Welcome to the December newsletter updating you on everything going on in the College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering.

Interning at the happiest place on earth

John Dale Ramos has dreamt of working at Disneyland since he was a child. As the iconic song goes, he kept on believing, and now the dream that he wished will come true. The electrical engineering student graduates from California State University, Bakersfield this month and will start as a power systems and facilities engineering intern at Disneyland in January.

“It’s my dream to work at a theme park, but I really didn’t expect it to happen like that,” Ramos said, snapping his fingers.

Of course, it wasn’t a magical snap of the fingers or a benevolent fairy godmother who got Ramos his internship — it was his own hard work and persistence, cheered on by a group of family, friends and campus supporters.

“I’m so excited to go work at Disney because it's part of my childhood, seeing these amusement parks and trying to understand the magic behind it,” said Ramos, 22. “I'm really excited to see where that leads.”

Read more about John, his time at CSUB and his internship!

Going places with geology

Studying geology at California State University, Bakersfield has taken Maggie Izumi places, from conferences in Washington D.C. and Anaheim to research with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in the Bay Area. Soon, it will also take her to back to her home state of Hawaii.

Born on Oahu, Izumi and her family moved to Bakersfield when she was about 5 years old. Now 30, Izumi is about to graduate with her bachelor’s degree in geology. But, before she can officially complete the program, one requirement remains: a field camp assignment, which Izumi will undertake on the Big Island, through the South Dakota School of Mines.

“It’s like coming full circle for me,” she said of returning to Hawaii.

Read more about Maggie, her research and what’s next for her!

134 NSME grads walk the stage at commencement

College can feel like a whirlwind, with schedules packed full of classes, homework, internships, clubs and more. Students rush from moment to moment, semester to semester, trying to meet every requirement to finish in time. But on the day that they finally graduate, arriving early to find their seats, the pace slows for a moment of reflection on everything it took to get them there.

Over two ceremonies at the Dignity Health Arena on Saturday, hundreds of students graduated from California State University, Bakersfield, among them 134 from the College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering.

Read more about graduation and some of our grads!

View the graduation photo gallery!

Happy holidays from the NSME Dean’s Office team!

The NSME Dean’s Office team wishes everyone a happy holiday season and a restful break! Thank you to everyone in our community who has helped make 2025 a great year. Here’s to making 2026 even better! 

NSME was happy to be part of reviving the tree-decorating tradition at this month's CSUB faculty and staff holiday party! Our ornament was made by Fab Lab specialist Ivan Martinez-Hernandez right here on campus in the Fab Lab! See photos on our LinkedIn and Instagram!

Save the date: CERC conference returns

The California Energy Research Center’s annual conference is set to return this spring, with the networking mixer on April 8 and the technical conference on April 9. Join industry leaders, researchers and policymakers for a dynamic day of knowledge-sharing, collaboration and networking — all focused on advancing sustainable energy solutions for the future. Guests will be able to choose one of two focused tracks (subsurface or energy and power systems) to engage with leading researchers and industry. For more information and to register, visit the conference website.

NSME IN THE NEWS

CSUB biologist Dr. Antje Lauer talked to KGET about her work surveying kit foxes on campus. This project, funded by a grant from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and the National Wildlife Federation, has involved monitoring and mapping dens and droppings to get a better picture of the campus kit fox population. Check out the segment!

"What's New at NSME" is a monthly newsletter produced by the College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering at California State University, Bakersfield. This newsletter will go out every month during the regular school year to highlight the work our students and faculty are doing both on campus and off. If you have any questions or entry submissions, please contact Kelly Ardis at kardis@csub.edu.