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News

Doctor consulting patient

Researchers Lead $3.7M Study to Shed Light on Perimenopause and Psychosis

For decades, women’s midlife experiences have been largely overlooked by medical research. Despite previous assumptions about midlife mental health risks, relatively little research has systematically investigated the connections between hormonal fluctuations and psychological symptoms.
Aerial farm from above

Precision Agriculture: Soil Mapping and Measuring With a Data-Driven Approach

Digital tools make it easier to visualize how soil properties vary across our fields. Recent research suggests that using management zones to highlight these spatial patterns can help us understand field variations and how to better manage them.
Gabriela Quinlan

Spartan Scientists Contribute to Global Examination of Pollinator Habitat

Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Rufus Isaacs and CANR alumna Gabriela Quinlan (Ph.D. ’20), now an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, collaborated with researchers from 19 countries to develop a framework for informing conservation policies to increase the quantity and enhance the quality of pollinator habitat in agricultural landscapes.
Maria Molina

Molina Awarded NSF Career Grant to Advance Research on Human-AI Interaction and Privacy

Maria Molina, Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations, has been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award. The five-year grant, totaling more than $500,000, will support Molina's groundbreaking research on human-AI interaction, specifically how people navigate trust and privacy in their use of generative AI systems.
Thea Knowles

Knowles Wins Grants to Improve Speech Therapy for Parkinson’s

Thea Knowles, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, assistant professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University, and her collaborators have been awarded two competitive grants to support their innovative research on communication challenges in Parkinson’s disease and atypical parkinsonism.
Robotic bionic hand connected to human hand

Automation Alley: Xiaobo Tan Finding Creative Uses for Soft Robots

What if a soft robot like Baymax in the Disney animated film Big Hero 6 were real? Xiaobo Tan, MSU Foundation Professor and Richard M. Hong Endowed Chair, and his team are working to bring that science fiction to life by designing robots made of soft materials that are safer for both human interaction and delicate objects.
Kitchen stove stop

VR Opens New Doors for Students With Disabilities to Learn Essential Life Skills

Two recent peer-reviewed studies found that nonimmersive virtual reality, or VR — screen-based programs on devices like laptops or Chromebooks, rather than expensive VR headsets — improved how well students with intellectual and developmental disabilities performed tasks such as cooking on a stove, shopping from a list and using kitchen appliances.
Diagram of growing arabidopsis mutants under high light conditions

Decoding Plants’ Language of Light

Researchers have revealed a previously unknown way plants shape their growth in response to light — a breakthrough that could better equip crops to handle environmental stress. In a first-of-its-kind finding, the team discovered how a compound that’s involved in plant metabolism can directly "reprogram” an unrelated light-sensing protein.
Announcements
Flint Awards Highest Civic Honor to MSU's Mona Hanna
MSU’s Mona Hanna received a key to the city of Flint in recognition of her transformative impact on public health and child advocacy.
Nwando Achebe Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
MSU historian Nwando Achebe has been elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, recognizing her outstanding contributions to historical scholarship and African history.
FRIB Receives Genesis Mission Award for AI-Powered Research
FRIB and Argonne National Laboratory received a Genesis Mission Phase I award to develop artificial intelligence tools that could transform how heavy-ion accelerators and isotope separators are operated.
FRIB's Witek Nazarewicz Elected Foreign Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences
FRIB chief scientist Witek Nazarewicz receives one of Poland’s highest scientific honors for his contributions to nuclear physics.
MSU Scientist Jason Rowntree Recognized for Sustainable Agriculture Research, Leadership
Jason Rowntree received NCR-SARE's Hero Recognition for his long-term leadership and contributions to sustainable agriculture across the North Central region.
Seed Grants Nurture New Directions and Collaborations Campus Wide
MSU’s Ecology, Evolution and Behavior program awarded seed grants to 12 interdisciplinary research teams, providing early funding to help launch innovative projects and secure future external research support across fields ranging from AI to conservation and public health.