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CSUN Student and Boulder Researcher Team Up on Project Observing Sun Radiation Patterns

In Media Releases
A graduate student from California State University, Northridge and a researcher from the University of Colorado Boulder are working to develop a model to explain how changes in the sun’s surface affects Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and magnetic field. Credit: Credit:hrui/Istock

Media Contact: Matthew Bragulla, matthew.bragulla.004@my.csun.edu, or Javier Rojas, javier.rojas@csun.edu

The sun affects every aspect of Earth and, by default, every aspect of human life. As the Earth continues to experience drastic shifts to its climate, more research has arisen to explain the sun’s role in all of this. 

A graduate student from California State University, Northridge and a researcher from the University of Colorado Boulder are working to develop a model to explain how changes in the sun’s surface affects Earth’s atmosphere, weather, and magnetic field. The twist? They’re utilizing artificial intelligence to analyze the patterns of the surface. 

It started with University of Colorado Boulder astrophysicist Shah Bahauddin, who received funding from the NASA program Solar Irradiance Science Team (SIST). Bahauddin said SIST asks for proposals from universities that involve analyzing and creating predictions for solar irradiance, which is light energy that travels from the sun as electromagnetic radiation.  

“The idea is to develop a physical model that will be able to help us connect whatever is happening inside the sun, or mainly the surface of the sun, and how much light it will produce based on that,” Bahauddin said. 

He added that it’s important to make predictions about solar irradiance because it directly affects our space weather as well as the climate change.

CSUN computer science graduate student Ishay Haykeen took on the role of developing the AI algorithm that will make the connections between the pictures and spacecraft data. He said he was looking to work on a project involving Artificial Intelligence and physics, and California State University, Northridge Department Chair of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Physics and Astronomy Debi Prasad Choudhary connected him with Bahauddin. 

“The next step we are already working on, which is almost finished, is calculating the total solar irradiance. And we calculate that according to the number of pixels that are sunspots and sun faculae,” Haykeen said. 

Bahauddin wanted to know the physics behind solar irradiance to make the predictions and is basing the project off of data from the past 50 years. 

“The idea is that you look at different features of the sun,” Bahauddin said. “So, the sun has sunspots and bright structures, which are called Faculae. And then from there we calculate ‘If I have sunspot, I will have a reduction of the sunlight. If there are bright points there will be an increase in sunlight,’”

However, analyzing the surface of the sun used to be done manually by looking at pictures of the sun taken by a telescope, finding faculae and sunspots, and logging in data. He instead proposed using data from an instrument on the International Space Station called TSIS-1, which measures the total amount of sunlight that falls on Earth and using a deep learning algorithm to connect the patterns between the pictures and the irradiance level data. 

Bahauddin and Haykeen have been working on this project for the past seven months and will be presenting their data to the 2025 Sun-Climate Symposium, hosted in Fairbanks, Alaska on Sept 15-19. There, more than 200 scientists from around the world will convene, share their own models, collaborate and critique each other’s work. 

Bahauddin and Haykeen have accomplished a lot in their first year of the project and have received funding from NASA for three years.

Calculating the total solar irradiance is only first part of their entire project. The second part of their plan is to analyze spectral solar irradiance, which involves breaking down sunlight into individual spectrums and calculating its energy. 

 “Each of the colors, each of the parts of the spectrum has different implications. For example, the infrared heats up the surface of the earth, so that basically causes the greenhouse effect,” Bahauddin explained. “And if you look at the UV light, it is basically affecting the ozone sphere, which protects us from getting cancer from the sunlight. If you look at the extreme ultraviolet light, it is affecting the thermosphere, or the upper part of the atmosphere where all the satellites are. We have a lot of satellites there and they need protection from the extreme solar irradiance.”

Bahauddin and Ishay said they will do this by looking at the decades of pictures and data that CSUN has collected. 

“CSUN has 35 years of data from San Fernando Observatory, which is very valuable. Bahauddin said. “I don’t think nobody else in the world has anything like this” 

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Amazon Rainforest Drone Research Earns CSUN Alum’s Team $5M XPRIZE

In Alumni
Denita Weeks retrieves water samples from a hovering drone outside the Amazon rain forest.
Denita Weeks retrieves water samples hanging from a drone by a tributary near the Amazon rainforest.
Denita Weeks works with the Water eDNA samples hanging from the hovering Limelight drone during the XPRIZE Rainforest competition. (Photo: Carla Kutz)

–Story by Laura Ferreiro

Imagine doing extensive research on the Brazilian rainforest and thoroughly assessing its biodiversity without setting foot in the rainforest itself. This is what CSUN alumna Denita Weeks did as part of a team that used drones, cameras, audio recorders and other remote technology to collect DNA, water and air samples to better understand the animals that live there and their unique environment.

As a result of this groundbreaking work, her team of 60 researchers, engineers, biologists and entrepreneurs from all over the world won the coveted $5 million XPRIZE – a five-year, $10 million competition with the aim of enhancing understanding of the diverse rainforest ecosystem. Three other teams also received prize money.

“This was such an amazing thing to be a part of,” said Weeks M.S. ’13, (Biology), now an associate professor of biology at Colorado Mesa University. “I contributed to something in rainforest conservation in a very meaningful way by advancing this technology and making it accessible for the people who live in these places.” 

Solving Big Problems

XPRIZE is an organization that designs competitions for scientific solutions that address humanity’s greatest challenges. The XPRIZE Rainforest competition was sponsored by the Alana Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports initiatives in the areas of environment, inclusive education and health science research. 

Weeks’ team, Limelight Rainforest, was organized by researchers at Colorado Mesa University. Its members came from around the world, including indigenous and local community members. It included several sub-teams with their own specialties, including audio, visual, computer science, and drone technology. 

The five-year rainforest competition started with 300 teams in 2019. In July 2024, Weeks’ team competed in the finals by exploring remote forest near Manaus, a city in the Brazilian state of Amazonas in northwestern Brazil. The task at finals was to rapidly assess the biodiversity of 100 hectares of rainforest in 72 hours — including field collection, data analysis, and report writing — without stepping foot into the plot.

Denita Weeks' headlamp illiuminates her tent as she works in the forest at night.
Denita Weeks completes overnight sequencing effort on the beach outside the Amazon rain forest during XPRIZE Ranforest finals (Photo: Carla Kutz.)

The team used drones to deliver a sampling platform of recording devices and sampling tools to collect a wide range of data. Weeks explained that gathering samples by drone allowed them to access the forest’s canopy, a difficult-to-reach area that has been less explored than other areas of the rainforest. Using advanced remote technology also helped prevent the physical presence of human beings from scaring animals away. 

“There are so many applications for this data,” Weeks said. “You can use DNA to find out which species have been there recently. We can also use it to discover new species and uncover human disease-causing organisms.”

Weeks served as the DNA sequencing lead on an all-female DNA team. 

“Our DNA team broke some records and pushed limits of technology use that are still blowing my mind,” Weeks said. “In 24 hours, we generated 27 million sequencing reads from eDNA and insect tissue. I was able to sequence 5 million of those by myself on the shoreline of an Amazon River tributary using car batteries to run Starlink and other equipment.”

Working around the clock with hardly any sleep, Weeks stayed on the beach along a tributary of the Rio Negro River overnight to collect all the field data within a 24-hour window. She and her team, who worked from a pop-up lab about an hour away, had to analyze the data and write reports within 48 hours. 

“We wanted to demonstrate to the judges that we could do the complete DNA pipeline efficiently in the field,” Weeks said. “As soon as samples came in on the drone, we analyzed them on the beach.”

Formative Experiences

Denita Weeks sits by a giant tortoise in the Galápagos Islands as a CSUN student.
Denita Weeks with a giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands on a Tropical Biology Field Course trip to Ecuador while attending CSUN in 2010. (Photo courtesy of Denita Weeks.

Weeks came to CSUN’s College of Science and Mathematics for her master’s degree after earning a bachelor’s in biology from Grand Valley State in Michigan. She followed her CSUN degree with a doctoral degree from the University of Memphis in 2018. She joined Colorado Mesa University in 2019.

Weeks said that her experience as a graduate student at CSUN working with biology professor Robert Espinoza helped pave the way for her successful career. 

“Working with Dr. Espinoza helped expose me to the unique world of international biological research and I’m grateful for that,” she said. “Getting to have those experiences early on in my career was pivotal. Also, in the tropical field course in biology, I got to go down to Ecuador for seven weeks while I was at CSUN. It exposed me to research in the tropics and I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.”

Espinoza said he has been thrilled to witness all that Weeks has achieved in her career. 

“I’m very proud of what Denita has accomplished, not just in [the XPRIZE competition], but from the time she left here,” Espinoza said. “She’s doing really good work.”

Helping students pursue their interests and turn them into a thriving career is common practice at CSUN.

“We do whatever we can to prepare students to do whatever they want to do next,”  Espinoza said. We try to gear their training so they’re getting the most out of their experience here and can take the next step in their career trajectory.”

Now that the intensity of the competition is over, Weeks said she’s excited to see some of the prize money go back into the mission of getting her team’s technology into the hands of the people who live in the rainforest. The work to understand and preserve the rainforest can enable new medical discoveries, provide value to local eco-tourism, preserve indigenous culture, and perpetuate the forest’s beneficial impact to the global ecosystem.

“The hope is that this type of rapid assessment of biodiversity will provide value, monetizing the protection and preservation of a rainforest over cutting it down for agriculture,” she said. “Left intact, we can make new medical discoveries, provide value to local eco-tourism and preserve indigenous culture. Intact rainforest also provides ecosystem services such as clean air and water, climate regulation, carbon sequestration and pollination—all services that contribute to global ecosystem and human health.”

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An Earthquake Brought Turks and Syrians Together & Underscored Need for Real-Time Research on How People Respond to Natural Disasters

In Media Releases
The words 'Shares trauma bonds earthquake survivors' superimposed over earthquake rubble.

Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130

When two massive earthquakes (magnitudes 7.7 and 7.6) devastated southern and central Turkey in February 2023, they did more than destroy towns and villages — they brought communities together in unexpected solidarity. 

An international research team, including Claire White, professor of religious studies at California State University, Northridge, seized this critical moment to explore how shared suffering fosters profound social connections, even between strangers from different backgrounds.

Their research, published in Nature Scientific Reports under the title “Shared suffering predicts prosocial commitment among Turkish earthquake survivors,” revealed that experiencing intense hardship together, such as natural disasters, significantly increases “identity fusion,” a strong form of psychological bonding motivating individuals to support each other as if they were family.

“These findings suggest that governments and humanitarian organizations could better leverage the social bonds formed during disasters to improve relief efforts and community resilience,” said White, who teaches in the College of Humanities.

White and her colleagues — including Sevgi Demiroglu, a doctoral candidate from the University of Connecticut’s Department of Anthropology; Dimitris Xygalatas, head of the Experimental Anthropology Lab at the University of Connecticut; Danielle Morales, CSUN sociology graduate student; Andrew Ainsworth, CSUN psychology professor; and Harvey Whitehouse from Oxford University’s School of Anthropology — conducted surveys on-site with 120 survivors in heavily impacted regions.

“Remarkably, survivors expressed a willingness to assist complete strangers as strongly as they would help their own families,” noted Demiroglu, the study’s lead researcher. This finding challenged prevailing narratives suggesting severe tensions between Turks and Syrian refugees.

White emphasized the importance of collecting real-time, on-the-ground data directly from disaster survivors, rather than relying exclusively on laboratory studies that often involve university students in controlled environments.

“So much existing research is based on data gathered from undergraduate psychology students in what researchers have termed ‘WEIRD’ societies — White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic,” White said. “This limits our understanding of how people genuinely cope and cooperate during actual crises.”

The research also highlighted voices frequently overlooked by media and governmental agencies. Demiroglu, who is from Turkey, described profound conversations with survivors, who were eager to share their experiences.

“Many told us how grateful they were simply to have someone listen to them. We discovered people actively supporting each other, demonstrating resilience and cooperation despite tremendous adversity,” Demiroglu said.

White believes this research can help refine emergency responses worldwide.

“We’re providing essential insights into how real-world suffering shapes human behavior and cooperation,” White said. “These lessons are vital for preparing aid agencies to better respond when disaster inevitably strikes again.”

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CSUN’s Research Recognized in New Carnegie Classification

In Students and Campus
Two biology students work with lab equipment.
Two biology students work with lab equipment.
Students in CSUN biology lab. (Steve Babuljak/ CSUN)

CSUN’s commitment to research is now formally recognized by The American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Carnegie Foundation). Carnegie Classifications are a framework for organizing colleges and universities in the United States according to the types of degrees they award and their related activities, namely, research. 

CSUN, along with other CSU institutions, are now part of a new “Research College or University” or “RCU” designation from ACE and the Carnegie Foundation. The new category is for those schools that do not offer doctoral degrees or those that have a limited number of such programs. The new “RCU” designation includes colleges and universities that spend at least $2.5 million dollars in research, on average, in a single year. 

At CSUN, mentored research opportunities are available in all disciplines to both undergraduate and graduate students. For the breadth of subjects, check out CSUN Newsroom for a variety of articles and media releases.

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CSUN Prof’s Research Offers Glimpse of Life for Early Europeans More Than 40,000 Years Ago

In Media Releases
Illustration of Zlatý kůň, early modern human.
Illustration of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis group by Tom Björklund.
Illustration of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis group by Tom Björklund. Around 45,000 years ago, individuals from Ranis in Germany and Zlatý kůň in Czechia likely traveled together across the open steppe landscapes of Europe.

Media Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler, carmen.chandler@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130

Carefully sorting through the detritus — mostly animal bones — of an archaeological excavation that took place in Germany in the 1930s, California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier found inches-long bone fragments that offer a glimpse of what life was like for early modern humans more than 40,000 years ago.

An international team of researchers that includes Rougier was able to sequence the oldest modern human genomes to date and discovered that those early Europeans had recently mixed with Neandertals but left no present-day descendants.

“We’re slowly beginning to build a picture of what life was like for early modern Europeans more than 40,000 years ago,” said Rougier, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “With each new paper, we learn a little bit more about who they were and where they came from. With each new paper, we find one more piece of the puzzle of what life was like all those years ago.”

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments.
Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Rougier is one of 125 researchers from around the world working together for more than a decade to explore prehistoric life in Europe, hoping to gain perspective on what human life was like before recorded history. Their disciplines span the spectrum, from biological anthropology and archaeology to biochemistry and genetics. The interdisciplinary approach provides an opportunity to bring new perspectives and raise questions that individuals in a particular specialty may not consider or be able to resolve.

The team’s latest findings, “Earliest modern human genomes constrain timing of Neanderthal admixture,” appear in the December 2024 edition of the journal Nature. This latest paper is a continuation of research published by Nature in spring of 2024 that provided evidence — found in the cave Ilsenhöhle located beneath the castle of Ranis in Germany that was first explored by archaeologists in the 1930s — that early modern humans were living and traveling through northwest Europe thousands of years before Neandertals disappeared.

“I was sorting through some of the animal bones that were collected in the cave from that first excavation in the 1930s,” Rougier said. “I have been doing this for a long time, so I was able to recognize that not all the bones were animals. Some belonged to early modern humans. We’re not talking about whole skeletons, but fragments of bones that are more than 40,000 years old.”

Among the bone fragments, which were just inches long, were part of a finger bone and a piece of an infant’s clavicle that were later identified as belonging to a mother and her daughter. 

“The DNA in the fragments found in the cave was extremely well preserved,” Rougier said. “The more northern latitudes of Europe you go, the better conditions are for DNA preservation.  We were able to extract DNA from all the bones we were able to isolate. There were a couple that didn’t really yield good results, but most of them were really well preserved.”

Illustration of Zlatý kůň, early modern human.
CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier found inches-long bone fragments that offer a glimpse of what life was like for early modern humans more than 40,000 years ago. Illustration above is of Zlatý kůň, who belonged to the same population as the Ranis individuals, whose bones Rougier found, and was closely related to two of them. Credit: Tom Björklund.

In all, the researchers were able to analyze the nuclear genomes, the genetic material, of 13 specimens from the Ranis site and found that they represented at least six individuals. The size of the bones indicated that two of the individuals were infants and, genetically, three were males and three were females. Analysis of the nuclear DNA of the bones indicated that members of the group were distant, biological relatives.

Using this information, the researchers compared the DNA of the group found at Ranis to the DNA of a complete skull from a single individual, believed to have lived 45,000 years ago, found at an archaeological site in Zlatý kůň, Czechia, about 230 kilometers away. 

To their surprise, the nuclear DNA of the Zlatý kůň skull revealed a fifth- or sixth degree relationship with two of the individuals found at Ranis.

“This means that they were part of an extended family and it is the first time that we are able to detect such a close relationship between ancient bones found at different sites. It means that, at some point, a small group from that family decided to go someplace else, or that the places where we found their remains were part of the territory they occupied,” Rougier said.

Among the six individuals from Ranis, one bone was particularly well preserved. This allowed the team to obtain a high-quality genome from this male individual, referred to as Ranis13. Together, the Ranis13 and Zlatý kůň genomes represent the oldest high-quality modern human genomes sequenced to date. When analyzing genetic variants related to phenotypic traits, the researchers found that the Ranis and Zlatý kůň individuals carried variants associated with dark skin and hair color, as well as brown eyes, reflecting the recent African origin of this early European population, Rougier said.

By analyzing the segments inherited from the same ancestor in the Ranis and Zlatý kůň genomes, the researchers estimate that their population consisted of, at most, a few hundred individuals who may have been spread out over a larger territory. The researchers found no evidence that this small early modern human population contributed to later Europeans or any other world-wide population, Rougier said.

Members of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis population coexisted with Neandertals in Europe, raising the possibility that they may have had Neandertals among their recent ancestors after they migrated to Europe. Previous studies on modern humans from over 40,000 years ago had found evidence of such recent admixture events between modern humans and Neandertals. However, no evidence was found for a more recent Neandertal admixture in the genomes of the Zlatý kůň and Ranis individuals.

Rougier said the Zlatý kůň and Ranis population represents the earliest known divergence from the group of modern humans that migrated out of Africa and dispersed later across Eurasia. Despite this early separation, the Neandertal ancestry in Zlatý kůň and Ranis originated from the same ancient admixture event that can be detected in all people outside Africa today. 

By analyzing the length of the segments contributed from Neandertals in the high-coverage Ranis13 genome and using direct radiocarbon dates on this individual, she said the researchers dated this shared Neandertal admixture to between 45,000 and 49,000 years ago. 

 Since all present-day non-African populations share this Neandertal ancestry with Zlatý kůň and Ranis, this means that around 45,000 to 49,000 years ago, a coherent ancestral non-African population must still have existed, Rougier said.

“What we’re learning, with each new stage of our research, is telling us so much about early modern humans, but there is so much more to learn,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons I really like to work with interdisciplinary teams. None of us could come to conclusions we are alone but together we’re able to discover so much more.”

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CSUN Faculty Unveil Research on Reparations for Black Angelenos

In Faculty and Staff
Research team members pose together for a photo with Los Angeles City Councilman Curren D. Price, Jr.
Members of the research team and supporters. (L-R) Curren D. Price, Jr., Los Angeles City Councilmember; CSUN faculty researchers Danielle Bram, Karin Stanford, Steve Graves, Brianne Posey, Herman DeBose and Marquita Gammage; and Yan Searcy, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Sonia Gurrola / CSUN

Several CSUN faculty members kicked off the fall semester by unveiling the results of their extensive research on the range of discrimination experienced by L..A.’s Black citizens over the past 100 years. At an Aug. 27 campus event, researchers discussed their report, “An Examination of African American Experiences in Los Angeles,” in which they documented a dozen different categories of harms to the Black community over the past century. The report is part of the work assigned to The Reparations Advisory Commission, a blue-ribbon task force established in 2021 by city officials. The commission’s objectives include developing and recommending the format and goals of reparations for Black citizens, as well as seeking opportunities to fund the reparations.



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CSUN Student Research Journal Celebrates 28 Years of Inspiring Scientific Imagination

In Media Releases
Copies of previous editions of the New Journal of Student Research Abstracts, which has been published every year since 1995. Credit: Terri Miller

Media Contact:Matthew Bragulla,matthew.bragulla.004@my.csun.edu or Javier Rojas, javier.rojas@csun.edu, (818) 677-2130

The biology department at California State University, Northridge has stayed committed to promoting STEM research carried out by K-12 students and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The results of these experiments and thousands of abstracts have been published in The New Journal of Student Research Abstracts every year since its first publication in 1995. 

The newest volume of the journal – created by Dr. Steven Oppenheimer – marks 28 years of collaboration between CSUN and K-12 students and teachers. Oppenheimer, a U.S. presidential award winner and professor emeritus, came up with the journal to generate more scientific curiosity in K-12 students, as well as a solid and longer-lasting way to document students’ findings.

“Teachers and their students were creating scientific posters, so it made sense to get something more concrete for everyone,” Oppenheimer said.

Terri Miller, a retired teacher who has been helping with the journal for about 20 years, talked about the immense joy that not only the students got from having their experiments published, but their parents too. 

“The kids, they see their names and get excited, but the parents get it, it’s really great for their children to be published authors,” Miller said. 

The journal is open to the kinds of topics that can be explored and published. Dr. Oppenheimer said experiments are “totally up to the teacher and his [or] her students.”

It’s why there exists such a large variety of abstracts in the journal, he added. Some of the concepts explored include eyelash growth, curing phantom limb pain, the effect of acid rain on plants, caffeine’s effect on short-term memory, and if the hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone can be utilized to help people with osteoporosis, to name a few.

Miller said the kinds of topics vary depending on the age of the students, as well as what their interests are. With younger students, she said she offers something they are able to do, like testing the pH levels in their garden. Older students can choose what they’re interested in and are more active in developing the experiment.

For example, David Agekyan, Emily Mardirousi, Nathan Scherrer, Sean Canlas, and Yuzuna Kudo of Anderson W. Clark Magnet High School analyzed methane emissions in Aliso Canyon after learning about the canyon’s methane leak in 2015. Assisted by their teacher Dominique Evans-Bye, the students utilized drones and an electronic payload with Audrino gas sensors they programmed to monitor and highlight areas with large methane concentrations in Aliso Canyon and at their high school. They were able to determine that the hills in Aliso Canyon were funneling the invisible gas straight to residential areas.

“The kids suggested that if you put methane sensors along the hiking trail that is between the houses and the gas wells, that could be a detection site and prompt an evacuation instead of sitting there for months before anyone knew it was happening,” Evans-Bye said.

Oppenheimer says that STEM experiences in K-12 education are important because it helps solidify America as a world leader. 

“Science keeps the U.S. strong by not only producing the best weapons, but by keeping the thinking at the top,” Oppenheimer said.

He added that many of the students who have become interested in science in their K-12 education have gone on to study science at Harvard and other prestigious universities.

Miller said that science experiences in younger education is important now, especially in a post pandemic world. Subjects like English and math were prioritized over science during the pandemic, she said, and wants to show young students that science contains problem-solving skills that anyone can use. 

“Everyone needs science, even lawyers need it to talk about DNA,” Miller said. 

Oppenheimer said that even though he is currently retired, he will continue to publish the journal. 

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CSUN Students Present Award-Winning Research

In Science and Technology
Cameron Atighetchi with award.
Cameron Atighetchi with award.
Master’s candidate Cameron Atighetchi with the “All of Us Community Award” he won for his research on lupus. Photo by Analisa Venolia

CSUN students took center stage at a National Institutes of Health conference and presented the results of their own research studies to an audience of medical professionals and prospective medical students. 

CSUN students Cameron Atighetchi, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in biology, and Shirin Noori, a senior biology major, spoke at the “All of Us” Researchers Convention, which was held virtually on April 3-4. 

The “All of Us” Research Program is a nation-wide effort to create a diverse health database. The goal is to help researchers access information from other studies, help with treatment decisions for individuals and connect people with the right clinical studies for their needs. The conference allows researchers to share their work with those interested in precision medicine — which is an approach that takes into account individual patients’ differences in genetics, environments, and lifestyles. Students and professional researchers presented their studies at the conference.

Atighetchi and Noori applied to present at the conference and were both selected to speak to conference attendees based on the quality of their abstracts.

Noori presented her research on inflammatory bowel disease. Atighetchi presented his research on systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), commonly known as lupus. SLE primarily affects non-white communities. 

“In generalized science, there’s always been a huge bias towards European populations,” Atighetchi said. “That leaves a lot of underrepresented populations under-investigated, especially with SLE, which primarily affects people of African-American, Hispanic and indigenous ancestry. Being able to close that gap and lessen that disparity in genomic studies contributes to more diversity in research and will advance our understanding of SLE in populations that are underrepresented in research.”

Atighetchi’s research examines the severity of the disease among underrepresented demographics. He is working on identifying which groups have an increased risk of SLE and is also investigating genetic markers associated with SLE in these diverse populations. 

For his research, Atighetchi received the convention’s “All of Us Community Award.” He is the first recipient of the award, which was introduced this year and is voted on by conference participants for the presentation that best articulates the benefits and impact of the study on the general public.

Eduardo Amorim, assistant professor of biology and Atighetchi’s principal investigator, commented on the importance of participating in conferences like “All of Us.”

“For students like Cameron, participating in conferences like this is invaluable,” Amorim said. “Not only do they provide a platform to highlight their achievements, but they also offer unparalleled networking opportunities and serve as a catalyst for furthering their research endeavors.” 

Amorim was also delighted about Atighetchi’s award. 

“Cameron’s recognition reaffirms our commitment to conducting impactful research that contributes positively to society, and I couldn’t be prouder of his accomplishments,” he said.

Atighetchi appreciated the opportunity to speak at the convention.

“I’m just glad I was able to present my research and communicate my main points,” Atighetchi said. “Winning an award was the cherry on top.”

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CSUN Prof’s Research Finds Evidence Homo Sapiens Were in Northwest Europe More Than 45,000 Years Ago, Years Before Neanderthals Disappeared

In Environment and Climate
cavesite underneath stone castle

A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.
A re-examination by CSUN anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated in the cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis, Germany by archaeologists in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.The cave site Ilsenhöhle beneath the castle of Ranis. Photo © Tim Schüler TLDA, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Sometimes it pays to go back to the beginning. In this case, a re-examination by California State University, Northridge anthropologist Hélène Rougier of bones first excavated by archaeologists in Germany in the 1930s has contributed to the discovery that modern humans reached northwest Europe more than 45,000 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared.

Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.
Hélène Rougier examining bone fragments. Photo courtesy of Hélène Rougier.

Rougier is part of an international team of researchers who have been able to document the earliest known Homo sapiens, or modern humans, fossils in central and northwest Europe. Their research reveals for the first time that those fossils were accompanied by markers — namely long blades made into points — for the Upper Paleolithic era known as Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician (LRJ), which existed more than 45,0000 years ago.

Those same markers have been discovered at locations across Europe, from Moravia and eastern Poland to the British Isles, and can now be linked to an early arrival of small groups of modern humans in northwest Europe, several thousand years before Neanderthals disappeared in southwest Europe.

“Early modern humans were much more advanced than we typically give them credit for,” Rougier said, noting the discovery that Homo sapiens traveled as far as Germany in small groups indicates that they were sophisticated enough to be curious about what was beyond their usual territory and left the comfort of their “home” to see what was “out there.”

“We tend to think of them as ‘cavemen,’ primitive,” she said. “Yet, they used natural features, such as the overhang of a cave, to get protection from the elements; they lived in organized groups; and they understood their environment enough to get the foods they needed. They were sophisticated enough to choose some things over others, and they passed on tradition, like making tools in a certain way. So, yeah, they were a little more complex than we give them credit for.”

The results of the researchers’ discovery were recently published in three articles: “Homo sapiens reached the higher latitudes of Europe by 45,000 years ago,” in the journal Nature and “The ecology, subsistence and diet of ~45,000-year-old Homo sapiens at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” and “Stable isotopes show Homo sapiens dispersed into cold steppes ~45,000 years ago at Ilsenhöhle in Ranis, Germany” in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.
Stone tools from the LRJ at Ranis. 1) partial bifacial blade point characteristic of the LRJ; 2) at Ranis the LRJ also contains finely made bifacial leaf points. © Josephine Schubert, Museum Burg Ranis, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

Rougier, who teaches in CSUN’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, is one of 125 researchers from around the world working together for more than a decade to explore prehistoric life in Europe, hoping to gain perspective on what human life was like before recorded history. Their disciplines span the spectrum, from biological anthropology and archaeology to biochemistry and genetics. The interdisciplinary approach provides an opportunity to bring new perspectives and raise questions that individuals in a particular specialty may not consider or be able to resolve.

The team’s latest efforts involve the cave Ilsenhöhle, located beneath the castle of Ranis in Germany. The researchers re-excavated the Ranis site to locate the remains of an earlier excavation that took place in the 1930s. They also wanted to clarify the stratigraphy and chronology of the site and to identify the makers of the LRJ points.

“One of the things that made this site so interesting in the first place was the fact that when it was first excavated, tools (the blades made into points as well as some finely made leaf points) were found,” Rougier said. “People didn’t really know how to characterize them. They didn’t know if it was the late Neanderthals who made them, or our early ancestors who arrived in Europe. Lots of people in different places in Europe have been trying to figure out who made those things. We were trying to figure out the answers to their questions.”

When Rougier’s colleagues got to the bottom of the original excavation, more than 26 feet below the surface, they found about five-and-a-half feet of rock their predecessors could not get past. After carefully removing the rock by hand, they found the LRJ layer and thousands of fragmented bones, including pieces that belonged to modern humans.

Rougier led a new analysis of bone fragments originally collected in the 1930s. Each fragment was examined individually in an effort to identify human remains.

Once 13 human skeletal remains from both the old and new excavations were identified, DNA was extracted and analyzed. Researchers were able to confirm that the fragments belonged to Homo sapiens. They also found that some of the fragments from both excavations belonged to the same individual or were maternal relatives.

“We were able to get DNA from the bones — we only have part of the DNA for now and are working on the rest — but there is one bone from the new excavation that has the same mitochondrial DNA as several of the bones originally found in the 1930s,” Rougier said. “It clearly shows the connection between the old and new excavations, and that those modern humans, with at least one person who was closely related to another, visited the cave on different occasions.”

Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.
Excavating the LRJ layers 8 metres deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench. © Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0.

By using radiocarbon dating, the researchers discovered that Homo sapiens sporadically occupied the cave as early as 47,500 years ago, thousands of years before Neanderthals disappeared from Europe.

An analysis of the stable isotopes of animal teeth and bones found alongside the human fragments offered insight into the climate conditions and environments that the pioneering groups of Homo sapiens encountered around Ranis. Those early modern humans had to deal with a very cold continental climate and open, unforested, grassy landscape, similar to what is found in Siberia or northern Scandinavia today.

  “We’ve been able to show that our ancestors were really like explorers — they were mobile, they adapted to their environment, and they moved when the climate changed,” Rougier said. “We have to understand that when these Homo sapiens ancestors visited north central Europe, it was a very cold environment. They were originally from southern Europe, where the temperatures were much warmer, and the environment was much more hospitable. Yet, they still made the trip.

“As we examine those movements, I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that climate has always affected us,” she said. “Today, we’re trying to counter some of its impact using our technology, but we are still animals in the natural world — though, we’re advanced, technological animals. Climate is still around us and we are still dependent on nature. I think what we’ve learned so far about early modern humans can put things into perspective.”

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New Research Conducted by CSUN Prof Reveals Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Coral Reefs

In Faculty and Staff
coral reef

Coral Reef photographed in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Photo courtesy of Nyssa Silbiger
Coral Reef photographed in Mo’orea, French Polynesia.
Photo courtesy of Nyssa Silbiger

A years-long study focused on the climate effects on coral reefs by California State University, Northridge marine biologists Peter Edmunds and Robert Carpenter reveals concerns for their future survival.

The new study, published in Limnology and Oceanography and led by Edmunds and Carpenter – who have more than 30 years of experience researching coral reefs – shows the long-term consequences of ocean acidification for coral reefs in Mo’orea, French Polynesia. Combined with rising seawater temperatures, the coral reef structures may not be able to grow and reproduce as climate change continues.

Flumes used to conduct corral reef research
The four flumes that were used to complete the recently published study. The flumes were built with the help of the CSUN Science Shop and each is 5 m in length (~16 ft), and they are located at the UC Berkeley, Richard B. Gump research lab. Over the course of 3 years, they were used to complete year-long experiments in which replica coral reefs were built in each flume and incubated under conditions simulating future predicted levels of ocean acidification. Photo provided by Peter Edmunds.

Ocean acidification is a reduction in the ocean’s pH over an extended time — with its root cause being the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is increasing through the burning of fossil fuels, cement production, and numerous other human-related practices. Some ecosystem components directly impacted are organisms that utilize carbonate ions to build their shells and skeletons — such as coral, oysters, sea urchins, and plankton — putting many organisms at risk from ocean acidification.

Commercial and recreational managed fisheries depend on coral reef habitats for many important fishes, shellfish and other invertebrates that are targeted for fishing. Coral reef fisheries are worth $5.7 billion globally, according to the Reef Resilience Network.

Edmunds warned that the research, which began in 2015 and was supported with grants from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), suggests that if ocean acidification trends continue the way they have over the last 20 years, the long-term survival of coral reefs is in jeopardy.

“The oceans are getting a little bit more acidic and because they’re getting a little bit more acidic, corals and coral reefs are growing more slowly, and that slower growth is unlikely to be changed by adaptation or acclimatization,” Edmunds said. “The reefs in the future are going to get more and more delicate and we’re not going to solve that problem unless we start to do something about the high concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

Coral reefs play a critical role in the economy and human welfare, including food security and shoreline protection to coastal communities. However, for coral reefs to thrive, the coral must be able to grow and reproduce faster than they are being killed.

After more than three years of study, Edmunds said his research team found that coral reefs “did not show any ability to reduce their susceptibility to these more acid conditions.”

“This is something we would not have found from short experiments conducted over weeks or months,” Edmunds said. ‘So, pretty quickly, we knew that ocean acidification is going to be bad news for coral reefs, because even early experiments showed they were not able to do well at more acidic conditions, and our latest experiments show that corals and coral reefs do not change their response over a year.”

Peter Edmunds heading out to do research on the coral reefs of French Polynesia near Tahiti. Photo courtesy of Robert Carpenter.
Peter Edmunds heading out to do research on the coral reefs of French Polynesia near Tahiti. Photo courtesy of Robert Carpenter.

However, there is still hope that the long-term survival of coral reefs can be remedied by making investments to curtail the effects of climate change, Edmunds said.

“I remain optimistic, but I think we’re not going to solve this problem unless we start to do something about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Edmunds said. “Or else, in 50 years’ time, we will barely recognize tropical corals reefs. They’ll still be corals and fishes down there but they’re just going to be very different to those that we see now.”

The research was conducted with marine biology professor Steve Doo of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo (formerly a postdoctoral researcher at CSUN) and within the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research program, which is the flagship coral reef project of NSF, with the project shared between CSUN and UC Santa Barbara.

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