Latest News

April 6, 2026

Four Penn State faculty members in the biological sciences, engineering and statistics have 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. 

April 6, 2026

A team led by Penn State scientists has developed a way to chemically characterize and identify individual tannins — water-soluble compounds found in both wood and grape skins — in wine that come from oak barrels and contribute to its flavor profile.

April 6, 2026

Not having enough food may have had a greater negative effect on mental health in the United States than unemployment or loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study led by Penn State researchers.

April 3, 2026

While the COVID-19 pandemic challenged all veterans transitioning to civilian life, female post-9/11 veterans experienced a sharper decline in overall well-being compared to their male counterparts, according to new research from the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State.

April 2, 2026

On a recent episode of “Growing Impact,” Penn State researchers discussed their Institute of Energy and the Environment seed grant project studying groundwater governance in India and the impacts of a large-scale, community-based water management initiative.

April 1, 2026

Jason L. Rasgon, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Disease Epidemiology and Biotechnology, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

March 31, 2026

Four graduate students have received awards in the 2025-26 Penn State Three Minute Thesis Competition, hosted by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School. The four students competed against six other students in the final round on Mar. 28 at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.

March 25, 2026

Deah Lieurance, assistant professor of invasive species biology and management in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was one of five keynote speakers at the Alien Species in Iceland Workshop hosted by the Marine and Freshwater Institute in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, on March 16-17, sponsored by the Natural Science Institute of Iceland and Fulbright Iceland.

March 24, 2026

Excessive salts in soil can restrict a plant’s water and nutrient uptake, hindering crop growth and reducing yields on roughly 30% of U.S. irrigated land. To help growers identify and mitigate salt stress, in a proof-of-concept study, a team led by Penn State researchers built a low-cost sensor system that detects signals released by plants in trouble.

March 18, 2026

When Eva SinhaRoy arrived at University Park a couple years ago, she was a little overwhelmed at the possibilities. The science-minded student knew she wanted to focus on research, but she also wanted to build skills in other areas such as leadership. Since then, she's found her place in undergraduate research, leadership, and campus activities such as THON and the Presidential Leadership Academy.

March 16, 2026

The Penn State community is invited to watch the culmination of the 2025-26 Penn State Three Minute Thesis competition, where 10 graduate students will summarize their research and its impact while competing for monetary prizes of up to $1,000. The event will take place at 3 p.m. March 28 at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus and also will be livestreamed.

March 16, 2026

When farmers apply poultry litter — chicken manure — to fields as fertilizer, it adds nutrients like phosphorus to the soil that plants need. However, phosphorus can dissolve in water and runoff into streams instead of going into crops, causing water pollution and economic loss for farmers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A team led by Penn State researchers recently demonstrated that the use of a novel soil additive might effectively reduce phosphorus runoff.

March 13, 2026

A long-running debate in vaccine design revolves around whether a vaccine should be optimized to prevent the virus from replicating inside an infected host or prevent the virus from transmitting to others. New research led by Penn State scientists suggests there may not have to be a tradeoff.

March 5, 2026

The inaugural Penn State-Ghana Research Partnerships Seed Grant Program has awarded nine projects to fuel global impact, including crop disease surveillance, removing heavy metals from mining wastewater and understanding multimodal traffic streams.

March 4, 2026

The Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences announced a call for 2026-27 Seed Grant Program funding proposals, due by May 1. Huck seed grants foster innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative life sciences research with the potential to drive scientific breakthroughs and generate new research directions leading to impactful externally funded research.

February 26, 2026

A new teaching guide — created by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences alumna Sadie Seaman along with the support of her thesis adviser — is making bacterial genome sequencing more accessible for students just getting started in the lab.

February 25, 2026

On Valentine’s Day, the Palmer Museum of Art became a tasting room and a classroom all at once. “The Art of Chocolate: A Guided Tasting Experience,” presented by the Arboretum at Penn State in partnership with Penn State’s Cacao and Chocolate Research Network, paired research with sensory discovery and chocolate with cheese.

February 25, 2026

Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Health researchers will continue monitoring household sewage at dozens of municipal plants around the commonwealth for foodborne illness pathogens, with new funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The grant, anticipated to amount to more than $500,000 over five years, will complement related work funded by the FDA since 2016.

February 25, 2026

Microbiome — referring to the community of microorganisms inhabiting a specific organism — science may help solve problems facing agriculture, but prior research findings have not yet been translated to practical recommendations for growers, according to a team of scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences that has offered some ways to accelerate the transition.

February 24, 2026

Andrew Patterson, John T. and Paige S. Smith Professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences, has been elected as a fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology.

February 24, 2026

Penn State researchers and their colleagues found that vegetative buffers, like shrubs or grasses, likely reduces the amount of specific pesticides from reaching a stream. However, the buffers are not protective against all pesticides entering waterways.

February 17, 2026

Ran Li, assistant professor of agricultural economics, will discuss the effectiveness of the mobile app Too Good To Go as a potential complement to public food assistance by reallocating surplus food into low-cost consumption opportunities. His talk is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, Feb. 25, in 157 Hosler Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

February 17, 2026

Penn State Extension recently was awarded a competitive national grant to build a microcredentialing system aimed at strengthening the agricultural workforce and formally recognizing job-ready skills.

February 12, 2026

Biting into a tart green apple is a different taste and sensory experience than sucking juice from a lemon. Now, Penn State researchers have found that while some of that sour taste and experience difference comes from individual perceptions, the acids themselves vary in sourness, even at the same concentrations.

February 11, 2026

Paul Esker and John Boney, faculty members in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, have received grants from the Pennsylvania Soybean Board. 

February 6, 2026

David Huff, professor of turfgrass breeding and genetics at Penn State, recently earned the Research Innovator Award through the College of Agricultural Sciences for the research and entrepreneurial leadership that led to the founding of his startup, PennPoa. To launch his turfgrass startup, Huff utilized Penn State entrepreneurial resources.

February 5, 2026

Implementing novel management practices in dairy farming, one of the commonwealth’s major agricultural industries, could help alleviate a large source of both nutrient pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a multidisciplinary team led by researchers at Penn State.

February 5, 2026

Ten graduate students have been named finalists for the 2025-26 J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which helps graduate students refine their research communication skills while gaining recognition for their scholarship and competing for cash prizes. The final round of Penn State’s Three Minute Thesis competition will take place on Saturday, March 28, at the Nittany Lion Inn.