News, Media and Stories | Research

Oregon Silverspot Butterfly
The Recovery Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife funds work by Pacific University Professor Dr. Rich Van Buskirk and partners at the Woodland Park Zoo in Washington and Washington State University. 
Research
The Pacific Undergraduate Research Conference is returning to an in-person format this fall on Nov. 10. For many presenters, these research projects will become the basis of their senior capstone project. Pacific is the No. 1 private research university in the Pacific Northwest, and as such, has a reputation for mentoring its undergraduate students especially in the areas of scientific and creative research.
Aspen Shirley '21
Aspen Shirley '21 is conducting research with Pacific University Psychology Professor Heidi Island to study behavior differences between wild and captive North American river otters. “I never thought I’d be given this opportunity, so I’m just incredibly grateful, and it’s all thanks to Pacific University and of course Dr. Heidi Island.”
Flower
The Pacific University Undergraduate Research Scholarship Creative Inquiry Summer Institute (URSCI) is organizing a new project in hopes of facilitating a stronger community through the power of sharing stories. The goal of this project is to both foster feelings of hope as well as acknowledge the hopelessness people may feel at various times in their lives.
The HeartMic
Pacific University has received its first patent, marking the beginning of a new, entrepreneurial chapter for the university. It's for a device called HeartMic.
Kerry Mandulak
The speech-language pathology profession is one of the least diverse in the country — a fact that the Pacific University School of Communication Sciences & Disorders is trying to change.
Amber Smith '20 conducts research
Pacific remains No. 1 for research among private universities in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, according to the National Science Foundation. The university also moved up to No. 8 in the Far West region, ranking among peers like Stanford and the University of Southern California.
Templeton and Osbrink
A team led by Pacific University alumna Ali Osbrink ’19 and including Pacific Biology Associate Professor Christopher Templeton is having a paper on songbird cognition published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a prestigious UK-based scientific journal. 
School of Audiology Students Courtney Crespi and Theresa Ravago Mireles  developed the Audi-Buddy program in partnership with Shelby Atwill, AuD, and Tucker Maxon School, an Oregon-based non-profit auditory-verbal school where students who are deaf/hard-of-hearing (DHoH) and students with typical hearing learn together.
Mari Fujimoto
Pacific University Optometry Professor Mari Fujimoto OD ’19 was honored with one of the 2020 Johnson & Johnson Vision Residency Awards. The George W. Mertz Contact Lens Residency Award supports post-graduate advanced training in optometric clinical care, education and research methods specific to the fields of children’s vision and contact lenses.

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