News

Thomas Gould and Carlos Novoa in Gould's laboratory at Penn State University Park. Credit: Dennis Maney / Penn State. Creative Commons

Young adults may be more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than the middle aged

People in their late teens and early 20s may be more sensitive to nicotine and more susceptible to nicotine addiction than middle aged adults, according to a new study in mice from researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health.

Camelia Kantor, associate director of strategic initiatives at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and associate research professor at Penn State, will give the talk, “Bridging Worlds: How Geography and Nematology Research Converge Through Stakeholder Input,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, in 112 Walker Building at Penn State University Park. Credit: Camelia Kantor. All Rights Reserved.

Feb. 24 EarthTalks: Cross-disciplinary collaboration employing stakeholder input

Camelia Kantor, associate director of strategic initiatives at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and associate research professor at Penn State, will give the talk, “Bridging Worlds: How Geography and Nematology Research Converge Through Stakeholder Input,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, in 112 Walker Building at Penn State University Park. Talk will also be available via Zoom.

Luke Reynolds, a doctoral degree student in entomology at Penn State, pauses while conducting research in a growing room at a mushroom farm. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Penn State researchers developing strategies to diminish mushroom phorid flies

The commonwealth, industry and University researchers are partnering to develop integrated pest management solutions.

Penn State's Office of Faculty Affairs has named 10 distinguished professors for 2025. The distinguished professor or distinguished librarian title recognizes outstanding academic contribution to the University. Credit: Curtis Chan / Penn State. Creative Commons

Penn State names 10 new distinguished professors for 2025

The distinguished professor or distinguished librarian title recognizes outstanding academic contribution to the University.

Alex Storm, left, coordinator of the forest technology associate degree program at Penn State Mont Alto, and Laura Leites, research professor of quantitative forest ecology and assistant dean for access and equity in the College of Agricultural Sciences, are working together to provide undergraduate research opportunities. Credit: Michael Houtz / Penn State. Creative Commons

Growing people and forests: The power of undergraduate research

Mont Alto program coordinator partners with former mentor to support undergraduate research opportunities.

Team Dynamics course to be available for Huck graduate students in Fall 2025

A unique team-building and leadership course, taught by faculty from the Smeal College of Business MBA program, is available for a limited number of Huck graduate students next fall.

Robert Sainburg Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Sainburg named fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology

Robert Sainburg, professor of kinesiology and neurology at Penn State and Dorothy F. and J. Lloyd Huck Distinguished Chair in Kinesiology and Neurology, was recently named a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.

A research team at Penn State has developed generative models much like ChatGPT to create accurate birdsongs, which could improve understanding of the structure of birdsong and its underlying neurobiology and lend insight in the neural mechanisms of human language. Credit: Zachery Jin. All Rights Reserved.

ChatGPT for birdsong may shed light on how language is wired in the human brain

Just like ChatGPT and other generative language models train on human texts to create grammatically correct sentences, a new modeling method by researchers at Penn State trains on recordings of birds to create accurate birdsongs.

Kathleen Hill, director of the Center for Science and the Schools, and teaching professor of science education, will give the talk, “Center for Science and the Schools: Translating STEM Research to Improve K-12 Education,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, February 17, in 112 Walker Building on the University Park campus. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Feb. 17 EarthTalks: Translating STEM research to improve K-12 education

Kathleen Hill, director of the Center for Science and the Schools, and teaching professor of science education, will give the talk, “Center for Science and the Schools: Translating STEM Research to Improve K-12 Education,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17, in 112 Walker Building on the University Park campus.

“Tres Comunidades, Un Rio: Life within Peru’s urban Amazonian floodplains" showcases photography, community drawings and research data to portray the relocation, biodiversity, One Health perspective, connections to nature and the overall strength of three floating and stilted communities along the Amazon River in Iquitos, Peru. Credit: Gemina Garland-Lewis. All Rights Reserved.

Stuckeman School exhibition to showcase urban floodplain communities in Peru

The international traveling exhibition will run from Feb. 17 to March 4 in the Borland Project Space at 125 Borland Building Penn State University Park.