One of Kent State University’s most prolific and renowned researchers has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences. Quan Li, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, joins the prestigious Brussels-based organization that includes about 660 members from 45 nations, including 65 Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners. Li’s election to the academy recognizes his profound contributions as a leading authority on the development of advanced smart materials, particularly in the field of liquid crystals. “I think I speak for many people, if not eve...

The recent death of one of the remaining members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II has a Kent State University associate professor recalling the vital role the female pilots played during the war. “World War II was a total war,” said Associate Professor Molly Merryman, Ph.D., the author of “Clipped Wings: The Rise and Fall of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II.” “And what that meant was that all men, women, children, citizens needed to have a war role,” Merryman told The Washington Post in the obituary for Dorothy Olsen, 103, of University Place, O...

Note: Gretchen Hoak is a former television reporter/anchor and current assistant professor of journalism in Kent State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research survey, “Are We Teaching Trauma?”,  focused on how universities prepare young journalists for the trauma they may endure in covering violence. Kent State Today asked Hoak to share her thoughts on the impact the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton will have on the reporters assigned to cover these events.       “It’s awful, y’all. Barely hanging on. Our newsroom is command centra...