Eberly News

“I’m scratching the surface of the secrets of nature, and it’s my job to make the math and the atoms sing the same song. One atom decides, ‘I don’t want to join with this other atom, I want to join with this guy instead.’ And it creates a beautiful pattern — a material with very beautiful properties. I just think, ‘Wow. I’m seeing something that nobody has seen before.’”

To help forests respond to a changing climate, WVU biologists are learning how bacteria and fungi in the soil sustain the health of forest ecosystems. Fungi that have close symbiotic relationships with tree roots are called “mycorrhizae,” and Ember Morrissey, associate professor in the Department of Biology at the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, is studying how two main types of mycorrhizal fungi interact with their host trees and other soil microorganisms.

For trailblazing robots and  West Virginia University students alike, the first step is sometimes the hardest. That was the case for Camndon Reed, a  robotics engineering and  mathematics major from Watertown, Massachusetts, who designs autonomous robots that navigate hiking trails.

“I wish I had always known that the best way to get started is simply to begin,” Reed said. “You don’t need to wait for the perfect idea or a class on a subject — just start experimenting.”

A simulation game developed by the School of Social Work in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences is the first game produced by a WVU program to be published on the Meta Quest app store.

When it comes to self-control, adolescents tend to follow the patterns their parents establish, according to  West Virginia University  psychology research. Professor  Amy Gentzler of the  WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences led a six-month survey of 213 Appalachian adolescents and their parents, learning about their self-control in areas like health, work and school, money management, leisure activities and relationships.

A team of West Virginia University researchers is exploring whether the heat deep beneath northern West Virginia can be harnessed for large-scale heating and cooling endeavors.

“Biochemistry gives me such a broad overview of science. It leaves the door open, so I don’t feel locked into one path after college. Now I feel like I can choose from a wide range of options.” Through the WVU Research Apprenticeship Program, Jaczynska joined a project studying sustainability in textiles, specifically the environmental impact of cotton versus hemp.

WVU undergraduate student Sam Stalnaker and faculty member Thomas Steinberger use lasers to study gases and predict how they’ll behave in outer space. Mentoring relationships like this one help students graduate and thrive.  Stalnaker reflects, “Watching everything happening in the lab and having that guidance from the grad students and postdocs is really cool. I’m helping them with their work, but I’m also asking questions and learning about the science behind what they’re doing. They’ve helped me understand how our experiments work and to develop the skills I’ll need in grad school.”

The West Virginia University Higher Education in Prison Initiative (WVU HEPI), operated within Eberly College's Dept. of English, has been awarded a $30,000 subgrant from the Pennsylvania Consortium for Higher Education in Prisons (PA CHEP). 

Dr. Eric Horstick, a faculty member in West Virginia University’s Department of Biology, is advancing our understanding of how the brain adapts to the world around it. His research focuses on how environmental and sensory experiences shape neural circuits and influence behavior, uncovering fundamental principles of brain plasticity that extend across species.