Jaspreet Singh Randhawa, a Mississippi State assistant professor of physics, has received a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to support a $700,000 research project on the nuclear reactions that power stellar explosions and other extreme cosmic events. Using advanced detection systems, researchers will gather data that has never been measured directly in a terrestrial laboratory, helping scientists understand how elements are formed and how these processes shape the universe.

Mississippi State’s Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library Anne E. Marshall has received a Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for her book “Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform,” adding to a growing list of accolades for the acclaimed work.

Five Mississippi State educators are the recipients of 2026 Inclusive Excellence Teaching Grants supporting innovative College of Arts and Sciences projects to enhance student learning through engagement, application, access and experiential opportunities.

Mississippi State recently recognized a dozen university staff members for their exemplary professionalism and dedication with this year’s Donald W. Zacharias Distinguished Staff Awards. Congratulations to College of Arts and Sciences staff members Rhonda Hannah, Business Manager I, Department of Biological Sciences, and Tracy Wilcox, Administrative Assistant I, Department of Physics and Astronomy!

Mississippi State University chemist Colleen Scott has been selected for the Bayh-Dole Coalition’s 2026 American Innovator Award, one of the nation’s most prestigious honors given annually researchers whose federally funded work leads to real-world impact. Past honorees include developers of mRNA vaccine technology, once-a-day HIV treatments and vision-restoring glasses.

Mississippi State University biologist Jean-Francois Gout’s contributions to a study highlighting key advances in the complexity of aging now are published in Science Advances, a leading peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Exceptional faculty and staff are being honored at Mississippi State with annual awards for outstanding teaching, mentoring and advising.

Mississippi State University biologist Matthew W. Brown is part of an international research team whose latest findings, published this spring in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are reshaping scientific understanding of how parasitic organisms evolve and ultimately spread disease.

Deep cracks in the ground tell the story of drought, where only about half the normal rainfall has fallen so far in 2026, making it the 10th driest in Mississippi history. Mike Brown, state climatologist with the Mississippi State University Department of Geosciences, said February was the driest on record for Mississippi and March was the third warmest and 11th driest.

As a teenager growing up in Toronto, Thalia Vrantsidis often sought out popular books on physics, relativity and quantum mechanics from her high-school library and spent her time poring over them in search of deeper perspectives. Reading about complex subjects such as the curvature of spacetime or the source of gravity gave her deeper insights into everyday life and shifted how she viewed daily goings-on and the world around her.

Mississippi State University faculty and students earned multiple national honors at the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts this spring, one of the premier competitions for student and faculty media work, highlighting excellence in film, scriptwriting, audio and broadcast production.

Mississippi State English Professor Robert West has written “A Clear Eye,” a collection of 59 poems offering reflections on nature and human experience.