Mississippi State Professor Benjamin Crider has been selected as a 2026 Experimental Physics Investigator by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. With an award valued at $1.35 million, Crider is one of only 21 inducted into this year’s select cohort recognized for innovative work advancing the study of physics.

Rhonda Hannah, Mississippi State’s business manager in the Department of Biological Sciences, initially envisioned a career in nursing as a way to help people. Her mother and both grandmothers were nurses, and she grew up expecting to follow in their footsteps. For the native of Moss Point on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina changed her path in 2005 as it did for so many.

Two dozen Mississippi State seniors are 2026 inductees into the Gamma of Mississippi Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society. MSU Professor Anthony Neal, a Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College faculty fellow and member of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, also was inducted as an honorary member.