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.
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.
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences was represented on the global stage as faculty and students participated in the United Nations’ 10th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, held at U.N. headquarters in New York City earlier this month.
Two students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences’ turfgrass science program recently were selected for highly competitive United States Golf Association Green Section internships.
Increasing renewable energy may not reduce the use of fossil fuels in the United States, according to a study by Ryan Thombs, assistant professor of rural sociology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
As the United States observes Lyme Disease Awareness Month in May, public health and extension professionals across the country have a powerful new tool at their fingertips: the VECTOR Library, a centralized digital database of more than 1,400 educational materials on vector-borne diseases collected from the Cooperative Extension System across all U.S. states and territories.
Pennsylvania’s nearly $22 billion forest products industry will be the focus of the 2025 Forest Products Equipment and Technology Exposition, to be held June 6-7 at Penn State's Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs.
Forty members of the Dairy Science Club in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences traveled to the Netherlands during spring break to learn more about global agriculture and explore a new culture.
What do chickens and people with a common reproductive disorder have in common? More than one might think — and a widely-used diabetes medication might just be the surprising link.
From riding along with a mobile medical unit in central Pennsylvania to studying the effects of deforestation on people and animals in Costa Rica, six students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences’ One Health minor are gaining firsthand insight into the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
Graduate students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences were recognized for their accomplishments during the 2025 Graduate Student Award Celebration, hosted by the Office for Research and Graduate Education and held recently on the University Park campus.
A team of researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences is addressing the growing interest among tree fruit growers in Pennsylvania and the Northeast in adopting drone-based spraying systems for high-density apple and peach orchards. The Northeast Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture recently awarded the team two grants to support the work.
Seeing the “huge juxtaposition” between streams flowing near her childhood home in Lancaster County impaired by pollution from intensive agriculture and the seemingly pristine creeks tumbling down the forested mountains around her family’s cabin in Mifflin County led Bridget Reheard to study how contaminants in waters affect aquatic organisms and aspirations for a career working to protect natural resources.
Increased soil salinity can reduce damage from prominent tomato pests such as the tomato fruitworm, according to researchers at Penn State.
The Penn State chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the agricultural honor society, recognized faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars and students from the College of Agricultural Sciences during its annual meeting April 3.
The Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences honored six alumni with 2025 Outstanding Alumni awards in a ceremony on April 10 in State College. The six honorees were also inducted into the college’s Armsby Honor Society alongside four other inductees.
On March 18, Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the University Park Undergraduate Association marked National Ag Day, an event designed to recognize and celebrate the many contributions of the agricultural industry.
Despite U.S. per capita-milk consumption falling significantly in recent decades, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultural, Americans are consuming a record amount of dairy in butter and cheese — products made from milk fat. In a new study, a team led by researchers at Penn State demonstrated that supplementing dairy cattle feed with 15% whole cottonseed, a byproduct of processing cotton for fiber, can increase milk fat concentration and yield.
Suat Irmak, professor and head of agricultural and biological engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences, has been elected to the latest cohort of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.
At the intersection of technology and agriculture, Penn State’s Agribot Club in the College of Agricultural Sciences aims to shape the future of farming through robotics.
Landis Crawford, a Schreyer Scholar and agricultural engineering major, has developed a passion for agricultural leadership from Penn State Behrend to University Park.
Insect predators found in the U.S. could help keep spotted lanternfly populations in check while potentially reducing reliance on chemical control methods, according to a new study conducted by researchers at Penn State.
A new method of examining gene expression patterns called landscape transcriptomics may help pinpoint what causes bumble bees stress and could eventually give insight into why bee populations are declining overall, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State.
A synthetic microbiome therapy, tested in mice, holds promise as a new treatment for C. difficile, a notoriously difficult-to-treat bacterial infection, according to a team of researchers at Penn State. The targeted treatment was as effective as human fecal transplants in mice against C. difficile infection with fewer safety concerns, protecting against severe symptoms and decreasing recurrent infections.
Auja Bywater, a doctoral student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been awarded second prize in the Global Challenges University Alliance 2030 research competition.
Soilless growing systems inside greenhouses, known as controlled environment agriculture, promise to advance the year-round production of high-quality specialty crops, according to an interdisciplinary research team at Penn State. But to be competitive and sustainable, this advanced farming method will require the development and implementation of precision agriculture techniques. To meet that demand, the team developed an automated crop-monitoring system capable of providing continuous and frequent data about plant growth and needs, allowing for informed crop management.
Students from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences are starting the year out with wins at two turfgrass industry national competitions.
Penn State faculty members Laura Leites and Alex Storm are working to create valuable undergraduate research opportunities that enhance knowledge, facilitate students’ transition between campuses, and strengthen connections with state and federal agencies — all while advancing the study of climate adaptation in forest tree species.
Managed honey bees have the potential to affect native bee populations when they are introduced to a new area, but a study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that, under certain conditions, the native bees can bounce back if the apiaries are moved away.
Many modern dairy farm operations have developed an additional revenue stream by breeding dairy cows with Black Angus beef bulls using artificial insemination to produce crossbred calves, which typically have improved meat quality and higher market value compared to purebred dairy calves. But these valuable hybrid calves often are beset with pneumonia, which was thought to limit their growth performance after they recover.
