Eberly News

AI may seem intangible, but it has a physical footprint. With support from the Department of English and the Department of Geology and Geography, the WVU Humanities Center welcomed San Diego State University’s Dr. Dustin Edwards, Associate Professor and Director, to campus on April 9. In a recent Q&A, we sat down with Dr. Dustin Edwards as he examines the infrastructure, energy demands, and policy questions surrounding the technologies that power artificial intelligence.

William Hal Gorby spends a lot of time looking backward. As a historian at West Virginia University, he studies the people, decisions and turning points that have shaped a nation. And as the country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, Gorby, a teaching associate professor and director of undergraduate advising in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Department of History, sees a common thread running through both stories: the belief that education helps communities adapt, grow and prosper.

West Virginia University researchers are developing new laser-based techniques to observe plasma behavior in unprecedented detail, opening a window into interactions that shape technologies ranging from computer chips and spacecraft engines to next-generation fusion energy systems.

Backed by $5.9 million in National Science Foundation funding, West Virginia University researchers are using stars that function like celestial clocks to search for spacetime ripples known as gravitational waves. The sources of those ripples could be supermassive black holes. They could be “cosmic strings” — cracks in the universe that have only been theorized. They could even be reverberations from the Big Bang. “Or there could be a huge surprise,” said Maura McLaughlin, Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy and recipient of the Shaw Prize in Astronomy.

West Virginia University Libraries has selected two Eberly College undergraduate students as 2026 Robert F. Munn Library Scholars Award recipients: Noah Haak, a senior majoring in political science; and Camryn Morgan, a senior double-majoring in English and philosophy.

Martinez, a junior English major minoring in Art History with an emphasis in professional writing and editing, learned about the Rare Book Room through friends who had positive experiences also working with the History Center. As someone who has always loved libraries, Bonnie was drawn to the Rare Book Room and channeled that curiosity into their capstone project.