500 Women Scientists Eugene is hosting another Science Salon at First National Taphouse; “Hot Mess: Biodiversity in the Sky Islands and following fire.”

Carolyna Piña Páez

Graduate Student at Oregon State University

Title: “Population structure of Rhizopogon in the Madrean Archipielago: The Sky Islands of Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico.”

Bio: Carolyna Piña Páez is a graduate student at Oregon State university. Her adventures in Mycology began in 2005 in the Sonoran Desert, working with gasteroid fungi. Since 2011, she’s been working with truffles and other ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with true fir, pine and oak in the central part of México. In 2013, she moved to Oregon and was amazed with the diversity that this place hosts.

Talk slides: ScienceSalonMarch25_Carolina_fungi_ScienceTalk

Amanda Stamper, M.S.

Fire Management Officer, a.k.a. “Burn Boss”, Nature Conservancy, Oregon

Title: “Burning for Butterflies, Birds & Blooms”

Bio: Amanda started her career in fire management as a member of a 20-person contract crew in 1999. In 2001, after finishing her BA in Philosophy at the University of Oregon, she returned to fire management, working on hotshot crews, handcrews, and engines; as a fuels technician on the Deschutes National Forest; and assistant fire management officer in fuels management on the Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River National Grassland.  She studied Natural Resources at Oregon State University and completed a Masters in Natural Resources, Fire Ecology, and Management at the University of Idaho in 2012. She has since worked for the Prineville Bureau of Land Management as a natural resource specialist coordinating post-fire emergency stabilization and rehabilitation; as invasives program manager for the Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland; fire management officer for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon and Washington; and chair of the Oregon Prescribed Fire Council.

Talk slides: 20180325_Salon_Amanda_fire

Acknowledgements to our wonderful support network

500 Women Scientists Eugene would like to thank the organizations that helped make this event possible.  First and foremost, First National Taphouse in Eugene, who shared their wonderful space with us and where we will be putting on future Salons, and donated a keg to the event!  We are also extremely grateful to several organizations which contributed raffle or trivia items for us to raise additional funds, including Leslie Dietz and the Eugene Science Center.  Our beautiful logo was crafted by Cassie Cook,  our amazing event posters were designed by Serena Lim. Fertilab generously lent us a sound system.  And of course, we want to acknowledge the national leadership of 500 Women Scientists, who brought us together, gave us a voice, and who suggested these Science Salons as a way to help CienciaPR, a organization which similarly supports science education and infrastructure.

I’d also like to acknowledge the powerhouse team of women who came together to organize this event: Karen Yook,  Leslie Dietz, Jessica Flannery, and our wonderful speakers; Carolyna Piña Páez and Amanda Stamper.  500 Women Scientists was formed in the spirit of cooperation and support, and this team truly took that to heart.  I can’t wait to organize the next one with you ladies, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one…