methodologies to analyze the critical role human and organizational factors, such as safety culture, business procedures or governmental policies, play in the safety of offshore drilling operations. In some studies, she specifically emphasized the risks involved in implementation and interpretation of a critical procedure called negative pressure test as a primary method to ascertain well integrity in offshore drilling. A negative pressure test involves lowering the pressure inside of a well by pumping fluid out in order to make sure that the well’s structure can withstand leaks. The misinterpretation of the negative pressure test was one of the major contributing causes of the Deepwater Horizon blowout.

“One of the issues with drilling accidents has been the misinterpretation of negative pressure tests,” she said. “I want to develop a conceptual risk-assessment framework that captures the role the human and organizational factors play in the interpretation of such tests. The goal is to understand where the first error is made. One error can lead to other errors, which in turn can lead to an accident if they aren’t caught in time.

“One of the ideas I have is to look into several offshore drilling incidents, identifying their contributing causes across the AcciMap (a systems-based technique for accident analysis) framework, which is a systematic accident investigation methodology,” Tabibzadeh continued. “I would then identify the common contributing causes of all those accidents and use that as a foundation to develop a list of leading indicators that could be used to predict and prevent future accidents. That can then be digitized and automated through an interface such as a dashboard to help safety managers better monitor the safety of their offshore operations.”

Tabibzadeh said one of her biggest obstacles is collecting the relevant data from energy companies that are reluctant to share that information. She is hoping that the Offshore Energy Safety fellowship will help open doors so she can gather hard data from their systems.

If her research is successful, it could have long-term impact, both ecologically and economically, on the human and marine communities that rely on the Gulf of Mexico for survival. It could also help oil companies save money by improving offshore drilling safety and preventing future accidents in this field.

“We really do not want another Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico or anywhere else in the world,” she said.

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CSUN Prof’s Research Finds Evidence Homo Sapiens Were in Northwest Europe More Than 45,000 Years Ago, Years Before Neanderthals Disappeared https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-profs-research-finds-evidence-homo-sapiens-were-in-northwest-europe-more-than-45000-years-ago-years-before-neanderthals-disappeared/ Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:34:53 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55113

A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.


Sometimes it pays to go back to the beginning. In this case, a re-examination by California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated by archaeologists in Germany in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Rougier is part of an international team of researchers who have been able to document the earliest known Homo sapiens, or modern humans, fossils in central and northwest Europe. Their research reveals for the first time that those fossils were accompanied by markers — namely long blades made into points — for the Upper Paleolithic era known as Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), which existed more than 45,0000 years ago.

Those same markers have been discovered at locations across Europe, from Moravia and eastern Poland to the British Isles, and can now be linked to an early arrival of small groups of modern humans in northwest Europe, several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe.

“Early modern humans were much more advanced than we typically give them credit for,” Rougier said, noting the discovery that Homo sapiens traveled as far as Germany in small groups indicates that they were sophisticated enough to be curious about what was beyond their usual territory and left the comfort of their “home” to see what was “out there.”

“We tend to think of them as ‘cavemen,’ primitive,” she said. “Yet, they used natural features, such as the overhang of a cave, to get protection from the elements; they lived in organized groups; and they understood their environment enough to get the foods they needed. They were sophisticated enough to choose some things over others, and they passed on tradition, like making tools in a certain way. So, yeah, they were a little more complex than we give them credit for.”

The results of the researchers’ discovery were recently published in three articles: “Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago,” in the journal Nature and “The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” and “Stable isotopes show Homo sapiens dispersed into cold steppes ~45,000 years ago at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Rougier, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is one of 125 researchers from around the world working together for more than a decade to explore prehistoric life in Europe, hoping to gain perspective on what human life was like before recorded history. Their disciplines span the spectrum, from biological anthropology and archaeology to biochemistry and genetics. The interdisciplinary approach provides an opportunity to bring new perspectives and raise questions that individuals in a particular specialty may not consider or be able to resolve.

The team’s latest efforts involve the cave Ilsenhöhle, located beneath the castle of Ranis in Germany. The researchers re-excavated the Ranis site to locate the remains of an earlier excavation that took place in the 1930s. They also wanted to clarify the stratigraphy and chronology of the site and to identify the makers of the LRJ points.

“One of the things that made this site so interesting in the first place was the fact that when it was first excavated, tools (the blades made into points as well as some finely made leaf points) were found,” Rougier said. “People didn’t really know how to characterize them. They didn’t know if it was the late Neanderthals who made them, or our early ancestors who arrived in Europe. Lots of people in different places in Europe have been trying to figure out who made those things. We were trying to figure out the answers to their questions.”

When Rougier’s colleagues got to the bottom of the original excavation, more than 26 feet below the surface, they found about five-and-a-half feet of rock their predecessors could not get past. After carefully removing the rock by hand, they found the LRJ layer and thousands of fragmented bones, including pieces that belonged to modern humans.

Rougier led a new analysis of bone fragments originally collected in the 1930s. Each fragment was examined individually in an effort to identify human remains.

Once 13 human skeletal remains from both the old and new excavations were identified, DNA was extracted and analyzed. Researchers were able to confirm that the fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. They also found that some of the fragments from both excavations belonged to the same individual or were maternal relatives.

“We were able to get DNA from the bones — we only have part of the DNA for now and are working on the rest — but there is one bone from the new excavation that has the same mitochondrial DNA as several of the bones originally found in the 1930s,” Rougier said. “It clearly shows the connection between the old and new excavations, and that those modern humans, with at least one person who was closely related to another, visited the cave on different occasions.”

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

By using radiocarbon dating, the researchers discovered that Homo sapiens sporadically occupied the cave as early as 47,500 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared from Europe.

An analysis of the stable isotopes of animal teeth and bones found alongside the human fragments offered insight into the climate conditions and environments that the pioneering groups of Homo sapiens encountered around Ranis. Those early modern humans had to deal with a very cold continental climate and open, unforested, grassy landscape, similar to what is found in Siberia or northern Scandinavia today.

  “We’ve been able to show that our ancestors were really like explorers — they were mobile, they adapted to their environment, and they moved when the climate changed,” Rougier said. “We have to understand that when these Homo sapiens ancestors visited north central Europe, it was a very cold environment. They were originally from southern Europe, where the temperatures were much warmer, and the environment was much more hospitable. Yet, they still made the trip.

“As we examine those movements, I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that climate has always affected us,” she said. “Today, we’re trying to counter some of its impact using our technology, but we are still animals in the natural world — though, we’re advanced, technological animals. Climate is still around us and we are still dependent on nature. I think what we’ve learned so far about early modern humans can put things into perspective.”

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Faculty and Staff Achievements Fall and Winter 2023 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/community/faculty-and-staff-achievements-fall-and-winter-2023/ Thu, 08 Feb 2024 18:15:07 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=55077 The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

  • Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
  • Publications of books or articles.
  • Professional awards.
  • Presentations at conferences.
  • Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized from November 2023 to January 2024.

Awards

Tigran Arakelyan (Music) is named among the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America Worldwide. Earlier this year, he earned a “40 Under 40” award in Washington’s 425 Business Magazine.

Irene Clark (English) received a Campus Initiative Fund Award titled “Literacy Narratives and Current Multicultural Perspectives.”

Maria Dunlap (English) won the 2023 Margaret Atwood Society award for Best Undergraduate essay — titled “Through Double Doors.”

Xóchitl M. Flores-Marcial (Chicana/o Studies) is now the chair of the Mexican Studies Section for the Conference on Latin American History which is part of the American Historical Association (AHA). She recently chaired the roundtable at the AHA annual meeting in San Francisco, “New Voices in Mexican Historical Studies,” and presented a paper at the same conference — on a panel titled “The Issue of Marriage and Family in the Colonial Iberian World: Representation, Consumerism and Survival.” She co-authored a recently published Digital Studies / Le champ numérique article, “Colonial and Nineteenth-Century Latin American Studies and Digital Public Humanities.”

Vanessa L. Martínez (Office of the Dean of Humanities) has been selected by the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education | NASPA Center for Women to receive the 2024 Ruth Strang Award. At the NASPA Annual Conference in March 2024, she will be presented with the award at the Center for Women/Womxn in Student Affairs Knowledge Community Alice Manicur Symposium Alum Reception.

Khanum Shaikh (Gender and Women’s Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award to pursue research for her current book project, “Moving Through Culture: Gender and Urban Transformation in Contemporary Pakistan.”

Danielle Spratt (English) along with co-project directors Nicole Shibata (University Library), Heidi Schumacher (Gender and Women’s Studies), Ellen Jarosz (University Library) and Melisa Galván (Chicana/o Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award for their project, “Blank Spaces in the CSUN University Library Archives.”

Mitchell Thomas (Finance), Certified Public Accountant, has been named a new audit partner for the Santa Barbara and Ventura-based accounting firm Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co. LLP.

Brandy Underwood (English) has been elected to the executive committee of MELUS, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, as project chair. She will serve from 2024-27.

Publications

Ryan Baylor, Sean Flanagan, Jacob Hinkel-Lipsker and Victoria Jaque (Kinesiology) recently published an article, “Older People Trip, Some Fall – A Program to Decrease Seniors’ Fall Risk.” It was published in the Strength & Conditioning Journal Vol. 45, No. 6, December 2023.

Jennifer Berry (Gender and Women’s Studies) recently had a piece published in Best Stage Monologues for Women 2023 by Smith and Kraus Publication, edited by Debbie Lamedman.

Danielle Spratt and Jennifer Sams (English) were featured in the “Remnants of Resistance” podcast by CSUN’s Queer Studies Program and the University Library Special Collections & Archives. The episode is titled “Queering the Page and the Nature of Disruption.”

Colleen Tripp (English) published two articles, “Empires of Extraction: Silver Field Ecologies and Eugenics in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ‘Mexican Gothic’” in Studies in American Fiction, and “‘Coach, I Got a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore:’ Ted Lasso and the Heartland Mythos” in The Journal of American Culture. She also has a forthcoming article that’s scheduled to appear in the journal Nineteenth-Century Studies entitled “Ornamentalism and Spectacle Ethnography in Sui Sin Far’s ‘Mrs. Spring Fragrance.’

Svetlana Tyutina (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently published a bilingual book of short stories about the Mexican deaf community, Escuchar sin oír: Relatos del Silencio // Listening without Hearing: Tales of Silence.

George Uba (English) published a poem, “Full Service at J & S Shell,” in the New England Review, Vol. 44, No. 2. His poem, “Girl Receives Rose, a Narrative” was named a finalist for the 54th New Millennium Writing Awards.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $71,862 from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in support of a project entitled “Targeting Brain-Metastatic Breast Tumors with HER3-Homing Bioparticles.”

Alyssa Arentoft (Psychology) has received $55,134 from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, in support of her project, “The Health and Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD),” and $26,417 from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in support of a project entitled “Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI-4).”

Behzad Bavarian (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $18,375 from the Savannah River National Laboratory, in support of a project, “Tank Bottom Corrosion Control Monitoring for Materials Technology & Energy Section.”

Annette Besnilian (Marilyn Magaram Center) and David Boyns (Community Health & Well-Being) have received $395,500 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of the project “CSUN CalFresh Healthy Living Program.”

Tiffani Brooks (Social Work) has received $20,061 from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program.”

Robert Carpenter and Peter Edmunds (Biology) each received $145,556 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in support of their project, “LTER: MCR IV: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem.”

Zhen Chai (Special Education) has received $248,606 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of the project, “Project CREATE: Preparing Culturally Responsive Early Educators in Teacher Education,” and $119,065 in support of a project entitled “The Bridge Project: Bringing Early Childhood Special Educators and Behavior Interventionists Together Through Interdisciplinary, Evidence-Based Preparation to Serve Young Children with High-Intensity Needs.”

Thomas Chan (Psychology), John Valdovinos and Xiyi Hang (Electrial and Computer Engineering) have received $100,000 from the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), in support of a project entitled “NIH AIM-AHEAD PAIR,” and $100,000 from the NIH in support of a project entitled “Health Equity in Aging Congenital Heart Patients.”

Gary Chapman (Physics and Astronomy) has received $72,213 from NASA, in support of his project, “Studying solar irradiance variations using full-disk indices from continuum, UV, magnetic field and spectrographic data from ground- and space-based images ”.

Rafi Efrat (Bookstein Institute), Merav Efrat (Health Sciences) and Sara Berzenski (Psychology) have received $450,000 from the U.S. Department of Treasury, in support of a project entitled “The CSUN VITA Program.”

Maria Elizondo (Student Affairs) has received $80,904 from the Cal State Chico, in support of the project “CalFresh Outreach FFY 2022-24.”

Michael Eller (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $246,554 from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, in support of the project, “Angstrom Era Semiconductor Patterning Material Development Accelerator” and $141,158 from the Mayo Clinic, in support of a project entitled “Mass spectrometry for highly sensitive and sample-sparing analysis of extracellularvesicles in liver diseases.”

Brian Foley (Secondary Education), Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology) and Kellie Evans (Mathematics) have received $241,651 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Extending and Enhancing the STEM Teacher Pipeline through a Community of Learners and Virtual Lesson Study.”

Holli Tonyan Gajadhar (Institutional Research) has received $30,000 from the California State University Chancellor’s Office, in support of the project “Building Transformational Cultures of Data Use for Student Success.”

Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $99,983 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Establishing an Inter-institutional San Fernando Valley Collaborative to Improve STEM Transfer Student Support, Retention and Graduation.”

Nhut HoAmiel Hartman (Mechanical Engineering), Xunfei Jiang (Computer Science) and Kacie Blackman (Health Sciences) have received $77,596 from the Administration for Community Living, in support of a project entitled “Development of Semi-Autonomous Wheelchair and Socially-Aware Robot Health Aid to Encourage Community Participation for Persons with Low Mobility.”

Bradley Jackson (Electrical and Computer Engineering) has received $25,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of a project entitled “Wideband Array Antenna with Digital Beamforming.”

Xudong Jia (Engineering and Computer Science, Office of the Dean) has received $800,000 from UCLA, in support of the project “Climate Action – Community-Driven Electric Vehicle Charging Solution (CA-CLEAN),” and $25,126 from Cal Poly Pomona, in support of a project entitled “Statewide Collision Data Analysis, Research Studies and Ranking Program.”

Jonathan Kelber (Biology) has received $129,526 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Spatiotemporal mechanisms of eIF5A1/2-mediated metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.”

Jing Li (Mathematics) has received $90,343 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Collaborative Research: Structured Population Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints.”

Tyler Luchko (Physics and Astronomy), Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Maria-Rita D’Orsogna (Mathematics), Rabia Djellouli (Mathematics) and Rachel Mackelprang (Biology) have received $730,520 from the National Science Foundation, in support of their project, “MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a High-Performance Computer Cluster for Computational Biology.”

Regan Maas (Geospatial Science and Technology) has received $100,000 from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in support of a project entitled “Geological and Geophysical (G&G) Dataset Improvement.”

Rachel Friedman-Narr (Special Education) and Flavia Fleischer (Deaf Studies) have received $249,415 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of their project, “Project PRISM-Ed (Preparing a Pipeline for Recruitment and Retention of Social Justice and Equity-Minded Deaf Educators).”

Jennifer Pemberton (Strength United) and Merilla Scott have received $204,500 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “Campus Sexual Assault (CT) Program.”

Dianne Philibosian (Community Health and Wellbeing ) has received $67,730 from the San Fernando Community Health Center, in support of her project “Child Development Screening Referral Program with San Fernando Community Health Center and the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing at California State University, Northridge.”

Bethany Rainisch (Health Sciences) has received $374,960 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in support of a project entitled “MATAspire: Mental health Awareness Tailored App for Substance Prevention and Integrated Resilience Education.”

S.K. Ramesh (Engineering and Computer Science) has received $599,658 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Strengthening Equitable Culturally Responsive Environments (SECURE) for Student Success: Using a Servingness Model to Support Hispanic and Underrepresented Students.”

Nayan Ramirez (Criminology and Justice Studies) has received $45,551 from Northeastern University, in support of a project entitled “The Impact of Longitudinal Social Networks on Young Adult Substance Use and Misuse.”

Luca Ricci (Physics and Astronomy) has received $152,820 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, in support of his project, “Investigating the Disk-Planet Interaction in the HD 163296 System with JWST.”

Cristina Rubino and Loren Naidoo (Management) have received $267,571 from Social Policy Research Associates, Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Evaluation Services for the Youth Jobs Corps Program in the City of Los Angeles.”

Emily Russell (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $102,857 from Jumpstart Inc., in support of her project, “Jumpstart Northridge,” and $293,037 from Brown University, in support of a project entitled “Scaling Student Support with Conversational Artificial Intelligence.”

Christoph Schaal (Mechanical Engineering) has received $40,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of his project, “Concept Development and Feasibility Study for In-Space Inspection of Bonded Joints.”

Merilla Scott (Strength United) has received $26,265 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Program,” $196,906 from the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), in support of a project entitled “Unserved/Underserved Victim Advocacy and Outreach Program,” $90,000 from CalOES, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (XS) Program,” $3.5 million from Rising Communities, in support of a project entitled “Community Public Health Teams,” $377,804 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM NW16” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM VN16.”

Nyssa Silbiger (Biology) has received $29,608 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of the project “Sustaining and Expanding the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS)” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled.”

Jolene Swain and Darlene Woo (Social Work) have received $18,004 from the Rancho San Antonio Boys Home Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program (MIP).”

Maryam Tabibzadeh (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $51,660 from UCLA, in support of her project “Extending Human Reliability Analysis Methods for Explicit Inclusion of Organizational Factors: Methodology and PRA Implications.”

Joseph Teprovich (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $40,099 from Sandia National Laboratories, in support of a project entitled “Synthesis of practical high temperature superconductors in hydrogen-rich materials.”

Samantha Toews and Fatmana Deniz (Special Education) have received $211,856 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Reconceptualizing Educator Preparation to Empower All Students through Culturally Sustaining and High Leverage Inclusive Teaching.”

Svetlana Tyutina and Daniela Salcedo Arnaiz (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently participated in the 2024 MLA Annual Convention in Philadelphia, in a roundtable, “Teaching Beyond University.” Tyutina organized the table and Salcedo Arnaiz presented “A Learning journey: 3 Experiences of Traveling and Studying Languages and Cultures.”

Ivor Weiner (Special Education) has received $385,620 from the California Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Family Focus Empowerment Center,” and $326,682 from Heluna Health, in support of a project entitled “Community Navigator Program.”

Jenn Wolfe (Secondary Education) has received $25,000 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of a project entitled “CSMP Learning Acceleration Funds.”

Xu Zhang (Physics and Astronomy) has received $128,084 from the National Science Foundation, in support of the project “RUI: Exciton-Phonon Interactions in Solids based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Perturbation Theory.”

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New Research Conducted by CSUN Prof Reveals Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/new-research-conducted-by-csun-prof-reveals-impacts-of-ocean-acidification-on-coral-reefs/ Tue, 06 Feb 2024 02:37:44 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54959

Coral Reef photographed in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Photo courtesy of Nyssa Silbiger

Coral Reef photographed in Mo’orea, French Polynesia.
Photo courtesy of Nyssa Silbiger


A years-long study focused on the climate effects on coral reefs by California State University, Northridge marine biologists Peter Edmunds and Robert Carpenter reveals concerns for their future survival.

The new study, published in Limnology and Oceanography and led by Edmunds and Carpenter – who have more than 30 years of experience researching coral reefs – shows the long-term consequences of ocean acidification for coral reefs in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. Combined with rising seawater temperatures, the coral reef structures may not be able to grow and reproduce as climate change continues.

Flumes used to conduct corral reef research

The four flumes that were used to complete the recently published study. The flumes were built with the help of the CSUN Science Shop and each is 5 m in length (~16 ft), and they are located at the UC Berkeley, Richard B. Gump research lab. Over the course of 3 years, they were used to complete year-long experiments in which replica coral reefs were built in each flume and incubated under conditions simulating future predicted levels of ocean acidification. Photo provided by Peter Edmunds.

Ocean acidification is a reduction in the ocean’s pH over an extended time — with its root cause being the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is increasing through the burning of fossil fuels, cement production, and numerous other human-related practices. Some ecosystem components directly impacted are organisms that utilize carbonate ions to build their shells and skeletons — such as coral, oysters, sea urchins, and plankton — putting many organisms at risk from ocean acidification.

Commercial and recreational managed fisheries depend on coral reef habitats for many important fishes, shellfish and other invertebrates that are targeted for fishing. Coral reef fisheries are worth $5.7 billion globally, according to the Reef Resilience Network.

Edmunds warned that the research, which began in 2015 and was supported with grants from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), suggests that if ocean acidification trends continue the way they have over the last 20 years, the long-term survival of coral reefs is in jeopardy.

“The oceans are getting a little bit more acidic and because they’re getting a little bit more acidic, corals and coral reefs are growing more slowly, and that slower growth is unlikely to be changed by adaptation or acclimatization,” Edmunds said. “The reefs in the future are going to get more and more delicate and we’re not going to solve that problem unless we start to do something about the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

Coral reefs play a critical role in the economy and human welfare, including food security and shoreline protection to coastal communities. However, for coral reefs to thrive, the coral must be able to grow and reproduce faster than they are being killed.

After more than three years of study, Edmunds said his research team found that coral reefs “did not show any ability to reduce their susceptibility to these more acid conditions.”

“This is something we would not have found from short experiments conducted over weeks or months,” Edmunds said. ‘So, pretty quickly, we knew that ocean acidification is going to be bad news for coral reefs, because even early experiments showed they were not able to do well at more acidic conditions, and our latest experiments show that corals and coral reefs do not change their response over a year.”

Peter Edmunds heading out to do research on the coral reefs of French Polynesia near Tahiti. Photo courtesy of Robert Carpenter.

Peter Edmunds heading out to do research on the coral reefs of French Polynesia near Tahiti. Photo courtesy of Robert Carpenter.

However, there is still hope that the long-term survival of coral reefs can be remedied by making investments to curtail the effects of climate change, Edmunds said.

“I remain optimistic, but I think we’re not going to solve this problem unless we start to do something about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Edmunds said. “Or else, in 50 years’ time, we will barely recognize tropical corals reefs. They’ll still be corals and fishes down there but they’re just going to be very different to those that we see now.”

The research was conducted with marine biology professor Steve Doo of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (formerly a postdoctoral researcher at CSUN) and within the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research program, which is the flagship coral reef project of NSF, with the project shared between CSUN and UC Santa Barbara.

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Javier Rojas
CSUN Prof’s Research Efforts May Solve Solar Mystery in the Sun’s layers https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/media-releases/csun-profs-research-efforts-may-solve-solar-mystery-in-the-suns-layers/ Mon, 22 Jan 2024 18:43:19 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54763

Using the world’s most powerful ground-based solar telescope, astronomers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at California State University Northridge are one step closer to understanding one of the most enduring solar mysteries.

Captured images show the highest-resolution representations of the magnetic field of the so-called “quiet” surface of the sun. They reveal a new, complex, snake-like pattern of energy in the magnetic field, in addition to “loops” observed previously. Researchers collected ground-breaking data with the US National Science Foundation’s new Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawaii.

Small-scale magnetic structures of the ‘quiet sun’ at high resolution. Credit: DKIST

Small-scale magnetic structures of the ‘quiet sun’ at high resolution. Credit: DKIST

The analysis was carried out in partnership with an international group of experts from: the Queen’s University Belfast, UK; the National Space Observatory, USA; the National Centre for Atmospheric Research, USA; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany; Sheffield University, UK; Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary and CSUN.

There is belief among the international team of scientists that includes CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian that the new discovery has implications for how we model energy transfer between the layers of the sun.

It might also help explain why the outermost layer of the sun (‘corona’) is millions of degrees, but the sun’s surface (‘photosphere’) is only about 6000 degrees, even though the opposite would be expected, according to Christian, co-investigator the project.

“Typically, you buy a cup of coffee, and it cools off after a while but here, you have some heating mechanism inside the sun that’s heating this outer atmosphere, and it’s just not important for the sun,” Christian said. “There are billions of stars that have a corona like our sun and they’re being heated by this or some type of magnetic waves.”

Previously, much of the research into the heat variations between the sun’s corona and photosphere has focused on “sunspots” – large, highly magnetic and active regions, often comparable to Earth in size – that can act as conduits for energy between the Sun’s outer layers, Christian said. However, for the new study, the team looked away from sunspots and focused on quieter regions of the sun.

These quiet areas of the photosphere are covered by convective cells called granules that are host to weaker but more dynamic magnetic fields than found around sunspots. Previous observations have indicated that these magnetic fields are organized in small loops, but researchers found a more complicated underlying pattern for the first time, with the orientation of these magnetic fields showing a “serpentine variation,” Christian said.

CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian, left, discusses solar flare data with physics graduate student Menoa Yousefi. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

CSUN solar astronomer Damian J. Christian, left, discusses solar flare data with physics graduate student Menoa Yousefi. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

To measure the sun’s weak magnetic fields, he said, overly sensitive instruments are needed. Since the magnetic fields cannot be directly measured, researchers instead measured the imprint they leave on the light emitted in their presence. The magnetic fields polarize the light, generating signals that are less than half a percent of the size of intensity measurements. High-resolution observations are required to see this, which is where DKIST comes in.A key question, Christian said, is then, “how common serpentine magnetic-field configurations are and how far they can permeate into higher layer?, If we know this, we can assess their contribution to chromospheric heating. To do this, more observations are needed, like those possible with the DKIST.

“The sun is the most important astronomical object for humankind with solar activity driving space weather and having possible devastating effects on our technological grid and infrastructure,” Christian said. “This discovery is huge and will lead us closer to understanding one of the biggest conundrums in solar research.”

The research has been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters and was supported by research funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council which is part of UK Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 and the NSF.

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Javier Rojas
CSUN Biology Professor Part of Efforts to Raise Awareness & Find Solutions for Lack of Early Career Latinas in STEM https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/media-releases/csun-biology-professor-part-of-efforts-to-raise-awareness-find-solutions-for-lack-of-early-career-latinas-in-stem/ Mon, 04 Dec 2023 18:21:25 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54463

Maria Elena Zavala hopes the new published research sheds light on underrepresentation in Latinas in STEM.

Maria Elena Zavala hopes the new published research sheds light on underrepresentation in Latinas in STEM.


While Latinos represent a growing and important demographic in the United States, there is notable underrepresentation when it comes to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers.

With efforts to raise awareness and identify solutions to the underrepresentation, an intergenerational group of 16 Latinas and allies, including California State University, Northridge biology professor Maria Elena Zavala, collaborated to highlight challenges faced by early career Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Central American Ancestry (MPRCA) Latinas. Their research, titled “Early Career Latinas in STEM: Challenges and Solutions,” was released in the November issue of the journal Cell.

Biology professor MariaElena Zavala (center), lead director of CSUN’s U-RISE program, is passionate about providing undergraduates with opportunities to conduct scientific research

Biology professor MariaElena Zavala (center), lead director of CSUN’s U-RISE program, is passionate about providing undergraduates with opportunities to conduct scientific research

Zavala, the first Mexican-American woman in the country to earn a Ph.D. in botany, hopes the published research sheds light on an issue she herself has combatted throughout her distinguished career.

“I don’t like the idea of being underrepresented because we’re not underrepresented,” Zavala said. “We’re excluded and the assumptions are still there about what women can’t do and what people of color can’t do. That is from the decision makers that have presumed stereotypes and I’ve noticed that it is still really tough to break those stereotypes.”

In 2022, Latinos, as a group, made up more than 19 percent of the U.S. population, or nearly 64 million individuals. Consequently, nearly 1 in 5 Americans is Latino, with individuals of Mexican ancestry comprising 62.3 percent of US Latinos, while Puerto Ricans and Central Americans comprise 18 percent of all US Latinos and 1.7 percent of the U.S. population. Together, the three subgroups (MPRCA) represent 82 percent of all U.S. Latinos.

Despite these figures, Latinos continue to be underrepresented across the board in most job professions in the United States. Even worse, inclusion for both Latinas and Latinos remains relatively stagnant through all academic ranks, particularly in research laboratories, Ph.D. programs and at the faculty level.

In 2022, Latinos earned 9.6% of all STEM PhDs, however, the disparity is even greater for Latinas in academia. This issue is compounded by the fact the term “Latino” is a broad, pan-ethnic category that lumps together all Hispanics, including those with very different backgrounds from MPRCA, such as immigrants from South America with European ancestry, including from Spain, into one monolithic group.

Due to a lack of data on ancestry, MPRCA underrepresentation among US faculty or other professions remains unknown.

The research by Zavala and her colleagues identified multiple challenges that present barriers to MPRCA Latinas (and others) and solutions for those in the academic community, mentors and decision makers. Challenges include financial and environmental factors, academic exclusion and lack of mentoring, including inequitable education in low-income areas that reduce opportunities to pursue scientific careers.

“It’s not for a lack of interest in STEM,” said Zavala about the abysmal underrepresentation for MPRCA Latinas in STEM. “Many have few mentors or are busy taking care of family, but with the right support, this group has the potential to contribute and innovate the STEM field.”

Another roadblock identified includes how family roles and caretaking add to the stresses of pursuing a career in STEM.

According to Zavala, every Latina co-author on the paper had previously been a caretaker. While all racial and ethnic groups are involved in caretaking roles, for Latinas pursuing STEM careers, “financial and caretaking support for immediate or extended family can take a physical, emotional, and financial toll. Latinos report a high percentage of caretakers (21%), with this responsibility falling most often on Latinas,” the Cell paper said.

Solutions outlined for addressing lack of MPRCA Latinas in STEM include transparency in hiring and promotion decisions, mentoring and inclusion, collaboration across departments and faculty and upward mobility opportunities to strengthen diversity.

“The paper is for decision-makers at institutions that we hope can be used or referred to when making hiring choices with the intention of making departments more inclusive and diverse,” Zavala said. “There’s a lot of work to do and we’ve come a significant way but there’s still a lot more to be done in the areas of accessibility and breaking stereotypes in STEM.”

 

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CSUN Professor Singled Out for One of Geological Society’s Top Honors https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/csun-leaders/csun-professor-singled-out-for-one-of-geological-societys-top-honors/ Mon, 06 Nov 2023 18:04:39 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54273

CSUN structural geologist Elena Miranda accepting the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division for its highest publication honor, the Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Outstanding Publication Award, from Eric Cowgill of UC Davis. Photo courtesy of Elena Miranda.

CSUN structural geologist Elena Miranda accepting the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division for its highest publication honor, the Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Outstanding Publication Award, from Eric Cowgill of UC Davis. Photo courtesy of Elena Miranda.


As a student working on her doctorate in geology nearly 20 years ago, Elena Miranda was excited at the prospect of exploring a burgeoning new field of research that could provide insights into the causes of the Earth’s faults and shear zones, key information for understanding earthquakes and other tectonic movements.

But Miranda, one of only a handful of Latinas in such a Ph.D. program at the time, was discouraged from pursuing that field of study. Advisors said she didn’t have what it took to succeed. Miranda, now a professor of geological sciences at California State University, Northridge, disagreed.

She taught herself the subject and is now considered a leading structural geologist in the field of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)—a scanning electron microscopy technique used to study the crystalline structure of materials. One of her papers, published in 2016, was singled out last month (October) by the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division for its highest publication honor, calling it “of exceptional distinction that clearly advances the science of structural geology or tectonics.” The paper features the first EBSD data to come out of Miranda’s lab at CSUN. Miranda is the first Latina and only the seventh female lead author to receive the award.

“I am over the moon about this honor because the paper on which it was based has a back story,” Miranda said. “I am one of the most stubborn people I know. I found it unacceptable to be treated like an incapable Ph.D. student, that my advisors did not expect much of me. I knew I would be capable of great work if I was just given the chance. If no one was going to teach me, then I was going to teach myself. I wanted to show that I could become an expert despite everything that was thrown at me.”

Miranda’s paper—“Microstructural evidence for the transition from dislocation creep to dislocation-accommodated grain boundary sliding in naturally deformed plagioclase” was published in the Journal of Structural Geology—was nominated by geologists across the country who said it was integral part of their teaching and provided a foundation for their own research. It was awarded the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Outstanding Publication Award. The society was founded in 1888 and is the oldest and the largest geological professional society in North America, with more than 22,000 members. The publication award was first given in 1984.

“To see the list of previous awardees is quite humbling,” Miranda said. “Some of the greatest and most impactful papers in my discipline are listed as awardees on the society’s website, and my publication is now among them.”

Miranda originally trained as a marine geologist, and spent time doing submersible dives on the ocean floor studying mid-ocean ridges and ocean basins to understand tectonic deformation. While doing this research, she learned about a relatively new field of study involving electron backscatter diffraction analysis.

“I came from marine geology, so I knew how to identify microstructures really well with light microscopes,” Miranda said. “But this electron backscatter diffraction analysis was something else. I knew this technique was the future of being able to do microstructural analysis.”

Miranda spent hundreds of hours on her own, learning EBSD. Eventually, with the support of Jerry Stinner, dean of CSUN’s College of Science and Mathematics, she established the Department of Geological Sciences’ Scanning Electron Microscopy Lab as a collaborative user facility with EBSD analysis capability. There, she uses EBSD to understand the causes of movement along faults and shear zones that can cause earthquakes and other tectonic movements.

“We use this technique to look at how strong or weak fault rocks are within a fault or shear zone because that’s where a break in the material can lead to earthquakes,” she said. “By using EBSD, we have some insight into seismic risk. We can interpret the ways in which these shear zones have moved in the geologic past. We can use it to interpret past plate motions, past movements along fault lines and the character of the deformation that we find. The technique allows us to interpret temperature, the stresses being put on the rock and how large those stresses are. We can quantify and use equations that describe the behavior of these materials to predict how strong and how fast that material is going to move.”

Miranda said she is particularly proud to receive the honor as a member of the California State University faculty.

“I might be one of the only recipients who did the work at a master’s-granting institution,” she said. “People like us don’t usually get awards like this. But I did, and I hope there will be others like me—Latinas, women and people of color working at master’s-granting institutions—who will get recognized in the future for their work, too.”

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Profesor de CSUN distinguido con uno de los máximos honores de la Sociedad Geológica https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/csun-leaders/profesor-de-csun-distinguido-con-uno-de-los-maximos-honores-de-la-sociedad-geologica/ Mon, 06 Nov 2023 18:03:17 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54336

CSUN structural geologist Elena Miranda accepting the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division for its highest publication honor, the Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Outstanding Publication Award, from Eric Cowgill of UC Davis. Photo courtesy of Elena Miranda.

CSUN structural geologist Elena Miranda accepting the Geological Society of America’s Structural Geology and Tectonics Division for its highest publication honor, the Structural Geology and Tectonics Division Outstanding Publication Award, from Eric Cowgill of UC Davis. Photo courtesy of Elena Miranda.


La geóloga estructural de CSUN, Elena Miranda, acepta la División de Geología y Tectónica Estructural de la Sociedad Geológica de Estados Unidos por su más alto honor de publicación, el Premio a la Publicación Sobresaliente de la División de Geología y Tectónica Estructural, de manos de Eric Cowgill de UC Davis. Foto cortesía de Elena Miranda.

Como estudiante que trabajaba en su doctorado en geología hace casi 20 años, Elena Miranda estaba emocionada ante la perspectiva de explorar un nuevo campo de investigación que podría proporcionar información sobre las causas de las fallas de la tierra y las zonas de cizallamiento, información clave para la comprensión de los terremotos y otros movimientos tectónicos.

Pero Miranda, una de solo un puñado de latinas en un programa de doctorado en ese momento, se desanimó de perseguir ese campo de estudio. Los asesores dijeron que no tenía lo que se necesitaba para tener éxito. Miranda, ahora profesora de ciencias geológicas en la Universidad Estatal de California, Northridge, no estuvo de acuerdo.

Ella se enseñó el tema y ahora es considerada una geóloga estructural líder en el campo de la difracción de retrodispersión electrónica (EBSD), una técnica de microscopía electrónica de barrido utilizada para estudiar la estructura cristalina de los materiales. Uno de sus artículos, publicado en 2016, fue señalado el mes pasado (octubre) por la División de Geología Estructural y Tectónica de la Sociedad Geológica de América para su más alto honor de publicación, calificándolo de “de distinción excepcional que claramente avanza la ciencia de la geología estructural o la tectónica”. El documento presenta los primeros datos de EBSD que salen del laboratorio de Miranda en CSUN. Miranda es la primera latina y la séptima autora principal en recibir el premio.

“Estoy encantada con este premio porque el artículo en el que se basa tiene una historia de fondo,” dijo Miranda. “Soy una de las personas más obstinadas que conozco. Me parecía inaceptable que me trataran como a una estudiante de doctorado incapaz que mis asesores no esperaran mucho de mí. Sabía que sería capaz de hacer un gran trabajo si me daban la oportunidad. Si nadie iba a enseñarme, iba a hacerlo yo misma quería demostrar que podía convertirme en un experto a pesar de todo lo que me echaran encima.”

El artículo de Miranda —“Evidencia microestructural para la transición de la fluencia por dislocación a la frontera de grano acomodada por dislocación deslizándose en plagioclase naturalmente deformada” — fue publicado en el Journal of Structural Geology, fue nominado por geólogos de todo el país que dijeron que era parte integral de su enseñanza y proporcionó una base para su propia investigación. Fue galardonado con el Premio a la Publicación Excepcional de la División de Geología Estructural y Tectónica de la Sociedad Geológica de América. La sociedad fue fundada en 1888 y es la sociedad profesional geológica más antigua y más grande de América del Norte, con más de 22.000 miembros. El premio a la publicación se otorgó por primera vez en 1984.

“Ver la lista de premiados anteriores es muy humilde,” dijo Miranda. “Algunos de los artículos más grandes y más impactantes de mi disciplina están listados como premiados en el sitio web de la sociedad, y mi publicación ahora está entre ellos.”

Miranda se formó originalmente como geóloga marina, y pasó tiempo haciendo inmersiones sumergibles en el fondo del océano estudiando las crestas y cuencas oceánicas del medio océano para entender la deformación tectónica. Mientras hacía esta investigación, aprendió sobre un campo relativamente nuevo de estudio que involucra el análisis de difracción de retrodispersión de electrones.

“Venía de la geología marina, así que sabía cómo identificar las microestructuras muy bien con microscopios de luz,” dijo Miranda. “Pero este análisis de difracción de retrodispersión de electrones era otra cosa. Sabía que esta técnica era el futuro de poder hacer análisis microestructurales”.

Miranda pasó cientos de horas por su cuenta, aprendiendo EBSD. Finalmente, con el apoyo de Jerry Stinner, decano de la Facultad de Ciencias y Matemáticas de CSUN, estableció el Laboratorio de Microscopía Electrónica de Escaneo del Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas como una instalación de usuario colaborativa con capacidad de análisis EBSD. Allí, utiliza el EBSD para entender las causas del movimiento a lo largo de fallas y zonas de cizallamiento que pueden causar terremotos y otros movimientos tectónicos.

“Usamos esta técnica para observar qué tan fuertes o débiles son las rocas de falla dentro de una falla o zona de cizallamiento porque ahí es donde una ruptura en el material puede provocar terremotos,” ella dijo. “Al usar EBSD, tenemos cierta visión del riesgo sísmico. Podemos interpretar las formas en que estas zonas de cizallamiento se han movido en el pasado geológico. Podemos usarlo para interpretar los movimientos pasados de la placa, los movimientos pasados a lo largo de las líneas de falla y el carácter de la deformación que encontramos. La técnica nos permite interpretar la temperatura, las tensiones que se ponen en la roca y cuán grandes son esas tensiones. Podemos cuantificar y usar ecuaciones que describen el comportamiento de estos materiales para predecir qué tan fuerte y qué tan rápido se moverá ese material.”

Miranda dijo que está particularmente orgullosa de recibir el honor como miembro de la facultad de la Universidad Estatal de California.

“Podría ser uno de los únicos beneficiarios que hizo el trabajo en una institución de concesión de maestría,” ella dijo. “Las personas como nosotros no suelen recibir premios como este. Pero lo hice, y espero que haya otras como yo —latinas, mujeres y personas de color que trabajan en instituciones de otorgamiento de maestrías— que también sean reconocidas en el futuro por su trabajo.”

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CSUN Receives $1M to Support Deaf Teachers in Underserved Communities https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/education/csun-receives-1m-to-support-deaf-teachers-in-underserved-communities/ Tue, 31 Oct 2023 21:06:21 +0000 https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/?p=54288

Teacher Aleea Turner in her classroom. CSUN has been awarded $1.25 million grant to support teacher preparation among traditionally underrepresented communities, with a focus on those working with deaf students. Photo courtesy of Rachel Friedman Narr.

Teacher Aleea Turner in her classroom. CSUN has been awarded $1.25 million grant to support teacher preparation among traditionally underrepresented communities, with a focus on those working with deaf students. Photo courtesy of Rachel Friedman Narr.


California State University, Northridge has been awarded a five-year $1.25 million grant from U.S. Department of Education to support teacher preparation among traditionally underrepresented communities, with a focus on recruitment and preparation of teacher candidates who can work with deaf students.

The grant from the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs will support Project PRISM-Ed, an initiative led by professionals in CSUN’s Departments of Deaf Studies and Special Education/Deaf Education in the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. The goal of Project PRISM-Ed is to recruit, retain and prepare highly-qualified educators to meet the needs of deaf students from diverse backgrounds.

“Research shows many deaf children are often placed in educational settings where their linguistic needs are not met,” said Rachel Friedman-Narr, a professor of deaf education and one of the leaders of the initiative. “This puts students at risk of language deprivation and language suppression, which are critical social justice issues.”

Friedman-Narr said Project PRISM-Ed will help address California’s critical shortage of qualified special education professionals who are prepared to serve deaf, hard-of-hearing and deaf-blind students.

Teacher candidates enrolled in Project PRISM-Ed will be prepared with skills in American Sign Language (ASL) and English multilingual strategies to meet the educational needs of their K-12 deaf students, particularly those living with linguistic marginalization and who are dual or multiple language learners. Successful candidates will receive specific training in advocacy and leadership in public school settings, providing them with knowledge and skills to enact change in deaf education systems that are traditionally focused on monolingualism.

Project PRISM-Ed will focus on the best practices in deaf education that incorporate culturally and linguistically sustaining practices that reflect diverse Deaf communities, Friedman-Narr said, noting that candidates will be paired with ASL mentors to ensure they have ASL linguistic abilities to meet the range of needs of their K-12 students.

At the conclusion of the program, she said, the candidates will be better prepared to serve racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse students and to advocate for their needs.

“It is imperative that California’s teachers of deaf students not only possess the critical linguistic fluency and skills to work with diverse deaf students, especially those from homes where languages other than English and ASL are used, but also incorporate knowledge, skills, and experiences that reflects, recognizes, and celebrates students’ diverse lived experiences,” said Flavia Fleischer, a professor of deaf studies who is also leading the initiative.

“By continuing to follow traditional approaches in deaf education, we are doing our deaf students an injustice in that many classrooms do not make connections to students’ lived experiences in order to draw on the strengths of the students for educational success,” Fleischer said.

Project PRISM-Ed will begin admitting students in spring 2024. Qualified applicants must be juniors or seniors majoring in deaf studies, or have other related undergraduate experiences. Scholars will receive stipends for tuition and books, travel funds, individual ASL mentorship, as well as individualized personal mentorship during their program. Program graduates will be eligible for the California Preliminary Education Specialist Credential in Deaf/Hard of Hearing (DHH).

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