Eberly News

Tagged with Research
West Virginia University researchers are part of a team that was recently awarded $17 million from the National Science Foundation for the renewal of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center. Maura McLaughlin and Sarah Burke-Spolaor, both faculty in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, will direct WVU’s $3.9 million share of the award.

West Virginia University Advances Collaborative Research as NSF Funds NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center

Eberly News /

West Virginia University researchers are part of a team that was recently awarded $17 million from the National Science Foundation for the renewal of the NANOGrav Physics Frontiers Center. 

Researchers, led by Rachel Stein, associate professor of sociology, analyzed obituary information published in an Amish/Mennonite newspaper to examine excess death among this segment of the population in 2020. Their results are published in the Journal of Religion and Health.

Death and religion: ‘Excess deaths’ sweep through Amish and Mennonite communities during COVID-19 pandemic

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Sunday church service in Amish country is more than just belting out hymns, reading Bible passages and returning home an hour later to catch a football game or nap. 

For some folks, however, reentering society - after a deadly pandemic shuttered the world for a good chunk of one year - can be a bit terrifying. Kevin Larkin, chair of the West Virginia University Department of Psychology, equates it to entering the deep end of a cold pool: You can either dip your toe into the shallow part and edge toward deeper water or dive headfirst into the deep end. Either way, it’s all about habituation, a process in which one’s response to a stimulus decreases after repeated or prolonged exposure to that stimulus.

Dip your toe – or dive right in: WVU psychologists spill advice on reentering the world post-COVID

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Slowly, but surely, America is returning to some semblance of normalcy.

Sounds like crickets chirping and the taste of warm buckwheat pancakes can spark the senses of people with dementia — a fact faculty and students at West Virginia University used to develop a way for those people to experience parts of their cultural past and to relieve stress for their caregivers.

Reminiscing with confidence

Eberly News /

Sounds like crickets chirping and the taste of warm buckwheat pancakes can spark the senses of people with dementia — a fact faculty and students at West Virginia University used to develop a way for those people to experience parts of their cultural past and to relieve stress for their caregivers.

New research from West Virginia University is transforming understanding of the Mountain State’s famous landscape – and identifying ways to preserve it. As WVU’s latest NSF CAREER Award winner, Assistant Professor of Geography Aaron Maxwell will use big data to map what the surface of West Virginia looked like over the last 60 years. The funding includes $636,785 over five years. Maxwell will use data analytics and advanced computational methods to extract valuable information from existing geospatial data over wide regions of the state. Through these methods, his research can increase our understanding of natural landscapes and how they change over time.

Mapping the past, present and future of West Virginia

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New geography research is transforming understanding of the Mountain State’s famous landscape – and identifying ways to preserve it.

West Virginia University physicists are uncovering secrets of the sun’s turbulent surface in the lab. A new study featured on the cover of the March 2021 issue of Physics of Plasmas is the first published research from WVU’s PHASMA experiment in the Center for Kinetic Experiment, Theory and Integrated Computation Physics. The PHAse Space MApping experiment, or PHASMA, is a one-of-a-kind facility that uses lasers to measure the speeds and positions of individual ions and electrons in a plasma. The combination of position and velocity information is called phase space.

Uncovering secrets of the sun

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WVU physicists are uncovering secrets of the sun’s turbulent surface in the lab.

A West Virginia University biology student’s neuroscience research on zebrafish took her to Capitol Hill this week – virtually. Abreanne Andlinger, a Moundsville native, is among 60 students selected nationally by the Council on Undergraduate Research to participate in Posters on the Hill April 27-28.

WVU student selected to present research to U.S. Congress

Eberly News /

A West Virginia University biology student’s neuroscience research on zebrafish took her to Capitol Hill this week – virtually.

There’s more to the American women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s than burning bras and Gloria Steinem. Jessica Wilkerson, associate professor of history at West Virginia University, wants to change that narrative to its truest form: The fight for women’s rights was built on the shoulders of women of color, the working class and women in the south and Appalachia – not just white-collar urbanites.

Writing the history of feminism in the South and Appalachia

Eberly News /

There’s more to the American women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s than burning bras and Gloria Steinem. Jessica Wilkerson, associate professor of history, wants to change that narrative to its truest form: The fight for women’s rights was built on the shoulders of women of color, the working class and women in the south and Appalachia – not just white-collar urbanites.

A new online mathematics tutoring program is helping students navigate virtual learning. After months of transition and adaptation, mathematics tutoring coordinators Nicole Infante and Lori Ogden recognized an opportunity to establish a fully online tutoring program for undergraduates.

Overcoming barriers to mathematics learning

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A new online mathematics tutoring program at West Virginia University is helping students navigate virtual learning.

A West Virginia University biologist is working to cultivate a bumper crop of young scientists through the study of wild orchids—and the fungi they eat. As WVU’s latest National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, Assistant Professor of Biology Craig Barrett is teaming up with teachers in rural West Virginia high schools to develop student-led research projects. The projects will culminate in lesson plans accessible to high school students and teachers across the U.S., with an emphasis on closing the STEM skills and interest gap in the Mountain State. The projects will use parasitic orchids to study genomics, in particular how genomes evolve across space and time.

Helping new scientists bloom

Eberly News /

Biologist Craig Barrett is working to cultivate a bumper crop of young scientists through the study of wild orchids—and the fungi they eat.