News

Sep 26, 2024

Plant scientist named Huck Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology

Francisco Dini-Andreote, assistant professor of plant science in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, has been awarded the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Microbial Community Ecology.

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Sep 25, 2024

$1M USDA grant to perfect weed killing method in organic crop production

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a four-year, $1 million grant to a team led by plant scientists and an economist from Penn State to investigate anaerobic soil disinfestation to support transitioning from conventional to organic production systems.

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Sep 13, 2024

Nine researchers named Institute of Energy and the Environment Fellows

Nine Penn State researchers have been named fellows of the Institute of Energy and the Environment (IEE) for 2024. The program recognizes and assists the exceptional achievements and unparalleled research impacts of highly successful researchers in the areas of energy and the environment. Nominees for the fellowship were submitted by the University community.

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Aug 29, 2024

Research teams receive $1.1 million to study microbiomes in agriculture

Two Penn State-led research teams have received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for projects investigating the ways microbiomes — the microorganisms in a particular environment, such as in soil or a living organism — can affect disease dynamics in agriculture.

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Aug 20, 2024

Penn State students awarded USDA pre-doctoral fellowships for research

A Plant Biology trainee was among the ten Penn State graduate students awarded predoctoral fellowships by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture

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Aug 01, 2024

How duplicated genomes helped grasses diversify and thrive

Grasses cover about 40% of the Earth’s land surface, thriving in a multitude of environments. The evolutionary success of this plant family, which includes rice, maize, wheat and bamboo, likely results from a history of whole-genome duplications, according to a new analysis led by Penn State biologists.

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Jul 30, 2024

HGSAC Co-Chairs Awarded for Service

Outgoing graduate advisers Avery Sicher and Jessica Walnut recognized by Huck Institutes for their leadership efforts during the 2023-2024 academic year

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Jul 29, 2024

$1.7M grant continues support for graduate students studying gene regulation

Renewed support for a training program established at Penn State in 2018 ensures five additional years of funding for graduate students conducting cross-disciplinary studies of the mechanisms controlling where and when genes are used in cells.

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Jul 25, 2024

Jeff and Ann Marie Fox name Graduate School with $20 million commitment

The Board of Trustees has unanimously approved the naming of the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School in recognition of the couple and the endowment they have created to provide support, in perpetuity, for graduate students and faculty and for initiatives that enhance the academic caliber of graduate education at the University.

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Jun 27, 2024

Researchers compile Cacao Gene Atlas to help plant breeders boost chocolate tree

A team led by researchers at Penn State has created a genetic information resource to help plant breeders develop resistant strains of cacao that can be grown sustainably in its native Amazon and elsewhere, such as the tropical latitudes of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.

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