The new data science major builds on Oregon State’s long-standing strengths in statistics, mathematics and computer science, while connecting those tools to real-world applications across the sciences, economics and environmental studies. Administered through the Department of Statistics, the program reflects years of collaboration among faculty across campus.

Rather than duplicating existing degrees, this major complements them. It is designed as both a standalone program and a strong pairing with other fields, allowing students to deepen disciplinary expertise while gaining advanced quantitative and computational skills.

Students can pursue a general data science degree or select from several interdisciplinary options that connect quantitative skills with focused areas of study. These include advanced data science, economics, environmental economics and policy, life science and psychological science.

“Data is always growing. It’s not something that is ever going to go away,” said Erin Howard, senior instructor I in the Department of Statistics. “And so, whatever field students might be interested in, there’s a place for data science.”

Demand for data-literate professionals continues to grow across nearly every sector, including healthcare, technology, government, business and environmental science. National workforce projections show data-related careers growing much faster than average, underscoring the importance of graduates who can interpret complex information and communicate it clearly. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 34% growth from 2024 to 2034.

A defining feature of the program is its emphasis on responsible data use. Courses address not only technical proficiency, but also issues of bias, equity and communication. This prepares graduates to work with data in ways that serve the public good.

That approach aligns closely with Oregon State’s mission as a land-, sea-, space- and sun-grant university, where research and teaching are deeply connected to community needs. Faculty across the College of Science already apply data science to challenges such as sustainable resource management, health outcomes and economic resilience; the new major creates a clear academic pathway for students to join that work.

The data science major is initially available on the Corvallis campus, with plans to expand online through Ecampus. Its launch represents both a response to current demand and a signal of where the College of Science is headed, toward deeper collaboration, broader impact and education that reflects the realities of modern science.

For more information about the major, visit the College of Science website.

F.A. Gilfillan Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science

Davide Lazzati, from the Department of Physics, has received the F.A. Gilfillan Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science.

Lazzati’s scholarly achievements place him among the most influential astrophysicists of his generation. With more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, over 11,000 citations and an h-index of 57, his work has shaped high-energy astrophysics and multi-messenger astronomy for more than two decades. His research spans theory, computation and observation, and many of his papers are regarded as foundational benchmarks in gamma-ray burst physics, compact-object mergers and the emerging field of gravitational-wave astronomy.

A leader in multi-messenger astrophysics, Lazzati was among the first to predict the electromagnetic signature of a binary neutron star merger — insight that proved essential to interpreting the historic 2017 GW170817 event. His modeling of structured relativistic jets and off-axis emission provided the conceptual framework that allowed scientists to connect gravitational-wave detections with their electromagnetic counterparts. His work continues to guide the field as new detectors expand the frontiers of discovery.

Lazzati’s scholarship is marked by sustained creativity and rigor, supported by a strong record of competitive NASA and NSF funding. He is also a dedicated mentor and leader. Lazzati has advised 10 graduate students, mentored postdoctoral researchers, and guided 28 undergraduate researchers, several of whom have published first-author papers. His early adoption of a formal mentoring compact, now increasingly recognized as a best practice, reflects his commitment to transparency, equity and student success. His leadership as department head further strengthened the inclusivity and effectiveness of the graduate program.

One nominator wrote, "Professor Lazzati’s record of scholarship is nothing short of extraordinary — marked by sustained excellence, transformative impact and remarkable breadth. His work often anticipates new discoveries, redefines longstanding problems and helps set the direction for future studies.”

Milton Harris Award for Basic Research

Thomas Sharpton, professor in the departments of Microbiology and Statistics and the Burgess and Elizabeth Jamieson Chair in Healthspan Research, received the Milton Harris Award for Basic Research.

Sharpton is a pioneering microbiome scientist whose work has fundamentally advanced the basic biological understanding of how host-associated microbial communities function. Since joining Oregon State University in 2013, he has built an interdisciplinary research program that integrates computational biology, statistics and molecular microbiology to uncover the mechanisms by which microbiomes influence health, development and disease. His analytical frameworks, statistical models and experimental systems have become foundational tools used across the field.

His research has produced major insights into how the gut microbiome contributes to inflammatory bowel disease, neurobiological function and parasite infection, among other complex conditions. Sharpton has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, including in Nature, PNAS and Nature Communications, and his work has been cited over 23,000 times. He has secured more than $24 million in research funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense and the Moore Foundation, and has developed widely used open-source software and databases that have accelerated microbiome research worldwide.

Sharpton’s leadership has also strengthened OSU’s research ecosystem. As founding director of OSU Microbiome Initiative and director of the OSU Microbiome Core, he has catalyzed interdisciplinary collaborations and expanded access to cutting-edge microbiome technologies. He is a dedicated mentor and educator, having guided more than 40 trainees and co-developed influential courses in microbial bioinformatics and quantitative genomics. His commitment to equity and inclusivity is reflected in his work on NIH and USDA diversity programs and his efforts to improve departmental monitoring practices.

Nominators emphasized both his scientific impact and his collaborative leadership. As one wrote, “His innovative approaches and unwavering commitment to scientific rigor make him an exceptional scholar and an indispensable collaborator.”

Dean’s Early Career Achievement Award

Katherine McLaughlin from the Department of Statistics, received the Dean’s Early Career Achievement Award.

McLaughlin is an internationally recognized expert in developing statistical methods for studying hard-to-reach and hidden populations, including victims of human trafficking and communities at high risk for HIV. Since joining Oregon State University in 2016, she has published 19 peer-reviewed papers in top journals, delivered talks at venues including the CDC and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and helped bring approximately $3.4 million in research funding to OSU.

Her work has had a major global impact. McLaughlin developed the “Visibility SS-PSE” model, now one of the main methods used to estimate population sizes in the UNAIDS Key Population Atlas, helping guide international HIV prevention and treatment policy. She also serves as an advisor to the U.S. Department of State-funded Prevalence Reduction Innovation Forum, helping shape how human trafficking is statistically measured worldwide.

At OSU, McLaughlin played a critical role in the TRACE and PIPP pandemic response projects, designing and analyzing large-scale community COVID-19 surveys and helping integrate wastewater data into public health decision-making.

“My first reaction upon a careful read through her materials is to wonder whether Prof. McLaughlin lives within the same 24-hour day that the rest of us do,” wrote a colleague who nominated McLaughlin. They added that she is “a rare case of ‘the complete package’” whose contributions are “uncharacteristically comprehensive.”

Heather Kitada Smalley is a passionate statistics professor. She earned her Ph.D. in statistics from Oregon State in 2018, where she discovered her passion for teaching and for applying data to meaningful problems. Today, she is an Albaugh Associate Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Willamette University, where she helped build the university’s new School of Computing and Information Science, from shaping its curriculum to securing a $2 million Department of Education grant that helped bring the programs to life.

Drawing on her Oregon State experience, Smalley designs classes that are both creative and practical. She uses hands-on learning to help students see how data connects to the real world — showing that statistics isn’t about memorizing equations, but about curiosity and discovery.

Read more about her research and teaching philosophy.

Barbara Han's journey to Oregon State began when Distinguished Emeritus Professor Andy Blaustein, who became her Ph.D. advisor, inspired her while she was an undergraduate at Pepperdine University. Her early fascination with amphibians and their ecosystem has grown into a career conducting groundbreaking work at the intersection of ecology, machine learning and infectious-disease prediction.

Today, Han is an Associate Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, where she develops AI-based tools to forecast when and where zoonotic diseases, those transmitted from animals to humans, may emerge. Her models compare traits of known disease-carrying species with thousands of others to predict which animals might become carriers in the future, helping protect lives, ecosystems and communities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her team’s predictions about which mammals could spread the virus were later confirmed in the field.

Learn about she is merging ecology and machine learning.

Eileen ('74, '76) and Norbert Hartmann each grew up in modest circumstances where opportunities in science and higher education were slim. With perseverance and family support, they built lives defined by hard work, service and a deep belief in education as a force for opportunity.

Together the Hartmans have made philanthropy a shared mission. Their generosity to Oregon State includes endowments that support faculty in the College of Science and scholarships in women’s basketball and baseball – investments that reflect their belief in education, access and opportunity for future generations. They have also generously given of themselves as advisors to a succession of College of Science Deans - Eileen just recently rotated off of our Board of Advisors, where she is greatly missed.

Discover their journeys from rural towns to fulfilling careers.

The Distinguished Alumni Award, honoring alumni whose work has had an extraordinary impact on science and society. This year’s recipient, Dr. William Skach ('79), played a pivotal role in research that helped transform care for people living with cystic fibrosis.

Skach graduated from Oregon State with degrees in biochemistry and biophysics and crop science, then earned his M.D. at Harvard Medical School. As a physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania and later at Oregon Health & Science University, he devoted more than 25 years caring for cancer patients and studying how proteins fold inside the body – research that helped lay the groundwork for treatments that revolutionized cystic fibrosis care.

Read about a breakthrough moment in his career.

Professor of Chemistry Emeritus Joe Nibler has spent his career exploring the invisible world of molecular motion – events that unfold in billionths of a second but define how matter behaves. A fourth-generation Oregonian and proud Oregon State graduate, he helped pioneer Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering, a laser-based technique that made it possible to watch molecules reacting in real time and opened new frontiers in experimental chemistry.

With support from the National Science Foundation, he established Oregon State’s first Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering laboratory, bringing laser tools that allowed scientists to observe how molecules move and react on ultrafast timescales. That ability — to see molecular bonds form and change in real time — transformed how scientists study the fundamental processes that power chemistry, from combustion to biology. His work positioned Oregon State among the early leaders in experimental spectroscopy, training generations of researchers who carried those methods forward.

Joe is also celebrated as a teacher and mentor. He co-authored Experiments in Physical Chemistry, a textbook used by students around the world, and mentored generations of scientists who are now advancing science in universities, companies and research labs across the country.

Find out what Nibler finds most rewarding.

Xue said her fascination with statistics began almost by accident. As an undergraduate in China, she enrolled in a program that combined finance and statistics, intending to pursue the finance track. But her early exposure to statistical methods quickly won her over.

“It’s a beautiful combination of theory and application. It’s mathematically deep so you feel satisfied, but also you’re going to have interesting applications. You can see its impact and how that method is going to be used in real life,” she said.

Xue’s statistical background is in non-parametric methods, which allow data to reveal its own patterns without assuming a specific model form. She began her work developing methods for dimension reduction and model selection, helping make high-dimensional “big data” more manageable for analysis.

“Non-parametric is the backbone, it’s my hammer. I use it to tackle different kinds of problems,” she said.

Over time, she expanded her research to complex data types, including brain imaging networks and functional data, such as physical activity tracked by wearable devices. These devices don’t take exact measurements, but instead rough estimates. Statisticians like Xue are needed to figure out how to deal with errors to make sure the data is as robust as possible.

Building on this expertise, Xue is contributing to an NIH-funded project aimed at improving the accuracy of self reported diet and activity data in obesity and type 2 diabetes research. The grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, brings together an interdisciplinary team led by Carmen Tekwe, associate professor at Indiana University.

The researchers are tackling a critical challenge: how to correct the errors that occur when using wearable devices such as fitness trackers and self-reported dietary questionnaires. These tools are widely used in large-scale studies but are prone to recall bias, systematic error and complex correlations that can distort the statistical models used to evaluate health outcomes.

By designing new methods to account for these problems, the team aims to provide a more reliable picture of how diet and physical activity influence obesity and type 2 diabetes. Their work has the potential to improve public health recommendations, strengthen the evidence used for chronic disease prevention and ultimately lead to more effective interventions tailored to diverse populations.

"Statistics a beautiful combination of theory and application"

Her research prowess is matched by her commitment to collaboration. Xue believes statistics is strongest when applied to real-world challenges, and many of her projects are problem-driven, sparked by the needs of collaborators in medicine, biology and agriculture. One applied paper, honored with a Best Paper Award from the Review of Regional Studies, examined how administrative costs vary across U.S. counties depending on governance structure, population, urban versus rural status and natural amenities. Using advanced statistical methods, the study revealed that factors like wages, population size and health outcomes affect operational expenditures differently across counties, underscoring the importance of local context in policy and resource allocation. This research grew from a partnership with faculty in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Looking ahead, Xue is preparing her department to engage with the rise of artificial intelligence. She sees two opportunities: using AI tools like deep learning to tackle longstanding statistical problems, and infusing AI development with rigorous statistical reasoning to improve uncertainty quantification and inference.

“We are ready to adapt and adjust. There are many ways that statistics can contribute to AI,” she said.

Outside of work, Xue enjoys traveling and cheering at her son’s soccer games, moments of joy that balance her busy academic life.

When: Monday, June 2, 4–5 p.m. with a short reception beforehand

Where: OSU Corvallis, Cordley Hall, Room 1316

Whether you're studying STEM, already immersed in the field, curious about AI, or passionate about the future of technology, this lecture offers a compelling look at the science and mathematical principles behind the algorithms—and the opportunities ahead.

Research funding propels Team Science forward

Oregon State University is focused on big discoveries that drive big solutions. Many science faculty received grants last year in support of discovery-driven science, applied and transdisciplinary research science education and innovation in OSU’s priority research areas of integrated health and biotechnology, climate science and solutions, robotics, data science and AI, and clean energy and solutions. Below are some of the highlights—not including multi-year projects started before 2023.

Faculty honors

Astrophysicist Jeff Hazboun received a $73K Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation. This prestigious NSF early career award is highly coveted by faculty! Hazboun’s project includes curriculum development and the implementation of a summer workshop in astrophysics-themed data analysis designed to foster inspired teaching, stimulate excitement in pulsar timing array research, facilitate the learning goals of undergraduate and graduate students, and support the community college students’ transition into four-year schools.

Mathematician Christine Escher received a $50,397 award from the NSF to host the Pacific Northwest Geometry Seminar series over three years at various Pacific Northwest universities. Escher is the principal organizer of the conference. This award supports meetings of the Pacific Northwest Geometry Seminar (PNGS), a regional meeting for researchers and educators of geometry, to be held at the University of British Columbia (2025), Seattle University (2026) and Lewis & Clark College (2027).

Integrated health & biotechnology

Materials scientist Kyriakos Stylianou, along with members of the College of Pharmacy and the College of Agricultural Science, received $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop improved ways of preventing stored potatoes from sprouting, particularly in the organic sector. Stylianou’s team studied nearly 200 different plant essential oils for their anti-sprouting effects. Oregon, Washington and Idaho produce more than 60% of the potatoes grown in the United States, and Pacific Northwest potato cultivation is a $2.2 billion industry.

Microbiologist Maude David is part of a multi-institution research team to receive a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study European foulbrood disease (EFD) in honey bees. The group is investigating the factors contributing to the high incidence of infection, and will then share their findings with local beekeepers and growers to improve mitigation efforts. Beekeepers in Oregon typically pollinate about five different crops annually. If the colonies are weakened by EFD, this results in less pollination, which is a concern for blueberry and almond growers.

Evolutionary biologist Michael Blouin was awarded $1.86M over five years ($371K per year) from the National Institutes of Health for his project entitled, “Genetic mechanisms of snail/schistosome compatibility.” Schistosomes are water-borne blood-flukes transmitted by snails, which infect over 250 million people in more than 70 countries and cause severe and chronic disability. A debilitating helminth parasitic disease of humans, vaccines are available for schistosomiasis. This project will identify new genes that make some snails naturally resistant to infection by schistosomes, revealing potential new ways to reduce parasite transmission at the snail stage.

Statistician Robert Trangucci received $164K from the University of Michigan for his project entitled, “Data driven transmission models to optimize influenza vaccination and pandemic mitigation strategies.” Selection bias is common in infectious disease datasets due to complex observational and biological processes, and bias can arise from covariate data which is missing due to analytical limitations. The research team is addressing the concern by extending existing models to accommodate risk and data gaps over time for application in vaccination and other novel datasets.

Chemist Dipankar Koley received $542K from the National Institutes of Health for his project entitled, “Microenvironmental characterization and manipulation to prevent secondary caries.” A common reason for dental replacement is a recurrence of caries around existing restorations caused by microbial activity. The project seeks development of new and innovative materials to bias this microbial environment toward improved dental health, and the researchers are investigating the use of cations of magnesium and zinc applied with specialized release platforms.

Collaborative research at the interface of robotics, computer vision and AI

Statistician Yanming Di received $249K from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a project entitled, “DeepSeed: A computer-vision network for onsite, real-time seed analysis.” The Willamette Valley is considered the “grass seed capital of the world.” Seed testing, used for determining seed lot quality and establishing seed value, is a fundamental phase of the agricultural marketing system. With recent advances in robotics, computer vision, and AI, an opportunity presents itself for a new wave of innovations. This project utilizes AI and robotics to innovate devices and protocols for sampling grass seeds and a computer vision system for automated seed analysis. The investigators consist of experts in seed services, computer vision, statistics, and mechanical engineering.

Climate science and related solutions

Materials scientist Kyriakos Stylianou received $689K from Saudi Aramco for a project entitled “New Generation of CO2 Capture Adsorbents: Synthesis, Performance under Humid Conditions, and Scaleup.” In this project, the Stylianou group aims to discover novel adsorbents for the selective capture of CO2 from diluted sources. Successful materials will undergo scaling up and evaluation for their efficacy in removing CO2 from air.

Marine ecologist Bruce Menge received $200K from the National Science Foundation for his project entitled, “RAPID: A subtle epidemic: unique mortality of Mytilus californianus on the Oregon coast.”

The research team is investigating the major changes occurring in the Pacific Northwest marine ecosystems, with evidence these communities exhibit low resilience to climate change. For example, sessile invertebrates (mussels, barnacles, etc) become more abundant while seaweed species (kelp, etc) decline.

Evolutionary biologist Kathryn Everson received two awards for $276K from the University of Kentucky Research Foundation for a project entitled, “The role of hybridization in generating biodiversity: Insights from genomics of Madagascar’s true lemurs (Eulemur).” This project is funded by the NSF to understand how new species form in the context of complex gene flow and to expose the genomic signatures of evolutionary processes. The researchers will characterize patterns of gene flow, selection, and genome architecture for a species of lemur to gain a genomic perspective on the evolution of species boundaries. In addition, the team will construct a hybridization model using data on geographic range, diet, and social behavior for this lemur.

Clean energy and related solutions

Aerosol chemist Alison Bain received $284K from McGill University for her project entitled, “Single particle measurements.” This research aims to understand the optical properties of stratospheric aerosols. Using single particle experiments under environmentally relevant temperatures and humidities, the team will extend a wavelength-dependent refractive index model to include these conditions. They are also looking at how atmospheric aging impacts the optical properties of these materials.

Chemist Wei Kong received $110K from the American Chemical Society for her project entitled, “Superfluid helium droplets as microreactors for studies of photochemistry of fossil fuel hydrocarbons: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the corresponding endoperoxides.” The project will use superfluid helium droplets as microreactors to investigate the kinetics of the photooxidation process of a major component of petroleum (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PAH). Using several analytical techniques, the team will test the hypothesis that supercooling the helium droplets will stabilize an excited state of the oxygen molecule and prevent further reactions.

Collaborative partnerships to fuel a thriving world

Biochemist Ryan Mehl received $234K from the NobleReach Foundation in partnership with the National Science Foundation. The project “Ideal eukaryotic tetrazine ligations for imaging protein dynamics in live cells” was selected as one of the first set of 11 national pilot projects to receive $234K from the NobleReach Foundation.The partnership seeks to identify and accelerate the translation of NSF-funded research into biotechnologies and bio-inspired designs with commercial and societal impacts. This pilot will help inform future translational funding opportunities along with enabling Professor Mehl and the other selected principal investigators to accelerate bringing their research to the market and society.

Biochemist Patrick Reardon received $500K from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Instrumentation Program for his project entitled, “MRI: Acquisition of Helium Recovery Equipment: An integrated system for helium capture and recovery for the OSU NMR facility.” This award supports the acquisition and installation of an integrated system for helium capture and recovery for the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facility. Helium is in high demand and is used for a wide variety of industrial and research applications, and it is a non-renewable resource which highlights the need for laboratories to capture and recycle this important gas. The NMR lab is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, NSF, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, and OSU, and it is a core facility and cornerstone for groundbreaking research in interdisciplinary science and engineering, chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics at OSU, throughout the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The facility continually strives to enhance its state-of-the-art instrumentation for the highest levels of analytical performance.

Tunstall is a data analytics student set to graduate with her master’s degree. On the way, she discovered that remote learning never kept her from success. In a way, it brought her closer.

“It's super important to be able to understand and draw conclusions from data. Having the ability to take that data, make meaningful conclusions from it and then be able to communicate it to others well is why data analytics is so important,” she said.

Floating through rough rapids

Completing an online master’s degree while working remotely full-time was no easy feat. Courses ranged from statistics to learning the R computer programming language and advanced mathematics skills. “I hadn’t taken calculus in 15 years, so I really struggled with the probability distributions and hazard functions,” she said.

After getting the lowest score she had ever earned on a quiz, she remembered what she told herself back in the day as a raft guide: “I can do this.” She pushed forward, and her professor’s support turned her struggle into a milestone.

“I never thought it would be possible to work with data like this — it’s a game changer.”

When she felt blocked by the low quiz score in the applied survival analysis course, Associate Professor Yanming Di steered her in a direction that mattered more.

“Once I got over the grade I got on this quiz, I was able to take what I learned from him from those biweekly office hours discussions, assemble everything I learned, post it to the class discussion board and ask for clarification,” she said.

Discussion boards are a great way for both students and professors to post online messages that everyone in the course can read. Taking advantage of this format, Tunstall assembled all the different mathematical functions, explained what they did and posted them to the discussion board. If her work was a little bit off, she saw feedback from her professor fast.

As she tackled each concept, Tunstall’s passion for data analytics blossomed in the applied survival analysis course. Analyzing the effects of a treatment on patients with a liver disease called primary biliary cholangitis was her favorite project.

“For my project, I wanted to explore the effects of the treatment on each morphological stage of the disease. I wanted to see if there was an actual correlation between the timing of the treatment and the survival rate for each of the four stages,” she said.

Utilizing data sets in this way can reveal whether it’s beneficial to take the treatment for a disease in stage one versus stage three. The effects of treatment may vary depending on the stage, but the only way to see this is to look at the data.

“I never thought it would be possible to work with data like this — it’s a game changer,” Tunstall said. “I thought you had to have a medical degree to even touch data like that. But you don’t. So it’s been a really eye-opening experience — I don't know a lot about the disease and what causes it, but I can look at this data set and make recommendations that might be better for patients.”

Embarking on her next adventure

This summer, Tunstall is attending the in-person graduation ceremony in Corvallis. After that, she’s leaving some doors open.

“Ultimately what I’d like to do is land a career that’s more impactful. I would love to work for the federal government in some sort of capacity, especially in environmental sciences,” she said. “If it exists, being the director of data analysis with an organization like the Environmental Protection Agency would be a dream.”

She also credits her partner for standing by her side and making earning her master’s degree less stressful. “My husband, Paul, has been the one that’s been supporting me and cooking dinner when I’m busy working on my classes,” she said.

After celebrating this milestone with her family, she plans to leverage the skills she learned to improve her current role at the hotel. This includes automating some of the manual tasks she currently handles, allowing her to focus more on strategy and less time on tactics.

“I do revenue management as part of my job, which involves monthly forecasts for room revenue and analyzing data to make decisions. A lot of what I do right now is manual, so I’m really interested in implementing an exponential smoothing process,” she said. After she gets permission from IT to do so, she would automate the process it takes to predict the future using past data sets.

Being able to make these predictions can help the hotel make better financial decisions so that people can still enjoy the Rocky Mountains in luxury for years to come.

Her journey from rafting to survival analysis revealed endless possibilities, and Tunstall is along for the ride. To make a difference in the world, sometimes all it takes is saying, “I can do this.”