The Board of Control meeting approved grants to help fund graduate student research during Tuesday’s meeting.
Justin Jacobs, undergraduate researcher in Dr. James Archie’s lab at California State University, Long Beach, had a grant approved for $400 to attend an annual meeting in Portland, Oregon from Jan. 3-7 because he has discovered a new species of frog in Madagascar that will be called ‘Blue Fire.’
Jacobs said this is the first time this research will be published through CSULB.
“We have the chytrid fungus that’s killing vast amounts of frogs across what world and there is a huge issue with it,” Jacobs said. “It’s hypothesized that many species will be going extinct, so if we don’t document it now we won’t ever know what was here.”
Another research in development by geology graduate student AJ White was funded for $1,000.
“There’s this emergent method in geoarchaeology that’s called ‘fecal sterol biomarker analysis,’” White said. “And basically there is this molecule, the breakdown product of cholesterol in guts of humans, specifically the guts of humans and pigs … basically it can be linked back to people.”
White will conduct fieldwork in Vietnam to test if this works in a tropical setting. He hopes to specifically establish when people first colonized and settled in the pacific islands.
“It speaks a lot to CSULB as supporting its students,” said White “… I’d encourage everyone who is doing some sort of research to apply for this. I’m not sure how many people are aware of this grant but it’s an excellent resource.”
TEDxCSULB will officially take action now that Matt Choi’s second reading allowed his organization to be allocated $10,000 for the event happening next April 9.
After the presenters and students had given their proposals and left, BOC discussed revisions to the Policy on Executive Fellowships. The draft sample to the policy change was renamed “Elected Executive Scholarships” and the title “fellowship” was dropped. They discussed and clarified the difference between elected and appointed, the GPA requirements, unit limits and taxes with scholarships.