OR annual report

Research Excellence

Fiscal Year 2023

Greetings!

For more than 130 years, research, scholarship, and creative activity at Washington State University has enriched the lives of the communities we serve, from Washington to the world. Our research addresses the challenges of today to create a better future.

I am excited to share some of the outstanding research conducted by our faculty in this report. Our research spans a broad range of topics, including food security and sustainable agriculture; community and public health; biomedical, life sciences, and biotechnology; environmental sciences and energy futures; next generation materials and advanced manufacturing; and AI/ML and robotics. Researchers across 11 colleges and six campuses untangle complex problems, make discoveries, and create innovations and partnerships that are key to answering pressing questions and solve some of society’s toughest challenges.

WSU continues to expand its strong research portfolio through highly competitive funding from the federal government, augmented by strong state and industrial portfolios. This funding enables WSU’s researchers to explore today’s problems and develop new solutions through impactful science and innovative engineering technology.

We are excited to celebrate the achievements and milestones of our researchers. Their outstanding work has been honored by the National Academy of Inventors, United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing 50, the American Physical Society, Entomological Society of America, the American Bandmasters Association, and many more organizations. Additionally, we are excited to highlight six emerging researchers to watch. Their work is already making an impact in the early stage of their careers.

As a result, the outcomes of our research community demonstrate WSU’s land-grant mission and fuel prosperity across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We’re proud to be one of the nation’s leading research universities. I’m excited to share some of our cutting-edge research below.

To learn more about the life-changing research, scholarship, and creative activity unfolding at WSU, please read on – and stay up to date on all WSU research and services offered by the Office of Research by visiting research.wsu.edu.

Michael P. Wolcott

Regents Professor

Interim Vice President for Research

By The Numbers

By The Numbers

$309 Million Across 1,571 Awards  

Top Funding Agencies

USDA-$76,449,432 HHS - 68,559,233 DOE -$20,249,828 NSF - $17,993,886 DOD - $13,914,131

Commercialization At a Glance

$11,400,955 in Licensing revenues
72 Patent Disclosures
64 Patent applications
Research Strength:
Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
Research Strength:
Community & Public Health
Research Strength:
Environmental Sciences & Energy Futures
Research Strength:
Biomedical, Life Sciences, & Biotechnology
Research Strength:
Next Generation Materials & Advanced Manufacturing
Emerging Priority Area:
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics

Research Strengths

Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture

WSU’s College of Agricultural, Natural, and Human Resources (CAHNRS) is a national leader in the agricultural sciences. Researchers in CAHNRS and throughout WSU work to empower farmers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond with crop improvements and scientific advancements that allow them to deliver safe, nutritious, and sustainable food and other products to market. In addition, the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is home to globally recognized programs in livestock resiliency and health and researchers there are making crucial contributions to efforts at WSU to secure our food supplies into the future.

Crop and livestock improvement

WSU researchers contribute to Washington’s diverse agricultural sector through the development of varietals of specialty and staple crops (wheat in particular) that are ideally suited for the environments of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. WSU is also home to research on animal farming: improving animal health and productivity, particularly in dairy and fish farming. Additionally, WSU entomologists are working to improve the population health of bees and other pollinators essential to agriculture.

Integrated pest management & plant pathology

WSU is home to wide ranging efforts to prevent and mitigate the impact of pests and plant diseases on our agricultural system. Farmers and pest managers throughout Washington reap the benefits of advances in the lab and on WSU’s test farms through WSU extension’s IPM program, which advocates an approach to pest management that reduces human health risks, minimizes adverse environmental impacts, and maximizes sustainable returns for farmers. 

Nutrition, food safety, and innovative packaging

Food scientists at WSU work to ensure that the fresh foods produced by Washington farms are as safe and nutritious when they reach consumers as they were at harvest. Aside from advancements in post-harvest food safety, WSU is also home to significant research in food processing and packaging maximizing safety and nutritious stability. Allied research includes dietetics and community nutrition. 

Soil health and productivity

WSU soil scientists work to develop environmentally and economically sustainable cropping systems. These advances help farmers deliver the highest quality, most nutritious crops to our communities while ensuring that our agricultural systems are sustainable in the long term. 

Bioproducts

WSU scientists are developing and refining bioproducts from a variety of sources. The primary products of agriculture being used as materials for new kinds of food and other products at the same time as researchers are exploring new ways of drawing on the myriad waste streams of our economy—food waste, biosolids, plastics, and more—to create the building blocks of new products. These efforts are aligned with others at WSU to use plant-based materials and waste to create sustainable fuels.  

Research in Action

Community & Public Health

WSU health scientists—including those in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the College of Arts and Sciences—investigate an array of topics impacting human health. However, they share a focus on improving health outcomes in our communities, particularly in rural, Indigenous, and other systemically excluded communities. 

Health equity

Communities do not experience health challenges equally and many lack access to healthcare that others may take for granted. WSU’s health science researchers are grounded in this understanding and their research touches on disproportionalities in the impacts of disease and access to quality healthcare, particularly in, often intersecting, rural communities and Indigenous communities. 

Epidemiology of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases

WSU scientists and their partners in communities worldwide are at the front lines of disease monitoring. These researchers protect our communities by studying diseases in animals and those carried by vectors like ticks. By developing close understandings of human–animal relationships, WSU disease experts can better understand the dynamics of zoonotic outbreaks and help to lessen their impact. 

Addiction and substance use

WSU is home to a broad group of researchers in many disciplines who investigate the relationship between humans and drugs, including drug abuse. This includes work from the basic neurophysiology of addiction in the brain, to best practices for community-based interventions in substance use disorder. WSU is also a center of research on the effects of cannabis use on individuals and on society more broadly as its legality and acceptance continue to spread. 

Sleep and performance

WSU researchers have expertise in the impacts of sleep and fatigue on cognitive and physical performance, physical stressors at work, and the neurology and physiology of movement. This research is applied across many areas including the military, first responders and other groups involved in high stress occupations. 

Mental and behavioral health

WSU researchers investigate a variety of mental health related questions with a strong orientation toward improving access to effective care and interventions in Washington communities. In addition to investigations of addiction and substance use behaviors, WSU researchers investigate important questions pertaining to youth mental health and wellbeing in educational and other contexts, depression and learning and cognition, among many other topics. 

Research in Action

Environmental Sciences & Energy Futures

WSU researchers are leading the way in addressing one of the greatest challenges of our time: climate change. Researchers developing resilient and restorative practices in natural resource management and those making advances in renewable and efficient energy systems are coming together to form a coherent and holistic approach to tackling climate change: slowing and mitigating its effects in community-driven, equitable ways while developing the energy economy of the future. 

Low carbon and renewable energy technologies

WSU researchers are making advances in low carbon and renewable alternatives to fossil fuels. A major component of such research at WSU is bioenergy: transforming biomass residues and waste carbon into fuels. WSU researchers have leading roles in the development of technologies and policy around plant-derived sustainable aviation fuels. These efforts are complemented by those taking place at the WSU–PNNL Bioproducts Institute which also include the development of renewable biodiesels. Beyond biofuels, WSU engineers are contributing to improving wind turbines, and refining the production, storage, and use of hydrogen as a fuel source with diverse applications. WSU is a developing center for Hydrogen fuel studies and is a member PNWH2, with major funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program. The Institute for Northwest Energy Futures, located on the WSU Tri-Cities Campus, will help develop and implement a roadmap for a clean energy systems approach for the Tri-Cities area, Washington, and beyond.

Climate science: adaptations to changing ecosystems

As global climate change continues to impact diverse ecosystems in distinct ways, WSU scientists seek to understand how human and animal communities respond to these changes. Contributions range from wildlife habitat monitoring, to predicting and mitigating the impacts of wildfire and forest resiliency, to breeding crop varieties specifically adapted to changing agricultural ecosystems. 

Water resources and hydrology

Water resources and their effective management are integral to the economic and social wellbeing globally. Across WSU, researchers take holistic approaches to understanding hydrologic resources worldwide while engaging with communities globally in research that ensures those resources are protected, managed, and used sustainably. More locally, the State of Washington Water Research Center (WRC) is host to scientists expert in the water resources of the Pacific Northwest, helping to inform policy that ensures that regional resources are used sustainably. 

Energy storage and delivery systems

Low carbon and renewable energy technologies are only one part of the future of sustainable energy. WSU researchers are also developing new technologies for the storage and delivery of novel energy systems, through storage and delivery systems for hydrogen fuel, advances in battery technology, and innovative smart grid technologies. WSU is home to leading research in power system engineering who conduct research in advanced grid modeling and complex power systems through the Advanced Grid Institute, a collaborative research center with PNNL. 

Nuclear chemistry, medicine, and reactors

Nuclear chemists at WSU possess expertise in detection, monitoring, and cleanup of radioactive materials and, with the unique resource of an on-campus 1 MW TRIGA nuclear reactor, study the effects of radiation on an array of materials, including the human body. Further strengthening WSU’s position as a leader in the nuclear sciences is a long-standing partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory through the WSU–PNNL Nuclear Science Technology Institute. 

Research in Action

Biomedical, Life Sciences, & Biotechnology

Experts in human and animal health in the College of Veterinary Medicine and throughout WSU are working to expand our understanding of biology at the cellular and systemic levels, particularly in the realms of immunology and disease function and reproduction and development, which are particularly important for animal health in agricultural contexts. Genetics and functional genomics are a throughline in biomedical and life sciences research at WSU, enabling researchers to study biological and medical questions at the most foundational level while empowering them to select for desirable traits in animals. 

Pharmaceutical Sciences and Molecular Medicine 

WSU Pharmaceutical scientists are experts in clinical pharmacology, drug discovery and design—especially computational design utilizing mathematical modeling and simulation—and understanding human diseases and pathogenic mechanisms in the context of drug discovery. Research at WSU in this area is leading to novel treatments of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic and autoimmune diseases, and others including rare and understudied disorders. 

Immunology and infectious disease

Epidemiology, disease monitoring, and control of disease vector are critical actions to prevent the spread of disease in human and animal communities. WSU is home to experts in the biological mechanisms of bacterial and viral diseases in humans and animals. By understanding issues like innate immunity, monitoring antimicrobial resistance, and the routes through which diseases come to impact communities, WSU researchers create interventions to prevent bacterial and viral disease. 

Cell and developmental biology

WSU researchers are investigating the cellular foundations for the functioning of biological systems in humans and animals. This research has important impacts for understanding disease processes in the heart, for example, the underlying mechanisms of skeletal muscle function, and the process of gametogenesis (critical to understanding how genes are successfully transferred in reproductive processes). 

Reproductive biology

WSU is an established leader in reproductive biology. The dozens of researchers associated with the Center for Reproductive Biology study the reproductive processes and biological structures through which genetic information flows from generation to generation. Understanding these processes is critical due to their role in the expression traits coded in individuals’ unique genetic code. This expertise is complementary to efforts in genetic engineering, genomics, and developmental biology.  

Evolutionary biology

Researchers in evolutionary biology—concentrated in the College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Biological Sciences—explore the ways that species change through time by investigating diverse topics from the trajectories and impacts of plant and animal domestication to modern population genetics. Understanding these large-scale processes enables insights into ecological questions like wildlife population management, functional genomics, and the biology of infectious diseases. 

Genetic engineering and genomics

A strong expertise in genetics, genomics, and genetic engineering makes WSU a leader in both the study of genetic functionality and the development of novel gene-based methods for the editing of genetic traits in animals. Beyond the benefits to human health that advances in these areas promise—in understanding the relationship between damage to cellular DNA and cancer, for example—WSU also possesses a unique authorization from the USDA to explore gene editing in livestock to improve the U.S. and global food supply. 

Research in Action

Next Generation Materials & Advanced Manufacturing

Scientists at WSU in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Agricultural, Natural, and Human Resources work to push diverse existing and novel materials—including metals and advanced ceramics, semiconductors, plant-based and other renewable materials, and crystals—into new realms. The applications are as diverse as the materials themselves and include, among others, national security and space technology, energy production, sustainable building materials, electronics.

Matter under extreme conditions

Researchers, primarily in the WSU Institute for Shock Physics, investigate how matter behaves under extreme pressure and shock conditions. This work, which includes partnerships with national laboratories and leading universities nationwide, has applications in national security, additive manufacturing, space technology, and energy. 

Materials for healthy, sustainable, and resilient built environments

Buildings and other constructed environments are a major component of humanity’s ecological footprint. WSU researchers contribute to a greener future through the development of novel sustainable building materials. These materials are often engineered using recycled or waste materials, meaning that they require reduced amounts of raw materials relative to their traditional counterparts while standing up to the same functional demands as traditional materials. 

Chip design and electronic materials

Engineering researchers at WSU lead innovations in chip design as well as the materials underlying chips and electronic devices. Such advances enable more compact and reliable components with a huge range of applications. WSU is home to leaders in the related field of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, which has been applied by WSU researchers in soft materials for electronics, soft bio-materials, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, and more. 

Advanced ceramics

WSU researchers develop and refine new materials and technologies in this area and are growing leaders in training the next generation of researchers in advanced ceramics, with critical application in many areas including national security and energy technologies. 

Research in Action

Emerging Priority Area: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics

Researchers in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture and their collaborators throughout WSU are developing technological solutions for some of today’s most challenging problems. These include robotics, AI, and other tools for precision agriculture to efficiently and sustainably feed the world, smart health systems integrating AI to enable adaptive and effective delivery of care, and a commitment to cybersecurity, addressing new vulnerabilities introduced by the adoption of new technologies. AI/ML and Robotics is an emerging area of strength across multiple colleges. 

High-tech and precision agriculture

Centered around the AI Institute for Transforming Workforce & Decision Support (AgAID), WSU researchers and their partners at institutions, corporations and with community partners across the country are collaborating to bring cutting-edge technologies driven by artificial intelligence. Using sensor networks to inform decision-making around labor and the allocation of other resources along with the use of purpose-designed robots and other autonomous systems will produce sustained increase in productivity, essential to meeting future food demands. 

Smart Health Systems

The incorporation of novel technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence, into healthcare practices is a priority for ensuring the highest quality care reaches the greatest number of individuals. The smart health systems being investigated by WSU nurse scientists, engineers, and industry and community partners utilize advanced health and behavioral sensing systems paired with machine learning algorithms to enhance evidence-based best practices for healthcare delivery. 

Wearable devices & biosensors

Electronic and other devices worn by humans pose unique engineering challenges. WSU researchers utilize novel materials and innovative designs to develop devices for health monitoring and drug delivery, injury treatment, personal environmental monitoring, and more. These devices take a variety of forms including traditional electronics, conductive biofilms and other biomaterials, and even textiles, which will lead to articles of clothing themselves that function as devices. 

Cybersecurity

As networked devices are increasingly integrated into critical systems in realms as diverse as health, energy, and agriculture, securing those systems against attack has become more important than ever. WSU is home to experts developing tools and techniques for securing against threats to a variety of electronic systems. WSU faculty lead the Northwest Institute for Cybersecurity Education and Research (CySER) advancing cybersecurity research while developing the cybersecurity workforce. 

Electronic design automation

WSU specialists in electronic design automation are turning their expertise in chip design, algorithm development, and system modeling toward the problems and opportunities presented by the widening use of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools in our society. These include many of the other areas of strength at WSU including AI/ML integration in tools for agriculture and health. WSU researchers are helping to ensure that these new tools are developed and deployed in equitable ways through partnerships across disciplines and in communities. 

Research in Action

Self-teaching web app improves speed, accuracy of classifying cereal DNA variations

Researchers build bee robot that can twist

New way to rearrange store products could boost impulse buying

Screen-printing method can make wearable electronics less expensive

Drones show potential to improve salmon nest counts

Home sensors can detect opioid withdrawal signs at night

Emerging Researchers

Emerging Researchers

Claire Richards

Claire Richards

College of Nursing, WSU Spokane

Research Interests: Her research focuses on how to provide health services to people experiencing extreme heat, power outages and wildfire smoke. Ultimately, her goal is to develop methods to identify those communities most at risk of power outages, extreme heat, and hazardous air quality and develop tools to mitigate communication delays between energy utilities and public health agencies for people who are medically vulnerable and rely on electricity for their medical equipment. The increasing, compounding effects of climate change can be dangerous for people, especially those who have fewer resources to mitigate them.

Projects to watch: National Science Foundation—Integrative and Collaborative Education & Research awarded Richards with $344,324 for Collaborative Research: NNA Research: Foundations for Improving Resilience in the Energy Sector against Wildfires on Alaskan Lands (FIREWALL).

Ganapati Bhat

Ganapati Bhat

Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, WSU Pullman

Research Interests: His research focuses primarily in the design, optimization and application of wearable Internet of Things (IoT) devices, heterogeneous mobile devices, flexible hybrid electronics, and health monitoring. Some of the topics in these areas include energy management, energy harvesting, human activity recognition, dynamic thermal and power management, and resource management. He is also interested in applications of machine learning, dynamic programming, and convex optimization in real-world problems.

Project to watch: National Science Foundation CAREER Award for $577,203 for the Towards Self-Sustainable Wearable Systems Design for Mobile Health Applications.

Ji Yun Lee

Ji Yun Lee

Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU Pullman

Research Interests: Her research interests include risk-informed decision making, infrastructure and community resilience, risk assessment and management of infrastructure and supply chain systems, natural hazards modeling and simulation, applications of statistics and probability in civil engineering, and wildfire risk assessment, management, and evacuation modeling.

Project to watch: National Science Foundation CAREER Award for $520,000 to support the project Understanding the Role of Citizen Engagement and Multidirectional Information Exchange in Community Resilience

Arden Baylink

Arden Baylink

College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology, WSU Pullman

Research Interests: His research focuses on engineering new therapeutics against bacterial gastrointestinal pathogens. These diseases affect millions of people, particularly in developing regions of the world. Yet, in comparison to diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s, few companies are developing new medicines to treat these diseases. Bylink feels this is an area where academics like himself can contribute to real-world improvements in human health. This includes in areas of structure-based drug discovery, bacterial chemotaxis, stomach cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBS), and redox chemistry and reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Project to watch: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded $249,000 for the project Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms and Biological Functions of a Novel Bleach-Sensing Bacterial Receptor in Shaping Host-Associated Bacterial Populations in Response to Host Inflammation.

Jessica Saniguq Ullric

Jessica Saniguq Ullrich

Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH)

Research Interests: She studies Indigenous child wellbeing, which is her drive and passion and why she went back to school after working child welfare in Alaska for 10 years. About 70 percent of children in foster care in Alaska are Alaska Native, even though Alaska native people make up only 20 percent of the overall population in the state. That’s a huge disparity, and those outcomes have remained the same despite a lot of good efforts being made to change them. The disparity has fueled her desire to learn how to engage in research and see if it could help shine a light on what’s working, what’s not working, and what to do about this problem.

Project to watch: The Spencer Foundation awarded $75,000 for the Re-Centering Indigenous Concepts of Educational Success to Promote Systemic Change

Seth Rudman

Seth Rudman

College of Arts and Sciences School of Biological Sciences, WSU Vancouver

Research Interests: His research centers on using evolutionary genetics to better understand the fate of populations inhabiting changing environments. His research combines field experiments, field collections, and analyses of genomic data to understand the factors that shape evolution and also examine rapid evolution influences populations and communities. He works primarily in organisms that are amenable to experimentation, such as flies, plankton and small fish. But he is always looking for new systems where interesting questions at the intersection of evolution, genetics, and ecology can be answered.

Project to watch: National Institute of General Medicine Sciences awarded $752,148 for Empirical Tests of the Contributions of Genomic Variation to the Trajectories of Adaptation.

Faculty in the Spotlight

Faculty in the Spotlight

Washington State University faculty lead the nation and world with their research. Below are various recognitions and awards given to over forty faculty members during 2023. These awards recognize the continued impacts that research at WSU makes across the state, nation, and world.

Highly Cited Researchers

The Highly Cited Researchers 2022 list, developed by Clarivate, the analytics company that runs the Web of Science research platform, uses both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify researchers who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their fields. The list is drawn from the highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index over the past decade.