Emeritus

James D. Boykin

James D.Boykin was the college's first biology professor. Tragically, Jim passed away in 1985at the age of 59.Later that yearthe L Building, which housed the Biology Department, was renamedtheJames D. Boykin Laboratory Center. In the early years of College of the Canyons, the faculty of the Biology Department were few, but Jim Boykin formed a team which in turn made the department strong, said Carol Sherwood, a part-time faculty member who worked with him and Don Takeda in the 1970s.
Jimalways hada houseful of students, ranging fromthemore than 25 Micronesian students he sponsored and housed, tostudents who popped infor dinner and an impromptu teaching session.He had positive expectations about everyone; he assumed his students would succeed, so they did. On his untimely passing,faculty and students honored him at that year's commencement ceremony,with the planting of cedar trees justoutside the laboratory building, a memorialphoto collage, and a scholarship in his name.

Betty Rose

After 25 years of exceptional teaching, mentoring and unsurpassed dedication to student success, Betty Rose retired at the end of the Spring 2011 semester. She has been an integral part of the faculty at College of the Canyons and a vital part of the Biology Department. Betty developed the curriculum for our highly successful biology majors Organismal & Environmental Biology course; expanded Anatomy & Physiology to be the most successfully enrolled sections within the Biological Sciences department after the introductory courses and bravely taught BIOSCI 250, commonly know as Suicide Anatomy and Physiology. Will we ever be able to find another Professor to teach 250?

Gregory Nishiyama, Ph.D.

Our division dean, Omar Torres described so well Gregs enormous contribution to the classroom in a email sent to the Biology Department shortly after Greg announced his retirement. Last spring, I had the privilege of attending one of Gregs Zoology lectures, and I was amazed not only at his level of intellectual rigor and professionalism, but also his insightful demeanor and ability to captivate his student audience. Gregs classroom is notably characterized as a positive, active learning environment whereby occasional humor, storytelling, and currency are continually interjected as modes to enlighten students experiences and support overall learning. His care, dedication, and compassion are trademarks clearly evident in his teachings. When Greg Nishiyama joined the Biology Department in 1999 he brought with him a wealth of knowledge and experience. A noted scholar in the field of Chemical Ecology with an impressive list of scholarly studies and published scholarly works to his name. Some of those include the following:

1. Development of rapid environmental assessment techniques (USC-COC)
2. Discovered and named two new species of sponges (USC)
3. Discovered three new toxins from sponges (USC)
4. Determined the influence of sponge toxins in determining coral community (this was the first time such a study was ever conducted) (USC)

Greg served as Faculty advisor to the Biology club, Lead Faculty for Environmental Biology, General Biology, Marine Biology, & Genetics and spearheaded the development of the Biology Department at the new Canyon Country Campus. Greg retired at the end of the Sping 2011 Semester.