opment, but many of you are also helping move development forward. For example, recently, Maryanne Horton and Chuhee Kwon were at lunch with prospective donors. At the end of the lunch, one of them pulled out a checkbook and wrote a check for $10,000 for equipment for the applied physics program – obviously because Chuhee had a vision they supported. We have Foundations that identify us and invite us to submit proposals. Jim McKibben just received a $10,000 check from the Severns Family Foundation to help install a solar panel on our Mobile Science Mu-seum to power the exhibits – solar

Vincent Luong, a freshman

this fall at CSULB, and a Chemistry

major in the College of Natural

Sciences and Mathematics, is fulfill-

with our alumni, industrial/business partners, and friends in the community. Added on to that is the first naming for our new Hall of Science. One of the two 80-seat lectures halls will be known as the Georgia Griffiths/GS Software Systems Lecture Hall for Georgia’s generous gift to endow a scholar-ship in the Department of Mathe-matics and Statistics with her gift of $112,000.

Over the past two years, we have gone from having very few prospects to having identified a number of top prospects for gifts. This is due in great part to Mary-anne Horton, our Director of Devel-

Vincent Luong Chemistry

Dean’s Message and Highlights …

Student Spotlight

ing his lifelong dream of attending a

school located only ten minutes

away from the beach. While an avid

extreme sports enthusiast, he’s de-

cided to put some of these interests

on hold as he attempts to achieve

his goal of graduating in four years.

The faculty in the College of Natu-

ral Sciences and Mathematics have

challenged Vincent’s abilities, and

assisted him in narrowing down his

career goals. Currently, he is seeking

opportunities to volunteer in a labo-

ratory to gain hands-on experience.

Vincent suggests that future fresh-

men consider living in the dorms to

improve their whole college experi-

ence, and that they prepare them-

selves for the difficulties in parking.

C A L I F O R N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y , L O N G B E A C H

November 2008

Inside this issue:

Message from the Dean 1

Student Spotlight 1

Alumni Stories 2

Development 2

CNSM Marine Lab 3

Faces 3

Research 4

Centers 5

Dear Faculty and Staff,

On October 23rd, the Department of Geological Sci-ences hosted a reception and dinner to honor Dr. Matthew Becker, our new Bert and Ethel Conrey Endowed Chair in Hydrogeology. This is the first endowed chair in the college and the third in the university. In some ways, I think it signifies a real turning point in our col-lege on the emphasis on devel-opment and the excellence we can attain with fundraising and the collaborations we set up

power being an area of great inter-est to the Foundation. One of his student volunteers was moved to connect us with her family’s Foun-dation. Her several hundred dol-lars of discretionary funding turned into $10,000 through additional conversations that revealed a prior-ity held in common. This type of giving is increasing and making a real difference for us.

Our last Highlights re-ported that the faculty had received over $173,000 in research support from private foundations. Since July 1 of this year, we have had gifts totaling $348,171. I greatly appre-ciate the efforts that many of you take to write proposals, help iden-tify prospective donors, meet with donors, and keep in touch with alumni. This is really important and the only way we are going to fund some of our programs and build endowments for current and new programs, student scholar-ships, and equipment and upkeep. Thanks for your dedication - please keep up the excellent work!

Laura Kingsford, Ph.D.

Dean

College of Natural Sciences

and Mathematics

California State University,

Long Beach

Volume 1, Issue 2

Prior to CSULB, Jerry Zack describes himself as a mediocre student. So medio-cre in fact, that academically he was in no position to get into grad school after com-pleting a bachelor's in biology at UCI. Instead, he went back to being a tennis pro.

A year later, with the help of CSULB professor and family friend Dr. David Carl-berg, Jerry enrolled in CNSM’s medical microbiol-ogy MS program under the tutelage of Dr. Henry Fung. Dr. Fung lit a fire under Jerry and re-motivated him. Jerry’s grades went up and with the novelty of his master’s thesis (something he thinks he wouldn't have been allowed to do any-where else) he was able to get into the top immunology PhD program in the country at University of Texas Southwestern. The rest, as they say, is history.

Jerry is now Associate Director of the UCLA AIDS Institute and a professor in the Departments of Medicine as well as Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine. The author of more than 100 scientific publications, he is best known for his innovative work on how HIV repli-cates and causes disease, and in developing new therapeutic approaches for eradicating the AIDS virus. Most recently, Dr. Zack’s success in flushing HIV out of hiding and eliminating latent virus has drawn consid-erable attention. Dr. Zack’s work has also shown that the AIDS virus can inhibit the function of blood-forming (hematopoietic)

stem cells. These studies have progressed to initial clinical trials of hematopoietic stem-cell therapy for AIDS. It is hoped that in time Dr. Zack’s studies will help find a more effective treatment than the mul-tidrug therapy now in use to treat HIV disease.

From tennis pro to cutting-edge AIDS researcher. Faculty impact doesn’t get much better than that!

Nov. 2008 Page 2

CNSM Highlights

Alumni Stories: Faculty Impact Student Success

COLLEGE AND COMMUNITY EVENTS

CNSM “Makes the Difference” for our Alums

“Long Beach turned me around and allowed me to

move forward. It was abso-lutely my favorite program.”

Jerome A. Zack, PhD (MS 1980 Medical Microbiology)

With assistance from Advisory Coun-cil member Steve Ruckmick, the Chemis-try and Biochemistry Department was awarded $5,000 from Allergan, Inc. in support of the Department’s Seminar Se-ries and Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, as well as $7,000 from Allergan Founda-tion for two undergraduate summer re-search fellowships.

Long time friends of the Physics and Astronomy Department, Gisela and Wilfried Eckhardt, presented Chuhee Kwon with a $10,000 check over lunch to help pur-chase equipment for the Advanced Experimental Phys-ics Lab.

Kelsey Severns, a student volunteer in the Science Learning Center, paved the way for a $10,000 gift from the Severns Family Foundation in support of Jim McKibben’s project to convert the Mobile Science Museum from a generator based power system to a solar power system for both the exhibits and air conditioning while providing a new “green power” ex-hibit for students.

The Geological Sciences Department celebrated the college’s first endowed chair and presented the new Bert and Ethel

Conrey Endowed Chair in Hydrogeol-ogy, Dr. Matt Becker, to alumni and industry at a dinner on October 23rd. Not only did the event net $3,000 for the Hydrogeology Pro-gram through sponsor-

ship and benefit-priced tickets, but it also netted the department great goodwill among alumni and industry guests as well as the beginnings of an advisory council. Sue Ollweiler, Executive Director of the Carl W. Johnson Foundation, and Dave Slater, COO and Executive VP of Signal Hill Petroleum, were recognized for their sponsorship of the dinner.

New “Developments”

Next in the Fellows Collo-quium line-up is Dr. Susan Go-mez-Zwiep on Wednesday, November 19th at 7:30am in The Pointe at Walter Pyramid.

Dr. Zwiep will be giving an entertaining talk entitled “The Science you “Know” that Just Ain’t So: Shining a Light on Science Miscon-ceptions.” Reserve your space today. Register online at Beach-ScienceTeach.com.

Chuhee Kwon (center) with Gisela & Wilifred Eckhardt

Bert and Ethel Conrey

http://www.csulb.edu/depts/biology/pages/PDFs/Marine_Lab_OpenHouse_2008.pdf

Matt Becker, Conrey Endowed Chair in Hydrogeology

Hermit crabs, blennies, rockfishes, stingrays and a sex-changing fish are just a sample of what you’ll find in the CSULB Marine Lab. The lab houses a huge variety of local marine animals found any-where from zero down to 300 feet deep! All of the animals are collected in the intertidal, by snorkeling, by scuba diving, or by the boat offshore, and cared for by the Marine Lab Volunteers . Our longest-term and most dedicated student volunteers are Leah Sloan, Lauren Shiosaka,

Sarah Anderson, DJ Schuessler, Pablo Baril-las, Jared

Leewood, Erin Vincent, Ma-rissa Velarde, and grad assis-tant, Thomas Farrugia. They are instrumental to this fast-paced support lab’s success. Last March, we took on the ominous task of moving the marine lab from PH3 to PH2. Volunteers, with the help of the CNSM Shop, moved live animals, tanks and equipment, schlepping, pound-ing, sanding and painting their way to our temporary location, PH2-021. In the midst of the chaos, classrooms, faculty, and

graduate students still received the support they needed dur-ing the move. In our first se-mester operating in PH2, we continue to collect animals and algae and provide them to marine and general biology classrooms, assist faculty and graduate students with their field work and invite class-room and school group tours. We also engage in elementary school outreach, bringing live animals to students in Long

has a B.S. degree in geology from Michigan State Univer-sity and M.S. and Ph.D. de-grees in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Aus-tin. Following the awarding of his Ph.D., Matt spent two years as a National Research Coun-cil Post-Doctoral Associate at the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. He was subsequently appointed to a tenure-track faculty position in the Department of Geology at State University of New York at Buffalo. He was promoted to Associate Professor and granted tenure in 2004 and was due to be considered for promotion to Professor in 2010. Thus, with his appoint-

The second person up for “Highlighting New Faces” is Dr. Matthew Becker, Professor of Geological Sci-ences and holder of the Bert and Ethel Conrey Endowed Chair in Hydrogeology. Matt

ment here at CSULB, he was granted promotion as well as tenure. While at SUNY-Buffalo, Matt was the PI or co-PI on 8 external grants for a cumulative award of $2.4 mil-lion. During a sabbatical, he was a Senior Research Associ-ate of the National Research Council at the Goddard Space Flight Center. He has over 20 research publications in peer-reviewed journals and is first author or sole author of 14 publications. Matt has re-search experience in three particular aspects of hydrogeol-ogy research that will be of great importance in developing the graduate hydrogeology program here at CSULB: con-taminant transport, groundwa-

Marine Lab Team Makes New Home Possible (contributed by Kim Anthony)

Highlighting New Faces

Page 3

CNSM Highlights

ter/surface water interactions, and groundwater manage-ment. Matt considers himself to be “primarily an experimen-talist in the area of contami-nants hydrogeology” and con-ducts research from the labora-tory to the watershed scale.

Matt was a Fulbright Lec-turer in Italy at the University of Trento in 2007. He and his family have spent the last two summers since then in Italy and hope to return there this summer where he continues his collaboration with Alberto Bellin at the University of Trento. Trento has become their home away from home and life there is a bit more

(Continued on page 4)

Welcome to Highlighting New Faces – our way of introducing you to new people in the college. We hope that this will give you a little insight into the person along with

his/her professional background and achievements. At the very least, it will give you something to talk about when you introduce yourself to the individual.

Beach and Los Angeles that have never seen sea life under the wa-ter. None of this would be possible without the dedication and diligence of the Marine Lab Team.

The Marine Lab will be hosting an Open House on November 20th from 6:00-10:00 p.m. See flyer on Page 2 and on the Biology Home Page. But don’t wait for an invita-tion—please stop by the Ma-rine Lab any day to check out our ani-mals and meet our volunteers.

Nov. 2008

Sculpin

Sarah Anderson with Ocean Whitefish

Marine Lab Move, March 2008

Octopus

Page 4

adventurous. During the work week he might fly to a glacier or hike to 3000 m to install some instrumentation. On the week-ends, the whole family will take a walk in the breathtaking Dolomites, a trip to a lake, or just have a pizza in town with friends.

Matt arrived in late August from Buffalo (via Italy) so his wife, Amy, and their three boys (ages 5, 9, 11) are still getting settled. Amy is a special education teacher (Autism Classroom) at Bixby Elementary and all three boys attend the same

school. Bixby is a 10 minute walk from their home and Matt bikes to work in about 10 minutes. The family enjoys living and working in the same community. They have been pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people of Long Beach. Matt thought that moving to a relatively urban community would mean people would be a little more closed off, but they found the opposite is true. Being surrounded by such a diversity of cultures was one of the big draws of moving to LB. Buffalo is comparatively provincial.

Jim Kisiel, Assistant Professor, Science Education If you’ve ever been to an aquarium, chances are that you encoun-tered a touch tank exhibit—a shallow pool or tank designed to allow visitors to easily and safely touch a variety of marine animals (such as sharks, rays, sea stars, or anemones). One of the underlying assump-tions of these wildly popular yet maintenance-intensive exhibits is that the proximity to nature and first-hand experiences (and associated

interpretation) facili-tate a variety of learn-ing outcomes, includ-ing a new/renewed appreciation for ocean life, improved attitudes (or actions) toward animal or habitat conservation, and a decreased sense of fear of these ani-mals (especially sharks). There is limited evidence, however, to suggest that such outcomes result. Although several research stud-

ies (as well as anecdotal evidence) suggest that touch tanks are engag-ing and valued experiences, few studies have attempted to understand the characteristics of this engagement, or examine what factors might quali-tatively improve these potentially rich science learning experiences. While there is a growing body of research on learn-ing and engagement at interactive science exhib-its, such as those found in science museums, we

Faculty Research Highlight

lack the basic information about how visitors interact with and poten-tially learn from interactive exhibits that include live animals.

In February 2008, Dr. Jim Kisiel, Assistant Professor in the De-partment of Science Education, was awarded $136,000 (with Co-PI Dr. Shawn Rowe of Oregon State University) from Oregon Sea Grant to develop a better understand of just what happens at a touch tank en-counter, and what factors seem to be most important in shaping these experiences. The project, coined Event (Examining Visitor Engage-ment at Touch Tanks) involves studying family group interactions at these exhibits in four Pacific Coast Aquariums: The Aquarium of the Pacific and Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in the Los Angeles area, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Hatfield Marine Science Visi-tor Center in Newport, OR.

Data collection, most of which occurred this past summer, involved capturing family actions and discourse during their visit to a touch tank via video recording at each site. Several Science Education Masters students assisted in recording these episodes, which were then followed by a brief interview with the family members to understand their reactions to their touch tank encounter, as well as prior experi-ences and motivations for visiting that day. This information helps the researchers to place the family’s actions and responses in the broader context of their life experiences, and will shed light on the extent to which the touch tank encounter might be considered a ‘learning ex-perience.’ Analysis of the nearly 50 family videos and interviews will continue through 2009. Findings from the study will be shared with educators and exhibit staff at the study sites, as well as others working in informal science institutions, as a way to inform future exhibit and programming development that facilitates learning at these unique animal encounters.

CNSM Highlights Nov. 2008

NEW FACES, CONTINUED

Jim Kisiel’s research interests focus on science learning that occurs beyond the ‘formal’ class-room—sometimes referred to as informal or free-choice science learning. In these settings, learners are able to choose what, when, and with whom to learn; a decided contrast to the typical science classrooms.

Families exploring the world of sharks and rays in the touch

tank exhibit and the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Some common Pacific Ocean invertebrates featured

at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium tide pool touch

tank. For many visitors (adults and children), it

may be that learning the common name of the

animal (e.g. sea star, sea urchin, anemone, limpet,

etc.) is key to the touch tank experience; naming

may be a necessary precursor to discussion of

animal texture, behavior, adaptations, and other

biological talk, especially for less familiar animals.

The Insti-

tute of Inte-

grated Re-

search for

Materials,

Environments and Society

(IIRMES) hosted "Biology Magni-

fied" as part of Junior University

Day for over a hundred children

from Laurelcrest, Mayfair and

Tincher elementary schools. Previ-

ously called "Kaleidoscope Aca-

demic Day", Junior University Day

allows approximately 2,000 stu-

dents from kindergarten through

high school (K-12) to spend “a

day at college,” participating in

fun, educational activities includ-

ing an opportunity to have an

opportunity to see some of the

technologies and devices used in

scientific discovery today.

Throughout the day, the groups

were given short lectures on the

theoretical principles of the Scan-

(Continued on page 6)

CENTER SPOTLIGHTS

The Severns Family Founda-tion has awarded a grant of $10,000 to the CNSM Science Leaning Center’s (SLC) Mobile Science Museum (MSM) for con-

version from the current gasoline powered generator to a solar power system for the operation of the MSM exhibits and air condi-tioning. Jim McKibben, SLC/MSM Director, stated that the solar panels will also provide a new “green power” exhibit. At the urging of SLC student volunteer Kelsey Severns, Jim applied for an initial $500 grant from the Sev-erns Family Foundation. The Foundation, which supports solar development, was so impressed with the proposal for the solar operated MSM that they increased the grant amount from the origi-nal request to $10,000, thus im-proving and increasing the oppor-tunity for the MSM to provide hands-on science education to the community CNSM serves.

The SLC, together with the MSM, has the unique distinction

Your business tag line here.

The SAS Center has been a

hub of mid-semester anxieties. We

see students every day who are strug-

gling to achieve success in their

math or science coursework, and

thankfully, we can provide help. I’m

referring to the Peer Tutoring pro-

gram: we have twelve upper level

undergraduate tutors who tutor in a

wide variety of CNSM subjects, and

oftentimes, in other subjects as well.

All of our Peer Tutors have wit-

nessed a growth this semester in the

usage of their tutoring services,

compared to a year ago. We have

students who come in regularly to

work with their tutor of choice. If

our tutoring schedule conflicts with

a student’s schedule, we have an-

other option for them: Learning

Assistance Center referrals. The

SAS Center issues no-cost referrals

to CNSM majors for the Learning

Assistance Center (where typically a

tutoring session will run between

$40-60). If you know a student who

is struggling in a lower division

Chemistry or Mathematics course,

we invite you to send them our way.

Make sure they bring their notes

and their book! We will try to assist

them as best we

can. Our tutor-

ing hours and

subjects are

also listed on

our website: www.sascenter.org.

Welcome to Center Spotlights: The college has three centers: The James L. Jensen Student Access to Science (SAS) Center; the Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments, and Society (IIRMES); and the Science Learning Center (includes the Mobile Science Museum). These centers serve both our students and faculty as well as the larger community. Each month will feature both updates and in-depth reviews of the Centers.

of no direct connection to faculty or students, yet serves an increas-ingly important role in the Col-lege. The Center reaches out and acquaints potentially college-

bound students and their fami-lies with science, and by exten-sion, CSULB. Currently lo-cated in the basement of PH2, the SLC enjoys a steady stream of visi-tors from cam-pus, local schools, and the community. During the past

28 years more than 500,000 visi-tors from both the United States and many countries have visited the SLC and the MSM. The MSM model has been emulated by a number of other groups, including the City of Philadelphia, a “science wagon” in rural China, and a “science truck” in Thailand. Together, the SLC and MSM have received more than $120,000 in grants and donations in the past 15 years. More than $35,000 of these funds have been from the CSULB Alumni Association Grant Program making the SLC/MSM the most successful Alumni grant recipient in the program’s history. Initial support for estab-lishing the MSM was through a California Sea Grant, and addi-tional funding was provided by the College.

(Continued on page 6)

IIRMES

SAS Center

CNSM Highlights Nov. 2008 Page 5

The Science Learning Center & Mobile Science Museum

SLC/MSM Director Jim McKibben and the newly refurbished Mobile Science Museum sharing science at campus event.

Contributed by: Mary Blasius (CSUPERB technician) and Chris Mull (IIRMES Microbeam Technician)

Chris Mull, IIRMES Lab Manager, show-ing the students from Laurelcrest mag-nified images on the SEM.

Peer Mentoring in Action

The MSM, refurbished under the direc-tion of President Alexander earlier this year, stands at the ready to demonstrate “hands-on” science to area schools and other local events. Together, the SLC and the MSM play a vital role in the College by connecting it to the com-munity it serves.

Founded in Spring 1980 by the late Pro-fessor Emeritus John V. Hutchenson of Physics, the SLC, first known as The Natural Sciences Museum (NSM), was followed by the MSM in Fall 1980, under the leadership of Roger Bauer, former Dean of the School of Natural Sciences (now CNSM) and the direction of Mike Schaadt, former Outreach Coordinator (now with the Cabrillo Marine Museum). The initial presentation of the MSM to the University on October 12, 1980, was a tremendous success.

The MSM vehicle, a 26-foot GMC Trans-mode van (recreational vehicle) began life on campus in 1975 as a mobile television studio called “On-The-Go Video”. Originally pur-chased with a public television grant, the van was abandoned after three years because the video recording equipment of the time did not operate properly in a portable generator-based system. When the concept of a mobile science van was proposed to then Vice President for Academic Affairs David Adamany, he suggested the conversion of the “On-The-Go Video” vehi-cle. Authorized by the University, the CNSM Shop and Facilities Management shops cooper-ated on the conversion of the van interior from a television studio to a science lab suited for the mobile hands-on exhibits for which the MSM is known.

The inspiration for the “hands-on” exhib-its came from The Exploratorium in San Fran-cisco, one of the first hands-on science muse-ums. Professors Hutchenson and Dean Ayers, also of Physics, applied Exploratorium concepts to the development of the MSM displays and exhibits. Current Director Jim McKibben, a graduate student at the time, assisted. In 1990, Jim was appointed interim director, followed by a permanent appointment as director in 1993. In 1990, the NSM moved to its present location in PH2-010 and was re-named The Science Learn-ing Center.

ning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and were then

asked to test their insect identification skills of

familiar bugs and bug parts magnified to image

the micron-level world of biology.

Following

the lecture,

students

were treated

to a live

interactive

demonstra-

tion of the

FEI Quanta

200 SEM.

Students

viewed a

wide variety of specimens including butterflies,

spiders and the scales of a great white shark.

The images reached up to 15,000x magnifica-

tion and gave the children a new perspective

and appreciation for the capabilities of this

technology and the bewildering world of micro-

scale anatomy and morphology. It was a fasci-

nating and eye opening experience for the chil-

dren as most had only used a light microscope

prior to their trip to IIRMES. One young

'scientist to-be' exited the lab and exclaimed,

"This was the coolest thing I have ever seen!"

It's now safe to say that Science in the College

of Natural Sciences and Mathematics is "The

coolest!" – according to a fifth grader at least.

Nov. 2008 Page 6

CNSM Highlights

Matt wishes he had some interesting hobbies to share but they are all theoreti-cal. Theoretically, he can’t wait to spend time sailing and hiking in the mountains, which he loves, but in reality his hobbies are helping the kids with homework and attending little league baseball games. They all spend as much time as possible at the beach. He’s hoping to get his boys on surf boards soon! He tries to swim every day and loves being able to swim in the sunshine here on campus. On campus, Matt has been very pleased to hear how much the students appreciate CSULB and are happy to be here. He’s impressed by the energy and commitment of the students and especially their efforts to form a community that extends beyond class. He finds this rare in a commuting campus.

New Faces, Continued SLC & MSM, Continued IIRMES, Continued

Question: Are you are as smart as a 5th Grader? Identify the image (answer below).

Answer: Image of a house fly showing detrital matter impregnated into the cusp of the foot that gave students a new appreciation for keeping flies off their food! Flies have claws, and small hairs that allow adhesion to smooth surfaces through surface tension. Other portions of the foot have sensory organs, allowing flies to taste with their

The IIRMES Annual Report is available at

http://www.iirmes.org/Home/ news-and-announcments /2008iirmesannualreport

We enter a time, I believe, when hydrogeology will

become critical for human health and economics,

hydrologists will need to be imaginative, flexible, and

have a formidable toolbox to meet the challenge.

— Matt Becker

Wimshurst Machine, one of the SLC exhibits for hands-on

electricity exploration