Latest News

January 27, 2025

The Institute of Energy and the Environment presented awards to six Penn State faculty members for their collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts and mentorship.

January 24, 2025

Three Penn State researchers have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the White House announced on Jan. 14. The award is the highest honor the U.S. government bestows on early-career scientists and engineers. The awards are conferred annually following recommendations from federal funding agencies.

January 24, 2025

Although aquaculture, fish farming, is believed to have been practiced for thousands of years in Asia, the approach is relatively new in Africa, which is facing a “fish deficit” that contributes to a lack of protein in the diets of the populace, according to the international nonprofit WorldFish. To help accelerate fish farming in northern Zambia, a team led by researchers at Penn State investigated local integrated agriculture-aquaculture practices — meaning their management of agricultural resources to supply essential inputs for feeding fish — adopted by farmers.

January 24, 2025

Margarita López-Uribe, the Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor of Entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

January 24, 2025

Microorganisms collected from the material in which button mushrooms are grown may benefit the development of future fungi crops, according to a study led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

January 22, 2025

Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs to track when they go in and out of their hives. The work, a collaboration among entomologists and electrical engineers at Penn State, is the first step in solving a long-standing mystery of how far bees travel from their hives to collect pollen and nectar.

January 21, 2025

Geese appear to understand when and where hunting takes place but are willing to risk the danger to stay close to resources and their primary habitats, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. 

January 17, 2025

Christina Grozinger has been appointed as the new director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State, succeeding interim director Patrick Drew. Globally recognized for her research in pollinator genetics and insect biodiversity, Grozinger's leadership is expected to significantly advance the institute's research capabilities and collaborative efforts across diverse scientific disciplines.

January 17, 2025

The delegation of Penn State faculty and students who went to Azerbaijan for the United Nations’ annual climate meeting known as the Conference of Parties, COP29, will take part in a panel discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, at Penn State University Park. The event, called Climate Conversation Café, is supported by the Penn State Climate Consortium.

January 16, 2025

A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.

January 15, 2025

The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State has been awarded a $100,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments to support the evaluation of four prominent national nonprofit programs — Hiring Our Heroes, Hire Heroes USA, VetJobs and Onward to Opportunity— dedicated to improving veteran-employment outcomes.

January 9, 2025

In the next Virtual Speaker Series from the Penn State Alumni Association, David Hughes, Huck Chair in Global Food Security at Penn State, will discuss PlantVillage, an AI-enabled "land grant in a phone" that uses data sharing to help smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia and the Americas adapt to climate change. This free event will be held on Zoom from noon to 1 p.m. on Jan. 21. Registration is open now.

January 8, 2025

The invasive emerald ash borer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was first found in the United States in southeast Michigan in 2002. In the decades since, the wood-boring beetle has spread east and west across the U.S. and Canada, killing tens of millions of ash trees, causing one of the costliest forest insect invasions to date. Researchers at Penn State are working with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners to identify and develop ash trees genetically able to withstand the beetles’ onslaught and strategize how to restore ash to forests.

January 6, 2025

Different species of bees may be attracted to different flower traits when it comes to deciding where they’re going to get their next meal, according to a recent study led by researchers at Penn State.

January 6, 2025

The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State has received a $181,080 grant from The Heinz Endowments to develop and enhance policies in support of Pennsylvania’s military veterans. This funding will support efforts to strengthen state-level policy discussions, harness veterans' economic potential and evaluate the state’s workforce system to facilitate the successful integration of military veterans into Pennsylvania's workforce.

January 2, 2025

The January episode of “Growing Impact” discusses cement replacements made from leftover agricultural materials that could be more environmentally friendly.

December 23, 2024

A team of researchers from Penn State have found that household dogs are an overlooked transmission point for Salmonella, a pathogen that can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, with some infections potentially having life-threatening complications. However, they said, better awareness of the risk and proper hygiene could potentially help mitigate cross-species infections.  

December 19, 2024

Despite their reputation as buzzing nuisances, flies serve a critical role as some of the Earth’s most prolific pollinators — and new research led by Penn State scientists suggests they are increasingly at risk due to rising global temperatures.

December 18, 2024

A concentrated sugar solution could be just as effective as antibiotics at treating a common infection in dairy cows, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

December 18, 2024

Two new studies led by Penn State researchers analyzed the experiences of residents in a rural Pennsylvania community after the closure of several essential places.

December 12, 2024

Ayse Akyildiz, a doctoral student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently returned from a research training trip to the Arctic, during which she and the other participants learned more about the region and the complex challenges it faces in a warming world.

December 12, 2024

Mental health challenges are a significant and growing concern for the nation’s farmers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As much as farming is often a family affair, programs and resources to support mental health in agriculture have focused on the primary producers, of whom nearly 64% are men. Women have always played a crucial role in agriculture, yet, Penn State Associate Professor Florence Becot said, their mental health and well-being — much like their essential contributions to agriculture — largely have been overlooked.

December 12, 2024

The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State, in partnership with the Deputy Chief of Staff and the Installation Management Command, has successfully developed a comprehensive toolkit to support the Army's Relocation Readiness Program. This innovative resource aims to streamline services and provide consistent, high-quality support to soldiers and their families across all Army installations.

December 10, 2024

Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences celebrated another year of outstanding success and accomplishments in research during the 2024 Research Awards Ceremony, held Nov. 19 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.

December 6, 2024

With a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a team led by biomedical engineering researchers at Penn State will apply ultrasound imaging technology to monitor the transport of genetically engineered, cancer-fighting macrophages into brain tumors.

December 2, 2024

An economic analysis led by researchers at Penn State found that the Northcentral Regional ATV Trail Connector generated over $23.5 million in economic revenue for area businesses over a two-year period.

December 2, 2024

A delegation of Penn State faculty and graduate students who attended the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, known as COP16, in Cali, Colombia, share about the event and their experiences.

December 2, 2024

“Growing Impact” highlights PlantVillage, an innovative project that leverages the power of smartphones, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to help millions of farmers across Africa, Asia and the Americas.