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�ձ�av��Ƶ assistant professor Ryan Hanson has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to better understand the mechanisms that control stress-responsive gene expressions.

Seven members of the professional staff at �ձ�av��Ƶ will be honored for their quality work at the �ձ�av��Ƶ Professional Staff Advisory Council annual meeting May 14. The event, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Woster Celebration Hall at the �ձ�av��Ƶ Alumni Center, will include an all-staff social with the program and awards beginning at 3 p.m. A Zoom link will be available for those who cannot attend in person.

�ձ�av��Ƶ held its annual Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Day April 15 in the University Student Union’s Volstorff Ballroom.

The �ձ�av��Ƶ public health program celebrated National Public Health Week with two days of events focused on highlighting the impact of substance use disorder and related stigma in South Dakota.

Research doesn’t always land on the lab bench or in a test chamber. Sometimes it’s found in the library, inside the covers of seemingly dry volumes of codified law, peer-reviewed trade journals or stuffy legislative hearings. For Lydia Loken, a senior agricultural and biosystems engineering major at �ձ�av��Ƶ, her research had nothing to do with microscopes or spectrometers. She was poring over literature and news report to generate a 31-page report on balancing private ownership and public interest of nonmeandering waters overlaying private property in the South Dakota prairie pothole region. Loken completed the project as a part of the college’s research requirement for graduates and undertook the report as one of the college’s 12 Future Innovators of America.

When the speed of sound isn’t fast enough, there is hypersonic travel — speeds five times the speed of sound. Doing so is quite possible. Engines have been designed to do so for at least a decade. But for those engines to operate optimally, there’s a world of physics challenges. That’s where Jeffrey Doom, an associate professor in the mechanical engineering department at �ձ�av��Ƶ, comes in. This summer he will make his fourth trip to the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, to undertake simulations and observe physical experiments.

A heavy-duty cart designed to transport heavy loads in deep underground mine tunnels was the top project presented at the April 22 Engineering Expo at Raven Precision Agricultural Center. The transporter was built by �ձ�av��Ƶ mechanical engineering students Braden Hanson, Luke Degen, Haley Evenson, Alli Krantz, Phil Baker and Tyson Boeve on behalf of the Sanford Underground Research Facility, the former Homestake gold mine in Lead that now is a physics research facility.

Three student teams from �ձ�av��Ƶ have advanced to the finals of two different NASA contests in the coming weeks. All are mechanical engineering students. The Gateways to Blue Skies competition advanced eight teams to Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, May 20-21. Both of �ձ�av��Ƶ’s entries in the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concept-Academic Linkage contest were selected for the finals of the small lunar servicing and maintenance robot division in Cocoa Beach, Florida, June 2-4. A total of 14 teams were selected in three divisions.

Haley Evenson received the 2025 Schultz-Werth Award for her research and was recognized at �ձ�av��Ƶ's Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Active Day award's ceremony on April 16.

A single note can hold an entire world of emotion. For �ձ�av��Ƶ assistant professor Mark Stevens, a single piano piece can hold an ocean. His multiyear commissioning project, “One Drop Contains Oceans,” explores how music from a variety of voices can transform the classical piano repertoire. At 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 2, he will bring those voices to life in a public performance at the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center.