Message From the President
Welcome to the fall 2023 issue of Quest, our outlet that highlights just some of the important research being done by Beach faculty, staff, and students. This issue strikes me as particularly inclusive. Each of seven colleges is represented in the following pages with research that spans from single-layer materials and genetic markers to the experiences of entire populations of people.
As always, I am inspired by the work of our community members to do research and build evidence-informed programs that aim to do good in the world. As you read Quest you will see that we’re working to understand the effects of stress on our chromosomes, creating experiences to develop resilience in our Asian and Pacific Islander students, discovering how gut peptides relate to obesity, creating more sustainable energy sources and better battery storage, investigating teaching techniques that improve STEM education, and seeking to understand how ethnic and national identities relate to the critical situation of our and other countries’ teacher shortages.
These, and other articles, illustrate a wide array of research techniques, from biology and engineering laboratories to community participatory research models in which the research process can be an intervention for good. You will be introduced to human and other animal research subjects, to mere parts of an atom or a portion of a gene, and whole populations of people who share identities such as survivors of war or members of the transgender and gender expansive communities. As usual, our researchers are at the cutting edge of technology as they investigate its intersection with health, sustainability, and art.
While the search for ways to enhance human welfare is the common denominator of several articles, you’ll be fascinated, I’m sure, by how research in consumer behavior is aimed at protecting our radically endangered rhinoceros populations.
Enjoy, and be as inspired and amazed as I am.
Go Beach Researchers!
Jane Close Conoley, Ph.D.
President