Recent News

August 25, 2021

María del Mar Jiménez-Gasco, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, received this year’s Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the American Phytopathological Society. The honor came during the group’s annual meeting, Plant Health 2021, held virtually Aug. 2-6. The award recognizes an American Phytopathological Society member for excellence in teaching plant pathology. Preference is given to active teachers with responsibility for one or more courses in plant pathology.

August 25, 2021

An exhaustive and painstaking comparison of the genomes of multiple strains of the cacao tree by a team of researchers has provided insights into the role genomic structural variants play in the regulation of gene expression and chromosome evolution, giving rise to the differences within populations of the plant.

August 16, 2021

Penn State entomologist David Hughes has been added to the magazine Fast Company's, list of "The Most Creative People in Business 2021." Fast Company is a publication dedicated to the power of disruptive innovation, and added Hughes due to his PlantVillage work at Penn State

August 4, 2021

The discovery of a gene that regulates the angle of root growth in corn is a new tool to enable the breeding of deeper-rooting crops with enhanced ability to take up nitrogen, according to an international team of researchers, led by Penn State.

July 20, 2021

Aaron Wiedemer, a senior majoring in food science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has an envious area of study: chocolate. He will be taking his research abroad in fall 2021 with the help of the Marshall Plan Scholarship. The Marshall Plan Scholarship is designed for students working on part of their bachelor’s or master’s degree thesis. Students enrolled in any American university are eligible to apply.

July 19, 2021

Computed tomography — CT scanning — which combines a series of X-ray images taken from different angles around an organism and uses computer processing to create cross-sectional images of its bones, is providing new insight into an old initiative to characterize fishes in Africa’s Lake Malawi. The process, demonstrated in a new study using the high-resolution X-ray computer system in Penn State’s Center for Quantitative X-Ray Imaging, is important because it will lead to the identification and management of more of the fish species in Africa’s second largest lake, according to lead researcher Jay Stauffer Jr., distinguished professor of ichthyology in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

July 19, 2021

A virtual international agriculture course is helping students at both Penn State and Lviv Polytechnic National University in Lviv, Ukraine, grow a deeper understanding of local and global food security.

July 19, 2021

Penn State researchers responsible for PlantVillage, a mobile app that helps farmers diagnose crop diseases and monitor pests, have been lauded for their work to help African farmers overcome challenges related to desert locusts and COVID-19.

June 23, 2021