Research

CSANR, BSE researchers seek sites to grow tomorrow’s produce

Thanks to a changing climate, production of fruits and vegetables may be more challenging in some regions of the country in the future. To help ensure tomorrow’s fruits and vegetables, researchers with the WSU Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources (CSANR) and Department of Biological Systems Engineering are on a four-year, $3.4 million research project to find more places to […]

WSU Faculty, Dr. Lav Khot, Presents at 2017 APS Annual Meeting in San Antonio

State-of-the-art on Sensing Technologies for Plant Disease Detection Lav Khot, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering IAREC, Washington State University Brief description: Site-specific disease detection is one of the key aspects of effective crop (loss) management. Recent advances in detectors (optical, chemical) have improved feasibility of development and use of rapid non-contact/nondestructive sensing techniques […]

WSU Research Gets Closer to Cost-Effective BioFuels

June 5, 2017 | ENVIRONMENTAL MOLECULAR SCIENCES LABORATORY  [ full article ] June 6, 2017 | PHYS.ORG [ full article ] Molecular-level understanding of cellulose structure reveals why it resists degradation and could lead to cost-effective biofuels. A major bottleneck hindering cost-effective production of biofuels and many valuable chemicals is the difficulty of breaking down cellulose—an important […]

WSU Tri-Cities team earns CleanTech Big Picture prize at UW business competition

May 26, 2017 | by Maegan Murray RICHLAND, Wash. – A team from Washington State University Tri-Cities took home the Wells Fargo “CleanTech” Big Picture prize during the University of Washington’s Business Plan Competition this week. With the award, the team, which includes Libing Zhang, a recent doctoral alumna, and Manuel Seubert and Taylor Pate, […]

WAVE Minute: AgWeatherNet & Grape Growers

May 11, 2017  |  Good Fruit Grower  |  Kate Prengaman How can AgWeatherNet help grape growers across the Inland Northwest? WSU’s Melba Salazar explains.   [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/322173191″ type=”visual” autoplay=”0″]   See the full story on the Washington Ag Network

WSU Tri-Cities team in UW business competition ‘sweet 16’

April 28, 2017   |  WSU News RICHLAND, Wash. – A team from Washington State University Tri-Cities whose business plan is to commercialize a WSU-patented jet fuel technology has advanced to the University of Washington Business Plan Competition’s “sweet 16” round. The sweet 16 round of the UW Business Plan Competition kicks off May 25. [ full […]

Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge

April 3, 2017  |  WSU News RICHLAND, Wash. – Washington State University Tri-Cities technology and a business plan for converting the plant material lignin into biojet fuel won third place among 21 teams at the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge finals last week. The team of Libing Zhang, postdoctoral researcher, and Manuel Seubert, master’s of […]

New way to characterize cellulose, advance bioproducts

MARCH 23, 2017  |  by Maegan Murray, WSU Tri-Cities RICHLAND, Wash. – Researchers at Washington State University Tri-Cities and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have found a new way to define the molecular structure of cellulose, which could lead to cheaper and more efficient ways to make a variety of crucial bioproducts. For the first time, […]

Predicting Phenology: A New Tool from AgWeatherNet

Spring 2017  |  Viticulture and Enology Extension News Phenology refers to “the science of appearance”. This translates into understanding nature’s “calendar” of plant development. Important phenological events in viticulture include bud break, bloom and veraison, which are tied closely with management practices. Predicting when these events will occur can be difficult; most key phenological stages of grape are sensitive to climate and seasonal weather. Seasonal changes can include […]