Research & Science

Students pose for a photo while presenting their project during SkyHack, Kent State University’s aviation design challenge.

Kent State University’s aviation design challenge, SkyHack, will take place Nov. 1-3. The event draws college students from around the nation, attracting 120 students from 14 universities in four states in its 2017 inaugural debut. Kent State’s College of Aeronautics and Engineering will serve as home base for this year’s event, which will span across other Kent Campus buildings.

Gemma Casadesus Smith, Ph.D. (right), professor of biological sciences at Kent State University, works with a student in her lab.

Once it begins, Alzheimer’s disease progresses systematically and aggressively, attacking victims on multiple fronts. But scientists studying the disease operate the same way – like Kent State University’s own Gemma Casadesus Smith, Ph.D.

Kent State University Senior Research Fellow Quan Li, Ph.D., has been elected to the prestigious European Academy of Sciences.

One of Kent State University’s most prolific and renowned researchers has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences. Quan Li, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow in Kent State’s Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, joins the prestigious Brussels-based organization that has about 660 members from 45 nations, including 65 Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners.

An image of the globe over North America, showing increased warm weather in a yellow-to-red scale

Research into the air masses that drive changes in our day-to-day weather has been limited by land-based and regional studies, leaving wide gaps in our understanding of these impactful phenomena. A new paper by a Kent State University geographer has just filled in most of those gaps.

A bonobo stares back at the camera while another walks away

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded Kent State a three-year, $298,000 International Research Experience for Students (IRES) grant that will allow graduate students to travel to Kyoto University in Japan to study primates and human evolution at the world-renowned Primate Research Institute.

Michael Lehman

Cross-departmental collaborations are what Michael Lehman, the inaugural director of Kent State University’s Brain Health Research Institute, envisions for the future. His goal is to unite researchers from a wide range of disciplines at Kent State and throughout Northeast Ohio to explore, expand and advance our knowledge of the human brain and how it functions.

A microscope for scientific research

Researchers from the University of Washington and Washington University, along with other collaborators, are seeking answers to those questions. They studied the brains of mice to identify what causes them to stop seeking a reward — in essence, what makes them burn out.

Kent State geology undergraduate student Nicolle Di Domenico positions an ASD Field Spec HH2Pro spectroradiometer over the side of the commercial fishing vessel Reel Deal, the research platform at the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse.

After years of remote sensing work, Joseph Ortiz, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Geology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University, and his research team recently shared their development of new cost-efficient methodologies that may lead to much safer drinking water for people in Ohio and other municipalities affected by harmful algal blooms (HAB).

A woman sits at a table with small children eating healthy food.

A Kent State University researcher with a background in safety training models — and a very personal motivation — has devised a method to help some children with food allergies stay safe, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just granted him the funding to test it.

A man in a chef's hat shows young children how to make food.

Science is complex, and it’s difficult to discuss it with children under the best circumstances; it’s even more difficult when they are hungry. Two Kent State University researchers may have cooked up a way to solve both of those problems, and the National Science Foundation just awarded them a three-year, $1.3 million grant to determine if their recipe works.