CSUN Fair Showcases Research Projects

Cal State Northridge students and faculty got a glimpse Thursday of some of the research taking place on campus during the second annual Faculty Poster Fair.

Organized by CSUN’s Office of Research and Sponsored Projects in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union, the event showcased 51 research projects from CSUN faculty members.

The professors conducting their respective research projects were on hand at the exposition to summarize and answer questions about work in progress or work that has been completed in the past two years.

“The poster fair is a way for students and people in the community to come here and see what the professors at this university are doing,” said CSUN geology professor Eugene Fritsche, whose research on the geology of southwestern California in the Miocene epoch was on display at the fair.

“By coming to the poster fair, you can look at ideas that people have and talk with the people who came up with the ideas,” he said. “It’s a painless way of getting an education.”

Fritsche’s display was somewhat overshadowed by his colleague, Jerry Simila, whose poster and video display on the seismicity in the Monterey Bay region and the area between Northridge, Ventura and the San Andreas fault garnered the most attention.

CSUN biology professor Mary Lee Sparling, who displayed a research on the localization of membrane fractions with different densities within intact sea urchin eggs, said the poster fair is an opportunity to showcase her work to other faculty members.

“We’re just trying to show people that, besides teaching, we also do research,” Sparling said. “It’s also a way of culminating your own stuff so that you have a goal of trying to finish something by a certain time.”

The fair continues today from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Grand Salon, situated on the east side of campus, 18111 Nordhoff St.

For more information, call (818) 677-2299.