March 2014 - CWU College of the Sciences 1

College of the Sciences

Volume 1, NO. 3 March 2014

Dr. Kirk Johnson received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Washington State University and his B.A. from University of Washing-ton. He was chair of Central Washington University’s Department of Sociology from Fall 1997 through Spring 2007. He began part-time service as Associate Dean in Summer 2006. As of Fall 2007, Dr. Johnson has devoted himself entirely to administration in the position of dean. Dr. Johnson’s research has focused on the testing and extension of social control theory, the social construction of deviance among adolescents, criminal victimization, and the social construction of law and criminal sanctions.

Dr. Dave Darda received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and his B.S. from the University of Illinois. He has been a professor of Biological Sciences at CWU for the past 26 years. His primary areas of biological interest are vertebrate morphology, evolution, and herpetology. He has conducted fieldwork in California, Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest, and is a coauthor of the book, “Reptiles of Washington and Oregon”. In 2002, Dr. Darda was honored as the CWU Distinguished University Professor of Teaching, and he has twice served as Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences.

DeanKirk A. Johnson

Associate DeanDavid Darda

Kari Anderson, College of the Sciences Development Officer

Department Spotlight

Kari received her BA in Communication from Pacific Lutheran University. While at PLU, she focused on public relations, sports administration, coaching and sports psychology. A chance work study appointment in PLU’s development department has turned into a career devoted to non-profit fundraising. Kari has spent her career in the development sector, leading staff, board members and volunteers, and loves to connect people with their passions, specifically connecting dollars to causes people hold dear.

Central Washington University

How long has the department been active at CWU?The first chemist was hired at the Central Washington Normal School in 1921 as part of the Division of Science and Mathematics. The Chemistry Department was established in 1965.

How many faculty, staff, students? New faculty? Recently retired faculty?There are currently 12 tenured/tenure-track faculty (two are on leave for 2013-14), 5 full-time non-tenure-track faculty, 7 staff positions, 10 graduate students, and more than 100 declared undergraduate majors. We haven’t hired a new tenure-track faculty member since 2008. The last faculty retirement was David Lygre in 2008.

Share a little-known fact about your department.More than 80 percent of chemistry majors conduct faculty-led research, although it is not a requirement of our program.

What are your growth plans for your department?We plan to promote, and hopefully increase enrollment in, the five-year BS/MS option, in our project-based MS with regional industries, as well as in our dual-degree engineering program with Washington State University.

If you were stopped in the airport by someone you didn’t know and asked about CWU and your department, what would you share?The department faculty, staff, and students are a close-knit community, which is a reflection of how student-focused this department is. Students have hands-on research opportunities and we have high placement rates for graduates of our program. There are a vast number of collaborative efforts with faculty from disciplines across campus.

ChemiStry Department

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Department Spotlight continued:

How long has the program been active at CWU?The Women’s and Gender Studies Program began in 1980, as the Women’s Studies Program. We became the Women’s and Gender Studies Program in 2012, in order to reflect the breadth of issues that we examine in our courses, including queer theory and sexuality studies.

How many faculty, staff, students? New faculty? Recently retired faculty?Faculty from 10 different departments on campus teach our elective courses, and we have seen a recent influx of new faculty with interests in gender. The program has a part-time director (currently Cynthia Coe in Philosophy and Religious Studies, but next year Kimberly McBride in Public Health), and we hire non-tenure-track faculty to teach our introductory courses. We currently have 26 minors, which is an all-time high for the program.

Share a little-known fact about your program.Women’s and Gender Studies is certainly not just for women! Since gender is a piece of our identities that has an enormous impact on our lives, we should all learn how to reflect carefully and critically on what gender means in our society and around the world. It’s a crucial area

of study for students interested in such diverse fields as anthropology, journalism, medicine, law, literary and film studies, and business, among others.

What are your growth plans for your program?We are in the process of proposing a Women’s and Gender Studies major, in addition to our current minor. Students have been asking for this major for the last few years, and it will help to communicate to prospective and current students, community members, and legislators the university’s commitment to diversity. We expect that the major will help to draw more students to the program and to the university as a whole.

If you were stopped in the airport by someone you didn’t know and asked about CWU and your program, what would you share?We’re a small but thriving program, supported by an energetic and interdisciplinary group of faculty. Our program unites the academic study of gender with the practical application of those ideas in cooperative education projects and activism. In that sense, we show the organic relationship between theory and practice, between thinking about the world and changing it.

Women’S anD GenDer StuDieS

On February 21, 17 students, two chemistry faculty, and one mathematics faculty came from Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) for an American Chemical Society-sponsored student club mixer. In the early afternoon, YVCC and CWU students were inspired with possibilities from a transfer and major advising session given by the office of admissions (Fernando Galvan), biology (Lucinda Carnell), chemistry (Dion Rivera), geology (Nick Zentner), mathematics (Mark Oursland), and physics (Bruce Palmquist). After the advising session, ten CWU Chem Club, three Pre-Med Club, two Pre-Pharm Club, and five CWU Math Club members welcomed YVCC students and faculty to the CWU Ellensburg campus. CWU and YVCC students found their way to a banquet of appetizers and refreshments where Dave Darda welcomed both faculty and students from both CWU and YVCC to learn about the engaging world of research at CWU. Yingbin Ge, chemistry, discussed modeling chemicals and physical chemistry; Whitney Swain, chemistry, discussed natural products and organic synthetic chemistry; Janet Shiver, mathematics, discussed challenges with mathematics education research; and Dominic Klyve, mathematics, discussed patterns in numbers observed in theoretical mathematics research. Anthony Diaz, inorganic chemistry, and Hector Casique, an analytical chemistry graduate student, opened up their research chemistry laboratories. Observing actual laboratory space, instrumentation, and the individuals who work within those parameters led to a high level of engagement with the students and faculty, where questions and answers led to implications of research found in the real world. Of equal or greater importance, there were meaningful student-student club interactions between research talks and throughout the day that included science trivia games, math and science jokes, chemistry demonstrations, and mathematics puzzles.

All involved are already looking forward to planning for next year’s club mixer with YVCC!

Gil Belofsky, chemistry, had his paper “Antimicrobial and Antiinsectan Phenolic Metabolites of Dalea searlsiae,” accepted to the Journal of Natural Products.

Department upDateS, aWarDS, anD aCCol aDeS

the remaks have been giving to Central Washing-ton university for 30 years. in 2012, Ben and nancy established the Ben and nancy remak Scholarship for law and Justice. their annual gif t provides a ful l annual tuit ion to an eligible student majoring in law and justice at CWu.

with

March 2014 - CWU College of the Sciences

Tell us about your CWU experience—were you a parent, student, staff, faculty member, or friend of the university? I was community college transfer student. At the time, I was on the “budget plan”—aka, how fast and cheap could I finish my degree. I’m not sure that I fully appreciated what a good place Central was until after I left.

Why did you choose to attend CWU? It is in a great location (close to Seattle area, but not too close) and I had a few friends at CWU who really liked it. More importantly, the quality and type of Law and Justice program was exactly what I was looking for.

What was your major? Law and Justice, during the early years of the program.

Where has your career path taken you? Most of my career was in the special investigative unit of a large insurance company. I resolved allegations of fraud, arson, and other claims with unusual aspects. I developed a nationally used “Insurance Fraud Awareness For Law Enforcement” program, speaking at conferences around the country. This led to being a guest instructor for ten years at the Criminal Justice Training Commission’s basic police academy.

Tell us something personal about yourself—family, hobbies —something most folks would not know about you? Our friends may not know the extent of our involvement in several local non-profits such as Hopelink and Evergreen Hospital. For fun, I drive my Caterham CSR (a small English sports car) in good weather and take it to the track two to three times a year. And I try to play volleyball at least twice a week.

What does philanthropy mean to you? Life has been very good to Nancy and me, so it has actually been quite fun for us to be able to help others and give back in various ways. If people who are able to assist others in need won’t do it, who will? And now is much better than later.

When you started to make gifts to for-impact organizations, what was the trigger? Our parents set good examples for us. We started off small,

trying to provide for specific needs, and just grew from there. Like I said, it is fun.

When and why did you begin to give to CWU? I’m sure I started to give a few years after graduation. Central is easy to work with, giving personal attention, and the students have a great need.

What inspires you to continue to be involved with CWU? The need continues.

If a potential donor were to ask, “Why should I contribute to CWU?” what would you say? Think back to when you were a student: How much difference would it have made in your life if you had a little outside help? Students today need that help more than ever.

Ben and nancy remak

An Interview

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CWu.eDu/SCienCeS

ColleGe of the SCienCeS

Vol. 1, no. 3 marCh 2014

CentralWashingtonUniversity

400 e. university WayDean hall 130

ellensburg, Wa 98926-7519phone: 509-963-1866 • fax: 509-963-1977

CotS CommitmentSall departments within the CWu College of the Sciences

are committed to teaching excellence; faculty and student research; scholarship and professional service;

and community outreach, demonstrating the practical applications of our academic specialization.

CotS miSSionthe College of the Sciences prepares students

for enlightened and productive lives through the intertwined endeavors of learning and research

in the classroom, laboratory, and field. as practitioners of scientific inquiry, students and

faculty create and apply knowledge to solving human, social and environmental problems. the college values

instruction, research, and service as interdependent activities that enable human curiosity and discovery.

upCominG eVentS2nD annual Salmon runSaturday, apri l 19, on the CWu ellensburg campus

WeStern pSyCholoGiCal aSSoCiation ConferenCeapril 24-27, in port land, oregon

CWu pSyCholoGy alumni SoCialapril 26, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., riverplace hotel in port land, oregon

SCienCe phaSe i i GrounDBreakinG Ceremonymay 1, 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., parking lot between Samuelson hall and the Japanese Garden, on the CWu ellensburg campus. open to the public.

1St annual ColleGe of the SCienCeS aWarDS Dinnermay 1, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Sue lombard Dining hall. invitation only.

SympoSium on uniVerSity reSearCh anD CreatiVe expreSSion (SourCe) 2014may 15, the Student union and recreation Center, CWu ellensburg campus.

SourCe-DeS moineS, may 13, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m., in the higher education Center, Bldg 29.

SourCe-lynnWooD, may 14, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Snoqualmie hall.

Where were you born and raised, and how did you arrive at CWU?I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. After completing my undergraduate degree in environmental studies and geography, I spent four years traveling and working in seasonal jobs in Colorado ski towns and Antarctica. While in Antarctica, I fell in love with glaciers and decided to pursue graduate work to learn more about them. I did my graduate work at the University of Maine. During this time, my husband and I took a couple mountaineering trips to the Washington Cascades, and I was very taken with the Pacific Northwest. When my position was advertised, I was excited for the opportunity to relocate to Washington.

How long have you worked in your role at CWU? What other positions have you held here, or at other institutions?I’ve been an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences for five years. Prior to coming to CWU, I was a postdoctoral researcher in Switzerland.

What do you most enjoy about teaching?When students get really excited about science. Teaching also keeps me up to date on a wide range of topics, and I particularly enjoy smaller classes when I can work more closely with the students.

What are the most rewarding and/or challenging aspects of your research?The most rewarding aspects of my research are conducting fieldwork in gorgeous alpine glacier settings and the discovery that is inherent to science. The aspect that can be most challenging is troubleshooting problems in the laboratory.

What did you think you were going to do when you grew up?That changed over time. I remember when I was really little that I thought it would be terrific to be the person who paints lines on the street. As I got older, I wanted to be a veterinarian. After working in some animal shelters and a vet office, I realized that I wasn’t cut out for some of the challenges that vets face.

When you’re not on campus, what are some favorite things you do to relax and unwind?Spending time with my husband and children, and getting outside as much as I can. My husband and I enjoy taking our kids skiing, hiking, and backpacking. I also really enjoy reading, cooking, gardening, and spending time with good friends.

If you were to describe CWU in a sentence to a prospective student, what would you say?CWU has many excellent programs, small class sizes, and the location is ideal for students who enjoy the outdoors.

What is something that most folks at CWU don’t know about you?I worked in Antarctica fueling airplanes before I became a scientist.

What inspires you about CWU?The diversity and determination of many of the students.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?Having made substantial progress on some of the scientific problems that I work on, and having a nice balance between my professional and personal lives.

faculty interview— Susan kaspari, professor, Geological Sciences