Inspiration Dissemination

In this episode, science historian Aimee Hisey talks with Inspiration Dissemination hosts Daniel Watkins and Adrian Gallo about her research on the lives of Jewish surgeons living in the 1600s Latin America. In the viceroyalties (similar to what we in the US think of as colonies), Jewish medical practitioners found ways to get around royal mandates forbidding Jews from attending medical school. Aimee's work investigates how medical knowledge exchange circumvented political oppression. She discusses the difficulties in finding out information that was kept secret, piecing together information from the Spanish Inquisition, ship logs, and diaries to understand the lives of people 400 years ago. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been m

Cedric Hagen is a PhD candidate in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences who uses numerical algorithms to puzzle out the timeline of 500 million year old fossils from around the world. In this episode, Daniel chats with Cedric about his work, about the Cambrian era, and about how algorithms from totally different areas of study can be helpful for earth science. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Megan is a first-year Marine Resource Management Masters student who is working on a project to map the distribution of an invasive mud worm (Polydora websteri) that infects native shellfish such as the commercially grown Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) and wild populations of Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida). Working with ODFW, Megan visits shellfish farms located in estuaries along the Oregon coast and picks up oysters which are inspected for worms. If found, samples are then sent to a lab in Washington for genetic analysis to confirm infestation. Megan says that farmers may not even know their oysters are infected and she hopes to expand her work beyond just ecological sampling to outreach and mitigating an emergent problem. Megan’s passion for education goes far beyond aquaculture. In this episode, learn more about Megan’s research and outreach goals beyond her graduate work including oyster restoration at Yaquina Head. Hosted by Daniel Watkins and Chelsea Behymer. Please find us on social media! Twit

Trigger warning: some topics discussed include homelessness and brief mention of abuse. Grad Inspire is a special event months in the making, where six Oregon State University graduate students share their personal stories of failure, perseverance, and triumph through life. This episode was originally recorded on March 2nd 2020 in the Memorial Union Ballroom hosted by the Graduate School with donations from Block 15 making the event a huge success. Every Inspiration Dissemination host helped mentor presenters for this event. Presenter order: Ashley Ellenson, Winston Kennedy, Meredith Jacobson, Shauna Otto, Samuel Burns, and Barbara Spiecker. We are deeply grateful to the presenters who were incredibly brave to showcase their stories for all of use to learn from. We hope you join us next year! Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host Un

Amidst the challenges of a global pandemic, the Inspiration Dissemination podcast will strive to be an avenue of human connection and inspiration during a more isolated time. This week, we sit down with Joaquin Rodriquez for the first podcast of a special series covering the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on the research and lives of our OSU community. Joaquin is a student from Lima, Peru and studies viruses as an undergraduate researcher in the Barbar lab at OSU. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they account for more than 10 percent of all carbon trapped in the sea. In a world and time where we are producing more carbon than we should be and can manage, making sure that seagrasses are healthy and abundant is extremely pertinent. Winni Wang is one such seagrass scientist working to understand the biology of seagrasses and what threatens them. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Somewhere, in a local government meeting, an idea is proposed, a policy brief is written, some voting occurs, paperwork is pushed around, money is allocated, and a new highway is built. In the same region, some bighorn sheep are off trekking in search of their favorite grasses to eat. They come upon a road they can’t cross that wasn’t there before. The sheep stay put and eat the same old grass they were already eating. When policymakers decided to build this road, it’s unclear whether they considered the consequences of this type of habitat fragmentation on the tiny ecosystems of bacteria that live inside of each bighorn sheep. More importantly, whether they knew their decision might lead to unforeseen consequences for bighorn population health. We take for granted how intertwined policy and science really are. Claire Couch is a 5th year PhD candidate in the department of Integrative Biology, studying wildlife disease ecology, but she’s also the president of a new Science and Policy Club at Oregon State Unive

Linus Stoltz is a graduate student in the Marine Resource Management Master’s Program. Only in his second term, Linus is already diving in to a project that means a lot to Oregon coastal communities. More and more instances of crab fishermen pulling up their gear full of dead crabs prompted them to reach out to scientists for help. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists and researchers at Oregon State University have been working together since 2002 to try and find answers. While we are beginning to understand the bigger picture of the oceanographic conditions that result in hypoxia, Linus explains that we don’t have any models that predict this ‘wave’ on a finer scale. He describes the ocean as patchy, where conditions just a thousand yards away from where a fisherman may have set his or her pots may be completely different. The ultimate goal of his research is to be able to predict these conditions and inform management decisions such as seasonal and/or spatial closures. For Linus, this project r

Robots don’t all look like R2-D2. In fact, some robots aren’t hard or made of metal at all. Some are soft and pliable, and they’re the kind that Nick Bira, 3rd year PhD student in the Department of Robotics, is working on. A soft robot can mold into the shape that you need it to. Soft robots are also being used in the medical field. After all, you don’t want some hard, klanky thing poking around inside of you and possibly causing damage. Nick is also embedding iron particles, which are magnetically soft, into silicone rubber, which is a soft elastic material, to make a material that is soft and hyper elastic and when brought close to an ordinary magnet, will stick to it. However, this is only step 1. Nick is interested in creating magnetic fields within the robot rather than it only working if there is a big, hard magnet nearby. One core goal of soft robotics is to have them function on their own without needing some hard object nearby to ‘support’ it. Tune in to learn how he plans to achieve this! Hosted by

For graduate teaching assistant Alex Szarabajko, being part of the team teaching the 3,000-plus students who take Lifetime Fitness for Health (HHS 231) every term is not just a job. “It’s the last time students are able to learn about physical activity, nutrition and mental health before adulthood, ” says Alex. That course also tied for 1st place from undergraduate voting of all classes at OSU. Alex started work on her doctorate in Kinesiology at Oregon State University in 2018 after completing master’s degrees in General Psychology and in Exercise and Sport Science at Eastern Kentucky University. As a researcher in the field of sport psychology, Alex works to understand the reasons that people pursue their fitness goals and engage in healthy behavior. Alex's outro music is reproduced by Rachel Vick with her permission: Rachel Vick - Heart Logic. Hosted by Daniel Watkins and Adrian Gallo. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Bl

Sofiya Yusova is a microbiology graduate student focusing on the impact of climate change on C. shasta, a parasite that infects salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. We talk with Sofiya about the lifecycle of C. shasta, and how knowledge of the lifecycle can give state and tribal organizations tools to help ensure the survival of salmon as they travel from alpine rivers to the Pacific ocean. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Our guest is Winston Kennedy, a 3rd year PhD student in the Kinesiology program and Adaptive Physical Activity option, has been a practicing Physical Therapist since 2015. Over time, he noticed his patients with mobility limitations were trying to perform their rehabilitation exercises at home but they received inadequate support or guidance from other medical personnel because the gym or their personal home was not conducive to these physical exercises. Winston also noticed that physical mobility limitations can also impact someone’s mental health, and as a PT his patients would have greater success if both the physical and mental hurdles were considered. It’s these barriers to successful rehabilitation programs that Winston is examining in his research project with the aim of making physical therapy more inclusive to any patient who could benefit. Winston is also a Grad Inspire keynote on March 3rd, be sure to mark your calendars! Hosted by Kayla Delventhal and Adrian Gallo. Please find us on social media!

Amine Gaizi is a masters student working on a degree in Electronics and Embedded systems. As an exchange student from France, Amine is studying in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering within the College of Engineering here at OSU. In this episode, we talk about about Amine’s journey to OSU, including his work with robots in Germany, how the French school system is organized, and about the excitement of being an international student experience. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing graduate students at Oregon State University.

Nathan Justus studies the robotics of biological motion. He is part of a team that is using robotics as a creative tool to tackle an issue relevant to the grape industry - that more than 700 black widow spiders end up in consumer's grapes every year. For his Master’s project Nathan worked on developing a new method of measuring the frequency of the web vibrations when two black widows speak to eachother. This information will then be used to develop a method of getting spiders to evacuate their webs without the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides. In this episode, we also discuss Nathan's future research on autonomous underwater robots and his past work experience for NASA's Johnson Space Center. This episode is hosted by Kayla Delventhal and Lillian Padgitt-Cobb. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu

Meredith Jacobson is a Master’s student in the Forest, Ecosystems and Society Department of OSU’s College of Forestry who studies collaborative partnerships in forest management. She describes her thesis work here at Oregon State as a qualitative case study on the concept of “Anchor Forests”, an idea developed by the Intertribal Timber Council that would involve creating large regions of forest management and stewardship, collaborating across ownership boundaries. Her data collection has included interviewing those involved in developing the Anchor Forest concept, analyzing published documents and reports, and looking at online media coverage of Tribal forest policies and laws that could enable the cross-boundary work needed to make Anchor Forests happen. Through her analysis, she wants to understand what is unique about this concept and what barriers need to be overcome to realize its potential. Meredith says that one of the most interesting things she’s learned so far is that among the ten people she’s talk

A lot of the concepts that scientists use to justify why things are the way they are, are devised solely based on theory. Some theoretical concepts have been established for so long that they are simply accepted without being scrutinized very often. The umbrella species concept is one such example as it is a theoretical approach to doing conservation and although in theory it is thought to be an effective strategy for conserving ecosystems, it is actually very rarely empirically tested. Enter Alan Harrington, who is going to test its validity empirically. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazi

What do we know about cooperation? Can we quantify the tipping point? This week’s guest, Bryan Lynn, a second-year PhD student co-advised by Dr. Patrick De Leenheer in the Department of Integrative Biology and Martin Schuster in Microbiology studies the evolution of cooperation. To do this, Bryan scales his work way down to microorganism level. Evolutionary theory has been largely based on the Darwinian premise of the survival of the fittest, but Bryan’s research is challenging this – not cooperating makes you more fit as an individual, but is that best for the group as a whole? Using the bacteria Psuedomonas aeruginosa as a model organism, Bryan is able to manipulate the behavior of the bacteria and study what happens in a chemostat system – a device which allows the bacteria to grow continuously with a constant input of a food source and output of the mixed solution - making it an excellent metaphor for life. For example, Bryan mutates some of the bacteria to be so-called “cheaters,” as they do not make an

Allison Swartz, a PhD student in the Forest Ecosystems and Society program in the College of Forestry at Oregon State, is in the midst of a multi-year study on forest stream ecosystems. “My work focuses on canopy structure—how the forest age and structure influences life in streams,” says Allison. “People are always shocked at how many organisms live in such a small section of stream. So much life in there, but you don’t realize it when you’re walking nearby on the trail.” Part of Allison’s project involves cutting gaps in the forest canopy over streams to mimic the kind of openings that appear in old growth forest. Listen to hear about the characteristics of old growth and regenerating forests, and to hear some pro tips about how to recognize forest age and find salamanders in streams! Hosted by Daniel Watkins and Lisa Hildebrand. Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.

When tsunamis occur they cause significant damage to coastal infrastructure and the surrounding natural environment. Sam Harry’s research in Civil Engineering is filled with bizarre scientific instruments and massive contraptions in an effort to bring large natural events into the laboratory setting. “There’s only a couple like it in the world, so it’s pretty unique”. Unique may be an understatement when describing what may be the largest centrifuge in North America. And what about lazers in a wave lab? Hosted by Kayla Delventhal and Heather Forsythe Please find us on social media! Twitter: twitter.com/kbvrID facebook: www.facebook.com/InspirationDissemination/ Blog: blogs.oregonstate.edu/inspiration/ Radio Station: www.orangemedianetwork.com/kbvr_fm Host University: oregonstate.edu This show was founded in 2012 by Joey Hulbert and Zhian Kamvar. It has been made possible by all the current and former hosts of the show, Orange Media Network, the KBVR-FM students and staff, and of course the amazing gr

One kilometer. Or roughly ten football fields. That’s the extent of the area over which Karla Jarecke can feasibly navigate her way through the trailless HJ Andrews Experimental forest to collect the data she needs in a typical day of field work. Experimental watersheds like the HJ Andrews forest (link here) were established initially to understand how clear-cutting influenced forest drainage. This was during the time when timber-take was increasing and we still had little understanding on its ecosystem effects. Karla’s work is also forward-thinking, but less on the lines of what will happen to drainage when trees are removed and more focused on understanding the availability of water for trees to use now and in the future. She wants to know what influence topography has on plant water availability in mountainous landscapes. Karla explains that there have been long-standing assumptions surrounding elevation gradients and their control on water availability in a forest system. This understanding has led to mod