Mississippi State psychology faculty and staff are leading new behavioral health grant initiatives totaling more than $14 million—the department’s highest concurrent funding—to expand substance use treatment, suicide prevention, trauma-focused care and crisis-response training across Mississippi.

A short story by Mississippi State English Professor Becky Hagenston selected for the annual “The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2026: The Year’s Best Crime Fiction” is being released this month just in time for Halloween.

Mississippi State University is seeing national and statewide attention this fall from the college ranking and educational resource website Niche.

Mississippi State University Instructor II Amy Fountain is being recognized by the Lambda Sigma Honor Society with its Jane Price Harmon Gift of Honor for more than 25 years of service and leadership within the organization.

Brett Hanley, an instructor in Mississippi State’s Department of English, will read from her debut poetry collection “I Was Your Bird” Oct. 27, 5 p.m., in Old Main Academic Center, Room 1030.

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.

Mississippi State is celebrating the researchers, innovators and professionals advancing knowledge and addressing real-world challenges with its annual Research Awards Celebration this week. College of Arts and Sciences faculty receiving acknowledgment include Michael Nadorff, Amy Dapper, Nick Fitzkee and Dongmao Zhang. Congratulations!!

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.

Mississippi State geoscientist Athena Owen Nagel is the recipient of the national 2026 Mid-Career Excellence Award in Academia from the Association for Women Geoscientists.

From disaster response and food security to natural resource protection and national defense, geospatial intelligence helps address some of today’s most complex challenges—and Mississippi State is preparing students to meet them through nationally accredited undergraduate and graduate geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT, certificates.

MSU political scientist Aaron Hitefield recently provided expert insight to The Guardian for its examination of the 2026 midterm elections. Hitefield, whose research includes congressional elections and political behavior, discussed lessons from the 2022 midterms and the factors that could shape voter turnout in 2026.

Everyone sleeps, but not everyone understands much about sleep. MSU Psychologist Michael R. Nadorff talks in this edition of The Conversation about sleep, what's happening when you sleep, why people talk in their sleep, and much more!