Sienna Dilling
A warm afternoon at Argyros Forum welcomed the Postdoctoral Fellows of Chapman’s Grand Challenges Initiative (GCI) teams, who gathered to showcase their research projects to faculty and students at the annual GCI Post Doctoral Showcase. From offering edible insect samples to attendees to highlighting the impact of rising carbon levels on forests, the fellows unveiled their innovative work aimed at addressing global challenges.
The Grand Challenges Initiative is a two-year major requirement for students in the Fowler School of Engineering and Schmid College of Science and Technology that exposes them to problem-solving in various subject areas—with the help of an appointed research mentor. Utilizing creative and technical skills, each team collaborates across different subject areas to provide solutions for real-world issues.
The two-hour-long event spotlighted the hard work of the postdoctoral fellows who mentor GCI teams, allowing them to feature their research and share their passion for science and engineering with faculty and students.
The following postdoctoral projects reflect how fellows are advancing research to address complex global challenges.
It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
For Cassandra Maya, Ph.D., two seemingly random interests in food science and insects grew into a larger educational mission to understand how insect-based foods can fit sustainably and emotionally into everyday eating habits.
“I took a class on arthropods as an undergrad, and I found an interest in insects in general. During my master’s is where it really started playing out. I got to work with chefs who specialize in cooking with edible insects.”
Maya is a food and nutrition scientist who specializes in the nutrition, quality and consumer acceptance of alternative proteins. Her doctoral research focuses on successfully replacing red meat products with edible insects into human diets by conducting control trials in families.
Utilizing facial recognition tools, her research analyzes the emotions of subjects as they consume insect products to determine when emotions are most heightened.
“When they first see [crickets], there’s a surge of different emotions, but as they’re chewing, we see a consistent rating for disgust.”
Maya plans to continue her research on the emotional barriers of edible insects as a meat replacement, aiming to develop strategies to assist other researchers and product producers.
Rethinking the CO2 Fertilization Effect
What happens to our forests when the air around them begins to resemble the high CO₂ atmosphere of the next century is no longer a thought experiment—it’s a question scientist Gabriela Shirky is answering by listening closely to plants living in the shadow of a volcano in Costa Rica.
Using remote sensing tools, geographer and landscape ecologist Grabriela Shirkey, Ph.D., explored how impacts the physiological processes of plants. According the Shirkey, the hypothesis states that the more CO2 plants receive, the more photosynthesis they conduct. However, her research proved contradictory point: Elevated CO levels changed how plants use water and energy, and even altered their physical structure.
“Just because you’re giving more CO2 to plants doesn’t mean that they’re naturally going to keep growing without a limit,” said Shirky. “Too much of a good thing is directly related to this concept of plant physiology and the gas transport here.”
In her closing remarks, Shirkey encourages audiences to consider how plant physiology impacts everyday life.
“We have increased droughts, we have changes in precipitation, increasing temperatures, and we want to better understand how the health of our ecosystems—and the landscapes we manage—will respond to this so that we can be equipped to handle a changing future.”
Beyond the Spotlight
Projects conducted by other fellows include virtual simulation trials with K-12 students to improve science and technology learning, and research about the adaptive abilities of Antarctic fish as a response to climate change.
As the GCI Postdoctoral Showcase concludes, the Chapman community looks forward to observing how these projects inspire the next generation of problem solvers in their search for innovative solutions to global challenges.
