News at SDState

The National Institutes of Health awarded $11,090,204 over five years to establish the South Dakota Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research (SD-ACT), a statewide partnership among Avera Research Institute, South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine.

South Dakota State University has named three finalists for the position of vice president for research and economic development. Each finalist will participate in two days of interviews that will include meetings with SDSU leadership, faculty, staff and other key stakeholders. An open forum will be held for each candidate on campus and via Zoom for those who cannot attend in person.

South Dakota State University has been educating nursing and pharmacy students in Sioux Falls for nearly 30 years, but for most members of the community, it was likely a well-kept secret. Now those programs, along with others, have a new, highly visible healthcare education home base in the heart of the city.

Researchers at South Dakota State University are recruiting participants for StrengthenHER, a multiyear research study designed to help women ages 50 to 75 reduce their risk of sarcopenia, the age‑related loss of muscle mass that can affect strength, mobility and long‑term independence.

The South Dakota State University College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences will celebrate the reopenings of Cottonwood Field Station and the Transient Animal Facility at the end of September, highlighting investments that support research, teaching and extension across the college.

Decades of research undertaken by South Dakota State University Distinguished Professor Kasiviswanathan “Muthu” Muthukumarappan earned him lifetime achievement awards from two professional organizations this summer. Muthu was honored by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) as a fellow at its meeting in Chicago July 11, and on July 14 he was in Indianapolis to be honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers at its international meeting.

The South Dakota State University Swine Education and Research Facility will increase its wean-to-finish capacity by 50% after a $1.8 million expansion. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Sept. 8 outside of the new addition.

Drones are increasingly being used for bridge inspections and to create 3D digital twins of the structures, but guidelines to replace in-person measurements of bridge geometry needed for structural assessment are still a work in progress. That’s where research by Akram Jawdhari and Ahmad Faqiri comes in. They are part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at South Dakota State University. Jawdhari is an assistant professor in his fourth year at SDSU. Faqiri is a doctoral student who arrived in January after completing his second master’s degree at the University of Utah. They have taken thousands of images of four concrete bridges in Brookings County and are working on data analysis. The goal is to have turned their research into a paper to submit to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of December.

A new study from South Dakota State University demonstrates how hydrogel beads create a microenvironment needed for naturally supplying nitrogen to crops.

Edgar McFadden, breeder of the aptly named wheat variety “Hope,” will be honored at a public ceremony and reception on Saturday, Aug. 29. The ceremony will celebrate the dedication of a new art sculpture, H.O.P.E. a Helix of Resilience: The Life, Journey & Legacy of Edgar S. McFadden.