Five West Virginia University students have joined an elite group of researchers who’ve been awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a program aimed at supporting graduate education in STEM-based fields. They are Austin Braniff, Kara Cunningham, Courtney Glenn, Ashley Martsen-Poulin and Megan Weaver.
The new cohort of West Virginia University Foundation Scholars — recipients of the highest academic scholarship the University awards — includes Ama Ackon-Annan from Woodrow Wilson High School, Isaac Brown from Clay County High School, Liam McCarthy from Musselman High School, Clare Talbott from Elkins High School and Zadie Worley from Liberty (Raleigh) High School.
Drylands in the western United States are currently in the grips of a 23-year “megadrought” and one West Virginia University researcher is working to gain a better understanding of this extreme climate event.
Starting this summer, undergraduate students will perform hands-on, cutting-edge robotics research that solves real-world problems in Appalachia while working in the five robotics labs at West Virginia University.
West Virginia University neuroscientists are looking into why people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease can remember events from decades ago but cannot recall something that happened in the past few hours. Their ongoing study indicates the issue could have to do with the vulnerability of certain synaptic connections, the places where neurons meet to communicate.
Economically distressed McDowell County is one target of a West Virginia University program to connect high school and community college students and others new to the workforce with well-paid jobs in the water sector, which is in urgent need of workers.
Don Hoylman and his wife, Marcella, first began giving to the WVU Cancer Institute in the 1980s. Their giving escalated after Hoylman became a patient himself and culminated with a transformational leadership donation made through his trust in 2018. Following his passing three years later at the age of 91, the Hoylman family’s generosity continues to spur innovation at the WVU Cancer Institute.
A West Virginia University researcher is studying slot machines to determine what makes them a potentially addictive form of gambling. To do so, she will spend the next two years reverse engineering certain structural characteristics of the machines to find out what makes them an immersive product. Her research is supported by the International Center for Responsible Gaming.
West Virginia University is leading one of 50 projects as part of a nationwide effort to increase farmland availability to underserved populations, while also helping producers obtain working capital and means of food distribution.
A West Virginia University researcher is studying newly released records of private communications between U.S. Supreme Court justices to learn how they interact and relate behind the scenes.