Research & Science

Kent State University alumnus Earl K. Miller, Ph.D., and his wife, Marlene M. Wicherski, have pledged $2 million to support research programs and students in Kent State’s Brain Health Research Institute. The Brain Health Research Institute is a recently established, cross-disciplinary institute that focuses on research and education of brain health across the lifespan.

During a summer research project at Kent State Geauga, nursing student Lauren Petrick succeeded in isolating a bacterial virus that shows promise as an alternative to antibiotics in fighting off intestinal bacterial infections such as urinary tract infections, GI tract infections and even pneumonia. By teaming up with Kent State Geauga Associate Professor Sanhita Gupta, Petrick tackled this problem through Kent State University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) last summer.

Students across the nation were challenged as the pandemic swept the world. Healing Stanzas, a collaboration between the Wick Poetry Center, the Healthy Communities Research Institute and the Brain Health Research Institute, seeks to combine the science of brain health and public health with the creative energy of the humanities to provide Kent State students, staff and faculty with an opportunity to improve wellness through reflective poetry.

Intentionality to build successful academic mentoring relationships with students is what sets professors apart at Kent State, and each year two professors at the graduate and undergraduate level receive a student-nominated award for their ability to do so. The intent of the award is to recognize those professors exceeding in mentoring students in how to perform research in any field.  

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $1.86 million grant to Thorsten-Lars Schmidt to develop molecular tools that help researchers to understand membrane proteins. This is the first time a professor at Kent State has been awarded an R35, which provides promising researchers with a five-year funding for a broader research program, rather than funding a specific project. This gives investigators a lot of freedom to develop new research directions as opportunities arise, rather than being bound to specific aims of a more narrow study.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has awarded Kent State University the esteemed R1 status for research, which is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive. The prestigious designation affirms Kent State’s place as an elite research institution and puts the university in the company of universities such as Yale, Harvard and the University of California-Berkeley. 

Whether or not to pursue higher education after high school is one of the first big decisions young people get to make. Unfortunately, however, financial stipulations and other outside factors may inhibit one’s ability to access postsecondary education. 

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has awarded Kent State University the esteemed R1 status for research, which is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive. The prestigious designation affirms Kent State’s place as an elite research institution and puts the university in the company of universities such as Yale, Harvard and the University of California-Berkeley. 

Intravenous (IV) needle insertion is a practice that many medical professionals learn and need to master. A new cross-departmental Kent State project in the works will help nursing students improve their skills with cutting-edge technology. 

Many wonder if climate change is the reason we’ve had 'weather whiplash' or day-to-day dramatic changes from hot to cold or cold to hot. As a climate scientist, Cameron Lee, assistant professor in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State, gets asked this question a lot. Looking beyond just the average temperatures and statistical means, he decided to take a more analytical look at weather whiplash and add to a growing body of climate change literature examining temperature variability trends.