March 2012

Posted March 26

Students Nicholas Blackford, Daniel Lenders and Danny Orton, from the lab of Scott Annin, Mathematics, gave a talk on “An Inverse-Based Generalization of the Probability That Two Elements in a Finite Group Commute” at the November Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research at Mt. San Antonio College.

Math Cuajungco, Biological Science, graduate student William Podevin, and undergraduate students Vinod Valluri, Quang Bui, Van Nguyen and Katrina Taylor co-authored “Abnormal Accumulation of Human Transmembrane (TMEM) - 176A and 176B Proteins Is Associated With Cancer Pathology” in the December issue of Acta histochemica.

March 23

Stephen J. Stambough, Political Science, was elected to a three-year term on the statewide Academic Senate effective in May. Diana W. Guerin, Child and Adolescent Studies, and Barry A. Pasternack, Information Systems and Decision Sciences, also serve on the statewide senate.

March 20

Lawrence T. Yun, Art, will discuss his watercolor paintings at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, where his solo exhibition “Hybrid Romance” is on display in the Project Room. His talk is part of the “Conversations With Artists” series presented by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Beyond fine arts galleries, Yun’s watercolors have been seen on television and in films, including “Meet the Fockers” and “The Guardian.”

Graduate anthropology student Patricia “Trish” Campbell has been awarded a $2,071 scholarship by Expeditions Applied Anthropology Field School, sponsored by the University of Leuven, Belgium. The grant partially supports summer field work on the island of Gozo in the Maltese Archipelago.

March 16

Angel Pineda, Mathematics, co-organized a panel on “Successful and Diverse Models of Mentoring Research by Undergraduates” at the January Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston. Also in January, Pineda spoke on “The Volunteer Lecturer Program of the International Mathematical Union: Mathematics Education as a Tool for International Development” at the Confernece on Mathematicians in Mathematics Education in Santiago, Chile.

March 15

Debate team members Irvin Alvarado and Joel Su took second place in junior division, while teams Romin Rajan and Parker Schill, and Melissa Castro and Esther Estrada won fourth place in their divisions at the March 9-11 Sacramento State University Western Novice-Junior Varsity National Tournament.

California Sen. Lou Correa recently recognized criminal justice major Maribel Ramos as a “Woman Making a Difference” in Orange County. Ramos, an Army veteran who served tours of duty in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Korea, serves as a mentor and peer for other women veterans on campus.

March 14

In January, Zair Ibragimov, Mathematics, presented “Hyperbolization of Hyperspaces” at Claremont McKenna College.

Barbara L. Gonzalez, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Ruth Yopp-Edwards, Elementary and Bilingual Education, co-authored “Recruiting Chemistry and Physics Teachers: Effective Strategies From the Literature and at California State University, Fullerton, Documents,” which was presented at the February 2012 PhysTEC Regional Conference of MSTI and CalTeach in Ontario.

March 12

Graduate geology student Michelle Gevedon was awarded a $1,000 Richard Chambers Memorial Scholarship by the Northern California Geological Society for her study of “Multi-isotopic Analysis of Magmatic Zircon From Mafic Rocks Across the Sierra Nevada: Addressing Tectonic Models With Geochemistry.” The grant partially supports summer field work in the high Sierra and her measurement of hafnium isotopic signatures at the University of Arizona.

March 8

Math Cuajungco and Hope Johnson, both Biological Science, and Maria Linder, Chris Meyer and Nicholas Salzameda, all Chemistry and Biochemistry, were panelists for a January Graduate School Information workshop sponsored by the California State University Program for Education in Research and Biotechnology. The session aimed to help and guide, as well as provide information to, CSU students considering pursuit of a graduate education.

At the same program, student Luigi Basilio, who works in the lab of Math Cuajungo, Biological Science, was awarded a CSUPERB Doris Howell Research Scholarship, and Vinod Valluri was a finalist for the Glenn Nagel Award Undergraduate Research Poster Presentation competition for "Transmembrane (TMEM)-176A and 176B Proteins Are Directly Linked to Cancer Pathology" co-authored with fellow undergraduates Quang Bui and Van Nguyen, graduate student William Podevin and Cuajungo.

March 6

Radha Bhattacharya, Economics, will discuss financial literacy and Ed Hart, Family Business Council, will talk about leadership skills in business during a March 14 career day at Valadez Middle School Academy. Valadez is one of two schools taking part in the U.S. Bank Economic Empowerment Program overseen by Bhattacharya and the Center for Economic Education.

Angel Pineda, Mathematics, spoke on “Statistical Modeling of Chemical Species Separation in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)” at the American Mathematics Society session on mathematics as a collaborative discipline, during the October Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) national conference in San Jose. In November, Pineda discussed “Life as a Professor” at the Program for Excellence in Education and Research in the Sciences at UCLA, and presented “Mathematical Research by Students at the CSU: Mentoring and Mathematics” at Cal State Long Beach’s Mathematics Colloquium.

March 2

In Memoriam — Carol Ebbett, a former administrative support coordinator in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, died in her sleep over the weekend of Feb. 25. She was 69 years old. Ebbett served the campus for 17 years, retiring in 2006 after serving in the dean's office as well as the departments of Mathematics and Physics. In 2005, she was awarded the college's Staff Excellence Award. Ebbett is survived by her son, Tim; daughter, Nikki, and son-in-law, Robert Garcia; grandchildren Greg and Sophie; brother Vic and sister Janice Ehmke.

March 1

Marcelo E. Tolmasky, Biological Science,were among the co-authors of “Small Quinolone Resistance Plasmids: A Model for Evolution Mediated by Site-Specific Recombination (SSR) at oriT and Xer Sites” presented in February at the 10th American Society for Microbiology Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research meeting in Washington, D.C. At the same conference, MARC Scholar Christina Adams and visiting Fulbright Scholar Maria Soledad Ramirez were co-authors of  “Achromobacter Xylosidans and Emerging Pathogen Carrying Differential Elements Involved in Horizontal Genetic Transfer.”