The Growing Hops & Grapes in Oklahoma Field Day will be an opportunity for Oklahoma residents and potential growers to learn more about the state’s specialty crops.
“We are hopping into year three in the Cimarron Valley Research Station hopyard,” said Katie Stenmark, a doctoral student in the OSU Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. “We will discuss all things hops — cultivar selection, trellis construction, seasonal management, harvest and post-harvest handling.”
Afterward, attendees will learn about OSU undergraduate research on grapes and grape disease management.
Who: Oklahoma hops and grapes growers and potential growers
What: GrowingHops & Grapes in Oklahoma Field Day
When: 11:30 a.m., Friday, July 19
Where: Cimarron Valley Research Station, 1003 E. 104th St., in Perkins
9:30 a.m.: Trellis Construction – Charles Fontanier, associate professor in the OSU Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
9:45 a.m.: Planting and management, irrigation, training – Katie Stenmark
10 a.m.: Pest management and disease – Mustafa Jibrin, assistant professor in the OSU Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, and Sara Wallace, OSU Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Laboratory, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology
10:15 a.m.: Pest management and weeds – TBD
10:15 a.m.: Harvest and post-harvest handling – Niels Maness, professor in the OSU Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture
10:30 a.m.: TBD
10:45 a.m.: Grape research project – Brooke Pruitt, student in horticulture and landscape architecture
11 a.m.: Grape disease management – Mustafa Jibrin and Tanner Dollar, undergraduate Extension scholar and intern
11:15 a.m.: Wine shipping information – Courtney Bir, assistant professor and Extension specialist for farm management in the OSU Department of Agricultural Economics
Registration: Begins at 8:30 a.m. the day of the event.
The event will conclude with an open invitation for a discounted brewery tour (all ages) and beer/wine tasting (21+) at the Iron Monk Brewing Company, 519 S. Husband St. in Stillwater.
The damage was heartbreaking when the Smokehouse Creek Fire tore through western Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Panhandle and Texas in late February. Livestock, forage, hay and fencing were destroyed, and it will take years for producers and their operations to bounce back.
Unfortunately, western Oklahoma is familiar with the threat and destruction of wildfire. Oklahoma State University Extension asked the Extension agriculture educators in Roger Mills, Ellis and Beaver counties to reflect upon the 2024 Smokehouse Creek Fire and other wildfire events that affected the land and its residents to discuss how OSU Extension supports wildfire recovery.
Danny Cook (Roger Mills), Dana Bay (Ellis) and Loren Sizelove (Beaver) partnered with county emergency management agencies, community groups and other disaster response organizations to offer logistics support during and after the wildfires. From organizing supply donations and running transport to providing information on livestock and forage needs, Extension educators connect with local producers to help them navigate some of the darkest moments of their lives.
It’s been three months since the wildfire. How are you all doing?
Danny Cook: We are doing fine; with wildfire and rain, we are recovering. I can’t express how much this wildfire has changed my view of heroes and what they do to help. They leave their homes, farms and work and head to the fire. Truckers and haulers moved things out of harm’s way. People stepped up with fuel cards for the haulers and those trying to get home after helping. We are blessed with a broadcaster, Jimmy Clark on 96.5 FM in Elk City, on farm radio who called for help from western Oklahoma producers. His message led many caravan trips and loads to our area and into Texas. Thank you to all the fire departments, county employees, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife members, and national grassland firefighters in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle who have fought wildfires in the past decade.
What phase of recovery are your county residents currently navigating?
Dana Bay: There are still a lot of fence repairs to do, miles and miles of it. Temporary fixes are still in place right now.
Cook: Rangeland is recovering. With time and rain, we should have cattle back on the pastures in late June. We have had a good cool season hay crop to start building back hay supplies.
Loren Sizelove: Fencing is the primary issue now. Finding help or labor is one of the main problems.
In your county, what did fires impact the most? Where do you personally see the most impact from the fire?
Sizelove: Producers are more aware of the need for insurance for cattle, fences and forage.
How are producers who lost cattle navigating purchasing replacements when current cattle markets are so high?
Bay: Most are holding off on buying. They may not have the forage, pasture or fencing ready yet. A couple of people I know of lost a significant number of herd bulls and had to rapidly locate new bulls.
Compare the Smokehouse Creek Fire to the Rhea Fire and others from recent years. How were they different? How were they similar?
Cook: Roger Mills County has been involved in all the largest wildfires over the past few years: Amarillo Wildfire, Rhea Wildfire, Oklahoma Kansas Fire and Texas Smokehouse Fire.
The more wildfires we have had, the more it has prepared us for the next one. The Smokehouse Fire and other wildfires in northwest Oklahoma required and received the most help of all the wildfires. The key to this wildfire event was logistics involving the private sector, farm organizations, community and state leaders, and organizing professionals from various backgrounds. All the wildfires in our area have been fueled by cedar trees and rangeland that used to be farmland.
What have you learned as an educator while supporting communities and residents during and after wildfire events?
Bay: Any time you have a natural disaster like this in rural areas, people come together. They support one another – it’s neighbors helping neighbors. People pour in from outside to help with donations of items, their time and labor. It always amazes me how people in the agriculture and farming communities are willing to step up.
Cook: The hardest thing to do is help a producer because they always think someone else needs the help worse. The older the farmer or rancher, the harder it is to help them because they think the younger one needs it more.
In what ways has your county office supported wildfire victims?
Bay: We’re still here to provide information and education on how to handle cattle. We can provide rations if producers are trying to dry-lot cattle and feed them until they find a place to move them. We’re trying to educate as much as possible on government programs and what’s available. Also, it’s important to be a sounding board and a listening ear for producers. They know we care, and many of them know they can come to us with questions, concerns, or to simply let off steam.
If they have spent their life building a cattle herd affected by wildfire and then have to go out and put down some of those animals, it’s pretty tough. It can be really hard on someone. They may not think it affects them, but it catches up with them.
Do you have any other thoughts on your experience as an Extension educator experiencing wildfire recovery?
Cook: It is OK to take a moment and shed a tear or two when disaster happens, and it’s important to listen when wildfire victims want to talk. They are our volunteers, friends and families.
How does the experience help you prepare for future wildfire events?
Bay: Sometimes we get set up for the perfect storm. If we have a good year in terms of rainfall and forage production the year before, we grow a lot of grass and have a lot of standing forage out there. That means you also have a lot of standing fuel load as we go throughout the winter and approach the spring. That’s what happened this year. We had a lot of standing forage that was just ripe and ready to burn.
We as producers need to be proactive and prepared by clearing things away and mowing around our barns and structures. If there is a fire, make a stand and block a fire from hitting your structures and homes. Have hoses and sprinklers on hand, and keep sprinklers running. Make a plan for livestock and pasture. Is there a place I can call my cows to that they would be safer? Where’s the closest wheat field where I can lead cattle? If you can take time when you’re not in an emergency to plan and evaluate pastures, it’s worth it.
Rural people are resilient and strong. Most of our producers will be back.
Cook: Every wildfire teaches you something – a case of bottled water, towels or a broom handle may save your home until help can arrive. Remove every western cedar or combustible plant near your home or escape route. Plastic stock tanks and solar systems are gone after wildfires. We need assistance funding for stock ponds and concrete galvanized stock tanks. We need hay to feed cattle and tube feeders for calves injured after a wildfire.
The Oklahoma State University Museum of Art is honored to present “benjamin harjo JR.: from here to there,” on view June 11 through Sept. 7, 2024. This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore a solo presentation of artwork by OSU alumnus Benjamin Harjo Jr. (Absentee Shawnee/Seminole, 1945–2023).
A renowned visual artist, Harjo is a beloved household name for many in Oklahoma and beyond. Many knew him for his artistic ways and were charmed by his humor and generosity.
“We know from story after story that he was a mentor and very generous with his time. He gave back to his community, Native and non-Native alike,” said Vicky Berry, curator and director emerita.
Born in New Mexico, Harjo and his family moved to Oklahoma in 1945. Harjo quickly discovered his lifelong artistic passion in comic strips and animation. He found his love for printmaking at the recently opened Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, founded in 1962. Later, Harjo returned to Oklahoma and enrolled at OSU just before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969. After serving, he returned to OSU, earned his BFA in 1974, and began his career as an artist and mentor.
Working primarily with gouache, pen and ink, and a variety of printmaking methods, Harjo also ventured into sculpture, jewelry, and other three-dimensional forms. He relied on color and line to create art that spoke to the continuum of his cultures and creativity at large.
“His ability to layer symbols and deeper cultural meaning with playfulness is very compelling,” Berry said.
Selecting from over 400 pieces of Harjo’s work, Berry was tasked with showcasing a lifetime of artistic production.
“He has carried on multiple themes throughout his career. Finding a difference from his early artwork to the last is very challenging,” Berry said.
Many artists’ careers are marked with stylistic periods relating to their own artistic development. With Harjo’s work, viewers are offered a “freshness” with his color and pattern work. There is a complexity underlying the simplicity that intrigues and offers a visual reward upon repeated study of his work.
In partnership with the First Americans Museum and heather ahtone, director of curatorial affairs, a monograph will be published honoring Harjo’s life and legacy. Featuring over 120 of Harjo’s artworks alongside essays and poems, “A Constellation of Color: the artwork of Benjamin Harjo, Jr.” will be available for purchase at the closing reception on Sept. 6.
“The choice of contributors was very strategic and selected with an appropriate lens to honor his accomplishments,” Berry said. “As a university museum, we support scholarship that can inform us all about Harjo’s impact as an artist and a member of the Indigenous community. We hope our efforts will encourage others to support exhibitions and publish more on Benjamin Harjo Jr. There is much more to discover and discuss.”
The museum will host a closing reception for “benjamin harjo JR.: from here to there” from 5 – 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6. The show is on view from June 11 through Sept. 7, 2024, and features approximately 86 original works spanning the length of his career.
For more on the exhibition, visit the website. Support for this exhibition has been provided by Jeanene and Ron Hulsey.
Oklahoma State University has received a transformative grant totaling $750,000 from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust of Oklahoma.
The Innovation Foundation at OSU was the lead and organizer of this three-year grant. By facilitating collaboration between experts from various colleges and institutes, The Innovation Foundation is driving transdisciplinary work across the university and region. Assembling partners focused on the health and well-being of Oklahomans is one of the many areas of focus for the organization.
“This grant represents a significant step forward in our efforts to address food insecurity and improve health outcomes in Oklahoma,” OSU President Kayse Shrum said. “The collaboration within our community partners will allow us to make a tangible difference in the lives of Oklahomans.”
According to Feed America, one in six Oklahomans struggle with hunger and, one in four are children. This project will focus on combating those issues by leveraging OSU’s rich agricultural heritage and innovative research capabilities. These efforts began last year through the OSU Student Farm.
Located on the west side of campus on the Historic Swine Barn grounds, the OSU Student Farm produced more than 54,000 pounds of food for Payne County residents in 2023. Through a partnership with Stillwater’s Our Daily Bread Food and Resource Center, fresh fruits and vegetables are delivered to the food center. Fresh produce is also supplied to Pete’s Pantry, the food bank located on the OSU campus.
Our Daily Bread Food and Resource Center is a member of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, which distributes an average of 50 million pounds of food each year through its network of more than 1,300 community-based partners in 53 counties in central and western Oklahoma.
The grant, allocated over three years, unites faculty and staff from across multiple colleges and departments to elevate the production, distribution and nutritional benefits of fresh produce needed to address the food crisis facing Oklahomans.
“We are excited to increase the vegetable production acreage at the Student Farm over the next three years,” said Dr. Justin Quetone Moss, department head of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. “This will enable us to enhance our existing partnership with Our Daily Bread Food and Resource Center and to expand our new partnership with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.”
Collaborators on this project include faculty and staff within the Human Performance and Nutrition Research Institute (HPNRI), OSU Agriculture, and the College of Education and Human Sciences. The initiative’s centerpiece is the expansion and enhancement of the farm, which will serve as a dynamic model for sustainable produce production. The project aims to increase wellness and access to fresh, locally grown produce, particularly for underserved communities by leveraging practical agricultural development, educational programs and comprehensive research.
“Nutritional sciences and the College of Education and Human Sciences are honored to collaborate with our colleagues in the Ferguson College of Agriculture and Department of Horticulture, as well as our community partners including the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma and community food pantries,” said Dr. Deana Hildebrand, associate professor and associate department head in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, and Community Health Program lead for OSU Extension. “Collectively we anticipate enhancing the capacity of the OSU Student Farm as well as learning from various communities about their needs for receipt and distribution of fresh produce.”
Lance Walker, Rick and Gail Muncrief executive director of HPNRI, will lead the project, along with Moss, Dr. Tyler Mason, Hildebrand, Dr. Bailey Norwood, Shelby Mendoza, Matthew Beartrack, Lynda Carrier, Joshua Campbell, Rachael Condley and Caleb Dixon, all of whom bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the initiative.
“We are thrilled to have the support of TSET in our mission to combat food insecurity and improve health outcomes in Oklahoma,” Walker said. “With this grant, we will be able to expand our reach and make a meaningful impact on the lives of those who need it most.”
The OSU Student Farm project will address the pressing need for healthy living and access to fresh produce in Oklahoma, particularly in regions with higher-than-average rates of food insecurity. By collaborating and expanding relationships with community partners such as Our Daily Bread Food and Resource Center as well as the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, the project aims to create sustainable change and promote healthier lifestyles across the state.
“Our efforts reflect OSU’s strong commitment to addressing the critical issues of nutrition security and health across the state,” Hildebrand said. “The results of this project are just the beginning.”
The American Indian Science and Engineering Society seeks to increase the representation of American Indians and Alaskan Natives in engineering, science and technology.
Oklahoma State University’s AISES chapter has existed for more than 15 years, said chapter advisor Brenda Morales.
Morales said AISES, a professional organization with chapters nationwide, does a great job connecting underrepresented engineering students.
“They not only identify as engineers or scientists, but they also have that network connection nationwide for things that are going to assist them to enhance their academic journey,” Morales said.
There were around 20 students who attended AISES meetings regularly during the previous school year, and the group has grown its presence on campus over the past few years.
She said AISES is invaluable for the individual success of OSU engineering students and a support group for its members. Members of underrepresented groups have overcome obstacles others might not fully understand, and AISES can support those students.
Morales said she tells students of underrepresented groups that the engineering field is a workforce where many people won’t look like them and tells them it is OK to be in that situation.
“How do we prepare ourselves to have those conversations about anything, about how we view a building, or building in a certain area or community? So, there’s different conversations that are had, and not just about engineering itself, but how engineering is affected or affects them on a day-to-day basis,” Morales said. “But I think the biggest thing is, we showcase the beauty of OSU, and in all its facets, the diversity that we have.”
Mason Adams, a spring 2024 CEAT graduate, was president of the OSU chapter of AISES during the 2023-24 school year. He said the past year was great for increasing memberships as roles and procedures were formalized. This led to planning meetings in a way that allowed AISES to focus on more defined aspects of the organization.
More events were held on campus, including the Region 4 conference, which Adams said took a lot of planning. More than 100 attended the event, which “turned out very nicely.”
When it comes to helping AISES members feel more comfortable on campus, Adams said he always hoped the organization could be a safe space for members to hang out and meet new people.
Oklahoma State University College of Arts and Sciences students Sarah Brown and Irving Miguel have been named Beckman Scholars for the 2024-25 school year.
The Beckman Scholars Program, directed by Dr. Rachael Eaton, will begin its second year this summer. Through 2025, two scholars are selected each year to receive research mentorship, leadership training and a $21,000 award funded by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.
“Irving and Sarah bring a curiosity for research and scientific discovery to the program,” Eaton said. “They are also passionate about making the research environment a welcoming place.”
Brown is a zoology senior from Boise City, Oklahoma. Under the guidance of her mentor, Dr. Jennifer Grindstaff, Brown will research the impacts of climate on the microbiome of house sparrows. She said being selected for the program will help her prepare for her future with a deeper understanding of research processes.
“OSU is fostering my love for learning and opening doors for experiences that will prepare me for my future,” Brown said. “I am looking forward to having an environment full of support and learning, especially in my passions and goals. This research is so important to me, as well as the community, because protecting our natural world benefits us all.”
Miguel — a physiology senior with a pre-med concentration from Tulsa — will be working with his mentor Dr. Marianna Patrauchan to further societal understanding of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
“My education at OSU will help me advance to achieve the goal of becoming an M.D. or Ph.D.,” Miguel said. “I am looking forward to working alongside my mentor to become a better researcher. This program has given me the opportunity to fully dedicate my time to working on research and focus on my undergraduate studies.”
The program sponsored two students studying physics and microbiology in its first year.
“Our first Beckman Scholars — Adriahna Blackburn and Nina Parvin — have made numerous achievements, won awards and inspired peers to join the OSU research community,” Eaton said. “We are incredibly proud to host a Beckman Scholars program at OSU and I am excited to see how our next cohort will add to their work.”
Dr. Royce Burnett stepped onto Oklahoma State University’s campus as an accomplished businessman with 17 years of accounting experience.
The Sam Houston State University graduate had not only worked for two Big 4 firms and two Fortune 500 companies, but also started an accounting practice, reaching what would have been the pinnacle of success for many young professionals in the 1990s. Instead, Burnett was nowhere close to his magnum opus.
OSU’s Spears School of Business, then known as the College of Business Administration, introduced him to a new, gratifying career path at age 37. His enduring love for academic leadership has guided him to his new role starting July 1 as dean of the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University, a historically Black university in Baltimore that is rapidly growing as a research hub. He previously held positions at Old Dominion University, the University of Miami (Fla.) and Southern Illinois University.
Burnett taught business courses and won awards while obtaining his doctorate in accounting from OSU in 2003. He credits his OSU professors for inspiring him to translate his real-world skills to university settings.
“Oklahoma State was committed,” Burnett said. “And Oklahoma State made sure that they made a difference in the world.”
Burnett talked to Spears about his OSU journey, achievements and connection to the “Power of Personal” motto.
Q: After years of working for major accounting firms, what inspired you to come back to academia and go to OSU for your Ph.D.?
A: After having worked for 17 years, I started to look around for Ph.D. programs.
The PhD Project is a program that really, in the early ’90s, was focused on populating more African Americans into the roles of business academia. They reached out to me, and I just kept ignoring them. Then I was like, “OK, well, let me see what this is all about,” and when I got more exposure to the project, I was like, “Well, this is really interesting.” Then I started the sojourn of looking for Ph.D. programs, and a really good friend of mine, Dr. Margaret White, was at Oklahoma State. She was in the management department, and she came to me and said, “Royce, why don’t you look at Oklahoma State?” I was like, “Where is that?” and she said, “It’s in Stillwater.”
When I got there, it was just wonderful. The people were nice. They were very, very committed to my success, and when I was interviewing with them, they were very gracious to me. They wanted me. They had a very good track record of not only attracting minorities, but matriculating them, and that’s a big thing. A lot of schools just left you on the vine — they got you in, and they bubbled you in terms of numbers, and that was it — but Oklahoma State didn’t do that. I took all of these very, very difficult courses that prepared me to be able to be successful in my academic pursuits, so much so that I won the Outstanding Dissertation Award for Social Sciences, and an OSU business student had never won that before. My dissertation was really an early entrée into environmentalism.
Q: Through that dissertation, what did you learn about the connections between environmentalism and economics?
A: The key thing that I took away from it was at the time, there was a myopic view that it was a zero-sum game: either you pursued environmental protection, or you pursued economic benefit. What my dissertation really explained was that you can pursue both of them simultaneously, and at the end of the day, you will receive positive benefits from each one of those.
Q: Did any certain class or professor particularly influence your career path?
A: Dr. Don Hansen and Dr. Charlotte Wright. They really, really protected me and guided me and gave me some really, really good thought processes.
The experience at Oklahoma State taught me what academia was going to be all about, because not only did they teach you the business of getting a Ph.D. but they also were very focused on making you have some kind of understanding about what the academic profession was all about and how you handled yourself and how you really allowed yourself to go from a professional to an academic. Oklahoma State did a really good job of attracting, retaining, training and placing their Ph.D. students.
There’s no feeling quite as comforting as a warm cup of coffee in the morning, or an iced latte on a sunny afternoon. While savoring coffee is a daily ritual for many all over the world, Caitlin (Hill) Volk, ’07, has turned her love for a freshly brewed cup into a flourishing family business. For the past year, Inland Roasters has served California’s Central Valley with quality coffee that pays homage to her late father-in-law.
Originally from Portland, Ore., Caitlin always dreamed of living in California. After graduating from high school, she was drawn to Azusa Pacific University for its faith-based values, the school’s overall friendly atmosphere, and the impressive volleyball team, which she was a member of her sophomore year. Caitlin majored in Christian Ministries. Looking back, she considers APU the best Bible education possible, and cherishes the faith development she fostered during her undergraduate years.
Playing on APU’s volleyball team was a highlight of Caitlin’s college experience, as she strengthened bonds with her teammates. Other aspects of her college career that Caitlin reflects on with gratitude include living in the dorms, attending chapel more times than the school’s weekly requirement, and venturing on a mission trip to Japan to serve in youth ministry. “I truly thrived in APU’s environment,” Caitlin said. The theology department offered her the space to form her faith, frequently building upon her beliefs to discover God’s calling for Caitlin’s vocation.
During the summer, Caitlin worked at Camp Hammer in Santa Cruz, where she met her husband, Reid Volk. After graduating in 2007, Caitlin moved to the Santa Cruz area, got married in 2010, and earned an MA in Marriage and Family Therapy. The couple moved to Turlock while pregnant with their first daughter, Cora (age 9), and had their second daughter, Everly (age 7), two years later.
Caitlin and her husband became immersed in coffee culture, spending time at coffee shops to socialize and study while living in Santa Cruz. Their java options were limited when they moved to Turlock, so after discussing their dreams of starting a business, the Volks set out to make the vision for their passion project a reality. “Even though we didn’t really know anything about how to make coffee at first, we took everything one step at a time and it’s been such a fun journey,” Caitlin said.
Brent Volk (Reid’s brother) and his wife Lizzie were immediately thrilled by the idea and helped form Inland Roasters. The company launched last summer, and all four members continue to contribute their individual talents. Reid is the head roaster, often experimenting with techniques to bring out different notes in the coffee beans, all picked at peak freshness and sourced from countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, and more. “Every variable can be leveraged in different ways in order to get a different experience,” he said. From the water and mineral content, to tweaking the water’s temperature, Reid loves sharing taste tests with Caitlin as they discover new hints of flavor in each roast.
Lizzie and Caitlin collaborate to market the company, keep track of sales, and reach out to other businesses in town. As stay-at-home moms with chronic health issues, both women are passionate about selling a safe and healthy product, free of the typical chemicals and mold content found in big brand coffee. Inland Roasters uses the Swiss Water® process, an all-natural method, for their decaffeinated roasts.
The Turlock community quickly fell in love with Inland Roasters, buying their coffee at farmers markets and online. Four restaurants and a coffee shop in the Central Valley serve Inland Roasters’ coffee, offering customers a decadent, fresh drink. Many enjoy their cup without any cream or sugar because the coffee is bursting with flavor on its own.
At the heart of Inland Roasters is the desire all four owners share to honor Reid and Brent’s father, Steve Volk. His passing in 2018 was a difficult season for the Volk family. Each roast is named after a memory of Steve. For example, the Vallarta Sunset is a reference to the family’s annual vacation to Puerto Vallarta, where Steve’s favorite thing to do on the trip was watch the sunset.
Through their thriving coffee business, the Volks are a testament to the ways in which pursuing one’s passion is an answer to God’s call. Their dedication to delivering a quality experience to all consumers reflects not only the family’s love for relishing a premium cup of coffee, but for gathering people together in community.
Reflecting on how APU shaped her into the business woman she is today, Caitlin is grateful for the spiritual formation she has cultivated ever since. “Everything I gained at APU was of the highest caliber, and I’ve held onto it ever since,” she said. Caitlin exercises her God-given talents by collaborating with her family to create something meaningful. More than just great coffee, Inland Roasters serves customers a comforting, sustainable experience.
For many San Diegans, alleys are places to park your car or throw out your trash.
But to Sue Peerson, an urban studies and planning professor at UC San Diego, they could be so much more.
“Alleys are an untapped resource,” she said, standing in a Normal Heights alley. “By getting community input, we want to turn this alley from a space to a place.”
On Saturday, Peerson, her students and community partners will seek that input as part of a pop-up event in Normal Heights, where she said alleys make up 30% of the street network.
The alley south of Adams Avenue off Mansfield Street will have interactive models, activities for kids, a gallery of urban studies students’ designs and an opportunity for attendees to share their own ideas.
“The students looked at seating, and lighting and green walls,” she said.
They also suggested more visible crosswalks, or making a two-way alley into a one-way alley with a sidewalk.
Other ideas are more cosmetic, like enclosures around dumpsters.
“We don’t believe that cars are going to go away. Trash pickup’s not going to go away. Utilities are still going to be placed in the alley,” Peerson said.
Peerson held the first Alleys in Action event back in 2018. She said the pandemic made outdoor public spaces even more necessary. The city of San Diego’s Spaces as Places program allows restaurants, bars and cafes to add outdoor seating on sidewalks and in parking spots for a fee.
Scott Kessler, with the Adams Avenue Business Association, said safe public amenities are especially valuable as the neighborhood becomes more dense.
“We’re trying to see if we can put some of our land to better use for pedestrian use and not car use here, and kind of reclaim some turf that might be beneficial to the residents and the businesses,” he said.
Whether it’s the wafting aroma of our favorite meal or the dangerous fumes seeping from a toxic chemical, the human sense of smell has evolved into a sophisticated system that processes scents through several intricate stages. The brains of mammals have billions of neurons at their disposal to recognize odors they are exposed to, from pleasant to pungent.
Insects such as fruit flies, on the other hand, have a mere 100,000 neurons to work with. Yet their survival is dependent upon their ability to decipher the meaning of complex odor mixtures around them to locate food, seek potential mates and avoid predators. Scientists have pondered how insects are able to smell, or extract information from odors, with a much smaller olfactory sensory system compared with mammals.
Scientists at the University of California San Diego believe they have an answer to this puzzling question. Palka Puri, a physics Ph.D. student, together with Postdoctoral Scholar Shiuan-Tze Wu, Associate Professor Chih-Ying Su and Assistant Professor Johnatan Aljadeff (all in the Department of Neurobiology) have uncovered how fruit flies use a simple, efficient system to recognize odors.
“Our work sheds light on the sensory processing algorithms insects use to respond to complex olfactory stimuli,” said Puri, the first author of the paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We showed that the specialized organization of insect sensory neurons holds the key to the puzzle — implementing an essential processing step that facilitates computations in the central brain.”
Previous investigations of the odor processing system in flies focused on the central brain as the main hub for processing odor signals. But the new study shows that the effectiveness of the insect’s sensory capabilities relies on a “pre-processing” stage in the periphery of their sensory system, which prepares the odor signals for computations that occur later in the central brain region.
Flies smell through their antennae, which are replete with sensory hairs that detect elements of the environment around them. Each sensory hair usually features two olfactory receptor neurons, or ORNs, that are activated by different odor molecules in the environment. Intriguingly, ORNs in the same sensory hair are strongly coupled by electrical interactions.
“This scenario is akin to two current-carrying wires placed close together,” explained Puri. “The signals carried by the wires interfere with each other through electromagnetic interactions.”
In the case of the fly olfactory system, however, this interference is beneficial. The researchers showed that as flies encounter an odor signal, the specific pattern of interference between the receptors helps flies quickly compute the “gist” of the odor’s meaning: “Is it good or bad for me?” The result of this preliminary evaluation in the periphery is then relayed to a specific region in the fly’s central brain, where the information about odors present in the outside world is translated to a behavioral response.
The researchers constructed a mathematical model of how odor signals are processed by electrical coupling between ORNs. They then analyzed the wiring diagram (“connectome”) of the fly brain, a large-scale dataset generated by scientists and engineers at Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s research campus. This allowed Puri, Aljadeff and their colleagues to trace how odor signals from the sensory periphery are integrated in the central brain.
“Remarkably, our work shows that the optimal odor blend — the precise ratio to which each sensory hair is most sensitive — is defined by the genetically predetermined size difference between the coupled olfactory neurons,” said Aljadeff, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences. “Our work highlights the far-reaching algorithmic role of the sensory periphery for the processing of both innately meaningful and learned odors in the central brain.”
Aljadeff describes the system with a visual analogy. Like a specialized camera that can detect specific types of images, the fly has developed a genetically driven method to distinguish between images, or in this case, mixtures of odors.
“We discovered that the fly brain has the wiring to read the images from this very special camera to then initiate behavior,” he said.
To arrive at these results, the research was integrated with previous findings from Su’s lab that described the conserved organization of ORNs in the fly olfactory system into sensory hairs. The fact that signals carried by the same odor molecules always interfere with each other, in every fly, suggested to the researchers that this organization has meaning.
“This analysis shows how neurons in higher brain centers can take advantage of balanced computation in the periphery,” said Su. “What really brings this work to another level is how much this peripheral pre-processing can influence higher brain function and circuit operations.”
This work may inspire research into the role of processing in peripheral organs in other senses, such as sight or hearing, and help form a foundation for designing compact detection devices with the ability to interpret complex data.
“These findings yield insight into the fundamental principles of complex sensory computations in biology, and open doors for future research on using these principles to design powerful engineered systems,” said Puri.
Supporters of the research included the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (D21AP10162-00), the Department of Energy (DE-SC0022042), the National Institutes of Health (R01NS135853, R21AI169343, R21DC020536 and R01DC016466) and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UC San Diego.
Oregonstate News Blog 