Eberly News

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.

“MARS was created because there was a lack of STEM opportunities for youth in West Virginia. It started out locally and now has grown statewide, so the focus is to provide, through competitive robotics, hands-on learning for K-12 students throughout the state,” said Earl Scime, Oleg D. Jefimenko professor of physics and astronomy in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and MARS director. “We are able to reach these students because of the strong support of our partners, including WVU, K-12 schools, private foundations, companies like Boeing and EQT, and others who want technically trained employees. MARS is preparing our kids to meet those needs.”

West Virginia University scholarship recipients Ben Golden, Jayla Boyd and Reese Allen could never have imagined how philanthropic support would lead to unexpected opportunities that would shape their college careers and professional goals. As a Neil S. Bucklew Scholarship recipient, Golden found he could study more than general business; he could fine-tune his studies down to a music business and industry degree. And, through donor support, Golden discovered he could do even more.

Political science, engineering, biology, health sciences, chemistry, physics and astronomy are some of the disciplines uniting to support 13 future WVU doctoral students who will collaborate with K-12 schools and regional industry to enhance West Virginia’s economic development in evolving energy.

Four promising West Virginia University doctoral students are continuing their academic journeys with support from the Ruby Scholars Graduate Fellows program. This year’s fellows are Ayers Aguiar, Abyss Halley, Damon LeMaster and Dylan Nice. Each student will receive a $34,000 stipend, a $2,000 travel grant and a tuition waiver to allow them to advance their research at WVU.

When West Virginia University biology undergraduate student Isabella Tuzzio tested fish from central Appalachian streams, her research revealed microplastics in every fish she sampled. Tuzzio said her results from the study, which was the first of its kind in Appalachia, suggest significant environmental risks, as well as potential risks to human health.

West Virginia University researchers are changing how college mathematics is taught by evaluating and sharing a model for problem-solving that supports what students learn in other courses like business or biology.

Two  West Virginia University researchers have joined an elite group after being awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a program that supports graduate education in STEM-based fields.