Inspiration Dissemination

Mammals encompass some of the most interesting animals on the planet. We can see how bats have mastered the sky with wings like birds or how dolphins have adapted streamlined bodies for life in the ocean just like fish. The ability to evolve similar characteristics to overcome common problems found in the environment is called convergent evolution and opens our eyes to the fundamentals of how life has changed to face the challenges of our planet. One such trait that is the product of convergent evolution is echolocation, which is the subject of research for our guest on the show this week Serena Frazee.

If you walk into any grocery store today and find yourself in the beverage aisle, you'll be able to find all sorts of “prebiotic” sodas touting ingredients like inulin that claim to improve gut health. Many of us are familiar with probiotics and the gut benefits of fermented or cultured foods that contain beneficial bacteria, but prebiotics are a little different. Prebiotics are typically nondigestible fiber compounds that pass undigested through the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract and function as a food source for your gut's microorganisms.However, it is unclear what the effects of prebiotics are on the human gut microbiome, and more specifically, how diet influences these effects. This is exactly what Emilee Lance, second year PhD student in the department of microbiology, is aiming to understand. Under the guidance of PIs Ryan Mueller and Tom Sharpton, Emilee is working on understanding how the gut microbiome is affected by prebiotics like inulin, and the impact that diet can have on prebiotic efficacy. Using a gut simulator called a SHIME (The Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem) she is able to totally control the initial microbial environment, diet, and mimic specific regions of the gastrointestinal tract such as the stomach, small intestine and different colon regions.

Sometimes the smallest things in the universe can answer some of the largest questions. That seems to be the case with neutrinos. But what exactly are these fundamental particles, that also happen to be the most abundant in the universe, and why are they of importance? Listen in to hear Noah shed light on all things neutrinos, including undereground research facilities! Hosted by Matthew Vaughan and Taylor Azizeh.

Join us as we dive into the world of apex predators with shark researcher Jessica Schulte, a PhD candidate studying the foraging behavior and movement of broadnose sevengill sharks in the Pacific Northwest. This episode is packed with mystery, fun shark facts, unexpected diet discoveries, crazy field stories, and inspiring ventures that lead to a career working with sharks! Hosted by Matthew Vaughan and Taylor Azizeh.

For most of the time that biochemists have been studying proteins they have preached the widely adopted dogma that structure equals function. Proteins are macromolecules made of chains of amino acids, and as they are produced they fold into intricate and specific shapes. These shapes or ‘structures' are critical to the tasks that they perform, like producing energy for the cell, carrying molecular cargo from one end of the cell to the other, or letting ions across the cell membrane. However, over 30% of the protein humans produce has no specific structure. These are called intrinsically disordered proteins, and only in the last 15 years have they been brought into the spotlight of biochemistry and biophysics research (Structural Disorder in Eukaryotes). Hannah Stuwe is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Biochemistry and Biophysics, and her research revolves around disordered proteins, particularly a protein from SARS-CoV-2 called the nucleocapsid protein. In her work she uses state-of-the-art techniques specifically suited for studying disordered proteins to understand how the flexibility of this protein changes throughout the viral replication cycle. 

Per- or Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of chemicals that are known for their ability to contaminate our environment and be resistant to breaking down. However, there's still a lot to learn about their potential for toxicity. One way scientists can better understand PFAS toxicity is by using the embryonic zebrafish models. These tiny fish have a genome that is around 70% similar to humans. This makes the zebrafish a powerful tool in understanding how some chemicals may express toxicity in humans. Eli Cowan is a second-year PhD student in the lab of Robyn Tanguay, which is a part of the Environmental and Molecular Toxicology lab here at OSU. His research focuses on using the zebrafish model to understand how PFAS exposure may lead to adverse effects in development. With this data and using his in-dept knowledge of biology, Eli then can help answer questions about how PFAS may be toxic to people. Eli was raised in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where he first encountered zebrafish toxicology in a locally-based lab. Eli has always been a natural born scientist, and that curiosity has led him all the way across the country pushing the bounds of science.

If someone asked you to describe a shark, I imagine most folks would report a ten-foot long body, rows and rows of razor sharp teeth, and the ruthless nature of a (literal) cold-blooded killer. If you asked Master's student Reilly Boyt to describe a shark, she would likely describe a salmon shark. Reilly is our guest on the show this week and she studies the diet and habitat use of salmon sharks using multi-chemical tracers (e.g. eDNA metabarcoding and fatty acid analysis) across size classes and sex. Reilly is also the founder and CEO of Disabilities Within Ocean Sciences (DWOS), an organization dedicated to “building a network and resource hub for disabled marine scientists at every career stage.” She has done prolific advocacy work that focuses on promoting inclusivity and equitable access within the field of marine science. Hosted by Taylor Azizeh & Lisa Hildebrand.

As global temperatures rise, ocean levels and extreme weather occurrences rise with it. One of the leading causes of global warming are greenhouse gases like CO2. Emily Hiatt's research is tryign to develop a cheap, robust way to capture CO2. This topic is hot; even hotter than the rising global temps.

What's cooler than land robots? Underwater robots (ice cold!), which Akshaya Agrawal's PhD research in the Robotics Department focuses on. Her research is indeed cool; developing and testing motion-planning algorithms designed to help teams of robots coordinate movement and perform tasks underwater. But have you ever wondered what's involved in getting robots to operate underwater? And how exactly does one get to work with underwater robots? Listen in to  find the answers to those budding questions, as well as Akshaya's journey from India to the U.S, ...or just to hear cool stuff about cool robots! 

If you're not a fan of ‘The Office' then that title probably made no sense to you. But, if you are, then you'll know that Michael Scott famously said that mercury poisoning is one of the five Goliaths that America faces (though we never actually find out what the fifth one is…). Regardless, on this week's episode you'll be able to learn all about this Goliath as our guest, the newly minted Dr. Cailin Sinclair, discusses his doctorate and post-doc work investigating mercury cycling in freshwater systems. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand.

Emily Dziedzic, a PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife & Conservation Sciences, is a molecular ecologist who focuses on bioinformatics, which means that she uses computer-based methods to analyze genetic data. Her work spans a wide variety of taxa, from freshwater fish to scarlet macaws, from bats to Humboldt marten, and has implications for improving ecological monitoring for management as well as assisting in the fight against wildlife disease. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Mireia Roig-Paul.

This week on ID we are interviewing Mireia Roig-Paul, a second year PhD student in Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, to learn all about pollutants and the potential threats they pose to our environment and our health. She studies in the laboratories of both Jennifer Fields and Serhan Mermer, and her research focuses on the intersection of so-called “forever chemicals” PFAS and non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPL), how they move through soil, and how they interact with each other.

In the wake of the ongoing graduate employee strike at Oregon State University, Hannah and Mireia sit down to talk with the president and VP for Communications of the Coalition of Graduate Employees (the labor union that represents graduate employees at OSU). Austin Bosgraf and Erika Stewart explain the string of events that lead to this strike, what is at stake for vulnerable grads, and where we go from here.

Dams, climate change, habitat loss, predation, anglers. Wild salmon must contend with all of these challenges during some point in their lifetimes. But an additional challenge may be having a negative impact on wild salmon that we don't yet quite understand: hatchery salmon. Investigating the impacts of hatchery salmon on wild salmon is no easy feat, and it's not made easier when you're trying to do it in possibly one of the most remote and wild places in Oregon…But that's exactly what our guest this week is doing! Emily Treadway is a first year Master's student advised by Dr. Seth White in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at OSU. On top of being a graduate student, Emily is also an employee at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife working within the East Region Fish Research Office. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand.

Taylor Azizeh, a first-year Ph.D. student at OSU's Marine Mammal Institute, joins Matt to discuss how climate change might be driving gray whales to shift their feeding habits along the Pacific Northwest coast. Taylor's research explores the phenomenon of 'prey switching,' where these benthic specialists switch from seafloor to water-column feeding. By combining stable isotope analysis, GPS tracking, and drone photogrammetry, Taylor aims to understand how gray whales adapt to changing prey availability in a warming ocean. Listen in to hear about her journey from Costa Rica to London to OSU, her passion for these majestic animals, and the big-picture questions she seeks to answer. Hosted by Matthew Vaughan.

Erika Stewart, a second year MA student in the School of Literature, Writing and Film, joins Matt to chat about how horror represents itself in video games. Erika's research focuses on an emerging subgenre of games which she coins 'Malewaric' games. These games are capable of hijacking your computer, inducing a deep sense of fear of which Erika contributes to the hypothesis that computers have become an extension of our body. Listen in for a further exploration of horror video games, how Erika's passion for gaming influenced for graduate pathway, and the importance of the grad student union! Hosted by Matthew Vaughan.

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus is one of the most infectious viral diseases in the world. FMD virus affects all cloven-hooved animals and there have been outbreaks all over the world except for in North America. While FMD virus doesn't necessarily cause fatality in animals, it causes severe milk production losses and can leave affected individuals severely weakened and debilitated. This is particularly problematic for people who keep livestock as it can affect their livelihoods and economic welfare. Join us this week as we talk with Cambrey Knapp, a 2nd year PhD student in Comparative Health Science who is studying wildlife-livestock interactions related to FMD virus around Kruger National Park in South Africa. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand.

Katie Minich is a first year Masters student in Applied Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, with a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies. Katie is coupling her 8 years of birth work experience with research on the sustainability and decolonization of doulas in the healthcare workforce. Hosted by Matthew Vaughan and Lisa Hildebrand.

We chat with Jillien Zukaitis, a first year PhD student in Nutrition, College of Health. Her lab, fondly referred to as the ‘Milk Lab', studies at all things milk. With a clinical background as a dietitian, Jillien now couples her practical experience with translatable research. Partnering with OHSU, Jillien assesses the composition, nutritional value, and potential health benefits of human milk on the development of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Joseph Valencia

What can be learned from anthropologists studying other anthropologists? Danu Yang is a second year master's student and anthropologist in the Applied Anthropology Graduate Program. Her main subject of study is a collaborative project dedicated to translating anthropological research between Chinese and Portuguese. Danlu is conducting an ethnographic study of the people involved in this translation project. She is herself highly multilingual, speaking Chinese, English, Portuguese, and Spanish.  Danlu is also interested in what motivates anthropologists to study rural China and what is gained when local knowledge is able to be expressed without English as an intermediary. Hosted by Selene Ross and Joseph Valencia.

30 by 30. No, not the critically acclaimed ESPN documentary series — the phrase refers to the Biden Administration's goal for the US to produce 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power generation by 2030. To support this target, large scale construction projects are planned off the coast of Oregon and the rest of the West Coast. Here to tell us about the potential effects of this planned construction on marine life is our guest this week, Margaret Campbell. She uses theoretical and historical modeling approaches to forecast the impact of wind farm infrastructure on fisheries. Numerous environmental, tribal, and commercial groups have an interest in wind farm placement and Margaret hopes that her research will help these stakeholders respond to a changing coastline. Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Hannah Stuwe.

Do you feel dizzy after reading that title? Me too, after writing it, but this week on the show we did indeed speak to a trainer of the trainers who train trainers of little humans! Meet Maya Johnson, a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Human Development and Family Sciences. For her research, Maya studies early childhood education policy and the childcare system within Oregon, with a pretty applied policy focus. Alongside doing her research, in her capacity as a graduate research assistant at OSU, some of what Maya does is to write trainings and coaching systems for individuals who train early childhood educators (hence the trainer of trainers who train trainers). Tune in to our episode with Maya where we cover a whole range of topics related to early childhood education, such as the HeadStart program, the childcare crises, why we don't know a whole lot about the education stats of children under the age of 6 in Oregon, and what Maya is doing to hopefully change that problem! Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand

Kayla Fratt is a PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation sciences, whose research uses scat samples collected from apex predators to better understand their biology and ecology. As if being a graduate student isn't already enough of a full-time job, Kayla has another one; she is one of the founders and trainers of K9 Conservationists, an organization that unites highly trained conservation detection dog teams with researchers to collect scientific data.For her graduate research, Kayla is working with her canine colleagues, Barley & Niffler, to understand island biogeography effects on diet and movement for sea wolves in southeast Alaska and basic natural history of pumas in El Salvador. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Jenna Fryer

Elena Conser is a third year PhD student in the Plankton Ecology Lab within the Department of Integrative Biology. She really, really, loves plankton – marine organisms that are unable to swim against the current and are thus, at the whim and mercy of their environment. To study plankton, Elena employs a cutting-edge technology imaging system to view plankton in their natural environment, something that has not previously been possible in her field. (Disclaimer: this episode was recorded with a backup system so the audio quality is somewhat below the usual). Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Joseph Valencia.

Charlene Perez Santos is a first year Master student working within the Marine Mammal Institute. Her research focuses on tracking humpback whale movement via satellite tags and comparing them with sea vessel routes in Bahia de Banderas in relation to habitat use and exposure to human impacts. Hosted by Matthew Vaughan and Hannah Stuwe.

Rachel Kaplan is a 4th year PhD student who studies both ends of marine food chains: the prey (krill) and the predator (baleen whales). Rachel conducts research in Oregon and along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. As a last-minute, life-saver of the show, this episode is a little different from our usual shows as we take a trip with Rachel to Antarctica and learn about what it means to be a researcher in one of the most remote places on our planet. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand.

Elliot Icarus Laurence is a first year Master of Fine Arts student who draws on his own experience of growing up in poverty and continued financial precarity as a source of inspiration for writing fiction. Elliot says he is most inspired by people who “make it work,” such as single parents managing to make rent from paycheck to paycheck and overworked social services providers. Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Selene Ross.

Jose Aguilar is not here to help robots take over the world. In fact, the first year PhD student studying artificial intelligence says he's actually working on the opposite–to ensure that AI systems are safe, and raise alarm when they're not. Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Selene Ross

Today's guest is Lauren Diaz, a fourth year PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences. Lauren focuses on the population dynamics of freshwater organisms. We speak with Lauren about how she came to love stream ecosystems and her research on modeling the behavior of rainbow trout populations in California's Central Valley. Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Lisa Hildebrand. 

For those of us who consume dairy products, we often don't give much thought to the trials and tribulations that had to be faced to get that product on the grocery shelves. It's probably a fair assumption to say that most of us have never considered that cheese could explode, but that is the center of Madeleine Enriquez's graduate research. Join us this week as we learn about this phenomenon and Maddie is doing to solve it! Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Hannah Stuwe.

Join our conversation with Natalie Van Gelder, a first year graduate student writing creative nonfiction in OSU's MFA program. Natalie's work contributes to the emerging fields of medical humanities and narrative medicine, and she's passionate about bringing writing as a tool for discovery to those who many not be familiar with the practice. Hosted by Matt Vaughan and Selene Ross.

This episode features Matt Vaughan, a third year PhD student in Integrative Biology working with Prof. Sarah Henkel in the Benthic Ecology Lab. Matt originally hails from Melbourne, Australia and recently joined the ID team as a host. Join us to learn about the fascinating ghost shrimp, their impact on marine systems, and how “disturbance and change" drives Matthew's research! Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Joseph Valencia.

Join us this week as we talk with Ellison Rose, a first year MFA student of creative non-fiction about what a memoir is and how they are writing theirs. Our conversation touches on what rurality means, what it feels like coming back to graduate school after an 8-year gap since college, as well as features a stunning writing sample read by El. If you're interested in learning more about the conversation surrounding rural cultural wealth, you can read the article El references here: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JME-06-2022-0076/full/html?skipTracking=true. Additionally, El stumbled upon this article through a blog that they read which they also recommend reading if interested: https://www.ednc.org/perspective-recognizing-my-rural-community-wealth-and-place-in-academia/. Hosted by Hannah Stuwe and Lisa Hildebrand.

This week's guest is Selene Ross, an MFA student specializing in literary fiction through short stories. We go in depth on how Selene seeks creative inspiration from people and places and the makings of a captivating story. Our conversation touches on her interests in women, belief, and the environmental symbolism of her home state of California. Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Joseph Valencia.

Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time. This is why you may have heard these substances called “forever chemicals.” However, the toxicity of these substances are not fully understood. Join us on this episode with E Hernandez to discuss these ubiquitous substances and his work to better be able to detect these harmful chemicals. Hosted by Hannah Stuwe and Jenna Fryer.

In the small town of Maxville in eastern Oregon there's a story that often goes overlooked. Like many Oregon towns, Maxville was a timber town, but unique to Maxville is the community of Black loggers that lived and worked there after the Great Migration of the 1920s. Lonni Ivey is a logger's daughter. While in her MA program in History, she learned about the community of Black loggers in Maxville and immediately knew she had to learn more. Lonni devoted her research to discovering more about Maxville and giving this story the attention it deserves, leading to her capstone project “More Than a Footnote: Erasure, Exclusion, and the Remarkable Presence of the Black Logging Community of Maxville, Oregon, 1923-33.” Lonni was inspired by Gwendolyn Trice, the founder and executive director of the Maxville Heritage Ideology Center and herself the descendant of one of the Maxville Loggers.

This episode is an exit interview of sorts for Dr. Grace Deitzler, who you may know as one of our hosts the past few years. Grace recently graduate with a PhD in Microbiology and is moving on from ID and Oregon State. We chat about her dissertation research into the effects of probiotics on the honeybee microbiome, the "double hit hypothesis", and science communication. Congrats Grace! Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Hannah Stuwe.

Getting to the bottom of what top predators in an ecosystem are eating is critical to understand how they may be influencing dynamics in the entire system and food web. But how do you figure out what a predator is eating if it's hard to catch and collar or watch continuously? Easy, you use their poop! Our guest this week, Ellen Dymit, does exactly this with wolves in Alaska and a whole host of carnivores in Central America. Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Matt Vaughan.

This week our guest is Alexander Butcher, a second year MS and soon-to-be PhD student in the Department of Crop and Soil Science. We speak with Alexander about protecting potato crops in Oregon and elsewhere from a hungry pest -- the Colorado potato beetle. Alexander works with a class of chemicals called elicitors which act to stimulate plants' natural defenses as an alternative to conventional pesticides. We trace his journey from the world of classical French cooking to grad school, his passion for insects and sustainable food, and more!

There's a big difference between human time and Earth–or soil–time. It's what makes climate impacts so difficult to imagine, and climate solutions so challenging to fully realize. Take it from someone who knows: our guest this week has spent the last decade studying the very idea of “permanence.” Join us this week as we delve a bit into the world beneath our feel and chat with recent graduate, and long-time Inspiration Dissemination host, Adrian Gallo! Hosted by: Jenna Fryer

We have a little bit of a different format this week. Joseph Valencia and Lisa Hildebrand host an informal discussion on a timely topic -- artificial intelligence! We cover our personal experiences using ChatGPT for research and for fun, how chatbots work, and the uncertainties surrounding future deployment of AI.

This week we have Andrea Domen, a MS student in Food Science and Technology co-advised by Dr. Joy Waite-Cusic and Dr. Jovana Kovacevic, joining us to discuss her research investigating some mischievous pathogenic microbes. Much like an unwelcome dinner guest, food-bourne pathogens can stick around for far longer than you think. Andrea seeks to uncover the mechanisms that allow for Listeria monocytogenes, a ubiquitous pathogen found in dirt that loves cheese (who doesn't?), to persist in dairy processing facilities. Hosted by Jenna Fryer and Bryan Lynn

“Structure informs function” says Hannah Stuwe, a second year PhD student in Biochemistry and Biophysics (BB), summing up the big picture of her discipline. Hannah works in the lab of Prof. Elisar Barbar, using biophysical techniques to study essential proteins encoded by the SARS-Cov2 virus. Tune in to learn more about this fascinating, and very relevant work! Hosted by Joseph Valencia and Jenna Fryer

Scott Mitchell is a 4th year PhD student in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences advised by Dr. Sandy DeBano. His overarching research goal is to understand how different land management practices may impact beneficial invertebrate communities in a variety of managed landscapes. Yes, you read that right: beneficial invertebrates. Because while many invertebrates have a bad rep, they're actually unsung heroes of the world. They pollinate plants, aerate soil, eat actual pest invertebrates and are prey for many other species. To learn more about native bees and other nonpollinating species, check out the episode! Hosted by Lisa Hildebrand and Grace Deitzler.

There are many adjectives used to describe the taste of different kinds of cheese: mild, tangy, buttery, nutty, sharp, smoky. Our preferences between these different characteristics will then drive what cheese we look for in stores and buy. But I would wager that most people (or dare I say anyone?) are rarely looking for a bitter cheese. Paige Benson is a first year Master's student advised by Dr. David Dallas in the Food Science Department. For her research, Paige is trying to understand how starter cultures affect the bitterness in aged gouda and cheddar cheeses. Want to learn more? tune into this “gouda” conversation about cheese!

When you think of a coral reef, what do you picture? Perhaps you imagine colorful branching structures jutting out of rock and the sea floor, with flourishing communities of fish swimming about. Or if you've been paying attention to news about global warming for the past decade or two, maybe you picture desolate expanses of bleached corals, their bone-like structures eerily reminiscent of a mass graveyard. What you might not picture is a zoomed-in view of the coral ecosystem: the multitude of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and algae that occupy the intricate crevices of every coral. Our guest this week is Emily Schmeltzer, a fifth year PhD candidate in the Microbiology department. Emily studies the metagenomes of the coral holobiont and shares her story with us. Hosted by Grace Deitzler and trainee Gabriel Sunday Ayayia.

Janelle Layton is a second-year master's student continuing on for a PhD in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences. Janelle studies grouper fish, traveling to a large spawning site in the Cayman Islands to collect larvae of the Nassau grouper. In the lab, she investigates the relationship between heat-shock proteins and larvae survival for clues as to the adaptability of this species to warming waters. We speak about her journey to OSU and her experiences as a Black woman in marine science. Hosted by Grace Deitzler and Joseph Valencia.

This week we have a Fisheries and Wildlife Master's student and ODFW employee, Gabriella Brill, joining us to discuss her research investigating the impact of dams on the movement and reproduction habits of the White Sturgeon here in Oregon. Despite being able to lay millions of eggs at a time, the White Sturgeon will only do so if the conditions are right. This fish Goldilocks' its way through the river systems, looking for a river bed that's just right. If it doesn't like what it sees, the fish can just choose not to lay the eggs and will wait for another year. Tune in to learn more about these finicky fish! Hosted by Bryan Lynn and Jenna Fryer

Everardo Gonzalez joins the show this week to talk about his research on multi-agent robotic systems, or swarms. Swarms of robots can be used to accomplish tasks that it would be difficult for one robot to complete alone, but swarming robots also come with other challenges: directing individual members of the swarm, and how to assess which members accomplished the swarm so that future feedback can incorporate more information. This episode is hosted by Bryan Lynn and Grace Deitzler.