Florida State University student Sebastian Ruiz has been selected by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for its competitive Cech Fellows Program, a nine-week undergraduate research experience taking place this summer.

A rising FSU senior majoring in statistics with a focus on psychology, Ruiz was chosen for the inaugural Cech Fellows cohort of 176 undergraduate students from 109 institutions across 36 states and territories. Students are paired with scientists in HHMI labs and participate in a research symposium at the Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.

“Representing FSU in the first Cech Fellows class to me is both an honor and a responsibility because now I am representing FSU on the global neuroscience research stage,” said Ruiz, a transfer student from West Palm Beach. “It also shows a sense of confidence on behalf of Janelia in the level of preparation that FSU is providing me with in my coursework.”

The summer program at Janelia’s campus, 30 miles outside Washington, D.C., helps students contribute to scientific discovery, receive professional mentorship and learn about biomedical research careers. Students work alongside HHMI scientists who are actively engaged in biology and health research.

Ruiz will work in Janelia’s Turaga Lab studying how artificial intelligence can improve our understanding of neural networks. He will create a digital model of a fruit fly’s brain and will study how the brain responds when certain behaviors are performed. Ruiz hopes this research done on fruit flies will lay a foundation for large-scale human brain studies.

“Sebastian is a remarkable leader: independent, driven and with a clear vision,” said Carmen Varela, who has served as a faculty advisor and mentor to Ruiz. “Seeing him receive recognition through the HHMI Cech Fellows Program is incredibly rewarding and entirely deserved.”

“Representing FSU in the first Cech Fellows class to me is both an honor and a responsibility because now I am representing FSU on the global neuroscience research stage.”

– Sebastian Ruiz, FSU senior and HHMI Cech Fellows

Ruiz was also one of four FSU students selected this year for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. The national honor recognizes outstanding sophomores and juniors pursuing research careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.

During his time at FSU, Ruiz has spent the past year as a research assistant at Brown University’s Carney Institute for Brain Science, studying sensory noise degradation and the presentation of psychiatric illness following an earlier summer internship.

In 2025, he participated in Carnegie Mellon University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Computational Brain Science, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Ruiz later continued his work at Carnegie Mellon as a research assistant in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior while continuing his studies at FSU.

At FSU, Ruiz founded the registered student organization CompNeuroSociety, a campus group that connects undergraduate students interested in computational neuroscience through interactive workshops, journal clubs and collaborative projects. The group helps students build confidence in the field and engage in discussions about computational neuroscience.

The Cech Fellows Program is named in honor of Thomas R. Cech, a former president of HHMI. Cech discovered that RNA can function as a biological catalyst, which reshaped molecular biology and earned him the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Cech established the Janelia campus and expanded educational opportunities for undergraduate students.

Founded in 1953, HHMI supports scientists at all stages of their careers and partners with more than 50 institutions nationwide.

For more information about applying for the Cech Fellows Program and other competitive national scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate students, visit FSU’s Office of National Fellowships website.

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Biological science student and Presidential Scholar William Dhana researches several cellular biological processes related to the mitigation and understanding of cancerous compounds.

His research on these compounds in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) inspired him to take his work and elevate it as a research fellow for the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology and the National Cancer Institute.

Dhana wants to explore the interdisciplinary cross-section between medicine and cellular research to provide new insights on cancer prevention in the community.

At FSU, he combines his academics with service as a crew lead on the FSU Medical Response Unit (MRU). His unit provides a safety net on the FSU campus in case of medical emergencies, broadening his knowledge of medicine.

Why did you choose FSU?

When I interviewed for the Presidential Scholars Program, I immediately connected with the group of students I met, even before I knew whether I had received the scholarship. With hundreds of student organizations, FSU creates an environment where anyone can find a niche and continue growing. 

Even in my final semester, I have continued to explore new communities. Becoming a Presidential Scholar only deepened that sense of belonging, and I have been incredibly grateful to be part of so many meaningful groups during my time at FSU. 

What academic achievements are you most proud of?

During my time at FSU, I have had the opportunity to grow both as a researcher and as an advocate for undergraduate research. My journey began at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Tang Lab through the UROP. There, I worked on a project using specialized bacteria that mitigate cancerous chemical compounds in groundwater, which introduced me to experimental design and wet lab research. 

Building on that foundation, I was accepted into the U.S. National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. This program led to a publication titled “PanIN or IPMN?,” which explored the use of artificial intelligence to classify early-stage pancreatic cancer. 

The following summer, I continued my research at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, where I studied a cell transporter that affects how well cancer drugs can reach the brain. 

None of these opportunities would have been possible without my introduction to research at FSU, and they have shaped my long-term goal of integrating scientific research with medicine. 

How do you serve the FSU community?

Outside of the classroom, I focused heavily on leadership and service through both emergency response and student advocacy. 

As a crew lead in the MRU, I ensure that team members are well prepared to respond to medical situations on campus while also mentoring newer trainees as they develop their clinical skills. 

As an Honors Colloquium Leader, I foster a supportive academic environment for those transitioning into the university. 

My involvement in Student Government, particularly through the Student Council for Undergraduate Research and Creativity (SCURC) and now the Student Department of Academic Affairs, has allowed me to advocate for students on a broader scale. I worked on initiatives aimed at expanding access to research funding, improving educational affordability and strengthening academic resources. 

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A Florida State University computational scientist is paving the way for future medical breakthroughs by developing mathematical models and simulations to predict the behavior of a unique drug-delivery method, which aims to deploy treatments directly to targeted sites in the body.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Scientific Computing Bryan Quaife is part of a multi-institutional team of engineers, mathematicians and computational scientists who are conducting foundational research essential to the design of a drug-delivery system that could reduce medication side effects while increasing treatment efficacy. Their research expands upon work proposing the use of magnetic particles to guide cell-like drug carriers toward a specific target, like a tumor.

This work, which was published in Physical Review Letters, the American Physical Society’s flagship publication, reveals how tiny particles moving inside microscopic drug carriers can gradually stress and eventually rupture the enclosing membrane. These findings could help engineers design smarter drug delivery systems to protect therapeutic cargo during transport and release it on demand at the desired location.

“Our paper shows how mathematical models and computations can reveal processes that are difficult to measure experimentally,” Quaife said. “We needed to study how magnetic force affects the cell-like membrane that transports a drug to a specific site to prevent it from rupturing inside the body. Many measurements — such as the membrane’s ‘floppiness’ and the amount of magnetic force its internal walls can withstand — can’t be taken at such a small scale. I filled in the gaps by developing computer code that predicts experimental outcomes.”

How it works

Medicines like pills and injections circulate throughout the body, which can dilute potency and lead to side effects. For example, chemotherapy drugs are administered to kill cancer cells, but they often also cause severe exhaustion, nausea, hair loss, increased infection risk and anemia. By transporting drugs directly to the site they’re meant to treat, researchers aim to enhance drug efficiency while alleviating unnecessary strain on the body and potentially reducing debilitating side effects.

Researchers first encapsulate a magnetic particle and cargo, such as a drug molecule, within an artificial cell membrane called a vesicle. In this scenario, the vesicle is like a car, the magnetic particle provides the driving force, and the cargo are the passengers being transported. A magnet field outside the body guides the vesicle to the desired location where a specific stimulus, such as light, deteriorates the vesicle membrane and releases the drug into the body. The technique can be used in cases that benefit from pinpoint accuracy in treatment, such as delivering a drug directly to a tumor or to sites of localized inflammation.

“Beyond biochemical targeting, one targeted drug delivery approach is like a truck pulling a trailer, using a particle or microrobot to move the drug where they want it to go,” said On Shun Pak, a co-author on this work and associate professor of mechanical engineering and applied mathematics at Santa Clara University, California. “However, attaching and manipulating cargo can be challenging at the microscale. We instead employ a microparticle encapsulated within a drug carrier to generate propulsion from the inside, rather than towing it from the outside.”

This magnet-driven method was first explored last year in the journal Nanoscale by a research team including Pak, Yuan-Nan Young, professor of mathematical sciences at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Jie Feng, assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Many aspects of the drug delivery system they conceptualized were too small for scientific instruments to measure without destroying the experiment. Young, who led this subsequent research, connected with Quaife to explore the underlying mechanisms using customized, sophisticated computer codes.

“The particle-driven vesicle configuration is so unique and challenging that it’s impossible to simulate using common commercial software,” Young said. “In the beginning stages, Bryan’s expertise helped us identify magnetic-driven drug delivery as something that’s actually possible. After the code was implemented, we did more analytic calculations to determine how the process can work without rupturing the membrane entirely.”

Why it matters

In addition to medicine, this research could eventually lead to new forms of environmental remediation. By swapping a drug for another type of active agent, the vesicle system could potentially be used to neutralize contaminants in water systems or clean up oil spills, especially in areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means.

“This is highly collaborative work at the intersection of fluid dynamics, soft matter and biophysics,” Quaife said. “Experiments informed decisions we made while developing the code, but when we discovered new things through computation and modeling, we relayed that back to the experimentalists. This allowed us to have a full-circle loop among the experiments, analysis, modeling and computation.”

Additional co-authors on this National Science Foundation-funded work include Hervé Nganguia, associate professor of mathematics at Towson University and Howard Stone, the Neil A. Omenn ’68 University Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University.

Visit the FSU Department of Scientific Computing website to learn more about the department’s research.

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Florida State University’s education and educational research program ranks No. 25 globally, No. 2 among public universities in the United States and No. 1 in Florida in the 2026-27 Best Global Universities rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

Florida State also ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions in psychiatry and psychology (No. 80), social sciences and public health (No. 89) and arts and humanities (No. 92).

The rankings evaluate more than 2,250 universities in more than 100 countries based on academic research performance and global and regional research reputation. The methodology emphasizes factors such as publications, citations and international collaboration.

“These rankings across crucial professions and disciplines reflect the quality of our faculty and the impact of their scholarship,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Jim Clark. “The recognition earned by our education program, along with strong performances in psychology, the social sciences and the humanities, demonstrates the public value proposition of the academic excellence across Florida State University.”

FSU’s performance reflects the university’s continued growth as a leading research institution. The university recorded a record $488 million in research expenditures, a 50 percent increase since 2021, and surpassed $1.2 billion in research funding proposals in 2025.

U.S. News uses data from Clarivate’s Web of Science Core Collection and InCites Benchmarking & Analytics to evaluate universities. The Best Global Universities rankings focus primarily on institutions’ research performance and scholarly impact rather than undergraduate education.

For more information and the complete rankings, visit the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities website.

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Florida State University researchers have identified key differences in the root causes of long-term sea-surface temperature changes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, a finding that could help guide future research on ocean variability.

Research by Assistant Professor of meteorology Michael Diamond and FSU meteorology graduate alumnus Anthony Freveletti found that long-term temperature changes in the Pacific Oceans are driven primarily by internal ocean variability, while those in the Atlantic are largely the result of human emissions.

The study, conducted with Assistant Professor Robert Jnglin Wills from the ETH Zürich Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, was published this spring in Geophysical Research Letters.

“We know that important sources of natural variability in Earth’s climate system exist, and our ability to distinguish between these natural and human-forced sources of temperature variability is key to projecting future temperatures and their related impacts on society,” Diamond said.

Historical temperature swings in the Atlantic Ocean have long been considered one of those natural sources of variability in Earth’s climate.

Long-term shifts between increasing and decreasing Atlantic sea-surface temperatures were typically thought to be driven by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a system of currents in the Atlantic Ocean that’s part of the network of natural ocean currents moving water around the world.

“Our findings contradict this theory, as we found that long-term changes in the Atlantic are more directly related to anthropogenic — human produced — causes such as greenhouse gases and aerosols,” Freveletti said.

While most variability in global oceanic sea-surface temperatures were often thought to be driven by natural causes, the team’s findings suggest that only the oscillations in the Pacific are primarily driven by natural climate processes.

Most people, for example, are familiar with El Niño and La Niña, two opposing climate patterns in the tropical Pacific that occur every two to seven years on average. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which Freveletti and Diamond studied, is a similar climate pattern that fluctuates over much longer periods, typically every 20 to 30 years.

Using the programming language Python for data analysis, the team applied a new statistical method called rotated low-frequency component analysis, or RLFCA, to climate model datasets from 1920 through 2025. RLFCA is an adaptation of a low-frequency component analysis method previously developed by Wills that identifies and extracts patterns of temperature change based on how quickly they evolve over time.

“Since human emissions build up in the atmosphere over many years, the temperature changes they cause develop gradually over time,” Freveletti said. “In contrast, natural fluctuations driven by factors such as ocean currents, wind patterns and air pressure occur more rapidly. Our analysis effectively separates these forced and unforced changes within those data trends by identifying which patterns are fast-evolving and which are slow-evolving.”

Freveletti expanded upon this method by adding a “rotational” step that reorganizes identified patterns with known external influences, calculated by climate models, helping distinguish the causes of temperature variability.

The team found that what looked like natural variability in the Atlantic Ocean was actually an overlap between air pollution and aerosols shading and cooling the sea surface and greenhouse gas emissions warming the entire globe.

“Our results show a complex interplay of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is responsible for historical temperature patterns in the Atlantic Ocean that led to various weather phenomena, such as a spike in hurricane frequency since 1990,” Diamond said. “We should not expect to return to an inactive hurricane era by chance alone; the future of human emissions will be the most important driver of Atlantic temperatures going forward.”

While natural climate patterns like El Niño and La Niña can affect weather, ecosystems and economies through variability in rainfall, temperature and storm activity, their effects are temporary. Greenhouse gas emissions, by contrast, accumulate over time and have longer-lasting impacts. The researchers said their findings could help inform infrastructure planning along the Atlantic coast, including measures to reduce risks to  coastal communities.

Visit the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science website to learn more about FSU research.

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Florida State University physicists are part of a team that has discovered unusual superconducting states in parts of graphene, with the potential to drive unexpected quantum technologies.

Assistant Professor of Physics Cyprian Lewandowski and postdoctoral researcher Phong Võ Tiến are part of an international collaboration that has uncovered new aspects of superconductivity and topology in rhombohedral graphene, a system comprising just a few layers of carbon atoms stacked like the treads of a staircase shape known as chiral stacking. The work was published in Nature Physics.

“The rhombohedral graphene system seems to capture many of the intriguing electronic phenomena that scientists have seen previously in other atomically thin systems, but they were previously not as ideal for technical applications due to the intrinsic complexity of the devices or replicability issues,” Lewandowski said. “In physics, once we identify a generic phenomenon, we try to distill it to its essential form to understand the underlying mechanism. This rhombohedral system allows us to do that. We’ve identified the natural occurrence of this effect and can build upon and optimize it to achieve properties only before seen in more complicated systems.”

Atomically thin flakes of rhombohedral graphene can be isolated from naturally occurring graphite crystals. In this structure, at a low energy, electrons are localized almost exclusively onto specific atoms on the top and bottom surfaces. By contrast, very little charge resides in the bulk of the material.

Congregating a large density of electrons onto the outer surfaces leads to interesting emergent quantum properties, as charges are forced to collectively “make choices” about how they reside on the surfaces while simultaneously repelling each other. The team found that superconductivity emerges directly from this dual-surface configuration, where electron and hole carriers on opposite surfaces conspire to form a superconducting state.

Collaborating on impactful science

FSU was joined in the collaboration by experimentalist teams led by co-principal investigators Matthew Yankowitz, associate professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, and Joshua Folk, professor of physics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Together, the team combined material and structure assembly expertise required to build highly sensitive and optimized electronic devices, measurement expertise to probe ultra-sensitive superconducting states that emerged from them, and theoretical expertise to turn experimental data into a coherent understanding of superconductivity in this novel platform.

“An added complexity of this system is that negative and positive charges coexist,” Yankowitz said.  “On one surface, the charges are electrons and therefore negatively charged. On the other surface, they behave like particles called holes, which are effectively positive. This work is advancing our fundamental understanding of the interplay of strongly correlated and topological phases, which could be an avenue toward the development of future quantum technologies.”

In addition to superconductivity, the team observed a quantum anomalous Hall effect — a topological state in which an electrical current flows without resistance along the edges of the material.

“Cyprian is applying his brilliant theoretical insights to cutting-edge problems in the science of quantum materials,” said Mike Shatruk, director of the FSU Initiative in Quantum Science and Engineering. “If the two phenomena of superconducting behavior and topological states can eventually be made to co-exist, theory predicts appearance of so-called Majorana zero modes, which are candidate building blocks for fault-tolerant quantum computing; they’re inherently protected from local noise and decoherence that destroy quantum information.”

Next-generation quantum devices

One of the team’s guiding goals is to eventually translate the research into the realm of quantum engineering for the development of next-generation devices and detectors. Another significant aspect of the system is that there are two electronic layers of charges separated vertically, a geometry that previously had to be manually constructed. Discovering such material states that occur naturally can lead to exciting new avenues in fundamental physics and potential technological applications.

“In the 20th century, scientists gained a lot of our modern understanding of condensed-matter physics and phase transitions by working with helium, and I would argue that rhombohedral graphene may be serving the same purpose here in teaching us about unique crystalline phases of matter,” said Lewandowski, who utilizes the FSU Research Computing Center and the National Science Foundation-funded, FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in his work.

This research was supported by funding from the U.S. Army Research Office, the U.S. Department of Energy, NSF and FSU. Other contributors include scientists from the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.

Visit the FSU Department of Physics website to learn more about Lewandowski’s work and research. For more details on quantum science and engineering at FSU, visit the FSU Quantum Initiative website.

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Brooke Hagans was drawn to Florida State University because of the university’s support for undergraduate research and academic strength in the biological sciences. Now a biological science major, Hagans is involved with several labs conducting high-level research on animal behavior and marine ecology.

As a 2025 IDEA Grant recipient, she is investigating how parasitic accumulation contributes to physiological stress and energy expenditure in Atlantic stingrays during pregnancy — a project she developed after observing high parasite prevalence while working at the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory. Hagans also works within Professor Emily DuVal’s lab, where she analyzes 26 years of behavioral data to map the social networks and male status dynamics of lance-tailed manakins.

Beyond the laboratory, Hagans supports the FSU and Tallahassee communities by volunteering with the FSU Animal Society and walking dogs for Champs Chance, local organizations that prioritize animal well-being and conservation outreach. After she completes her undergraduate degree, she plans to pursue a doctoral degree at Auburn University in Alabama under the supervision of Professor Geoffrey Hill and become a research professor. 

Why did you choose FSU?

I chose Florida State University because of its strong commitment to fostering academic excellence and hands-on research experiences. FSU’s research opportunities, particularly in the biological sciences, stood out to me. Additionally, FSU’s emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration aligns perfectly with my aspirations to bridge animal behavior with ecological research. 

I was also drawn to FSU’s vibrant community of researchers and the resources available to help students grow both academically and professionally. I knew that this university would provide an ideal environment for me to pursue my academic and career goals. 

What academic achievements are you most proud of?

I initially joined a project under the mentorship of Dean Grubbs, associate director of research at the Coastal and Marine laboratory and doctoral candidate Annais Muschett-Bonilla to investigate the energy expenditure of Atlantic stingrays during gestation. While working on this project, I noticed a high prevalence of parasites in the controlled environment, which sparked my curiosity about how parasites might affect the stingrays’ health and energy use. This led me to apply for the FSU IDEA Grant, where I now study how parasitic accumulation during pregnancy contributes to physiological stress in these rays.

I then joined Professor Emily DuVal’s lab to assist with a project that helps build social networks for each year of a bird called Lance-Tailed Manakins using 26 years of behavioral data. The primary goal of this work was to track and map the interactions between individuals over time, analyzing how social networks evolve within this species. My research focuses on understanding the role of social interactions in male status dynamics. This study represents an initial step toward understanding these relationships, with future research aimed at determining whether the frequency and nature of these interactions influence status changes over time.

How have you served the FSU and Tallahassee communities?

I volunteer with the FSU Animal Society, where I assist with caring for farm animals and other activities. This club has given me the opportunity to directly contribute to animal welfare and support the FSU community in a meaningful way. Through my involvement, I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for hands-on animal care and have been able to share my passion for animals with others.

I also walk dogs for Champs Chance, a local organization dedicated to animal welfare. This experience allows me to contribute to the well-being of animals in need and helps provide dogs with the exercise and socialization they need while awaiting adoption. It’s a rewarding experience that combines my love for animals with community service.

My work has positively contributed to FSU and the Tallahassee communities by combining my academic research with a commitment to animal welfare, conservation and education outreach. Through these efforts, I aim to make a lasting impact both at FSU and in the Tallahassee area.

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Florida State University research published today in Science Advances demonstrates a new framework for predicting the motion of kilometer-scale underwater waves that complicate satellite readings of the ocean.

By accurately modeling these subsurface waves, scientists can remove their interference from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, satellite, improving the satellite’s signal and allowing for observations of the Earth’s ocean circulation that are about 60 percent more accurate.

“SWOT is giving us the clearest view we have ever had of the ocean’s fine-scale circulation, the small eddies and currents that govern how much heat and carbon the ocean draws down from the atmosphere,” said study lead author Yadidya Badarvada, a researcher at FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies who completed the work at FSU and while a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. “But those measurements have been partially obscured by internal tides, which mimic the very features we are trying to observe. What this work shows is that the interference we assumed was too chaotic to fix is actually predictable, once you have a model that accurately tracks the evolving ocean state.”

How it works

The SWOT satellite orbits Earth more than 500 miles above the planet’s surface.

Jointly operated by NASA and the French space agency CNES, this satellite observes the surface of the ocean, rivers and lakes to provide high-resolution data used by meteorologists, oceanographers, hydrologists and other scientists. SWOT imaging helps answer questions about the path of rivers, the aftermath of tsunamis and other water features on the planet’s surface.

But finding the ground truth on the planet from the sky can be difficult. Complicating SWOT’s readings over the ocean are internal tides traveling beneath the ocean surface, whose signals overlap with the very features scientists are trying to observe.

Known as internal tides, these underwater waves have historically been the major challenge for measuring sea surface height. These “non-phase-locked” internal tides did not appear to have a predictable pattern, and researchers thought their interference was too chaotic to be corrected using standard statistical or sensing tools.

What they did

To solve this problem, the researchers developed a new framework based on the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model, or HYCOM, a three-dimensional depiction of the ocean state at fine resolution in real time. This existing, operational U.S. Navy ocean forecast system is the result of decades of development from researchers across institutions, including FSU’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies.

HYCOM works by continuously combining a physics-based simulation of the ocean with a real-time stream of observational data, a technique called data assimilation. Every day, the model takes in measurements from orbiting satellites that track sea surface height and temperature, robotic floats that drift through the ocean interior measuring temperature and salinity at depth, moored buoys and ship-based instruments. The model uses all of this incoming information to constantly correct its simulation, keeping it as close to the true state of the ocean as possible.

Because HYCOM explicitly simulates the forces that drive tides, including their interaction with seafloor ridges and seamounts, the internal tide field emerges directly from the model’s own ocean physics rather than being estimated separately.

By separating HYCOM’s internal tide predictions into predictable and chaotic components, the team could identify and remove both from SWOT’s measurements. Because SWOT data were never fed into HYCOM, the comparison was a genuine independent test. The result was a 59 percent improvement over the best correction method currently applied to the satellite.

Why it matters

The improved model could help SWOT provide a more accurate picture of the ocean’s surface and currents, which are crucial to our understanding of how the ocean functions. Without accurately observing them from space, scientists cannot track the ocean’s capacity to buffer rising temperatures or verify the models used to project future warming. The work has applications in forecasting, navigation, infrastructure planning and more.

“We can’t deploy buoys across the entire globe to take measurements,” Badarvada said. “The information from SWOT fills a huge gap in our understanding of the physics and dynamics that govern the ocean and how it transports heat and nutrients on a massive scale. We used a model the Navy built to navigate the ocean and ended up giving NASA’s most advanced ocean satellite significantly clearer eyes. That kind of unexpected overlap between defense science and Earth observation is exactly what this project has been about.”

Researchers from the University of Michigan, Oregon State University, Naval Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi, and the French company CLS Group were co-authors on this study. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research, NASA and the French space agency CNES.

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A promising new pancreatic cancer drug that nearly doubled survival times in a recent clinical trial is drawing attention not only for its potential impact on patients, but also for the university research that helped make it possible.

In recent clinical trials by oncology company Revolution Medicines, patients who received daraxonrasib live an average of 13.2 months. The rate nearly doubled the average of 6.7 months for patients in the study who received standard chemotherapy.

Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of about 3% once it spreads to other parts of the body. Daraxonrasib targets the KRAS gene, which was once deemed “undruggable.” Breakthroughs by university scientists helped lay the foundation for collaboration between universities and biotech companies that led to the drug’s development.

Florida State University chemist James Frederich is the Werner Herz Associate Professor and head of The Frederich Laboratory in the FSU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He focuses on developing new strategies and tactics to prepare architecturally complex natural products that exhibit important biological activity in living systems. Frederich’s research specialties include chemical biology, synthesis and catalysis.

Frederich said the success of daraxonrasib reflects the vital role universities play in advancing high-risk scientific discoveries. FSU has its own history of innovation, including chemist Robert Holton’s pioneering work on the cancer drug Taxol in the late 1980s.

“This is a wonderful example of the impact of translational academic research,” Frederich said of the recent pancreatic cancer treatment. “Revolution Medicines started as an academic startup seeking to explore a high-risk, high-reward mechanism for cancer therapy. Academia uniquely provides the freedom to pursue such risky ventures. When they succeed, the results are often paradigm-shifting.”

Frederich said the value of academic research is often overlooked once groundbreaking treatments reach patients.

“It is sometimes easy to forget that academic research can change the world,” Frederich added. “Daraxonrasib, and the mechanism underlying its action, serves as an excellent reminder of the long-term return on investing in academic science.”

Media interested in interviewing James Frederich about the role of universities in developing cancer-treating drugs may reach out to him via email at jfrederich@fsu.edu.

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A Florida State University faculty member has been recognized for his continued service to a national professional organization focused on the study of polymers, substances found in everything from plastics to spiderwebs.

Justin Kennemur, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been awarded the 2026 Distinguished Service Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymer Chemistry, or POLY, for his service to the division, including his elected role as secretary from January 2023 to December 2025. He is the first faculty member from FSU to receive the award.

“I feel incredibly humbled to have earned this award,” Kennemur said. “It takes a village for POLY to operate at the level it does. I’d be remiss if I didn’t share this award with all of the active people in POLY who contribute to its mission, vision and goals.”

POLY is the premier professional organization promoting polymer science and its value to society. The organization supports thousands of members advancing the broader field and practitioners as they meet the global challenges of today and tomorrow by connecting them to peers through conferences, workshops and educational opportunities to share their research and progress the field of polymer chemistry. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes a member of the organization whose service and professional accomplishments have made a significant and lasting impact on POLY.

“This organization serves as a melting pot by which students, industry scientists, government workers, and academics in the field of polymer science can collaborate, learn and create a network of like-minded professionals to encourage the growth of polymer research,” Kennemur said. “We work toward a common vision of promoting polymer science and its values to society.”

Polymers are found in a range of man-made and natural materials from rubbers and textiles to tree bark and tentacles. They’re composed of macromolecules, large molecules made up of repeating structures of basic chemical building blocks known as monomers. Kennemur’s research focuses on constructing complex chemical compounds using polymeric materials, such as those found in plastics and elastomers, to develop innovative materials for clean energy technologies like fuel cells and sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics.

“Both synthetic and natural polymers are everywhere, and we can see their impact within every facet of industry,” Kennemur said. “Construction, transportation, outer space exploration, not to mention skin, hair, feathers, wood: any material that isn’t a mineral or a metal is likely a polymer. Even your DNA is a polymer.”

The Kennemur Research Group takes inspiration from organic chemistry concepts in the natural world, like complex polymers found naturally in starch or collagen, to develop synthetic techniques that advance polymer chemistry, especially in the development of sustainable plastics that can be reused and recycled more effectively. Kennemur previously created eco-friendly plastics from pine sap, a more renewable material than the crude oil typically used to manufacture synthetic plastic. He intends to synthesize novel polymers to build even more sustainable materials, further minimizing the impact of single-use plastics.

“Make no mistake — plastics have revolutionized society in many positive ways, but we have become too complacent in using them once and throwing them out without a clear path toward their reuse,” Kennemur said. “We need more sustainable solutions so we can go back to appreciating plastics for the fantastic materials they are with less environmental pollution and potential health impacts.”

Kennemur received his doctorate in chemistry from North Carolina State University in 2010 before completing postdoctoral polymer research at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He joined FSU’s faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 2014, and he remains a member of the American Chemical Society with specific involvement in its Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering as well as POLY.

“Dr. Kennemur is a star and an emerging leader in polymer chemistry who has made a name for himself through his innovative research,” said Wei Yang, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and a professor of biochemistry. “He’s also an outstanding teacher of organic chemistry and a great graduate mentor.”

Since joining FSU’s faculty, Kennemur has earned the William R. Jones Outstanding Mentor Award from the Florida Education Fund and the FSU Developing Scholar Award, and his research has been funded by institutions such as the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the ACS Petroleum Research Fund. In May, he was elected an associate member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

Visit the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry website to learn more about Kennemur’s work and research.

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Seven distinguished faculty members from Florida State University have been elected as new members of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL).

Membership in ASEMFL is one of the highest honors for scholars in the state, recognizing researchers who live and work in Florida and have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and medicine nationally and globally. FSU now has 38 elected faculty members of the organization, including President Richard McCullough.

“This recognition of seven of our faculty members underscores the world-class caliber of research and scholarship taking place at Florida State University,” McCullough said. “Election to ASEMFL is a testament to their dedication, innovation, and profound impact on their respective fields. From pioneering advancements in magnetics and particle physics to revolutionary breakthroughs in healthcare technology, quantum materials, dyslexia research, and anxiety treatment, these scholars embody FSU’s commitment to academic excellence and societal impact.”

The newly elected FSU members are:

• Kathleen Amm: Amm is director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (National MagLab), headquartered at FSU. An FSU alumna, she is an expert in superconductivity and
  magnet technology with more than 20 years of experience leading industrial and national laboratory programs, including prior leadership at GE Research and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her work focuses on high magnetic field science and engineering with applications in medical and energy.
• Suvranu De: De serves as the Google Endowed Dean for the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and is a professor of mechanical engineering. His pioneering research focuses on multiscale modeling, virtual reality for healthcare, noninvasive neuroimaging and artificial intelligence. He is an elected fellow of multiple professional societies, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
• Jorge Piekarewicz: Piekarewicz is a a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics whose research centers on the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions of density. His work bridges the gap between terrestrial experiments and astronomical observations, using physical observables to understand the complex interior and properties of neutron stars.
• Harrison Prosper: Prosper is the Kirby W. Kemper Endowed Professor of Physics and a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to high-energy physics, particularly through his work with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. His research has contributed to discoveries involving the gluon, top quark and the Higgs boson, as well as advancements in using Bayesian statistics and machine learning in high-energy physics analysis.
• Mike Shatruk: Shatruk is an inorganic materials chemist specializing in solid-state and molecular magnetism and the discovery of new quantum materials. As the founding director of the FSU Quantum Science Initiative, Shatruk works at the boundary between materials chemistry and physics to uncover correlations between crystal structure and magnetic properties of quantum materials. His research, supported by numerous grants, utilizes advanced X-ray and neutron scattering methods to explore intermetallic magnets, stimuli-responsive materials and molecular qubits that could revolutionize optoelectronic devices, quantum technologies, computing and medical sensing. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Rick Wagner: Wagner is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Psychology and holds the W. Russell and Eugenia Morcom Chair. He also serves as an associate director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. His research focuses reading acquisition and dyslexia, advancing the scientific understanding of phonological processing and reading disabilities.
• Brad Schmidt: Schmidt is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He also directs the Anxiety and Behavioral Health Clinic at FSU. He is an internationally recognized expert on the nature, causes, treatment and prevention of anxiety psychopathology, PTSD, substance use and suicide prevention, and he has published more than 575 peer-reviewed articles.

The new inductees will be formally recognized at the ASEMFL annual meeting in November. For more information about the academy and its members, visit the ASEMFL website.

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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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