The year in review: MSU experts, top headlines of 2024

All things election

2024 provided the backdrop for an unprecedented presidential election. The year was filled with drama on many levels, and MSU experts were there to comment and set the record straight. Our home state of Michigan was in the spotlight as an important swing state. Matt Grossmann, director of MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, was a go-to scholar speaking and educating the public about Michigan’s importance in the race. Key Michigan counties were visited frequently by candidates, so the public — along with The Wall Street Journal — looked to Dante Chinni, director of the American Communities Project, which profiles counties, to explain the most critical counties to watch in Michigan and across the country.

As the year progressed and President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump secured enough delegates to be their party’s nominees, they faced off in an early debate, the first-ever to take place in June. And the Trump-Biden debate wasn’t about policy and promises, it was about optics — many reported that Biden showed his age. He seemed to move slower, appeared to be dazed and provided answers that many deemed confusing. Dustin Carnahan, associate professor of communication, offered insight on the impact of the presidential debate.

Biden’s debate performance led to his withdrawal. The last time an incumbent president was replaced prior to this election was in 1968 when President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew his nomination.

Childless cat ladies and other key demographic groups

Enter Kamala Harris — and childless cat ladies. During the campaign trail, comments resurfaced from now Vice President-elect JD Vance, in which he referred to prominent Democrats as “childless cat ladies,” while also including Harris in this group. Zachary Neal and Jennifer Watling Neal, professors in the Department of Psychology, shared their research on childless voters and spoke to The Atlantic.

Celebrities came out to support both campaigns resulting in Kinitra Brooks, Leslie Endowed Chair in Literary Studies and associate professor in the College of Arts and Letters, discussing the significance of Harris using Beyonce songs in several national outlets.

The nation also was watching different demographic groups to see how they would impact the election. Nazita Lajevardi, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, discussed the impact of Muslim voters, as well as Nura Sediqe, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and also a faculty member in the Muslim Studies Program, who spoke with The Guardian and other outlets.

Both Black and Latino voters were another important demographic that both campaigns were paying attention to during this election cycle. Meghan Wilson, associate professor in the Department of Political Science who closely follows Black voter sentiment, spoke with NPR and others.

Hot topic issues for the next administration

After former President Trump became the president-elect, the focus shifted to how he would govern on issues from immigration to education and the economy. Veronica Tobar Thronson, director of the Immigration Law Clinic, spoke about Trump’s plans for the border and deportations.

Josh Cowen, professor of education policy, and Brendan Cantwell, professor in the Department of Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education in the College of Education, both discussed the possibility of Trump dismantling the Department of Education and the future of education under a second Trump term. Cowen opined that we could expect more debates about bathrooms and women’s sports, school vouchers, and more singling out of kids because of their immigration status, while Cantwell talked about a new era of college oversight that’s likely on its way due to the GOP control in Washington.

Regarding the economy, David Ortega, professor and the Noel W. Stuckman Chair in Food Economics and Policy, discussed the future of food prices and implications of Trump’s proposed tariffs with many media outlets.

Scientific and engineering wows

It was an astronomically busy year. From meteor showers to a total solar eclipse and stranded spaceships, 2024 was the year to look up at the night sky.

MSU researchers Shuo Zhang, assistant professor in the College of Natural Science’s top-ranked Department of Physics and Astronomy; graduate student Grace Sanger-Johnson; and Jack Uteg, an undergraduate student in the Honors College, made discoveries about the massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. They scoured decades of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array data to find these “galactic fireworks” that had previously been missed by astronomers.

Darryl Seligman, postdoctoral fellow also in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, discovered seven new dark comets in our solar system. With this discovery, he and the research team have doubled the population of known dark comets and are the first to identify two distinct types based on differences observed in orbit and size. Seligman told media that one of the most important reasons why we study small bodies, like asteroids and comets, is because they tell us about how material is transported around the solar system — a cosmic supply chain!

Shannon Schmoll, director of Abrams Planetarium, gave stellar advice to the public who wanted to get a glimpse of the year’s many celestial events by answering questions in MSUToday, resulting in articles in CNN and many more.

And more star news: This past February, an international team of scientists working at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams created five new isotopes that have never existed on Earth before. These new isotopes will help inform and refine scientists’ understanding of nuclear science. Now, researchers can start making the isotopes in greater quantities to conduct experiments that were never possible before. The team of scientists are also eager to follow the path they’ve forged to make more new isotopes that are even more like what are found in the stars. This exciting discovery was featured in Scientific American.

Can you hear me now? Earlier this year, the NCAA approved coach-to-player communication, which involves inserting a device into a helmet so play calls can be heard clearly. But how do you tune out the roar of fans so the players can actually hear the call? To do this, the MSU football team turned to Tamara Reid Bush, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at MSU. Bush worked with her team of undergraduate students in the Biomechanical Design Research Lab to develop 3D-printed plastic inserts that can snap in and out of the earholes of football helmets and reduce the noise players hear. AP covered the story along with several other outlets.

Amazing agricultural adventures

One of 2024’s top stories actually began in 1878, when the schooner James R. Bentley set sail from Chicago bound for Buffalo loaded with a large shipment of rye but hit a shoal in Lake Huron and sank. Fast forward to Sept. 2024, a crew resurrected the seeds and took them to Associate Professor Eric Olson, an expert in wheat breeding and genetics. Olson has extracted DNA from the seeds and will transfer chromosome segments into a modern rye variety. If successful, Olson will have resurrected a historic rye for the very first time. The story caught the attention of The New York Times, Science Friday and many other major news outlets.

Splendor in the (turf) grass. MSU’s internationally recognized turfgrass management program has received a second invitation from FIFA to grow playing surfaces for the FIFA World Cup 26. The portable turfgrass system that Trey Rogers, professor of turfgrass research, and his team developed for the 1994 World Cup games proved that turfgrass could be grown indoors and be installed and removed from a venue. This system has become the industry standard for using turfgrass in stadiums across the country and around the world. The story was covered by the Associated Press and other outlets.

Artificial intelligence was everywhere in 2024 and is being used in countless applications — even in apple picking. Zhaojian Li, a Red Cedar Distinguished Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, partnered with Renfu Lu, an adjunct professor with the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources who also works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to help reduce the labor shortage by developing a robotic apple picker. Though robotic apple pickers already exist, the research team is using AI to identify the ripest apples and leverage engineering technology to harvest and protect the apples from bruising.

Potato chip lovers rejoice! A team of scientists led by MSU professors Jiming Jiang and David Douches has discovered a way to make a chip that tastes good and is better for you. Douches created a new potato variety, the Kal91.3 potato, that can be stored in the cold but doesn’t result in cold-induced sweetening, a process that converts starches to sugars, which poses health risks when cooked and processed. The new spud discovery was featured in Yahoo, Newsweek and more.

Health science breakthroughs

Honeybees can do more than make sweet nectar — they can sniff out lung cancer. Debajit Saha, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and MSU’s Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering, found that honeybees can detect biomarkers or chemical concentrations associated with lung cancer in human breath. The team have also shown that the honeybees can distinguish between different lung cancer cell types using only the ‘smell’ of the cell cultures. Smithsonian wrote about this un-bee-lievable discovery along with many other outlets.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 48.7 million people aged 12 or older have a substance use disorder. Cara Poland, an addiction medicine specialist and an associate professor at the College of Human Medicine, has dedicated herself to improving care and removing the stigma for patients with substance and alcohol use disorders. She founded the Great Moms clinic at the Corewell Health Medical Center in Grand Rapids to help pregnant women and new mothers who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. She also spearheaded a program that trains doctors in other disciplines to treat addiction, a chronic brain disorder that alters circuits involving reward and self-control. Her work was prominently featured in The New York Times.

Crusader and pediatrician Mona Hanna continued to help kids in need. She laid the foundation for Rx Kids, the nation’s first-ever citywide cash prescription program for expectant mothers and infants.Rx Kids is eliminating infant poverty withno-strings-attached cash prescriptions of $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 each month for the first year of a baby’s life. Started in the city of Flint, Rx Kids has prescribed over $5 million to more than 1,200 families.The program is expanding into other communities in Michigan with the city of Kalamazoo set to launch in early 2025. News outlets across Michigan spoke with Hanna, including USA Today.

In June, construction began on the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences Research Center in the New Center neighborhood of Detroit. The research center is the first physical embodiment of the Henry Ford + MSU partnership and will be MSU’s largest research facility. Once completed, it will further enable groundbreaking discoveries and translational research for which the partnership is becoming known. Another key focus in this research is closing the gap in health care outcomes for people based on race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status.

This year, avian influenza, also known as the bird flu, was still widespread worldwide and caused outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows with several recent human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the current public health risk is low, the CDC is watching the situation carefully and working with states to monitor people with animal exposures. Kimberly Dodd, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and former director of the Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, and her team have been working closely with state and federal agencies to respond to the ongoing highly pathogenic virus since the outbreak began in February 2022. Part of the response process is to educate the public, so Dodd and colleagues have authored opinion pieces and made themselves available to speak with the media, including StatNews, which reported on Michigan’s robust public health response.

Legally speaking

This year, the Supreme Court of the United States made major news by ruling on topics from presidential immunity to government authority and free speech.

Brian Kalt, professor of law and Harold Norris Faculty Scholar, commented on then-candidate Trump’s unprecedented legal woes and how they could impact his eligibility to be nominated in addition to discussing the potential of self-pardons. Kalt was one of four constitutional law scholars to submit an amicus brief to inform the Supreme Court that Trump’s absolute presidential immunity arguments have “no support in the Constitution’s text and history.”

Because the 2020 election was so hotly contested, the nation wondered if the same would happen in 2024. Quinn Yeargain,1855 professor of the law of democracy in the College of Law, discussed certifying election results to protecting against voter intimidation and the laws that pertain to both issues.

Another big ruling was the Supreme Court’s decision that cities can ban people from sleeping and camping in public places. Assistant Professor Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, who submitted an amicus brief on the Grants Pass vs. Johnson case, published an article in The Conversation and provided insights to other outlets. She said that clearing encampments won’t solve homelessness and offered a better way forward that strikes a balance between public concerns and the needs of people who are homeless.

Additionally, the court reversed precedent when it overturned the so called “Chevron Deference” doctrine about the executive department’s authority. Jordan Cash, assistant professor at James Madison College, discussed the ruling as well as the issues of pardons.

Although the court declined to rule on social media and regulation, Nancy Costello, clinical professor of law and director of the First Amendment Law Clinic and the McLellan Online Free Speech Library, offered insights on free speech and regulation, speaking with Newsweek and other outlets.

The economy, inflation, and supply chain

As supply chain timelines were a major part of the economic conversation, Jason Miller, Eli Broad Professor in Supply Chain Management and interim chairperson of the Department of Supply Chain Management, spoke about the impact of 47,000 port workers going on strike across the United States. Among the many outlets he was spoke with were The New York Times. Additionally, Middle East tensions impacted supply chain delays, as Miller explained. He also detailed the major implications of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

Food prices and inflation continued to be a big issue for Americans throughout 2024. David Ortega was a frequent commentor on these topics and provided insight to The New York Times and NPR, as he also detailed how the election could impact prices.

The stock market also experienced fluctuations in 2024 and so Antonio Doblas Madrid, associate professor in the Department of Economics, shared what the implications could mean with media after a temporary dip in August. Leading up to the election, there were also discussions about tax policy for Michigan and the country. Charles Ballard, economics professor emeritus, provided insight to statewide media on which tax policy changes could be helpful and, ultimately, be implemented.

Continuing global conflicts

From the Middle East to Asia, global conflicts escalated this year. This past October marked one year since the Israel-Hamas war began, with ongoing devastation in Gaza and remaining Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. As the conflict is still top of mind for members of these communities, professors from both Muslim and Jewish studies engaged with media. Mohammad Khalil, professor of religious studies and director of Muslim Studies, spoke with The Washington Post about how Ramadan was difficult for many Muslims.

Additionally, professors from Jewish studies including Amy Simon, the William and Audrey Farber Family Chair in Holocaust Studies and European Jewish History, and Yael Aronoff, professor and director of the Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel, both discussed the rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia.

This year, tensions also worsened between Russia and Ukraine. Russell Lucas, professor of international relations, and Robert Brathwaite, associate professor at James Madison College, shared their expertise. Also discussing the state of the Middle East, as well as Russia and Ukraine, was Matt Zierler, associate professor, speaking with The Hill.

Tensions also increased in Southeast Asia with China’s mounting military activity around Taiwan, threatening to potentially annex the country under its control. And South Korea’s president made headlines declaring martial law, prompting Myunghee Lee, assistant professor at James Madison College, to quickly respond and share her expertise on this global event.

Addressing gun violence

February 13 marked the one-year anniversary of the 2023 shooting at MSU. No classes were held that day to allow students to reflect and grieve. At spaces around campus and in the East Lansing community, Spartans joined together to reflect, grieve and honor those who were lost and all who were impacted by the tragic event. All the activities were designed to allow people to participate in the way that made the most sense for them.

Additionally, the Associated Students of Michigan State University and the Center for Community Engaged Learning hosted “Healing Through Kindness and Service” events at the MSU International Center and Hannah Community Center in East Lansing. Both locations provided opportunities for attendees to write notes of support and attach them to small stuffed animals as well as paint small rocks with heartfelt messages, either to keep or give away. And therapy dogs were on hand that day to bring both comfort and joy.

Because everyone processes grief differently, Alyse Folino Ley, associate professor in the colleges of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine, explained the range of emotions that can occur as an anniversary of an on-campus tragedy approaches.

Ley leads the Prevent 2 Protect initiative, which launched in May 2023 to target adolescent violence prevention. It’s a unique program that draws upon the expertise of mental health providers, law enforcement and educators to provide a research-to-practice hub located in MSU’s Department of Psychiatry.

Unfortunately, ours is one of many campuses that has experienced gun violence. The College of Human Medicine partnered with the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo, New York, to host a Remembrance Conference at MSU, since both institutions experienced gun violence in their communities. The deans of both schools arranged the conference to explore public health approaches to ending gun violence. Aron Sousa, dean of the college and executive dean of Health Sciences, spoke about the conference and has continued to discuss taking public health approaches to end gun violence.

Spartan Bus Tour

On Oct. 21-23, MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., and a group of faculty and administrators set out on the inaugural Spartan Bus Tour. They visited locations throughout the western Lower Peninsula of Michigan to build community connections and strengthen MSU’s commitment to education, research, outreach and extension.

Major stops along the way included MSU’s Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center, which has been advancing the success of fruit growers in the northwest Lower Peninsula; the Ludington coastline along Lake Michigan where Ethan Theuerkauf, an assistant professor of geography in the College of Social Science, works to protect against shoreline erosion; the MSU Grand Rapids Innovation Park, which anchors the Medical Mile in Grand Rapids; and MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, which serves as a hub for groundbreaking research in ecology, evolution, agriculture and environmental sustainability that benefits the state and beyond. Media across the state reported on the tour, including the Traverse City Record Eagle, Ludington Daily News, The Detroit News, WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Yahoo, and Lansing’s WKAR, WILX and WLNS.