Faculty

Microscopic partners could help plants survive stressful environments

Tiny, symbiotic fungi play an outsized role in helping plants survive stresses like drought and extreme temperatures, which could help feed a planet experiencing climate change, report WSU scientists. Recently published in the journal Functional Ecology, the discovery by plant-microbe biologist Stephanie Porter and plant pathologist Maren Friesen sheds light on

Increasing student and faculty engagement

Teaching Psychology 230 – Human Sexuality – puts Blythe Duell in front of up to 500 undergraduate students each class session. It’s a massive crowd compared to her previous teaching job at a small college in the south. She was intimidated upon returning to WSU in 2018 – where she’d earned a PhD a decade […]

English students aid game translation

Go Fish. Life. Apples to Apples. Checkers. These are games that bring people to together for the purpose of family and friend bonding. But for some new to the English language, translating how to play the games into a structure that is easy to understand can be difficult, considering the complexity of some instructions. That […]

Combating rising incarceration in rural areas

While big cities across the United States are making progress to reduce the number of people entering local jails, smaller cities and rural counties are experiencing an alarming rise in incarcerations. Understanding the factors behind this shift and helping rural Washington communities overcome their justice system challenges is the goal of new, grant-funded research by […]

Restructured course improves student success

Thanks to the hard work of several faculty members, Math 100, Basic Mathematics, has seen a dramatic increase in student achievement. Instructors Emily Sablan and Justin Eld, together with Associate Professor Sandy Cooper, have spent the last several years changing and refining the course to identify and address the fundamental mathematical knowledge and concepts that […]

Seeding big-picture, interdisciplinary research

With support from Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation Seed (IRIS) grants, CAS faculty and graduate students in diverse areas are combining forces with colleagues across the university to tackle critical questions by integrating knowledge in a wide array of fields—criminology, biology, English, medicine, archaeology, nursing, and more. “The IRIS grant program supports faculty efforts to build […]

Nuclear chemist honored with Seaborg Award

Sue Brannon Clark, a WSU Regents Professor and Battelle fellow at PNNL, is the 2020 recipient of the Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (ACS). An internationally renowned leader in nuclear chemistry, Clark’s outstanding career-long contributions include advancing innovation in nuclear safeguards and forensics, developing landmark nuclear research capabilities, […]

Data analytics expert to lead degree program

A highly successful educator and researcher committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and problem solving, Nairanjana “Jan” Dasgupta has been named director of the Program in Data Analytics at Washington State University. Dasgupta is the Boeing Science/Math Education Distinguished Professor in Mathematics and Statistics at WSU and an expert and practitioner in data analytics, the science of […]

International call to halt massive insect decline

From bees to butterflies, ants to wasps, insect populations of all kinds are at risk, according to a growing scientific consensus. Their decline also threatens the many ecosystem services that depend on them, including food production. “It’s clear that we’re experiencing massive insect declines both in species and in abundance,” said WSU Vancouver conservation biologist […]