Extensive resources accelerate research throughout the University
WSU’s centers and institutes unite scholars across disciplines to solve tough problems. Partnerships with industry and academia exponentially speed the pace of discovery. Core instrumentation facilities and high-performance computing provide advanced equipment and data-processing capability to WSU’s entire research community.
Research and Creative Practice across 10 colleges
Each of WSU’s 10 colleges brings a unique set of perspectives and expertise to explore research challenges.
Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Explorations contribute to a safe and abundant food, fiber, and energy supply while enhancing the sustainability of agricultural and natural resource systems. With extension offices in every county in Washington, the college plays a vital role in making the benefits of the University’s research available to the entire state. Noteworthy facilities include the nation’s largest on-campus organic farm, an on- campus orchard, climate-controlled plant growth facilities, farms for seed and crop experimentation, and dairy and beef research centers.
Arts and Sciences
Research is wide-ranging, advancing knowledge in such enduring issues as sustainability, health, security, sociocultural systems, and natural environments. Within academic departments and across disciplines, researchers conduct world-leading science in social and environmental determinants of health, environment and climate change, nuclear chemistry, materials under extreme conditions, and equity and social justice. The college’s facilities and research units run the gamut from the Institute for Shock Physics to the Museum of Anthropology.
Business
Research at the Carson College of Business fosters academic and economic advances that improve the function of organizations around the globe. Spanning critical areas like generative AI and augmented reality and extending into the dynamic realms of hospitality business management, entrepreneurship, marketing and consumer behavior, information systems, management, finance, and operations management.
Communication
The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication explores communication relative to politics, science, and health. The Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research helps individuals and health professionals use media effectively to make informed and healthy decisions.
Education
Scholars find new approaches to improve teaching, learning, and benchmarking results. With two research centers and 10 research labs, the College of Education is home to an array of educational and psychological research projects. Studies cover cognitive neuroscience of human movement, and pregnancy. Labs focus on the human learning, literacy and language support, special education, and learning environments. College of Education delves into technology research, offering expertise in multimedia learning, assistive technology, and providing a large-scale data lab.
Engineering and Architecture
The Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture solves critical problems in energy, environment, health, and security. With seven schools and departments and 19 institutes, centers, and labs, the Voiland College continues to increase research engagement of faculty and students with industry and community partners. Tapping into the best minds across multiple disciplines, researchers are conducting work in areas of advanced materials, air and water resources, sustainable infrastructure, catalysis, and the smart electric power grid.
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
The College of Medicine, based on the Spokane campus, conducts research in many fields, with internationally recognized work in neuroscience, addiction, cancer, and sleep and performance. Within the College of Medicine, the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH) conducts transdisciplinary research devoted to promoting health and health care equity among Indigenous and rural populations. Together with the University’s longstanding expertise in nursing and pharmacy education, the College of Medicine is the bedrock upon which the University’s medical school is built.
Nursing
Patient-focused research at the College of Nursing aims to transform and improve health care for everyone. Areas of nursing faculty expertise include rural mental health, substance abuse, addictions, geriatrics, environmental health, transitional care, underserved populations, cultural competency in nursing, and childhood obesity. Environmental health and sustainable health care are also priority topics. The College of Nursing is one of 10 schools chosen to participate in a national study evaluating the effectiveness of patient simulations in nursing programs.
Pharmacy
A thriving research program emphasizes novel drug targets, the pharmacology of drug interactions, drug discovery, and the potential of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics in personalized medicines. The College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences discoveries help solve and treat numerous medical problems, such as cancer, drug metabolism, rheumatoid arthritis, and even inflammation. Research continues to span across topics from tobacco cessation, immunology and immunotherapy, aging, to diabetes.
Veterinary Medicine
The College of Veterinary Medicine operates one of the best equipped teaching hospitals in the world. Clinical faculty members often collaborate with research faculty. The college’s research on the basic processes of infectious diseases, neurobiology, physiology, and immunology informs new approaches to the control and treatment of both animal and human diseases. The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab provides diagnostics, disease surveillance, and outreach in order to safeguard animal health, the food supply, and public health.