April 6, 2026
A team led by Penn State scientists has developed a way to chemically characterize and identify individual tannins — water-soluble compounds found in both wood and grape skins — in wine that come from oak barrels and contribute to its flavor profile.
March 31, 2026
Four graduate students have received awards in the 2025-26 Penn State Three Minute Thesis Competition, hosted by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School. The four students competed against six other students in the final round on Mar. 28 at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
March 25, 2026
Nine accomplished young alumni recently were honored with the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award during a ceremony hosted by the Penn State Alumni Association on March 20 at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center. The event brought together the nine honorees, their families, University leadership, and Penn State faculty and staff to celebrate some of the University’s brightest and boldest rising alumni.
March 10, 2026
Last semester, students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences participated in the first National Honey Board Product Development Competition at Penn State. Three teams of four students were challenged to develop a beverage using honey as the primary sweetening agent.
February 25, 2026
Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Health researchers will continue monitoring household sewage at dozens of municipal plants around the commonwealth for foodborne illness pathogens, with new funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The grant, anticipated to amount to more than $500,000 over five years, will complement related work funded by the FDA since 2016.
February 12, 2026
Biting into a tart green apple is a different taste and sensory experience than sucking juice from a lemon. Now, Penn State researchers have found that while some of that sour taste and experience difference comes from individual perceptions, the acids themselves vary in sourness, even at the same concentrations.
February 6, 2026
The Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences recently celebrated 26 faculty and staff members who have been with the college for 25 years.
February 5, 2026
Ten graduate students have been named finalists for the 2025-26 J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, which helps graduate students refine their research communication skills while gaining recognition for their scholarship and competing for cash prizes. The final round of Penn State’s Three Minute Thesis competition will take place on Saturday, March 28, at the Nittany Lion Inn.
January 26, 2026
A team of Penn State food scientists was awarded a two-year, $428,200 grant by the National Institutes of Health to explore whether cow’s milk protein — casein — can help disperse drugs that don’t dissolve well in liquids for oral medications.
December 18, 2025
Penn State food safety expert Martin Bucknavage comments on kitchen fails and serves up food safety tips for the holidays.
December 16, 2025
Two graduate students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences traveled abroad and gained experience in food safety research over the summer thanks to funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
December 11, 2025
In 2026, food inspectors and sanitarians, quality assurance managers, food plant managers and food engineers can learn the latest developments in food science with short courses offered by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.
December 9, 2025
Exceptional educators in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have been honored with the college’s 2025 teaching awards, recognizing their impact in and out of the classroom.
November 24, 2025
Auja Bywater, doctoral candidate in food science and international agriculture and development, was awarded a graduate research fellowship by the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium for her work in creating safe, sustainable food systems.
November 12, 2025
Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences recognized exceptional achievements in research during its fourth annual Research Awards Ceremony held Oct. 28 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.
November 5, 2025
Students from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences participated in the World Food Forum, held Oct. 10-17 at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome, Italy.
November 4, 2025
From sourdough starters to kombucha brews, Penn State’s Fermentation Science Club is giving students across campus a taste of hands-on fermentation.
October 17, 2025
The Center for Faculty Development and Advancement invites program chairs, graduate program chairs, program directors, professors in charge, and others within the Penn State community who carry responsibilities in academic leadership to a session focusing on "Managing Challenges: Addressing Student Concerns," scheduled for Oct 23 from 1 to 2 p.m.
October 9, 2025
Catherine Nettles Cutter, a longtime professor of food science in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences, and her husband, Lester Cutter, have pledged a $200,000 estate gift to establish the Nettles Cutter Food Safety Endowment in the Department of Food Science. Funds from the gift will support research in areas of microbial food safety and food safety education.
September 23, 2025
The One Health Microbiome Center at Penn State has awarded the first cohort of doctoral students to receive the Biotechnological and Integrative Opportunities in Microbiome Sciences (BIOMS) doctoral training fellowship. Fellows will engage in rigorous training in microbiome sciences and biotechnology.
September 15, 2025
Eight projects, featuring research teams representing a dozen departments across the University, have been selected to receive seed funding from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
September 11, 2025
Young boys and girls eat different amounts if provided with fruit before a meal, with girls consuming more, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences.
July 22, 2025
Making wine is a complex endeavor — it depends on grape composition, microbes like yeast, and environmental conditions such as temperatures, rainfall amounts and soil quality where grapevines are growing. A team of researchers led by Penn State food scientists has validated a reliable and more convenient way to study wine chemistry than the traditional 5-gallon fermentation batch approach — microvinification, or fermentations of about a quarter cup.
June 24, 2025
Sherri Slocum has updated a previous estate commitment for a graduate award in the Department of Food Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences and The Arboretum at Penn State to now include additional graduate student support in food science.
June 11, 2025
For the first time, a team led by researchers at Penn State has developed a method of “fingerprinting” plant compounds called procyanidins, introducing a more sophisticated and accurate way to analyze the perceptual variation in many foods and drinks, including wine and chocolate.
June 6, 2025
Milk protein and cellulose derived from plants may be the next big thing in sustainability, thanks to a first-of-its-kind advancement made by researchers at Penn State. Using a manufacturing technique called electrospinning, the team created nanofibers 1,000 times thinner than a human hair and then manipulated those fibers into mats that hold promise for a variety of products, like biodegradable — and even edible — food packaging.
May 21, 2025
Throwing a little heat on your meal might be an effective strategy for cutting back on calories, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.
April 15, 2025
The Penn State chapter of Gamma Sigma Delta, the agricultural honor society, recognized faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars and students from the College of Agricultural Sciences during its annual meeting April 3.
March 17, 2025
Spring is on the horizon, which means it’s time for one of the Berkey Creamery’s favorite traditions: voting is open to crown this year’s scoop champion in Flavor Madness.
March 5, 2025
As part of our regular “We Are!” feature, we recognize 17 Penn Staters who have gone above and beyond what’s asked of them in their work at the University.
