Chris Smith (professor)

Last updated
Chris Smith
BornChristopher Irwin Smith
Occupation Associate Professor of Biology; Department Chair
Known for Study of yucca moths and yucca trees
Notable work Coevolution of Joshua trees and their Pollinators

Chris Smith is an associate professor of biology at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. In 2013, he was awarded a grant for his work, which was for the study of the relationship between Yucca moths and Yucca trees.

Willamette University private university located in Salem, Oregon

Willamette University is a private liberal arts college in Salem, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest university in the Western United States. Willamette is a member of the Annapolis Group of colleges, and is made up of an undergraduate College of Liberal Arts and post-graduate schools of business and law. The university is a member of the NCAA's Division III Northwest Conference and was featured in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives. Willamette's mascot is the bearcat and old gold and cardinal are the school colors. Approximately 2,800 students are enrolled at Willamette between the graduate and undergraduate programs. The school employs over 200 full-time professors on the 60-acre (240,000 m2) campus located across the street from the Oregon State Capitol.

Salem, Oregon State capital city in Oregon, United States

Salem is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood of West Salem is in Polk County. Salem was founded in 1842, became the capital of the Oregon Territory in 1851, and was incorporated in 1857.

Prodoxidae family of insects

The Prodoxidae are a family of moths, generally small in size and nondescript in appearance. They include species of moderate pest status, such as the currant shoot borer, and others of considerable ecological and evolutionary interest, such as various species of "yucca moths".

Contents

Background

Smith has suspected that a co-evolution between yucca trees and yucca moths exists. He received a Career grant of $850,000 from the National Science Foundation in 2013 for his work studying the moths and trees. [1] The study he undertook was the co-evolution between plants and their pollinators. The pollinators being the yucca moths and the plants being the yucca trees. [2] At the time of receiving the award, he had the distinction of being the first faculty member at the university to receive a CAREER award. [3] Along with Emily Drew, he also teaches a course, Race, racism, and human genetics. [4] [5] In relation to how scientific endeavors had been permeated by the racial worldview, both he and Drew held a discussion about this at a venue in 2012. [6]

National Science Foundation United States government agency

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health. With an annual budget of about US$7.0 billion, the NSF funds approximately 24% of all federally supported basic research conducted by the United States' colleges and universities. In some fields, such as mathematics, computer science, economics, and the social sciences, the NSF is the major source of federal backing.

Study of Yucca, Joshua tree

Also in relation to his study of the trees, he studied the phenomenon of the northward migration of the trees and the possible hybridization of the Eastern and Western varieties, with the possibility of this being related to the climate change. [7] [8]

Climate change Change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns for an extended period

Climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that last for at least a few decades, and maybe for millions of years. The climate system is comprised of five interacting parts, the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), cryosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun, with a relatively tiny amount from earth's interior. The climate system also gives off energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.

Challenging views on race

Along with fellow Willamette associate professor Emily Drew who is an anti-racism workshop facilitator, he led a discussion on the misrepresentation of race and racial differences. This event was held at the Bagdad Theater & Pub in Portland, Oregon on October 8, 2012. [9] [10] Some may see Smith as dismantling racist pseudoscientific beliefs. [11]

Bagdad Theatre movie theater in Portland, Oregon, United States

The Bagdad Theatre is a movie theater in the Hawthorne District of Portland, Oregon, United States. It originally opened in 1927 and was the site of the gala premiere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, and of My Own Private Idaho in 1991.

Portland, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As of 2017, Portland had an estimated population of 647,805, making it the 26th-largest city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous MSA in the United States. Its Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ranks 18th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.

Related Research Articles

<i>Yucca brevifolia</i> species of plant

Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca.

Coevolution Two or more species influencing each others evolution

In biology, coevolution occurs when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution.

Portland State University building in Portland, Oregon, United States

Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university located in the southwest University District of downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades, and was granted university status in 1969. It is the only public urban university in the state of Oregon that is located in a major metropolitan city, and is governed by a board of trustees.

University of Oregon Public research university in Eugene, Oregon

The University of Oregon is a public flagship research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution's 295-acre campus is along the Willamette River. Since July 2014, UO has been governed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon. The university has a Carnegie Classification of "highest research activity" and has 19 research centers and institutes. UO was admitted to the Association of American Universities in 1969.

Mark Hatfield American politician, former governor of Oregon

Mark Odom Hatfield was an American politician and educator from the state of Oregon. A Republican, he served for 30 years as a United States Senator from Oregon, and also as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. A native Oregonian, he served in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater during World War II after graduating from Willamette University. After the war he earned a graduate degree from Stanford University before returning to Oregon and Willamette as a professor.

Scientific racism use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to support or justify the belief in racism

Scientific racism, is the pseudoscientific belief that empirical evidence exists to support or justify racism, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Historically, scientific racist ideas received credence in the scientific community but are no longer considered scientific.

William S. Laughlin was an American anthropologist who carried on research and wrote about aboriginal peoples in the Aleutians and Greenland.

San Diego Supercomputer Center

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). SDSC is located at the UCSD campus' Eleanor Roosevelt College east end, immediately north the Hopkins Parking Structure.

Stephen Erik Thorsett is an American professor and astronomer. His research interests include radio pulsars and gamma ray bursts. He is known for measurements of the masses of neutron stars and for the use of binary pulsars to test the theory of general relativity. Thorsett was a professor and dean at the University of California, Santa Cruz, before becoming president of Willamette University in July 2011.

The Willamette University MBA (Atkinson) is the Masters in Business Administration (MBA) program at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. It is one of only two MBA programs in the world accredited for both Business Administration and Public Administration (NASPAA). Atkinson was established by Willamette in 1974 and has an enrollment of approximately 312 students.

Jefferson Smith (politician) American politician, attorney, and radio personality

Jefferson Smith is an American entrepreneur, radio personality, and politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Oregon, founder of the Bus Project, and served in the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 47 in east Portland, from 2009 to 2012. He was one of two candidates for Mayor of Portland in 2012 to advance beyond the primary election, but lost to Charlie Hales in the November general election.

Charles J. Bowles American track and field coach

Charles J. ("Chuck") Bowles was a professor of physical education and human anatomy at Willamette University for twenty-five years. He was also Willamette's highly regarded cross-country and track and field coach. His teams won 20 Northwest Conference championships and 16 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics District 2 championships. During his time at Willamette, Bowles coached 160 individual conference champions and 50 All-American athletes. His men's cross-country teams won both conference and district titles five consecutive years between 1978 and 1982, and his men's track and field team won nine of ten conference championships between 1978 and 1987. Today, the largest cross-country meet in the Northwest is named in his honor, and one of the largest track and field events in the Pacific Northwest also bears his name.

<i>Elk</i> (sternwheeler 1857) 1857 ship

Elk was a stern-wheel driven steamboat built on the Willamette River in 1857 at Canemah, Oregon. This steamboat is chiefly remembered for its destruction by a boiler explosion in which by good fortune no one was seriously hurt. A folklore tale later arose about this disaster.

Ford Hall (Willamette University)

Ford Hall is a four-story academic hall at Willamette University in Salem in the U.S. state of Oregon. Completed in 2009, the building houses classrooms, offices, and laboratories from several disciplines of the school's College of Liberal Arts. The 42,000-square-foot (3,900 m2) structure cost $16 million and earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification upon completion for environmentally friendly features and construction. Ford Hall is named in honor of Hallie Ford, who contributed $8 million towards construction of the building.

Tegeticula antithetica is a species of moth in the family Prodoxidae. It is found in the Mojave Desert of the North American southwest, specifically southern California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and western Arizona.

Oregon Graduate Center former higher education institution in Beaverton, Oregon

The Oregon Graduate Center was a unique, private, postgraduate-only research university in Washington County, Oregon, on the west side of Portland, from 1963 to 2001. The Center was renamed the Oregon Graduate Institute in 1989. The Institute merged with the state medical college in 2001, and became the OGI School of Science and Engineering within the medical college. The School was discontinued in 2008 and its campus in 2014. Demolition of the campus buildings began February 2017.

Anne Daphne Yoder is an American biologist, researcher, and professor in the Department of Biology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Yoder's work includes the study, preservation, and conservation of the multifarious biodiversity found in Madagascar. One of her main research topics focuses on the diverse lemur population found on the island. Specifically, Yoder's research concentrates on assorted geographic factors that lead to varying levels of biological differences in the speciation process. Her investigations utilize genome research to further understand the complex and unique degree of speciation that occurs in lemur populations.

References

  1. ↑ Willamette University June 09, 2014 Biology professor Emma Coddington awarded NSF CAREER grant by University Communications
  2. ↑ Oregon Live June 15, 2014 Willamette University biologists pull in some big bucks for science: science roundup By Susannah L. Bodman
  3. ↑ Willamette University September 04, 2013 Biology professor Chris Smith awarded NSF CAREER grant by University Communications
  4. ↑ Willamette Collegian Nov 18th, 2014 Non-white faculty at 17%, Faculty diversity remains a priority By Andres Oswill Archived April 30, 2015, at the Wayback Machine .
  5. ↑ Mixed Race Studies Breast cancer and racialized medicine
  6. ↑ Portland Mercury Modern Science and the Legacy of Scientific Racism When: Mon., Oct. 8, 7 p.m. 2012
  7. ↑ Nothing In Biology Makes Sense Apr 17 Notes from the field: What’s Chris doing to that Joshua tree? by Jeremy Yoder
  8. ↑ High Country News April 28, 2014 Joshua trees may be migrating north in response to climate change
  9. ↑ Meetup.com Center for Enquiry, Scientific Racism - Bagdad Theater, Oct 8
  10. ↑ Portland Mercury Modern Science and the Legacy of Scientific Racism When: Mon., Oct. 8, 7 p.m. 2012
  11. ↑ Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Scientists at work among the Joshua trees by Jeremy Yoder
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.