Linda H. Mantel
Portland State University
For distinguished accomplishments and long-standing service to the Columbia-Willamette chapter of Sigma Xi and continued service at the national level as a member of the Board of Directors.
Sigma Xi Experience
Linda attended her first Sigma Xi Annual Meeting in 2001 in Galveston, Texas, where she gave a presentation at the Forum on Diversity, and was a judge for the first Sigma Xi student poster session. For the 2002 Annual Meeting Forum on International Science in Los Angeles, Linda spoke about her recent experience at a conference on Women in Science in Southern Africa, sponsored by EDDI-USAID, in Gabarone, Botswana, where she had given a presentation on Gender Equity in Science and Technology in the USA.
Linda joined the Sigma Xi National Board as a member of the Diversity Committee in 2003, and was active as a chapter delegate to both the Northwest Region and the MI Constituency, serving as secretary and member of both the nominations committees and Nomination Committee over the next several years. In 2007, she was elected as Associate Director of the MI constituency, and when the Director resigned, spent the next year on the Board, where she was also part of the first Strategic Planning committee. In 2009, Linda was elected Director of the Northwest Region and served two terms, until 2015.
Linda’s most significant contribution as NW Director was establishing the links between AAAS Pacific Division and the NW and SW regions of Sigma Xi, enabling Sigma Xi to join the annual AAAS PD meeting in June. This linkage of Sigma Xi and AAAS PD provides value to both organizations, in particular to students, who have the opportunity to present their work in two different SX venues per year. In addition, she has worked with Sigma Xi staff to strengthen connections with Intel ISEF and served as a judge for Sigma Xi awards.
The Sigma Xi C-W Chapter has a strong and active board, a substantial endowment, and membership from several institutions, companies, and agencies. It has raised the profile of Sigma Xi in the region, strengthened ties with pre-college teachers and students, developed ideas for several new programs, and supported a Student Research Symposium every year. And, of course, it is celebrated for its annual Terroir Tasting events, which sell out immediately and raise funds to support student travel to Sigma Xi meetings.
Linda is most grateful for the outstanding support and encouragement from Sigma Xi headquarters, which has made all of these projects possible. She and the chapter look forward to further advancing the goals of Sigma Xi throughout the Columbia-Willamette region.
Biography
Dr. Linda H. Mantel received a B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College, with a major in biology and a minor in music. She then went to the University of Illinois for her Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics, where she was inducted into Sigma Xi as an Associate Member. Her dissertation concerned ionic regulation in gills of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, which enabled her to spend summers doing research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA (MBL), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA. After completing her Ph.D., Linda was awarded a USPHS Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1965, to study salt and water balance in the land crab Gecarcinus lateralis as a Research Fellow in the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. She remained at AMNH for another two years, continuing her research and preparing two scientific exhibitions for the Hall of Invertebrates. She joined the Biology department at City College (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY) in 1968, maintaining her relationship with AMNH as a Research Associate until 1993.
During her 25 years at CCNY, Linda was a faculty member, department chair, and Assistant Provost for Graduate Studies and Research. She taught courses to majors, non-majors, and graduate students, from Introductory Biology to Cell and Molecular Biology, Physiological Ecology, Neuroendocrine Mechanisms, and Comparative Physiology. She was also a course instructor at MBL, teaching Experimental Invertebrate Zoology, and at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, teaching Physiological Ecology.
Linda’s research activities focused on crustacean physiology, osmotic and ionic regulation, neuroendocrinology, and environmental toxicology. She mentored four Doctoral students, two Master’s students, and 22 undergraduate and post-baccalaureate students. She received research support from CUNY and the Department of Environmental Protection of New Jersey. Linda was an invited speaker at numerous national and international institutions and conferences. She spent a semester as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge University, where she briefly switched her interests to salt and water balance in insects. She was also active with the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, serving as Chair of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, and organizer of several symposia, clubs, and committees.
In addition to her biological research interests, Linda also focused on broader academic issues, such as faculty development, enrichment programs for women and minorities in science, collaborative project development and implementation, teacher education in science, and technology in higher education. While at CCNY, she was co-PI on an NSF-sponsored Model Program for producing better science teachers, a training workshop for teaching assistants in science, and Director of an Undergraduate Education in Biological Science Project sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
After 25 years at CCNY, Linda looked for a change and moved to Portland in 1993 to become Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Biology at Reed College. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she became active with Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), an organization that promotes student and faculty development in science. Linda organized a workshop in science and mathematics teaching at Reed with PKAL, and also served for several years as a consultant and speaker for their programs. While at Reed she taught two undergraduate seminars in biology, directed a workshop in Technology in Humanities and Social Science sponsored by the Mellon Foundation, and served as co-PI for a Women in Science Mentoring Project, sponsored by NSF, for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), of which she was national President at the time.
Following her time at Reed, Linda served for a year as Interim Vice-President for Academic Administration at Willamette University, and then for three years as Assistant Vice-President for Technology Services at the University of Portland. During this time, she also worked with the NSF-funded Oregon Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers, as co-leader of the Diversity strand.
Linda officially “retired” in 2002, and promptly became involved with Intel ISEF, the International Science and Engineering Fair, which was to take place in Portland in 2004. She was the Higher Education Liaison, responsible for involving all of the colleges and universities in the project, and enlisting judges to work with the students. This program turned into a multi-year commitment to ISEF and to the Northwest Science Expo System, the statewide fair system, as judge coordinator. At the same time, Linda was invited to join the Center for Science Education at Portland State University (PSU) as an Adjunct Associate Research Professor, where over several years she supervised five students for their Master of Science Teaching and coordinated two summer workshops for teachers.
Linda’s largest and perhaps most important effort for PSU was helping to bring about the Pacific Northwest Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, an NSF-funded multi-institution alliance involving University of Washington, Washington State, Boise State, Oregon State, and Portland State universities. Having served on NSF panels and visiting committees for this program, Linda was familiar with its criteria and process, so she worked on the original steering committee that prepared the proposal. After the grant was awarded, she became the Higher Education and Community Liaison, working with the institutions on overall planning, evaluation, and programming. The Alliance has been very successful in meeting its goals of increasing the participation of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and is in the middle of its third 5-year funding round.
Linda finally retired from her science-related activities at PSU in 2020 and joined the advisory council for their Senior Adult Learning Center, which administers the program through which senior adults may audit classes for free. After a year, she became Chair of the council and is actively building new leadership. Her other current commitments include the League of Women Voters of Portland, for which she is Development Chair, the Downtown Neighborhood Association, and continuing support of Sigma Xi Columbia-Willamette. In her free time, Linda and Ken attend art and cultural events in town and enjoy the gardens for which Portland is well known.