Latest News

May 18, 2022

Eric Burkhart, associate teaching professor of ecosystem science and management, has received a $31,600 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to study and compile wild plant use by foragers in the state.

May 17, 2022

An “internet of things” — or IoT — system monitoring real-time data from soil-based sensors to activate an automated precision irrigation setup can conserve water and boost crop production, according to a team of Penn State researchers.

May 10, 2022

Amid the frequent bad news about climate change, some potentially good news has emerged: Existing technologies, diligently applied, could enable the world to meet the target set for reducing agricultural methane emissions by 2030, say researchers.

May 10, 2022

Because so many deer hunters are aging out of the sport — and new hunters are not being recruited to replace them — deer management strategies will need to change to manage populations of whitetails in many states, according to Penn State's Duane Diefenbach, one of the leading white-tailed deer researchers in the country.

April 29, 2022

Microbiologists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have received a $605,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study how microbial biofilms protect Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium that causes the deadly foodborne illness listeriosis. 

April 28, 2022

An assistant professor in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has received $950,000 in two competitive grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lead a team studying interactions between plants and rhizobial soil bacteria, with the long-term goal of boosting forage and crop production while reducing environmental impacts of fertilizer use.

April 27, 2022

The National Science Foundation has selected five current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.   

April 27, 2022

The National Science Foundation has selected six current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.   

April 27, 2022

The National Science Foundation has selected five current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.   

April 26, 2022

The Institutes of Energy and the Environment awarded seed grants to 21 groups of interdisciplinary researchers for the 2021–22 cycle.

April 25, 2022

Four research teams in the College of Agricultural Sciences have tapped in to the computing and software engineering expertise at the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences' Research Innovations with Scientists and Engineers (RISE) team. Agricultural Sciences faculty are invited to apply for the 2022 SAFES-RISE Seed Grant Program; applications are due May 10.

April 25, 2022

Innovative research showing that populations of a small fish that live in both Iceland’s lakes and marine waters, respond more quickly and differently to predators after they invade freshwater lakes, demonstrating how some animals can adapt rapidly to changes in their environments and may be able to adapt to climate change.

April 25, 2022

Joan Rose, Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at Michigan State University, will present “At the Intersection of Science and Technology Addressing Water Quality and Health” on April 28 as part of the Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food and Environmental Science Distinguished Speaker Series.

April 21, 2022

The inclusion of a high-flavonoid corn, developed by a Penn State maize geneticist, in the diet of broiler chickens reduced the incidence and severity of a fatal intestinal disorder known as necrotic enteritis.

April 18, 2022

A unique confluence of archeology, molecular genetics and serendipity guided a collaboration of Mexican and Penn State researchers to a deeper understanding of how modern corn was domesticated from teosinte, a perennial grass native to Mexico and Central America, more than 5,000 years ago.

April 14, 2022

A Penn State plant scientist has received a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lead a team studying how changes in temperature associated with climate change affect the establishment, persistence and performance of perennial forage crops and their associated weedy plant communities in the U.S. Northeast.  

April 13, 2022

Dan Sanchez, an extension specialist who runs the Carbon Removal Lab at University of California Berkeley, will discuss the emergence of a carbon-negative bioeconomy at 3 p.m. on April 14 in 213 Ag Engineering. 

April 13, 2022

PlantVillage has been awarded $300,000 from the Cisco Foundation to promote regenerative agriculture on African farms to help them adapt to climate change.

April 11, 2022

The sentiments and emotions expressed in tweets on Twitter can be used in real time to assess where supply chain disruptions due to a pandemic, war or natural disaster may lead to food shortages, according to researchers at Penn State and the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar.

April 4, 2022

New mutations occur at increasing rates in the mitochondrial genomes of developing egg cells in aging rhesus monkeys, but the increases appear to plateau at a certain age and are not as large as those seen in non-reproductive cells, a fact that could indicate a protective mechanism in reproductive cells.

April 4, 2022

Pennsylvania farmers markets generate an estimated $100 million in sales each year, according to a new Penn State Extension analysis that provides a snapshot of farmers markets' contribution to the local food economy in the commonwealth.

April 4, 2022

Reducing tariffs on imported goods is meant to remove trade barriers, but it doesn’t seem to be helping the seafood industry, which has experienced the same — if not more — import rejections and notifications at borders, according to research guided by an agricultural economist at Penn State.  

March 31, 2022

Promoting early season plant cover, primarily through the use of cover crops, can be more effective at reducing pest density and crop damage than insecticide applications, according to a Penn State-led team of researchers.

March 31, 2022

An interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers was awarded $40,000 as a recipient of the Skidmore Owings & Merrill Foundation 2021 Research Prize for a project that explores mycelium-based and knitted textiles to form a sustainable building material.

March 29, 2022

Effects of a nuclear winter or other sky-darkening global catastrophes on farming and agriculture make it "imperative that we better understand our food production, supply and value chains to make them less vulnerable and more adaptable in times of crises," according to Penn State researchers who recently published a timely study on "Food Resilience in a Dark Catastrophe."

March 25, 2022

If average temperatures rise as projected in eastern North America in coming decades, at least one widespread amphibian species likely will be unable to adjust, and its range may shift northward, according to a new study led by Penn State scientists.

March 22, 2022

Although many wild birds carry Salmonella, the strains of the bacteria they convey usually do not harbor antimicrobial-resistance genes, according to Penn State researchers, who led a team conducting a new, nationwide study.

March 21, 2022

A team of Penn State researchers will develop a long-term solution for the testing and management of urban soils for the safe production of garden and food crops in urban settings, funded by a $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.