Research

On July 1, Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering, and Design with Africa will host a joint symposium with the African-led Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET) to strengthen and expand the Penn State-PASET partnership and collaboration.

Penn State is tied at No. 23 in the U.S. out of 184 nationally ranked institutions in the 2027 QS World University Rankings. Penn State also tied at No. 7 among U.S. public institutions, and at No. 5 among Big Ten universities, and is once again the top-ranked public university in Pennsylvania. Internationally, Penn State is tied at No. 92, placing the University in the top 6% worldwide among the…

Runze Li, Evan Pugh University Professor and Eberly Family Chair Professor in Statistics, has been honored with the Gottfried E. Noether Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Statistical Association.

The Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation hosted its inaugural Built Environment Showcase this spring at the Nittany Lion Inn, bringing together more than 250 faculty, students, researchers and industry leaders. The showcase demonstrated the institute’s role in connecting research, education and industry collaboration to advance innovation across real estate, construction and infrastruct…

Erika Machtinger, associate professor of entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, discussed the state of the current screwworm outbreak — and what risks the insect poses to Pennsylvania and beyond.

Last year, 19 people died of injuries suffered in farm-related incidents in Pennsylvania, according to researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Research Professor Camelia Kantor, director of strategic initiatives at Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, has been selected as a 2026 Future of the Field honoree by the Society of Research Administrators International.

Using collegiate sports during the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, Professor of Education Policy Studies Leah P. Hollis explored how organizations can strengthen accountability and ethical decision-making when facing intense pressure.

Liliana DeMarco and Ally Black, students from Penn State Altoona's Integrated Social Science Research Lab, presented at the recent annual conference of the Northeastern Association of Criminal Justice Sciences held in Dewey, Delaware.

Yinming Shao, assistant professor of physics at Penn State, has been honored with the Downsbrough Early Career Professorship in Physics in recognition of his research contributions, teaching, and service to the Department of Physics and the Eberly College of Science.

Jenni Evans, a world-renowned meteorologist whose research transformed the scientific understanding of tropical cyclones and strengthened storm forecasting worldwide, considered her students’ success her proudest accomplishment. The newly established Jenni Evans Fund in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science will ensure that those successes continue in perpetuity.

Plants have always played an integral role in traditional medicine and healing practices. In this Q&A, Kent Vrana, Elliot S. Vesell Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Center for Cannabis and Natural Product Pharmaceutics at Penn State College of Medicine, discussed the relationship is between plant science and human health and the growing role of plant-derived solutions in medicine.

Chao-Yang Wang, William E. Diefenderfer Chair in Mechanical Engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, of chemical engineering and of materials science and engineering at Penn State, has received a three-year award from the Toyota Research Institute through the institute’s University Research Program. The award will support Wang’s research on redesigning liquid electrolytes to prevent l…

Sarah M. Assmann, Waller Professor of Biology at Penn State, is working to better understand how plants respond to environmental signals — and is applying that understanding to develop crops more resilient to environmental stress. In this Q&A, Assmann discussed how plants cope with environmental stress, as well as how more resilient crops could not only increase agricultural food security but als…

Researchers at Penn State have developed an artificial intelligence-powered modeling framework that uses fiber-optic sensors to monitor and predict permafrost degradation in the Arctic, offering a new tool for monitoring the stability of buildings and roads in this warming climate.

The One Health Microbiome Center in the Huck Institutes of Life Sciences at Penn State has selected Jacques Ravel , professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the Center for Advanced Microbiome Research and Innovation, Institute for Genome Sciences, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, as the second laureate of the Microbiome Medal.

In the first mission of its kind, a spacecraft will launch from Earth and rendezvous with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to boost it to a higher altitude and extend its life. In this Q&A, Penn State faculty John Nousek and Michael Siegel discussed Swift’s role in scientific discovery, the upcoming boost mission and activities at the Swift Mission Operations Center, which is located at Penn…

Student and faculty researchers in Penn State’s Department of Electrical Engineering presented their work at the 2026 Electrical Engineering Student Research Poster Competition, which took place on April 6 in the Electrical Engineering West Building. Among the presenters were awardee teams from the department’s new EEntrepreneurship programs, who showcased their progress toward commercializing th…

Hobart “Bo” Cleveland, professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, studies the benefits of recovery community centers (RCCs) and the support they provide for those in recovery from substance use. In this Q&A, Cleveland discussed what RCCs are, how they help people in recovery and his hopes for the future of recovery in Pennsylvania.

José Ibarra , assistant professor of architecture in the Stuckeman School at Penn State’s College of Arts and Architecture, has received funding from the prestigious Graham Foundation to conduct fieldwork across the Andes mountains in South America.