When you catch a fish in Michigan, chances are a Spartan helped make it possible. MSU scientists partner with the state's Department of Natural Resources to conduct fish health exams each year to help ensure continued healthy populations of steelhead and other species. That's good news not only for fishing enthusiasts, but also for Michigan's multimillion-dollar recreational fishing industry.

Spartans around the world joined together on April 21 to serve in their communities. The spirit of service is an important part of Michigan State University’s heritage, and MSU’s annual day of volunteering showed how Spartans’ collaborative efforts can make a better world, one day at a time.

As nearly 8,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students receive their degrees from Michigan State University, we celebrate their hard work and commitment to making a better world. Whether joining Fortune 500 companies or launching their own start-ups, Spartan graduates bring creativity and innovation to organizations around the globe. With a graduation rate of 79 percent, the university is making progress toward its goal of increasing that rate to 82 percent by 2020. MSU also is closing opportunity gaps for lower-income, first-generation and underrepresented student populations.

MSU is a national leader among universities in the number of endowed faculty positions held by women. Of the 131 endowed positions currently occupied across campus, 24.4 percent are held by women. Nine of those are in the College of Natural Science-four donor-funded positions and five MSU Foundation Professors.

A new MSU lab uses LED lights and vertical farming to optimize food for the future.

MSU is leading the way in the research and use of robots in higher education online classes. To help advance online learning, MSU researchers are using robots to help distance learners feel more connected in their classes.

Go Teal campaign supports survivors and seeks to transform campus culture.

Thirty years ago, MSU researcher Richard Lenski added his now-famous bacteria to 12 inaugural flasks, a process he and his team of lab technicians and students have been repeating daily ever since.

As interest in African photography has swelled in recent decades, valuable archives of African photographers risk being lost forever to extreme temperatures, improper storage, theft and mistreatment. One MSU researcher is working with an international team to address these issues in Mali by creating a digital archive that preserves the nation’s cultural heritage, ensures African photographers have agency over their work and provides access for education and scholarship.

Self-driving vehicles are the future. Spartan researchers are working to secure the road ahead by making autonomous driving smarter and safer by perfecting computer vision and "superhuman" sensing.