PSU announces recipients of prestigious university research and mentoring awards

Portland State University announces the 2022 awards for excellence in research, graduate mentoring and research administration. The awards are among the university's highest honors. The awards recognize and incentivize PSU faculty and staff excellence in research, scholarship, artistry and dedication to PSU students.

Recipients of the awards are some of the most dynamic faculty and staff members at PSU. Colleagues submit nominations; a jury of peers selects awardees based on the significance and quality of their research or creative achievements and extraordinary commitment to creating an environment supportive of research and student success. Join us as we celebrate this year’s awardees at the Research Awards Ceremony during Research Week (May 2-6).

Presidential Career Research Award

The 2022 Presidential Career Research Award recipient is Randy Bluffstone. Bluffstone is Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Economics and the Environment at Portland State University. His research and teaching interests focus on environmental and resource economics, including climate change, energy, pollution control and deforestation in low-income countries. Professor Bluffstone is associate editor of the Journal of Forest Economics, a senior researcher with the Environment for Development (EfD) Initiative and he co-coordinates the EfD Forest Collaborative. In 2017-2018 Bluffstone was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Nepal. Before coming to Portland State, he taught at the University of Redlands and was deputy director of the International Environment Program at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) at Harvard University. Randy received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal.

“Professor Bluffstone is an economist whose research focuses on natural resources and the environment. Within that focus area, Professor Bluffstone has concentrated on challenges faced by developing countries and countries with economies in transition (or in and out of transition – specifical countries within the former Soviet bloc). These characteristics of Professor Bluffstone’s research portfolio set him apart from most economists in our profession,” said Michael A. Toman, lead economist at the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

Graduate Mentoring Excellence Award

The 2022 Graduate Mentoring Excellence Award recipient is Katy Barber. Barber is a Professor of History and teaches courses in U.S. West, Pacific Northwest, and public history. She is the author of In Defense of Wyam: Native-White Alliances and the Struggle for Celilo Village (University of Washington Press, 2018), which chronicles women’s leadership in the struggle to protect Indian homes at Celilo Village on the Columbia River. Other books include Death of Celilo Falls and Nature’s Northwest: The North Pacific Slope in the 20th Century (with William Robbins). Her award-winning article about settler sovereignty formation in Oregon was published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly’s special issue on white supremacy and resistance in Winter 2019. A children’s book based on oral history interviews and historic photographs, the culmination of her collaboration with Warm Springs elder and PSU graduate Linda Meanus, will be published later this year. Other collaborations included an exhibit redesign with the High Desert Museum, ongoing consultation with Confluence Project, and contributions to Justice for Greenwood oral history projects. Student community-based public history projects include a multi-faceted effort with the Chinook Indian Nation to document their history through archival research and oral histories (chinookstory.org) and a project on the long history of residential segregation in Oregon in partnership with the City of Portland, Clackamas County, the Community Alliance of Tenants, and Vanport Mosaic. Her current research examines the overlapping histories of New Thought, American race and gender construction, activism, the politics of passing, eugenics, and nationalism through the career of one spiritualist, his followers, and those who persecuted him.

“ Professor Barber’s guidance and mentorship were without question one of the most integral components to my success not only as a graduate student while I was at PSU, but also during my transition to working life and career, where her support continues. My experience with Prof. Barber is not unique; rather, it is shared among many (if not all) of her students,” said Greta Smith Wisnewski, a former student.

Early Career Research Award

The recipient of the 2022 Early Career Research Award is Christina Sun. Sun is an Associate Professor at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Sun’s research seeks to improve the lives of communities disproportionately affected by HIV and sexual and reproductive health disparities, including Latino, black, and LGBTQ communities. Sun’s recent work includes developing and testing behavior change interventions and examining the dissemination and implementation of effective behavioral and biomedical interventions. Her research has found acceptable and feasible ways that social and sexual networking applications on smartphones and other mobile devices can be used to promote HIV testing to men who are at increased risk for HIV. She has also demonstrated the continued long-term health impacts of an HIV intervention for Latino men that has been identified as a “best-evidence” intervention by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has also partnered with three community organizations to study the implementation of the intervention in real-world settings.

“Dr. Sun has been a consistently strong advocate for the health of marginalized communities. She has worked with Black men who have sex with men (MSM), Native American communities, transgender communities, Latino MSM, and lesbian women. Her research has always centered on individuals and populations who have been outside the mainstream when it comes to traditional narratives of health and disease,” said Thomas Keller, the Duncan and Cindy Campbell Professor in the School of Social Work.

Research Faculty Award

The recipient of the 2022 Research Faculty Research Award is Anne Thompson. Thompson is a research assistant professor whose work examines the ecology of microorganisms in the Earth’s vast open oceans and how they contribute to energy and carbon flow on our planet. Thompson received her Ph.D. from the MIT- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in Biological Oceanography discovering how ocean microbes interact with the trace element iron. In a post-doctoral position at UC Santa Cruz, Thompson and collaborators discovered a symbiosis between cyanobacterium and single algal cells that changed how we understand the connection between nitrogen and carbon cycles in the ocean. Next, Thompson worked as a senior scientist in the Institute for Systems Biology and the Advanced Flow Cytometry group at BD Biosciences, innovating new techniques for cell sorting under oxygen-free conditions and protocols to leverage phytoplankton pigments in flow cytometry. In addition to research, Thompson collaborates with educators and teachers to translate new findings in microbial ecology to high school curriculum.

“Dr. Thompson is a Marine Microbial Ecologist studying the interface between microbial communities and populations with the abiotic environment as well as organisms of higher trophic levels. Although Anne is still at a relatively early career stage, she has an exceptionally strong track record of academic achievements, and she has truly developed into a leader in her field,” said Daniel Ballhorn, an associate professor in biology.

Research Administrator of the Year Award

The 2022 Research Administrator of the Year Award recipient is Leigh Ahlgren. Ahlgren is a departmental research administrator for Team Alder in Sponsored Projects Administration. She provides pre-and post-award support to investigators in the School of Social Work, the OHSU-PSU Joint School of Public Health, and multiple units in the College of Urban & Public Affairs. She also frequently provides coverage for other departments outside her normal portfolio. Her work includes budget development, fiscal oversight, and payroll coordination for millions of dollars in sponsored project funds at PSU. Besides helping investigators obtain and manage outside funding for their projects, Ahlgren’s professional interests include process improvement, documentation, and using technology to decrease administrative burden. Ahlgren has worked at PSU since 2017. Before PSU, her career path wound through several fields, including work in customer service, technology, and law.

“In her role as the Departmental Research Administrator, Ms. Ahlgren has contributed to my grant proposal development and submission alongside many other funded proposals that have improved the university’s innovative research and community engagement. I believe Ms. Ahlgren’s role was essential in successfully submitting my grant proposal. Her dedication was exemplary in ensuring that all last-minute changes were incorporated into the final draft of my proposal. Her professionalism in understanding the process and listening to my needs and concerns was outstanding,” said Assistant Professor Mitra Naseh.

Jason Podrabsky, interim vice president for Research & Graduate Studies, said the excellence awards recipients exemplify research and student training quality and caliber at PSU.

"The recipients of these awards are the best in their fields," Podrabsky said. "The achievements and dedication to our students are a source of pride for the entire university."

In addition to the university-level awards, RGS invited individual colleges and schools across campus to name a researcher, scholar, or practitioner of the year. Recipients of these awards are:

• College of Education: Torrey Kulow, Assistant Professor, Curriculum and Instruction
• College of Liberal Arts & Sciences: Eva Thanheiser, Professor, Mathematics + Statistics
• College of the Arts: Jungmin Kwon, Associate Professor, School of Film
• College of Urban & Public Affairs: Kris Henning, Professor, Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science: Bob Bass, Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
• OHSU-PSU School of Public Health: Lynne Messer, Associate Professor
• School of Social Work: Ericka Kimball, Assistant Professor
• School of Business: Julia Freybote, Assistant Professor
• Honors College, Olyssa Starry, Assistant Professor