Graduate School

Francesca Germano (she/her) is taking on new challenges while making new discoveries at Oregon State.

Jen Hayes fell in love with insects and ecology after spending two summers following native bees around orchards in Vermont and a few months studying pollinators in Ecuador.

Meet Sarah Wolf, a microbiology Ph.D. candidate at OSU. Sarah grew up in Sacramento, California, where she loved to go crabbing on the North Coast with her dad. As a kid, she always loved the outdoors and was inherently curious, but she didn’t know she would one day become a scientist.

Meet Kailey Kornhauser. Kailey is an avid cyclist, a cycling organization co-founder (@allbodiesonbikes), and a Ph.D. candidate in Forestry Ecosystems and Society (major professor: Dr. Reem Hajjar). Her research focuses on forest collaborative power dynamics and policy outcomes in Oregon.

Do social media and engineering go together? They do for Sonia Camacho, a Master’s of Engineering student at Oregon State. She is passionate about using her social media presence to encourage more underrepresented students to explore tech. Before coming to college, Sonia didn’t know what to expect. She was nervous about the course load and wasn’t sure if she would feel like she belonged.

Is there a connection between the microbes in your gut and your behavior? Scientists at Oregon State are finding out. One of those scientists is Grace Deitzler. Grace is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in microbiology.

During 2021, Heather Masson-Forsythe (21’ Ph.D.) was researching COVID-19, finishing her Ph.D., and pirouetting in the forest. Dancing in the forest? That’s right, in addition to her other stellar achievements this year, Heather also won an international dance competition.

Meet Becca Maher, an alumna of OSU who graduated in 2021 with her Ph.D. in microbiology. Dr. Maher’s dissertation focused on stressors that drive changes in coral microbiome diversity and composition and was advised by Dr. Rebecca Vega Thurber.

Ginny Katz integrates her Ph.D. research into emergency digital communication with co-founding a startup called HazAdpt, an app offering user-friendly guides for emergencies and disasters.

As a grad student, Andrew Olsen, Ph.D. wildlife science '18, researched Greater Sage-Grouse habitat and this work played a key role in his post-graduation professional success.

Tiara Walz, Ph.D. student in Public Health. Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching graduate and active-duty major with the United States Army.

Layla Ghazi, Ph.D. student in Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Science studying georespiration. Current presdient of CEOAS Association of Graduate Students (CAGS).

Bryan Lynn, an Integrative Biology Ph.D. student, studies The Evolution of Cooperation in a Chemostat.

Marie Tosa, a Wildlife Sciences Ph.D. student, spent roughly two and a half years field researching the western spotted skunk in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.

Celeste, a first-generation Ph.D., studied education with a focus on science education.

Diane Brandt is a Master's in Public Policy student researching West Coast residents' perceptions of wave energy and how that impacts policy in Oregon.

Garrett Rogers is a student in the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies program and teaches public speaking.

Jordan Jimmie is a recipient of the Diversity Advancement Fellowship award for 2020-2021.

Sara Letton, an Oregon State University Ecampus graduate student from the Graduate School's Professional Science Master's program in Environmental Sciences (PSM).

Kelsey Contreras is pursuing a master's degree in College Student Services Administration.

Adriana Mendoza recognizes there aren’t many women in mathematics in academia. When she pursued her Ph.D., she also worked with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and other organizations to bring more diversity to the field.

Most first-year graduate students start out taking advanced classes and narrowing down their research focus. Not Adonara Mucek. She spent the first term of her Ph.D. program at Oregon State working in Indonesia with her advisor, Shanaka (Shan) de Silva.

Jafra Thomas, Ph.D. Kinesiology alumnus and recipient of the Diversity Advancement Pipeline Fellowship, brought his enthusiasm to OSU.

Leanne Giordono has dedicated her life and career to serving others, evidneced by her volunteering in AmeriCorps or PeaceCorps, starting her own business, raising three children and recieving a  Ph.D. in Public Policy.