On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 5:30 p.m., Mississippi State University faculty members will gather in Old Main 3320 for a debate, using contemporary political issues to demonstrate for attendees how to engage in respectful, civil discussion. The event, titled the Political Ideology Debate, will highlight a range of political perspectives and the value of constructive discourse on campus.

Mississippi State University doctoral student Mayra Vazquez-Nunez was one of only 60 graduate students in North America selected to attend the 2025 National X-ray School at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois, this summer, where she explored advanced X-ray techniques to address challenges in green chemistry.

“Curiosity is the foundation for every scientist’s motivation to understand complex problems,” said Chandler Woo, a senior chemistry major at Mississippi State. “Exploring the uncharted and finding answers to a problem that has not been successfully solved is what excites me about research in general.”