Eberly News

For Amy Hessl, professor of geography at West Virginia University, the past can predict the future. Hessl is a dendrochronologist, a scientist who unravels climate histories and trends through the study of tree ring growth patterns. So when wildfires engulfed the Los Angeles, California area in January 2025, resulting in dozens of deaths and tens of thousands of destroyed structures, Hessl wasn’t taken aback. In fact, she said, ongoing warm air temperatures and variable precipitation – which can be presumed from her studies of climate history trends — will lead to even more extreme fires in the future.

Recognized as champions for justice, civil rights and world peace, four West Virginia University undergraduate students are the recipients of the prestigious 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship. Selected by the Center for Black Culture based on an essay and letters of recommendation, Tysa James, Janelle LaBarbera, Cheyenne Torres and Gabrielle Williams were honored at the annual MLK Unity Breakfast on Jan. 18 in the Mountainlair Ballrooms.

Mason Moseley, a political science professor at West Virginia University, has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study Argentina’s mining industry and its environmental impact. Starting in March 2025, he’ll work with Argentine scholars and teach at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Inspired by protests he witnessed in Mendoza in 2019, Moseley will explore why social movements around environmental issues, like water rights, gain traction. His research includes public opinion surveys, and he plans to compare findings with environmental movements in West Virginia.

During WVU’s 2024 Homecoming celebration, seniors Megan Frappier and Hannah Warden were crowned Homecoming Royalty at halftime of the Kansas State game. Frappier, a criminology and political science major from New Jersey, and Warden, a health services management major from Cross Lanes, are both leaders in WVU’s diversity and service initiatives.The celebration also included alumni awards, with Tracy Schoenadel and Laura Boyd honored as Outstanding Alumni, and Paul Lewis receiving the David W. Jacobs Lifetime Service Award. Astrophysicists Duncan Lorimer and Maura McLaughlin served as grand marshals for the Homecoming Parade.

WVU Center for Resilient Communities Announces 18 Interns for 6th Annual Resilient Communities Internship

Taylor Brown is studying for a doctoral degree in lifespan developmental psychology. Riley Klug, majored in anthropology while also completing programs in art history, Native American Studies and political science. Hannah Lamb is a graduate student in the WVU Master of Social Work program. Clara Monson is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in English at WVU with the goal of becoming an English professor.

In June, research ethicist Trisha Phillips held a training session with a group of West Virginia University students.

“I asked what they’d learned from the reading,” Phillips recalled. “One student raised their hand and said, ‘I hadn’t understood that there are authorship standards and norms,’ such as guidelines determining the order in which names of authors of an academic paper are listed.

“The student thought that was entirely up to their advisor. For them to know there are standardized practices was empowering. It helped them understand how research is done, what it means to be listed as an author.”

That’s what it’s all about for Phillips. As a scholar, she focuses on research misconduct and norms or best practices, and she teaches political science at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. In her role at the WVU Research Office, Phillips promotes research integrity at the University.

                      

In recognition of her loyalty and service to West Virginia University, Eberly College Professor Emerita Sophia Peterson has been inducted into The Order of Vandalia.

West Virginia University research is strengthening national security by ensuring policymakers, military institutions, think tanks, academics and journalists have access to substantial, up-to-date information on international conflicts when they need it. A $555,647 grant from the National Science Foundation supports the three-year expansion of the Correlates of War Project’s Militarized Interstate Dispute Data, led by Vito D’Orazio, associate professor of political science and data sciences at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

Thirty-seven graduates were inducted as lifelong members into the WVU Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, a national honor society that recognizes outstanding achievement in the liberal arts and sciences and champions freedom of thought.