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Washington Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler Plans Telephone Town Hall

Washington Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler will reach out to her constituents during the two-week congressional recess. But, like some of her colleagues, the Republican Clark County congresswoman won’t be meeting them in person but by phone. It’s her second with that format in recent months.

Carolyn Long
Long

Washington State University political science professor Carolyn Long said call-in town halls have become common for some representatives, especially as the political climate has become more polarizing. But Long added the trend could cause issues.

“Constituents want to feel a connection to their elected representatives,” she said. “If they’re not seeing them, if they’re not in a situation to shake their hand or talk to them directly, I think they start to feel ignored.”

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KUOW

Graduate students win NSF research fellowships

Three Washington State University College of Arts and Sciences students have been chosen for National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships. The prestigious awards have trained generations of American scientists and engineers, including Nobel laureates.

The College of Arts and Sciences’ honorees are:

Avery Anne Lane, an anthropology student from Tucson, Ariz., who is working on a master’s in Courtney Meehan’s biocultural anthropology lab.

Shawn Trojahn, a biology master’s student from Virginia Beach, Va., who is looking at the global decline in biodiversity in the vulnerable mangrove forest, a habitat affected by logging and water pollution.

Lindsey Marie Lavaysse, a psychology master’s student from San Francisco, is focusing on occupational health and safety threats to vulnerable populations like pregnant and minority workers.

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WSU News

‘All this for Oregon’

Event highlights the historical trail, family’s 1853 trek across U.S. to reach present-day Camas

The Oregon Trail is bringing people to Vancouver, Wash., again Saturday—this time for an exercise in history. The Oregon-California Trails Association is teaming with the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation for a symposium at the Heathman Lodge.

A diary begun by Amelia Knight when her family left Iowa in 1853 is among documents to be discussed.

Oregon Trail diaries offer an unusual perspective on a significant era in American history, said Steve Fountain, a history professor at Washington State University Vancouver. Their authors seemed to realize they were participating in something historic and wanted to document it.

“A lot of these are written not as private diaries, but as narratives people will want to read,” Fountain said.

Fountain, who kicks off the symposium with a “Layers of History” overview, noted another interesting aspect of the emigrants.

“These are people who are doing middling and better; not poor people,” Fountain said. “People who are doing just fine are risking life and limb and traveling for months getting to a place they’ve never been.”

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The Columbian

April 4-May 6: Thesis exhibit, reception at Museum of Art

The Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition at the Washington State University Museum of Art will be April 4-May 6. A reception will be 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 7, in the museum gallery. Admission to the museum is free.

Lin

This annual showcase represents the culmination of two or more years of work by master of fine arts graduate candidates. This year’s students are: Hayley Black, Stephen Cohen, Annie Cunningham, Andre Fortes, Yuanwen Lin and Laura Pregeant.

The world-class faculty at WSU encourage the MFA candidates to become more assured and articulate in their convictions, according to museum curators Ryan Hardesty and Zach Mazur: “We confidently present this year’s graduate thesis work in hopes that undergraduate students, first-year graduate students and anyone willing to be moved by art will find it a fun and stimulating experience.” » More …

Plant inner workings point way to more nutritious crops

Michael Knoblauch, biological sciences
Michael Knoblauch

Almost every calorie that we eat at one time went through the veins of a plant. If a plant’s circulatory system could be rejiggered to make more nutrients available – through bigger seeds or sweeter tomatoes – the world’s farmers could feed more people.

Washington State University researchers have taken a major step in that direction by unveiling the way a plant’s nutrients get from the leaves, where they are produced through photosynthesis, to “sinks” that can include the fruits and seeds we eat and the branches we process for biofuels. The researchers found a unique and critical structure where the nutrients are offloaded, giving science a new focal point in efforts to improve plant efficiency and productivity.

“If you can increase the sink strength by 5 percent, and you get 5 percent more product, you’d be looking at a multibillion dollar market,” said Michael Knoblauch, a professor in the WSU School of Biological Sciences.

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WSU News