WHERE SCIENCE MEETS ART New initiative encourages students to communicate research creatively. BY > MOLLY ROSBACH 28 ForOregonState.org/Stater C U LT UR E PHOTOS BY KARL MAASDAM, ’93 ↑Aliya Jamil’s resin-based sculpture explores the scale of phytoplankton. It’s one thing to read the latest research papers about how noise pollution a"ects the ability of birds to communicate in urban cityscapes. It’s quite another to listen to the trill of birdsong layered atop car horns and the dull roar of tra!c, and to per- ceive at a fundamental level how the di"erent sounds must compete to be heard. The reimagining of scientific data via the arts is at the heart of Oregon State University’s Art-Sci Initiative and its new interdisciplinary fellowshipprogram,whichbeganlastschool year with 11 undergraduate and graduate fellows. The program gives stu- dents space to express the full breadth of their academic interests while creating new models for interpreting the most pressing problems in the world today. “Science is inaccessible to a lot of people, the way it’s presented,” said Jerri Bartholomew, a microbiology professor and one of the founding members of the Art-Sci Initiative. “What we’re hoping is that by training some of these students who are already in sciences to tune their artistic approach, they can communicate more e"ectively and start to ask di"erent kinds of questions in their research.” Liana Kruger-Moore is one of those students. She graduated in June with her bachelor’s in animal science and a minorin musical performance.The daughter of two professional classical musicians, she always dreamed of becoming a zoo veterinarian but could never give up her love of music. “That was a part of me as much as wanting to do the sciences,” said Kruger-Moore. She plays the flute and violin and starts veterinary school this fall.“But in college,I realized the university is not necessarily built for people to focus on more than one area.” As a senior, she learned she could receive a $1,000 stipend to create an artistic piece based on a research topic of her choice through the Art-Sci Ini-
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