App State assistant professor Dr. Adam McKay has co-authored a new study, published in Nature Astronomy, that provides the first detection of carbon dioxide in the centaur known as 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1. According to McKay, studying centaurs — ice-rich bodies that orbit the sun — can yield important insights into the formation and evolution of Earth’s solar system.

Dr. Brooke Christian, App State associate professor of chemistry, has received a $306,783 Research in Undergraduate Institutions Award from the National Science Foundation to support her research on biomolecule stabilization, which has important applications in numerous areas — from pharmaceuticals to the food industry. These awards support faculty at predominantly undergraduate institutions in research that engages them in their professional field, builds capacity for research at their home institution and supports the integration of research and undergraduate education.

Supported by a $531,902 grant from the National Science Foundation, a team of App State researchers in the Appalachian Atmospheric Interdisciplinary Research (AppalAIR) program will conduct a three-year study on aerosols and how they affect Earth's climate.

App State is among five UNC System schools awarded a $3.4 million National Science Foundation grant to support underrepresented students in STEM fields through the Mountains to Sea North Carolina Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program. The program will serve 100 App State students.

Thanks to more than a half-million dollars in federal funding, App State is partnering with the High Country Area Agency on Aging to safeguard the independence of older adults in North Carolina’s High Country — by expanding and implementing falls prevention programs in the seven-county region.

“Roots and Routes: Stories of Migration in the High Country” — an App State project supported by the N.C. Humanities Council — is providing Hmong refugee and Latinx migrant families an opportunity to share their stories, histories and contributions to Western North Carolina.

Dr. Alice Wright and Dr. Cameron Gokee are leading an archaeological research team into the Linville Gorge Wilderness area to learn more about the lives of Indigenous people who used the land hundreds of years ago, while facilitating the preservation of cultural resources.

Dr. Sarah Carmichael describes her job as similar to that of a crime scene investigator — and the evidence she examines is more than 350 million years old. Through her research, Carmichael and her team seek insight on the causes and outcomes of mass extinctions during the Devonian period.

App State assistant professor Dr. Sarah Evans and App State undergraduate students will spend the next three summers studying water saturation patterns in Alaska’s thawing permafrost — research aimed at providing new insights on the advancement of climate change. Their research is supported by a nearly $690,000 National Science Foundation grant.