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Woman uses gloves to sift through pile of wood chips in art exhibit
Events

College of Science researchers highlight AI, clean energy and the environment through art at PRAx

Two College of Science faculty members — Maude David and Oksana Ostroverkhova — are helping bridge science and art in FutureFarmers: Silicon Forest, a thought-provoking new exhibition exploring the entangled relationship between ecology, technology and human agency.

A paper sculpture of a fish parasite hangs from a ceiling.
Microbiology

Blending art and science: Microbiologist illuminates the hidden world of fish parasites

A graduate student in Oregon State University’s Department of Microbiology working microbiologist Sascha Hallett's lab, Nilanjana Das is using art to give the invisible world of fish parasites new visibility — and new meaning. Through large, glowing sculptures made of tracing paper and reed, she brings public attention to the microscopic organisms threatening aquatic ecosystems.

A woman holds a shark and shines a flashlight into it in a laboratory.
Students

Goldwater scholar modernizes shark research with digital art

Natalie Donato, a third-year honors biology student, is submerged in the thrilling world of sharks. On a typical day at Oregon State University, this nationally recognized Goldwater scholar can be found creating 3D models of shark heads in a research lab and recently designed Oregon’s new shark license plate.

Vaishnavi Padaki stands in Strand Gallery. Two of her art pieces hang on either side of her on the wall. The one on the left is on a white background, the one on the right is on a black background. She wears glasses and has long dark hair. She smiles slightly.
Graduate students

10 Questions With... Vaishnavi Padaki, microbiology Ph.D. candidate

10 Questions With… Vaishnavi Padaki, fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in microbiology, who will be defending her thesis in April. Padaki has created mixed-media artwork for part of her thesis which is on display March 31-April 16 in the Strand Gallery in Strand Ag Hall on the Corvallis campus.

A man in a white button-up gestures to molecular art on a table, explaining it to onlooking students.
Teaching Innovation

Students bake, sculpt and stitch molecular structures to life in Protein Portraits colloquium

Taught by biochemistry and biophysics professor Phil McFadden, the Honors colloquium course Protein Portraits offers a uniquely artistic perspective on biomolecules.

AJ Damiana and Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer pose next to Damiana's yellow, green, red, and blue painting, split between two frames.
Students

How painting cellular aging made this biochemistry student a better scientist

Honors biochemistry and molecular biology student AJ Damiana recently finished a year-long fellowship through the new PRAx Center. Her experience culminated in a piece of art depicting the hallmarks of cellular aging. She was also honored to accept the assistant editorship at Beaver’s Digest at the same time.

A photo of a building.
Faculty and Staff

Science faculty awarded L.L. Stewart Faculty Fellowships to bridge science and art

Two College of Science professors have been awarded the 2024 L.L. Stewart Faculty Fellowship.

AJ Damiana wears a striped button-up with a smile, her dark, curly hair falling to her shoulders.
Students

Biochemistry PRAx fellow conveys science through art

To take science from a nebulous image to an understandable craft, honors biochemistry major AJ Damiana turns to art. Now a Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts fellow, her ambitions have never been closer to reach.

photo of Andrea Burton in front of green background
Graduate students

Ph.D. graduate and conservation biologist empowers students as scientists

Since childhood, recent Ph.D. grad Andrea Burton knew she loved animals and nature and was confident that a career in biology was in her future. Now, she is a published scholar who strives to make a difference for both students and marine wildlife.

Glass panes with data graphs in layers of gray, black, and white.
Microbiology

Microbiologist Jerri Bartholomew elevates microbes to fine art

Bartholomew’s glasswork that fuses artistry with research is on exhibition in The Little Gallery in Kidder Hall from March 7 to April 8, 2022. A new fellowship invites scientist-artists to explore interdisciplinary projects.

Heather Masson-Forsythe with her sister, Margaux, at a waterfall
Graduate students

Dancing through genres, biochemistry/biophysics student wins Science Magazine’s Dance Your Ph.D. contest

Heather Masson-Forsythe, a fifth-year graduate student in the College of Science, is a winner in the 13th annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest organized by Science Magazine in the newly created COVID-19 category. "I think the arts in general are really, really valuable on their own but also to communicate science, and as someone who really loves dance, I think it’s one of the best ways to communicate," she said.

Science-themed novels lined up in an angled grid
Students

Microbiology student featured on Science Friday

Microbiology major Sarah Olson Michel shares summer science book recommendations on Ira Flatow's Science Friday show.