Other NM universities announcements

As farmers in climate-stressed regions struggle with limited water resources, scientists are looking to the sea for a solution to improve water retention in soil for crops.

The Pratt Institute in New York City has assembled a coalition of researchers and institutions to develop seaweed-based water absorbents that can balance soil moisture, allow crops to withstand droughts between irregular rainfalls, and reduce the need for irrigation.

New Mexico State University is among the collaborators on the project, funded by a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Bold Idea Conference, held October 30 at New Mexico State University, continued its mission to inspire innovation, career readiness and entrepreneurial thinking through a series of interactive breakout sessions. Hosted by the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship at Arrowhead Center, two key workshops focused on practical financial knowledge and professional branding, essential skills for students preparing to enter the workforce. 

The first session, Money Moves, was led by Jacqueline Florez, Financial Wellbeing Specialist at Nusenda Credit Union. The workshop guided students through the foundations of personal finance, including loans, insurance, credit scores, budgeting tools and long-term investing. Designed as an open discussion, the session encouraged questions and active participation. Students also engaged in hands-on activities and a giveaway sponsored by the Nusenda Center for Financial Capability. 

An anomaly in the behavior of neutrinos, nearly massless particles that rarely interact with other matter, has intrigued physicists for decades. In a paper published Dec. 3 in the Journal Nature, scientists on the MicroBooNE experiment have ruled out a long-standing hypothesis – the existence of a sterile neutrino – with 95% certainty.

New Mexico State University's Department of Physics is part of the international MicroBooNE collaboration, which bridges 193 scientists from 40 institutions, national labs and universities across six countries. NMSU's physics department has been involved in research at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the facility that hosts MicroBooNE, since 1985. The MicroBooNE project itself started collecting data in 2015. The detector ran from 2015 to 2021, and scientists are still combing through and analyzing all the data.

New Mexico State University will host its 40th annual "Noche de Luminarias," or "Night of Lights," from 5 to 8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, on the NMSU campus. The luminarias will be displayed throughout the NMSU campus, starting at the Pan American Center down to Hadley Hall. 

"This is a beloved tradition that brings together the campus and community to celebrate the warmth and beauty of the holiday season," said Michelle Grandjean, associate director of Student Involvement and Leadership Programs.

Whether they have colorful wings, multiple legs or eyes, or even stingers on their behinds, insects serve an essential purpose – and their beauty has inspired a new permanent wall exhibit in NMSU’s Skeen Hall. 

Titled “Insects in Art,” the exhibit is a kaleidoscope of more than two dozen paintings, drawings and mixed-media pieces created by New Mexico State University students over the past eight years. It came together through a collaboration between Scott Bundy and the University Art Museum. 

 Home to Pattern Energy's Western Spirit Wind, the largest single-phase renewable energy build-out in the Western Hemisphere, central New Mexico has quickly become a hub for wind energy development.

Wind farms like Western Spirit Wind – a portion of which sits on New Mexico State University's Corona Range and Livestock Research Center – consist of dozens, if not hundreds, of towering wind turbines.

However, little is known about the effects of turbines on wildlife, particularly mammals living on the ground. Conversely, scientists around the world have extensively studied turbines and their effects on birds and other flying animals.

Jagdish Khubchandani, a public health professor at New Mexico State University, has been elected to serve as the secretary for the World Association of Medical Editors.

WAME, founded in 1995, is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality and credibility of medical scholarship. It brings together editors of peer-reviewed medical journals from more than 50 countries and serves as a central resource for guidance, training and policy development in scientific publishing.

New Mexico State University's School of Nursing has opened the doors to a new, state-of-the-art simulated operating room designed to prepare students for careers as certified-registered nurse anesthetists.

NMSU's School of Nursing and College of Health, Education and Social Transformation unveiled the completed 1,2000-square-foot operating room last month. The operating room is the newest edition to the School of Nursing's Skills and Simulation Center, which also recently underwent its first major renovation and expansion in two decades.