California State University San Marcos’ Innovation Hub is hosting LabEscape, an escape room built on the principles of science. LabEscape, which was designed by Paul Kwiat and his team at the University of Illinois, provides the opportunity for participants to experience science in fun and eventful ways. Sessions will be held from Saturday, March 8, through Thursday, March 13.  Saturday will be a “mini-event” that is 45 minutes and free for all participants. On Sunday-Thursday, the event is 90 minutes and $4 per person. Reservations are required and can be made online. No science background is necessary. The event is intended for groups of 4-8 people ages 12 and up. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Five years ago, when Christopher Greely first acquired a leadership position at the San Diego biotech where he works and was charged with expanding his team by almost tenfold, he knew just the profile he was looking for. Scientists who had the proper academic underpinning. Scientists who were passionate and driven. Scientists who weren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and work hard. And it certainly didn’t hurt if they were, like him, scientists who had graduated from Cal State San Marcos. “I brought on board some of my previous classmates and really kept an eye out for any fresh grads from CSUSM who were just looking for an opportunity,” Greely said. “Because I know the educational basis that they're operating with and their scientific expertise. But on top of that, one of the things that I've noticed about the CSUSM community is really the push to strive for more.” Greely would know, since he is one of those strivers. One of two children of a single mother who was a victim of domestic abuse, the North County native embarked on a decade-long journey (interrupted multiple times at multiple schools) in higher education that ended in a single academic year at CSUSM, from which he graduated with a degree in biology in 2017. What a year it was, however. It helped propel Greely into a job at Carlsbad’s Trinity Biotech, which he then parlayed into a position at TriLink BioTechnologies by May 2018. Almost seven years later, he’s still there, having been promoted six times, most recently in 2023 to associate director of nucleic acid products manufacturing. TriLink has about 200 employees, and Greely estimates that up to 10% of them are CSUSM alumni. Included in that group are a couple of others who are high in the company’s hierarchy: Justin Barbosa, vice president and general manager of discovery; and Evan Myers, associate director of process development. “CSUSM provides a high-level education that prepares us for the future,” said Myers, a 2016 graduate who tutored Greely through the STEM Success Center when they were both students and now works with him closely at TriLink. “Chris is an exceptional worker who brings huge value to the company.” At no time was that more clear than in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the virus was beginning to rage out of control, BioNTech, the German biopharma giant and an existing client of TriLink’s, approached the company asking for its assistance in producing a vaccine that would combat COVID. TriLink, which specializes in the synthesis of nucleic acids and mRNA capping analogs, possesses a proprietary technology called CleanCap that simplifies mRNA manufacturing by removing additional enzymatic steps, resulting in higher efficiency and better yields. BioNTech wanted as much CleanCap as it could get its hands on. There was just one problem: TriLink had recently moved into a new building in Sorrento Valley, and its GMP (an industry term that stands for “good manufacturing practices”) lab wasn’t operational yet. So while Greely was building out his team from five people to 45 to prepare for the heightened demand from BioNTech, he also had to devise a solution that would bridge the gap from where TriLink was in its manufacturing capacity to where it was going. That involved doing some of their work in a standard chemistry lab like the ones Greely utilized back at CSUSM and the rest in a temporary GMP lab. “It enabled us to partner with BioNTech and Pfizer and say, ‘Hey, we understand we’re not equipped right now to satisfy your needs, but we’ll make it happen,’ ” Greely said. By the time the state-of-the-art lab facility was completed, Greely and his team were ready to hit the ground running. Starting on Valentine’s Day in 2021, they worked around the clock every day for about eight months to ensure that BioNTech had enough CleanCap to produce the vast amounts of COVID vaccine necessary to inoculate millions of people around the globe. “It was an enormous satisfaction knowing that you were helping your community, the overall population, the whole world,” Greely said. “During the pandemic, some of my lead engineers would say things like, ‘I’m coming in at 2 a.m. because you called me, because the equipment is down, and at the end of the day, I want my daughter to be able to go back to school.’ That was huge.” Greely was prepared for such a period of growth, both personal and professional, because of the training he received at CSUSM. He vividly remembers a biochemistry course with professor Kambiz Hamadani that was three units but seemed like twice that. At the time, Greely felt overwhelmed by the volume of work, but once he was a new employee at TriLink, he suddenly found himself grateful for the grueling experience. “The principles that Hamadani taught and the ground that his virtual lab covered prepared me for some of the standard operating procedures I would see in the lab within my first three months of starting my job,” he said. “That was eye-opening for me, the real-world application of what’s being taught at CSUSM.” After growing like gangbusters during the pandemic, TriLink contracted in 2023 as the demand for the COVID vaccine decreased. But the company is coming off a prosperous year fueled by the development of a new iteration of CleanCap that’s being used by industry partners for cell and gene therapy that could help cure diseases. “Whenever I interview anyone, they always ask me, ‘What do you love about TriLink?’ ” Greely said. “And my response always stays the same: I am never bored. It’s all about pushing to that new benchmark, clearing that next hurdle, seeing how far we can take our intellectual property for the betterment of the human experience.” Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306

Cal State San Marcos is one of 12 schools in the California State University system to receive a new designation known as “Research Colleges and Universities” (RCU), it was announced on Feb. 13 by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The new RCU category recognizes institutions that typically do not offer many or any doctoral degrees and spend at least $2.5 million on research on average in a single year. There are an additional eight CSUs included in the R2 category, which is assigned to universities that spend at least $5 million on research and development and award at least 20 research doctorates on average in a single year. The Carnegie Classifications are the nation’s leading framework for categorizing and describing colleges and universities in the United States.  The new classifications created multi-dimensional groupings of institutions that now go beyond a single label and reflect significant changes to how research is recognized, including the methodology that determines whether an institution is classified. “Congratulations to all of the CSU institutions recognized by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education,” CSU Chancellor Mildred García said. “These classifications underscore the CSU’s commitment to engaging our undergraduate students in applied research that lifts communities and addresses our state's most pressing challenges across fields of study – and they wonderfully reflect the CSU’s mission and core values.”

Elinne Becket and Robert Iafe can’t quite agree on what sparked her interest in him. Ask Iafe and he’ll say the crack he made about Becket’s beloved Croatian soccer team did the trick. Not so, says Becket. “At first, I actually disliked him for weeks,” Becket said. “Once he finally started being nice to me, then I started liking him. But he's like, ‘No, that's what caused interest.’ This is one of those agree to disagree moments.” But there’s no such controversy when it comes to their engagement in 2022. “It was perfect,” they both said, nearly in unison. Becket, a biology professor, and Iafe, a chemistry professor and department chair, tied the knot two years later, exchanging vows last Oct. 5 at the place that has become a second home for them – Cal State San Marcos. If getting married at one’s place of employment seems unconventional, it shouldn’t to those who know Becket and Iafe. The passion they have for their students is the same passion they have for the university. And CSUSM’s Event and Conference Services (ECS) team ensured there wasn’t a moment of doubt about having their wedding at the McMahan House on campus. “Everyone at ECS literally brought me to tears in a good way multiple times because they were just so helpful and so thoughtful,” said Becket, noting the tireless work and attention to detail of event planners Lizette Alvarado and Zayla Paschall. “It went perfectly because of them. I'm just so, so grateful for the fact that they made it even more special than I thought it was going to be.” It was a day that was 16 years in the making. Becket and Iafe met in 2008 at UCLA where each was working on their Ph.D. (Becket in molecular biology and Iafe in organic chemistry). Though they were in different departments, they met through one of Becket’s former teacher assistants who was lab mates with Iafe. They were friends for about six months before they started dating, though the friendship could have been derailed by Iafe poking fun at Croatia’s painful exit from the 2008 Euro Cup when Turkey tied a quarterfinal match as time was winding down before advancing on penalty kicks. “It was just enough of a bite for her to be annoyed but have that interest,” Iafe said. Becket remembers it a bit differently. Born in Los Angeles, she traveled between the U.S. and Croatia frequently as a child during the Croatian War of Independence, spending time with her grandparents while her mom helped guide humanitarian aid to the front lines. Needless to say, her ties to Croatia – and its soccer team – run deep. “Oh, he knew what he was doing,” she said. Iafe rebounded from the faux pas and their friendship evolved as they regularly hung out in UCLA’s grad lounge while waiting on results from their respective research experiments. Both play piano, leading to battles in the grad lounge pitting Becket’s classical music against Iafe’s penchant for Elton John (Becket’s wedding processional was to John’s “Your Song,” which Iafe often played for her). The piano duels led to another talent they share – dancing. Becket has danced a variety of styles throughout her life and Iafe competed in ballroom in college. Their friendship blossomed, and, on Dec. 16, 2008, they had their first official date, even marking the occasion with a photo. The 16-year wait from that first date to their wedding day wasn’t intentional so much a product of juggling a relationship with the challenges of establishing their respective careers. “Marriage was always what we wanted to work toward, but we were just enjoying what we had,” Becket said. “It was less important about the legal thing and more important about saying vows in front of our loved ones.” And it was those vows that remain a highlight from their wedding day, particularly Iafe’s words. He took to heart an early conversation they had when they were dating – though, much like the soccer joke he made, they don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye on the way that conversation went. “So, 16 years ago, she had a couple of demands for me,” Iafe said. “She said, ‘You are not allowed to read your vows. You have to say it from the heart.' ” “This was when I was 20, when we first started dating,” Becket interjected. “And it wasn't a command, it was an off-the-cuff cuff remark where I was like, ‘I don't understand how people can just read their vows.’ It was one of those things of, ‘If you really mean it, you should be able to say it, blah, blah, blah.’ ” “And I listened to every word that she said,” Iafe said. Fast forward 16 years and Becket jotted down some bullet points to ensure that she would hit on the topics that were most meaningful. Iafe, on the other hand, decided to wing it. While there is friendly disagreement over whether it was truly off-the-cuff or well-rehearsed, they agree that Iafe nailed it. “Of course, this guy has the best vows ever memorized and completely showed me up,” Becket said. “And what's really annoying was that when we were talking about who goes first, he's like, ‘You know what? I'll let you go first.’ He said he didn't want to repeat something I said. “And, no, it was because he wanted to show me up,” she added, laughing. “The video shows me saying, ‘Oh, now I know why you wanted to go second.’ ” Similar to how he lectures, Iafe said he had major points he wanted to hit and just let it flow from there. His groomsmen, Becket said, tell it differently. “They were telling me, ‘He was practicing all day,’ ” Becket said. “Just the major points,” Iafe said. “How we get there, I don’t know. It’s a journey. Live on the edge.” As they approach their first Valentine’s Day as a married couple this week, there aren’t any special plans in the works. They’ll mark the occasion in the low-key way they normally do. And before Becket can give details on what they normally do, Iafe jumps in. “We don’t actually celebrate Valentine’s Day,” he said, “because every day is Valentine’s Day.” Less than five months into marriage, spoken like someone who already knows the key to wedded bliss. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim Assistant Director of Editorial and External Affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

Cal State San Marcos software engineering professor Simon Fan will be honored as the recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Engineering Educator at the San Diego Engineers Week Awards Banquet on Feb. 18.  The banquet, hosted by the San Diego County Engineering Council, brings together community leaders to celebrate those who are advancing engineering and technology.  Fan is a founding faculty member of CSUSM’s software engineering program, helping it develop a unique curriculum and achieve ABET accreditation, which shows that a university program meets established educational standards.  Among Fan’s accomplishments was the creation of a yearlong capstone program that emphasizes engaged learning with industrial mentors and targets the specific needs in the region. Fan also works to build a supportive engineering community on campus and helped bring the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers student chapter to CSUSM. Media Contact Eric Breier, Interim assistant director of editorial and external affairs ebreier@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7314

When the hills above Los Angeles exploded in flames early last month, Matt Rahn snapped into action. Rahn, though, isn’t a firefighter who was called into duty to help battle what became one of the biggest and most destructive fires in California history. Rather, he’s a wildfire researcher at Cal State San Marcos who, in 2019, created a unique degree program called Wildfire Science and the Urban Interface. He’s also the executive director of the Wildfire Conservancy, a nonprofit research foundation dedicated to serving the state’s firefighters and protecting its communities. The wildfires that devastated the L.A. area, and even caused minor damage in pockets of San Diego County, have been contained. But the significant problem of grappling with ever larger and more dangerous fires fueled by climate change is only growing worse, and Rahn can be found permanently stationed on the front lines of that fight.   Question: What was the nature of the work you were doing during the L.A. fires last month? Matt Rahn: I and my team at the Wildfire Conservancy have been doing research related to firefighter health and safety. Specifically, we have been conducting an exposure study related to the toxic, hazardous and carcinogenic materials firefighters are exposed to in a wildland urban interface fire. We are collecting data on exposures using silicon wrist bands (as a passive sampling device that is extremely good at absorbing all the contaminants firefighters are exposed to). We compare these to urine and blood samples taken from firefighters to track exposure to substances like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs), volatile organic compounds (or VOCs), heavy metals and other compounds. We use a variety of techniques, including micro RNA analysis that can measure the change in gene expression, particularly those responsible for either causing (or suppressing) cancer.    Q: What was your reaction when you first heard about the fires? Could you have imagined that it would ever get that bad in the nation’s second-most-populous city? MR: Sadly, I wasn’t shocked. For over 10 years now, we have been saying what is now common vernacular: We no longer have a “fire season,” we have a year-round fire risk. And we no longer have “wildfires” but rather fires in the wildland urban interface (or WUI), which is the area where human development and infrastructure meet undeveloped wildland or natural areas. But this change began much longer ago.  In 1991, in a remarkable and singularly cataclysmic event, the Oakland Hills became engulfed by a devastating fire that resulted in 3,280 homes lost, 25 fatalities and 1,520 acres burned. At that time, the loss was unthinkable; by today’s standards, the Oakland Hills fire, while still tragic, is certainly not the largest of its kind. That resulted in renewed recognition of the dangers posed by fires in the WUI and prompted new research and development into improved prevention and suppression methods, policy, and procedure of these kinds of fires. Unfortunately, that focus was short-lived, and over a decade would pass until California experienced another devastating wildfire, this time in San Diego County, that would grab national attention.  Engulfing more than 280,000 acres, destroying 3,241 homes and causing the loss of 16 lives, the 2003 Cedar fire surpassed all records and became the most devastating fire in California’s history. With a total economic loss of nearly $2.5 billion, we realized that the devastation was not contained to acres burned; the fiscal impacts to our communities far outweighed the actual cost of fighting this megafire. Even with a peak of 6,635 firefighters battling the blaze, suppression was less than 2% of the total cost of that wildfire incident. For more context, since 1970, the U.S. has witnessed a roughly 300% increase in acres burned each year. Fifty years ago, wildfires would burn about 3 million acres per year across the entire U.S.; today, a single fire in California can consume one-third of that historic national acreage. So, fast forward to the fires in Paradise, California in 2018 and the 2023 fires in Maui, where over 100 people lost their lives. Sadly, we all should have seen this coming.   Q: Do you think there’s any merit to the criticism that city officials could have done more to keep the fires from getting so out of control? Or was this strictly a scenario of worst-case environmental conditions? MR: Persistent drought, hot and dry temperatures, and extremely high winds in a community not built to modern standards for wildfire-prone areas were dangerous starting conditions for any fire event. The high winds provided an extremely short opportunity to prevent a conflagration. These winds also prevented the use of aerial attacks in the early stages of the fire. Fire agencies were left with ground resources, battling one of the most difficult and hazardous fire storms in U.S. history. Given the extreme fire behavior and conditions, the ultimate suppression and containment of the fires and prevention of additional losses was due in large part to the remarkable firefighter staffing and surge capacity that was mobilized.  It’s easy, if not dangerous, for folks so quickly to criticize agencies and municipalities, and make a tragic incident like this a political talking point. Organizations like Cal Fire, L.A. City and County Fire, and even the National Institute of Standards and Technology are all working to recreate the mobilization of resources and try to understand how response impacted outcomes. This is a very complicated and labor-intensive process that needs to be completed.    Q: If I’m remembering correctly, the worst fires in the state over the last decade or so have been in Northern California, including the Camp fire in 2018. Do you think Southern Californians had acquired a false sense of security and complacency? MR: Unfortunately, many communities acquire a false sense of security and complacency. We see this year after year. When there is smoke in the air and a major incident that galvanizes our communities, state and nation, all the attention is given to that fire, with a collective promise that we will not forget and will work to keep our communities safe. But as time passes (and in some cases, not much time can pass), communities become lax in their collective efforts for fuel reduction programs, maintaining defensible space or other factors that can significantly contribute to community resilience. We cannot allow this to occur.  In fact, the Wildfire Conservancy along with some of our instructors in the Wildfire Science and the Urban Interface degree at CSUSM have teamed up to address this exact issue. We were awarded a grant from the FEMA Fire Prevention and Safety program in support of community resilience and advanced training support for Maui. Together with the County of Maui and Maui’s fire department, emergency operations and community associations, the Wildfire Conservancy will build on existing programs with the Responding to the Interface (RTI) program (from Cal Fire and the International Association of Fire Fighters) as the foundation for working with high-risk communities to develop a comprehensive and customized WUI firefighter training tailored to Maui and its communities, and create an annual event that is designed to improve community resilience, awareness, outreach and education. We are working to bring this effort to a national stage starting with Maui and continuing to California and beyond.    Q: What have you heard from the fire crews that were battling the blazes in L.A.? MR: We have so far connected with hundreds of firefighters from Cal Fire, L.A. Fire Department, L.A. County Fire Department and other departments like Santa Barbara, Ventura, Fillmore, Oxnard and Pasadena. They are just now beginning to catch their collective breath and recover from these incidents. They are keenly aware of the exposures they have experienced in these fires. The success won by those “boots on the ground” may come at a significant personal and societal cost. The fires resulted in extreme high-level exposures for responding firefighters, at a scale not seen since Sept. 11, 2001. Many of us in the scientific community are speculating that these fires may well constitute an exposure incident that far exceeds that momentous day. The full impact has yet to be realized.    Q: How long have you been a scholar and researcher of wildfire science? How did you first get involved in it as a discipline? MR: I began working on wildfire issues shortly after the Cedar fire in 2003 and became more fully engaged in research after the Witch and Guejito fires in 2007. My first projects were focused on things like fire sensors to provide early detection of wildfires in remote areas and economic impact studies related to the Cedar fire. I then moved quickly into research on attack effectiveness, completing the seminal study on wildland firefighter staffing that is still used to this day as the standard for helping advocate for proper state firefighter staffing. We then moved quickly into firefighter health and safety, given the impacts we were seeing related to cardiac events, dehydration and heat illness, and cancer. Since then, my time and effort on wildfire and urban interface fires has increased dramatically, culminating in the new degree program at CSUSM in 2019 and the launch the same year of the Wildfire Conservancy.     Q: How has the field evolved over the years as wildfires have gotten bigger and more destructive? MR: We have been ringing the bell on wildfires and the WUI since the early 2000s. Back then, we were using terms like “the new normal.” Today, everyone is keenly aware of the risks, and the number of agencies, organizations and individuals involved in answering the call has increased significantly. Our first symposium on these issues was held a little over a decade ago in Sacramento, in partnership with Cal Fire and Cal Fire Local 2881. Experts from around California and the nation gathered and agreed that wildland firefighting was easily a decade behind structural/urban firefighting. The recommendation was to increase research and education programs in response to this. CSUSM has helped lead that effort with the new degree program, and organizations like the Wildfire Conservancy have formed to prioritize some of the most pressing issues facing our communities and first responders.    Q: How would you describe CSUSM’s wildfire science program and what it does? MR: The degree program is unique. It’s focused on the WUI as its primary mission, educating our next generation of firefighters to deal with the unique issues related to these kinds of incidents. Clearly there is a need, and that need is growing. It is no longer just a California issue or something that is particular to the western U.S. Nearly every community in the nation has some kind of risk related to WUI fires. Providing the training and education for that growing risk is critically important.  What makes this program unique is that it was designed with firefighters and key agencies, including Cal Fire, the fire departments of San Diego and L.A., the U.S. Forest Service, NIST, and many other departments from around the country. We designed our curriculum based on their input, and it includes coursework in community planning and resilience, firefighter health and safety, wildfire law and economics, kinesiology and fitness, and even emerging tools and technologies. Our program also offers a course in firefighter mental and behavioral health, the first of its kind in the nation. The program is designed for working professionals, is fully online and has the ability to put a pause on coursework for students who may be deployed to major incidents during the semester. And yes, several of our own students were working on the L.A. fires.  We are lucky to have some of the foremost experts as instructors for some of the more specialized courses, and several remarkable faculty members at CSUSM also are teaching in this program. One last thing I should mention is that each student, at the end of their last semester, works with us to conduct their own “senior thesis” and research project focused on WUI issues. I’m happy to say that three of our former students will publish their research papers in the new Journal of the Wildfire Conservancy, a new science journal produced through the CSU system.   Q: CalMatters did an award-winning investigative series called “Trial by Fire” in 2022 about the traumatic toll of wildfires on firefighters, almost akin to being in war. How concerned are you about that, and what are some steps you’d recommend to deal with it? MR: Modern firefighters are responding to some of the most horrific, toxic, hazardous and carcinogenic incidents ever imagined, working in environments where the human body was never meant to be. They are sleep-deprived and regularly experience potentially traumatic events that can affect their mental health. We are seeing the results of this today through rising rates of cancer (far higher than the general population), increased rates of suicide and suicidal ideations, and high rates of heart attack and stroke. We can and must do better for those who are sacrificing themselves (and their families) in service to our communities. This is why we started the degree program and launched the research foundation. I know this is the thing that motivates so many of our fantastic researchers, faculty, instructors and students who have dedicated their careers to helping.    Q: I know funding, and the lack thereof, is a big part of this, but how would you like to see firefighting improve to confront the threat posed by bigger wildfires fueled by climate change? MR: We need to give our fire agencies the resources, staffing and technology they need to respond to these events. We absolutely do need more boots on the ground, air attack resources and access to new tools and technologies. We also need a significant investment in personal protective equipment and advanced technologies that can reduce occupational exposures and risk. Fire prevention is also a big piece of the puzzle. We need to take the commitment to fuel management and defensible space seriously, and dedicate the resources needed to create long-term, large-scale sustainable efforts. We also need to rethink our laws, codes and regulations related to housing, businesses and infrastructure, and invest in programs that can better inform future decision-making, land-use planning and community-wide wildfire protection plans.    Q: What lessons are you taking away from the L.A. fires? Should we be rebuilding in these fire-devastated areas? How can we make such communities more resilient? MR: We as humans tend to build in high-risk areas, whether they are fire-prone or at risk from floods, earthquakes, tornadoes or hurricanes. We have made remarkable strides in addressing community resilience and facility-hardening across many of these high-risk areas, including wildfires. We know what can and does work, and considerable investments are being made to develop new materials, designs and strategies to increase protection. However, none of this works if we continue to allow for poor planning and fail to provide for programs to help improve and retrofit existing communities. It will continue to fail if we don’t take our commitment to fuel management and defensible space seriously. And it will fail if we don’t take immediate action finally to fund a full-time, year-round fire service through Cal Fire and provide our struggling fire agencies the staffing and resources they need to do their job. In addition, we desperately need a significant overhaul to California’s insurance laws and regulations. Each of these issues by itself is not a solution and can easily fail when handled alone. However, if we think of each issue as a separate stick, when they are bundled together, they form a stronger and more resilient unit. We are all in this together.  Media Contact Brian Hiro, Communications Specialist bhiro@csusm.edu | Office: 760-750-7306