Research

  • Associate Professor Brett VanVeller and a colleague working in a chemistry lab.
    Chemistry professor is awarded 2026 Bailey Award for innovative research

    Brett VanVeller, associate professor of chemistry, has been awarded the 2026 Bailey Research Career Development Award from Iowa State University for his research into unlocking bottromycin, a relatively rare antibiotic with a unique mechanism that could outsmart resistant bacteria.

  • A robotic hand and a human hand are typing on a computer keyboard.
    Are we giving AI a pulse through language?

    English faculty members Jo Mackiewicz and Jeanine Aune are studying how we use anthropomorphizing language – or words that give human traits to non-human things – when writing about artificial intelligence. Their findings can help technical and professional communication practitioners reflect on how they think about AI technologies, both as tools in their writing process and in how they write about AI.

  • Matthew Wetstein
    The value of particle physics

    Iowa State University physics and astronomy associate professor Matthew Wetstein advances research to understand one of the universe's most abundant yet mysterious particles: neutrinos.

  • Doug Gentile
    Be kind to others, it can be good for your own health, mind

    Iowa State University psychology professor Douglas Gentile says even thinking kind thoughts can have a powerful effect.

  • Bowen Weng, roboticist and assistant professor of computer science, stands beside two humanoid robots in the Iowa State University computer science robotics lab.
    LAS researchers are working to safely advance the capabilities of humanoid robots

    College of Liberal Arts and Sciences researchers are working to develop and test new methods that could help advance the physical intelligence and capabilities of humanoid robots, while also prioritizing the development of safety standards that will allow robots and humans to interact safely.

  • Professor Geetu Tuteja holds a small vial of liquid in front of her face.
    Lessons from a temporary organ

    As a professor of genetics, development and cell biology, Geetu Tuteja’s research investigates how genes and their regulatory elements control early placental development, particularly how cells establish the connection between mother and fetus.

  • Professor Don Sakaguchi works with a student in his laboratory at Iowa State University.
    Educating the next generation of researchers

    Since joining Iowa State in 1991, Don Sakaguchi, Morrill Professor and Director of Biology and Genetics Undergraduate Programs, has welcomed more than 200 undergraduate student researchers to his projects studying experimental repair strategies for damage to the nervous system.

  • Lynn Clark holds up a bamboo specimen.
    Solving bamboo’s enduring puzzles

    Lynn Clark, Distinguished Professor in Liberal Art and Sciences, is one of the world's leading experts in identifying and classifying bamboo.