Beaver Brags & BriefsFall 2025

Beaver Brags

is OSU Athletics’ annual economic impact across the state in jobs created, visitor spending, ticket sales and more.

OSU students since 2007 have been named semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award, honoring the nation’s top amateur baseball players. Shortstop Aiva Arquette made this year’s list.

consecutive seasons is how long OSU gymnastics has qualified for postseason competition.

conference championship in the program’s history is what women’s rowing brought home this May in a decisive victory at the West Coast Conference Rowing Championship.

Briefs

Electric Discovery

Cheng Li, Ph.D. ’17, and Distinguished Professor Emerita Clare Reimers identified a novel species of bacteria that acts as electrical wiring, potentially ushering in a new era of bioelectronic devices for use in medicine, industry, food safety, and environmental monitoring and cleanup. The researchers discovered it in sediment samples from the Yaquina Bay estuary and have named it Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis in honor of Native Americans of the region.

AI Can Improve Creativity

A new study from Oregon State University indicates that artificial intelligence can significantly enhance creativity in student fiction writing, but only when instructors teach students how to incorporate it into the creative process. Researchers found that when students receive instruction on how to use AI, there was an increase in creativity over both their original writing and their AI use without instruction. “It took us less than 20 minutes of instruction to change the way students interacted with the technology,” noted lead author J.T. Bushnell, senior instructor in the School of Writing, Literature and Film.

Pharmacy Program Bound for Portland

Oregon State University’s College of Pharmacy will relocate its Pharm.D. program primarily to Oregon Health & Science University’s Portland campus in 2026, expanding a long-established partnership that will create more opportunities for students. OSU and OHSU jointly award the Doctor of Pharmacy degree, which currently enrolls around 250 students. The partnership offers both institutions various academic, research and clinical connections within a shared space.