Penn State's agricultural and extension education program was well represented at this year’s National Association of Agricultural Educators National Convention, where multiple faculty, students and alumni participated in workshops and were recognized with awards.
The Center for Plant Excellence, a new initiative supporting Pennsylvania’s plant industries, announced recipients of its 2025-26 grants, awarding $125,000 across seven projects.
Megan Zipprich, an animal science major in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was among the 10 recipients of the All-American Livestock Judging Award during the National Collegiate Livestock Judging Contest, held in November in Louisville, Kentucky.
Five students in Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, for a week-long immersion in global food security at the World Food Prize event.
At the Pennsylvania Farm Show, to be held Jan. 10-17, 2026, in Harrisburg, faculty and extension educators from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences will offer interactive activities and expert guidance on topics ranging from mental wellness and food preservation to invasive species and water quality.
To help apple growers achieve such precise management, researchers at Penn State are developing an automated, robotic weed-management system.
In this video, join President Neeli Bendapudi as she visits the College of Agricultural Sciences to learn about an experiential learning experience made possible through the power of partnership that is connecting ag students with a hands-on opportunity in sustainable farming. Watch the video for a behind-the-scenes look at this unique student opportunity.
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences recognized exceptional achievements in research during its fourth annual Research Awards Ceremony held Oct. 28 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.
To help shape the future of agricultural education and innovation, Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has convened a new Dean’s Leadership Council — a distinguished group of leaders committed to advancing the college’s mission through teaching, research and extension.
Penn State undergraduate Emma Chaplin has been named a finalist for a 2026 Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most selective postgraduate awards for U.S. students.
A novel technique developed by researchers at Penn State has revealed that activity matters more than abundancy for which soil microbes can help plants with nutrient uptake and disease resistance.
Penn State doctoral candidate Sahil Pawar studies how environmental stressors, primarily salty soil — a problem often overlooked in agriculture — affect the relationships between plants and insects.
Growing winter wheat for both grain and straw production is common in poultry farms in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region, where grain is used for feed and straw is used for animal bedding. Grain yield can be improved by spraying plants with a regulator that halts vertical growth and makes them less prone to falling over, a phenomenon farmers call “lodging” that can greatly reduce grain yields. A team of researchers at Penn State investigated the effect of a growth regulator on straw yield and quality.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered precision agriculture tools can help growers better manage their orchards by reducing waste, increasing resilience and helping guide decisions about water use, fertilizer application and pest control, according to researchers at Penn State. However, the team said, not enough agricultural scientists are trained to develop and use these tools in real-world farming situations. An project underway in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences aims to ease that shortage by training three doctoral degree students.
Agricultural leadership took the spotlight at the Penn State Ag Council’s fall meeting in State College, where the council honored the recipients of its 2025 Leadership Awards.
In spring 2026, the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering will launch ABSM 497: Conservation Management, a course designed to help students understand natural resource concerns across Pennsylvania’s landscape, with an emphasis on soil and water conservation.
In September, turfgrass students from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to volunteer at the 2025 U.S. Mid-Amateur Golf Championship.
Roughly a quarter of adults in the U.S. are caring for elderly family members or children with an illness or disability — and sometimes both at the same time. Researchers at Penn State led an expansive study of caregiver well-being and found that the type of geographic location and individual circumstances can impact a caregiver’s health, comfort and happiness even more than their state’s family care policies.
Government and industry stakeholders got a literal taste of the future of agriculture by sampling hydroponically grown greens at one of several presentations during the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences’ annual Legislative Research Tour, held Sept. 25 at the University Park campus.
Caroline Hunter, a senior majoring in environmental resource management in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, had the opportunity to grow her knowledge of environmental policy during a summer internship with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
In a development that could help protect one of the world's most beloved agricultural commodities, a research team at Penn State has successfully created disease-resistant cacao plants using gene-editing technology. According to the researchers, the innovation promises to help resolve a significant problem for the global chocolate industry, worth over $135 billion annually, which faces threat from the phytophthora species, a fungal-like pathogen that gives rise to the destructive black pod disease that can cause yield losses of up to 30% worldwide.
Organic beekeeping can support healthy and productive honey bee colonies, and a new study led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences found that adopting organic honey bee colony management is not only profitable, but in some cases, it can be even more profitable than conventional management.
Elizabeth Karcher, a Penn State alumna and a professor and undergraduate program coordinator at Purdue University, has been named the new associate dean for undergraduate education in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, effective Sept. 16.
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and its Department of Entomology are benefiting from a $1.5 million gift from a donor who has chosen to remain anonymous. The gift, split into two parts, supports the creation of the Maria Sibylla Merian Endowed Faculty Position and the Rachel Carson Graduate Training Program.
Penn State alum Celia Graef has been a part of the Shaver's Creek Environmental Center community for as long as she can remember. Now, as continues on her journey, she works to build that same sense of community everywhere she goes.
More than 20 high school educators recently visited Penn State’s University Park campus as experiential learners for a new program focused on one of Pennsylvania’s highest-producing agricultural commodities: mushrooms.
Microgreens, which are young, edible plants that only take one to three weeks to harvest, are more than garnish at trendy restaurants — they could be the answer to global hunger, according to plant scientists at Penn State. Two new studies have revealed that microgreens, already densely packed with nutrients, can be made even more nutritious with a couple of minor growing adjustments.
Penn State’s Ag Progress Days, held Aug. 12-14 at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, was a successful showcase of agricultural innovation, research and technology, according to leaders in the College of Agricultural Sciences, which sponsored the event.
A new way to treat poultry for fowl mites was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July, thanks in part to a team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
A gallery of photo from this year's Ag Progress Days, which brought thousands of visitors to the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center from Aug. 12-14 for demonstrations, exhibitions and talks on every aspect of the agricultural industry.
