A team of researchers from Florida State University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is looking to nature to find microbes that can be used to create new antibiotics to treat the growing threat of drug-resistant bacteria.

Infection from so-called “super bugs” is a leading cause of death globally. Drug resistant bacteria contribute to nearly five million deaths every year, according to the World Health Organization. As more pathogens develop resistance, that number is expected to jump nearly 70% in the next 25 years.

The team of FSU and MagLab researchers will screen soil microbes from around the world to hunt for sources of new antibacterial drugs. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is funding the project as part of an international drug discovery initiative.

“People have been searching for new antibiotics for many years, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to discover novel compounds. Our goal is to revolutionize the drug discovery pipeline,” said Xiangpeng Li, an assistant professor in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “If we don’t do anything, antibiotic resistance will be a huge problem for the human race.”

Buried treasure: Potential medical marvels in the soil

Molecules made by microbes have long been used to treat bacterial infections. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was developed from mold nearly 100 years ago. Common antibiotics like streptomycin are produced by bacteria.

The researchers will test soil samples supplied by Rob Spencer, a biogeochemist and professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science. He studies the carbon cycle, and particularly the rapidly changing environments of the Arctic and tropics.

“It’s common to think about soils as just dirt, but they are essential for our nutrient, carbon and water cycles, and microbes in soils hold huge potential for discovery of new drugs,” Spencer said.

His samples from extreme environments like the polar regions hold particular promise because they have not been extensively examined.

“Those samples might contain very novel microbes,” Li said. “They have been frozen for maybe tens to hundreds of thousands of years. We are more likely to find new things.”

How it works

To find sources for potential new antibacterial drugs, the team has the ambitious goal of screening a billion microbes.

Li specializes in droplet microfluidics, manipulating tiny drops of fluid about the width of a human hair through troughs etched on a silicone disc to rapidly conduct chemical screening. His microfluidics system will quickly process tens of thousands of droplets at a time.

“Typically, when we search for new compounds from nature, it’s a rather arduous process working with individually isolated microbes, but with the speed of microfluidics and the analytical power of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, we can sample all of the microbes from a variety of environments all at once. It’s a very exciting collaboration,” said Edward Kalkreuter, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Inside the droplets, soil microbial cells will be combined with a common antibiotic-resistant bacterium called Klebsiella pneumoniae and a fluorescent color-coded tag to allow for rapid sorting.

Then the MagLab’s Ion Cyclotron Resonance Facility, or ICR, will identify bioactive molecules from the soil microbes.

“You might have a soil sample and it kills the Klebsiella, but you don’t know what those molecules are. So that’s where we come in,” said ICR Director Kicki Håkansson.

The lab’s powerful ICR mass spectrometers will analyze the droplets that show antimicrobial activity to determine which molecules are responsible for the antibacterial properties. The precision analysis will also be crucial for making sure the discovery is indeed new.

“We’re looking for signals that have not been discovered before. We don’t want to rediscover penicillin,” Li said. “To do that, we annotate the molecular composition of each signal and compare it against databases of known compounds.”

Taking on that data analysis challenge will be the team’s fifth member, Ryan Rodgers, a researcher at the ICR.

International collaboration

The researchers will also share data and ideas with 21 other research groups around the world as part of an international drug discovery consortium with additional funding provided by the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. This coordinated investment and collaborative effort will accelerate the search for new medications that are crucial to addressing this growing crisis.

“This new approach allows us to look very thoroughly at compounds that haven’t been looked at,” Håkansson said. “And if we find something, this could be transformative, which is what’s really exciting.”

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 Florida State University chemists have synthesized new molecules derived from bacteria found in a Pacific Ocean sea sponge, a breakthrough for the future of drug development, particularly for rare forms of cancer.

“Around 50 percent of approved drugs are either natural products or derivatives of natural products,” said Zackary Firestone, a fourth-year doctoral student in FSU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the study’s lead author. “Synthetic access to these molecules is important because it allows for easier procurement for biological testing as well as the making of new derivatives.”

The research team is the first to successfully synthesize two new marine natural products: tetradehydrohalicyclamine B and epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B. Both were isolated from bacteria that lives in symbiosis with Acanthostrongylophora ingens, a Pacific-dwelling sea sponge.

Sea sponges and their cohabitant bacteria are an important source of biologically active molecules. The chemists who realize these natural marine products’ potential through chemical synthesis play a foundational role in evaluating their merit as new medicinal leads for various diseases. The findings were published earlier this year in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS’ flagship scholarly journal.

How it works

Discovered in 2018, tetradehydrohalicyclamine B can inhibit proteasomes, large, barrel-shaped protein complexes that perform waste-management activities within cells by disposing of damaged proteins.

Some rare cancers, like multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, produce an abundance of toxic proteins, meaning the cancer’s survival and spread rates are heavily dependent on the cancer cell’s ability to dispose of this additional waste. Proteasome inhibitors are an important form of cancer therapy: They enable a buildup of toxic proteins, which places cancer cells under so much stress that they die off, slowing or stopping the spread in its tracks.

Epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B, discovered in 2019, hasn’t yet been the subject of published biological study. However, due to its unique structure, the molecule has attracted considerable attention among organic synthetic chemists for its pharmaceutical potential.

Both molecules are derived from bacteria growing in Acanthostrongylophora ingens, a sea sponge primarily found off the coast of Indonesia. As the source for a variety of bioactive molecules, the sponge is in high global demand by researchers. These samples are individually collected by trained scuba divers and often frozen immediately to prevent chemical degradation before shipment. Laboratory synthesis of key molecules within the sponge will expand research activity without limits instilled by natural sea sponge populations.

“These complex molecules have shown promise in medicinal applications, but gathering large quantities of them is difficult and expensive,” Firestone said. “We make these molecules from materials you can buy from suppliers, giving researchers easier access to the molecules as well as the ability to modify them to improve their properties.”

Why it matters

Whether as a drug molecule or a natural product, the precise molecular geometry is critical for interacting with the target protein. The first syntheses of tetradehydrohalicyclamine B and epi-tetradehydrohalicyclamine B resulted in two mirror image geometries, only one of which was biologically active. Firestone is now the first to synthesize these molecules with only the desired geometry, which will allow researchers to better evaluate how these substances’ structures interact with endogenous human targets like the proteasome.

“I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of making molecules,” Firestone said. “In some ways, it feels like a puzzle where you’re trying to use a plethora of available reactions to build a complex molecule in the most efficient way possible.”

A legacy of molecular synthesis

Firestone’s work is part of a broader research program in the Smith Laboratory, an organic synthesis research lab led by Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Joel M. Smith.

The lab explores new ways of synthesizing complex molecules, laying the scientific foundation for the creation of novel small-molecule drugs. While the Smith Laboratory centers its efforts on neurological disorders such as migraines, severe depression, and Parkinson’s disease, Firestone’s research is poised to have eventual applications in cancer treatment.

“Zack is a tenacious synthetic chemist,” Smith said. “In addition to intellect, he’s extraordinarily resilient and disciplined when it comes to doing great science. This makes him exceedingly adept at tackling difficult synthetic problems with a thoughtful and diligent approach, setting him up for a very successful future, both at FSU and beyond.”

FSU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has a legacy of molecular synthesis and drug development. The late chemist and FSU Professor Robert Holton synthesized the groundbreaking cancer drug Taxol, bypassing the limitations involved in extracting the cancer-inhibiting agent paclitaxel from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, and allowing for more than a million patients to benefit from the medication.

For more information about Firestone’s work and research in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, visit chem.fsu.edu.

FSU researchers Thiago A. Grigolo and Filipe G. Pernichelle were coauthors of this study. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and by the National Science Foundation.

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Each year, massive mats of pelagic sargassum drift across the Atlantic Ocean and wash ashore along coastlines from West Africa to the Florida Gulf. What begins at sea as a floating habitat for marine life quickly becomes a serious problem once it reaches land, smothering beaches, disrupting ecosystems and generating the familiar smell of rotten eggs as it decays.

As the scale of the sargassum blooms continues to grow, researchers at Florida State University are working on a different question: How to transform this mounting environmental challenge into a sustainable opportunity. A team of scientists at FSU, collaborating with colleagues at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and Florida International University (FIU), has demonstrated that pelagic sargassum can be converted into a potential high-quality, functional food ingredient through targeted extraction and purification. Their findings were recently published in the journal Food Hydrocolloids.

Their work comes at a crucial moment: In 2026, pelagic sargassum quantities are expected to reach unprecedented levels. Marine scientists estimate that this year’s bloom is on track to be the largest ever recorded, potentially surpassing last year’s peak of about 37.5 million metric tons (MMT). As of February 2026, more than 13 MMT of sargassum were already drifting toward Florida and the Caribbean, forming earlier than usual due to warming ocean temperatures and strong trade winds. Cleanup comes at a steep price: In Miami-Dade County alone, sargassum removal has previously cost an estimated $35 million per year.

Rather than focusing on removing sargassum and discarding it, the researchers investigated how to recover sodium alginate, a naturally occurring compound widely used in foods for thickening, gelling and stabilizing products such as salad dressings, desserts and plant-based alternatives.

“Right now, most washed ashore sargassum is treated as waste,” said Qinchun Rao, corresponding author of the study and professor in FSU’s Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences. “We wanted to explore whether this abundant biomass could be responsibly transformed into something useful.”

“One of the most encouraging findings was that the recovered alginate retained useful functional properties,” added Aravind Kumar Bingi, first author of the study and a doctoral candidate in Rao’s lab. “That suggests this biomass may have value beyond cleanup and disposal.”

Addressing safety and functionality

Pelagic sargassum is not suitable for direct human consumption due to its high salt content, fibrous structure and potential accumulation of heavy metals. However, the FSU-led team found that selective extraction and purification can isolate alginate while removing much of the unwanted material.

Crucially, the study showed that alginate derived from pelagic sargassum retains strong functional performance, comparable to that of commercially available alginates already used in food systems. Advanced analytical techniques confirmed that the alginate’s chemical backbone remains intact, meaning functional differences are driven by physical structure rather than chemical alteration.

Looking ahead

The research team emphasizes that more work is needed before large-scale adoption, including performance testing in real food systems and continued monitoring of batch-to-batch safety. Still, the findings represent a critical step toward changing how pelagic sargassum is viewed — from an expensive nuisance to a renewable resource with real-world applications.

“Our long-term goal is to help turn an environmental burden into a safe, sustainable and value-added resource,” Rao said. “If pelagic sargassum can be responsibly processed into functional ingredients, it could create new opportunities for food innovation while also supporting more sustainable approaches to managing coastal biomass.”

With forecasts pointing to yet another record-breaking sargassum season, such solutions are becoming increasingly urgent.

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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The model combines real-time and historical data to predict outbreaks and protect public health

Every summer, beach closures disrupt families, harm local businesses and raise public health alarms. Most of the time, the warning comes after it is already too late.

A new artificial intelligence framework developed at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering aims to change that by alerting water managers to E. coli contamination risk before anyone falls sick.

Researchers led by Assistant Professor Nasrin Alamdari developed an AI-powered predictive modeling framework that uses environmental and hydrometeorological data to provide early warnings of Escherichia coli (E. coli) contamination in recreational waterways, giving communities a window to act before health risks emerge.

Their model, which was published in Water Research, identified unsafe conditions with approximately 85% accuracy, demonstrating its potential to offer earlier warnings before levels reach unsafe thresholds.

“Beach closures often occur because we detect contamination after water conditions have already become unsafe,” said Alamdari, a researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Resilient Infrastructure and Disaster Response (RIDER) Center. “Our goal is to move from a reactive approach to a predictive one, leveraging continuous environmental data, including rainfall, river flow, turbidity, temperature and upstream conditions, to estimate E. coli levels in near real time and up to a day in advance.”

How it works

Traditional water quality monitoring relies on manual sampling followed by laboratory analysis, a process that takes 18 to 24 hours to yield results. By the time a beach or river is closed, swimmers may have already been exposed to dangerous levels of contamination.

The framework developed by researchers uses current and historical environmental data to estimate contamination risk without waiting for lab results. Inputs include upstream hydrologic conditions, streamflow rates, rainfall totals, turbidity readings and water temperature. By combining these variables, the model can flag elevated E. coli risk with 24 hours advance warning.

A 2023 sewage spill that occurred after a malfunction at the Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility illustrates exactly the kind of scenario the model is built to address.

“The 2023 Big Creek sewage spill is an example of how a sudden treatment failure can rapidly contaminate downstream recreational waters,” said Ali Salou Moumouni, a graduate researcher on the project. “Our predictive models use current and past environmental and hydrometeorological data to estimate contamination risk before lab results arrive. By factoring in upstream hydrologic conditions, our model provides earlier warnings and more targeted monitoring, improving preparedness during sudden contamination events.”

Why it matters: Human health impacts and economic costs

E. coli contamination in recreational waterways can infect people swimming there, causing gastrointestinal distress, nausea or fatigue. Vulnerable populations, such as the very young or old, are at greater risk.

The consequences of delayed contamination alerts extend beyond public health. When closures happen unexpectedly, hotels, outfitters and water recreation businesses lose revenue with little warning. Municipalities absorb higher costs from emergency public notifications and increased health incident response.

“Delays expose the public to greater health risks and increase medical expenses from waterborne illness,” Alamdari said. “Local economies that depend on recreation and tourism suffer revenue losses when visitors cancel trips or avoid affected areas, while municipalities incur higher operational costs for water testing and emergency response. Repeated advisories can also erode public trust, leading to longer-term declines in visitation and further economic loss.”

Proactive alerts, by contrast, give businesses and government agencies advance notice, reduce unnecessary closures and help communities protect both public health and economic stability. By shifting from reactive to predictive monitoring, communities can better protect public health while reducing unnecessary closures and improving economic resilience.

Risk factors

The study also documents how land use changes intensify contamination. Between 2007 and 2023, urbanization in the study area increased impervious cover from 24% to 28%, altering runoff pathways, leading to more polluted runoff and higher and more variable E. coli levels in streams.

As precipitation patterns grow less predictable, even moderate rainfall events carry elevated contamination risk in urbanized watersheds. The model accounts for rainfall history, streamflow and watershed wetness indicators to improve prediction during those in-between conditions that traditional models often miss.

“Our findings show that every development decision influences water quality and public health, highlighting the need for green infrastructure,” said Imtiaz Syed Usama, a graduate researcher on the team.

Storms compound the problem. E. coli levels can spike within hours of heavy rainfall, but traditional lab testing is too slow to catch those surges before people enter the water.

“Our model flips the script: by combining rainfall, streamflow, turbidity and other hydrometeorological data, it helps predict E. coli risk in near real time and up to a day ahead, including during extreme weather,” said Nasr Azadani Mitra, a graduate researcher at RIDER. “Communities without routine lab testing can still issue early warnings and protect public health.”

This research was supported by grants from Florida State University.

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FAMU-FSU College of Engineering researchers contribute to landmark study demonstrating ultra-low noise levels in innovative qubit platform

Florida State University and FAMU-FSU College of Engineering faculty members Wei Guo and Xianjing Zhou are part of a multi-institution research team whose latest findings advance one of the most promising platforms in quantum computing.

A new qubit, the fundamental building block of quantum information processing, invented at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory exhibits noise levels thousands of times lower than those of most traditional qubits. The study was published in Nature Electronics.

Noise refers to disturbances in the environment that diminish a qubit’s performance. The platform is built by trapping single electrons on the surface of frozen neon gas, and the recent findings position it as a strong contender in the field of high-performance quantum technologies.

The new study was jointly led by Argonne and the University of Notre Dame. Faculty at Florida State University, the University of Chicago, Harvard University and Northeastern University collaborated on the research.

“One of the biggest obstacles in quantum computing is finding a material environment that is quiet enough for qubits to survive, yet practical enough for building larger systems,” said Guo, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. “This study shows that solid neon offers a very compelling combination of cleanliness, stability and resilience. That is exactly the kind of foundation we need if we want quantum hardware to become more robust and scalable.”

Quantum computing: Potentially transformative, but challenged by noise

Today’s computers and smartphones run on bits, which are tiny switches that can be either 0 or 1. Quantum computers use a special kind of bit known as qubits that can be 0 and 1 at the same time. What’s more, the state of one qubit can instantly affect another qubit’s state, even if they are on opposite sides of the planet.

The remarkable properties of qubits can endow quantum computers with exponentially greater computational power than that of classical computers. This opens the door to solving challenging problems like inventing disease-curing drugs, advancing materials design, enabling secure communication and optimizing complex supply chains.

Yet quantum computers are still an emerging technology. Qubits are extremely sensitive to noise — tiny disturbances in the environment such as electromagnetic fields, heat and particle vibrations. As a result, qubits tend to have short coherence times, meaning they can only retain information for a fraction of a second.

Most of today’s chip-based qubits are made of semiconducting or superconducting materials. But these qubits are often challenged by noise from material defects, embedded charges and fabrication variability. The electron-on-neon qubit has the potential to address these limitations.

Solid neon is less noisy

In 2022, Argonne scientists at the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility, invented a fundamentally new type of qubit made by freezing neon gas into a solid and spraying electrons from a light bulb filament onto the solid. A special electrode traps a single electron just above the neon’s surface. The electron serves as the qubit, with the electron’s motion in space representing the qubit’s 0 and 1 states.

In this platform, electrons reside in a vacuum just above the neon surface rather than deep inside a conventional solid, which means they are naturally less exposed to the defects and fluctuating environments that often limit qubit performance in other solid-state platforms. Earlier studies had already shown that electrons on solid neon could function as qubits and achieve remarkably strong coherence under highly protected conditions. This new work takes an important next step by showing that the platform remains quiet and functional under less ideal conditions more relevant to future quantum hardware.

Testing for resilience

The study evaluated the platform’s quietness with a systematic noise characterization. Rather than testing the device only under its most protected operating condition, the team examined how the qubit behaved away from the charge-insensitive “sweet spot” and at elevated temperatures, where environmental disturbances become more consequential, allowing researchers to probe the practical resilience of the platform under realistic operating conditions.

The study team found that the noise in the neon qubit platform is 10 to 10,000 times lower than that in most semiconducting qubits and rivals the lowest semiconductor noise records. The researchers also found that the qubits can maintain coherence times above 1 microsecond at temperatures up to 400 millikelvins, a noteworthy result because quantum devices generally become more vulnerable to decoherence as temperature rises.

“Our work shows that solid neon is not only an exceptionally clean host for trapped-electron qubits, but also a surprisingly robust one,” said Xianjing Zhou, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and a corresponding author of the paper. “That is exciting because reducing noise and relaxing temperature constraints are both essential for pushing quantum devices beyond carefully protected laboratory demonstrations toward more realistic technologies.”

That temperature robustness could prove especially valuable for scaling. Quantum processors typically operate at extremely low temperatures, where cooling power is limited and system engineering becomes increasingly difficult. A qubit platform that remains coherent at higher temperatures could ease one of the major bottlenecks in building larger and more practical quantum systems.

“By carefully characterizing the noise seen by the qubit, we can begin to understand why this platform performs so well and where further improvements can be made,” said Xu Han, scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and co-corresponding author of the study. “That insight is important as we work toward more advanced trapped-electron quantum devices.”

A growing quantum hub in Tallahassee

Guo’s and Zhou’s contributions to this research reflect a broader and growing investment in quantum science taking shape at FSU.

Florida State University’s Quantum Initiative aims to advance quantum science and engineering and accelerate the development of technologies that could reshape computing, communication, sensing and understanding of the physical world. The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, in partnership with Florida A&M University, is establishing the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering.

Together, these institutional investments are helping build a strong regional ecosystem for quantum research and education, creating opportunities for students to engage in cutting-edge research, deepen their technical expertise and prepare for careers in the rapidly growing quantum workforce.

The study’s authors included Xu Han and Yizhong Huang at Argonne, and Xinhao Li, who was at Argonne when this research was conducted; Yutian Wen and Dafei Jin at the University of Notre Dame; Christopher S. Wang and Brennan Dizdar at the University of Chicago; Wei Guo and Xianjing Zhou at FSU and the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering; and Xufeng Zhang at Northeastern University.

The research was supported by DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Argonne’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, Julian Schwinger Foundation for Physics Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program, and the France and Chicago Collaborating in the Sciences program. Guo’s research was additionally supported by an NSF grant through Florida A&M University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant through Florida State University.

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For as long as he can remember, Florida State University sophomore and Presidential Scholar James “LJ” Dunphy has had a fascination with weather and a knack for data-driven science. Now, those interests have led him to be named a recipient of one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) most competitive awards.

Dunphy, a meteorology and applied mathematics major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Tampa, Florida, has been selected as a recipient of the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship. His research strives to make machine learning-based weather forecasts more accurate and less computationally demanding.

“What we’re looking at is trying to reduce those input parameters so we can save time and compute, while actually increasing forecast accuracy,” Dunphy said. “If we can just get a little bit more accurate forecast, we can have more accurate evacuation orders and better prepare the public for scenarios like hurricanes and tornadoes.”

The Hollings Scholarship Program provides awards up to $9,500 a year in financial assistance for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time paid internship at a NOAA facility during the award’s second-year summer.

“LJ has been developing next-generation algorithms for AI-based weather models. I have never encountered a sophomore with such a high level of self-motivation and research talent,” said Zhaohua Wu, professor of meteorology and Dunphy’s research mentor. “Some of his results even surpass those reported in recent papers. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him.”

Dunphy’s interest in meteorology was shaped by experiences with severe weather in Florida and beyond.

“Weather, being from Tampa, has always impacted me,” he said. “Hurricanes are kind of the first thing that come to mind and they impact us up here in Tallahassee, too. This is something I’ve always been surrounded by, and something I’ve always been interested in.”

His double major allows him to combine physical science with advanced computation, as machine learning becomes increasingly important in weather forecasting.

“[NOAA’s]  mission of protecting life and property has been a very important part of protecting my community. To be able to have the opportunity to give back is just something I’m really, really grateful for.”

– LJ Dunphy, FSU student and Hollings Scholarship recipient

“What I specifically want to go into in meteorology is the modeling part and forecasting,” Dunphy said. “My applied math major really, really helps with that, with understanding all the algorithms that go into it. So, it gives you the physical understanding from meteorology and the technical computational side from applied math.”

Dunphy applied for the Hollings Scholarship after encouragement from D. Craig Filar, associate dean of Honors, Scholars, and Fellows and director of FSU’s Presidential Scholars Program.

“When we invited LJ to be a part of the Presidential Scholars program, we knew he would do incredibly high caliber work in meteorology,” Filar said. “His recognition as a Hollings Scholar demonstrates his capacity for impactful and innovative work in the field of meteorology, and it speaks to his strong character to want to connect predictive modeling with improved notifications to protect communities. LJ will utilize this opportunity to expand his learning and experience in a manner that will serve his field well; I am incredibly proud of LJ for his recognition with the Hollings Scholarship program.”

As part of the scholarship, Dunphy will complete a 10-week NOAA paid internship next summer after his junior year and provide him with the opportunity to work at nearly any NOAA office nationwide.

“NOAA has always been a big part of my life,” Dunphy said. “Their mission of protecting life and property has been a very important part of protecting my community. To be able to have the opportunity to give back is just something I’m really, really grateful for.”

Dunphy recognized the role FSU’s academic environment and research opportunities played in helping him reach this milestone.

“All the resources that FSU has given me have been really, really immensely helpful,” he said, crediting the Presidential Scholars Program, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) and mentorship from faculty in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

Looking forward, Dunphy urges fellow students to aim high and take chances, even if those opportunities seem out of reach.

“The only reason I got to where I am now is just because I put myself out there,” he said. “You’d be really surprised where your abilities take you, especially when you’re really passionate about something. The worst they can say is no.”

For more information about scholarships and fellowships, visit FSU’s Office of National Fellowships.

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Florida State University researchers have discovered how to accurately predict winter weather forecasts months in advance, affording sectors such as agriculture, water management, energy use and public health a longer lead time to prepare for inclement conditions.

The research, which was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, shows a method for forecasting how the stratospheric polar vortex, or SPV, will behave from winter through summer, before winter even starts.

The polar vortex is a band of strong wind that circles the polar regions during wintertime, acting as a barrier that helps keep bitter Arctic air locked near the polar region. Although SPV activity is known to strongly influence winter weather, scientists have struggled to predict its behavior more than two weeks into the immediate future.

“This work shows that a large portion of subseasonal-to-seasonal variability is not random but embedded in the annual evolution of the climate system,” said co-author Ming Cai, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science.

Current SPV forecasts rely on real-time data, and by turning to the past to accurately predict the future, the research suggests that unusual or extreme weather events are less random than scientists previously believed.

“When the SPV is strong, that cold air tends to stay in the Arctic. When it is weak, cold air is more likely to spill southward into North America and Eurasia,” said Michael Secor, a recent doctoral graduate in meteorology from FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science who led the study. “The further in advance we can accurately predict the vortex, the further in advance we can help people and organizations prepare for weather conditions that affect agriculture, water management, energy use and public health.”

A crucial input for weather

As spring warms the U.S. each year, the Northern Hemisphere’s SPV dissipates, and a new vortex develops around the South Pole. While active, SPV can vary dramatically in strength and shape, influencing global weather events such as Tallahassee’s record-breaking snowfall in January 2025.

Generally, SPV forecasts are constructed by analyzing its day-to-day evolution over a few weeks or average strength during a given month. While effective in the short term, this method loses its accuracy when looking more than two weeks into the future. To overcome this obstacle, Secor stepped back to examine the problem from a different angle.

“Rather than trying to forecast the day-to-day evolution of the vortex, we start with the idea that its broader behavior over the course of the year may be more predictable,” Secor said. “We then use climate patterns such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, a temperature-based, recurring pattern in the Pacific Ocean known to influence the vortex, to predict those parameters in advance of winter. From there, we can work backward to reconstruct how the vortex will behave day to day, with an accuracy exceeding the current forecasting systems used by weather agencies.”

In addition to enhancing the precision of winter weather forecasting, Secor’s approach may also improve predictions of related climate phenomena with strong yearly cycles, including ENSO, which has a warm phase called El Niño and cold phase called La Niña. El Niño brings cold, rainy weather to the southern U.S. and suppresses Atlantic hurricane activity while spurring warm, dry conditions in the northern states. La Niña generates opposite effects.

Capstone work

The research was also selected for an Editors’ Highlight, a rare distinction bestowed upon fewer than 2 percent of all papers published under the American Geophysical Union’s umbrella of journals.

“Michael’s dissertation research, which represents a significant contribution for someone at this stage of his career, reflects not only his technical expertise but also the ability to rethink a long-standing problem from a fundamentally different perspective,” Cai said.

For Secor, the recognition represents the culmination of years of studying meteorology and working to advance science.

“Publishing my dissertation work feels like reaching an important milestone in a journey that began with a fascination with weather at a young age,” Secor said. “It has made me reflect on how fortunate I have been to not only have this opportunity, but also to have people in my life who encouraged my scientific interest both early on and through my doctoral studies.”

EOAS research faculty Jie Sun was also a co-author of this study.

To learn more about research conducted in FSU’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, visit eoas.fsu.edu.

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A Florida State University anthropologist is part of a team that has found that ancient migration routes used by Indigenous peoples are relevant to today’s policy and planning surrounding coastal living in rapidly changing environments. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability in the study “Climate-driven depopulation and adaptation realities in America’s coastal ground zero.”

The research team, including Jayur Mehta, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, sought to generate frameworks about how to live in ecologically dynamic landscapes like coastal Louisiana, and how to manage relocation from these areas, as life-threatening issues like sea-level rise and extreme weather events increase erosion of the land.

“While we’re looking at one specific delta region, this publication offers a big picture perspective of the issues coastal communities face,” said Mehta, who specializes in the archaeological study of human-environment relationships and also serves as the anthropology undergraduate program director. “Coastal Louisiana is one of the lowest-lying regions in the world because much of the land is a river delta formed by tons of sediments deposited by the Mississippi River over 7,000 years. Due to rising sea levels and the absence of bedrock, the land — a massive wedge of sediment — is just sinking into the Gulf.”

The team, led by Vokes Geology Professor Torbjörn Törnqvist of Tulane University in New Orleans, also includes sociology, architecture and marine science researchers from Tulane, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, nearly 40% of the world’s population lives less than 100 miles from a coast. Additionally, coastal counties in the U.S. are home to 40% of the nation’s population, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Researchers like Mehta use this legacy of coastal living, spanning approximately 5,000 years in this delta region, to help inform present-day and future thinking on adapting to ecologically dynamic environments to mediate coastal hazards for those living there.

In analyzing pre-contact settlement patterns of the Mississippi River Delta, archaeological evidence shows that migration was an adaptive response to the changing environment as shorelines receded and landscapes changed across generations.

“The way that present-day communities live in these coastal settings is driven by our contemporary way of life, including where infrastructure is placed and what architecture and engineering codes are in place for buildings and living spaces,” Mehta said. “Adapting to the changing environment of coastal areas starts by recognizing that there are other ways that people live, and have lived, in coastal settings that we might consider unorthodox. Some of those ideas might hold solutions to our problems, and this archaeological perspective shows us that it’s possible to live in an ecologically dynamic environment even spanning long periods of time, as long as there’s an awareness of mobility and migration when necessary.”

Migration is already happening in coastal Louisiana, largely due to climate-driven population loss and disaster-driven displacement, such as the New Orleans population being halved in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. These events, according to the researchers, often exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities that continue to push populations to leave, including poverty and rising costs of housing and insurance. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, New Orleans’ population has decreased by about 20,000 in the past six years alone.

“The archaeological record provides unique insights into how humans lived in highly dynamic, rapidly changing landscapes in the past,” Törnqvist said. “Given the size of the Mississippi River Delta, it’s plausible that Native American communities moved their villages over distances as large as 50-100 kilometers to relocate from portions experiencing land loss to areas that enjoyed land gain. What matters here is the mindset of these Indigenous peoples and their nimbleness with respect to life in a rapidly changing environment — this is something we need to rediscover.”

While profound differences exist between pre-contact Native American societies and present-day coastal communities, including extensive, permanent infrastructure and technological adaptations to life in a floodplain, researchers argue that investigating ancient patterns of migration is a crucial first step in adapting for understanding resilience and long-term adaptation strategies on a rapidly evolving coast.

“We need to make some big decisions about where and how we live on coasts as environments continue changing, and Jayur’s work is that rare combination of impactful on a local level and to the larger global issues facing us,” said Mark D. McCoy, Department of Anthropology chair. “This research provides an evidence-based reconstruction of the decisions our ancestors made, and what the consequences of those decisions were, so we can go into this massive problem armed with all the information we can muster.”

To learn more about Mehta’s work and research conducted in the Department of Anthropology, visit anthro.fsu.edu.

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At high speeds, even the smallest movement can have major consequences.

When an aircraft tilts sharply during flight, the air around it does not flow smoothly. It twists into powerful, swirling currents that can destabilize the entire vehicle. These swirling structures, known as vortices, can behave unpredictably, sometimes causing aircraft to pull to one side or rotate unexpectedly. In extreme cases, they can damage critical components such as sensors or wing flaps.

New FAMU-FSU College of Engineering research shows how different angles of flight affect the vortices that form behind cones in flight. The research, published in Journal of Aircraft, could help design more stable missiles and high-speed aircraft.

“Aircraft in flight are subject to extreme forces, and as speed and maneuvering increase, these forces only get stronger,” said study co-author Rajan Kumar, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and director of the Florida Center for Advanced Aero-Propulsion. “This study helps to understand critical phenomena responsible for those forces so engineers can create efficient and more stable designs.”

How it works

Vortices are common, but under certain conditions, they can become catastrophic.

As the cone-shaped nose of an aircraft moves through the air, vortices form behind it. As the aircraft increases its angle of incidence, or how steeply it is tilted relative to airflow, the behavior of these vortices changes. At low angles, airflow remains balanced and predictable. Beyond a critical angle, however, vortices can become large and unstable. When this breakdown happens, air slows down sharply and may spread out into different patterns.

This shift creates uneven swirling flows, or asymmetric vortices, that generate unwanted side and rotational forces, causing the aircraft to veer off course. In high-stakes environments, particularly military operations, even a slight deviation can mean missing a target or losing control entirely.

What they found

To better understand the transition from stable to asymmetric vortices, Kumar’s team combined experimental testing with advanced computational simulations to model complex airflow and identify when and how instability develops.

Using this method, they simulated airflow over a cone-shaped object traveling just above the speed of sound at Mach 1.1 at three angles of incidence: 15, 25, and 30 degrees.

At a 15‑degree angle, the main swirl of air breaks down into a complex pattern resembling two intertwined spirals, which then split into many thin, tangled strands of swirling air.

At 25 and 30 degrees, the breakdown looks different. The swirl twists apart in a single spiral pattern, indicating even stronger instability.

As the angle of incidence increased, vortex asymmetry also increased. Airflow shifted from structured and predictable to unstable and erratic, illustrating how quickly control conditions can deteriorate in real-world flight.

Vortex breakdown

The study helps answer a long-standing question in aerospace research: Why do vortices suddenly become asymmetric?

The study showed that growing instabilities within airflow unite to create larger disruptions. As small secondary vortices form and interact with primary vortices, they merge into larger structures that disrupt the aircraft’s balance.

The research also showed that vortex behavior depends on several interacting factors, including the size of the vortices and their orientation relative to the aircraft. Together, these elements determine how much force is exerted on the vehicle and how difficult it becomes to control.

Why it matters: The future of flight

Understanding the forces at work on aircraft in flight has direct implications for how they are designed and operated. These findings help engineers define safe flight conditions by identifying when airflow remains stable and when additional control systems are needed. This is especially important for high-performance aircraft that rely on extreme maneuverability.

The research also supports new design strategies, including improved control surfaces, flow control techniques and future systems that could adjust automatically during flight.

Kumar and his team are expanding their research to explore vortex behavior at higher speeds and they are transonic investigating control methods that could allow aircraft to respond to instability in real time, potentially using advances in artificial intelligence and automated systems.

At Florida State University, this work is also shaping the next generation of engineers. Students involved in this research go on to careers in industry, government labs and defense agencies.

“Research outcomes matter, but our most important product is our students. They are the future of engineering and science,” Kumar said.

Doctoral student Jordan Wilkerson and Associate Professor Unnikrishnan Sasidharan Nair were co-authors on this study. This research was supported by the Army Research Office.

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As rain falls, lurking within stormwater runoff are hidden microplastics, polluting the water sources they drain into. Even though microplastics originate in urban environments such as cities, existing data sets focus on marine and coastal areas. Without data sources on microplastics in cities, scientists are unable to develop models for predicting stormwater runoff that deal with this pollution.

In a multi-institutional study featuring the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, researchers compiled numerous data sources to develop the Dataset of Urban RUnoff Microplastics (DURUM), a standardized data set compiling research on microplastics in urban stormwater from around the globe. The research, which was published in Scientific Data, enables comparisons across studies and supports drainage infrastructure, urban planning and environmental policy and regulation.

“Plastic pollution creates issues in the environment and human health. To protect ourselves and the world around us, we need to be able to predict the conditions under which microplastics spread and pollute our water,” said study co-author Assistant Professor Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf. “This was not possible until now. We synthesized several different sources to create a standardized data set, DURUM, which will have global impacts.”

How it works

When it rains, stormwater runoff systems quickly drain excess water from streets, protecting buildings and their occupants. Stormwater systems also help filter pollution before it reaches rivers, lakes and oceans.

In the study, the researchers created a global, standardized data set of microplastics in urban runoff, combining information from 180 sampling procedures from 15 countries to create a centralized hub of information on microplastics.

Each entry includes information such as where samples were taken, what microplastics were found in samples, microplastic concentration and more. This study aims to fill the large gap in urban stormwater runoff modeling, which will help in designing reliable stormwater systems to reduce microplastic pollution impacts.

“There are already global data sets on microplastics in marine environments, but our study dives into a completely new area,” Ahmadisharaf said. “Urban areas are unique because they have high populations and high plastic consumption. With our current technology, we cannot quickly and reliably detect these high microplastic concentrations. We need to develop new models and validate them with adequate observed data to predict microplastics in urban stormwater runoff.”

Why it matters

Microplastics are everywhere, and cities are a major source. Wear from tires and plastic accumulation from littering release these tiny fragments into the environment. Effective drainage infrastructure can help prevent microplastic pollution.

By helping scientists understand how microplastics move through urban stormwater systems, DURUM can inform the design of drainage infrastructure and mitigation strategies that more effectively reduce microplastic pollution.

“Right now, there are no established water quality regulations addressing plastics,” Ahmadisharaf said. “As such regulations are developed, it will be essential to identify and understand the sources of microplastics and the pathways through which they are transported into water bodies. This will help us design mitigation and prevention infrastructure to limit export of plastic to water bodies. The data we compiled supports the models that will inform these crucial decisions.”

Future directions

The DURUM system is similar to a map that shows how pollution spreads, guiding researchers to new conclusions for developing improved urban stormwater transport systems.

The data set is public domain, so researchers all over the globe can access it. Ahmadisharaf and colleagues plan to update DURUM as more data is discovered, enhancing it to support modeling research.

“This data set enables new capabilities for validating predictive models. With DURUM, we can be more confident about what our models predict,” Ahmadisharaf said. “It also creates a new understanding of the key drivers of microplastics in urban stormwater runoff and could lead to new insight as we continue to update the data set.”

Acknowledgements

FSU doctoral student Abdul Mobin Ibna Hafiz in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was the lead author of this work. FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Assistant Professor Jeffrey Farner was a co-author of the study. Researchers from the University of Missouri, Wageningen University, the University of Exeter, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, Tsinghua University and Tulane University contributed to this study.

The FSU team’s research was supported by research grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

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Student entrepreneurs from across Florida State University gathered at the Innovation Hub last week to pitch business ventures in the Student Innovators’ Shark Tank competition.

Hosted and sponsored by the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship, the competition challenged students to move beyond classroom theory into a startup environment. Participants competed for a $1,000 grand prize to help launch their ventures.

“The JMC Shark Tank offers students a hands-on opportunity to experience what it’s really like to pitch in front of real entrepreneurs and successful business owners,” said May Jingyan Wang, student engagement program coordinator for the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. “These students are learning how to communicate under pressure, respond to feedback and adapt their strategies in real time, building a level of professional confidence that sharpens their skills regardless of their major.”

Participants delivered a three-minute pitch followed by a five-minute Q&A session with local business owners and entrepreneurs. The judges evaluated each venture based on originality, strength of its value proposition and potential for market success.

“Applying what I’m learning in the classroom to real-world projects allows me to see my efforts come to life while building the confidence I need to be ready for my career.” 

—Samir Kanbar, Student Innovators’ Shark Tank participant

The Innovation Hub served as a natural setting for the cross-disciplinary competition.

“The Hub is a unique and central resource for students and faculty from across disciplines to meet and collaborate,” said Ken Baldauf, founding director of the Innovation Hub. “We provide access to emerging technologies and design thinking training that drive innovation for students in every major. We value our close relationship with the Jim Moran College.”

The competition helps students master the art of the elevator pitch while receiving direct feedback from industry professionals. By distilling complex business plans into concise presentations, the event bridges academic study and the practical execution required to launch a company.

A key highlight of this year’s event was the introduction of a virtual investment model. Each member of the judging panel was allocated $100,000 in virtual capital, creating a total pool of $500,000 to “invest” in student-led startups. This simulated venture fundraising environment mirrored real-world capital rounds, with the student securing the highest total investment declared the overall winner.

This year’s winner was Larry Harper, a senior pursuing his undergraduate degree in History. His venture, Chapter, integrates AI and traditional tools to improve student engagement and deliver actionable performance data to universities.

“The Shark Tank is one of the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship’s most valuable initiatives,” Harper said. “Not only does it provide a space for students to socialize and hear other businesses, but it has proven to be the single most important way for students to pitch their ideas, come back again and again, becoming better each time.”

This year’s panel of “Sharks” included Rich Smith, director of Small Business Innovation for Florida Commerce; Tangela Lofton, regional director of the Florida Small Business Development Center; Lonna Peterson, former IT and operations executive; Robert Blacklidge, serial entrepreneur; and Ahmed Negm, Innovation Hub faculty member.

The Student Innovators’ Shark Tank is a signature initiative of the InNOLEvation® Center for Student Engagement, which provides resources and platforms for all FSU students to explore entrepreneurship.

“Competing against such talented and advanced startups at FSU was a blast, and I’m thankful to have been part of it,” said Samir Kanbar, a student majoring in computer science. “Applying what I’m learning in the classroom to real-world projects allows me to see my efforts come to life while building the confidence I need to be ready for my career.”

Through the collaboration of the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship and the Innovation Hub, FSU continues to support student-led innovation and economic development.

Visit the Innovation Hub and Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship websites for more information.

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