Latest News

Within the past decade, beekeepers across the globe have observed massive declines in managed honey bee populations. Similar declines have been observed in populations of wild bees and other pollinators. Understanding what is driving these declines is a vital question for researchers, beekeepers, growers, and the public. Several factors are being investigated, including habitat loss, climate change, disease, and pesticide use.

Laura Kaminsky, a doctoral student in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will be able to advance her research interests in plant pathology after receiving a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The 2018–19 Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) seed grant recipients have been awarded to 18 groups of interdisciplinary researchers at Penn State.

Penn State University Libraries awards recognized three outstanding undergraduate thesis authors as well as one graduate student and nine undergraduate student researchers, all exhibiting exemplary scholarly research methods and communication at University Park campus presentations this spring.

The prevalence of the most abundant species of ticks found in Pennsylvania has shifted over the last century, according to Penn State scientists, who analyzed 117 years' worth of specimens and data submitted primarily by residents from around the state.

Three students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have been recognized for their commitment to diversity as winners of the inaugural Undergraduate Diversity Essay Contest, sponsored by the college’s Diversity Coordinating Council.

Jessica Chou spent last summer in Philadelphia, working as an intern on an urban farm and farmer’s market of a non-profit organization that delivered meals to homebound seniors. It was the Penn State Schreyer Honors Scholar’s first taste of living in a city, and it sparked a greater interest in the sustainability of urban environments.

While touring a hospital in India, Penn State entomologist Matthew Thomas recalls walking past the intensive care unit and seeing a young boy — about 14 years old — severely ill from malaria. He learned later that the boy had died the following day, and the unfortunate circumstance of it all stayed with Thomas. If the boy had been bitten by any other mosquito, he may not have died.

Planting and growing a strategic mix of cover crops not only reduces the loss of nitrogen from farm fields, protecting water quality in the Chesapeake Bay, but the practice also contributes nitrogen to subsequent cash crops, improving yields, according to researchers.

With the goal of preparing scholars from underrepresented groups to succeed in graduate and professional programs, Penn State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) partnered to develop undergraduate programs aimed at increasing retention and academic performance of historically racially underrepresented undergraduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Jasna Kovac, assistant professor of food science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently was named recipient of the Institut Merieux Young Investigator Award in Antimicrobial Resistance from the International Association for Food Protection.

Songbirds that pack on as much as 50 percent of their body weight before migrating and that sleep very little, exhibit altered immune system and tissue-repair function during the journey, which may hold implications for human health, according to Penn State researchers.

A group of doctoral students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences who are examining the use of perennial grasses as stream buffers will benefit from four complementary state and federal grants.

Jacob Johnson, a doctoral candidate in forest resources and in international agriculture and development in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has received a Fulbright Study/Research Award.

Hanareia Ehau-Taumaunu, doctoral candidate in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has been selected as the recipient of the Phytobiomes Fellowship for the 2019-20 academic year.

The Institute for CyberScience (ICS) announced 16 projects that are being funded through the 2019 ICS Seed Grant Program. The awards, ranging from nearly $3,000 to $35,000, will support researchers in more than 20 departments and units, 10 colleges and three institutes.

The Appalachian communities that enjoyed persistent economic growth following the 2008 Great Recession have a number of factors in common, according to researchers who analyzed all 420 counties in the Appalachian region. Their findings will help guide future economic development strategies across Appalachia.

Thirteen graduate students received the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award, Distinguished Doctoral Scholar Medal in recognition of their outstanding professional accomplishment and achievement in scholarly research in any of the disciplinary areas of arts and humanities; social sciences—applied and basic; physical and computational sciences—applied and basic; life and health sciences; and engineering.

How do regional opinions on Twitter represent real-world attitudes toward climate change? A team of researchers will work to find out, thanks to a recent seed grant from the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State.

Bipana Paudel Timilsena, a doctoral student in entomology with a dual title in international agriculture and development, received the Graduate Student International Research Award. The purpose of the award is to promote and support international research and scholarship by graduate students that has the potential for global impact.