Alumni of Graham Hatfull’s SEA-Phages Lab are still playing in the dirt even years after graduating. The SEA-Phages program, which stands for Science Education Alliance-Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science program, is taught over the course of two semesters and was created by Hatfull under the Howard Hughes Medical Institute program.
The 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, caused millions of dollars of damage and long-lasting environmental and health concerns. A new briefing from Pitt researchers at the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory maps 26 years of derailments in the Ohio River Basin, showing that such accidents are more likely to occur near vulnerable communities and bodies of water.
The macabre is all around us, monsters lurking in every corner, and not all of them are fictional. Just ask English and Film and Media Studies professor Adam Lowenstein.
Horror is the intersection of many areas of study, and Lowenstein aims to connect them all, which is why he has been working like the living dead for years, alongside numerous collaborators across Pitt and beyond, to establish a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary Horror Studies Center.
Like many people, Savannah Parker likes relaxing with a good historical drama. But something has been bothering her about certain dramatizations in these shows; people of color are heavily misrepresented.
Mohammad Shedeed, a junior in the University of Pittsburgh Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and David C. Frederick Honors College, received a 2025-26 Newman Civic Fellowship. This national honor from Campus Compact recognizes student leaders who are making a difference in their communities.
Pitt’s Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology is only one hundred miles north of the University’s bustling Oakland campus, but for some it seems like a different world. Surrounded by quiet forest on the shore of a fishing lake that straddles the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line, Pitt students and researchers have enjoyed field and laboratory experiences here for generations. Known informally as PLE, the facility has space for large-scale research and ecosystems studies where students and researchers can get their hands on plants and animals in their natural environments.
On a clear night in Pittsburgh, it can be hard to find more than a dozen stars. But Diane Turnshek, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has dedicated her career to changing that. A longtime advocate for reducing light pollution, Turnshek is working to restore the brilliance of the night sky: one community, one policy, and one story at a time.
Carles Badenes, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, was interviewed for a Science News article about how a dying star imploded twice before becoming a supernova. Badenes was not part of the research team that captured the image, but he discussed the theories surrounding this phenomenon.
Craig Kaplan, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Dietrich School, was featured in a recent article in Quanta Magazine. The article discusses researchers who have discovered that RNA serves as the “alarm system” of our cells.
