Papers published

• Undergraduate student Nhat Nguyen (Physics Minor 2023), together with  Andrés Aragoneses, and  Carleton College Professor, Arjendu Pattanayak, have recently published a paper:
  • “TARDYS: Extracting Temporal And Reversible DYnamical Symmetries” Published in Photonics (MDPI), open access: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.organomet.2c00353

Faculty candidate seminar and teaching demonstration

• Biochemistry candidate Steven Karpowicz, from Eastern New Mexico University, will deliver a seminar titled “Taurine metabolism: How to make an abundant molecule” on Thursday 12th of January at 14:00, at Patterson 128.
• Biochemistry candidate Steven Karpowicz, from Eastern New Mexico University, will deliver a teaching lecture on “The role of thiamine in metabolism” on Friday 13th of January at 11:00, at Patterson 128.

Coming outreach

• Suds & Science: On February 4th, at 7 PM at the Golden Handle Brewery (154 S. Madison, Spokane), Rene Buell and Andrés Aragoneses will be talking about the science in the movie The Martian.

Physics Teatime

• Physics will continue with its usual social teatime. This term it will be Fridays from 2PM to 3 PM.

Name: Connor Bacon

Graduation Year: 2017

Job Title:Digital Media Manager

Organization: Vanderbilt University

Describe your design journey: I graduated with a degree in design, but took a hard pivot towards the world of photography and videography. Mainly focused around these disciplines, I learned some front end web design and webflow development that I carry with me into freelance gigs in the present day.

After about 5 years of freelance and working alongside a local advertising agency, I decided to branch out into the world of higher education here in Nashville, TN, heading up their video production for the Office of Digital Education.

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? I am responsible for managing a production team centered around creating digital content for Vanderbilt’s online education directive. My responsibilities span from pre-production to production to post production and everything in between.

What is your favorite part about your position? My favorite part about my current position is the flexibility it allows for and the leadership doors that have opened for me. I am able to work closely with my team to produce high quality video productions and marketing materials.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? The Design Program prepared me for this role by instilling design thinking into how I interact with the world. I am able to break processes down and design them to better suit the needs of my team and our clients. I still handle some graphic design on my day to day, and freelance on the side, however the thinking is what really has shaped the way I approach my work.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the design program? Most memorable were the people I was able to learn and grow alongside, as well as the faculty that helped shape the program and interactions within it. Being at Eastern allowed me to explore creativity and my capabilities with support and encouragement from my peers.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? My advice for someone who is considering pursuing a design degree is to do it. The value that it brings to your worldview is extremely useful in negotiating the professional world, as well as many other aspects of life after school. Don’t worry so much about the tools, as they change and shift over time. Leverage design principles to shape the way you see the world.

Name: Tony Kuchar

Graduation Year: 2014

Job Title: Merchandise Designer

Organization: Fangamer.com

Describe your design journey: Started by designing merch for my silly little bands in high school. Now I design merch for silly little video games

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? Overseeing the entire merch production process of my projects: concept, sketch, final design, approvals, speccing for production, reviewing production samples, adjusting specs and resampling, final production, marketing, launching, and every so often even shipping!

Communication: with fellow designers and artists, with licensors, with game developers, with prepress departments, with merch producers, with manufacturers, etc.

What is your favorite part about your position? The creative freedom I’m allotted. Generally speaking, if I have an idea for a piece of merch, and I can determine there is a decent demand for it among fans, I’m given the reins and means to make it happen. This allows me to always be trying new mediums, new styles, new types of design, and the ability to collaborate with a variety of other designers and artists.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? Not that fun of an answer but… Deadlines. School provides a great opportunity to practice being creative within a set timeframe. Another helpful aspect of school was having to work within specific guidelines and boundaries. Every project or job is restricted in some way, either conceptually or physically; school offers a taste of what’s to come in a professional setting. Lastly, school is great at exposing you to critique and constructive criticism. In the workforce, your designs will be evaluated and approved by parties that are outside of your influence. Being able to parse feedback and adjust your approach is a vital skill. Additionally, participating in group critiques also helps you learn how to communicate why you do or don’t like something, why it works or doesn’t work, and most importantly, how to provide helpful and practical suggestions for how to refine or better focus a design.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the design program? The community! School allows you to immerse yourself in design and for me, the best part of that was being surrounded by other people that were just as interested in design as me. Outside of the professional realm, where else are you really going to find a group of people that are down to have an hour long discussion about fonts?

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? Make sure it’s really something you want to do. Like any career, but especially in design, to be successful you need to be passionate about the work. If you aren’t interested in thinking about design like, I guess all the time really, then it might not be for you. I can’t turn my designer brain off. I’m in the grocery store thinking “Dang, that’s a sick font on that ramen cup. What is that? I have to find that font when I get home.. Design will just become part of your day to day life: make sure that’s something you want.

Name: Makenzie Ley

Graduated: Fall 2018

Job Title: Color Design Associate

Organization: Nike

Describe your design journey: My design journey started with drawing. I’ve always loved doodling for friends and family since a very young age. In 7th grade, I taught myself web design, competed in design related events in FBLA from 8-12th grade, and volunteered as a web designer my senior year. After a year at community college, I applied to EWU to major in VCD and worked at the art gallery (now defunct) doing design + promotional work. I was accepted into the BFA program for my senior year and also interned at Seven2 that summer. After graduating, I interned at Nike before being hired full time in February 2020 (incredible timing) and have been there ever since, moving across different teams but staying under the umbrella of design.

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? Color design and theory (including understanding of color achievability and digital color), creating long term color palettes/concepts/narratives, graphic and production design, trend research, building presentations, etc.

What is your favorite part about your position? The talent Nike attracts is endlessly inspiring! It’s a privilege to work with such a diverse group of creative minds. Not to mention that work we touch and the brand as a whole has a global impact.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? Comfort with a variety of Adobe products (Photoshop! Illustrator! InDesign! A little After Effects!) and design thinking.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the design program? I loved being involved with Design Club! Getting to connect with folks in the program and other clubs through design was invaluable, plus just super fun.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? Just college courses are not enough, and contradictory, just YouTube isn’t either! Discover your design niche—whatever it is you’re passionate about within the broad world of design—and really use it! Not only will it help you stand out from the crowd, but you’ll stay saner in the process.

Name: Joshua Thomas

Graduation Year: 2019

Job Title: Freelance Designer

Organization: Lejit Design

Describe your design journey. I started Lejit Designs my last year at Eastern to give myself the opportunity to scratch that creative itch a lot of us have no doubt also felt. It’s been a crazy few years, but Lejit Designs has grown into much more than I ever thought it could be.

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? Design strategy and consultation; branding; graphic design; illustration; packaging design; print projects; UX; UI; business operations

What is your favorite part about your position? The freedom and the breadth of project types I get to work on.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? The Design Program gave me all of the tools I needed to start my journey, and my mentors within the Design Program gave me a lot of insights that helped me avoid common pitfalls. I don’t think I’d have been as successful as quickly if it weren’t for the program.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the Design Program? I loved my professors; they instilled in me an appreciation for craft that I don’t think I would have gotten otherwise.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? While I don’t think they are required, programs like the one at Eastern can provide such vital experience that you won’t get outside of the program. They will push you to be a better designer in ways that you most likely won’t do yourself. So if you are someone that needs to be challenged and wants to be the most effective designer you can be, then this is the program for you.

Nobel Prize 2022 (not to the department this year)

• Physics: Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser, and Anton Zeilinger “for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”
• Chemistry: Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”

Grant awarded

• Ashley Lamm has received a 1.5 million dollar Track 1 NSF Noyce Grant entitled “Expanding collaborations that recruit, prepare, and retain diverse and highly-qualified STEM teachers in Eastern Washington”.

This grant provides scholarships to recruit and prepare STEM majors to become K-12 teachers. The program seeks to increase the number of K-12 teachers with strong STEM content knowledge who teach in high-need school districts.

Physics Teatime

• Physics is hosting “tea & cookies” for physics students & faculty every Wednesday at 3 PM (CEB 318).

Outreach to the community

• Faculty and students from Chemistry & Physics will be present at the American Physics Society Division of Plasma Physics outreach event, on Thursday 20th in Spokane.
• Jason Stoke will be giving a presentation about “Solar Energy Science” .
  • • Spacetime coordinates:
      • Golden Handle Project in downtown Spokane (111 S. Cedar st.).
      • Saturday October 22nd at 7 PM.

Student’s research at international conference

• Andrés Aragoneses presented research done with two EWU students (Nhat Nguyen and David Spichak) at Dynamics Days Europe in Aberdeen (Scotland) in August.

Grant awarded

• Ashley Lamm has received a 1.5 million dollar Track 1 NSF Noyce Grant entitled “Expanding collaborations that recruit, prepare, and retain diverse and highly-qualified STEM teachers in Eastern Washington”.

This grant provides scholarships to recruit and prepare STEM majors to become K-12 teachers. The program seeks to increase the number of K-12 teachers with strong STEM content knowledge who teach in high-need school districts.

Alumni panel

• What do Physics do? A panel of EWU Physics alumni will share with our undergraduate students, and faculty, their experiences and perspectives as physicists after college. Tea and pastries will be served.
  • Spacetime coordinates:
    • ISC 009.
    • Friday June 3rd at 2 PM.

Outreach to the community

• Jason Stoke and Andrés Aragoneses, together with  Jessica Allen and Javier Ochoa-Reparaz (from Biology), will be giving a presentation about the Science of Star Wars: “May the Science be with you!” .
  • • Spacetime coordinates:
      • Golden Handle Project in downtown Spokane (111 S. Cedar st.).
      • Saturday June 4th at 7 PM.

Promotion

• Berenice Emehiser got promoted to Senior Lecturer, effective next academic year.

Outreach to the community

• Andrés Aragoneses will be giving a presentation about the physics of time travel, “Come time travel with Doctor Who” .
  • • Spacetime coordinates: Golden Handle Project in downtown Spokane (111 S. Cedar st). Saturday May 7th at 7 PM.

By Katelin Killoy, Rebecca Brown, and Camille McNeely

This summer a team from EWU’s biology department and partners from the Methow Beaver Project collected data from 13 streams across the Methow and Okanogan watersheds. We focused our efforts on incised streams in wildfire affected areas. Stream incision occurs when channel downcutting into the stream bed causes streams to be disconnected from their floodplain, so water storage and riparian zones become diminished (Figure 1). This means that floodplains no longer become flooded, and important nutrient exchanges and channel forming floods do not occur. Additionally, when streams are disconnected; floodplains begin to resemble dry upland terraces. Stream incision often occurs from the loss of vegetation on banks, due to wildfires, grazing, etc., leading to high erosion. Wetland vegetation decreases, runoff into streams increases, channel downcutting increases, nutrient retention decreases, and water storage decreases. This is often compounded by the loss of beavers.

Figure 1: An incised stream. Look at how the stream and the floodplain are disconnected. This causes the floodplain to resemble dry uplands as you can see in the picture. This doesn’t look like a stable stream ecosystem fit for fish and wildlife.

Beavers increase water storage in incised streams by raising water levels in the stream and groundwater by creating dams. Water storage describes water that is temporarily held in the area. Beaver dam complexes increase water storage by slowing water and increasing water infiltration into the soil. Raising water storage restores floodplain water tables by extending groundwater infiltration throughout the floodplain. When beaver dams store precipitation and snowmelt longer, they can relieve drought stress and allow more floodplain and wetland plant species to grow. The resulting lush, wet floodplains provide important food for wildlife, and refugia during drought and wildfires. But that’s not all beavers do!

Beaver ponds improve water quality by trapping and converting nutrients (Figure 2). Increased runoff into streams can increase nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in streams from fertilizers. When this happens, algae abundance increases from the high availability of nutrients. When the algae die, microbes decompose the algae, resulting in reduced dissolved oxygen in the stream, which can be very harmful for our native trout and salmon populations. Streams with beaver ponds have lower streambank erosion and contribute the least soil and phosphorus into streams. Additionally, the retention of phosphorus from beaver ponds help aquatic ecosystems recover from wildfires by trapping nutrients. There is a common belief that beaver ponds are not good for salmonids and ecosystems, but we are now discovering how beneficial they are.

Despite the many beneficial ecosystem functions beaver dams provide, beavers are not found in many of their historic watersheds. Human conflict, trapping, and degraded floodplains prevent them from reaching their historic population levels. While beaver reintroduction may help restore streams, there are areas where reintroduction may not be feasible or may require prior floodplain restoration to ensure the habitat is viable for beavers.

Figure 2: Beaver pond on Benson Creek in the Methow watershed. You can visually see how the dam is storing water, and the dam is surrounded by lush vegetation.

Figure 3: A crew from the Methow Beaver Project building a Beaver Dam Analog. They hammer in posts across the stream and then weave trees such as willows or alder through the posts. These are designed to mimic natural beaver dams.

Where beaver reintroduction is not feasible, Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) may be a useful tool (Figure 3). BDAs are man-made structures mimicking beaver dams. Although, they are maintained less frequently and often use more porous materials, it is not known how effective BDAs are at mimicking natural beaver dam ecosystem functions. The few existing BDA studies have low replication, and are usually based on one BDA complex. Yet despite the limited research on their efficacy, BDAs have  become an increasingly popular restoration tool.

To address the need for more research, I am conducting a large-scale study of multiple BDA and beaver dam complexes in the Methow and Okanogan watersheds funded by a grant from Seattle City Light to my mentors, Dr. McNeely and Dr. Brown. Our study is making use of eight BDA complexes being established by the nonprofit, Methow Beaver Project, with over a million dollars in funding from the Washington Department of Ecology and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Last summer, we collected data on topography, vegetation, water quality, and water storage (Figure 4 and 5) before the BDA complexes were installed, and next summer I’ll be collecting data after installation. Our study will be the first step of a long-term study assessing BDA success over time, and will help guide agencies’ use of BDAs as a restoration technique. My study will determine whether BDAs can play a similar role to Beaver dams in increasing ecosystem resilience to climate change induced drought and wildfire.

Figure 4: Graduate student Katelin Killoy holding a stadia rod to measure topography at a beaver pond on Bonaparte Creek in the Okanogan Watershed. Look at how green the floodplain is.

Figure 5: Undergrad field technician Catie Schwartzmann, and Dr. Rebecca Brown conducting a vegetation transect across Tunk Creek in the Okanogan Watershed. This is a future BDA complex site. Pre-restoration data was being collected. Look at the stream incision.