In the News

• 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.

• The New York Times Tuesday, Jun. 06, 2023

  It's Called the Grand Canyon, Not the Eternal Canyon

  You don’t need me to tell you that the Grand Canyon is magnificent. Otherworldly. Sublime. But, having rafted through 90 miles of the canyon with a group of scientists and grad students, I can tell you that it’s quite a bit more fragile, and less permanent, than you might think.

  I wrote an article about the canyon this week in The Times. If you’ve seen it only from the rim or in photos, you probably think of the place as a bunch of rocks stretching to the horizon. Dramatically sculpted, gorgeously layered rocks. But still, rocks. Rocks are ancient, eternal, unchanging, at least for any species that thinks in years and decades.

  It was something far more transient, however, that cut a chasm into all that rock. The Colorado River is the water knife that gravity dragged through the landscape over millions of years. Then, humans came along and started building dams to control the Colorado. This is when the canyon began to change.

• The New York Times Tuesday, Jun. 06, 2023

  The Grand Canyon, a Cathedral to Time, Is Losing Its River

  Down beneath the tourist lodges and shops selling keychains and incense, past windswept arroyos and brown valleys speckled with agave, juniper and sagebrush, the rocks of the Grand Canyon seem untethered from time. The oldest ones date back 1.8 billion years, not just eons before humans laid eyes on them, but eons before evolution endowed any organism on this planet with eyes.

  Spend long enough in the canyon, and you might start feeling a little unmoored from time yourself.The immense walls form a kind of cocoon, sealing you off from the modern world, with its cell signal and light pollution and disappointments. They draw your eyes relentlessly upward, as in a cathedral.

  You might think you are seeing all the way to the top. But up and above are more walls, and above them even more, out of sight except for the occasional glimpse. For the canyon is not just deep. It is broad, too — 18 miles, rim to rim, at its widest. This is no mere cathedral of stone. It is a kingdom: sprawling, self-contained, an alternate reality existing magnificently outside of our own.

• Deseret News Tuesday, May. 30, 2023

  An NIL collective has been formed to benefit all Utah State athletes

  There was a time when Utah State athletics didn’t have a collective dedicated to furthering the cause of Aggies student-athletes’ name, image and likeness.

  Not so much anymore.

  On Tuesday, the Blue A Collective, co-founded by Eric Laub and former USU head football coach Gary Andersen — was announced, with the purpose of “empowering student-athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness while simultaneously fostering a strong connecting with Cache Valley,” Laub said in a statement.

• NPR Monday, May. 29, 2023

  The Colorado River deal won't be enough to save the river long term

  There are winners and losers in the new landmark deal to avert a water shortage crisis on the Colorado River. But experts say it doesn't go far enough and no one should be celebrating.

  People who rely on this shrinking Colorado River are still assessing the consequences of a landmark deal that the Biden administration says will avert a major crisis. It looks like a win for produce farmers in the Southwest, but some experts say no one should be celebrating. NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.

• The Herald Journal Monday, May. 29, 2023

  USU doctoral student to travel Utah with wasp exhibit

  When asked why a wasp that makes its way onto a desk at The Herald Journal shouldn’t be killed, Brenna Decker — a doctoral student in Utah State University’s biology department — gave a few compelling reasons.

  “If you have a wasp on your desk, it’s most likely the European Yellow Jacket or the European Paper Wasp,” she said. “If it’s one of those two, they’re also really good biocontrol.”

  If the hypothetical wasp in question was caught and released rather than killed, she explained, it can go hunt for other creatures such as spiders and garden-destroying caterpillars.

• The Los Angeles Times Monday, May. 22, 2023

  Is landmark deal over the Colorado River enough to stave off disaster?

  The groundbreaking deal announced Monday to cut water use from the Colorado River comes after months of negotiations.

  But is it enough to deal with the drought crisis on the Colorado?

  Here is what we know:

• KSL Friday, May. 19, 2023

  Elizabeth Cantwell chosen as Utah State University's new president

  LOGAN — The Utah Board of Higher Education announced Elizabeth "Betsy" R. Cantwell as Utah State University's new president Friday afternoon after an extensive, nationwide search.

  Cantwell will replace previous USU President Noelle Cockett, who stepped down after six years at the university's helm.

  "I am so pleased to take everything I've done and bring it here, and really offer it to you as service," Cantwell said. "It is the role of your next president to take you to where you want to go."

• Hill Air Force Base Thursday, May. 18, 2023

  Hill AFB, Utah State sign partnership agreement

  HILL AFB, Utah --  

  A new agreement between Utah State University and Hill Air Force Base will create enhanced learning opportunities for students and spur innovative joint research efforts.

  The Education Partnership Agreement was signed May 11 by USU President Noelle E. Cockett and Wayne Ayer, a director of the Air Force Sustainment Center’s Engineering and Technical Management Directorate in Ogden.

  “There are so many opportunities and technologies that exist within the Air Force that students and faculty can be a part of,” Ayer said. “By meeting with students through mentoring, student design projects, tech talks, tours and various other engagements, we can help enhance their understanding of a STEM career and expose them to various ways they can utilize their degree.”

  The agreement creates a more direct partnership between USU and Hill Air Force Base, which allows both parties to more efficiently engage on future research.

• Cache Valley Daily Tuesday, May. 16, 2023

  Utah State's SDL is building cameras to study the edge of space

  NORTH LOGAN – Two years ago NASA commissioned Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) to develop cameras for a mission to advance our understanding of the exosphere.

  Planned for a 2025 launch, the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory will include SDL’s two Far Ultraviolet, or FUV, cameras which will be the primary science instruments for the mission.

  The exosphere, the outermost layer of the earth’s atmosphere, is about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It is the point in space where the gravitational pull of Earth and the Sun is equal and opposite and that will allow the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory to maintain a stable orbit as it conducts its scientific mission.