In the News

• ABC4 News Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023

  USU organizes Overdose Awareness Day event

  Utah State University organized a light to remember event to recognize International Overdose Awareness Day.

• The Herald Journal Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023

  USU President Cantwell: Listening to the community in a fast-changing world

  Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell has officially embarked on her position as Utah State University’s 17th president. She is new to USU after most recently working at the University of Arizona as the senior vice president of research and innovation.

  Monday was the first day of classes of the fall semester at USU.

  President Cantwell has four degrees — attending university in Chicago, New York, California and Pennsylvania — and years of experience in leadership and administration at the land-grant university, University of Arizona.

• ABC4 News Monday, Aug. 28, 2023

  Insights from a study done about LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saints

  LOGAN, UTAH (GOOD THINGS UTAH) — Dr. Tyler Lefevor, associate professor in psychology at Utah State University, joined us on the show to share the findings of a decade-long study on LGBTQ+ Latter-day Saints.

  The research reveals that LGBTQ+ individuals face up to four times higher risks of mental health conditions compared to cisgender, heterosexual counterparts. The study delves into the impact of faith on mental health, evolving religiosity, and LGBTQ+ engagement within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

• The Atlantic Monday, Aug. 21, 2023

  The Longest Relationships of our Lives

  Growing up as one of six siblings—the third oldest, and the second of three girls—Carlita Gay loved the distinction of a big family and that everyone was exposed to so many personalities. Though she saw her family less after moving away from her hometown, going to therapy as an adult helped Gay, now 33 and an executive assistant in New York, understand “how much of a refuge my siblings can still be” because of their deep context and shared history. In particular, they were some of the few people who could understand her experience of growing up biracial in a “mainly white” part of Minnesota. “I had a perspective of ‘Maybe I’m alone’” in trying to make sense of how her racial identity developed, Gay told me, but over time she realized that her siblings could relate to both that general experience and how it played out within their family. “If anyone could understand my experience the most,” she said, “it might be them.”

• KSL Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023

  USU researchers create jet fuel from juniper trees

  LOGAN — Researchers at Utah State University believe they've come up with a clean-burning jet fuel made from juniper trees.

  They are now trying to get the biofuel into the marketplace. While it's designed as jet fuel, researchers say it can be fractioned out to work in boats and even cars.

  And, it was created at Utah State University's Innovation Campus.

  USU biological engineering professor Foster Agblevor started working on this idea 10 years ago, knowing that Utah has the invasive juniper tree.

• The Herald Journal Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023

  USU interim dean Named 2023 Veterinarian of the Year

  The Interim Dean of Utah State University’s brand-new College of Veterinary Medicine, Dirk Vanderwall, has been named the Utah Veterinary Medical Association’s 2023 Veterinarian of the Year.

  Vanderwall, who received the award in June at a ceremony part of the Mountainlands Utah Veterinary Summit, said he was surprised by the award. When his name was announced, Vanderwall said he was “taken aback.”

  “I love being a veterinarian and I love the veterinary profession,” Vanderwall said. “To be recognized by my peers with this award was just very, very rewarding. And very gratifying.”

• ESPN Monday, Aug. 07, 2023

  Utah State hires ex-Big Ten deputy commissioner Diana Sabau as AD

  Utah State has hired former Big Ten deputy commissioner Diana Sabau as the school's next athletic director, the school announced on Monday night.

  Sabau oversees all 28 sports for the Big Ten and was the former senior deputy to athletic director Gene Smith at Ohio State, where her duties included being the sport administrator for the football program from 2017 through March of 2021.

  Sabau succeeds interim athletic director Jerry Bovee, who took over in November after John Hartwell resigned.

• KSL Saturday, Aug. 05, 2023

  Peak river flow & drone, brings unique chance for study of Logan floodplain

  LOGAN — Cities typically use satellite imagery to study a floodplain, but those areas are often blocked by trees and vegetation. A drone from Utah State University is cutting through all of that.

  As the Logan River moves to more average flows, from peak flows seen during May, researcher Ian Gowing said those major events brought a rare opportunity.

  "We saw that the Logan River had reached 1,750 cubic feet per second," Gowing said — it's highest flow. The drone could launch as the river flow peaked. Two Utah cities, Logan and Nibley, were eager to have detailed high-resolution images of the floodplain.

• The Washington Post Thursday, Aug. 03, 2023

  How to water your garden wisely in the summer heat

  You’ve probably heard the expression, “Work smarter, not harder.” The same idea can apply to watering your garden in the dead of summer — when standing in the blazing heat, hose in hand, or swatting away mosquitoes while positioning your sprinkler are about the last things you want to do.

  Though watering obviously becomes more critical as temperatures rise, deploying the right tools and strategies can make your routine easier and less frequent. In fact, you may already be watering too often. “Intuitively, people think, ‘Oh, it’s hot so I’ll water every day,’” says Cory Tanner, director of the horticulture program team at Clemson University. But just watering a little every day — rather than giving your garden a thorough, but less frequent soak — “actually encourages shallow rooting.”

  Herewith, advice from gardening experts to help you water more efficiently in the heat.

• Cache Valley Daily Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2023

  Elizabeth Cantwell sworn in as 17th USU President

  LOGAN — Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell was formally sworn in as president of Utah State University Tuesday afternoon.

  Cantwell wrote in a statement that she was beyond excited to start her tenure as USU’s 17th president. She said she was honored to work with so many talented individuals.

  Cantwell was sworn into office in a private ceremony in the president’s office in Old Main. She was selected as USU president by a 19-member search committee following a nationwide search. Before joining USU, she was most recently senior vice president for research and innovation at the University of Arizona.

  Cantwell is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School (MBA, 2003); the University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, 1992); and the University of Chicago (BA, Human Behavior 1976).

• NBC News Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2023

  Toxic bacteria detected in several of Zion National Park's waterways

  Toxic bacteria have been detected in several bodies of water in Utah’s Zion National Park, the National Park Service announced this week.

  Three bodies of water in the park have cyanotoxins in them, according to the Park Service: the North Fork of the Virgin River, North Creek and La Verkin Creek. These toxins are produced by a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. 

  The algae is common in ponds and lakes and not always dangerous, but it can grow into large blooms that produce cyanotoxins. In people, symptoms of cyanotoxin exposure include irritation in the eyes, ears, nose, throat or skin, as well as headache, seizures, vomiting and diarrhea. In animals and pets, symptoms include drooling, low energy, lack of appetite, paralysis and vomiting.

• Deseret News Saturday, Jul. 22, 2023

  NASA dropping 'time capsule' from beginning of solar system into Utah desert

  The most dangerous asteroid in the solar system is coming to Earth this fall — a piece of it, at least — as part of NASA's first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid will make its landing in the Utah desert.

  OSIRIS-REx will land Sept. 24 at the Utah Test and Training Range in Dugway.

  Analyzing the sample from the asteroid Bennu, estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, will help scientists understand the origin of life in the universe.

• The New York Times Friday, Jul. 21, 2023

  From an Ancient Soil Sample, Clues to an Ice Sheet's Future

  In 1966, scientists at Camp Century, a now abandoned U.S. military base in the Arctic, drilled deep into the Greenland ice sheet, extracting a cylinder of ice nearly a mile long along with 12 feet of the frozen sediment that sat beneath it.

  “That was a pretty miraculous engineering feat that has been really hard to repeat,” said Andrew Christ, a geoscientist who recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont.

  The sample was the first deep ice core that scientists had ever collected, and over the decades that followed, the ice became the subject of intense scientific study, providing critical clues about the planet’s climate history. The same could not be said for the sediment, which was largely overlooked before vanishing completely.

  In 2017, the sediment was rediscovered in a freezer in Denmark. Now, a study of the frozen samples is shedding new light on Greenland’s past and, perhaps, providing an ominous warning for the future. The findings, which were published in Science on Thursday, suggest that roughly 400,000 years ago the Camp Century site in northwestern Greenland was temporarily ice-free. They add to accumulating evidence that Greenland’s ice sheet has not been stable for the last 2.5 million years, as scientists once assumed.

  “The big take-home message from this is Greenland is vulnerable,” said Paul Bierman, a geoscientist at the University of Vermont and an author of the new study. “The ice sheet has melted in the past, and therefore it can melt again.”

• KSL Wednesday, Jul. 19, 2023

  UDOT and USU pilot project protecting Utah's bumblebees

  PERRY, Box Elder County — A new pilot project from the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah State University is protecting bumblebees.

  At the northbound I-15 rest stop in Perry, in Box Elder County, you will find a pollinator garden that spans about 1 acre.

  The idea is to give pollinators more habitat while teaching us how we can do our part to help bees at home.

  "Pollinators are in decline. It's been well-established in literature, in the studies," Becky Yeager said.

  She is part of a team of biologists who spent the last two years creating the garden.

• Cache Valley Daily Friday, Jul. 14, 2023

  USU aviation faculty honored with statewide recognition

  LOGAN – A pair of faculty at the Utah State University Department of Aviation Technology have been honored for their contributions to the state’s aviation industry.

  Annually the Utah Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division honors five individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the state’s aviation industry.

  Shalyn Drake, an avid drone enthusiast, was named Rookie of the Year and Andreas “Baron” Wesemann, associate department head, earned the Colonel Gail Halvorsen Lifetime Achievement Award.

  “Shalyn earned this award at the beginning of her time at USU and Andreas is in the prime of his,” said Bruce Miller, the head of USU’s Aviation Technology Department.

• KSL Thursday, Jul. 06, 2023

  Study seeks causes for air pollution in Great Salt Lake area

  SALT LAKE CITY — A new study is taking a close look at air pollution around the Wasatch Front, and chemicals found in the Great Salt Lake.

  Researchers want to find out if those chemicals are getting into the air naturally or coming from the US Magnesium plant to the west.

  The University of Utah, Utah State University and Brigham Young University have teamed with Utah's Department of Environmental Quality to take readings all over the Great Salt Lake.

• KSL Monday, Jul. 03, 2023

  USU study shows clinicians lack knowledge of transgender health care

  LOGAN — A new study that includes Utah State University researchers highlights a lack of health care providers who are well versed in transgender care.

  The sociology study found that 1 in 4 transgender and nonbinary individuals report having to teach medical providers about their health care needs, which is in turn associated with self-rated poorer health and psychological distress.

  The study relied on data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey. With over 27,700 respondents, the survey was the largest ever devoted to transgender individuals. A 2022 survey has yet to be released.

• Cache Valley Daily Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2023

  USU inviting former students to complete degrees

  The Ivory Foundation Completion Scholarship is available to former Utah State University bachelor’s students who have stepped away from their education, to come back and receive financial aid.

  Becky Shipton started at USU in 1984, attended school for three years, and then moved to Nevada to start a family and also work from time to time. The family recently moved back to Becky’s hometown in Daggett County when her husband retired.

  When she learned of the Ivory Scholarship, knowing she had just two semester to graduation, she went for it.

  “I went ahead and contacted the university down here at Uintah Basin campus and they connected me with Rebecca Berrett; she became my counselor here. She is the one that actually talked me through the Ivory Scholarship. We took advantage of that, applied for it. It’s been just a great experience; it’s really helped me get started back to school again.”

• ABC4 News Monday, Jun. 26, 2023

  USU and Salt Lake City Public Utilities Launch Water Conservation Tools

  SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4) — Salt Lake City, in collaboration with Utah State University (USU) and Salt Lake City Public Utilities, is proud to introduce new water conservation tools to help residents better manage their water usage.

  With the integration of the Water Management Analysis and Planning Software (WaterMAPS) developed by USU, these tools provide valuable insights into water conservation for individual properties. As the spring runoff season concludes, the city is once again shifting its focus toward water conservation efforts. 

  Mayor Mendenhall commends the remarkable commitment of Salt Lake City residents to water conservation. Last year, the city achieved savings of nearly 3 billion gallons of water—an astonishing accomplishment. However, Mayor Mendenhall believes there is room for further improvement and emphasizes the importance of continued efforts in conserving this vital resource. 

• Cache Valley Daily Monday, Jun. 26, 2023

  USU scholars shine at national industrial hygiene conference

  You can thank the COVID pandemic for making industrial hygiene, the science of protecting workers’ health and safety, more important than ever.

  The American Industrial Hygiene Association awarded national academic scholarships to four Utah State University scholars at a national conference in Phoenix last month.

  The USU scholarship winners were 2022 graduate Denali Sanders, and current Aggies Jacob Byington, Spencer Fairbanks and Abigail Pickett.

  Sanders is currently pursuing a master’s degree in occupational ergonomics at Colorado State University. Fairbanks is an intern with Sturm, Ruger and Company at the firearms company’s facility in Prescott, Arizona.

  Pickett recently completed an internship with Wisconsin-based Sentry Insurance Company and Byington is an industrial hygiene intern at SSR Mining in Battle Mountain, Nevada. 

  Carl Farley, who is a senior lecturer in USU’s Department of Biology and also directs the school’s industrial hygiene degree program, said the four scholarship winners were competing almost entirely with students from graduate programs.

• CNN Sunday, Jun. 25, 2023

  Watermelon Snow: The phenomenon turning Utah's mountains pink and red

  People in Utah have been seeing snow on the ground tinged with a red and pinkish hue.

  It’s certainly pretty to look at, but what’s behind the natural phenomenon that’s nicknamed “watermelon snow”?

  Experts say it’s a normal occurrence that appears across mountainous locations all over the world.

  Though you might not suspect it from the snow’s colors, it is the result of green algae bloom that thrives in cold, snowy environments, according to Scott Hotaling, an assistant professor at Utah State University’s watershed sciences department.

• Cache Valley Daily Monday, Jun. 19, 2023

  Noelle Cockett's name now is on USU Life Sciences Building

  LOGAN – There are at least a half dozen buildings on the Utah State University campus named for past USU presidents, with the school’s current leader Noelle Cockett joining that list last Thursday, June 15.

  Ground was broken for the Life Sciences Building on April 25, 2017. That was four months after Cockett became president. Now, four years after doors opened (Jan. 7, 2019) it is the Noelle E. Cockett Life Sciences Building.

  USU Foundation Board Chair Jeannine Bennett announced the naming at a June 15 farewell reception for Dr. Cockett who is retiring, after more than six and a half years as president, to re-join the faculty in a research and teaching capacity.

• Fox 13 News Thursday, Jun. 15, 2023

  Charging electric vehicles while driving close to reality at Utah State

  LOGAN, Utah — A new Utah committee hopes to get technology under a road near those who avoid electric vehicles because they think they drive too far. Researchers at Utah State University have been working on that very concern since 2015 and are looking to get a truck on the road soon.

  Expansion is underway at the Electric Vehicle and Roadway at Utah State as part of a new state directive after Senate Bill 125, which was passed in the recent state legislature session, creates an Electrified Transportation Infrastructure Steering Committee.

  The committee has researchers working with customers and government.

• Cache Valley Daily Thursday, Jun. 08, 2023

  USU to break ground for new Art Education and Research Center

  LOGAN – A groundbreaking ceremony in less than two weeks will mark the start of work on the new Wanlass Center for Art Education and Research at Utah State University.

  The new 9,450 square-foot addition, adjacent to USU’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (NEHMA), will provide visitors a sense of what museums do behind the scenes.

  The ceremony on Tuesday, June 20 at 2 p.m. is open to the community. Attendees will hear from outgoing USU President Noelle Cockett, Logan Mayor Holly Daines, museum donor George Wanlass and museum Executive Director Katie Lee-Koven.

  Lee-Koven said the new structure will allow people to understand what NEHMA does to address future growth of the collection.