Here’s a reminder to the Kent State community that the new distracted driving legislation went into effect this week on April 4. The key takeaway? It is now illegal to use or hold a cellphone or electronic device in your hand, lap or other parts of the body while driving on Ohio roads. If an officer sees a violation, they can pull you over. While drivers over the age of 18 may still legally make phone calls using a hands-free device like an electronic watch or speakerphone, they should be cautious not to handle or hold the phone while driving. The guiding rule seems to be to not hold onto t...

The 2023 Kent State East Liverpool Earth Day Environmental Justice Conference will be held April 22 with the theme “Cleaning Up Toxic Waste and Chemical Spills in Our Communities: Corporate and Government Responsibilities.” The conference will be held from noon to 3 p.m. in Purinton Hall, located at 400 E. Fourth St.  It is open to the public and there will be an option to join the conference virtually. The keynote speaker for the conference is David Emerman, chief of Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency’s Northeast District Office. The event will highlight student research pro...

TGIF gets a new spin starting Friday, April 7, 2023 when Kent State University at Ashtabula launches its Food Truck Fridays event. From 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mary’s Urban Kitchen will be the first vendor to roll into the Main Hall parking lot to serve up delicious fare to locals. In partnership with the Ashtabula Mobile Food Network, Food Truck Fridays will feature a different food truck on the first Friday of each month through October or November, depending on weather. “The main goal of the Ashtabula Food Truck Network is to provide easy access to resources for existing and potential fo...

Dr. Josh Wilder has already proved he is a survivor. Wilder, who received his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine from Kent State University’s College of Podiatric Medicine in 2016, was born with Eagle-Barrett syndrome, also known as Prune-Belly syndrome, and doctors did not think he would make it past age 5. At age 9, he had a kidney transplant and was put on immunosuppressant medications for the rest of his life. As a side effect of taking the medicine, he developed cancer of the stomach, which was diagnosed at age 25. Doctors also found signs of B-cell lymphoma, so Wilder had a total stomach ...

Last month’s “Brains on Tap” discussion on Parkinson’s disease is now available to listen to on Ideastream Public Media.  Brains on Tap is a quarterly series of public discussions, held at a brewery or bar, on topics of research being conducted by members of Kent State University’s Brain Health Research Institute (BHRI) and other Northeast Ohio neuroscientists.  The talks are presented in a casual format to take brain health research to the public and make it accessible. The first discussion took place on March 15, on the topic “Parkinson’s Disease and Exercise: Biking to R...

Meet Miranda Frank, a Jeanette and Louis Reuter Fellowship in Developmental Sciences recipient. Miranda is a Pyschological Sciences Ph.D. student studying Clinical Psychology. Please give a short overview of your research. My research has examined obesogenic eating behaviors in children/adolescents from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Expanding on this area of research, my dissertation project will assess weight status in relation to psychosocial dysfunction among children with feeding difficulties (e.g., avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder) presenting at an outpatient,...