News

As once stated by educational Pioneer and famous American Philosopher John Dewey, all that we learn is derived from experience. Kent State University continues to foster innovation and promote the development of hands-on learning through various collaborative efforts focused on building experience and training. 

Edwin Duckworth, a physics doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University, is among 65 students from 29 states recently selected for funding by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The program aspires to “address societal challenges at national and international scale.”

If an optometrist determines your eyesight is sub-par, you are prescribed corrective lenses or glasses. If your blood pressure is running high, a physician would ask you to consider dietary restrictions, medication and/or regular exercise. 

When it comes to our physical health, regular upkeep and preventative measures are not only expected, but encouraged within our society. However, mental health disorders have yet to be looked upon with the same grace and understanding.

Kent State University has been recognized in Newsweek's 2021 list of the Best Maker Schools in Higher Education.

Members of Kent State organized a food drive to support its local community in the fight against hunger and collected over 20 tons of food between March and August 2020. Due to these efforts, the university was awarded the best case study for the Food Waste Reduction Efforts category in Campus Race to Zero Waste's 2021 Case Study Competition. 

The National Collegiate Honors Council has announced Kent State University Honors College graduate Sarah Hagglund as a 2021 Portz Scholar. Hagglund is the 10th honors student from Kent State to be named a Portz Scholar since the national competition began in 1990. 

The back-to-school season is in full swing, and students, faculty and staff are preparing to take on the increased workload once again. While the process is a fulfilling and rewarding experience, often the fast-paced lifestyle leaves little time for much else. However, Kim Laurene, Ph.D. and Deric Kenne, Ph.D., professors in the College of Public Health, and Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Lamar R. Hylton, Ph.D., are committed to prioritizing mental health upkeep by supporting and expanding pre-existing services and programs offered at Kent State. 

Join us to celebrate our SURE Class of 2021 as we showcase their research in a series of three-minute presentations on Friday, October 22nd from 1 – 3:30 p.m. in the Kent Student Center (3rd floor various locations). We will begin the celebration with student presentations from 1 – 2 p.m. followed by a reception and announcement of award winners. First place winners in each category will re-present their work to the larger audience. View the full event schedule and see all the presentation locations. 

What happens when two neutron stars collide? What extreme densities and temperatures are reached? What new states of matter exist within the core of a neutron star? One Kent State College of Arts and Sciences theoretical astrophysicist, Veronica Dexheimer, associate professor in the Department of Physics, is diving headfirst into these questions as a co-principal investigator collaborating with her peers at multiple institutions on a recently funded cyberinfrastucture research grant project.

The Farris Family Innovation Awards support the research of tenure-track faculty members who are not yet tenured at Kent State and who have shown promising drive for their field of study. In May 2021, Faculty Affairs announced the recipients of this year's Farris Family Innovation Awards: Michelle Bebber, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Elda Hegmann, assistant professor in the Materials Science Graduate Program. 

A research team from Kent State University's School of Information working in partnership with Kent State’s College of Nursing received a National Leadership Planning Grant for Libraries from the Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS) for $99,982. The funds will support the first stages of what investigators have named Project SHIELD (Supporting Healthy Infant Early Learning and Development).

A research group in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University is searching for potential treatments for men who have suffered spinal cord injuries and hope to regain bladder control and sexual functions.

The Cleveland Arts Prize awarded Mid-Career Awards to Kent State alumni Alice Ripley and Corrie Slawson. Slawson earned her MFA with a focus in painting from Kent State's School of Art and currently works as a part-time faculty member in painting and drawing for the school. Her work, focusing on "environmental and social equities", has been featured in museums in the U.S. and internationally.

The discussion around the role of influencers and misinformation is regularly occurring in social circles and academia. Clare Stacey, Ph. D., associate professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and Co-Director of the Healthy Communities Research Institute, was featured on the 21 News Podcast to share her insights on this topic.

Researchers from Kent State University and the University of New Mexico determined how nitrogen-fixing plants and soil microbes contribute to the overall nitrogen availability in the Chihuahuan desert in New Mexico.

Kent State's Jonathan Maletic, Ph.D., in the Department of Computer Science and Tara Smith, Ph.D., in the College of Public Health are the winners of the 2021 Faculty Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards (ORSAs). The ORSAs recognize the hard work and dedication of faculty members who have been with Kent State for more than 10 years. Read more about the winners and how they display the highest levels of scholarship.

He Yin, Ph.D., assistant professor in Kent State University’s Department of Geography, recently received NASA’s New (Early Career) Investigator Award in Earth Science. Yin will lead evaluation and research of the devastating effects that the Syrian civil war has had on croplands throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

Trumbull graduating senior Jasmine Hickey recently earned regional recognition with an Outstanding Paper and Creative Work award from the Mid-East Honors Association.

Kent State has announced the winners of the 2021 New Faculty Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards (ORSAs). The ORSAs recognize the hard work of junior faculty members who have been with Kent State for less than 10 years. The 2021 winners are Shana Klein, Ph.D., in the School of Art and Metin Eren, Ph.D., in the Department of Anthropology. 

It doesn’t take a scientist to understand the importance of DNA, as it acts as the very foundation for the existence of any living organism. However, it does take one to produce publications involving smectic liquid crystal ordering in dense solutions of “gapped” DNA duplexes.

Cities are starting to come to life, literally, thanks to the implementation of vegetation through living architecture. Green roofs and walls are “growing” in popularity as they do much more than just add a splash of color to the otherwise beige urban landscapes. 

Kent State University’s Mary Ann Raghanti, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, and Melissa Edler, Ph.D., are part of a team of researchers who received a five year National Institutes of Health (NIH) award to examine Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology in our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. 

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded a $300,000 grant to Thorsten-Lars Schmidt, Ph.D., to develop molecular tools that allow researchers to study membrane proteins. 

Virtual reality research funded by the Army Research Lab with a grant to Josh Pollock, Ph. D. (PI), assistant professor, and Will Kalkhoff, Ph. D. (co-PI), full professor and graduate coordinator, both in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences, was featured in the U.S. Army Morning Report (on June 7, 2021), and the Army's homepage (on June 8, 2021).

Michael Tubergen, professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry and Torsten Hegmann, professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry as well as the Materials Science Graduate Program and Director of the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI), may be working in different fields of research, but they have been continuously collaborating with one another to achieve their like-minded goal: Help shape and prepare the next generation of researchers and scientists, regardless of what schoo

Computers are fast. They benefit humanity because of their ability to process data much faster than a human can. But Gokarna Sharma, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science in Kent State University’s College of Arts & Sciences, thinks they can be faster, and now he has additional funding to teach computers - and students - how to make that happen.

Fathima Nafrisha Cassim Bawa, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the biomedical sciences program specializing in pharmacology, won the Biomedical/Healthcare division of the Global Cleveland International Pitch with her pitch, “Drug Repurposing to Treat Metabolic Syndrome by Utilizing Machine Learning Approaches.”

Recent funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) has given interdisciplinary researchers the opportunity to help drive our understanding of patterns in nature when bringing together big data sources collected in different ways.

Kent State University has recently received a flurry of grants totaling more than $3 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which will support research and innovation in a wide range of fields within the College of Arts and Sciences. 

From the iconic outfits made famous by Michael Jackson to the hit television show “What Not to Wear,” the fashion industry continues to emerge as an impactful influencer in many areas of societal behavior.

Fashion and style, for many years, have been widely accepted as a means of self expression and individuality. Movies, TV shows, social media posts, advertisements and music have all placed emphasis on the importance of fashion and design.

There are just a handful of chemists worldwide with h-indices above 200. The h-indices of chemists awarded the Nobel Prize during the last five years range from about 30 to 160. Mietek Jaroniec, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has an h-index of 125, which places him among the top chemists worldwide.

To infinity and beyond seems to be the goal for a dedicated faculty member committed to providing the next generation of STEM students with the resources and knowledge to lay the foundation for their future accomplishments within the field. Joanne Caniglia, professor in the School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies, recently received funding from the NASA Glenn Research Center, an institute located in Cleveland, to provide K-12 students with an immersive and educational experience focused on critical thinking, observation and innovation within the field of science and engineering. 

COVID-19 has undoubtedly changed the way people experience their education. Over the summer of 2020, Kent State University’s eight-week Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program transitioned to a completely remote environment, and the results were surprising. 

For students going into the medical research field, having a chance to learn, succeed, fail and be inspired under the supervision of an accomplished researcher during their education is a priceless experience. This experiential learning would not be possible without outside funding, and now, students in Manabu Kurokawa’s lab can elevate their efforts thanks to a grant awarded to the group. 

One of Kent State University’s newest faculty members in the Department of Geology has already made her mark with the recent publication of her and her colleagues’ work to better understand the effects of global warming as it relates to the arctic ocean. Allyson Tessin, assistant professor, specializes in biochemistry, oceanography and sedimentary geology. She is currently studying the relationship between the chemistry of the ocean and climate change.

In 1996, Theodore Albrecht, professor of musicology, was diligently working on his original project of annotating, translating and studying approximately 430 letters written to Ludwig van Beethoven by his friends and family. Then a new opportunity presented itself. Albrecht found that his two projects worked together to add further understanding and context, giving him the opportunity to add depth and discover new details of Beethoven’s life.

Kent State University’s Advanced Telerobotics Research Lab in the Department of Computer Science recently shared its latest iteration of a fully immersive telepresence robot, Telebot-3R, that allows a human operator to have direct control and perform various tasks through the robot. The World Robot Summit Committee selected the Kent State team as one of 11 finalist teams – the only one from the United States – in the summit’s Plant Disaster Prevention Challenge Category.

Over the span of 20 years, Yuko Kurahashi, professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at Kent State University, spent much of her time observing, researching and studying the life of Ping Chong. This research has been brought together in a book describing Ping Chong's contributions as an artist.

As the COVID-19 pandemic approaches a one-year mile marker, the temptation and opportunity to socialize, party, and indulge in public events grows increasingly stronger. Associate Professor Clarissa Thompson received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences to reinforce the dangers of the virus to the public.

In the medical field, demand for technological advances that can speed data analysis and be less prone to human error continues to increase. Robert Clements recently received a federal grant to continue his work creating a more efficient and improved system to analyze medical data that will benefit not only the biomedical industry but also students at Kent State.

Last year, the Office of Student Research (OSR) successfully pivoted the 2020 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) to a virtual format due to the COVID pandemic. The 2020 SURE program funded 77 projects, with participants spanning 37 different majors. Ann Gosky, director of the OSR in the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs, hopes to see more growth for the upcoming summer.

Congratulations are in order for Sooraj Radhakrishnan, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics who performs research in experimental nuclear physics. His data analysis of some rare particles called “charm quarks” that may have existed in the first microsecond of the Big Bang, the emerging point of our universe, was highlighted in a recent issue of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Science Bulletin.

Two professors have conducted much-needed research on face coverings that use alternative textiles to protect the public from COVID-19 and how to keep those masks virus-free.

Three faculty members in Kent State University's Department of Biological Sciences recently co-authored a 384-page hardcover book, “Problem Plants of Ohio,” published by the Kent State University Press.

A liquid crystal research group at Kent State led by Oleg Lavrentovich, Ph.D., is knocking on the doors of the biomedical industry with its current project. The recent publication of research explains a technique of controlling bacteria movement with liquid crystal structures that could have a potential impact in many areas of research and medical care.   

Dr. Joseph Underwood, professor of art history, was selected as one of the 2020 recipients of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Dr. Underwood’s book “Forging a New Contemporary: Art from Senegal in Transnational Networks, 1974–1984” was one of six book projects selected for the grant and carries a $50,000 award toward the research and production of his new book.

Kent State University has announced the recipients of the New Faculty Outstanding Research and Scholarship Award. These awards recognize the hard work and dedication of faculty who have been at Kent State for 10 years or less and are sponsored by the University Research Council.

Kent State University has announced the recipients of the 2020 Outstanding Research and Scholarship Awards (ORSA). Sponsored by the University Research Council and the Division of Research and Sponsored Programs, this award honors Kent State’s exceptional researchers and scholars.

Jonathan V. Selinger, professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Kent State University’s Department of Physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Since March, COVID-19 has become a widespread topic of conversation. Finding ways to explain what this virus is, how one can treat it and how to slow the spread of the virus are just a few commonly asked questions with few clear answers. Xiaozhen Mou, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and her research team recently received funding for their hard work as part of Ohio’s statewide collective effort to discover traces of COVID-19 virus particles in wastewater.

While it's no secret that many college students drink alcohol, how COVID-19 affected these behaviors and patterns is the focus of recent research published in the journal Addictive Behaviors by the collaboration of William Lechner from the Department of Psychological Sciences and Deric Kenne from the College of Public Health. The pair sought to study the effects that a major stressor such as the pandemic could have on addictive behaviors and how vulnerabilities such as anxiety and depression played a part in the coping process of college students. 

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, MMPI, is a standardized psychometric test that was first published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1943 and quickly became the gold standard for assessing psychopathology. Kent State University has played a key role throughout the history of this test and a Kent State faculty member led the revision for the recently published and updated 2020 MMPI-3. 

A policy of municipal takeover was implemented to help relieve Flint, Michigan, of financial and political hardships in response to the water crisis. Ashley Nickels, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, extensively researched Flint's municipal takeover for seven years, earning her three awards for her work.

Julia Huyck, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Health Sciences at Kent State University, was granted $431,000 over three years by the National Institute of Health (NIH) to delve into the unknown science concerning adolescent hearing and cognitive development.

It would not be surprising if you have a social media app open right now; however, you may not be getting the enjoyment out of it that you think you are. In a recent publication in Computers in Human Behavior, two Kent State professors examined the relationship between social media usage and boredom. Students may be surprised by the results and parents might be excited by them.

Black lives and Black cultures have been underrepresented and discriminated against for many years. TEXTURES: The History and Art of Black Hair is an exhibition coming to the Kent State University Museum in 2021 with the help of significant sponsorship from corporate and federal funding that focuses on celebrating and empowering these lives and cultures.

Climate change can now be measured on a global scale using multiple weather variables, according to new research published by Cameron C. Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Kent State.

Kent State’s David Costello is passionate about identifying what trace metals lie within Northeast Ohio’s streams and what the effects of these metals are on the surrounding environment. Costello, an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, received a $718,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study these important trace metals. The grant is awarded as part of the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most universities across the United States transitioned from face-to-face classes to remote learning, closed campuses and sent students home this past spring. Recently, a group of Kent State University researchers sought to examine the impact of these pandemic-related changes upon physical activity and sedentary behavior, specifically sitting, across the university population. 

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has selected two Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences faculty members, along with two community clinicians, for Clinical Scholars, an initiative that will provide funding and leadership training to the four team members. Their plan is to implement a project that will help veterinary professionals in Northeast Ohio address mental health stigmas they experience in their lives and provide usable techniques that can be incorporated into their veterinary practices.

Before leaving the house, you most likely check to ensure you have your ID, your shoes and most importantly your smartphone. In the past decade, American smartphone usage has grown more than 50% according to a Pew Research Center study. Smartphones have become as commonplace as a wallet or car keys and Kent State researchers are taking advantage of this new commodity by using cell phone data to study individuals’ behavioral patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic and link cell phone use behaviors to mental health. 

The National Institute of Health granted additional funding to Kent State University researcher Karin Coifman, Ph.D., bringing her total award amount to more than $3 million to support her research on mental well-being and coping after traumatic injuries in individuals aged 65 and older. 

In 2019, a team of researchers in Kent State’s Department of Anthropology published its “prize-winning” research article titled “Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work” in the Journal of Archaeological Science. (Yes, the jokes are seemingly endless, but seriously folks, there is an important underlying message here about evidence-based research and fact-checking!)

Recently, Joseph Ortiz, Ph.D., professor and assistant chair in the Department of Geology in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Science, partnered with Sir Roland Jackson, Ph.D., a historian of science at the Royal Institution and the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London, to co-author a paper assessing the experiments described in Eunice Foote’s papers from a detailed quantitative perspective and to place them in historical context. They point out the differences between her hypothesis and that of the modern greenhouse effect.

Lauren Kinsman-Costello, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as the H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program Lead for Lake Erie and Aquatic Research Network (LEARN). The group will assess the effectiveness and future role of implemented and planned wetland restoration projects in partnership with the Ohio Division of Natural Resources (ODNR). This project is part of Governor Mike DeWine’s H2Ohio Initiative, a comprehensive, data-driven approach to improving Ohio’s water quality.

Kent State University’s Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute soon will be home to a new X-ray scattering instrument capable of examining materials in scales from as small as a fraction of a nanometer to as large as several micrometers.

The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recently awarded a $1.5 million, three-year grant to Kent State University College of Nursing research faculty member Jim Tudhope, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC (principal investigator) and his team.

Scientists have long recognized that biodiverse ecosystems are more stable and productive. What makes ecosystems diverse is having many species living together in the same place. But what factors allow for the success of the species in diverse communities? Are there some species that just can’t live together while others can?

A pair of Kent State University researchers will explore this question thanks to a new $580,000 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The National Science Foundation believes Kent State University mathematicians Artem Zvavitch, Ph.D., and Dmitry Ryabogin, Ph.D., are having worthwhile conversations about some age-old unsolved problems, and it has provided support to keep the discussion going for another three years.

There is a very good chance that technology, incubated at Kent State University, could play an integral role in improving NASA astronauts’ performance on the next space missions to the moon and Mars.

Scientists have long since established that the effects of stress on our bodies are largely negative. But understanding stress as a trigger for using calories and burning fat also could lead us to better mechanisms for healthier behaviors.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently funded a Kent State University researcher to continue her efforts toward that goal.

Just like the research that goes into understanding and applying a complicated concept like biodesign, holding an entire symposium devoted to it is no small undertaking.

So, when a world-renowned scholar on the subject agreed to come do some of the heavy lifting, Kent State University was elated to welcome her.


Andrea Case sits at a table in Kent State’s Center for the Visual Arts, carefully contemplating the silhouettes of leaves printed in bold contrasting colors on the paper in front of her.

The “C” in “college” might as well stand for “cramming.”
Studies show students are notoriously bad at adopting and adhering consistently to high-impact study habits that help them retain knowledge long-term.
Researchers and faculty at Kent State University, however, are collaborating on a new project to put a modern technological twist on a tried-and-true study tactic.

Ohio, like many states, suffers from a teacher shortage, especially in early childhood education and special education. The Buckeye State also is in need of more school psychologists, analysts say.

Traumatic injuries are the third leading cause of death nationally and the first in Americans age 44 and younger, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Level I trauma rooms are intended to stabilize and save the lives of patients with the most severe traumatic injuries. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded a $2.47 million grant to Sara Bayramzadeh, a Kent State University researcher, to help create trauma rooms that support staff in saving patients’ lives.

A trio of Kent State University researchers has landed a large federal grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to apply a novel video technology to train future teachers.

Kent State University is pleased and proud to announce the return of “We the People,” a photography exhibition that shines a light on our common humanity.

Once it begins, Alzheimer’s Disease progresses systematically and aggressively, attacking victims on multiple fronts. But scientists studying the disease operate the same way — like Kent State University’s own Dr. Gemma Casadesus Smith.

A Kent State University researcher with a background in safety training models — and a very personal motivation — has devised a method to help some children with food allergies stay safe, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just granted him the funding to test it.

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.

Science is complex, and it’s difficult to discuss it with children under the best circumstances; it’s even more difficult when they are hungry. Two Kent State University researchers may have cooked up a way to solve both of those problems, and the National Science Foundation just awarded them a three-year, $1.3 million grant to determine if their recipe works.

Trustees Research Professor Oleg Lavrentovich, Ph.D., a chemical physicist in Kent State University’s Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute (AMLCI), just received nearly $1 million between two grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for separate studies with potential applications in biomedical science, commercial electronics and beyond.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year, $914,000 grant to Kent State University to lead a collaborative research project to study how and at what rate the geographically most widespread native conifer in the eastern United States, the Eastern Red Cedar tree species (Juniperus virginiana), spreads across the landscape.

According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 1,688,780 new cancer cases diagnosed and 600,920 cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2017.

These numbers are stark and sobering, and worse yet, we still do not know exactly why cancer develops in its victims or how to stop it.

An online publication in Nature Nanotechnology this week by Kent State University researchers and their colleagues at Kyoto University in Japan, however, may offer new understanding about what turns good cells bad.