College of Science Kudos May 2024

New grants awarded from December 2023 - May 2024

Paul Rowley (associate professor, Biological Sciences):
$94,000, Hypothesis Fund, The Importance of Pore-Forming Toxins for the Virulence of Fungal Pathogens.
$1.4M, NIH R25, yEvo: a high school lab for teaching evolution and genomics.
$180,000, NIH/COBRE supplement.

Meng Zhao (assistant professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences):
$618,000, U.S. Geological Survey, Improving hydrological predictions across CONUS through better characterization of below-ground soil-vegetation processes. Learn more.
$750,000, NASA EPSCoR, SMD/GSFC: Improving global dryland streamflow modeling by better characterizing vegetation use of deep-water resources using NASA's GRACE/GRACE-FO,SWOT, and LIS.

Kris Waynant (associate professor, Chemistry):
$456,051, NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates, Elements of Sustainability.
$906,095, NIH, T34 Bridges to the Baccalaureate Research Training Program.

Marty Ytreberg (professor, Physics) and Paul Rowley (associate professor, Biological Scienc-es): $92,700, Higher Education Research Council-Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission (HERC-IGEM), Developing Novel Fungicides for Sustainable Potato Production. 

Lee Fortunato (professor, Biological Sciences): $1.875M, NIH R01, HCMV downregulates nidogen 1 and myelin protein zero.

Carolyn Bohach (university distinguished professor and director, Idaho INBRE): $4.2M, NIH INBRE supplement. 

Chris Marx (co-PI, professor, Biological Sciences), $15M, NSF, BII: EMBER: Embedding Mo-lecular Biology in Ecosystem Research in an era of increasing wildfire and drought.

Zach Etienne (associate professor, Physics): $180,000, NSF, Gravity Theory 2023.

Selected Publications

James Bull, Scott Nuismer (professors, Biological Sciences) and Chris Remien (associate professor, Mathematics and Statistical Science) co-authored an article in Expert Reviews of Vaccines titled “Recombinant transmissible vaccines will be intrinsically contained despite the ability to superinfect.”

Bull, Nuismer and Remien, together with Courtney Schreiner (B.S. Mathematics ’20, M.S. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, ’22), also co-authored an article in Science titled “Developing Transmissible Vaccines for Animal Infectious Diseases.” Learn more.

Grant Harley (associate professor, Earth and Spatial Sciences) and Karen King (Ph.D. geography, ‘22) co-authored an article in Science Advances titled “Increasing prevalence of hot drought across western North America since the 16th century.” The article was featured by CNN and the Washington Post.

Eva Top (professor emerita, Biological Sciences) co-authored an article in Nature Communications titled “Host-plasmid network structure in wastewater is linked to antimicrobial resistance genes.” 

In Case You Missed It

Congratulations to Scott Kinkead (Ph.D. Chemistry, ‘84) and Steven Smith (B.S. Zoology, ‘68) who received the University of Idaho Alumni Hall of Fame Award in May 2024.

Madeline Moody (B.S. Chemistry, ‘24) and Julia Major (B.S. Biology ’24), received NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awards. Madeline and Julia are College of Science Ambassadors, and both are prior recipients of the Hill Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

Dayna Buitron (microbiology), and 2023 Hill Undergraduate Research fellow, received the 2024 Barry Goldwater Scholarship.

Five COS students were awarded Hill Undergraduate Research Fellowships beginning in fall 2024:

• Maia Cuddy (Environmental Science and Conservation Biology) - Faculty mentor: Grant Harley (Earth and Spatial Sciences)
• Lindsay Hall (Medical Sciences) - Faculty mentor: Onesmo Balemba (Biological Sci-ences)
• Reagan Johnson (Mathematics) - Faculty mentor: Esteban Hernandez-Vargas (Mathematics and Statistical Science)
  
• Emily Medema (Earth and Spatial Sciences) - Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Cassel (Earth and Spatial Sciences)
• Katie Rode (Microbiology and Communication) - Faculty mentor: Chris Marx (Biological Sciences)

Four COS faculty were recognized by the Office of Research and Economic Development for their research contributions to the university. Carolyn Bohach (Idaho INBRE), Chris Marx (Bio-logical Sciences), and Holly Wichman (Biological Sciences) received awards for top F&A pro-ducers, and Alistair Smith (Earth and Spatial Sciences) received awards for Top Sponsored Program and Top Researcher.

Karen Humes (Earth and Spatial Sciences) was named a 2024 Sustainability Champion for helping create the first undergraduate certificate in Sustainability.

Paul Rowley (Biological Sciences) received the U of I Fraternity and Sorority Life Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 2024.

Tim Bartholomaus (Earth and Spatial Sciences) was interviewed by Boise Dev about Idaho’s location on the 45th Parallel.

Current and former members of Grant Harley’s research team (Earth and Spatial Sciences) were featured for their tree ring research in an article in Earth Island Journal. 

Prabhasha Wickramaarachchi, a senior majoring in medical sciences and member of the track team, set a school record in the 400 meters at a recent meet.

Kerey Barnowe-Meyer (Ph.D. Biology, ’09) was named Director of Conservation for the Nature Conservancy in Idaho.

Jordan Richter (B.S. Biology, ’21) is currently a student in the WWAMI medical training program and is engaged in immunology research as part of his training.

Ray von Wandruszka (Chemistry) and U of I collaborator Mark Warner were interviewed by Jefferson Public Radio about their chemical archaeology projects.

Jason Barnes (Physics) was quoted extensively by Universe Today about the possibility of sending humans to Saturn’s moon Titan.

University Excellence Awards 2024: 

• Deb Stenkamp (Biological Sciences): Donald L. Crawford Faculty Mentoring Award
• Grant Harley (Earth and Spatial Sciences): University Mid-Career Award
• Salvador (Chava) Castañeda Barba (Ph.D. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, ‘24): Outstanding Graduate Student Research and Creativity Award (mentored by Eva Top, Biological Sciences)

College of Science Faculty and Staff Awards 2024:

• Whitney Myers (INBRE): Staff Outstanding Service Award
• Alistar Smith (Earth and Spatial Sciences): Distinguished Faculty Award
• Esteban Hernandez-Vargas (Mathematics and Statistical Science): Early Career Faculty Award
• Renee Love (Earth and Spatial Sciences): Outstanding Teaching Award
• Jerry Fairley (Earth and Spatial Sciences): Harding Faculty Fellowship
• Chris Remien (Mathematics and Statistical Science): Dyess Faculty Fellowship

College of Science Student Awards 2024 (graduating students):

Dean’s Graduate Award

• Salvador (Chava) Castañeda Barba (Ph.D. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology)
  
• Ashley Farre (Ph.D. Neuroscience)
  
• Dipak Koirala (Ph.D. Chemistry)
  
• Andrei Kulumbetov (M.S. Statistical Science)
  
• Himanshi Sharma (Ph.D. Physics)
• Haley Thoresen (Ph.D. Geology)

Diane Haynes Memorial Award (outstanding COS graduating graduate student)

•  Ashley Farre (Ph.D. Neuroscience)

Dean’s Award (undergraduate)

• Jean Allen (Geological Sciences, Physical Geology option) 
  
• William Auten (majors in Physics and Chemistry, nominated by the Department of Physics) 
  
• Lauren Fitzgerald (Medical Sciences and Mathematical Biology, nominated by the Department of Biological Sciences) 
  
• Ellie Grant (Medical Sciences)
  
• Madeline Moody (Chemistry)
• Austin Smith (Mathematics)

John B. George Award (outstanding COS graduating senior)

• Madeline Moody (Chemistry)

Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

• Jonathan Webb (Mathematics)