Jordan Agricultural Research Center: Research Showcase. Come see what's happening inside the JARC from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Students, staff and faculty will be displaying their research. Learn about what goes on in JARC, and connect with researchers and see how JARC can be a resource to you. Topics include:

Hyperspectral imaging in grapevines
Groundwater quality and contamination
High-protein ice cream
Feasibility and production of whey beer
Nutrition studies
Salinity tolerance of crops
Please RSVP to Geoff Dervishian at gdervishian@csufresno.edu

Michele K. Nishiguchi Ph.D., Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
University of California, Merced

Understanding the evolution of animal and bacterial associations has been an underlying theme in establishing the development and specificity of symbiotic relationships. There is a need to develop better systems to resolve interactions among symbiotic species where population dynamics and environmental processes clearly play an important role in the evolution of the association. These model systems should promote integrated approaches that take into account the response within as well as between various symbiotic populations and their host partners. Dr. Nishiguchi's laboratory studies the mutualistic association between sepiolid squids (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) and their Vibrio symbionts which provides a versatile and experimentally tractable model system to study the population dynamics and cospeciation between bacterial species and their diversity among host squids.

Dr. Brian J. O’Roak is a Professor in Molecular & Medical Genetics at Oregon Health & Science University (aka OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. He grew up in Madera County and was an inaugural member of the Smittcamp Family Honors College. While at Fresno State, he conducted research in the Biology Department with Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea and gained guidance on pursuing graduated studies through the McNair program. Join Dr. O'Roak for his presentation:

Typ0s in the code of life: Gaining biological insights from new mutations in autism and SARS-CoV-2 

Every time an organism copies its genetic material there’s the opportunity for errors to occur. Most of the time these mutations to the genome have minimal to no consequence. However, the right mutation, in the right place, and at the right time can lead to genetic disorders. Dr. O’Roak has spent his career developing and implementing new technologies that allow for the discovery and characterization of new mutations. His talk will focus on how new mutations have been pivotal to unlocking risk genes for autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions, how we can use massively parallel approaches to model the impact of any mutation and its clinical relevance, and finally how the rapid accumulation of new mutations allowed the tracking of early introductions and spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Dr. O’Roak has published over 50 articles in peer reviewed journals, including Science and Nature. Both his work on autism and SARS-CoV-2 has been featured in stories from the New York Times. He has received a number of early career awards and fellowships, including: the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in Neuroscience; the NIMH Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (NIMH BRAINS), the NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation; the Young Investigator Award from International Society of Autism Research; and the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in Neurosciences. 

The 46th Annual Central California Research Symposium (CCRS) will be held at the Resnick Student Union from 8 a.m - 4:30 p.m., featuring presentations in the following formats: 12-minute oral presentation, and poster presentation. The event showcases the diverse range of impressive research projects and provides opportunities for students to share their research and develop presentation skills. We're looking forward to welcoming over 250 presenters to this year's event, which is being held in the new Resnick Student Union. 

Fresno State Speed Networking 

We are excited to invite you to our upcoming Faculty Research Speed Networking event! This event is a fantastic opportunity to connect with fellow researchers, exchange ideas, and explore potential collaborations in a dynamic and engaging format.

Please RSVP through this form and share any relevant information to ensure a smooth and productive networking experience. We look forward to seeing you there and fostering new opportunities for collaboration!

Dr. Edgar Perez-Lopez, Plasma Product Manager, Muegge Gerling Engineering

Dr. Edgar Perez-Lopez is a dedicated researcher, educator, and plasma technology specialist with a strong commitment to advancing both industrial applications and engineering education. As a Plasma Product Manager, he leads the development and engineering of plasma-based systems while conducting market research to identify industries that would benefit from industrial microwave plasma technology.

 

Each year, the Fresno State Library honors Outstanding Faculty Publications, the bold contributions to research, scholarship, and creative work made by the Fresno State faculty. Join us as we wrap up Research Week with a celebration of Fresno State faculty’s contributions as scholars and researchers. The reception will be at 3:30 p.m., with a short program at 4 p.m., and the exhibit will be in the Ellipse balcony from April 5-23. See Information for Faculty on the library’s website for more resources related to research and scholarship.

We invite you to gather, explore and learn about the field of data science, by attending any part or all of the sessions at Fresno State's first Data Science Day. 

Data Science Day promotes the field of statistics and data science, and features invited speakers and a careers panel with data science professionals in industry, government and academia, hands-on RStudio and Python workshops led by faculty experts (great way to prepare for DataFest!), and a student poster session to showcase data-related projects that students are working on across campus!

This event will be a great opportunity for students to learn and network with data science faculty, community members and industry professionals! Here's a brief summary of the schedule:

11:00 - 12:30 (S2 107-108) R and Python Workshops.
1:00 - 2:30 (S2 109) Welcome and Keynote Presentations.
2:30 - 3:30 (S2 109) Careers Panel.
3:30 - 4:30 (S2 Rotunda) Student Poster Session, Food and Networking hour.

More information on each session can be found online.

Where: Science II building
When: Friday, April 25 (4 p.m.) through Sunday, April 27 

We invite you to join an immersive data analysis and community building experience called DataFest.

In short, DataFest is a weekend-long data analysis challenge where teams of students have less than 48 hours to analyze and extract meaning from a large and complex dataset provided by a secret sponsor. The sponsoring organization and dataset are only revealed once the competition begins. Mentors will be available throughout the weekend to help guide teams. At the end, teams have 5 minutes to present their findings to a panel of judges who determine winners based on various categories!

DataFest is free and open to any college student (undergraduate or masters) of any major and any level of data analysis experience! At DataFest, students get a chance to get creative with data, mingle with data analysis professionals from industry and academia, and compete for awards and glory! Plus, there will be food and snacks throughout the weekend! The competition is open to students only, but interested faculty and guests are welcome to participate as a mentor. All interested students and mentors can click here to pre-register. 

Friday, 4:00pm (S2 109) Check-in and on-site registration.
Friday, 5:00pm (S2 109) Data Reveal and Challenge Kickoff.
Sunday, 11:00am (S2 109) Final presentations begin.
See website for full weekend schedule.

More details, including a complete schedule, rules and on-site registration, can be found online.

Dr. Richard Sayre was a cofounder and chief scientific officer of several startup biotechnology companies with business operations ranging from the production of oral vaccines to biofuels and human drug delivery technologies. In 2016, Dr. Sayre co-founded Pebble Labs and served as its chief scientific officer. Pebble Labs focused on the delivery of RNA interference molecules to pathogens via endosymbiotic bacteria. In 2017, he cofounded Trait Biosciences also serving as its Chief Scientific Officer. Trait developed the first stable water-soluble cannabinoids and was one of the first groups to genetically transform cannabis. Dr. Sayre is currently the chief scientific officer at Mercury Bio, which has developed targeted RNA therapeutics based on yeast extracellular vesicles for the control of viral diseases, and genetic and metabolic disorders in humans.

The California State University Student Research Competition is an annual event that brings together scholars from the 23 campuses of our California State University system.

Congratulations to the following students who will be representing Fresno State:

Ashley Ratcliff-Winn, Psychology (Faculty Mentor: Lauren Dial)
Mario Yanez, Business Admin (Stephen Choi)
Daniella Garcia, Agriculture Ed (Sam Rodriguez)
Danielle Vu, Sociology (Christopher Sullivan)
Jessica Perez, Biology (Martin Shapiro)

The competition showcases undergraduate and graduate research, scholarship, and creative works by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments across the 23 campuses.