Eberly News

Whether improving rural infrastructure, advancing public health, preserving cultural heritage, or expanding agricultural education, the 2026 Hazel Ruby McQuain Graduate Scholarship recipients are pursuing graduate study with one goal in common: making a lasting difference for West Virginians. 

A team of Eberly College researchers is the recipient of a $749,990 U.S. Department of Energy Genesis Mission grant that will be used to develop an artificial intelligence platform that could transform scientists’ ability to predict and engineer microbial communities.

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.

With support from the Department of English and the Department of Geology and Geography, the Humanities Center welcomed Dr. Dustin Edwards to our campus on April 9. In his presentation, Edwards tracked the policy developments, financial arrangements, and energy configurations that have paved the way for the rapid construction of hyperscale AI data centers in the U.S.

Fowler, a research assistant professor at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the WVU Center for Kinetic Plasma Physics, said MAVEN’s observations advance scientists’ understanding of how the sun interacts with the solar system and especially with unmagnetized bodies like comets, Saturn’s moon Titan, Venus and Mars.