Oregon State University continues to make big discoveries that drive big solutions. The Division of Research and Innovation collaborates with faculty researchers, students and industry leaders in transdisciplinary teams across the sciences, engineering, arts, social sciences and humanities to create equitable, sustainable prosperity across Oregon and beyond.
Research that drives big solutions and innovation
I am excited to share the past year of accomplishments in scholarship, research and innovation at Oregon State University in the 2024 Research and Innovation Annual Report.
Our accomplishments last year continued to show that OSU’s scholarship, research, innovation and creative activities make us world leaders. The impact of these activities is made possible through contributions in a broad range of fields to not only answer the fundamental scientific questions, but also address critical issues such as environmental justice, equity, and community resilience and response, and more, making us uniquely successful in tackling global issues.
The university is continuing to invest in entrepreneurial innovation and use-inspired research. Oregon State was selected by the U.S. Economic Development Agency to lead two Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs, the Corvallis Microfluidics Tech Hub and Pacific Northwest Timber Tech Hub. This spring, we launched the Office of Economic Development and Industry Relations to elevate the university’s engagement in select industry sectors. In August, we hosted National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan for a campus visit to share the impact of NSF funding in Oregon and around the world.
This year marked major milestones on large, complex, multi-year research facility projects. We broke ground on the Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex this April. When completed, it will house one of the nation’s most powerful university supercomputers and serve as a dynamic space for highly collaborative team-based transdisciplinary research. We opened PRAx, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts. The 49,000 square-foot performing and visual arts destination presents us with the unique opportunity to intentionally integrate the arts, humanities, and STEM through art experiences that serve as a powerful communicative medium for broader impacts. We’re continuing to make progress building the first of three Regional Class Research Vessels for the National Science Foundation. This summer, we began installing power and data cables for PacWave, the nation’s first pre-permitted, grid-connected wave energy testing facility that lies off the Oregon Coast.
We had a record-setting $422 million in research expenditures for fiscal year 2024. This metric, which is one measure of research productivity, increased 15% from 2023. It shows we are making strong progress toward increasing our annual research expenditures to $600 million by 2030, the goal set in Prosperity Widely Shared, the university’s strategic plan.
Over the next year, Division of Research and Innovation will continue to prioritize our four research focus areas for investment and growth, with artificial intelligence, research computing and data sciences underpinning much of our work in climate science, clean energy, robotics, and integrated health and biotechnology.
Here’s to another year of incredible scholarship, research and innovation,
Irem Y. Tumer, Ph.D.
Vice President for Research and Innovation
Research and Innovation by the Numbers
$0
million
in research expenditures
$0 million
in federal research awards
faculty, post doc, Ph.D. and graduate student participants in innovation programs
More than 0
companies launched since 2013 through OSU innovation and entrepreneurship programs
licenses and options for university inventions
invention disclosures
#1
most innovative university in Oregon (U.S. News and World Report)
Faculty Excellence
Oregon State’s nearly 3,000 faculty are groundbreaking researchers, innovative scholars and experts in their fields. They have earned national and international reputations for transdisciplinary collaboration and real-world problem-solving.
Distinguished Professors
Since 1988, Oregon State has awarded the designation Distinguished Professor to faculty nominated by their deans. Recognizing exceptional records in scholarship and creative work, teaching and mentoring, and public engagement and service, the title Distinguished Professor is the highest faculty honor granted by the university.
Todd S. Palmer,
University Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Lecture: Transcomputable: The Insatiable Need for, and Relentless Challenge of, Predicting the Transport of Radiation
Małgorzata Peszyńska,
University Distinguished Professor of Mathematics
Lecture: Math Matters: Multi-* Modeling, Analysis and Simulation
Authors and Editors
The Authors and Editors Series celebrates literary and scholarly books published by Oregon State faculty each year. Selected authors and editors are featured in a series of readings, lectures, discussions and receptions, hosted by the Office of the Provost in partnership with the OSU Center for the Humanities(Link is external).
Sindya Bhanoo
Seeking Fortune Elsewhere
George O. Poinar
Flowers in Amber
Jennifer A. Reimer
Keşke
National Science Foundation CAREER Awards
Stefan Lee, assistant professor of computer science, will use his five-year $565,000 award to explore ways to enable artificial intelligence systems to learn complex, interactive tasks by reading instruction manuals written in natural language.
Somayeh Pasebani, associate professor of advanced manufacturing, will use her five-year $756,000 grant to explore new strategies for the fabrication of multi-metal components via laser-based additive manufacturing (3D printing) processes.
Jeff Hazboun, assistant professor of physics, will use his $400,000 award to continue his work with gravitational waves.
Investing in Faculty
Valley Fellows Score Big in Research Awards
The Office of Research Advancement named its second cohort of 17 Research Advancement Fellows in 2024. This professional development program selects faculty from across OSU to support them in leading large, transdisciplinary research projects. In addition, ten Valley Fellows submitted 42 proposals, resulting in 16 awards totaling more than $15 million to advance biohealth research.
Oregon’s Research University
We fuel a thriving world. Our research and innovation drives economic, workforce and community development in Oregon, across the U.S. and beyond. We’re focused on big discoveries that drive big solutions.
Building on Our Strengths
Oregon State’s international reputation for research excellence is driven by exceptional faculty, highly ranked undergraduate and graduate programs and our unique assets. Artificial intelligence and supercomputing underpin much of our work in these signature areas:
Climate Science
Unlocking climate secrets from Antarctic ice
Oregon State is the lead institution for COLDEX, an NSF Science and Technology Center comprised of 13 universities that aims to drill the oldest continuous ice core in Antarctica, going back 1.5 million years or more. The study of air bubbles trapped in ancient ice helps scientists understand the impacts of human-caused climate change.
Identifying the fastest rate of carbon dioxide rise in 50,000 years
Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years. A detailed chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice shows how today is different — offering new insight into the potential impacts of climate change.
Combining Indigenous Knowledge, Western science to inform land management
Two Oregon State faculty have integrated Indigenous Knowledge and Western science to develop practical and cultural management interventions that could help avert the loss of thousands of acres of old-growth forest. Their report proposes a fundamental change in the worldview guiding land management practices.
Uncovering a better way to produce green hydrogen
Oregon State researchers have developed a material that shows a remarkable ability to convert sunlight and water into clean energy. This new photocatalyst enables the high-speed, high-efficiency production of hydrogen, which can be used in fuel cells for cars as well as in producing chemicals, metals and plastics.
Advancing a key element for capturing carbon
Research by Oregon State scientists has demonstrated the ability of vanadium peroxide molecules to react with and bind carbon dioxide, making it a strong candidate as a carbon scrubbing tool. The research is an important step toward improved technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Clean Energy
Testing out the wave of the future
Cable installation has begun for PacWave South, the first pre-permitted, utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States. When completed, wave energy developers will be able to test technologies for harnessing the power of ocean waves and transmitting that energy to the local electrical grid. View the full article on kgw.com
Using iron to make less expensive, greener lithium-ion batteries
A collaboration co-led by an Oregon State chemistry researcher could spark a green battery revolution by using low-cost iron instead of cobalt and nickel in lithium-ion batteries. Researchers increased the reactivity of iron metal to create an electrode with a higher energy density than materials currently used in electric vehicle batteries.
Painting a wind turbine blade black to reduce bird collisions
Oregon State researchers are part of a team looking at reducing bird collisions with wind turbines by painting a single blade black. Based on a small sample in Norway, which found a nearly 72% decline in bird collisions, researchers believe the black-painted blades make the turbines more noticeable, prompting birds to avoid them.
Reducing the energy footprint of artificial intelligence
An Oregon State researcher helped develop a new artificial intelligence chip that could improve energy efficiency by six times over the current industry standard. A novel material platform allows for both computation and data storage, minimizing the shuttling of data between memory and processor and allowing the chip to perform AI tasks more efficiently.
Exploring solutions for marine carbon dioxide removal
Several Oregon State researchers have received $24.3 million in grants to study potential solutions for removing carbon dioxide in marine environments. Two projects will explore increasing the alkalinity of the ocean to reduce the harmful effects of ocean acidification, which makes it harder for oysters, mussels and clams to form shells.
Robotics
Using robots to harvest hidden fruit
Researchers at Oregon State University are developing an apple-picking robot as part of their work with the AgAID Institute. New techniques, algorithms and mechanisms are being used to discover and pick fruit hidden behind leaves in the canopy of a tree.
Supervising a ‘swarm’ of 100 unmanned autonomous vehicles
Oregon State researchers have found that one person can supervise a “swarm” of more than 100 autonomous ground and aerial robots without creating an overwhelming workload. The findings indicate swarms can be used efficiently and economically in wildland firefighting, package delivery, disaster response and other applications.
Modernizing the nation’s geospatial coordinate system
Oregon State is one of four institutions leading a modernization of the National Spatial Reference System, which underpins surveying, mapping, autonomous vehicle navigation, precision agriculture and other geospatial applications. The system was last updated four decades ago, and modernization is critically needed to meet the accuracy demands of 21st-century technologies.
Developing more durable, efficient electrical components
Oregon State researchers are exploring novel, artificial-intelligence-based methods for developing long-lasting, high-efficiency electrical components that are better able to withstand extreme operating conditions in applications such as radar, aerospace, automobiles and wireless communications. The research will address heat management challenges as the semiconductor industry shifts to new ways of packaging devices.
Reducing social biases in AI systems
An Oregon State doctoral student and researchers at Adobe have created a training technique for artificial intelligence systems to reduce social biases. This novel method, fair deduplication, removes redundant data while incorporating controllable, human-defined dimensions of diversity, enabling AI training that is not only cost-effective and accurate but also fairer.
Integrated Health and Biotechnology
Partnering with community to explore water health
Researchers from Oregon State University worked with Portland Harbor Coalition to analyze contaminants in Portland Harbor to understand the risk of exposure to chemical contaminants and improve the health of people and the environment.
Finding a novel way to kill cancer cells
Oregon State University researchers have discovered compounds that convert a protein known for protecting cancer cells into a tumor killer. The discovery, many years in the works, could lead to therapies for breast cancer and other malignancies by changing how the Bcl-2 protein functions so it starts killing cancer cells.
Developing genetic treatments for lung disease, vision loss
Oregon State researchers working with tiny drug carriers known as lipid nanoparticles have developed a new compound that can reach the lungs and eyes, an important step toward genetic therapy for hereditary conditions like cystic fibrosis and inherited vision loss. These Thio-lipids use messenger RNA molecules, the technology used for COVID-19 vaccines.
Using saliva for AI-assisted, non-invasive epilepsy care
A team of Oregon State researchers has demonstrated a sensor system that uses microfluidics to quickly analyze the level of anti-seizure medicine in saliva. They are now working on a device, powered by artificial intelligence, that patients could use at home to optimize dosing, allowing for non-invasive treatment for epilepsy.
Exploring links in skill development for children with autism
A recent study by Oregon State researchers highlights how motor skills and cognitive skills develop in connection with each other in young children with autism. The findings create an opportunity for behavioral and physical therapists to work together to improve services for academic, social, physical and cognitive development.
Fueling a Thriving World
By combining exceptional research and teaching with an unparalleled capacity to work with public and private partners, Oregon State serves as a powerful engine for widely shared, environmentally sustainable prosperity in the state, the nation and the world.
Leading Oregon’s innovation economy
ATAMI, the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute, was one of two honorees for the 2024 Oregon Visionary Award from Oregon Business & Industry. A unit of the OSU Advantage, ATAMI is a business incubator for chemistry and manufacturing technologies, offering workforce training, access to researchers and state-of-the-art equipment, plus other resources to startup companies.
Strengthening the semiconductor and sustainable timber industries
Oregon State is leading two federally designated Tech Hubs — one focused on microfluidic technology for semiconductors and the other on mass timber design and manufacturing. This economic development initiative aims to drive regional innovation and job creation by strengthening manufacturing capacity and commercializing technology to advance American competitiveness.
Delivering the future with TIME's cover robot
Digit, the bipedal robot by Agility Robotics, made the cover of TIME magazine. The robot is built on technology licensed through OSU Advantage’s IP & Licensing and supported by the Advantage Accelerator. A spinoff of Oregon State and its College of Engineering, Agility Robotics exemplifies OSU-led innovation at work.
Working with Tribes to promote hemp economic development
Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center is working with 13 Native American Tribes to spur economic development in the western U.S. by developing sustainable supply chains, production, processing and manufacturing capabilities for products made from hemp. The $10 million grant also includes creating educational and workforce development opportunities for Indigenous communities.
Building an innovation district at OSU-Cascades
The Oregon State Board of Trustees has approved $36 million to establish a 24-acre innovation district at OSU-Cascades. The next step in expanding the Bend campus, this public-private partnership will advance research, technology commercialization, business incubation and economic development. It will also offer opportunities for faculty research collaborations and student internships.
Facilities for the Future
Oregon State researchers work collaboratively across the sciences, engineering, social sciences, arts and humanities. OSU continues to invest in new, state-of-the-art facilities to fuel collaboration and innovation.
Launching a culture of creativity and innovation at PRAx
Oregon State opened PRAx — the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts — in April. PRAx promotes interdisciplinary collaboration at OSU between arts and humanities and the STEM fields. The inaugural season at PRAx includes concerts, exhibitions and performances by international artists and OSU student ensembles.
Breaking ground for the Huang Complex
Oregon State began construction of the $213 million Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex in April. It will feature one of the nation's most powerful supercomputers and support research in artificial intelligence, materials science and robotics to solve global challenges in climate science, oceanography, sustainability, water resources and other areas.
Continuing to monitor ocean conditions in real-time
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year grant to a consortium that includes Oregon State to continue operating the Ocean Observatories Initiative. OSU oversees the Endurance Array, which collects meteorological, oceanographic and biological data in real time off the coast of Oregon and Washington. OSU also manages the initiative’s data transmission cyberinfrastructure.
Building a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility
Oregon State has received a $7.5 million grant to modernize a lab that uses zebrafish for research aimed at protecting and improving human and environmental health. Zebrafish and humans have similar developmental processes and are similar on a genomic level, so research conducted on zebrafish can easily be applied to humans.
Increasing housing capacity at Hatfield
Construction is underway for a 77-unit housing project for students, staff, visiting scientists and others working at Oregon State’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The $16.5 million project will address a housing shortage that has limited recruiting students and scientists to Hatfield, which is critical to support coastal and marine research and education.
University Profile
colleges, plus the Honors College and Graduate School:
- Agricultural Sciences
- Business
- Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
- Education
- Engineering
- Forestry
- Health
- Liberal Arts
- Pharmacy
- Science
- Veterinary Medicine
land, sea, space and sun grant universities in the U.S.
acres of college-owned research forests statewide
#2 online computer science in the U.S. (Best Colleges)
#2 online human development and family sciences in the U.S. (Best Colleges)
#2 forestry in the world (Center for World University Rankings)
#3 oceanography in the world (Center for World University Rankings)
#4 agriculture in the U.S. (Universities.com)
#4 online bachelor’s program in the U.S. (U.S. News & World Report)
Top 20 robotics in the U.S. (Successful Student)
students at campuses in Corvallis and Bend, program centers in Portland, Newport and LaGrande, and exclusively online, including international students from over 100 countries
agricultural experiment stations at 14 locations
billion in total Oregon State budget (FY24)
billion in capital projects since 2000