News and Announcements
Octopuses are fascinating. Their eight arms gracefully whip through water and can accomplish extraordinary tasks like using tools and opening jars. While humans have one spinal cord attached to their brain, in octopuses, it’s almost like each arm has its own spinal cord (minus the actual spine) and nervous system. These arms can even initiate a response without consulting the brain.
How octopus arms can do all this at a cellular level has largely remained a neuroscience mystery — one that’s proved difficult to study because of technological limitations and the expense of research. But now SF State researchers are starting to provide answers.
Trying to overcome those previous limitations, the SF State researchers created three-dimensional molecular and anatomical maps of the inner neuronal circuitry of octopus arms. Their recent findings were published in two scientific papers in the journal Current Biology.
“Having [these two papers] converging at the same time means the amount we can learn from any single experiment is just astronomically higher,” SF State Biology Associate Department Chair and Assistant Professor Robyn Crook said of her lab’s research. “I would say these papers are really facilitating discovery in new ways.”
This research was supported by an Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised grant of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. Crook’s Allen Distinguished Investigator (ADI) grant was the first recipient in the CSU system since the grant’s inception in 2010.
A traditional two-dimensional look at the octopus arm is comparable to taking a thin slice out of the middle of a fruit loaf. It’s difficult to know if distribution of fruits and nuts in that slice is representative of distribution and interactions throughout the loaf. Instead, postdoctoral fellow Gabrielle Winters-Bostwick and graduate student Diana Neacsu took multiple sections along the octopus arm to create 3D reconstructions of cell distribution and gross anatomy, respectively.
For her study, Winters-Bostwick used molecular tags to highlight different types of neurons. Seeing these neurons in a 3D reconstruction revealed that the cells at the tip of an octopus arm are different from those at the base closer to the central brain.
“This allows us to start hypothesizing and posing new questions thinking about how the cells communicate with one another,” she explained. “It’s basically building our arsenal and our toolkit to better understand the behavior and physiologies of octopuses.”
Using a different imaging approach (3D electron microscopy), Neascu did a parallel project to create a 3D reconstruction mapping the structural organization of the components of the nervous system in the octopus arm. Her map revealed that there is symmetry in the organization of the ganglia and repeating patterns in nerve branching, blood vessels and more.
Some of these patterns correspond to the octopus arm suckers, which are organized in a hexagonal lattice like rows of honeycomb. This repeating pattern is something they couldn’t see with just two suckers, Crook explained, highlighting the necessity of the 3D reconstruction of a large tissue.
“To see how closely the [nervous system structures] associated with the suckers was really surprising,” Neacsu said. “But it makes sense because the suckers play such a huge role in the octopus’s ecological niche, helping them hunt, sense and more.”
Crook is proud to say her team was able to do much of these projects in-house at SF State. Of particular importance was the recently acquired microscope (Leica STELLARIS) in the University’s on-campus Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (CMIC), which has trained over 1,000 students. “There are a lot of [universities] that don’t have a microscope like this. For us to have one here to do this work is kind of mind blowing,” Crook said. “[Winters-Bostwick’s] paper would not exist without that microscope.”
One of the major limiting factors in research — particularly cutting-edge projects like Crook’s — is the high price tag of equipment and computational tools. “The ADI grant has been transformative to have funds to do things in my lab that I would not have been able to do and to engage students on a really big scale,” Crook notes. “It’s been transformative for me as a PI but also for the students in my lab.”
The ADI project and Crook’s mentorship were instrumental for Neacsu, now a Ph.D. student at Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuvern in Belgium. During her two years in Crook’s lab, Neacsu gained advanced technical skills and networked and collaborated with more senior researchers, and now she has more scientific research papers in the pipeline.
“Before I met her, I never really understood the concept of mentorship,” Neacsu said of Crook. “I kind of just thought [mentors] were teachers that are available during office hours.”
Neacsu’s and Winters-Bostwick’s papers enabled a myriad of research opportunities both within Crook’s lab and beyond. Other labs have already showed interest in using these tools for cephalopod neuroscience research.
The SF State team is looking at live tissues and seeing how they respond to chemical and mechanical stimulation, trying to understand neurons firing in real time. With the new 3D maps, they can make realistic predictions about what’s happening inside an octopus arm to create these responses. There are also a lot of evolutionary questions Crook’s lab is eager to answer.
“Why do you have an animal with this much complexity that doesn’t seem to follow the same rules as our other example — humans — of a very complex nervous system?” Crook asked. “There’s a lot of hypotheses. It might be functional. There might be something fundamentally different in the tasks octopus arms have to do. But it could also be an evolutionary accident.”
Learn more about research in SF State’s Department of Biology.
Photo by Robyn Crook
It feels like narcissism is everywhere these days: politics, movies and TV, sports, social media. You might even see signs of it at work, where it can be particularly detrimental. Is it possible to keep a workplace free of destructive, manipulative egotists?
More and more organizations have come to SF State’s experts in organizational psychology asking for help doing just that. In response, University researchers developed a tool for job interviews to assess narcissistic grandiosity among potential job candidates. SF State Psychology Professors Kevin Eschleman and Chris Wright and four student researchers led the project, published in the Journal of Personality Assessment.
“We focused on narcissism because it’s one of the most commonly talked about characteristics of people. Really, it represents a lot of things that can go bad in terms of a team,” Eschleman said. “But it’s a characteristic that is very attractive in the short-term. [Narcissists] often have tendencies to be very goal-oriented and are often very successful. There’s a lure to somebody who is high in narcissism.”
The tool developed by the SF State researchers — the Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment (NISE) — is a set of behavioral and situational questions that can be incorporated into a job interview. One question asks respondents to describe their approach to leading a team. Another asks how candidates would procced if they disagree with a plan that the rest of their team likes — and the project requires unanimous consent to move forward. Interviewers are trained to rate candidate responses, providing a more scientific and consistent way to evaluate a candidate’s propensity for narcissistic grandiosity.
The project started four years ago when Eschleman noticed an uptick in organizations asking about effective teams, candidate selection and how to avoid “bad apples.” It’s easy for organizations to be enticed by how a candidate’s skills appear on paper, but failing to properly consider personality might derail team-oriented environments, Eschleman notes. Employees with narcissistic grandiosity tend to have inflated views of self and make self-focused and short term-focused decisions instead of considering long-term organizational needs. They may also abuse and try to protect their sense of power and control, he adds.
“This isn’t a categorical diagnosis,” Eschleman clarified, noting that everyone probably falls somewhere on the continuum of narcissism. “What we’re looking at are people’s consistencies over time. It’s how they view themselves or how others view them consistently over time. Do they engage in these actions consistently?”
The authors acknowledge that this assessment is not a perfect science. There are many other factors in building a successful team and healthy work environment. But they hope their tool will increase the odds for success.
While the researchers have been studying these topics for years, they wanted to make sure their tool was easy to use and could be adapted by different work environments. It is why they focused on job interviews, something accepted and considered appropriate by both organizations and applicants in the hiring process.
Sharon Pidakala (M.S., ’22), one of the study authors, is now a people and development manager at Lawyers On Demand in Singapore. Her work involves talent acquisition, culture, development, organizational policies and employee engagement.
“I’ve been grateful to put my research into daily use. It’s really important to make sure that these questions are not outrightly direct because you don’t want it to look like you’re asking someone, ‘Are you a narcissist?’” explained Pidakala, whose SFSU thesis focused on developing the NISE tool. “These questions are raised in a way to make it look favorable for the candidate.”
Pidakala came to SF State specifically to get this type of training. With an undergraduate background in psychology, she sought specialized training in organizational psychology to further refine and expand her expertise in the field.
"Attending SF State and studying organizational psychology has been incredibly valuable, equipping me with versatile skills that can be applied globally," she said.
Learn more about SFSU’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program.
Cast your vote on campus for the Tuesday, Nov. 5, election! A polling place is open at the Student Life Events Center (Annex 1) at 1 North State Drive, 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. It is open to students, staff, and faculty.
Christy Stevens has been appointed interim university librarian of the J. Paul Leonard Library, effective Oct. 1. She will manage the Library’s operations and work collaboratively with Library faculty and staff to continue to provide resources and services for the SF State community.
Stevens has served as the associate university librarian for the past six years. Stevens replaces University Librarian Deborah Masters, who served the University for over 30 years.
Stevens brings over 21 years of experience in academic libraries to her new role, including 18 years at CSU libraries. She has demonstrated a career-long commitment to student learning and success. Prior to joining SF State as the associate university librarian, Stevens was the associate dean of the Library at CSU Dominguez Hills and held library faculty positions at Cal Poly Pomona and Sacramento State.
Stevens earned her master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa. She holds additional master’s degrees in English and Women’s Studies from UC Irvine and San Diego State, respectively.
The Science, Technology and Society (STS) Hub Faculty Fellows program is pleased to announce its new cohort of faculty and graduate students for 2024 – 2025. The 16 fellows will develop research on topics related to the intersection of science and social justice.
Many of these projects respond to the theme of this year’s activities in the STS Hub: “The Politics of Automation, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence.” Other projects extend last year’s theme: “Viral Politics: From HIV to COVID-19.”
This year’s cohort is highly interdisciplinary, with faculty and graduate students from 11 departments in the colleges of Science & Engineering, Health & Social Sciences and Liberal & Creative Arts. The STS Hub is also joined by colleagues from the University of California campuses at Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as from Santa Clara University and the Technical University of Munich.
This initiative is supported by a National Science Foundation Research Community Development Grant.
The final week of Information Technology Services’ (ITS) Cybersecurity Awareness Month details how and where to report cybercrime. Cybercriminals are clever, and their attacks can be sophisticated and complex. Falling victim to a scam can be embarrassing, but the most important thing to do is report the crime.
Fraud victims are often blamed for their predicament, even in less obvious cybercrimes, like falling for an aggressive phone scam or clicking on a well-written phishing email.
ITS has resources for those who fall victims to cybercrimes. Please visit the ITS website for all the information on outsmarting cybercriminals.
Strategic Marketing and Communications is always on the lookout for examples of student and alumni success and innovative, impactful teaching for SF State News, CampusMemo, SF State Magazine and the University’s social media channels. The more unique, photo-friendly and relevant to potential students, the better.
Only 22 days are left to apply for the 2025 Call to Service Grants! These grants provide SF State faculty and staff with funding opportunities for community-engaged activities, research and development of community service learning courses. The application deadline is Tuesday, Nov. 19.
For questions, please email ICCE at icce@sfsu.edu or call (415) 338-6419.
The SF State Academic Senate will meet Tuesday, Oct 29, 2 – 5 p.m., via Zoom for its fifth meeting of the academic year.
- Recommendation from the Campus Curriculum Committee proposals for substantive decrease in units as consent items:
- Bachelor of Arts in Latina/Latino Studies
- Recommendation from the Educational Policies Committee proposals in second reading:
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religion, program suspension
- Bachelor of Arts in Earth Sciences, program discontinuance
- Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Religion, program suspension
- Recommendation from Academic Policies Committee in second reading:
- Revision to S22-298 Academic Integrity Policy
- Revision to S19-230 Grade Appeal Policy
- Revision to S22-298 Academic Integrity Policy
- Recommendation from Student Affairs Committee items in first reading:
- Resolution in Support of Affirmed Names
- Resolution in Support of Affirmed Pronouns
- Resolution in Support of Affirmed Names
- Recommendation from Strategic Issues Committee in first reading:
- Resolution to Celebrate 60 Years of CSU Study Abroad
- Revision to S13-266 Academic Freedom Policy
- Resolution to Celebrate 60 Years of CSU Study Abroad
- Recommendation from Faculty Affairs Committee:
- Resolution to Prioritize Academic Affairs during times of budget cuts, in first reading.
- Recommendation from Faculty Affairs Committee: Revision to S23-306 By-Laws for Departments, Equivalent Units and All other Faculty Units that Offer Academic Degrees, in second reading.
- Academic Senate will hear formal presentations from:
- Alex Hwu, associate vice president and dean of the College of Professional and Global Education (CPaGE): “CPaGE Programing and Development” (time approximate: 3:30 – 3:50 p.m.)
- Andrew Roderick, assistant vice president of Academic Technology and Tuan Do, interim information security officer: “Artificial Intelligence Employee Guideline Campus Review” (time approximate 3:50 – 4:10 p.m.)
Join a presentation, “Quick Posture Reset with the Alexander Technique,” with Lecturer Faculty and yoga instructor Elyse Shafarman to learn skills to enhance health. It takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 30, noon – 1 p.m., in HSS 306.
The Alexander Technique optimizes relaxation, posture and breath, releases body tension and fixes posture. It also helps to recover from academic and political stress.
The Holistic Health Lecture Series is open to the University community and sponsored by the Institute for Holistic Health Studies and the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism.
AfterWork Chief Operating Officer Afra Nehal will deliver a lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 4 – 6 p.m., in the University Club, Cesar Chavez Student Center. She will discuss her journey as a Muslim woman in the tech industry. Nehal has prior experience at Accent and IBM, and she co-founded ATXpestry and Chit-Chaat.
Please RSVP via Luma. Attendees who RSVP will be served free food.
On Thursday, Oct. 31, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., stop by Administration 260 for a free giveaway! Need hand sanitizer for your Halloween party? Need disinfecting wipes for your office or student organization? How about some flashlights?
Even if you just want some to take home, the Office of Emergency Services has plenty. Take as much as you can carry. To pick up items supplies before Oct. 31, please email the Office of Emergency Services at oes@sfsu.edu.
Staff and faculty are invited to join a “Countering Islamophobia Allyship” training on Friday, Nov. 1, noon – 2 p.m., in the University Club, Cesar Chavez Student Center. Learn valuable religious context on Islam, how Islamophobia manifests and strategies for intersectional allyship.
This training is tailored for staff/faculty at SF State; no prerequisite knowledge on the subject is needed to take this training.
Please review the Google Form for more information or to RSVP.
The Lam-Larsen Initiative for Emerging Technologies will present “Faculty Corner: Gaining Business Insights with Generative AI” on Friday, Nov. 1, at noon via Zoom (Meeting ID: 810 1817 7641; Passcode: 602575).
Sameer Verma, professor of Information Systems in the Lam Family College of Business, will discuss if a generative artificial intelligence (AI) approach can give deep insights into business, grounded in personalized, context-rich enterprise data. Beyond the chatbot, how do we build integrated applications for such an approach?
Generative AI is growing at a significant rate. The technologies and related investments are strong indicators of its pivotal role in the near future. Classic AI/machine earning techniques have given insights into business processes through the window of analytics.
Climate HQ is excited to invite the campus community to “Visioning Climate Change Solutions: The Power of Hope through Storytelling,” a discussion with New York Times bestselling climate fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson on Monday, Nov. 4, 1:30 – 3 p.m., at the Seven Hills Conference Center.
Robinson is the award-winning author of novels like “The Ministry for the Future,” “New York 2140” and the “Mars Trilogy.” Weaving ecological, political, technological and cultural themes, Robinson helps understanding of life on a polluted planet and how to reimagine and intervene to avoid further disaster.
Please RSVP via Qualtrics. An RSVP is required, as space is limited.
November is International Education Month, celebrating the importance and benefits of international education in the U.S. and around the world. At SF State, the Division of International Education. hosts and sponsors events throughout the month.
International Education Month is an expansion of International Education Week, which is a joint initiative of the U.S. department of Education and State inaugurated by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Today, celebrations occur in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Events for students include “Study Abroad Basics: Perspectives from Alumni” on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 4 – 5 p.m., via Zoom.
Events for faculty include the “Faculty-led Study Abroad Panel” on Thursday, Nov. 7, noon, in Library 286.
The Division of International Education open house is Thursday, Nov. 7, 3:30 – 5 p.m., in Village at Centennial Square Building C (next to U.S. Bank).
The Health Equity Institute and the Science, Technology and Society Hub are pleased to host Gregg Gonsalves to address “Demanding Health Justice: Pushing for Accountability in Science, Medicine and Health.” All are welcome to join, Friday, Nov. 1, 3 – 4:30 p.m., in Science and Engineering Innovation Center 210.
Gonsalves is public health correspondent for The Nation, professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership. He is also a recipient of a “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation.
The SFSU Veterans Service Center presents a Veterans Day event on Thursday, Nov. 7, 12:15 p.m. – 2 p.m., by the HSS building and bus stop at 19th and Holloway avenues. The campus community is invited to celebrate the people who have served the U.S. with a flag-raising ceremony. Tabling will follow on the Quad.
The Division of International Education, formerly the Office of International Programs, is excited to celebrate its new name. It will hold an open house on Thursday, Nov. 7, 3:30 – 5 p.m., in Village at Centennial Square Building C (next to U.S. Bank). Enter the building and turn left for the office.
While the Office of International Programs has been part of the Division of International Education for several years, this change is designed to better align with the rest of the campus and to streamline communication. The Division of International Education will continue to serve as the central hub for various international programs and services at SF State.
Programs and services in the Division of International Education include:
- Campus internationalization
- SF State Abroad and Outbound Exchange Program
- International outreach and recruitment services
- International students and services
- Inbound exchange student program
- Visiting scholar program
- Agent partnership services
- Faculty immigration services
- International articulation partnerships
- International student Statistics and data analysis
The Division of International Education kindly requests the campus community to use its new name, for consistency and clarity across the University.
The division has changed the address of its website to https://international.sfsu.edu and its email address to international@sfsu.edu. Many programs and services retain their email addresses; for example, the SF State Abroad and Outbound Exchange Program will still use studyabroad@sfsu.edu.
For questions or assistance, please email international@sfsu.edu.
Human Resources will host a presentation on the tuition fee waiver program on Friday, Nov. 8, 11 a.m. – noon, via Zoom. The program provides an opportunity for eligible employees or their dependents to take classes at any CSU campus at a reduced rate. This can help with career development and undergraduate and graduate degrees.
SF State Spotlight
This month, the California Academy of Sciences welcomed 14 new fellows, including Associate Professors of Biology Andrea Swei and Jaime Chaves. They join more than 500 distinguished scientists and leaders who have made notable contributions to scientific research, education and communication such as Bruce Alberts, Sandra Faber, Tyrone Hayes, Margaret Leinen and Geerat Vermeij.
Chaves studies biodiversity in the Neotropics. His research is mainly based in the Galápagos Islands where he collaborates with local students and communities to use birds as an important model for understanding biological diversity and inform effective conservation strategies. His interdisciplinary work uses molecular genetics, field biology and natural history to study evolution at population and species levels.
Swei investigates the ecology and transmission of vector-borne diseases — specializing in tick borne systems — and targeted intervention. Using a variety of techniques, her lab tries to understand the how environmental and landscape factors, host community composition and pathogenic genetic diversity can impact transmission and risk of zoonotic diseases (e.g. Lyme disease). Swei is also committed to training students from underrepresented groups in science communication.
Design Professor Ricardo Gomes was a virtual keynote speaker at the Congresso Internacional de Arquitectura Humanizade UCSC, on Oct. 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Congress hosted speakers who are experts in the field. They shared content and learned about the sustainable and accessible universe design that permeates architecture and the built environment.
In the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, Psychology Associate Professor Gaurav Suri and Professor Kenneth Paap describe how self-control processes might unfold.
Although self-control is key to human well-being, the lack of a specified, computationally tractable framework limits research on the mechanisms of self-control-related decisions. In this paper, the authors consider the Comparison with Goal States Model for self-control. The core idea is that neural representations in memory related to important goals amplify activations for items that are consistent with those goals — even if those activations are initially less than activations related to other (more tempting) options.
In September, a cohort from the Chicana Latina Foundation visited SFSU for a one-day leadership event. Tania Perez facilitated the group through counter-storytelling and exercises that shed light into the narratives that people hold and create every day. A recent email newsletter from the foundation highlights Perez’s workshop and its scholarship winners, including SFSU Biology student LizSandra Gallegos.
Professor Emeritus of Journalism Ken Kobre is the producer and director of “Life with Half a Brain,” available on Amazon Prime Video. The documentary tells the story of parents faced with choosing an hemispherectomy to stop their child’s seizures when drugs are ineffective. The film documents the lives of eight children who have had the operation at different ages.