OSU Research Matters Winter 2019

Research, scholarship and creative activity at Oklahoma State University

BUILDING NEW FOUNDATIONS

WITH INNOVATIVE RESEARCH, DR. TYLER LEY IS AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE CONCRETE INDUSTRY

AT OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH MATTERS ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT RESEARCH? YOUR GIVING CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Oklahoma State is deeply committed to fostering research opportunities and partnerships that lead to scholastic achievement, technological innovation and economic growth.

As part of OSU’s land-grant mission and focus on Teaching, Research and Extension, there are many opportunities for donors to support areas meaningful to them.

If advancing our great university’s research mission is your passion, please consider supporting those efforts today!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Jamie Payne, Senior Associate Vice President of Development Services at the OSU Foundation jpayne@OSUgiving.com | 405.385.5651

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TIER 1 RESEARCH INITIATIVES

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On the Cover

A Brighter Future A partnership between Baker Hughes and OSU has led to the creation of drone technology that helps protect workers at well sites.

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22

14 Finding the Beat

Addressing Addiction Researchers at the National Center for Wellness and Recovery are working to win the battle against the opioid epidemic.

Mark Perry brings disco, DJing and the world of music to his students.

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Extending Broadband’s Reach

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Blazing a Microbiome Path Even though it is connected to almost everything, the microbiome isn’t widely understood. New projects at OSU aim to change this.

Tracing Earth’s History This summer, Chris Jones found himself on a German vessel with a unique research opportunity.

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At OSU, researchers are working to expand broadband’s reach and overcome a digital divide in rural communities.

OSU’s Bert Cooper Lab focuses on innovative concrete research.

Lichun Chen, a doctoral student in the lab, solders a component onto a PCB board she designed to monitor concrete in differing environments.

PHOTO: PHIL SHOCKLEY

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Letter from the VPR

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Early Recognition

4

Every Drop Counts

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Finding a New Foundation

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Improving Research Writing

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Thinking Outside the Lanes

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Explaining Tech Transfer

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Going Green

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Explore OSU Research

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Getting Its Wings

Back cover Supporting the Future of Genetic Research

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 1

From the Desk of the Vice President for Research

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he breadth of research at a land-grant university like OSU is truly staggering. From English scholars through political scientists to bioengineers, OSU research spans the full spectrum of academic disciplines. So, when someone asks me, “What is OSU good at?” it is hard for me to choose just a couple of areas. The only TRUE response would be a LONG response! Even so, a handful of our research strengths at OSU are so obviously important to people’s daily lives that we have decided to designate them as our Tier 1 Research Initiatives.

Just a brief aside: The term “Tier 1” was chosen for multiple reasons. Initially, it stands for Timely, Impactful, Engaged Research, and it brings the obvious connotations of high quality and high priority. However, it is also a throwback term…years ago, research universities classified by Carnegie as having the highest research activity were called Tier 1 research universities. Nowadays, Carnegie uses the literal label of “Highest Research Activity” to classify the top research universities (and, by the way, OSU is in this prestigious category).

Because of the dramatic impact our breakthroughs have on the communities we serve, we plan to grow and invest in these initiatives for years to come. In this issue of OSU Research Matters, we feature our Tier 1 Research Initiatives, with a deeper dive into stories that illustrate each one.

But of course, we couldn’t bring ourselves to stop there! We’ve assembled stories from all across OSU to showcase the true magnitude of our research enterprise. Whether it’s an OSU project flying on the International Space Station, an inside look into the history of disco music, or discovering ways to make the world’s most important construction material even stronger, this issue of OSU Research Matters has something for you.

V. Burns Hargis President Kenneth W. Sewell, Ph.D. Vice President for Research OSU Research Matters is published annually by Oklahoma State University and is produced by the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Editor Harrison Hill Copy Editor Dorothy Pugh Art Director/Designer Valerie Kisling Contributing Writers Jeff Hopper, Harrison Hill, David Bitton, Shannon Rigsby, Don Stotts, Victoria Hui Holloman, Jacob Longan Photographers Gary Lawson, Phil Shockley, Todd Johnson, OSU Medicine, Nikola, Chris Jones For details about research highlighted in this magazine or reproduction permission, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research at 405.744.6501; vpr@okstate.edu research.okstate.edu

Kenneth W. Sewell, Ph.D. Vice President for Research

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Oklahoma State University, in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Higher Education Act), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, genetic information, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, or status as a veteran, in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This provision includes, but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. The Director of Equal Opportunity, 408 Whitehurst, OSU, Stillwater, OK 74078-1035; Phone 405744-5371; email: eeo@okstate.edu has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies. Any person (student, faculty, or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based on gender may discuss his or her concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with OSU’s Title IX Coordinator 405-744-9154. This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by Office of the Vice President for Research, was printed by Modern Litho at a cost of $4,798 3.75M /Oct/19. #8018

PHOTO GARY LAWSON

Early Recognition Four OSU researchers win CAREER Program awards

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his year, four Oklahoma State University researchers won the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award, NSF’s most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty.

For researchers just beginning their career, securing funding can be one of the most difficult challenges. The NSF’s CAREER program is designed to help researchers overcome this challenge. The program selects up to 20 researchers annually who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the missions of their departments or organizations.

Founded in 1950 by Congress, NSF supports research and people. The NSF’s goal is to keep the United States at the forefront of scientific discovery.

SHUODAO WANG, PH.D.

Assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering This award will support Dr. Wang’s research on how varying materials and thickness (also referred to as heterogeneity) in thin, biocompatible materials and bio-tissues affect how they behave mechanically under various conditions.

Examples of such materials include ultra-thin wearable bio-sensors, eardrum membrane and heart valves.

The award supports fundamental research aimed at obtaining the material property maps, which will help better explain the deformation and stability of these materials. This project is expected to promote scientific advancement in mechanics knowledge that is vital for a wide range of health care and biomedical applications.

STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS GARY LAWSON

JINDAL SHAH, PH.D.

Assistant professor of chemical engineering Dr. Shah proposes to generate foundational knowledge and mathematical models used to numerically study the behavior of a complex system. This information can be extended to engineer enzymes for biodegradation of novel solvents known as ionic liquids, which are salt in a liquid state.

He wants to train high school chemistry and biology teachers and students from the OSUTeach program to use molecular editing and visualization tools. Shah also hopes to teach undergraduate students how to utilize computation and visualization in their courses.

ASHLEE FORD VERSYPT, PH.D.

Assistant professor of chemical engineering Dr. Versypt’s project intends to develop a virtual kidney in a new approach for studying diabetic kidney disease. The goal is to detect and monitor damage to the glomeruli (where most damage occurs) during the onset and progression of diabetic complications in the kidney. The tool will aid in understanding how diabetic kidney damage begins and changes over time. In the long term, results from this project will help predict the impact of many factors on kidney health during diabetes management.

Several undergraduate and graduate students will be recruited to conduct

the research and educational activities.

The educational activities will expose many students and members of the public to biomedical engineering and computational science through engaging scientific demonstrations and interactive experiences.

CHRISTOPHER FENNELL, PH.D. Associate professor of chemistry Dr. Fennell’s project seeks to develop new methods and resources for the computational representation of molecules and their environments. These representations offer an atomic-level view of chemical systems and offer research opportunities into why systems act in specific ways. These computational representations have to accurately mimic reality for successful research, This project aims to develop a new approach for modeling matter by encoding how molecules change in different environments, which would be significantly cheaper than current models.

Fennell’s project also includes an education effort, Molecular World Building, that will use molecular modeling, virtual reality, 3D printing and laser cutting to create interactive experiences available to those as young as 7 and as old as 70-plus.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 3

Every Drop Counts

Pankaj Sarin hopes to change the world through water treatment

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fter completing his doctorate in 2002 at the University of Illinois, Dr. Pankaj Sarin made a decision that would lead him toward changing the world, one drop of water at a time.

A NOVEL BEGINNING

Sarin attended the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign for his doctorate program because of its prestigious material science program. His undergraduate degree in ceramics engineering came from Banaras Hindu University in India. Upon getting his Ph.D., he decided to focus his research on finding a new way to process ceramic membranes for water treatment applications.

These membranes serve as a filter, trapping harmful bacteria and chemicals as water passes through them. Most membranes today use organic or polymeric materials. However, Sarin and his graduate student at the time set out to create a new, less expensive ceramic membrane of readily available materials.

Ceramics are not readily used for water treatment membranes because of the high energy cost in processing the membranes themselves. The production temperature of a ceramic membrane runs between 1,000-1,500 degrees Celsius.

However, Sarin believed that using a different approach could lower that production temperature to 80-100 degrees Celsius, substantially lowering the cost of the ceramic membranes.

Using more readily available natural materials and less energy for production make Sarin’s idea of a ceramic membrane very enticing. Also, ceramic membranes have a longer lifespan than other membrane materials, which would make the ceramic membranes more cost-effective.

In 2007, Sarin initiated his work on the project with graduate students at Illinois, but a lack of resources put the project on indefinite hold.

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THE FORK IN THE ROAD

Sarin continued his research in other areas of material science while waiting to restart his ceramic membranes project again.

Meanwhile, Dr. Raj Singh, director of the Energy Technologies program and Williams Chair Professor at the Helmerich Research Center at OSU-Tulsa, was working to start a material science program at OSU-Tulsa. His and Sarin’s paths had crossed at conferences and workshops, and Singh kept up with Sarin’s work.

He reached out to Sarin and asked if he would be interested in moving to Tulsa to be part of the foundation for the material science program. Sarin was intrigued, but he had never been to Oklahoma, let alone thought of moving there.

He sought advice on the opportunity. “The answers were very black and white,” Sarin said. “People either thought I was crazy for even entertaining the idea or told me that moving to Tulsa would be the best decision of my life.”

He took a leap of faith and accepted Singh’s offer.

AN IDEA REBORN

Soon after Sarin joined the OSU-Tulsa team in 2013, he found the chance to rekindle his work on ceramic membranes.

A researcher would generally take three to five years to find and refine the essence of a problem that requires research. However, an oil and gas company walked in the door and presented a problem to Sarin, saving him the time.

“That’s the great thing about OSU and the Helmerich Research Center: People come to us and ask us to solve their problems,” he said.

The problem was what to do with excess chemicals in produced water from the oil and gas extraction process. Sarin knew the best way to address the problem would be to better filter the chemicals out of the produced water.

STORY JEFF HOPPER | PHOTO iSTOCKPHOTO.COM

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 5

A composite ceramic membrane is mounted in a custom-built filtration apparatus and tested for filtration performance.

Of course, Sarin had been researching that very idea a few years prior.

Couple that coincidence with the addition of a graduate student who came to Sarin looking for a challenge, and the research into producing a new, more cost-efficient ceramic membrane was rekindled.

A WORK IN PROGRESS

Sarin and his team of colleagues and graduate assistants have made progress toward a working prototype. The most recent membrane construction is 1 millimeter thick (roughly the thickness of a quarter), still much too thick to be efficient in its duties. The ideal membrane would be somewhere between 10-100 microns (the width of most human hairs), which would allow more water to flow through the membrane while retaining its structural integrity and maintaining an optimum level of filtration performance.

However, problems remain with constructing the membrane as well as developing a structure to hold a membrane that is too thin to see with the naked eye.

Sarin hopes that within the next year, he and his team can secure additional funding for developing the membrane and its containing structure. He is working on grant proposals that, if awarded, would bolster his overall funding for the project to approximately $2 million.

Five years from now, Sarin hopes that one of his students will have a startup company producing these ceramic membranes and supplying them to oil and gas companies around the world.

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MYRIAD APPLICATIONS

Sarin also has his sights set on a more important problem that his new ceramic membranes would be ideal for solving: the scarcity of drinking water. The immediate application for the membranes is in the oil and gas industry, but the possibilities for their application is much broader.

The scarcity of drinking water faces countries around the world. One solution would be to desalinate seawater. Sarin believes that the new membranes would be a valuable asset toward that end.

“We’re working on a project that would be 10 times harder than the desalination of seawater,” Sarin said in describing his work with the oil and gas industry. While the actual desalination of seawater would be easier, much work would be required in the transition, as the restrictions on drinking water are very stringent.

However, it is still on Sarin’s radar. “I have contacts in the world of water treatment from my time at Illinois,” Sarin said, adding he hopes to move into seawater desalination within 10 years.

From pursuing the idea of creating a new ceramic membrane to taking the unknown side of the fork in the road to the many more choices in the future, Sarin doesn’t shy away from challenges or struggle with whether he made the right choices.

“Decisions are easy to make — determining whether they were right requires a lot of effort.”

PHOTOS RYAN JENSEN/OSU-TULSA

A slow-action diamond saw is used to section filter discs from a bulk composite ceramic cylinder.

From left: Dr. Khaled Sallam, Dr. Raman Singh, Christine Watson and Dr. Pankaj Sarin.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 7

COVER STORY

Finding a New Foundation

Tyler Ley’s latest research project focuses on fitting concrete to its environment

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SU’s Dr. Tyler Ley calls himself a concrete maniac. And his industry-leading research at the Bert Cooper Lab is concrete evidence of it.

Ley, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, is currently leading a research project to understand how to design better concrete.

“When you design concrete, you don’t really have a good feel for the local weather [where the concrete is going],” Ley said. “And so, you have to design something really conservatively. You design for the worst-case scenario.”

“Engineers like numbers and data,” Ley said.

“We’re going to try to physically compare these different environments and then maybe simulate some of those environments in the lab with concrete of different qualities and see how they perform.”

Ley compared the project to planting.

“The way we design concrete now is like planting the same plant everywhere, just because

Lichun Chen, a doctoral student in the Bert Cooper Lab, designed the PCB boards for maximum flexibility.

8 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

we know it’s going to survive,” Ley said. “That’s kind of limiting. If you want different flowers or different crops, then you should understand a little bit more about the soil and the environment.”

Concrete is much the same. Designing concrete for a specific environment means that unnecessary costs can be reduced and life expectancies of structures can be increased.

Ley and Dr. Nicholas Materer, a chemistry professor, along with others from chemical engineering, geology and mechanical engineering started measuring local air quality and weather in 2014.

The idea was to create low-cost sensors to measure the local environment.

“We had this project with the Department of Energy to try to measure CO2 and methane at oil well production sites where they were shoving CO2 in the ground and trying to shove oil out,” Ley said.

Once the project was complete, he realized the same sensors could be reused to measure changes in concrete from the environment.

“While some of the design could be reused, a lot had to change,” Ley said.

One of the things that had to change was the data logger or minicomputer used to record the outputs from the sensors. These minicomputers are printed circuit boards designed and built at the lab.

Sensors are set in mortar, then encased in a concrete cover that looks like a block. Wires run out of the block and connect to the minicomputers that are powered by a solar panel. These systems can be left out in the environment for years, with data being recorded to an SD card.

“The boards measure the moisture content and the temperature of the concrete over time,” Ley said.

These “homemade” minicomputers and the system they are a part of is just one example of how the Bert Cooper Lab is leading the industry in concrete research. Designing and building their own boards is more than about saving money.

“It’s probably saved us around $2,500 per box,” Ley said, “But the other thing is that there’s not

STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS PHIL SHOCKLEY

The PCB boards record local environmental measures for concrete development.

anything really out there that does this. I mean, it doesn’t exist because measuring concrete is crazy.”

One of the grad students working with Ley is Lichun Chen, a doctoral student who designed and built the data loggers used in the blocks with help from Materer and Ley. “If you build your own sensor then you can upload your own program,” Chen said. “We can always change our code and do the measurements for every 10 minutes or every day or every minute.”

At the moment, 14 states are asking for the blocks. Each state will receive three blocks and choose where to put them to gather the most accurate weather data, Chen explained.

“We have instructions for them on how to use everything together,” Chen said. “We will ask them to take out the SD card every three months and share the data with us.”

The systems have shipped and will begin logging data this year. Ley hopes to have usable results in a few years.

“We’re going to probably look a little bit at that data and then try to pick a few more environments to send them to,” Ley said. “And then sit back and, you know, watch the data roll in.”

His passion for concrete and willingness to try things out of the ordinary has propelled him

into the spotlight of his industry. Ley was named among the Most Influential People in the Concrete Industry this year by Concrete Construction magazine.

This honor is part of a long list of awards the man who is crazy about concrete has won. And while his passion for concrete is strong, Ley also has a passion for education.

“We’re as much building people and helping people develop because in some ways that’s as important if not more important than the findings we have,” Ley said. “We’ve got to generate the next generation of scientists and engineers to go out and figure out stuff that we’ve never even dreamed of yet.”

Outside the lab, Ley shares his enthusiasm on his YouTube channel with more than 23,000-plus subscribers.

“I love concrete. But I also love my students and the people I get to work with. I want to help them in their paths forward,” Ley said. “I think they’re going to do amazing things that I’ve never even dreamed about. I’m so excited to see that.”

WATCH HIM SEE DR. TYLER LEY’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL: YOUTUBE.COM/TYLERLEY.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 9

Improving Research Writing

OSU’s Dr. Stephanie Link moves closer to launching intelligent online tutoring system for research-writing instruction

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fter completing a $50,000 National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) program grant, Oklahoma State University assistant professor Dr. Stephanie Link has moved one step closer to launching her web-based learning environment, Wrangler, for rounding up research writing resources.

The technology offers instructional videos and support tools that leverage the power of artificial intelligence and natural language processing to provide feedback to give research writers immediate insights.

As a part of researching and developing Wrangler, her four-member team was selected for the NSF I-Corps program, where they interviewed 130 potential customers throughout the country.

They spoke with university administrators and research faculty, gathering feedback for developing the Wrangler tool beyond an OSU campus audience and into a thriving product with commercial potential.

“We want to know ‘Is Wrangler solving the critical issues that students and faculty are experiencing?’” said Link, an assistant professor of teaching English as a second language/applied

Wrangler is a new web-based learning program developed by Dr. Stephanie Link to assist graduate students with research writing.

10 O S U R E S E A R C H M AT T E R S

linguistics in OSU’s English department. “The feedback has been positive. I understand that academia is a hard market to crack, but as an academic myself, I know how big of a concern research writing is in this context, and I want to find solutions.”

In talking with graduate college deans and vice presidents of research, Link’s team learned that university educators across the country crave a stronger research writing ability among graduate students.

“It takes years of practice to become an experienced writer,” Link said. The philosophy behind Wrangler is to introduce a systematic, linguistic approach to critically reading research as a way of structuring the process of researchfocused writing.

“Wrangler helps to raise awareness of how language is used to communicate meaning,” Link said. “As an applied linguist, I’m all about discovering and developing technologies for the purpose of enhancing language learning.

Specifically, I look at second-language writing and written science communication. A lot of our research writers are second-language learners; however, we are finding that our approach through Wrangler is also applicable to native speakers, especially first-generation college students and STEM students.”

OSU linguistics doctoral student Robert Redmon, co-entrepreneurial lead on the NSF I-Corps team and core software developer of Wrangler, said much has been learned about Wrangler and its potential during the 130 face-toface interviews.

“We’ve learned that there’s a need for writing instruction at the level of abstraction Wrangler provides, which is to say something more detailed than topical outlining and bigger-picture than grammar,” Redmon said. “We’ve learned that this is especially the case in STEM programs, where writing is often institutionally neglected in a way that seems to generate a lot of work for individual professors.”

STORY DAVID BITTON | PHOTOS GARY LAWSON

Dr. Stephanie Link talks with a TESOL/Linguistics English Department graduate student about the uses of Wrangler.

“The feedback has been positive.

I understand that academia is a hard market to crack, but as an academic myself, I know how big of a concern research writing is in this context, and I want to find solutions.”

— DR. STEPHANIE LINK

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 11

Graduate students Shima Dokhtzenal (center) and Masoud Sheikhbahaie learn Wrangler with the help of Dr. Stephanie Link (left).

Link called working with Redmon, Victor Baeza and Harold Teague in the NSF I-Corp program terrific.

Baeza, an associate professor at OSU’s Edmon Low Library and entrepreneurial lead on the NSF I-Corps team, said the interviews showed the quality of scientific writing needs to improve and students should have access to writing assistance at any hour.

“Through instructional videos and supportive tools, Wrangler can let students work on various aspects of their writing at their own pace and whenever they want,” Baeza said. “So much of what a researcher does is affected by their ability to communicate their work, explain why people should care about it and how it fits within current research. The more tools writers have at their disposal to improve their communication, the more confidence they can have as they document and share their research.”

Harold Teague, vice president of engineering at Virtium, a California-based solid-state storage and memory solutions provider, was the industry mentor on the NSF I-Corps team.

“The purpose of NSF I-Corps is to improve the success rate of academic entrepreneurs in commercialization of their technology developments,” Teague said. “Through the program, the Wrangler team learned that significant opportunity exists to provide an improved writing and research tool to researchers in academia, research institutions and others.”

Link started Wrangler development in 2017 and uses it in dissertation and thesis writing workshops today.

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“A lot of writing resources focus on the writing process, how to psychologically prepare for that process, and how to work through revisions,” Link said. “We take a step forward by constructing an ecosystem of resources into an intelligent learning environment that offers tools and automated feedback for immediate learning potential. Our main target users are graduate students. We hope by supporting them in their research writing process we can also support faculty, who will then have more time to work on their own research agendas and writing.”

Nikki Clauss, an experimental psychology doctoral student, used Wrangler extensively in Link’s GRAD 5193: Preparing Publishable Manuscripts course, which is open to all Ph.D. students who have data in their research.

“Before taking Dr. Link’s class, I never paid much attention to all the patterns and mechanics of style in the scientific articles I read or wrote,” Clauss said. “My main focus was always the project I was attempting to write about. This class and the tasks in Wrangler helped me think more deeply about and dissect writing, which made the task of research writing less daunting.”

Recent integrative biology doctoral graduate Christina Anaya said Wrangler was a great tool.

“In my opinion, it is a revolutionary tool for students to use while they are learning how to read and write science,” Anaya said. “As scientists, we don’t get training in writing. Using Wrangler, students can accelerate that learning process.”

Katherine Golden, a natural resource ecology and management doctoral student also benefited from Wrangler, saying the video tutorials were helpful.

“The most important thing I learned is how to take the lessons I learned from Wrangler and how to apply them to all types of writing,” Golden said.

“Wrangler has made research writing much easier because of how Dr. Link set up the lessons and how you can annotate articles within the program/app.”

As the Wrangler team continues to develop the technology, Link would like to see its availability grow on campus.

“We are going to continue development and make sure that OSU can become a hub for written science communication support,” Link said. “We want to build on our momentum and contribute to the university’s goals of enhancing research, reputation and retention. Wrangler fits perfectly into this mission by supporting the productivity of not only our students but also our faculty. As a Carnegie research university, we want to keep pushing our research forward, and our team is excited to lead the journey ahead.”

“So much of what a researcher does is affected by their ability to communicate their work, explain why people should care about it and how it fits within current research.

The more tools writers have at their disposal to improve their communication, the more confidence they can have as they document and share their research.”

— VICTOR BAEZA

Wrangler offers graduate students a systematic linguistic approach to reading research as a way to help improve how they technically write.

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 13

Finding the Beat

OSU’s Mark Perry brings the world of music to his students

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here are branches of science where beakers are nonexistent and algorithms are few. For example, there’s ethnomusicology, where music is studied through the lens of anthropology, filtered through the culture that creates it. And there are professors who step out of the lecture hall, immerse themselves in research and bring in-depth expertise back to the classroom.

Dr. Mark Perry, director of the music industry program and assistant professor of ethnomusicology and historical musicology at Oklahoma State University, is known around the world for his research on musical cultures, electronic dance music (EDM) and its predecessor, disco. He’s also known by the moniker “thund3rbunny” for his work as a professional DJ, a side profession with applications in the classroom that also began as research.

Perry’s own career path included graduate degrees in classical guitar until a course with Bruno Nettl, renowned ethnomusicologist, changed his life. For his semester project for Nettl’s seminar on improvisation, Perry studied DJs. As a participant observer — someone who both observes and participates — he examined the craft from the point of view of the DJ and learned the art himself.

“I learned the tricks that get people to dance and to stop dancing. What DJs do is a form of composition in the course of performance. That is, the choice of records and the order you choose is a form of composition with the goal of getting people to dance.”

Perry is also multi-musical, meaning he has learned to perform the music of cultures other than his own.

“One of the tenets of ethnomusicology is that music is universal. There is music in every single society on the planet. Small or large, there is music,” he said. “But music is not a universal language. I study music within a particular cultural context.”

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His large topic of study is electronic dance music. To understand EDM, Perry says it’s necessary to understand its origin in the disco era, which peaked in the 1970s. At the beginning of that decade, it was an underground music, associated with marginalized groups in society.

“It was the music of gay clubs, African American and Latino clubs in major cities,” he said.

Most of the successful, prominent disco singers were women. Perry said the female voice became the archetype of disco music, and since it was based on records and not live performance, it didn’t matter to those dancing who was singing. Perry presented his findings on the male falsetto voice in disco in Germany in June.

In the latter part of the ‘70s, thanks in part to movies like Saturday Night Fever (1977), disco became popular in the mainstream.

Its mainstream presence ultimately led to its downfall. Disco began taking a large market share from rock music, which was predominantly white, heterosexual and male. Rock stations began a revolt.

On July 12, 1979, disco’s demise as a mainstream player was most apparent at a Chicago White Sox doubleheader where tickets were discounted for anyone who brought a disco album to the stadium. Between games, shock jock Steve Dahl planned to blow up the records on the field in a “disco demolition.” A riot ensued, the field was damaged and the White Sox ended up forfeiting their second game.

“The music industry in the United States stopped using the label ‘disco,’” Perry said. “Part of this music went underground again.”

Once again, the music of the disenfranchised, disco evolved into electronic dance music. EDM has more than 100 subgenres — and Perry can identify them all.

“I travel to different parts of the world and do field work in dance clubs,” he said. “When I tell

STORY SHANNON RIGSBY | PHOTO PHIL SHOCKLEY

them, people always laugh. Trust me; sometimes it is work. As I get older, it is getting harder.”

Sunrise Chebahtah, a senior in the music industry program, believes Perry’s experiences around the world are invaluable for students.

“Because of all the things he has done, he is able to give such a wider perspective than what we will ever know. He’s been immersed, and it helps us in class to gain a respect for things we are learning about even though we don’t get to have that close proximity to it,” she said. “He always manages to make class interesting — something unique and memorable. That’s not to say the tests aren’t still hard because they’re ridiculous.”

Ashton Mainord is a sophomore in the music industry program as well. She was impressed with the diversity in electronic dance music.

“It’s not just everything you hear on the radio,” she said. “There are extensive differences in all of them, and I didn’t realize how diverse it was.”

Perry’s work benefits his students when he can apply his research to the music industry business.

“I have students who make beats,” he said. “My expertise in electronic dance music helps them with their beats. Because of the music industry degree, my research is made practical with application in the real world. Music informs the present, but also what they’re doing now is built on something else. It’s vital that students don’t ‘reinvent the wheel’ by wasting valuable time creating or inventing something that already exists — understanding the past and present is imperative and is applicable to songwriting, technology and music trends.”

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SERVING SOCIETY OSU’s new TIER 1 Research Initiatives take a universitywide approach to tackling societal challenges Oklahoma State University has designated four research areas for focused investment and growth in the coming years, based upon the compelling societal needs that are being addressed.

“OSU’s research has always reflected our land-grant mission to serve society,” said President Burns Hargis. “Our Tier 1 Research Initiatives represent a commitment to Oklahoma that we intend to use our research strengths to make a major difference in areas of vital importance to our world.”

OSU Vice President for Research Dr. Kenneth Sewell said the initiatives aim “to tackle some of society’s challenges head-on.”

THE GROUPS DESIGNATED AS TIER 1 ARE: The Drone Initiative: Drones Serving Our Safety and Environment The Opioid Initiative: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic The Rural Initiative: Ensuring the Future of Rural Oklahoma The Microbiome Initiative: Connecting the Microbiome to Health

Sewell considers the entire process a great success for advancing interdisciplinary research across OSU. “Many of the faculty driving our Tier 1 Research Initiatives are among OSU’s most productive experts,” Sewell said. “They will leverage OSU’s investments to bring in resources from federal agencies, foundations and community partners, accelerating OSU’s impact on these important problems.”

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A BRIGHTER FUTURE An OSU partnership sheds light on an industry problem

A

lumen and the LUMEN are very different things. One is a measurement of light, while the other serves as a symbol of a brighter future for the oil and gas industry.

The LUMEN system is the future of methane monitoring, born from a collaboration involving Oklahoma State University’s Unmanned Systems Research Institute (USRI), its School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Baker Hughes Energy Innovation Center of North America in Oklahoma City. LUMEN is a technology that is expected to lead the oil and gas industry toward a greener future.

DEFINING LUMEN

The LUMEN system is a sensor network comprised of ground and air systems that can be used to pinpoint the location of a methane leak, as well as determine its severity in any number of oil and gas industry applications.

Why methane? Methane is the second-highest greenhouse gas emitted, behind only carbon dioxide, but since methane is 25 times more potent in trapping greenhouse heat, it is much worse for the climate. However, methane is also the most abundant gas used in natural gas-burning applications, because it’s abundant, cheap and produces less carbon dioxide than other fossil fuels.

The oil and gas industry adheres to strict standards for methane emissions because of its negative effects on the atmosphere. Also, in most cases, any methane leak represents a loss of revenue for the company.

This is where the LUMEN system’s application can save a company time, money and minimize their environmental impact.

HOW IT WORKS

Envision a well pad that is acres in size with a pumping station that has a network of pipes and hinge points where methane leaks can occur.

The LUMEN system has a set of ground sensors set along the perimeter of the pad that would send an alert to the control system if methane is detected.

Once this alert is triggered, a team launches the aerial unit and scans the pumping station

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looking for leaks directed by a predictive algorithm utilizing machine learning. Once the leak is found, the aerial unit sends real-time data to the control system, giving the location and the severity of the detected leak. Simultaneously, the system uses the ground measurements to help localize the leak using advanced mathematical models.

The company addresses and solves the issue, adhering to methane emission regulations and preventing further losses. This process is completed in minutes vs. the multiple teams of people and days it would otherwise take.

LUMEN’S BEGINNING

“The LUMEN project’s beginning was a bit serendipitous,” said Dr. Jamey Jacob, the director of USRI. Jacob and his team were already working on aerial gas sensing technology for a U.S. Department of Energy project. When General Electric announced its plans for the Oil and Gas Technology Center in Oklahoma City, Jacob presented some projects that his team was working on when GE took notice of their current greenhouse gas detection, unmanned aircraft system.

The decision was made to build on this technology and focus on methane emission detection using an aerial vehicle, giving birth to LUMEN Sky. The initial idea focused on using commercial drones with sensor technology integration. Jacob and his team did so, on several different vehicles to prove the efficiency of the idea.

That led to the current combination of a hexacopter and its integrated sensor system.

The extrapolation took almost three years and hundreds of test flights.

The integration of the sensor and its control system was built from scratch and went through several iterations of its own.

“It started with a handheld laser detector that transmitted to a small computer onboard and then would report the data to GE,” said OSU’s Dane Johnson, lead engineer for LUMEN Air. “It grew into an onboard computing system that could control the aircraft, as well as record the data from the methane detector, while receiving input from a LIDAR sensor (so they could map the oil pad as they

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flew overhead), and receive infrared camera data,” Johnson said.

The first prototype of LUMEN Air flew a predetermined flight path while recording and reporting data from a methane detector. That grew into a custom onboard computing system developed

by OSU that could alter the flight path of the vehicle once methane was detected, then map the location and severity of the leak.

How do you keep all of this sensitive equipment safe and operable while attached to a vehicle that is 30 feet in the air? The answer is a unique mounting and containment structure of carbon plating and tubing. The mounting system needed to be “oilfield proof,” meaning “it could withstand 100-degree heat, sand, dirt, snow and simply the day-to-day wear and tear of oilfield usage,” Johnson said.

The LUMEN Terrain ground sensor was developed in conjunction with LUMEN Sky; it’s an accurate methane emission detection system that continuously and autonomously searches for methane leaks. The ground-sensing network delivers real-time quantification and notification of methane emissions.

ALL THE DATA

The sensing technology was created to collect copious amounts of data and deliver it in real time to a monitoring station that could then dispatch a team to deal with a pinpointed methane leak.

“Any sensor data goes only as far as how you interpret it,” said MAE faculty member Dr. Balaji Jayaraman, the principal investigator and OSU lead for the LUMEN Predictive Analytics Technology for both LUMEN Sky and LUMEN Terrain methane-sensing efforts pursued by BHGE. Most science focuses on predicting the effect of a known cause. Jayaraman and his team had to solve the inverse problem — measure the effect and predict the cause. This required the team to develop advanced modeling and simulation algorithms that went above and beyond the current tools available and provide a completely new approach for plume source localization and quantification.

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“We think this approach could be a game changer and provide significantly improved prediction accuracy,” Jayaraman said.

The analytics system in use today is the second iteration of the software that will evolve as Jayaraman and his team continue to refine and improve the predictive analytics capabilities.

LUMEN’S FUTURE

The overall inception, development and subsequent rollout of the LUMEN system took hundreds of tests, multiple iterations of every aspect and years of hard work from groups of both OSU and BHGE engineers.

However, the experience and knowledge gained through the partnership has been invaluable to all involved. “Working on this system has meant a ton to me,” Johnson said. “The wealth of knowledge I’ve gained from this project is great.”

Jayaraman echoes that sentiment: “I am happy for the opportunity to marry advanced predictive technology with cutting edge sensing infrastructure to address a complex problem with significant environmental and industrial implications. We are thankful to BHGE for the support and opportunity to collaborate with the excellent team at the Energy Innovation Center in Oklahoma City.”

Jacob envisions the use of swarm technology to further improve the efficiency of LUMEN Sky, as well as the possible implementation of fixed-wing vehicles to serve and scan pipelines that require much longer distances. The OSU team is developing and testing both aspects of these technologies at the OSU Unmanned Aircraft Flight Station, which recently received FAA permission to fly swarm aircraft beyond the visual line of sight. This testing will form the baseline for future developments.

LUMEN is poised to address a growing issue, not only in the oil and gas industry, but worldwide and usher in a brighter, greener future.

THE DRONE INITIATIVE: DRONES SERVING OUR SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT The buzz of drones is a familiar sound. With drones being used in national defense, law enforcement and even retail, they have become commonplace. However, the potential for drones in the health and safety fields is still underdeveloped.

The Drone Initiative is a branch of the Oklahoma State University Unmanned Systems Research Institute.

With a goal to develop areas of

unmanned aerial vehicle systems to improve public health and safety, this group received TIER 1 designation in March. The group develops applications, tools and aircraft platforms for unmanned aerial vehicles that are used in weather forecasting, environmental monitoring, firefighting and other safety areas.

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ADDRESSING ADDICTION OSU Medicine's National Center for Wellness & Recovery takes a broad approach to solving the opioid crisis

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he nationwide opioid crisis has definitely made it to Oklahoma — and the National Center for Wellness & Recovery at OSU Medicine is leading the battle against it.

A look at the numbers: In 2017, Oklahoma was one of the top opioidprescribing states, with 88.1 prescriptions written per 100 people.

More than 3,000 Oklahomans died from drug overdoses from 2015-2018.

Oklahoma leads the nation in nonmedical use of prescription pain medicine among people aged 12 or older, based on a 2017 study completed by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Addiction to prescription opioid medications is widespread — crossing race, education, age, gender, levels of education and economic classes. Too often, promising lives are caught in the grip of addiction.

Doctors now know that addiction is not a lifestyle choice but a chronic brain disease, caused by a confluence of genetic, biological, behavioral and social factors. When once we thought detox and in-patient medical care were required, now we have pharmacological treatments to take the place of detox for opioids and strong outpatient medical systems with recovery support and management that allow health care systems to offer excellent care for more of the population.

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Although we have made great strides in understanding the science of addiction, more research is needed to improve treatment results and to prevent addiction altogether.

In November 2017, OSU Medicine President Kayse Shrum, D.O., established the National Center for Wellness & Recovery at OSU Medicine to address the opioid epidemic. Its mission is to improve lives affected by pain and substance use disorders through clinical services, training, research and advocacy. The center aims to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to prevention, care, education, research and public policy associated with the study, treatment and public understanding of pain and substance use and misuse.

“Without evidence to support our practices, we could not train providers to treat addiction,” said Julie Croff, Ph.D., executive director of the center.

“Research is necessary to inform our clinical services, training and advocacy initiatives.”

In order to address addiction, the center employs several overlapping, intersectional models of research. First, it’s engaged in translational research, which involves the use of cellular and animal models to inform human subjects research.

Second, the center is engaged in innovative research across the life course, including multigenerational approaches. Third, it engages in research across the ecological levels of influence from individual level to community.

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Osteopath manipulative treatment (OMT) is being evaluated by researchers at OSU Medicine for its use in helping treat pain without opioids.

The translational research involves multidisciplinary teams.

“Addiction is a brain disease that has multiple intersecting causes, so it is ideal that we work across fields to develop a comprehensive approach to treatment and prevention of addiction,” said Alicia Ford, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. By creating partnerships between clinical and biomedical scientists, OSU seeks to reduce lag time between important findings and clinical outcomes. For example, opioids and other substances of abuse cause changes in many areas and pathways of the brain and often lead to decreases in a person’s cognitive functioning, such as lower attention spans and impulse control. When a person stops using substances, it is expected that they will experience some level of cognitive improvement over time. Dr. Ford is collaborating with Dolores Vazquez Sanroman, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology, on a series of studies that evaluate the level of natural brain recovery that occurs during early abstinence. Repeated cognitive assessments and blood samples from patients are taken to evaluate changes in cognitive performance and supporting biomarkers over time.

“Our initial results indicate that when people enter inpatient treatment for opioid abuse, they are performing at one-half to one standard deviation below expectation in multiple cognitive areas,” Ford said. “After one month of abstinence they demonstrate improvements in cognitive performance, though not yet a full recovery.”

Dr. Vazquez Sanroman is analyzing multiple blood samples from each patient to determine if

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there is a pattern of biological changes that relate to this cognitive recovery. “In particular, we are looking at the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. BDNF is a neural protein that plays an important role in neurogenesis and neural plasticity — the brain’s ability to form new neurons and to change in response to the environment,” she said. Our translational teams are more effective by applying techniques from within their academic discipline to projects in partnership with multidisciplinary teams.

The center also values understanding the life course of addiction. In her lab, Vazquez Sanroman is investigating rodent models for BDNF as a potential biological marker underlying the mechanism of action of opioids on the adolescent central nervous system.

“Using a rodent model of place preference, animals that preferred to expend time on the opioid-associated environment showed a dysregulation on BDNF levels in brain areas involved in addiction,” Vazquez-Sanroman said.

As part of the life course model, the center seeks to understand the biological and behavioral impacts on addiction.

Croff has a research trajectory examining the role of mother’s substance use directly and indirectly acting upon birth and child outcomes.

Croff and Amanda Sheffield Morris, Ph.D., hope to win a grant from the National Institutes of Health as part of a multisite consortium. The goal of the HEALthy Brain and Cognitive Development (HBCD) study is to develop a research protocol that will gather data on potentially important factors about the environment of mother and

baby, including drug and alcohol use, environmental toxins, social interactions and nutrition. The final protocol will be established to follow the development of babies until age 10.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Medicine has thus far lacked detailed baseline standards of normative brain development in childhood, and HBCD will help produce such standards. The information gained from the study will create an invaluable reference for pediatricians, pediatric neurologists, and psychiatrists.”

Another area of focus for the center’s research is alternative options for chronic pain. Many people with opioid addiction were first exposed to the drug via prescription to treat chronic pain. Because opioid medications are powerful analgesics, it can be difficult for patients with continued pain to stop their use without experiencing potent withdrawal symptoms. Over time, opioid use can escalate, and many individuals will develop an opioid addiction. Persons with opioid addiction and chronic pain are at a higher risk for relapse unless their pain can be managed with other methods.

Osteopathic manipulative treatment, or OMT, is a set of techniques that osteopathic physicians use to treat musculoskeletal problems. The techniques include various hands-on stretching, gentle pressure and resistance procedures. OMT has been found to be an effective treatment for low back pain, the most common type of non-cancer pain.

Ford and Vazquez Sanroman (co-principal investigators) are leading a two-year research study funded by the American Osteopathic Association to evaluate the use of OMT with patients who have both opioid addiction and chronic back pain. Their interdisciplinary team, with colleagues Randall Davis, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology; Robin Dyer, D.O., chair of osteopathic manipulative medicine; and Croff will be evaluating the effectiveness and potential mechanisms of OMT in reducing pain and improving substance abuse treatment outcomes.

“Both opioid addiction and chronic pain have known effects on one’s mood, cognition, and general life functioning,” Ford said. “These are accompanied by a host of neurobiological changes. We hope that by providing an effective nonmedication treatment for pain that our participants will experience improvement in multiple areas and be more successful in remaining abstinent from opioids.”.

Center researchers are also exploring ecological models of addiction. Research on individuals can determine how training medical professionals can transform treatment of their patients and how patients recover with different treatments. Research at the interpersonal level can answer questions about how to support families of individuals living in active addiction and the role that group therapeutic services play in recovery. Research at the health system level can inform how we can best screen for and identify this disease.

And research at the community level can help us prevent substance use disorders by targeting the underlying causes of pain and addiction. Our translational teams will continue to seek answers across the lifespan for individuals, families, schools, churches, health systems and communities.

THE OPIOID INITIATIVE: ADDRESSING THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC The Opioid Initiative is the research arm of the National Center for Wellness and Recovery and is based at OSU Medicine in Tulsa. This group won a TIER 1 designation in March 2019.

Opiate use disorder is a major public health crisis in Oklahoma and across the nation.

The long-term focus of this group is on understanding the causes, effects and possible interventions for opioid misuse.

“Addressing the opioid crisis with sciencedriven tools is the ultimate goal,” said Dr. Charles Amlaner, OSU Medicine vice president for research. “And we are excited to have OSU Medicine lead this collaboration with our OSU colleagues.”

Dr. Randall Davis, a professor of pharmacology, is part of a team at OSU Medicine working to improve substance abuse treatment outcomes.

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EXTENDING BROADBAND’S REACH Whitacre studies the impact of bringing high-speed internet access to rural America

O

nce upon a time — early in the 20th century, actually — electricity was a new thing, limited to large cities. It took time, money and a lot of work to bring electrical power to rural America.

Today, that history is repeating itself with highspeed internet access.

“Electricity fundamentally changed rural America, and in the 21st century, researchers and policymakers understand the so-called digital divide is similarly important with repercussions for quality of life and economic development,” said Dr. Brian Whitacre, holder of the Sarkeys Distinguished Professorship in Agricultural Economics with Oklahoma State University’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Broadband access contributes to many quality-of-life factors, including business location decisions as well as residential ones, research finds.

While today’s goal is to provide broadband to all, defined as internet speeds of at least 25 megabytes per second by the Federal Communications Commission, bringing broadband to sparsely populated rural areas isn’t cheap.

Research conducted by a number of scientists, including Whitacre himself, has shown providers that service rural locations tend to focus on the number of houses in an area, with some

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consideration for education and income levels but with less emphasis on other characteristics.

“This makes sense in that broadband service providers can spread more of their initial fixed costs over a greater number of customers and may cater to households more likely to subscribe to their services given the well-established link between broadband adoption to education and income levels,” Whitacre said.

Bottom line: It is more cost-effective to focus on customers per mile than miles per customer, which was a major issue of rural electrification back in the day. But that issue was solved. Whitacre believes the digital divide in rural America can be overcome as well, and he is working to do so.

STUDYING THE NUMBERS

In 2019, Whitacre and fellow researcher Steven Deller of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Community and Economic Development published the results of their study on the effect of broadband availability on rural housing values.

“We found a positive and statistically significant impact, with the positive relationship holding across five of the seven internet speed categories considered,” Whitacre said. “We weren’t surprised to see the relationship disappear for very high speeds of 250 megabytes per second or greater,

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Through a partnership with AARP, Whitacre and his team are able to provide funds to rural communities to help expand their opportunities to access broadband.

which have only recently become a factor in the marketplace.”

Does that mean your own house in the country is more valuable if broadband is available?

Not necessarily. But in terms of governmental investment for such an expansion, higher home values — and higher property tax revenues — could offset some of that cost.

“Our analysis suggests that after broadband arrives in a rural community, resale values in future years will increase modestly,” Whitacre said. “Our main findings can be used to assess increases in property tax collections over several years that might result from broadband investments.”

ESSENTIAL SERVICES

Internet connectivity is also vital in today’s health care. As the usage of electronic health records, health information exchanges and mobile health technologies rise, high-speed internet connections become more important. Whitacre worked with Denna Wheeler and Chad Landgraf of the OSU Center for Rural Health in Tulsa to study

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the health care connectivity gap, publishing their findings in 2016.

“We used data compiled from the National Broadband Map to compare levels of health care facility connectivity across non-metropolitan and metropolitan counties,” Whitacre said. “The data clearly show health-related institutions in nonmetropolitan counties connect with lower speeds than their more urban counterparts. We also found the connectivity gap generally has been getting worse, not better.”

The study found many rural health care facilities — doctor offices, pharmacies, clinics and health departments — working with lowspeed internet connections. Those high-tech medical technologies don’t work well with such connections.

Another area often reliant on broadband access is civic engagement. Whitacre teamed up with Jacob Manlove, then a doctoral graduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics, to study the effects of broadband on civic engagement in rural areas. They found that broadband adoption rather than broadband access matters most in civic engagement. This was true for many of

PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON

their questions related to participation in local organizations as well as for contacting public officials to express opinions or expressing opinions over the internet.

Using broadband — not just the ability to access it — was also found to have a stronger positive influence on rural economic growth.

Whitacre joined with fellow researchers Roberto Gallardo, leader of Mississippi State University’s Intelligent Community Institute, and Sharon Strover, the Philip G. Warner Regents Professor in Communication at the University of Texas, in studying how broadband contributes to the economic growth of rural America. Their findings were another indication that rural development efforts should focus on getting people to subscribe to and regularly use broadband.

LIBRARY ACCESS

Whitacre has championed broadband adoption in rural areas and teamed up with AARP Oklahoma to help more than a dozen public libraries expand their broadband capabilities.

“Dr. Whitacre and the OSU Rural Broadband Outreach Program have been invaluable,” AARP State Director Sean Voskuhl said during ceremonies at the Davis Public Library. “Together, we hope to empower Oklahomans in our more rural areas to take better advantage of digital services such as health care, entertainment, and job and education resources, while also being able to be more socially connected and personally fulfilled.”

The program employs hotspot devices that use cellular networks, the same as smartphones. As long as the cellular network provider used by the hotspot has service in that area, the devices will provide broadband access. Generally speaking, most libraries taking part in the program allow adults with a valid library card to check out the devices for up to a week.

Surveys of patrons at participating libraries indicate OSU’s Rural Broadband Outreach Program is overwhelmingly popular, with more than 90 percent of respondents ranking it a nine or higher out of 10. Many respondents even called the mobile hotspots “a blessing.” More libraries are expected to come on board as funding becomes available.

“As a comprehensive land-grant university, we measure our successes by how we help others to succeed,” said Keith Owens, associate vice president of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, one of the university’s two state agencies and the division’s official research arm. “Dr. Whitacre’s efforts are a testament to that.”

Dr. Brian Whitacre explains the Wi-Fi hotspots his team provides to rural libraries.

THE RURAL INITIATIVE: ENSURING THE FUTURE OF RURAL OKLAHOMA Natural resource degradation, climate change, drought and sociocultural trends are just some of the threats to the many rural communities in Oklahoma and across the U.S. Rural communities are experiencing a drain of human talent and an expanding technology gap between rural and urban areas.

The goal of this initiative is to identify and create ways to enhance the natural, human and technological capital in rural areas. This will be done by bringing together interdisciplinary research teams to conduct engaged, solutionoriented research in communities.

The team intends to develop solutions in Oklahoma that can be implemented across the nation and around the world.

Hotspot devices that use cellular connections allow rural users to gain broadband access.

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BLAZING A MICROBIOME PATH

Initiative puts OSU in the forefront of a complex emerging field

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ver the last 20 years, microbiome research has been gaining more attention in the scientific community. Over the next 10 years, Oklahoma State University expects to become a national leader in the discipline, thanks to the Microbiome Initiative.

“Microbiome” refers to the community of bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses that inhabit a particular environment. They exist in places you might expect, such as your gut, and places you might not, such as clouds. The global microbiome includes millions of species, covering all animals, plants and physical environments on the planet.

It can impact every aspect of Earth’s ecosystem, including human, animal and plant health.

Microbiome science is complex because of the interactions of interconnected communities of organisms and their hosts or other microbial communities in food, water or the created environment. Though still in its infancy, microbiome science already dominates thinking in the life sciences.

That is why OSU has designated the Microbiome Initiative as one of the university’s four Tier 1 Research Initiatives.

The Microbiome Initiative aims to provide researchers across the university with tools to produce innovative, consistent and reproducible research that determines cause and effect. Those tools include access to experts about each area of the process, from securing samples to producing computer models that predict the effect of adjusting variables. Together, the expertise and appropriate facilities will create a pipeline to take an experiment from hypothesis to reliable results.

“OSU is positioned really well to become a leader in microbiome research,” said Dr. Tyrrell

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Conway, one of the project’s four leaders and head of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics in OSU’s College of Arts and Sciences. “If you are a life science researcher of any kind, you are thinking about the microbiome. If you don’t have the capacity in your laboratory to test some of these things, you wish you did. That’s what the toolkit is for.”

Joining Conway as the project’s leaders are three other researchers, each from different colleges: Dr. Gerwald Koehler is a microbiology professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa.

Dr. Jerry Malayer is the College of Veterinary Medicine’s associate dean for research and graduate education and professor in the Physiological Sciences Department.

Dr. Brenda Smith is a Regents Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences in the College of Human Sciences, as well as an associate dean of the Graduate College.

With them so far are 29 collaborators across OSU, including representatives from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources; the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology; and the College of Education, Health and Aviation.

“This is a great opportunity to have collaborative research across OSU,” Koehler said. “It’s going to lead to more interdisciplinary research. My vision is toward engaging more clinicians and social scientists in microbiome research.”

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The Microbiome Initiative is led by (from left) Jerry Malayer, Gerwald Koehler, Tyrrell Conway and Brenda Smith.

Conway is excited about microbiology receiving increased attention from the public. Early in his career, he would tell people he was a biologist because most people didn’t understand what a microbiologist was. Now he proudly says he is a microbiologist because most people know the term, and many either know about microbiomes, or at least have some idea about the concept.

For example, they know antibiotics can lead to complications such as digestive issues or yeast infections.

“The interest in microbiomes is a movement,” Conway said. “Microbiologists have known for many decades that microbes live in communities.

But now lots of people who aren’t microbiologists are doing things like taking prebiotics to feed bacteria, stimulating growth. They are taking probiotics to introduce microbes that are beneficial.

They are beginning to get that we are a cloud of our microbiomes.”

Over the past decade, Koehler has increasingly focused his research on microbiomes, especially on their interactions with host physiology and the gut-brain axis. For example, is there a connection between the composition of someone’s microbiome and whether they have severe depression or anxiety?

“We see changes that correlate in humans and our model systems,” Koehler said. “We see changes that correlate with depressive-like behavior in animals and major depression in humans. The

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question is, how do we get from correlations to mechanisms? We need to find out if depression causes changes in the microbiome, or do the microbiome changes cause depression?”

He is also excited about research into how the microbiome relates to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and gastroenterological issues such as inflammatory bowel disease. It may even play a part in causing cancer.

“Microbiome science is a great opportunity to learn things that we didn’t even know that we didn’t know,” Koehler said. “There are so many areas where people haven’t even considered the trillions of microorganisms within us and on us. When you get a physical now, they check your blood. In a couple of years, we might also get our microbiome checked to see if there is anything wrong with that.”

While Koehler studies the gut-brain axis, Smith’s expertise is the gut-bone axis. She notes that bones are greatly affected by a body’s immune response, and at any given time about 70 percent of a body’s immune cells reside within the gut. The saying “you are what you eat” makes a lot of sense as it relates to the microbiome.

“What we consume affects the microbiome, and in turn the immune cells, which can then travel into the bone and other tissues,” Smith said.

“What we’ve learned in even the last decade about the microbiome is going to change the way we do nutrition.”

Today, nutritional recommendations are typically based on an individual’s age or gender, and whether a woman is pregnant or lactating. With an increased understanding of the microbiome, a much more individualized approach to these nutrition recommendations may soon be the norm.

“This is a paradigm shift,” Smith said. “It’s changing the way we think in nutrition and its effects on health.”

For example, there are some compounds in foods, such as resveratrol in red wine and catechins in green tea, that are known to have health benefits.

Yet studies have shown they are poorly absorbed or have very short stays in the body.

“If we consider that the microbiome may be the target of their action, it may not be that I drink green tea and the beneficial compounds end up in some peripheral tissue,” Smith said. “We are beginning to think that the effect is primarily taking place in the gut, and as the microbes metabolize these compounds they influence the immune system.”

For Malayer, the idea of the global microbiome is “almost perfect.”

“We talk about one health — the concept that the health of animals, humans and the environment are linked,” Malayer says. “In research, the things we find in one environment can apply to another. At a basic level, processes of tissues, cells and organs are similar across species.”

The goal of microbiome science is to understand the microbiome. That includes which microbes are present, what they are doing and how they are interacting. That leads to research questions about the effects of eliminating certain classes of organisms, allowing other classes to expand.

“We’re talking about millions of bacteria, millions and millions of genes they are expressing, and millions and millions and millions of metabolites,” Malayer said. “That’s a very complex system. With the new technologies of artificial intelligence machine learning and supercomputers, we think we can program a computer to model that at some scale. That will let us do predictive analysis. ‘What would happen if you eliminate an organism? What would happen if you introduced a probiotic or prebiotic?’”

OSU has tremendous resources for multidisciplinary microbiome research. It is a comprehensive, land-grant university that includes both a medical school and a veterinary medical school, as well as extension offices that can share findings throughout the state.

Through the Microbiome Initiative, Malayer says OSU is empowering researchers to “plug into

THE MICROBIOME INITIATIVE: CONNECTING THE MICROBIOME TO HEALTH The microbiome is an intricate biological community that is found inside humans, animals and the environment, even in soil. The Microbiome Initiative plans to leverage this to benefit health and well-being.

Rigorous science is required to ensure that medical, veterinary and dietary processes that target the microbiome are well-understood and effective.

This initiative will bring experts together in areas such as biology, human and veterinary medicine, computer science, mathematics, behavioral and social sciences and engineering to better understand the microbiome. The goal at this stage is understanding how microbiomeassociated diseases function and which processes affect health.

a pipeline” of expertise and specialized equipment that will allow them to “build your model without having to reinvent the wheel.” They will even train students, “who will become the next generation of scientists, and they will be doing a lot more of this kind of work.”

He added, “There is all kinds of potential to discover new processes and organisms in these various environments that could have commercial potential. The sky is the limit if we get everything in place. There are institutions that do things like this now, but I don’t think any other institution has the breadth of potential application that OSU does.”

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Tracing Earth’s History

Undergraduate’s research explores the very beginnings of the planet

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or most students, summer is a time to spend lounging in the warmth of the sun. But Chris Jones spent his summer braving the cold on a German research vessel near Antarctica — where winter was beginning.

Jones, a 2019 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and former Niblack scholar, is an OSU senior in geology. His research focuses on biogeochemistry, the origins of life and how biological signals are expressed in early Earth systems.

These research interests led him to Natascha Riedinger, an assistant professor in geology. Jones began working in her lab his freshman year and joined her on a research trip to the Argentine Basin during his sophomore year.

This past summer, Jones set out on a second research trip, this time to the South Sandwich Islands for seven weeks.

The South Sandwich Islands are a heavily protected reserve in the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Only a few people ever go there, mainly for research purposes. Working with Riedinger, Jones was

Chris Jones and the research vessel Sonne.

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trying to understand how trace metals are cycled in sediment.

The focus was on such uncommon metals as uranium in the sediment to better understand what the world was like at different times, Jones said.

“We look at ones that are sensitive to changes in O2 content in the water and sediment,” Jones said.

“A sudden loss of oxygen would enrich uranium, and that can tell you sort of what was happening in the water column or the sediment.”

These tests allow scientists to better understand what was occurring with the environment many years ago.

“One of my favorite examples is the meteor that hit the Earth and killed the dinosaurs,” Jones said. “It sent all this dust into the air and enriched this whole layer that you can see all over the world with iridium.” This is called the iridium anomaly, a geochemical anomaly in the rocks, that you can now see, Jones said.

The islands provided a unique opportunity for the team.

As Jones explained it, the South Sandwich Islands are a volcanic island chain between South America and Antarctica. On the east side of the island is a deep trench and on the west are hydrothermal vents. Then on top of that, moving from west to east is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Everything that comes out of those hydrothermal vents gets pushed to the east, sandwiched between the vents and the islands, Jones said. This provided a unique chance to study what impact the material in the vents has on other tests being done.

“A lot of people study trace metals or rare elements over open areas or continental margins, and they apply that to global ocean systems,” Jones said. “We asked what if we have this hydrothermal system and polar area that hasn’t really been studied before — what does it look like? And if it looks similar, we have to be able to differentiate.”

Jones utilized a number of different areas of science in his research, including geochemistry, microbiology and sedimentology, Riedinger said.

STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTOS COURTESY CHRIS JONES

A view from the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Samples from the South Sandwich Islands are tested for uncommon metals.

Jones’ curiosity and new eyes helped push the research to a new level, she added.

“One thing people might underestimate is when someone like me, who has done this for a little bit … I have a rough idea [that the results are] probably going to look like X, Y and Z,” Riedinger said. “But then you have this guy who is completely new to the field, and he will bring in these questions from so many different angles.”

Riedinger said this was one of the most interesting parts of serving as a mentor for undergrad research.

Aside from his research, Jones also serves as the assistant director for the OSU writing center.

“I realized that writing is important because even if you find this super cool solution, if you can’t tell someone about it, it doesn’t matter,” he said.

Jones hopes to one day use his research and writing skill to study other planets.

“My dream job is to be an astrobiogeochemist,” he said. “Working on samples that will get brought back from Europa or Mars, missions that we send to other parts of the solar system.”

Geochemistry can also be used to look into our past, Jones said.

“A lot of things are focused on the today and the now, but I really want to know the origins of how we got to this point in history.”

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Thinking Outside the Lanes Autonomous truck corridors could transform our nation’s transportation, OSU researchers say

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wo Oklahoma State University researchers have come up with a plan to rebuild America’s interstate infrastructure for the 21st century, making interstate highways safer, less crowded and longer lasting.

The two are Dr. Tyler Ley, a structural engineering professor in OSU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Paul Tikalsky, the dean of OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology.

Their idea is to build new roads next to existing interstates for the sole use of electric-powered, self-driving freight trucks. These autonomous truck corridors could be built to hold much more weight, allowing the autonomous trucks to travel at higher speeds, save energy by traveling closer together and provide trucking companies with a reliable way to move products. Overhead electric and fiber-optic lines would power and monitor the trucks.

Dr. Paul Tikalsky

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Oklahoma, as part of the Midwest and southern Great Plains, would be the perfect location to start this transformation. Tikalsky, who has worked on a wide variety of transportation and infrastructure projects throughout his career, sees the heartland as the nation’s freight, energy, trade, transportation and information backbone.

The idea has made its way to the halls of the U.S. Senate, thanks to Tikalsky’s meeting with the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., to propose the autonomous truck corridor.

“We aren’t the only ones thinking about this, but someone has to start it,” he said. “It is time for a national effort to build cohesive and enduring infrastructure corridors that provide our nation with economic and sustainable transportation, utility and information corridors that drive commerce and security for the next century.”

The benefits of an autonomous truck corridor could include quicker, more reliable delivery times and lower greenhouse gases.

“The technology needed to make all this happen already exists,” Tikalsky said.

OSU is in a partnership with Pennsylvania State University and University of North CarolinaCharlotte to help the autonomous truck corridor become a reality. One of the group’s proposals is to create a University Transportation Center in Stillwater, where experts from private industry, government agencies and academia would work to make the autonomous truck corridor a reality.

“I have dedicated my life to improving roads and bridges,” said Dr. Tyler Ley “Our roads are in pitiful shape.”

“This corridor will require a new way of thinking in the design, operation, maintenance and financing of transportation infrastructure,” Tikalsky said. “Our team has written support from dozens of companies, four (departments of transportation) and turnpike authorities. People who think this is 10 or 20 years out could be grossly mistaken. We could build 100 to 200 miles within a few seasons.”

STORY DAVID BITTON | PHOTOS PHIL SHOCKLEY AND NIKOLA

Trying out an autonomous truck corridor on Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa could show that the concept works with existing technology, he added.

Tikalsky, previously the deputy director of the Larson Transportation Institute at Penn State, was involved in a project to build a 10-mile stretch on Interstate 99 in Pennsylvania that cost the same as a traditional road but would last 100 years. It is still in great shape nearly 20 years later, he said.

“This current proposal would not have been possible without the experience of developing this (Pennsylvania) corridor,” he said. “A substantial effort of this previous work was to convince owners, designers and contractors that it is possible and practical to do something better than what they do now.”

Oklahoma took its first steps toward becoming an autonomous vehicle leader in May when Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill into law that gives the state control over all legislation affecting autonomous vehicles. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is currently looking at future policies.

BENEFITS The estimated benefits of autonomous truck corridors include: 75% reduction in heavy truck traffic on the highway system 50% longer lifespan for current highways 50% less energy needed for heavy freight shipping Improved driver safety Added security corridors for use during emergencies

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“This makes it even easier for the autonomous truck corridor to happen in Oklahoma,” Ley said.

Our interstate highway system dates back to the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act, which paved the way for 41,000 miles of roadways across the country.

But now, 60-plus years later, the U.S. has aging roads and bridges that are falling prey to lower budgets and higher congestion. Ley estimated the infrastructure is receiving less than half of the funding it needs today.

“I am tired of incremental changes,” Ley said.

“We need a massive, huge, game-changer approach.”

Tikalsky agrees.

“When we built the interstates, it gave us a huge commercial advantage to all other countries,” he said. “How do we build this spine that allows our freight for the 21st century? If we do it, we would really be the envy of the world.”

They foresee building autonomous truck corridors in high-demand, freight traffic areas throughout the country. A single corridor spoke into a city would get the trucks to a central facility; local drivers could then complete the deliveries.

Ley envisions many of today’s 3.5 million truck drivers being able to work in their communities and sleep in their own beds, thus reducing the shortages and high turnover in the trucking industry.

The corridor could pay for itself and generate income through tolls.

“The autonomous truck corridor will generate the revenue necessary to support its own construction and maintenance, and potentially many infrastructure projects,” Tikalsky said.

“This is a transformational opportunity.”

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Dr. Tyler Ley

BY THE NUMBERS 71% of nation’s freight is moved by trucks 78% driver turnover among large fleets 3.5 million truck drivers (2018) 3.68 million heavy trucks (including tractors and straight trucks) in operation (2016) 10.77 billion tons of freight transported in primary shipments (2017) 181.5 billion miles traveled by combination trucks (2017) $700.1 billion in gross freight revenues (primary shipments only) (2017) SOURCE: American Trucking Association

OSU RESEARCH ON TAP Where Community and University Meet Join the curious at Iron Monk Brewing Co. Research.okstate.edu/rot

At OSU Research on Tap, Dr. Kenneth Sewell, vice president for research, chats with scientists, engineers and scholars about their work and why it matters. Add in audience questions, and the program becomes a dialogue involving everyone.

Join friends and faculty for a local brew and the best of OSU research.

Explaining Tech Transfer Sewell details what the process means for OSU research

We sat down recently with OSU Vice President for Research Dr. Kenneth W. Sewell to discuss the process of technology transfer and what it means for research.

What is technology transfer?

Technology transfer is the act of moving the rights or “know-how” of a new technology from one organization to another. Tech transfer gets an invention/ innovation out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. At OSU, the whole point of tech transfer is to multiply the impact of our researchers’ innovations so as many people as possible can use the technology.

What does tech transfer look like at OSU? The tech transfer process starts when a faculty member lets us know about a new invention or a new use for an existing technology by submitting a written disclosure form. This identifies the discovery, those responsible for the creation and other information about how the invention could be used commercially.

The Technology Development Center at OSU, part of the Division of the Vice President for Research, manages the entire process from disclosure onward.

Each disclosure is reviewed for novelty; protectability (Can it be patented? Are there potential trade secrets that can be guarded?); marketability; time to market; funding for further development; market growth and size; existing similar intellectual property; and current competition. After all

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this, we decide whether to a) file for a patent, b) protect by trade secret or c) do nothing.

As the patent process proceeds, the faculty member will continue developing a promising technology, and an OSU licensing associate will begin to market the technology. An option gives a company the first rights to a technology and provides the “option” to negotiate a full license in the future. A license allows a company to use or sell an OSU-owned technology.

We commonly hear the terms tech transfer, commercialization and corporate partnerships in the same arena. What are the differences?

Tech transfer includes all the steps from initial lab findings/invention to further development through applied research until a license is completed.

We often use commercialization within tech transfer to mean starting up a brandnew company to get an OSU-owned invention to the marketplace. But it can also refer to that final step of getting the invention out into public use, through a licensing agreement to an existing company.

Corporate partnerships can be key to technology transfer. Partners may be willing to fund research to accelerate the development of an invention or to prove its efficiency. These same partners might then license the new technology themselves or become a customer/user once the product is available.

STORY HARRISON HILL | PHOTO TODD JOHNSON

OK Bullet, a wheat variety launched in 2005, contributes to wheat varieties being OSU’s second-highest royalty earner.

What other services does OSU offer in this area?

The Technology Development Center manages all intellectual property. Also, Cowboy Technologies is an investment arm for early-stage start-up companies spinning out of OSU and assists OSU entrepreneurs in applying for small business grants from federal agencies. Through the entrepreneurship program in OSU’s Spears School of Business, we also have an NSF I-Corp site that trains faculty and students on gaining real market feedback on their technologies. OSU also works closely with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) for further development.

What is a royalty, and how does it benefit the university?

Historically, what technologies have earned the most royalties for OSU, and what impact have they had on OSU and the state of Oklahoma?

Inventions ranging from livestock probiotics and radiation detection badges to wheat and grass varieties have created financial benefits for the inventors and provided resources for the OSU departments and the Technology Development Center. On average, OSU technologies earn over $2.5 million in royalties each year.

And even though these innovations have brought substantial royalties back to OSU, the main goal is not to “make money” per se, but to create and accelerate the positive impact from OSU innovations. The royalties are a byproduct used to sustain the process.

Royalty is the term for the payment amount negotiated between the licensor (OSU) and the licensee. This is usually a percentage of sales or uses of a product.

Other common options are upfront payments (often with a smaller ongoing royalty) or an equity stake in the licensee’s company.

Royalties serve multiple purposes for OSU: They offset the expenses we incur in protecting and marketing new technologies; they allow us to continue investing in new ideas; and they are used to reward and incentivize faculty innovators.

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STORY DONALD STOTTS | PHOTOS TODD JOHNSON

OSU’s Wilson finds fungi a vital link to keeping soil healthy

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ith the devastating Amazon rainforest fires still burning, climate concerns are back in today’s political spotlight. But they have been on the front burner at Oklahoma State University’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources for a long time.

“Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been converting carbon from the geologic pool into the atmosphere at an astounding rate,” said Gail Wilson, holder of the Sarkeys Distinguished Professor of Rangeland Soil Ecology within OSU’s Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management. “The carbon existed before it was converted from a solid or liquid state into a gaseous state, of course, but its release as greenhouse gases is having an effect that for the most part is not beneficial to humans or the world’s ecosystems.”

As a scientist, Wilson is among those striving to find ways to ease the negative consequences. In her research, thinking small is laying the groundwork for possible applications that landowners, agricultural producers and other natural resource managers can do for a potentially significant positive effect.

“Soil aggregation and carbon sequestration are tightly correlated with the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, the focus of my research for more than a decade,” she said. “These fungi form symbiotic associations with the roots of more than 80 percent of land plants. Science is showing they are essential to both healthy plant and soil development, and they play a major role in taking carbon out of the atmosphere.”

While many people have heard about carbon sequestration — capturing atmospheric carbon and storing it long term — fewer are aware of the importance of soil aggregation.

Soil aggregation is the arrangement of soil particles, influencing virtually all nutrient cycling processes and biological life in soils.

“Most people are not aware the biodiversity in one handful of soil is equivalent to the biological diversity in a rainforest,” Wilson said. “The biodiversity in soil declines, sometimes drastically, as soil degrades. The bottom line is we need to repair the soil if we are to promote the plants that grow in the soil. It’s all interconnected.”

That is where Wilson’s research into arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi comes in, improving scientific understanding of interrelationships that could help lessen the greenhouse gas problem from the ground up. Wilson and her cooperating scientific investigators have been particularly interested in the role played by grasslands, such as those present throughout America’s central Great Plains region.

BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Approximately a third of the world’s land surface is grasslands. Wilson said those who manage grasslands as part of the world’s food production system are key players in the fight to lessen the negative effects of climate variability.

As an example, grazing animals have evolved in a symbiotic relationship with grasslands.

“Beef cattle grazing on grass pastures might not be the first thing many people think of when discussing the subject of combating greenhouse gas emissions, but it is an agricultural practice that scientific studies have shown can provide significant dividends, especially when considering the world cannot allow land to go to waste if it is to feed a projected population of 10 billion people by 2050,” Wilson said.

Research by R.F. Follett and D.A. Reed published in 2010 examined the effects of grazing on organic carbon storage in the soil of North American rangelands. Follett and Reed found impacts ranging from no change to up to 268 pounds of carbon stored per acre per year.

“The variability of the impact grazing can have on carbon sequestration is due to differences in specific grazing management practices from operation to operation,” said Sara Place, a former OSU animal scientist and current senior director of sustainable beef production research with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

The number of cattle grazed per acre, fertilization and prior land use all can affect how much carbon is stored.

“While changes in carbon sequestration due to grazing or other management decisions may be relatively minor on a per-acre basis, they can R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 43

translate into significant impacts if implemented on a large scale given the number of acres of grassland in the world,” Place said.

What about methane emissions from cattle?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates direct emissions from America’s beef industry account for about 2 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse emissions. Throw in the fact that Oklahoma’s beef industry adds more than $3.7 billion annually to the state economy, and cattle producers who employ research-proven best management practices are having a significant positive effect on many fronts.

“A University of Wyoming study published in 2019 indicated the ecosystem services of cattle ranching and farming conservatively provide $14.8 billion of societal value in the United States,” Place said.

Research by R. Lal published in 2011 indicated if soil organic carbon in agricultural ecosystems and grasslands could be increased by 10 percent globally during the 21st century, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide could be reduced by 100 parts per million.

In addition, pasture and grasslands account for approximately 27 percent of the land area in the United States. Avoiding the conversion of this land to tilled cropland and residential uses could help prevent further increases in greenhouse gas emissions.

Wilson loves to point out that grasslands — and the animals that graze them — fill a necessary niche on planet Earth. Unfortunately, when it comes to grasslands, soil conditions have become somewhat degraded. Therefore, to maximize the carbon sequestration potential of grasslands, it is vital good soil conditions be promoted.

“That brings us back to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the important role they play in healthy grasslands,” Wilson said. “We have been losing topsoil a hundred times faster than it is formed.

That is not sustainable. But the solution may lie in the fungi. That is why our scientific research is necessary, and why it should be important to everyone.”

STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES

Scientists tackling the problem are not limited to Wilson and her peers, of course. There are graduate assistants and undergraduate students working alongside faculty and staff. At any given time, Wilson has had up to five undergraduates

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conducting research through her lab since joining the OSU faculty 12 years ago.

“Undergraduates tend to become especially interested in certain parts of ongoing projects,” she said. “Most take ownership of those aspects and enthusiastically want to take on challenges specific to those aspects. I like to individualize their research as much as possible, matching it as closely as possible to whatever caught their interest, within the bounds of the overall project.”

Typically, Wilson teams the undergraduate with a graduate student working in the lab, believing it to be a “win-win situation.” The end result often has been a project’s research findings being published in a higher-tier scientific journal than originally projected.

“Scientific awareness needs to advance, so the more prestigious the publication, the better that is accomplished,” Wilson said. “It’s incredibly valuable to the reputations and eventual careers of the individual students themselves. I believe it’s important we promote such résumé-building opportunities while honing good research methodology and understanding.”

The team concept also enhances teaching and supervisory experiences as the graduate student is the senior member and often fills a big sister or big brother mentorship role, distinct from what a faculty or staff member might provide as a lab manager. Wilson said her graduate students quickly buy into how much fun it is to work with undergraduates, who may not be all that experienced when they start but are generally enthusiastic to learn and improve.

“Young undergraduates come to college somewhat programmed into asking, ‘What is the correct answer?’” Wilson said. “Science is investigation, and to see their enthusiasm and commitment as undergraduates discover they are detectives in the midst of a mystery is fun and fulfilling for me and the graduate students. There comes a point where the undergraduates realize what is not known and commit to work through the process, and then come to the realization they can handle the responsibilities of being the detective, of being the scientist.”

That is good for everyone: the scientific community, academia and the general public, now and in the future.

“Want to fight the negative effects of climate variability?” Wilson asked. “Have we got some fungi for you.”

“Young undergraduates come to college somewhat programmed into asking, ‘What is the correct answer?’ Science is investigation, and to see their enthusiasm and commitment as undergraduates discover they are detectives in the midst of a mystery is fun and fulfilling for me and the graduate students.”

— DR. GAIL WILSON

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Explore OSU Research Follow the research: facebook.com/OStateResearch

Airborne Aid

When storms knock out roads and bridges, one of the biggest challenges for emergency managers is getting supplies into the affected areas. New drone research is looking to conquer that challenge.

Read it: okla.st/drone

OSU’s UAS team presents to White House officials

The UAS program, which provides students opportunities for research and hands-on experience with Unmanned Aircraft Systems, offered flight demonstrations to White House officials during a spring conference.

Read it: okla.st/uaswhitehouse

$200 million endowment established for OSU Center for Wellness & Recovery

A historic settlement with Purdue Pharma will establish a nearly $200 million endowment at Oklahoma State University’s Center for Wellness and Recovery, which will be used to fund addiction research and treatment to combat the state and national opioid crisis.

Read it: okla.st/chsfunding

Understanding Addiction: Killing Pain

Understanding addiction is the first step to treating it. Dr. Jason Beaman, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at OSU, and others discuss the science behind opioid addiction in episode two of the seven-part documentary series Killing Pain.

Watch it: okla.st/killingpain

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Protecting pregnant women

What can someone’s past tell us about their pregnancy?

Karina Shreffler, professor of human development and family science at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and a researcher for the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity at OSU-CHS, is studying the impact a traumatic past has on childbearing.

Read it: okla.st/shreffler

Mothers “invisible labor” and their well being

Running a household requires a lot. The cognitive load and emotional and mental labor required can be referred to as invisible labor, and it is taking its toll. Researchers at Oklahoma State University look at the impact of this invisible labor on women across the United States. Dr. Lucia Ciciolla, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences is helping to lead this research.

Read the whole story from Good Morning America: okla.st/ciciolla

OSU respiratory disease research wins $11.1M grant

In 2018, the National Institutes of Health awarded $11.1 million to the Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases to continue the work of more than 60 scientists from three research institutions in the state.

The grant was awarded to fund a second, five-year phase of the center’s research mission which began with its founding in 2013.

More about the grant: okla.st/OCRIDresearch

Life-saving research on respiratory diseases

Infectious respiratory diseases are a worldwide public health epidemic. In Oklahoma, OCRID scientists are leading pioneering research into a multitude of diseases that sicken millions.

Learn about OCRID: okla.st/lifesavingresearch

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 47

Getting Its Wings

OSU’s Eric Benton is developing new radiation detector based on device that flew on NASA's space station A successful 2018 project with NASA is providing the foundation for an improved radiation detector. Physicist Dr. Eric Benton and graduate students in his lab developed a tissue equivalent radiation dosimeter that flew on the International Space Station last summer.

The device produced predictable, reliable data at a fraction of the cost. The detector also provided an improvement over previous models: the possibility for real-time information.

“The new science is the device itself,” Benton said. “We got data as high quality as what was previously obtained on NASA instruments.”

Previous radiation detectors were passive, working much like film with no way to determine if the radiation exposure happened all at once or over time.

“We had no idea about any time structure of the radiation. Did it all come at once? Was most of it pretty small but there were a couple of bad days?

Those are really simple detectors,” Benton said.

“There are no electronics. This was my first effort to fly an electronic instrument in space. It was a real departure for me personally and my research group to go into this new area.”

Benton has plans for a new model. There are two types of radiation particles: charged particles like electrons and protons, and uncharged particles, which are mostly neutrons. Neutrons are biologically damaging compared with charged particles of similar energy.

“Neutrons don’t interact with anything electrically,” he said. “They have to go through nuclear interactions with the nuclei of atoms so you only see them indirectly. In all of these detectors to date, we couldn’t tell a difference. The new version will be able to discriminate between the two.”

Knowing what fraction of the radiation is coming from uncharged particles could help scientists construct better spacecraft or provide a means to limit exposure.

Dr. Eric Benton’s research group includes (from left) Marting Yang, Art and Barbara Lucas, Bryan Hayes, Eric Benton, Paul Inman and Tristen Lee.

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STORY SHANNON RIGSBY | PHOTO PHIL SHOCKLEY

PARTNERING WITH NASA SINCE BEFORE HUMANS EVER SET FOOT ON THE MOON

With over 50 years of programming experience at NASA, Oklahoma State University brings a nationwide approach to improving STEM education. Our programs engage Earthlings of all ages by encouraging students to pursue and complete a four-year degree, inspiring students to choose STEM careers, and connecting students and educators to NASA’s missions including: International Space Station, lunar presence and on to Mars.

OSU NASA Education Projects education.okstate.edu/nasa.html

R E S E A R C H .O K S TAT E . E D U 3

Oklahoma State University Office of the Vice President for Research 203 Whitehurst Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-1020

Supporting the future of genetic research

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n the competitive arena of genetics research, it’s important for graduate students to stand out. At Oklahoma State University, the Otto S. Cox Graduate Fellowship for Genetic Research helps with that.

Each year, a limited number of students earn the fellowship by showcasing proven records of genetic inquiry and the potential to impact the discipline in the future.

This year, three OSU students were awarded the fellowship. The Cox Graduate Fellowship provides a $1,000 stipend and recognition for pursuing challenging work in a rapidly evolving and critical research area.

“As recently as 10 years ago, cutting-edge genetic and genomic technologies were prohibitively expensive, but today they are more accessible than ever and can be used with a wide variety of plant and animal species,” said Vice President for Research Dr. Kenneth Sewell. “The Cox Fellowship provides our students with the ability to apply these cutting-edge genetic and genomic tools to nearly any organism or question they are interested in pursuing.”

This year’s recipients: John Hodge, studying plant biology, ecology and evolution Ryan Koch, studying integrative biology Marjan Behzadirad, studying plant molecular biology Hodge works to identify conserved genetic regulators of branching in grasses.

“I am fascinated how plants that are genetically very similar can arrive at strikingly different growth forms,” Hodge said. “This research allows me to explore these questions while also being able to contribute valuable insights for agriculture that could benefit society as a whole.”

Koch studies the ecology and evolution of parasite life cycles. The specific parasite Koch focuses on uses three hosts in its life cycle: ostracods, snails and turtles. Koch’s research aims to examine the importance of these hosts.

“What I find particularly interesting is the hidden diversity involved with studying parasites,” Koch said.

“When you realize that most hosts have one or more species of parasites, the questions suddenly become more complex.”

Behzadirad studies the effects of antioxidant enzyme expression in plants. Her research is designed to understand how stressful environmental conditions cause oxidative damage.

“I am fascinated by how plants control the expression of their genes in response to environmental stress,” she said. “My research provides an overall view of the role of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in the plants stress response. My results provide a foundation for further study of the physiological and molecular mechanisms affected by the ectopic expression of SOD in plants.”

The fellowship is made possible by a gift from Otto S. Cox, a rancher from Lenapah, Oklahoma, and a 1927 graduate of Oklahoma A&M College (now OSU). The fellowships are offered through the OSU Division of the Vice President for Research.