^{Kristin Hill '25 (Theatre Arts) and Kimberly Mohne Hill (Theatre and Dance) at the Welcome Weekend Resource Fair.}

Dear College Faculty and Staff,

Week One! – what terrific energy this week; thank you all for a terrific start to Fall Quarter!

I had the pleasure of meeting with many first-year students and their parents. What excitement, joy and anticipation…and, understandably, a good dose of nervousness. I look forward to getting our large entering first-year class settled in, as well as thinking proactively about how we can prepare for future large classes, if they continue arriving in such large numbers.

Looking ahead to the rest of Fall Quarter, I want to think creatively about improving our ongoing support for faculty and staff as we enter this third year of work with COVID. Supporting faculty and staff in their professional development may not be as glamorous as building a new facility or launching a new degree program, but it is no less valuable. I welcome conversations about better supporting Associate Professors and RTLs as they prepare for advancement to Full Professor and Senior Lecturer, respectively. On a parallel track, I have high hopes for a good bargaining agreement with our new lecturer union.

Innovative support for teaching and learning will always be a part of this important faculty development work. So is service. Accordingly, I anticipate working with our Senate colleagues on recognizing and rewarding service excellence. Moving into this latest phase of the COVID pandemic, I would also like to take a fresh look at professional development for staff as they chart their career paths here at SCU.

But first, lots of teaching, lots of research and creative projects, and lots of events, including next month's Grand Reunion, Julie Sullivan’s Presidential Inauguration, the campus Open House, a visit by Sinatra Artist-in-Residence Mark Duplass, and activities around Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month!

Onward!

Daniel

Highlights

^{Art installation "Rhythms of the Land: Spring," by Frank A. Farris at Pomona College. (Photo by Liz Gutierrez.)}

The Pomona College Mathematics and Statistics Department has a new installation of mathematical art by Frank A. Farris (Mathematics & Computer Science). Three large fabric banners, with the title "Rhythms of the Land: Spring," now hang in the Estrella Laboratory. The artistic process grows from Frank's book, "Creating Symmetry: The Artful Mathematics of Wallpaper Patterns," from Princeton University Press. The images draw on photographs Frank took in April, 2022 while attending his 45th reunion at Pomona.

^{Exhibition at Serlachius Residency}

Takeshi Moro (Art and Art History) participated in a two month artist-in-residency at the Serlachius Residency in Mänttä, Finland.

The first wave of Ukrainian refugees arrived on the same day that he had arrived in Mänttä-Vilppula, a city of 10,000 residents. Takeshi interviewed some of the refugees to create a two-channel video of their first weeks in Mänttä-Vilppula. In addition, he worked with Ukrainians seeking employment opportunities in Finland to create advertisement videos at the entrance of Serlachius Museum. Visitor to the museum learned what skill sets the Ukrainian refugees were bringing to Mänttä-Vilppula. The works were exhibited through early September 2022.

The project was generously funded by The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics' Hackworth Grant.

^{Lazuli Bunting at Coyote Creek Field station. Cover page of current Ecological Restoration issue. Photo credit: Katie LaBarbera (SFBBO)}

Iris Stewart-Frey (Environmental Studies and Sciences), Liam Healey '19 (Environemental Studies), and collaborators from the South Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO) published a study in the journal Ecological Restoration, "Long Term Progress in Riparian Restoration with Concurrent AvianDeclines in the Southern San Francisco Bay Area (CA)." The paper assesses the long-term restoration success at Coyote Creek Field station, a riparian site near campus, and analyzes decades of bird and vegetation data that has been collected by SFBBO scientists and volunteers. They found that even though the restored vegetation and bird communities became more similar to a remnant riparian strip, indicating restoration success, migratory birds declined in all habitat areas, highlighting the need for multi-site restoration efforts and multifaceted approaches to evaluating restoration success.

The study made the title page of the issue, stating that riparian areas are a critical landscape habitat for breeding and migrant birds in arid urban regions like the San Francisco Bay Area. Stewart et al. assess restoration success for the Coyote Creek Field Station using long-term avian mist-netting data and vegetation surveys.

The staff at SFBBO have generously co-mentored several cohorts of ESS senior capstone groups, and this study originated with such a project.

^{Laser-cut Vitruvian Embiopteran. Art depicts spin-step dynamics as circles around the body of the insect. Silk images are based on actual silk spun by the insects. The big front feet of the webspinner are packed with silk glands, and the silk produced is the finest known in nature.}

This year the Entomological Society of America is joining its equivalent society in Canada for a conference in Vancouver in November. The theme is timely, given the recent interest in STEAM projects: that is "Entomology as inspiration: Insects through art, science and culture." The organizers offered an opportunity to submit art for a Juried Art Exhibit. Janice Edgerly-Rooks' (Biology) laser-cut piece, entitled Vitruvian Embiopteran, was just accepted(!) and will be displayed for the whole conference. The piece was produced by Janice in SCDI's Maker Lab, under the guidance of the talented "Maker" staff. The artwork is based on data (such as behavioral spin-step patterns) and on photographic images of silk spun by the insects. In addition, nano-scale fibers imaged in the scanning electron microscope in SCU's Center for Nanostructures are etched in the step dynamic circles depicting where the insects place their front feet while spinning. This might be the only art piece included in the exhibit that is rendered by three species! The Trinidadian webspinner Antipaluria urichi created the background silk and nano-scale fibers, Aposthonia ceylonica, from India, produced the ring of silk galleries and Janice drew the insect silhouette, determined the spin-step proportions and created the laser cut image.

^{NEH Summer Institute at the Mangalam Research Center}

Heather Clydesdale (Art & Art History) participated in “The Imagination and Imaginal Worlds in the Mirror of Buddhism,” a summer institute sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and organized by the Mangalam Research Center in Berkeley. For two weeks, she joined other scholars (many in Religious Studies, but a few in Anthropology, English, Performance, and Film Studies) in learning about the imagination in different schools of Buddhism. It was eye-opening to hear scholars from various disciplines share their expertise on the imaginal world and Buddhism and stimulating to engage in discussions with other participants. The learning from the institute will inform Heather’s teaching of China on the Silk Roads, Fabricating Nature, and From Emaki to Manga. She is also integrating new ideas based on the institute into an article she is writing on animal imagery in medieval Chinese tombs and early Buddhist cave temples, as well as research on Buddhist concepts in contemporary architecture and design.

^{Workflow of sorting activated T-cells. Naive T-cells are represented in red and activated T-cells in green.}

Paul Abbyad (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has just published a peer-reviewed research paper in the journal Micromachines titled "Droplet Microfluidic Technology for the Early and Label-Free Isolation of Highly-Glycolytic, Activated T-Cells." This paper presents a passive method to isolate T-cells with the strongest activation, an important subset of cells for study or use. The technology does not rely on the display of surface markers and thus enables T-Cells to be separated in minutes rather than hours after activation. SCU co-authors are Claudia Zielke (Inclusive Excellence Postdoc), Adriana Gutierrez Ramirez '22 (Chemistry), Maya Ryan '23 (Public Health Science and Biology) and Azam Gholizadeh (Inclusive Excellence Postdoc). Collaborators Kelsey Voss and Jeffrey Rathmell, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, provided expertise and guidance in immunology and immunometabolism.

^{Elliott J Anderson (student researcher in Grace Stokes's research lab) presents poster at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Chicago, IL in August 2022}

Elliott J. Anderson '22 (Chemistry) presented his research results in a poster presentation entitled "Peptoid structure impacts interactions with phospholipid bilayers and monolayers" at the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in Chicago, IL in August 2022. This was Elliott's first in-person scientific meeting. He talked with scientists from across the U.S. and learned about future career opportunities. Elliott received an Undergraduate Travel Award from the Provost's office to help offset the costs of attending this conference and is also the recipient of a Cottrell Scholar Post-Baccalaureate Research grant from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Elliott will be working full time in Grace Stokes's research lab throughout the 2022-2023 academic year.

The American Psychological Association's Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality Bulletin and their Social Justice Task Force launched a newly published reflection series entitled, "One Person, One Story" featuring brief histories and reflections of members selecting Tom Plante (Psychology) as their first feature story in their inaugural issue.

John Farnsworth (Environmental Studies and Sciences, Emeritus) has been appointed to a three-year term with the Wildlife Diversity Advisory Council by the director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The council promotes biodiversity among non-game animals such as trumpeter swans, orcas, and otters, working closely with tribal groups and other conservation organizations. John currently serves as Vice President of the Skagit Audubon Society. His WDAC term runs through June of 2025.

^{Veronica Miranda holding a family photograph of her as an infant with her parents.}

Veronica Miranda (Anthropology) recently published a piece on the American Anthropologist website titled "How and Why Did I Become: A Testimonio from a First-Generation Chicana Anthropologist." It marks her trajectory through Higher Education as a first-generation scholar and discusses the foundational role her parents had in supporting her journey. It further discusses the importance of uplifting the stories of racially minoritized and marginalized individuals in Higher Education. The essay is one of several pieces produced by SCU’s Latina collaborative testimonio group spearheaded by Jesica Fernández (Ethnic Studies) and Anna Sampaio (Ethnic Studies).

College of Arts and Sciences Calendar