Research

A longstanding SFSU-Cal Academy partnership enables high-caliber SFSU student research

The Galapagos Islands are famous for the discoveries that shaped Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Now an SFSU graduate has added one more: Ezra Mendales (M.S., ’23) describes a new species as part of his master’s thesis.

“I feel super lucky with this project. I think we fell into this beautiful story that is really rare,” Mendales said of his work with SFSU Associate Professor Jaime Chaves and California Academy of Sciences Ornithology Curator Jack Dumbacher.

They found that the common Galapagos lava heron (Butorides sundevalli) is a distinct species, upending a decades-long assumption that it is a subspecies of the South American straited heron. 

“I’d say the vast majority of ornithologists alive today have never been part of a new species description,” said Dumbacher, who shares a lab with Chaves and was on Mendales’ thesis committee.

A mystery in plain sight

Convergence of stories

As an Ecuadorian, Chaves first visited the Galapagos Island with his family when he was 6 years old. The Galapagos Islands’ people, culture and wildlife became constants in his life. Chaves’ continuing fascination with the islands drives his research and work in the Galapagos community, which includes training tour guides. 

“You have to have this collaboration with the locals. Somebody who really knows the birds on the ground,” Chaves said. 

In this case, the local expertise came from Jason Castañeda, a Galapagos National Park ranger who helped the team catch the herons so they could collect blood samples. 

“He’s a co-author on our paper because it’s a substantial collaboration,” Chaves said.

While Chaves says the Galapagos draws students to the lab, Mendales, now a Ph.D. student at the University of Montana, is quick to credit his SFSU mentor instead. He first met Chaves in 2015 during an undergrad trip to the Galapagos and revered his expertise before coming to SFSU for his master’s work. 

“Getting access to not only the faculty at San Francisco State but the resources and employees at the California Academy of Sciences — it’s a match made in heaven,” Mendales said. 

Dumbacher, who has been at the Academy since 2003, was also familiar with Chaves’ expertise before Chaves became an SFSU professor. Establishing a joint lab to study the Galapagos was a natural extension of their interests and partnership. The Cal Academy alone has the world’s largest collection of scientific specimens from the Galapagos, dating back to 1905. 

“Working with Jaime has been one of the most fun things I’ve gotten to do in my career. It’s really rare that somebody like me at a museum will have a collaborator that is so aligned,” Dumbacher explained.

The root of your goal

“Our students have access to things a lot of students in other labs don’t have,” Dumbacher said about the strength of the SFSU-Cal Academy partnership. Students get to benefit from the Academy’s connection to biotech, local research institutions and companies creating new technologies. “Seeing somebody like Ezra, who was interested in but didn’t have the [molecular biology] background in the lab, go from zero to 80 so quickly was really fun.”

But Mendales says this experience has given him far more than just access to resources and expertise. His SFSU mentors recognized that students bring a wide range of backgrounds and interests to their work and helped him channel those experiences into a clearer sense of purpose. They encouraged him to think deeply about why he does the work he does. “What they [helped] me with was finding the root of my goal. Not what is my goal, but what do I want out of life,” he said. 

It’s an experience that echoes his mentor’s journey. Although Chaves became an SFSU professor in 2020, he first came to SFSU in 2002 as a master’s student. He studied hummingbirds with SFSU Professor Gretchen LeBuhn.

“I came in to do my master’s with a different perspective. I walked out of the lab the first day after I worked with DNA helping Professor Ravinder Sehgal, a postdoc at SFSU at that time. It changed my idea of research by 180 degrees,” Chaves said. He’s been using genetics to study bird evolution ever since. 

“The Biology Department at SFSU has an amazing record of placing their master’s students in Ph.D. programs,” Dumbacher said. “At SFSU you have a really high caliber of master’s students and also professors teaching them … It takes a special kind of professor that is good at research but is also a good teacher who is committed to teaching.”

Learn more about SFSU’s Department of Biology.

Graduate students supported by SFSU’s Student Enrichment Opportunities office complete Ph.D. programs, regardless of undergrad institution or GPA

When San Francisco State University alumna Muryam Gourdet (M.S., ’16) wanted to quit her Ph.D. program, she received a message from one of her former mentors in the SFSU Student Enrichment Opportunities (SEO) program: “Don’t quit. Come talk to me now.” 

She came back to campus to talk to SFSU Professor Teaster Baird, who was the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department Chair at the time and is now a College of Science & Engineering (CoSE) Associate Dean. Other SFSU mentors reached out to Gourdet — in person and by phone and email. Some even contacted faculty and program managers at Gourdet’s Ph.D. institution, University of California San Francisco (UCSF), to help in situations where she felt powerless. 

“It was full force,” she said.

Gourdet successfully finished her Ph.D. at UCSF. She also earned a mentorship award there — UCSF faculty started asking her for mentorship advice — and accomplished several other achievements along the way. After her Ph.D., she worked in industry for a few years.

It’s a story heard time and time again in SFSU’s SEO community.

“Once SEO, always SEO,” said SEO Director Megumi Fuse, a professor in the Department of Biology. 

Since the early 1990s, SEO has housed training grants for undergraduate and graduate students in CoSE, providing research opportunities, stipends, full tuition, career development opportunities, graduate application guidance and community. Although it mostly serves students in Biology and Biochemistry and Chemistry, SEO has impacted nearly all majors in the college at one point. 

In a new PLOS One paper, Fuse and collaborators at SFSU and California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) demonstrate that this system leads to master’s students enrolling in and successfully completing prestigious Ph.D. programs, regardless of undergraduate GPA. It supports the larger movement for a more holistic assessment of student success. 

SEO students wearing merch from their Ph.D. institutions

GPA isn’t everything

“We have this amazing pool of students that are hidden,” said Fuse. “Things like their GPA and need to work mask their ability to be successful. Once we give them money and mentorship, we see their true abilities.”

SEO supported over 500 students between 1992 and 2019. Eighty-nine percent of the 330 SFSU master’s students who applied to Ph.D. programs were accepted. Fuse's collaborators at CSULA’s MORE (More Opportunity in Research) office reported a similar pattern. Students enrolled in top research institutions such as UC Davis, UC Berkeley, University of Washington, UCSF, Harvard, Stanford and more. 

Network with insider insight

“I applied to San Francisco State and San José State. I basically made my decision based on the SEO support I was going to get,” said Dennis Tabuena (M.S., ’16), now a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone Institute. “I still think my favorite experience in research was the two years I spent at SFSU. It was probably the most productive years in my whole research career.”

Though Tabuena didn’t have the best grades as a UC Merced undergrad and only did research in his last year, he was able to transition to a biotech job. The problem was that he quickly discovered a career ceiling that required a Ph.D. to break. After a few unsuccessful Ph.D. application cycles, he decided to pursue a master’s degree as a stepping stone. 

SEO’s extended network was invaluable to Tabuena’s success earning a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Washington, Seattle. While SEO provided coaching, practice interviews and writing support, the office also brought university recruiters to talk about programs and provide a peek behind the admissions process. 

“I’ve been able to get big-name universities to come to SF State on their dime. They fly recruiters in; they pay for the hotels, the airfare,” Fuse explained. “UCSF, Stanford, Harvard — they come to SFSU to recruit. They realize that SFSU is a goldmine for students.”

Tabuena recalls some recruiters would even provide feedback on personal statements and answer questions via email. They provided insight that could only be provided by someone on admissions committees, something that was lacking in his industry experiences. 

SEO’s students and alumni themselves are critical to the health of the SEO ecosystem. As Gourdet prepared to leave industry, SEO connected her with alumni who had similar career experiences and trajectory. She has been coming back to SFSU two or three times a year for on-campus events.

SEO also provides undergrads with research experience. The number of undergraduate and graduate SEO alumni is in the hundreds. Alumni often stay connected with SFSU and participate in panels and other events with current students and faculty. 

The lasting SEO effect

“It’s so many layers of mentorship that hopefully [students] don’t fall through the cracks,” Fuse said. She and her collaborators built the SEO infrastructure with longevity and a culture shift in mind. “Students also learn to mentor the next generation. I think one thing you’ll find with low-income minority students is that they want to give back to their community.”

SEO scholars like Juan Mendoza (B.S., '03) have gone on to become professors carrying on the tradition of the high-caliber science and intentional mentorship at prestigious universities. 

Tabuena wants to stay in academia. As an SFSU student, he used to mentor community college summer interns, so he’s continuing to do this as a postdoctoral fellow at the Gladstone, a research institution affiliated with UCSF.

“We’re giving people that opportunity to get into the lab. These people are not in a position where [research experience is] readily available to them,” he explained. “It’s very important for me to keep doing that now that I’m on the inside.”

Thanks to her campus visits, Gourdet just started her dream position as program manager for SFSU Assistant Professor Archana Anand’s Phage Pathways program. The Department of Energy-funded program with two national labs is creating a pipeline to train students for the renewable energy workforce. 

“I tell students that the most important thing is the network you build, not the things you learn. You can learn material from anywhere; you can Google a lot,” Gourdet said. “But knowing the right people to guide your next steps is critical.”

Learn more about the Student Enrichment Opportunities (SEO) program at SFSU.

Associate Professor Sara Baguskas will help establish a multi-university fog-monitoring network 

If you live in the Bay Area, you know Karl the Fog. Many of us have a love-hate relationship with our misty friend and how it influences our outdoor plans. However, Karl — aka coastal fog — is vital for our ecosystem and what makes the California coast special. 

The Heising-Simons Foundation awarded San Francisco State University School of the Environment Associate Professor Sara Baguskas and her collaborators a five-year, $3.65 million grant (approximately $730,000 per university) for the Pacific Coastal Fog Research (PCFR) project. The Heising-Simons Foundation is a family foundation that works with its partners to advance sustainable solutions in climate and clean energy, enable groundbreaking research in science, enhance the education of our youngest learners and support human rights for all people.

“We are working together to establish a fog-monitoring network that spans the entire coastline and different ecosystems, from redwood forests to maritime chaparral to agriculture, urban and bluff scrub,” Baguskas said. Not only will this new project monitor current conditions, but it will allow scientists to better predict future patterns. “All these are different ecosystems that Californians love and are important to people and biodiversity.”

The team will set up sensors along the coast to capture information about fog events, such as moisture, radiation, energy balance, temperature, relative humidity and more. At SFSU, Baguskas, who specializes in how plants respond to environmental (fog) changes, will collaborate with School of the Environment Director and Professor Andrew Oliphant, an expert in measuring changes in surface climate and associated land-atmosphere exchanges of carbon and water. 

“It’s really interesting, and I’m really excited about the work that’s being done to create this network,” said Geography master’s student Harvey Hightower (B.A., ’23), noting its potential for conservation efforts and fog-water collection as a supplemental water source. “We can’t figure out these kinds of plans or know if it’s feasible without a network and more research.”

For his thesis, Hightower works with Baguskas to study the relationship between coastal fog and an invasive plant species spreading with changing grazing patterns at Point Reyes National Seashores. The project is a major step toward his professional goal of working on restoration of native California grasslands. 

The PCFR group hopes its work will have a social impact and inform society’s ability to manage coastal resources in a changing climate. A major strength of this project is the range of expertise at the collaborating institutions — SFSU, Indiana University Bloomington, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CSU Monterey Bay and UC Santa Cruz. As part of this work, the scientists will also partner with UC Nature Reserves (UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley and UC Davis), farm management professionals (such as farm managers and irrigation managers) and more. 

“We’ve never had this opportunity to work together and coordinate, to ask big questions about this [fog] phenomenon that is going to be more and more important as climate continues to change,” Baguskas said. Pooling expertise and resources means the group will have a better understanding of fog water fluxes, fog water chemistry and biology, spatial and temporal patterns of fog, atmospheric models and more. 

Baguskas and Oliphant are excited to get more students involved in research through this five-year project. Student researchers like Hightower will get research experience and grow their scientific network by working with collaborators. She aims to possibly establish one fog monitoring station on campus, making it easier for students to engage.

“I always look forward to hearing how our students are perceiving the world, especially in science, where there’s a need for more diverse perspectives and voices,” she said. “Over time, I’ve learned so much about why science matters through our students. To be a part of their scientific journey, watching them apply their knowledge and skills and strength into the world of new jobs and grad positions, has been enriching.”

Baguskas’ former student Kapewa Hopfe (B.S., Environmental Science, ’24; B.A., Geography, ’24) is now a conservation technician at Stanford, restoring habitats and maintaining native populations of species in the university’s preserves and creeks. As an undergraduate, his first research experience included prior coastal fog research projects with Baguskas and Oliphant.

“It really opened my eyes to career paths of doing research outside, doing field work and having a nature-based career. It influenced me into doing conservation work I’m doing now,” he said, adding that he gained a lot of skills. “I was working with a lot of experience with different scientific equipment that I can leverage for jobs. I also had a lot of experience with data entry and field work experience.”

Learn more about SFSU’s School of the Environment.

Associate Professor Stephanie Claussen wants to understand the traits that make low-income and first-generation students successful engineers

Who are you? How does your identity — your background, culture, home, life outside of your work — shape you as a professional? Why are all these important factors to consider when training engineers in fields that can appear rigid, technical and challenging? These are questions that drive San Francisco State University School of Engineering Associate Professor Stephanie Claussen as an engineer and educator.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) named Claussen an NSF Early CAREER grant recipient to study how a student’s identity can inform engineering education at broad-access institutions, often defined as public colleges and universities — like SFSU — that admit 80% of applicants. 

“At SF State, literally any student who [passes] prerequisite classes can become an engineer,” Claussen said, noting that’s not always the case. Even if an institution is broad-access, some programs (like engineering degrees) can be impacted or have additional admissions requirements that make it difficult to enter the field.

A Bay Area local, Claussen was affiliated with a variety of academic institutions in different states before coming to SFSU. She is a Ph.D.-level electrical engineer who trained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford. She wanted to be an industry engineer before discovering engineering education in graduate school.

She’s excited to be at SFSU, learn from faculty and students and contribute to SFSU’s long legacy of education and social justice. Long term, she hopes this project will help engineering education continue to evolve to meet students’ needs to become successful engineers.

“I want students to know that this is a place where they are going to not only be welcomed but that their backgrounds and experiences are going to be valued,” she said. “We see that those are important strengths and we’re going to do our very best to support them in translating that into successful and satisfying careers.”

Learn more about SFSU’s School of Engineering.

An in-class, on-campus student project explores the impact of a parasitic fly on honeybees

After a semester in a class, most students gain new knowledge, skills and maybe some new friends. For students in Assistant Professor Mitzy Porras’ Biology class, several undergraduates also walked away with a peer-reviewed research paper about zombie bees in a scientific journal — a major résumé boost for any student.

“Publishing a paper is kind of rare, especially as an undergraduate,” said Lioh Jaboeuf, first author of the paper published in the scientific journal Insects. On the first day of Porras’ undergraduate course “Bio 460: General Entomology” in fall 2024, Jaboeuf and some of his classmates chose to conduct a research project about the honeybees as their semester project. 

Honeybees play a critical role in urban ecosystems, pollinating the plants that support community gardens, street trees and backyard crops. However, they face many challenges, including parasitism by species like the parasitic fly Apocephalus borealis. The parasite lays its eggs inside a bee, and the larvae later force their way out, killing the bee. A 2012 SFSU study reported that before their untimely death, infected bees exhibit zombie-like behavior such as being disoriented, abandoning their hive and dying near sources of light. Porras’ class wanted to continue studying this parasite.

From September 2024 to May 2025, the SFSU team monitored honeybee populations at six different sites on the SFSU campus that included gardens with pollinators and herbaceous and woody plants, and near the science building where bees were previously collected. Parasitism rates fluctuated with the seasons — peaking in May when approximately 50% of bees were infected — and were closely linked to warmer temperatures and lower humidity.

“This study reinforces the need for long-term, seasonally informed monitoring of bee populations in urban areas. It serves as a powerful reminder that cities are dynamic ecosystems, and their resilience depends on how well we observe, understand and protect the species that keep them functioning,” Porras explained.

As a new professor at SFSU, Porras (who came to the University in fall 2024) prioritizes creating undergraduate classes that extend beyond standard curricula. 

“It’s critical to offer a research experience that allows students to have hands-on activities,” Porras emphasized. “While they’re learning concepts, they should have an opportunity to apply them and actually build their CV. That would be a plus for them when they go to the job market.”

Jaboeuf, an international student from France, participated in two internships before coming to SFSU but didn’t have experience with this level of data analysis, publishing or the process of responding to peer reviews via revisions. As an international student, doing scientific writing in English was an extra layer of learning that he appreciated. “The whole experience was very formative,” he said.

“To be involved from the start, carry out the project on your own terms and write a paper, revise it and do it as a group was a very good opportunity to understand how research works,” said Jaboeuf, who took Porras’ class during his semester at SFSU. “It was one of the best classes I took when I was in the U.S.”

Co-author Jenny Hoffmann (B.S., ’25), a transfer student, repeatedly heard that she needed research experience for her future as a biologist. Field research, however, can sometimes be difficult for students, especially if it’s in a remote location and coincides with other obligations. But Porras’ assignment circumvented this problem by keeping the field work close to home. 

“The project was done on campus, so it was very conveniently located,” said Hoffmann, who lived in the Towers at Centennial Square when the honeybees were being collected. “I could just go out and do the work in my community, which was so cool.” 

For Hoffmann, this project was part of her connection to the SFSU community, something she valued as a student and cherishes going forward.

“My favorite part of science is that it’s very collaborative and team-oriented,” she said. “I can’t wait to see where the next part of my journey takes me because I now have this SFSU community with me. I get to bring that to the next place I work, and I get to create community there. I’m so excited for that.”

Learn more about SFSU’s Department of Biology.

The new initiative provides stipends, lab support and opportunities for first-time and emerging researchers

Elmer Guzman didn’t always see himself as a researcher. A first-generation Chemistry senior at San Francisco State University, he wasn’t sure he belonged in a lab until this summer, when he became one of the first Gilead Innovation Initiative Scholars.

“It makes me feel proud of myself,” Guzman said. “Just seeing the recognition and knowing that there are opportunities trying to help students who are new to research makes me feel like there is a future to these things.”

Guzman is one of 30 student scientists who made up the first cohort of the Gilead Innovation Initiative at SFSU. The Gilead Foundation generously gifted $1.25 million in programmatic support to SFSU’s College of Science & Engineering (CoSE) via two awards during fundraising for the University’s new Science and Engineering Innovation Center (SEIC). In addition to supporting student research activities, the foundation also provided $3.75 million to outfit SEIC labs with state-of-the-art equipment and furnishings.

The Gilead Innovation Scholars — 11 undergraduate and 19 graduate students — were awarded $5,000 stipends to conduct research between June 1 and August 23. (Faculty members were also awarded a $1,000 honorarium for mentoring the scholars). Many of the student awardees were first-time researchers as well as students who had never received financial support for working in research labs. 

The Gilead award is unique in that it is inclusive of research activities throughout CoSE. It included at least one student from each of the eight CoSE departments and schools, supporting the training of astronomers, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, geologists, mathematicians, physicists, psychologists and others. Projects ranged from molecular biology and ecology to nanoparticles, artificial intelligence, youth psychology and many other topics in science and engineering. 

‘I’m moving in the right direction’

Guzman spent the summer in Associate Professor Jingjing Qiu’s lab, exploring chemistry and renewable energy. He is testing the stability of gold and nickel in electrodes for the electrochemical oxidation of benzyl alcohol. His work could one day help make industrial chemical processes more sustainable. But for him, the more immediate outcome was confidence. 

“It feels like I’m moving in the right direction,” Raphaelian said, noting she wants to become a professor. “I hope to achieve many more grants in my lifetime. It’s making me feel like I’m capable and I’m supposed to be here.”

‘There’s an astrophysicist that looks like me!’

 A Ph.D.-bound grad student like Raphaelian, Gabriel Munoz Zarazua was always fascinated by the mysteries of the universe. But he didn’t always think he could be an astrophysicist. Thanks to his own perseverance and support from mentors (and the Gilead Foundation), he’s now an SFSU astrophysicist collaborating with researchers all over the nation. 

“Now I’m starting to see more. I just got back from a conference in Washington, D.C., and we talked about that,” he explained. “It was so amazing to meet other people that look like me. I want to be that for other students, for the next generation. For them to look up and think, ‘There’s an astrophysicist that looks like me. If they can do it, I can do it too.’” 

Learn more about SFSU’s College of Science & Engineering.

IBM quantum resources open doors for hands-on learning and workforce readiness

San Francisco State University is the first California State University (CSU) campus to join the IBM Quantum Network, expanding opportunities for SFSU students and researchers to participate in quantum computing research and deepening classroom experiences. 

Student researchers working with Computer Science Professor Wes Bethel — who leads the Department of Computer Science’s quantum computing work — can gain access to IBM quantum computing systems through two key Department of Energy (DOE)-supported initiatives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). ORNL and LBNL are IBM Quantum Innovation Centers within the IBM Quantum Network. By having access to the IBM Quantum Network, Bethel hopes to provide some of his engaged students a new pathway to delve deeper into this field.

In addition to working with students on DOE-supported research projects, Bethel also teaches “CSC 647/747: Introduction to Quantum Computing and Quantum Information Science” where he uses various freely available resources to introduce quantum computing. 

Former SFSU student and current LBNL computer systems engineer Chris Pestano (M.S., ’25) explained that he pursued a career in quantum computing because “within the next 10 to 15 years, you should be expecting a lot of major breakthroughs. I thought that’d be interesting to be a part of. That also provides a decent amount of job security.” 

Bethel hopes to help more students join the quantum computing pipeline.

“What we’re doing is workforce development for quantum computing,” Bethel said. “We need people who are capable and know what quantum computing is, how do you write codes for it, how is quantum computing different from classical computing, what are the challenges and software ideas.”

Having access to quantum computing resources through these DOE projects gives SFSU computer scientists, researchers and other students hands-on experience to contribute to the rapid progress to the nascent technology and emerging industy.

“The trick is you need access to real quantum computing hardware. These are not things you can buy off the shelf,” Bethel explained.

He was able to apply and receive access to the IBM Quantum Network due to a DOE grant he received last year that funds his quantum computing research. It is part of a multi-institutional grant led by Talita Perciano at LBNL, that includes Bethel at SFSU and researchers at Argonne National Laboratory and is sponsored by DOE’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research.

DOE facilitates agreements so supercomputing centers (ORNL’s Quantum Computing User Program and LBNL’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center’s Quantum Computing Application Network) have access to high-end IBM quantum hardware. To apply for access, researchers like Bethel must be DOE-funded.

Over the past few years, Bethel has led efforts in the Computer Science department to develop and expand their quantum computing offerings. He’s already had a few graduate students like Pestano who pursued quantum computing-related work or studies after graduation. 

“One of the things he pointed out was that quantum computing is at the stage that’s comparable to modern-day computers post-World War II. He essentially said you’d be going in at the [field’s] infancy.” Pestano said. This idea was exciting to him. 

When Pestano started at SFSU, he wasn’t settled on a specific computer science career path. After enjoying Bethel’s graduate-level high-performance computing class, Pestano signed up for his quantum computing class. This naturally led to doing a master’s thesis with Bethel, he explains, noting that this was his first formal research experience. The project allowed Pestano to collaborate with and impress LBNL researchers. He was offered a job to continue his quantum computing work at the national lab. 

“I think it’s not only important to have these connections but also have the proactivity and will to bring that for the students. I think that’s why I liked Dr. Bethel’s class so much,” Pestano added. “He was able to bring in speakers that are currently in industry or in research that he knows. One of the members on my current team actually stopped by as a speaker in the quantum class.”

Bethel previously worked at LBNL as a computer scientist and is still an LBNL research affiliate. His interest in quantum computing began long before he was at SFSU, so he’s determined to help develop SFSU’s footprint in this space and prepare more students like Pestano. 

“From a student perspective, the program we have at San Francisco State is an entry point to a whole universe of technology and jobs and opportunities that have not been present before,” he said.

Learn more about SFSU’s Department of Computer Science.

Using this tool, organizations can prioritize finding the right candidates to maintain healthy work culture

It feels like narcissism is everywhere these days: politics, movies and TV, sports, social media. You might even see signs of it at work, where it can be particularly detrimental. Is it possible to keep a workplace free of destructive, manipulative egotists? 

More and more organizations have come to San Francisco State University’s experts in organizational psychology asking for help doing just that. In response, University researchers developed a tool for job interviews to assess narcissistic grandiosity among potential job candidates. San Francisco State Psychology Professors Kevin Eschleman and Chris Wright and four student researchers led the project, published in the Journal of Personality Assessment.

“We focused on narcissism because it’s one of the most commonly talked about characteristics of people. Really, it represents a lot of things that can go bad in terms of a team,” Eschleman said. “But it’s a characteristic that is very attractive in the short-term. [Narcissists] often have tendencies to be very goal-oriented and are often very successful. There’s a lure to somebody who is high in narcissism.” 

The tool developed by the SF State researchers — the Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment (NISE) — is a set of behavioral and situational questions that can be incorporated into a job interview. One question asks respondents to describe their approach to leading a team. Another asks how candidates would procced if they disagree with a plan that the rest of their team likes — and the project requires unanimous consent to move forward. Interviewers are trained to rate candidate responses, providing a more scientific and consistent way to evaluate a candidate’s propensity for narcissistic grandiosity. 

The project started four years ago when Eschleman noticed an uptick in organizations asking about effective teams, candidate selection and how to avoid “bad apples.” It’s easy for organizations to be enticed by how a candidate’s skills appear on paper, but failing to properly consider personality might derail team-oriented environments, Eschleman notes. Employees with narcissistic grandiosity tend to have inflated views of self and make self-focused and short term-focused decisions instead of considering long-term organizational needs. They may also abuse and try to protect their sense of power and control, he adds.

“This isn’t a categorical diagnosis,” Eschleman clarified, noting that everyone probably falls somewhere on the continuum of narcissism. “What we’re looking at are people’s consistencies over time. It’s how they view themselves or how others view them consistently over time. Do they engage in these actions consistently?”

The authors acknowledge that this assessment is not a perfect science. There are many other factors in building a successful team and healthy work environment. But they hope their tool will increase the odds for success.

While the researchers have been studying these topics for years, they wanted to make sure their tool was easy to use and could be adapted by different work environments. It is why they focused on job interviews, something accepted and considered appropriate by both organizations and applicants in the hiring process.

Sharon Pidakala (M.S., ’22), one of the study authors, is now a People & Development Manager at Lawyers On Demand in Singapore. Her work involves talent acquisition, culture, development, organizational policies and employee engagement. 

“I’ve been grateful to put my research into daily use. It’s really important to make sure that these questions are not outrightly direct because you don’t want it to look like you’re asking someone, ‘Are you a narcissist?’” explained Pidakala, whose SFSU thesis focused on developing the NISE tool. “These questions are raised in a way to make it look favorable for the candidate.”

Pidakala came to SF State specifically to get this type of training. With an undergraduate background in psychology, she sought specialized training in organizational psychology to further refine and expand her expertise in the field.

"Attending SF State and studying organizational psychology has been incredibly valuable, equipping me with versatile skills that can be applied globally," she said. 

Learn more about SFSU’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program.