Arizona State University took great strides forward in 2019, cementing partnerships to further student access and success, facilitating groundbreaking scientific research and earning prestigious awards and grant funding. The university also earned its fifth-straight "No. 1 in Innovation" title.
And above all, Sun Devil students, faculty and staff remained committed to serving their community. Here's a look back at the top stories of 2019.
Discoveries
ASU scientists were hard at work this year, looking for solutions to issues such as autism treatment, cancer vaccines and cellular longevity.
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World’s largest canine cancer vaccine trial begins
Meet Trilly: The 9-year-old Gordon setter received a shot that may also contain the very first vaccine intended to prevent cancer. Trilly is one of 800 dogs participating in Professor Stephen Johnston's study.
Photo by Meghan Lepisto/UW-Madison
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Autism symptoms reduced nearly 50% 2 years after fecal transplant
ASU researchers demonstrated long-term beneficial effects for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder through a technique known as Microbiota Transfer Therapy.
Image by Shireen Dooling
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Count Casimir Pulaski came to America to fight in the War of Independence. One of the Revolution’s great heroes, he harbored a secret that lay unknown for more than 200 years, until an ASU bioarchaeologist discovered the truth.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
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An ASU professor challenged the long-held premise that obesity is the primary cause of many major weight-related health conditions. “Health encompasses much more than a number on a scale,” said Glenn A. Gaesser of the College of Health Solutions.
Photo by Pixabay
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Can plants tell us something about longevity?
The oldest living organism on Earth is a plant, a bristlecone pine that is over 5,000 years old. Can we learn something from plants about longevity and stay young forever — or even recapture lost youth?
Photo by shoenberg3/stock.adobe.com
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Invisible labor can negatively impact well-being in mothers
A study found women who feel overly responsible for household management and parenting are less satisfied with their lives and partnerships.
Photo by Pixabay
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ASU urban climatologist reveals hottest and coolest spots on Tempe campus
Urban climatologists Ariane Middel and Scott Krayenhoff did a three-year study of the Tempe campus, mapping out the three coolest (and three hottest) spots on campus.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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Mini-spacecraft built by ASU students will study urban heat island effect
On Saturday, Nov. 2 at 6:59 a.m. Arizona time, the ASU-led Phoenix CubeSat was launched into space onboard the Antares II rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Photo by Craig Knoblauch/ASU
Arizona Impact
Amid updates on the progress of Mirabella, the Novus Innovation Corridor and a new facility in downtown Mesa, ASU Now also shared rattlesnake safety tips and stories celebrating the Grand Canyon.
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Love and loss in the Grand Canyon
This is a story about three people, passion, a place, and triumphing over tragedy. Three passionate backpackers, and the Grand Canyon, the place which united them, and separated them. And then elevated them.
Photo Courtesy Matthias Kawski
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How to avoid getting bitten by a rattlesnake
What can you do to make sure you don’t end up bitten as you enjoy outdoor activities in Arizona? ASU Now talked to Dale DeNardo, associate professor with the School of Life Sciences, for his insights on snake safety.
Photo by Sandra Leander/ASU
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ASU at Mesa City Center aims to be world-class hub for digital innovation
The location — scheduled to open in 2021 — will house the ASU Creative Futures Laboratory, including programs in digital and sensory technology, experiential design and more.
Artist rendering
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Innovative Novus project enters its next stage of development
The Hyatt hotel going up at University Drive and Rural Road is part of a reimagining of the north part of the ASU campus in Tempe that will draw corporate partners.
Artist rendering
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Arizona bill would allow reciprocity for regulated professions
To better understand the role of occupational licensing and what it means for Arizona, ASU Now spoke with Stephen Slivinski, of the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty.
Photo by Pixabay
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New ASU online program will train adults to help foster youths prep for college
ASU has created a free, online training program called Empower for people who want to help foster youth become ready for college.
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Generosity to ASU climbs to new heights in 2019
ASU supporters gave large and small gifts to fund dementia research, revolutionary medical technology, scholarships for more than 7,000 students, faculty research, community redevelopment programs and more.
ASU Foundation
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'PBS NewsHour' announces launch of 'PBS NewsHour West' at ASU’s Cronkite School
The national nightly newscast known for its in-depth exploration of the day’s most critical issues, is opening a western news bureau at the Cronkite School under a new partnership with ASU.
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ASU News
A new name for an arena, a generous gift to promote scholarship on dementia and caregiving and a fifth consecutive No.1 in innovation title were among the year's top headlines.
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ASU named No. 1 in innovation for 5th consecutive year
For the fifth year in a row, U.S. News and World Report has named ASU the most innovative school in America.
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5 top ASU researchers earn prestigious Regents Professor title
Five ASU professors, internationally recognized experts at the top of their fields, joined an elite rank when their nominations were approved by the Arizona Board of Regents.
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ASU Online undergraduate degrees ranked No. 2 in the nation
The online undergraduate program at ASU has been ranked No. 2 by U.S. News & World Report, earning a score of 98 out of 100 and moving up two spots from last year.
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Uber and ASU education partnership expands to drivers nationwide
The partnership between Uber and ASU to provide a pathway to a fully funded college degree is now available to eligible drivers and their families nationwide.
Photo by Uber
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$50 million gift supports dementia research, education
Charlene and J. Orin Edson made a $50 million gift to ASU, to be split evenly between the College of Nursing and Health Innovation and the Biodesign Institute in support of the university’s multidisciplinary research on dementia, and to enhance education and training for nurses.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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ASU makes top 10 list of ‘Best Buy’ public U.S. universities
The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2020 selected universities based on the quality of their undergraduate academics in relation to cost of attendance and identified ASU for having “low average” student debt.
Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now
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ASU, Desert Financial Credit Union announce new partnership
The agreement will result in the renaming of the University Activities Center and includes the development of education opportunities for credit union members and employees.
Photo by Jarod Opperman
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ASU professor named to Fast Company’s 'Most Creative People in Business 2019'
Hao Yan has been named to Fast Company’s list of “Most Creative People in Business 2019” for his work using nanobots to fight cancerous tumors by choking off their blood supply.
Biodesign Institute
Sun Devil Life
Goodbye CLAS; hello, The College. Nice to meet you, Echo from the Buttes. And welcome, welcome to the largest and most diverse first-year student class in history.
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The idea that The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the “academic heart” of the university was reinforced with the rebranding of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences from its former acronym “CLAS” to its new informal title of “The College.”
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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Echo From the Buttes: Old tradition, new name
Each August, ASU's first-year students paint the gold A on “A” Mountain white to signify a fresh start to the school year. This year, however, the tradition got a new name.
Arizona Board of Regents
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Triple threat: When one major isn't enough
A triple major takes a lot of hard work and intricate planning, and not many students take it on. There were 39 this year, including a group of three roommates.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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Nearly 14,000 first-year students began their ASU academic journey this fall, the largest, most diverse and most academically prepared class to attend the university to date.
Photo by Marcus Chormicle/ASU Now
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ASU wrestler inspires beyond the mat
ASU student veteran Roman Rozell is a survivor of divorce, drugs and even a lightning strike. He's also an author, an undergraduate, a motivational speaker and a father. And he's the oldest walk-on wrestler in school history.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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5 years later, still going strong
At the fifth anniversary of the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, more than 3,000 people have earned their bachelor’s degree while working at Starbucks.
Photo Courtesy
Solutions
This year in problem-solving, a first-of-its-kind laser lab gets off to a great start, mechanical trees head to market and a new tool aims to show the true cost of our food.
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Beuses' $10 million gift to build world’s first-of-its-kind X-ray laser lab at ASU
With a $10 million investment in the CXFEL, Leo and Annette Beus want to help shape the future of medicine and improve the lives of others.
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The future of health to have new home
ASU and Mayo Clinic broke ground on the new Health Futures Center, a 150,000-square-foot building that will feature a MedTech Accelerator, biomedical engineering and informatics research labs, nursing programs and more.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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The environmental impact of the protein we consume
How does the average consumer weigh both the nutritional quality and the environmental impact of a food? Thanks to research that included Carol Johnston and Chris Wharton as authors, there now exists the basis for such a tool.
Photo by Pixabay
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Less might just be more when it comes to physical activity
Glenn Gaesser and Siddhartha Angadi, professors at ASU’s College of Health Solutions, researched the effects of high-intensity interval training on various health outcomes.
Photo by Pixabay
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Carbon-capture technology moves to commercialization
ASU and Silicon Kingdom Holdings announced an agreement to deploy carbon-capture technology developed by Professor Klaus Lackner. Popular Science also picked the 'MechanicalTree’ as a 2019 top technology.
Photo by Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
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ASU Now asked a handful of professors from various disciplines about the science of happiness. It turns out that happiness has a lot to do with relationships — with each other, with the world around us and with ourselves.
Photo by Pixabay
Global Engagement
From Fulbright scholars and online learning for refugees to new Thunderbird degrees, ASU remained committed to a global worldview in 2019.
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ASU to offer Thunderbird global affairs master's degree at DC location
ASU will soon begin accepting students into its first degree program based entirely at its 1-year-old Washington, D.C., location. The executive master of arts and global affairs and management degree will be offered starting in January 2020.
Photo by Deanna Dent/ASU Now
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Thunderbird breaks ground on new global HQ
The Thunderbird School of Global Management broke ground on its new headquarters with a renewed commitment to globalism. The international management school will move into its new building on the Downtown Phoenix campus in April 2021.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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ASU offering rapidly deployable online courses to refugees
Education for Humanity, an initiative of ASU, is meeting the need for education for refugees by offering online courses in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Uganda and Rwanda.
Photo by Marc Alan Sperber/EdPlus at ASU
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Bringing back extinct species: If we can, should we?
In his new book, “The Fall of the Wild: Extinction, De-Extinction, and the Ethics of Conservation,” ASU’s Ben Minteer looks into the ethical dilemmas of the loss and recovery of animal species.
Public domain photo
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New Thunderbird degree will take students around the world
The new yearlong Executive Master of Global Leadership and Strategy degree will begin in January and engage students at hubs in six locations: Phoenix/Los Angeles, Geneva, Mumbai, Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Nairobi.
Photo by Pixabay
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ASU once again a top producer of students who win Fulbright awards
ASU has 21 students in the flagship international educational exchange program for 2018-19. ASU’s selection rate was 39.6% — the highest among top-producing schools.
Photo by Pixabay
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ASU’s Leah Gerber was one of the lead authors of the United Nations' global assessment of biodiversity. Gerber provided her thoughts on the assessment and what needs to be done to improve biodiversity of the planet.
Photo courtesy Leah Gerber
Creativity
The Roden Crater partnership made a splash early in the year, and Sun Devils continued to flex their creativity in a multitude of ways all year long.
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An evolving partnership between James Turrell and ASU will help complete the artist’s magnum opus, Roden Crater, making it accessible to many more people in the future and developing an academic component to inspire transdisciplinary approaches to creativity.
Copyright James Turrell/Photo by Klaus Obermeyer
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ASU women's robotics team places first in country, third in world
In their rookie year, ASU’s all-female underwater robotics team, Desert WAVE, placed third in the world and first in the country in the international RoboSub competition in August.
Photo courtesy Desert WAVE
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New curriculum will focus on philosophy of artificial intelligence
Several ASU faculty members have won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create a new curriculum that will challenge students to think about complex issues while they’re learning how to create technology.
Photo by Pixabay
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New popular music degree will set students on path to entertainment industry
The new popular music concentration within the bachelor of arts degree in music is for students interested in becoming singers, songwriters, DJs, producers, engineers or entrepreneurs in the entertainment world.
Image courtesy ASU School of Music
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Everybody’s favorite crime-cracking cartoon canine celebrated a golden anniversary this year. We spoke with Associate Professor and Scooby expert Kevin Sandler and did some sleuthing on our own. Here are 50 Scooby snacks, uh, facts.
Flickr
Entrepreneurship
Multiple generations of Sun Devils make their family business a success, hundreds of entrepreneurs pitch their solutions to earn funding and students dive into the business of beer: The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well at ASU.
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Family, food and ASU: Three generations of alumni keep Someburros growing
In 1986, George Vasquez and his wife founded Someburros in Tempe. Today, his son, ASU alumnus Tim, is keeping the family operation going strong.
Photo by Alisa Reznick
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ASU jumps to top 10 in global patent rankings
The university jumped to 10th place this year from 17th in 2017, according to a new report by the U.S. National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
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Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator's first cohort gets expert insights
The accelerator is designed specifically to provide early-stage medical device and health care technology companies with personalized business development plans and collaborative opportunities to accelerate go-to-market and investment possibilities.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
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New ASU course covers everything from hops to hiring in the business of beer
Students in Agribusiness 494 learned about price elasticity and regression analysis this semester. And they also heard about hop farms and spontaneous fermentation.
Photo by Pixabay
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ASU entrepreneurs win thousands of dollars for problem-solving ventures
Hundreds of entrepreneurs came together to pitch their ideas and solve problems that ranged from inconvenient to life-changing. Eighty ASU-affiliated startups won nearly $200,000 in investment funding and services at the Demo Day entrepreneurship competition.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
More Sun Devil community
ASU connects younger, older generations to ease loneliness
When Pencie Culiver sits down on a bench every Tuesday outside Coor Hall, the students are drawn to her and her big sign that says, “I’m All Ears.”She soothes their sorrows, delights in their joys…
Local athletes get crash course on Black history in Arizona
Basketball players from Arizona State University and the Valley Suns gathered on Jan. 6 to learn about Black history in Arizona and Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to ASU's Tempe campus in 1964.The…
ASU names 2025 MLK Servant-Leadership Award recipients
The 2025 honorees have been named for Arizona State University's annual MLK celebration awards.The four awards — community, faculty, staff and student — recognize leaders who dedicate themselves to…