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Chirality, or the absence of mirror symmetry in a molecule, is a complex topic that Material Sciences Professor Torsten Hegmann is determined to know more about. Hegmann, director of the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, and other »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ collaborators led an international collaborative research project with contributions from a global team whose paper about the efficacy of chirality transfer in Science Advances may provide insights to make better materials or pharmaceuticals.

Moira Armstrong, undergraduate in the College of Arts and Sciences and research assistant on the Queer Pandemic Project, collaborated with Molly Merryman, associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, to compile digital, video-based oral interviews for the Queer Pandemic Project in a partnership between »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥, Goldsmith’s University of London and Queer Britain. These interviews feature people in queer communities across the United Kingdom, discussing the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted their lives as queer people.

»ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ has opened its newest research center, the IC Touch Lab, that will revolutionize the way medical students practice and patients rehabilitate. Headed by Kwangtaek Kim, assistant professor of Computer Science, the lab conducts various research projects involving haptic technology to expand the possibilities of medical and rehabilitation practices. 

»ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ alumnus Earl K. Miller, Ph.D., and his wife, Marlene M. Wicherski, have pledged $2 million to support research programs and students in »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥â€™s Brain Health Research Institute. The Brain Health Research Institute is a recently established, cross-disciplinary institute that focuses on research and education of brain health across the lifespan.

During a summer research project at »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ Geauga, nursing student Lauren Petrick succeeded in isolating a bacterial virus that shows promise as an alternative to antibiotics in fighting off intestinal bacterial infections such as urinary tract infections, GI tract infections and even pneumonia. By teaming up with »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ Geauga Associate Professor Sanhita Gupta, Petrick tackled this problem through »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥â€™s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) last summer.

Students across the nation were challenged as the pandemic swept the world. Healing Stanzas, a collaboration between the Wick Poetry Center, the Healthy Communities Research Institute and the Brain Health Research Institute, seeks to combine the science of brain health and public health with the creative energy of the humanities to provide »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ students, staff and faculty with an opportunity to improve wellness through reflective poetry.

Intentionality to build successful academic mentoring relationships with students is what sets professors apart at »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥, and each year two professors at the graduate and undergraduate level receive a student-nominated award for their ability to do so. The intent of the award is to recognize those professors exceeding in mentoring students in how to perform research in any field.  

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded a $1.86 million grant to Thorsten-Lars Schmidt to develop molecular tools that help researchers to understand membrane proteins. This is the first time a professor at »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ has been awarded an R35, which provides promising researchers with a five-year funding for a broader research program, rather than funding a specific project. This gives investigators a lot of freedom to develop new research directions as opportunities arise, rather than being bound to specific aims of a more narrow study.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has awarded »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥ the esteemed R1 status for research, which is the highest recognition that doctoral universities can receive. The prestigious designation affirms »ÆÉ«Ö±²¥â€™s place as an elite research institution and puts the university in the company of universities such as Yale, Harvard and the University of California-Berkeley. 

Whether or not to pursue higher education after high school is one of the first big decisions young people get to make. Unfortunately, however, financial stipulations and other outside factors may inhibit one’s ability to access postsecondary education.