The College of Science has a diverse portfolio of signature research, scholarship and innovation activities that enable our College to make fundamental and applied discoveries. To support society’s scientific challenges, we are invested in discovery-driven science and applied and transdisciplinary research. Our research intersects with all four research areas of priority outlined in OSU’s strategic plan, Prosperity Widely Shared.

Over the 2024 fiscal year (FY24: July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024), the College of Science researchers received $18.5 million in research grants to support groundbreaking science. Most of that funding came from federal agencies and foundations in recognition of proposals with broad societal impacts, like increased human health, sustainable and clean energy and climate change mitigation. Our faculty pursue foundational and basic research projects and science education projects. Data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are increasingly becoming part of the fabric of much of our research. College of Science research expenditures in FY24 totaled $20.7 million.

The figure below illustrates the breakdown of funding sources for the College, with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) each awarding about $5.1M.

This article originally appeared in the Oregon State University Stater Spring 2024 magazine. To read the full spread highlighting lessons from the pandemic across Oregon State visit bit.ly/OregonStater-Spring24.

Cities are like organisms — they need immune systems.

Viruses can reproduce rapidly, taking over cells and turning them into viral factories within hours. Individuals' immune systems need to rise to the challenge, but what happens when they can't, and a whole population gets sick?

As the early days of the pandemic demonstrated, cities can struggle to stop the momentum of a spreading disease. Armed with community input and lessons learned over the past four years, a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Oregon State University is designing city-scale feedback loops to act as a kind of immune system for a population as a whole.

"We believe future cities will give people access to real-time local data on infection risk," said ecologist Benjamin Dalziel, project leader. "You'll be able to use that information in your daily life, like how you use a weather report. The more people do that, the slower the spread will be."

The team is supported by $1 million from the National Science Foundation through its Predictive Intelligence for Pandemic Prevention Program (PIPP).

The project began in 2022 with a series of workshops in cities across Oregon. "One key that communities stressed was the importance of sharing timely data between different groups and organizations — much like how different systems in the body communicate to mount an immune response," said team member Katherine McLaughlin, an applied statistician.

The researchers aim to establish a center at OSU that combines mathematical and computational modeling with engineering, public health and public engagement. The Center for Pandemic-Resilient Cities (CPARC; pronounced like "spark") will prototype city-scale feedback loops that link environmental monitoring with epidemic forecasting and communication, so responders won't have to play catchup after an outbreak begins.

Led by the College of Science, the effort capitalizes on OSU's strong tradition of multidisciplinary work and includes six university colleges. In the College of Engineering, Tyler Radniecki and Christine Kelly are developing innovations in wastewater sensing, a low-cost method of monitoring that involves testing sewage samples for disease.

Teams from the College of Health and OSU Extension and Engagement are working to ensure that the science incorporates the characteristics of different communities. For example, responders in cities with a lot of tourism need to know whether infection is spreading locally, such as within schools, or is arriving from other cities, as responses will be different in each case.

Faculty from the College of Liberal Arts (Daniel Faltesek) are researching how to use interactive media to communicate infectious disease forecasts to people in the city, to close the loop between prediction and prevention.

"Human systems, like cities, can be very good at making things 'go viral,'" said project leader Dalziel. "Using mathematics, engineering and community engagement, we can develop systems that make helpful responses go viral, too."

Collaborative science has the power to change the world. The 2024 College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS) award recipients aim to use that power to develop better treatments for cancer and unlock the mysteries of complex mathematical equations.

The SciRIS program funds projects based on collaborative research within the College of Science community and beyond. There are two tracks through the program: SciRIS (Stages 1-3) and the SciRIS individual investigator award (SciRIS-ii).

SciRIS Stages 1-3 funds teams in three stages of increasing funding to support training, research and capacity-building, accelerating work toward external funding opportunities. SciRIS-ii funds individual faculty to establish research relationships with external partners, enabling them to demonstrate the feasibility of their ideas and quickening the pace of scientific discovery.

Statistics often operates behind the scenes. It’s a field whose results are used in the analyses of papers from physics to psychology, yet its power is not widely understood.

Associate Professor Sharmodeep Bhattacharyya wants to change that. He straddles the world of highly theoretical statistics—the foundational mathematics of statistics—and the application of statistics to other areas of science.

"Scientists in different fields should be more mindful of the statistics that they are trying to use because statistics are misrepresented and misused alarmingly often," Bhattacharyya said.

Understanding the brain

With collaborator Kristofer Bouchard, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bhattacharyya is currently examining the statistics of brain data measured using electrodes. The pair looked at data collected from placing electrodes on the exposed brains of lab rats, a process known as electrocorticography.

The data generated from those experiments is very high-dimensional, which in the context of math formalizes the concept of degree of freedom, something that can take on a value. In our everyday experience, we're used to thinking of ourselves as existing in three-dimensional space, where the coordinates–often called x, y and z–are our degrees of freedom. If you were unable to move freely in all three spatial directions and were instead constrained to walking along a rope, you would only have one degree of freedom and move only in one dimension.

In the brain data that Bhattacharyya and his collaborators examine, each dimension corresponds to the state of a specific neuron. Thinking of a neuron like a switch, a state would be whether or not it's on or off. But when a large portion of brain has to be studied the number of neurons present is multiplied, leading to a high-dimensional situation.

Given how many neurons there are in a small piece of rat brain, the experiments Bhattacharyya has looked at have thousands of dimensions.

Additionally, neurons "talk" to each other, forming a network. The activation of neurons also comes in waves and pulses, making the data sparse. These qualities make brain electrode data prime for the application of statistical techniques to find meaningful patterns.

Bhattacharyya's work on this project, and in general, is focused on the building of frameworks and understanding of methods. In the realm of theory, it can be a challenge to prove why a result that appears simple on the surface is true, or why a seemingly simple method works. Theoretical rigor makes a method reliable and allows practitioners from different domains to adapt the method smoothly. It also widens the scope of the method within the Statistics community itself.

When analyzing networks, community detection is important. A community is just what it sounds like; a group of interconnected people. For neurons, communities would be regions of the brain where neurons are tightly connected.

In the world of networks, neurons could be represented by what are known as ‘nodes’, while the connections between nodes are ‘edges’. For example, imagine a street grid, the intersections would be nodes, and the streets between them edges. The concept of communities is then generalized to include any group of nodes that are highly interconnected.

Detecting communities in networks isn't always obvious, especially for sparse networks. However, Bhattacharyya found a surprisingly straightforward method of community detection that works wonders at just this.

"It's a very simple method, but proving that this method works was not easy, so that took me quite a bit of time," he said.

Bhattacharyya has also worked with collaborators on public health policies, social networks and gene regulatory networks. These collaborations have offered him the opportunity to introduce fellow scientists to statistical methods, demystifying the perception of statistics as a black box.

"I'm very much interested in interdisciplinary work, specifically because I get to learn about a new field, as well as try to see how I can contribute to that field."

Every dataset is full of surprises, and that is one of the great wonders of statistics. It is also why all scientists need to understand statistics so they can apply the appropriate methods for their data, or find someone who can.

Guided by the data

Bhattacharyya grew up in the city of Kolkata, India. There, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in 2006 and 2008 respectively. The ISI was founded in 1931 by statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis and is India's premier institute of higher education when it comes to the training of statisticians.

He completed his Ph.D. and postdoctoral program at UC Berkeley with statistics professor Peter Bickel. A pioneer of statistical methods, particularly in what are known as semiparametric models, Bickel is still publishing papers despite being semi-retired.

"Last year, we had his 80th birthday celebration conference at Berkeley, and several of his Ph.D. students who are now big shots in statistics attended. It was a very nice conference," Bhattacharyya said.

By the time Bhattacharyya completed his Ph.D. in 2013, Bickel had been in the field for 50 years. Bhattacharyya credits his current success to the wisdom, knowledge and experience his mentor shared with him. Bickel emphasized the importance of statistics always being guided by the data, with research questions informed by what the data says and what would benefit the broader statistics community.

Bhattacharyya’s transition to the Department of Statistics was a welcomed one. Although he grew up in a sprawling metropolis of 14 million people and completed his Ph.D. and postdoc in a city of four million, he always preferred the quiet life of the country and small cities. In part, it was a desire to get away from the hustle and bustle that brought Bhattacharyya to Corvallis.

The Department of Statistics encourages interdisciplinary research alongside more theoretical research, something Bhattacharyya holds in high regard. He also appreciated the incredibly welcoming department culture.

"I'm very much interested in interdisciplinary work, specifically because I get to learn about a new field, as well as try to see how I can contribute to that field," he said.

Outside of academics, Bhattacharyya enjoys listening to classical Indian music, reading fiction and non-fiction, and of course spending time with his wife. She is also a statistician who completed her Ph.D. at Oregon State.

The College of Science welcomes Lan Xue as Department of Statistics Interim Head, effective January 1, 2024.

Joining Oregon State University in 2005 after completing her Ph.D. at Michigan State, Xue has served on the faculty of the department since 2005, achieving the rank of Professor in 2018.  

Xue’s research focuses broadly on non-parametric and semi-parametric methods, methods for longitudinal data analysis, and measurement error models. She was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute in 2007.

She has secured significant research funding, garnering over $2.3 million from the NIH as the co-PI for statistical methods related to wearable device data, a $100K NSF grant to lead a study on non- and semi-parametric models, a College of Science SciRIS award, and other grants.

Xue’s contributions to the department and to the profession include service as Assistant Chair of the Department of Statistics and leadership of the American Statistical Association Oregon Chapter as well as associate editorships of several journals. She has taught numerous statistical theory classes, developed several new applied courses, and mentored numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students.

“I am confident Xue will lead exceptionally well through this transition. She is an outstanding scholar and exemplifies a strong commitment to both the department and the field of statistics. Her involvement in mentoring students further strengthens her qualifications," said Eleanor Feingold, Dean of the College of Science.

Lisa Ganio, who served as department head since 2018, returns to her teaching and research responsibilities.

“Please join me in giving tremendous thanks to Lisa for her significant accomplishments as Head of the Department of Statistics, including leading the growth of the data analytics certificate, growing the faculty, and guiding the department through the pandemic,” Feingold said.

Under Ganio’s leadership, the department oversaw the growth and curricular development of the online data analytics program, graduating 116 M.S. students in the last five years. She supervised the implementation of adaptive courseware and learning assistants in undergraduate statistics courses, the inclusion of undergraduate statistics courses in the statewide common course numbering for transfer students, and the incorporation of statistics courses in OSU’s new Core Education.

She also implemented inclusive practices within the statistics graduate program in areas of scholarship, admissions and student funding. Additionally, she led the hiring of three new tenure-track research faculty and four instructional faculty and oversaw the development of the new department website.

Xue affirmed the strengths of the statistics department, emphasizing its wide-reaching service through the Survey Research Center, interdisciplinary partnerships, and dynamic faculty with diverse research interests in growing fields, for example, survey sampling, genomics and emerging data science areas.

Xue's research focuses on addressing methods for handling increasingly complex data. Traditional linear models are not well-suited for them, she explained, so there's a need to develop non-linear or non-parametric methods for interpreting the data and unlocking benefits.

In her recent research focus, Xue delves into functional data, which refers to information continuously connected over time and observed as curves. Common examples include health data from devices like Apple Watch or Fitbit, which capture physical movement, activity and heart rate. The challenge lies in inherent measurement errors in these devices, which provide only a partial representation of accurate physical activity.

"The question we aim to address is how to handle these measurement errors, ensuring that we can still derive a valid, reasonable and efficient inference based on the data, even when we are aware that the data are contaminated with measurement errors,” Xue said.

The relevance and promise of the research keep things interesting for her.

“We are very excited about working with students to develop new methods with practical applications, especially in health studies where data from volunteers offer real-world scenarios. It's thrilling to see how these methods can be useful in analyzing diverse exercise patterns and physical activity in the population,” Xue said.  

The significant increase in data opens huge opportunities to benefit society, she explained, and she anticipates the College of Science will play an increasingly impactful role.

Eleanor Feingold, Oregon State University’s incoming College of Science dean, takes on her new role at a pivotal time for the institution. An evolving higher education landscape, changing demographics, reduced state funding and a new strategic plan pose significant challenges. How will she navigate?

One thing seems certain: Feingold will bring to the College a passion for both basic and translational research that has the potential to create real-world impact around shared goals.

A statistical geneticist with nearly 20 years of leadership experience at the research giant University of Pittsburgh, Feingold's journey is marked by a drive to effect positive change.

“I see no purpose in dedicating my life to advancing technology if it doesn't improve the well-being of as many people as possible."

This guiding principle emerged early in her life. During her college career at MIT, Feingold designed her own major, combining writing, mathematics and public policy — three top enduring passions that overtly connect data-informed theory to tangible impact.

Her motivation persisted into her occupation. During her work in the electric power industry, she confronted the limitations of deterministic planning models for informing critical decisions. Recognizing the need to incorporate random variation to create more practical models, Feingold pursued a Ph.D. in statistics at Stanford.

Over her almost two decades of collaborative leadership at the University of Pittsburgh, she achieved significant accomplishments. Notably, as associate dean of the School of Public Health, she built on the school’s traditional role as a research powerhouse by working with faculty teams to develop new degree programs spanning all levels to educate students in high-impact scientific and public health fields.

Elected an American Statistical Association Fellow in 2010, Feingold has amassed an impressive portfolio of scholarship and teaching over the course of her career. Her research focuses on the genetics of cleft lip and palate, Alzheimer’s disease, and the interaction between environmental contaminants and human female reproductive processes. She also loves being in the classroom and hopes to fit in opportunities at OSU to teach her two favorite topics — scientific communication and introductory data science.

With her pragmatic, inclusive leadership style, Feingold is poised to achieve shared goals as the College and University both implement new strategic plans — and ultimately, to move science forward with research progress, expanded educational opportunities, improved student success, greater equity and access, and increased community engagement.

Planning the approach with the College of Science community is the exciting challenge ahead.

“I have gained a lot of experience from very basic research to community-engaged research, and I'm genuinely excited about how we will build initiatives where all of those are important and valued,” she said.

“I am particularly captivated by the ‘prosperity for all’ theme of the university strategic plan,” Feingold continued. “I love the idea of a really broad definition of prosperity as economic, social and environmental health for everyone. That's how I hope to embrace the plan and help the College of Science implement it.”

An inclusive, service-minded leader

Feingold’s alignment with the university's vision is reflected in her people-centered leadership approach. As a problem solver who prioritizes teamwork, she characterizes her leadership style as that of a coach, guide and facilitator, placing strong emphasis on the value of active listening and collaboration.

“I love to listen and understand everyone's priorities, needs, what the College can be doing better, and how they think that can be done,” she said. “I want to get things done, but first, I want to do a lot of listening. I'm really excited about the opportunity to do that."

Her dedication to social justice, a guiding principle shared by many in the College of Science, reflects her perception that advancing equity is not only one of the most pressing challenges of our time, but a scientific challenge as well. She makes her commitment clear: “Advancing knowledge and technology must go hand in hand with promoting equity — in alignment with the university’s plan for shared prosperity.”

“I see no purpose in dedicating my life to advancing technology if it doesn't improve the well-being of as many people as possible,” she said.

Advancements in science have often left imbalances in their wake. “Almost every major scientific and technological change in history has had its winners and losers. As scientists we have a moral obligation to notice that and care about it. As we do our science, we can keep an eye on who wins and loses and try to steer things in constructive directions,” she said.

“Some of us can also go a step further and proactively seek out scientific research topics that have the potential to increase prosperity across the board or mitigate the inequitable results of previous scientific or political situations.”

Fostering discovery and connection

Feingold is eager to help advance research initiatives at Oregon State, noting that the College's diverse departments are each marked by exciting areas of research. Signature strengths College of Science strengths highlighted in its strategic plan include:

• Disease science (e.g., microbiomes, protein engineering through GCE4ALL, TRACE-COVID-19), drug development and aging, molecular NMR, including OSU’s Linus Pauling Institute and strong links to Oregon Health and Science University.
• Sustainable materials development for clean energy solutions and next-generation electronics, like batteries, metal organic frameworks and semiconductors.
• Climate change, marine and coastal sciences – from genes to ecosystems, involving deep ties to OSU’s Marine Science Initiative, the Hatfield Marine Science Center and other OSU colleges.
• Data-driven and genome-enabled research in life and environmental sciences, involving the Center for Quantitative Life Sciences.
• Quantitative and computational sciences expertise – essential components of many OSU areas of research and innovation.
• Innovative teaching practices and pedagogical research to increase student success, equity, access and inclusion.
• Curiosity-driven sciences, including strengths in astrophysics (NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center) and basic research.

She is fascinated by the College’s range of research, spanning from fundamental theory to translational research that addresses both immediate and future real-world problems.

“Our world is very much shaped by technology, and we want to make sure that is a positive thing,” she said. “At the individual level, scientific and technical education can be an important component of social mobility. Even for individuals who are not going to pursue technology-driven careers, scientific literacy is empowering in an era when so many important social and political issues are entangled with technological change.

“At the community level, we want to ensure that technological change furthers ethical and egalitarian goals. We can do that by educating individuals and also by looking for opportunities for research that will have a positive impact on communities."

Innovative approaches to STEM learning

The College's role in pioneering innovative ideas in student success and STEM education fuels Feingold's imagination. “Improving STEM education is so critical in the world right now, and I see a lot of creative initiatives already happening. I am excited about what OSU is doing in those areas and the opportunities to be a part of it,” she said.

She notes the College has already implemented innovative solutions on a broad scale. For example, the Learning Assistant program, introduced within the College and later adopted university-wide, has dramatically improved student success in the Principles of Biology series over the past decade.

Feingold honed her expertise in improving STEM education during her time at Pittsburgh. She also explored creative approaches to improving student success and diversity and access during her American Council on Education Fellowship two years ago, which took her to Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, and at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.

“Improving STEM education is so critical in the world right now, and I see a lot of creative initiatives already happening. I am excited about what OSU is doing in those areas and the opportunities to be a part of it.”

The adventure begins

Feingold’s first day on campus will be November 6, but she is already a regular at the Corvallis Farmers Market, having visited each time she’s been to town. “I just love the variety of fresh food that's available, and it's so much fun.”

She anticipates the many opportunities to lead her active lifestyle in Oregon. She enjoys vigorous activities like hiking and cycling — and back in the day, even played water polo at Stanford. She is eager to explore the trails and to spend time with her sister and mother who both live in the region. She also plays the viola and will be scouting for musical outlets in Corvallis.

She is also eager to get to know her colleagues and community members as they work together to create avenues for extending the reach and impact of science.

“I would love to see us making significant progress on some of the most visionary things in both the College and the university strategic plans,” she said. “I would love to see our graduation rate achieve and surpass the aspirational target. I would love to see a broad range of research with high impact in the community, and in science. I would love to see a data science research and education program that serves the university and beyond.”

Along the way, embedding access, equity and inclusion in everything will be central: Her goal is “making sure that the advance of knowledge and technology increases equity instead of decreasing it. And I think there's a very important tie-in with the university's strategic plan — making sure that this prosperity really is for everybody.”

Eleanor Feingold, a statistical geneticist and associate dean with nearly 20 years of leadership experience at the University of Pittsburgh, has been named dean of Oregon State University’s College of Science. She will start Oct. 31.

“I am passionate about creative approaches to STEM education, diversity, equity and inclusion and research that has an impact on the state, nation and world,” Feingold said. “The College of Science and Oregon State University have tremendous strengths in these areas, and I am excited to further advance these endeavors.”

Oregon State’s College of Science is home to the life, statistical, physical and mathematical sciences. The college supports more than 4,000 students and brought in more than $18 million in research funding during the 2022 fiscal year.

“Dr. Feingold brings deep experience as a senior administrator in one of the nation’s leading research universities, and she has amassed an impressive portfolio of scholarship and teaching over the course of her career,” said Edward Feser, OSU provost and executive vice president. “As dean, she will be prioritizing further strengthening the College of Science’s research enterprise and advancing OSU’s goals in student success at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

Feingold has worked at the University of Pittsburgh since 1997. She has served at the university’s School of Public Health as associate dean for education, vice dean, chair of the Department of Human Genetics, and most recently associate dean for data analytics and special projects.

Read more here.

The College of Science congratulates 17 faculty on receiving promotions and/or tenure this year.

Countless hours of consideration and analysis goes into every promotion decision. The College relies heavily on the expertise and perspectives of departmental staff, department heads, department committees, peer teaching committees, College of Science Promotion and Tenure Committee, external reviewers and students to get our deserving faculty through this process.

Thank you to everyone that helped to make this possible for our well-deserving faculty.

Congratulations to the science faculty in the college who have just completed this process with success!

Chemistry Department

Marilyn Mackiewicz will be promoted to Associate Professor of Chemistry and granted indefinite tenure, effective September 16, 2023.

Integrative Biology Department

Carmen Harjoe will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Integrative Biology, effective July 1, 2023.

Lindsay Biga will be promoted to Senior Instructor II of Integrative Biology, effective July 1, 2023.

Mathematics Department

Amanda Blaisdell will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Clayton Petsche will be promoted to Professor of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Chris Orum will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

David Wing will be promoted to Senior Instructor II of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Elise Lockwood will be promoted to Professor of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Johnner Barrett will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Liz Jones will be promoted to Senior Instructor II of Educational Opportunities Program and Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Mary Beisiegel will be promoted to Professor of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Michael Gilliam will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Sara Clark will be promoted to Senior Instructor II of Mathematics, effective September 16, 2023.

Microbiology Department

Shawn Massoni will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Microbiology, effective July 1, 2023.

Physics Department

Evan Thatcher will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Physics, effective September 16, 2023.

Paul Emigh will be promoted to Senior Instructor I of Physics, effective September 16, 2023.

Statistics Department

Katherine McLaughlin will be promoted to Associate Professor of Statistics and granted indefinite tenure, effective September 16, 2023.

Thank you!

Thanks to all of the committee members who served on the College of Science Promotions and Tenure Committee this year.

• Andy Karplus, Chair and Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics
• Chong Fang, Professor of Chemistry
• Ethan Minot, Professor of Physics
• Holly Swisher, Professor of Mathematics
• Kate Field, Professor of Microbiology
• KC Walsh, Senior Instructor II, Physics
• Lesley Blair, Senior Instructor II, Integrative Biology
• Lisa Madsen, Professor of Statistics
• Michael Freitag, Professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics
• Oksana Ostroverkhova, Professor of Physics
• Sally Hacker, Professor of Integrative Biology

Imagine working for the Department of Motor Vehicles, not as a desk clerk or driving test administrator, but at the central office in Salem. Imagine that you were tasked with ascertaining how best to allocate fuel tax revenue. This revenue comes from the tax on fuel purchased for cars and trucks, marine boats, off-highway vehicles and other motorized vehicles. How would you go about distributing the revenue to the agencies responsible for these vehicles?

A survey to determine the fuel used in each category might be a good option, but where to begin? The Oregon State University Survey Research Center is ready to help. Since 1973 the Survey Research Center (SRC) has been working with Oregon State faculty and state government agencies to help them conduct and analyze surveys.

In addition to working with more than 15 different agencies in Salem including the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon State Marine Board and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the SRC has worked with Oregon State University faculty and staff on a variety of projects. Examples range from investigations in applied economics to surveys of students graduating from the College of Science.

"It's fascinating because I learned so much about the state for each survey we work with," said Virginia Lesser, head of the Survey Research Center.

The art of survey design

The process of survey design involves first working with the client to determine the budget and the population to be surveyed. Throughout the entire process there is constant back and forth with the client to figure out exactly what they want and what is possible.

Sometimes clients come in looking to survey a specific segment of the population, such as people who use their service. However, there is often no way of knowing exactly who comprises that population. An important component in designing surveys is to determine and accurately define the population from which the results are gathered. In order to obtain measures of confidence around any estimates, probability sampling must be used.

With probability sampling, every member of the population has an equal chance of being surveyed because they are drawn from a random distribution.

In contrast, non-probability sampling involves selecting from a non-random distribution, such as those who seek out a survey to participate in. Due to the lack of a random selection of individuals, it's impossible to identify biases or compute other measurements. Therefore, data collected using non-probability sampling should be interpreted with caution due to the impact of selection bias.

"So the challenge I have is working with a client to figure out how to get the opinions they need when they don't know who the people are that use their service," Lesser said.

Once the population has been selected, there are three primary components to designing a survey: writing the questions, selecting the probability samples and correctly analyzing the survey data. Writing questions is a bit of an art. Good survey questions should be both unbiased and flow well within a questionnaire. The sample selection depends on the population one is looking to reach and the sampling design. The statistical analysis methods must account for the sampling design and any survey errors, such as nonresponse.

The future of survey distribution

Survey administration methods have evolved significantly over the last several years. Phone-based surveys are not used as much as they were 20 years ago due to the low response rates. Web surveys have become more prominent.

Today the Survey Research Center conducts most of its probability-based surveys using a hybrid web and mail approach, combining the usability of the internet with the higher quality and response rates of mail. This ensures reaching a wider array of demographics than either form would alone.

A key advantage of mail-based surveys is that one can easily mail out surveys to every address or a random sample of addresses in an area. The list of addresses used to select the probability samples for SRC surveys covers nearly 100% of all households in the US. The hybrid web and mail approach provides the opportunity for all selected households to respond either by mail or by web. Thus not all households need to have internet access.

Another method to contact survey participants uses email addresses. Email-based surveys may also be used in cases where the SRC or the client knows the email addresses for the population and know that all potential participants have access to email, for example surveys of Oregon State faculty and students.

Increasingly, more surveys are being conducted using non-probability online panels. These panels are composed of people volunteering to complete surveys in exchange for remuneration or other benefits. They have become popular in recent years due to how cheaply and easily they can be used to get relatively large samples. However, the individuals from an online panel who complete a survey are not a random sample of the population. These respondents choose to actively participate because of personal interest, or because of some sort of incentive, such as a gift card.

Due to their self-selecting nature, estimates from non-probability panel surveys tend to be biased as compared to results from probability sampling methods. Relying on non-probability panels for unbiased information would be like relying on a jury entirely made up of people who really want to be on it.

In addition to its work helping others conduct surveys, the Survey Research Center staff also conduct original research. The main focus of their research is on comparing the effectiveness of different survey techniques, studying how even minute details such as envelope color and size, incentives and content of cover letters impact response rates.

Survey response rates continue to decrease and the research conducted by the SRC examines methods to improve response rates in their surveys. Recently, one of Lesser’s graduate students has been working on how to combine probability and non-probability samples, and thus how to integrate the two approaches.

In our ever-changing social and technological landscape, keeping a finger on the pulse of public opinion is vital. The behind-the-scenes work of designing survey questions and researching survey methods is just as vital. For the past 50 years, the Survey Research Center has done both, through their original research and the services they provided to their clients within and without Oregon State University.

Four-dimensional tissue self-assembly, integrated river health and ultra-tiny spectrometers: The 2022 College of Science Research and Innovation Seed (SciRIS) award recipients will use collaboration to fill critical knowledge gaps across numerous scientific disciplines to drive real-world impact.

The SciRIS program funds projects based on collaborative research within the College of Science community and beyond. There are two tracks through the program: SciRIS (Stages 1-3) and the SciRIS individual investigator award (SciRIS-ii).

SciRIS Stages 1-3 funds teams in three stages of increasing funding to support training, research and capacity-building, accelerating work toward external funding opportunities. SciRIS-ii funds individual faculty to establish research relationships with external partners, enabling them to demonstrate the feasibility of their ideas and quickening the pace of scientific discovery.

SciRIS-ii Awardees

The following three scientists received SciRIS-ii awards: Bo Sun, Clayton Petsche and Ethan Minot.

Associate Professor of Physics Bo Sun’s research aims to lay the foundation for programmable four-dimensional tissue self-assembly. Current technologies have been unable to harness these naturally occurring processes to assemble dynamic tissue structures for biomedical and therapeutic applications. Four-dimensional tissue self-assembly is critical for many physiological processes including acute wound healing and in lethal tumor metastasis.

Sun and his collaborator, Yang Jiao from Arizona State University, will be building on eight years of collaborative research in the field of cell mechanics and cell migration that has resulted in eight publications.

Associate Professor of Mathematics Clayton Petsche will use his SciRIS grant to help three graduate students complete sub projects within the realm of arithmetic dynamical systems. The research will be entirely student-focused and will help establish their research credentials before entering the postdoctoral job market.

Professor of Physics Ethan Minot will use his award to bring ultra-miniaturized spectrometer technology to Oregon State and pursue follow-up opportunities.

In 2022, with co-authors from Finland, Minot was part of a study published in Science that resulted in a powerful, ultra-tiny spectrometer. Contributing to a field known as optical spectrometry, their discovery could improve everything from smartphone cameras to environmental monitoring.

Minot plans to bring the technology to Oregon to grow the new field of research.

SciRIS Stage 1 Awardees

Four groups of scientists received SciRIS Stage 1 awards up to $10K.

Associate Professor of Statistics Yuan Jiang, along with Anna Jolles, professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, received a SciRIS Stage 1 grant for a project which will help fill a knowledge gap and provide crucial tools to understand microbial community dynamics.

The team will develop a novel analytical pipeline that harnesses longitudinal microbiome data to define the ecological roles of host-associate microbes. Although the accumulation of microbial communities is essential to animal health, there are few statistical routes adequate for characterizing microbial community dynamics through time.

Integrative Biology Professor Anna Jolles and Carson College of Veterinary Medicine Professor Claudia Häse will use their SciRIS Stage 1 award to study eco-evolutionary host-bacterial-phage dynamics. Collaborating with a researcher from the University of Louisiana, the group will be using the Pacific oyster and shellfish pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus as a model system.

In a project entitled “Bioinformatics for integrated river health,” Integrative Biology Professors David Lytle and Anna Jolles, along with Justin Sanders from the Carson College of Veterinary Medicine, will bring together expertise across disciplines to provide an integrated approach to understanding river health. The group will combine expertise in bioinformatic and genetic methods for characterizing aquatic invertebrate communities, aquatic parasite and pathogen communities, and fish microbiomes. Samples will come from the lower Colorado River, an ecologically and culturally significant ecosystem.

Biochemistry and Biophysics Associate Professors David Hendrix and Colin Johnson, along with Professor of Chemistry Claudia Maier and Patrick Reardon, director of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility at Oregon State, received a SciRIS Stage 1 award to create a pipeline of computational and experimental methods for the prediction, identification and functional characterization of microproteins. Previously dismissed due to their small size, microproteins are now thought to play significant physiological roles including pathological roles in cancer progression.

Disease Mechanism and Prevention Fund

Researching Parkinson’s disease, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics Alysia Vrailas-Mortimer received a grant from the College of Science Disease Mechanism and Prevention Fund for a project entitled “Why is a fly a good model to study my grandmother’s tremors?”

Similar to the SciRIS-ii, the fund is focused on assisting individual faculty efforts to establish research relationships with external partners for projects specifically related to health science.

Using fruit flies, Vrailas-Mortimer’s goal is to determine how a stress response protein protects against Parkinson’s-associated iron-induced oxidative damage. Parkinson’s affects over one million people in the U.S. and her research could provide the basis for future therapeutic strategies.