News

<p>As an IST student, Charlie Watson, class of 2024, was actively involved with the Nittany AI Alliance. Now, as an alumnus, he's returned to Nittany AI as its first AI solutions architect.</p>

July 10, 2025

IST alumnus leverages Nittany AI Alliance experience into full-time career

<p>Rates of the Powassan virus infections — which can cause seizures and paralysis — are increasing across North America. Researchers from Penn State, the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have built a high resolution, 3D structure of the virus for the first time, a key step for developing strategies to prevent and treat infection.</p>

July 09, 2025

Structure of tick-borne virus revealed at atomic resolution for the first time

<p>To better understand processes driving change in Antarctic ice shelves, a team led by researchers at Penn State developed a new method to evaluate cracks that destabilize the shelves and accelerate ice losses.</p>

July 09, 2025

Measuring how – and where – Antarctic ice is cracking with new data tool

<p>Kathryn Rex, a biomedical engineering graduate student at Penn State, was awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to support her research on improving outcomes for rotator cuff surgery patients through the study of upper limb biomechanics. Her work, inspired in part by her own shoulder injuries as a collegiate softball player, aims to understand how altered movement patterns may contribute to surgical failure.</p>

July 09, 2025

Grad student earns NSF fellowship to study rotator cuff tears

<p>Researchers led by Soo-yong Byun, a College of Education professor, found that South Korean elementary students who consistently attend private tutoring are more likely to become behaviorally disengaged in their regular classrooms. The results raise concerns about the unintended consequences of supplemental learning, Byun said.</p>

July 08, 2025

Private tutoring linked to student disengagement, researchers find

<p>Golf course managers have much more insight into which fungicides to use to suppress turfgrass diseases, such as the common and costly dollar spot disease, without damaging the grass on their fairways, thanks to a new study by researchers at Penn State.</p>

July 08, 2025

Fungicides intended to suppress turfgrass diseases may damage fairways

<p>In this Q&A, Penn State postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller describes her research on the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol use.</p>

July 08, 2025

Q&A: Does adolescent alcohol use impact future risk of addiction?

<p>As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 20 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.</p>

July 07, 2025

Sending a 'We Are!' to these Penn Staters — July 7

<p>Han Chen, a doctoral student in the College of Arts and Architecture’s Department of Art History, has been awarded a Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., where she will work on her dissertation titled “Chinese Art en route: (Re)constructing Global Knowledge of China in the Art Markets, 1900-1950.”</p>

July 07, 2025

Art history doctoral student awarded Smithsonian fellowship

<p>Nighttime pistachio consumption affects gut bacteria in adults with prediabetes, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences.</p>

July 07, 2025

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

<p>Four emerging leaders in science and innovation have been selected as the inaugural fellows in Penn State’s Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship program, an initiative designed to close critical training gaps in research translation and technology commercialization. </p>

July 07, 2025

Four selected for inaugural Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship at Penn State

<p>Leading North American forest genetics researchers, professionals and students joined together at Penn State for the 2025 Forest Genetics Conference, where they shared ideas and made connections to enhance research dedicated to preserving forests.</p>

July 02, 2025

National forest genetics groups meet at Penn State for annual conference

<p>Humans may not be the only species that struggles to eat the right amounts of the ideal foods. A new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that what bumble bees choose to eat may not line up with their ideal nutritional needs.</p>

July 02, 2025

What a bumble bee chooses to eat may not match ideal diet

<p>A research group, including several Penn State researchers, developed a computational model to streamline flood prediction in the continental United States. Their model, which they call a differentiable routing model, incorporates physical readings — like temperature and river height — into a system that uses artificial intelligence to simulate and predict water movement.</p>

July 02, 2025

Improving predictions of flood severity, place and time with AI

<p>These eight students join the 56 prior recipients continuing in the University’s graduate degree programs across seven academic colleges.</p>

July 02, 2025

Eight graduate students receive U.S. National Science Foundation fellowships

<p>Sarah Chekan, a master’s student in mechanical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, was selected for the 2025-26 U.S. Fulbright Student Research/Study Program. She will conduct research within the Advanced Center for Electrical and Electronic Engineering on integrating renewable energy into existing power grids in Chile.</p>

July 01, 2025

Mechanical engineering grad student selected as Fulbright scholar for Chile

<p>The Penn State Alumni Association welcomed new volunteer leadership on July 1, with Susan Robinson, class of 1994, beginning a two-year term as president. Fellow leader Melissa Brickhouse, class of 1999, started her two-year term as vice president on the same day.</p>

July 01, 2025

Alumni Association welcomes new volunteer leadership

<p>A patch of the Atlantic Ocean just south of Greenland is cooling while much of the world warms. The origin of this “cold blob” has been linked to weakening ocean currents that help regulate global climate — called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Penn State researchers have found a weakening AMOC impacts not just the ocean but also the atmosphere, and that these two factors may contribute equally to the cold anomaly. </p>

June 30, 2025

Ocean, atmosphere equally responsible for Atlantic ‘cold blob,’ scientists find

<p>Tanusree Sharma, assistant professor in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, received a $60,000 Google Research Scholar Award for a project to help blind and low-vision people identify artificial intelligence-generated content.</p>

June 30, 2025

Q&A: Improving how blind and low-vision people navigate deepfakes

<p>Two faculty members in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences have been awarded the prestigious U.S.-Africa Frontiers Fellowships by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to build high-impact research collaboration and strengthen capacity building with African scientists. In addition, three African scientists will be visiting Penn State.</p>

June 27, 2025

EMS faculty members earn National Academies US-African Frontiers Fellowships

<p>After more than 32 years of service as a faculty member in the Penn State College of Education’s workforce education program, Distinguished Professor William Rothwell has chosen to retire from the University, effective June 30.</p>

June 26, 2025

William Rothwell retires after three decades as College of Education faculty

<p>Professor of Biology Charles T. Anderson has been named the new chair of the intercollege graduate degree program in plant biology in the Huck Institutes, succeeding longtime program head Teh-hui Kao.</p>

June 25, 2025

Charlie Anderson to lead plant biology intercollege graduate program

<p>Graduate student Inori Hayashi is the 2025 honoree of the annual Lt. Michael P. Murphy Award, which recognizes a Penn State student who has made exceptional contributions in the global geospatial intelligence community.</p>

June 25, 2025

Penn State announces 2025 Lt. Michael P. Murphy Award recipient

<p>The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, in partnership with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, hosted its eighth annual Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium on May 13-14 at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center.</p>

June 24, 2025

Nese Nursing hosts Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium

<p>The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, in partnership with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, hosted its eighth annual Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium on May 13-14 at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center.</p>

June 24, 2025

Nursing hosts Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium

<p>The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, in partnership with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, hosted its eighth annual Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium on May 13-14 at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center.</p>

June 24, 2025

Nursing hosts Translating Research to Innovations in Practice Symposium

<p>At Penn State, two researchers are at the forefront of this intersection between computer science and biology. Mingfu Shao, associate professor of computer science and engineering, and David Koslicki, associate professor of computer science and engineering and of biology, recently presented three papers at RECOMB, one of the top conferences in computational biology, which took place April 26-29 in Seoul, South Korea.</p>

June 24, 2025

Q&A: How does computer science advance biology?

<p>Research from Keegan Peterson and Melissa Bopp of Penn State’s Department of Kinesiology suggests that physical fitness measures may be more effective than self-reported physical activity alone in predicting cardiometabolic risks in college students.</p>

June 24, 2025

College students’ fitness better indicates heart health than physical activity

<p>Teh-hui Kao, distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has stepped down as chair of the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Plant Biology after 26 years in the role. Longtime program faculty member Charlie Anderson, professor of biology and co-director of the Center for Biorenewables, will take over as chair.</p>

June 23, 2025

Kao steps down as plant biology graduate program chair

June 23, 2025

Child Maltreatment Solutions Network announces funding recipients

<p>Penn State alumna Dana Cuomo and current graduate student Lily Houtman partnered to map student-reported experiences of gender-based violence at Lafayette College. </p>

June 20, 2025

Penn State alumna, graduate student partner on campus safety mapping project

<p>Despite having identical genetic instructions, female honey bee larvae can develop into either long-lived reproductive queens or short-lived sterile workers who help rear their sisters rather than laying their own eggs. Now, an interdisciplinary team led by researchers at Penn State has uncovered the molecular mechanisms that control how the conflict between genes inherited from the father and the mother determine the larva’s fate.</p>

June 20, 2025

How a genetic tug-of-war decides the fate of a honey bee

<p>A research team from Penn State has broken a 165-year-old law of thermal radiation with unprecedented strength, setting the stage for more efficient energy harvesting, heat transfer and infrared sensing. Their results, currently available online, are slated to be published in Physical Review Letters on June 23.</p>

June 20, 2025

Rewriting a scientific law to unlock the potential of energy, sensing and more

<p>Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can lead to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. In this Q&A, W. Larry Kenney, professor of physiology and kinesiology and Marie Underhill Noll Chair in Human Performance at Penn State, and doctoral candidate Olivia Leach discuss their research on the upper limits of heat and humidity that people can withstand based on their age, sex and health.</p>

June 18, 2025

Q&A: Who is in the most danger during a heatwave?

<p>Twenty Penn State World Campus students traveled to Hungary for a weeklong immersive experience in April as part of their course work for programs offered through the Penn State School of Labor and Employment Relations.</p>

June 17, 2025

Students travel to Hungary for international learning experience

<p>Penn State has named J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox as its 2025 Philanthropists of the Year. The award recognizes individuals, couples or families who have demonstrated exceptional generosity in the promotion and support of the University. In 2024, the couple made a landmark gift of $20 million to endow and name the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State.</p>

June 16, 2025

J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox honored as Penn State’s Philanthropists of the Year

<p>Six projects designed by Penn State graphic design students garnered awards in the worldwide Graphis New Talent Awards 2025 with two submissions receiving the competition’s highest honor and an additional 26 projects receiving Honorable Mention accolades.</p>

June 16, 2025

Stuckeman graphic design students shine in Graphis New Talent Awards

<p>Aviral Srivastava, who earned his master's degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, was selected as a 2025 RSA Conference Security Scholar. </p>

June 16, 2025

IST cybersecurity graduate named RSA Conference Security Scholar

<p>The history of the Boston Bruins’ failed move to New Hampshire in the early 1980s demonstrates that residents and politicians can fundamentally alter deals related to team locations and venues, according to a report by Aaron Bonsu, doctoral candidate in kinesiology at Penn State.</p>

June 16, 2025

Q&A: Sports arenas — the importance of politics, fan response and public money

<p>To better understand potential contamination of the groundwater feeding the 3.5 million people served by private well systems in Pennsylvania, a team of researchers from Penn State conducted a novel three-year citizen science study of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — often referred to as forever chemicals — in 167 private wells across the commonwealth.</p>

June 16, 2025

‘Forever chemicals’ detected in 65% of sampled private wells in Pennsylvania

<p>A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has emitted a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group that includes scientists from Penn State.</p>

June 13, 2025

Strange radio pulses detected coming from ice in Antarctica

<p>The Graduate Student Writing Retreat is one of a number of events organized by Penn State University Libraries to address the specific needs of graduate students. “Our goals are to introduce students to library resources and support in an informal setting, and to create space and structure for them to expand their social and professional networks,” said Sara Kern, engineering librarian.</p>

June 12, 2025

Libraries writing retreat provides graduate students support, community

<p>Hazel Velasco Palacios, a doctoral candidate in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been awarded a writing fellowship to help support her research on health care access for Pennsylvania farmworkers in the mushroom and dairy industries.</p>

June 12, 2025

Penn State Ag Sciences doctoral student awarded competitive national fellowship

<p>In a world first, a team led by researchers at Penn State used two-dimensional materials, which are only an atom thick and retain their properties at that scale, unlike silicon, to develop a computer capable of simple operations. The advancement, published in Nature, represents a major leap toward the realization of thinner, faster and more energy-efficient electronics, the researchers said.</p>

June 11, 2025

World’s first 2D, non-silicon computer developed

<p>For the first time, a team led by researchers at Penn State has developed a method of “fingerprinting” plant compounds called procyanidins, introducing a more sophisticated and accurate way to analyze the perceptual variation in many foods and drinks, including wine and chocolate. </p>

June 11, 2025

‘Fingerprinting’ plant compounds helps explain food, drink tastes

<p>Environmental educators can improve teaching and leadership skills by acquiring knowledge from their students through youth-to-adult intergenerational learning, according to a new study from researchers in the Penn State Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management.</p>

June 10, 2025

How youth teach environmental educators through intergenerational learning

<p>Faculty members and graduate students from the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications will once again play a prominent role at the annual International Communication Association conference. Their scholarly contributions will be featured across a variety of sessions at this year’s event, the organization’s 75th, which runs from June 12-16 in Denver, Colorado.</p>

June 10, 2025

Bellisario College scholars to share research at international conference

<p>Patrick Hickey, a spring 2025 graduate of the professional master of architecture degree program in the Stuckeman School, was named the winner of the Department of Architecture’s 2025 Jawaid Haider Award for Design Excellence in Graduate Studies for his thesis that questions how effective the Americans with Disabilities Act has been in the built environment since its establishment in 1991.</p>

June 10, 2025

Architecture alum honored for thesis examining ADA in the built environment

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