Arts and Sciences at Ohio State

08/28/2026

The Ohio State University Department of Astronomy

08/28/2026

Exciting changes are coming for the Department of Economics! As part of the college’s ongoing effort to enhance academic and collaborative spaces, the department will be moving from Arps Hall to a newly renovated Bricker Hall. The renovation will introduce modern offices and collaboration spaces, upgraded building infrastructure and a revitalized use of the historic top floors, creating a fresh academic home for the department.

📷 #1: Bricker Hall construction progress by Robertson Construction
📷 #2: Bricker Hall architectural rendering (Acock & Associate Architects)

https://bit.ly/4irTlxm

08/27/2026

Assistant Professor Luke Fannin is first author of a study suggesting that no matter what we eventually determine the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to be, we’ll likely learn it was a primate that climbed trees — using either chimp-like or monkey-like feet. “Part of paleoanthropology is understanding how our evolution happened, and it’s often through the hallmark of how we move because modern humans move quite differently than our cousins, the chimpanzees, do, and they’re the living primate we’re most closely related to,” Fannin said. “And we’re trying to understand why that is.”

The Ohio State University Department of Anthropology

New research suggests that no matter what we eventually determine the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to be, we’ll learn it was a primate that climbed trees. Humans and chimpanzees began their separate evolutionary paths between 6 and 7 million years ago when they split from the las...

08/26/2026

NASA’s next-generation space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, is scheduled to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch is scheduled for 7:26am EDT on Sunday, August 30, and we invite you to join us for a virtual launch party! Roman is not just a flagship mi...

08/26/2026

Congrats to Professor Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier for being named the 2026 recipient of Ohio State’s Pierre Agostini Prize! The university’s most prestigious award for scholarly and artistic achievement, it is presented annually to one faculty member in recognition of their groundbreaking and influential work. The prize recognizes Box-Steffensmeier’s work advancing political methodology and the tools researchers use to study politics. Her interdisciplinary approach brings together mathematics, statistics and political science to examine political institutions, public opinion, elections, courts and political behavior.

Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Distinguished University Professor and Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University, has been named the 2026 recipient of Ohio State’s Pierre Agostini Prize.The Pierre Agostini Prize is the university’s most prestigious award for scholarly ...

08/25/2026

Join us for the first Science Sundays of the academic year with Professor Kurt Gray on Sunday, September 13 at 3 p.m. Gray will discuss human nature and moral psychology, and give you practical solutions for having conversations across the political divide.

This event is free and open to the public. RSVPs are strongly encouraged.

More info: https://bit.ly/4xtFUS8

Ohio State Department of Psychology

08/25/2026

Welcome (and welcome back), Arts and Sciences students!!!

08/24/2026

Assistant Professor Shuai Huang researches how plants defend themselves. His lab identifies genes, pathways, and signaling molecules involved in plant defense and discovered that many cellular molecules rapidly cluster into membrane-free “biomolecular condensates” via liquid-liquid phase separation, assembling quickly under stress and disassembling when the job is done. Huang aims to engineer condensates to improve resistance without reducing growth and to study roles in mechanical and abiotic stress responses relevant to climate change and food security.

Full episode: https://bit.ly/4giqE3f

08/23/2026

How can AI motion models capture the nuance, expertise, and history that dance artists hold in their bodies? Improving Motion Modeling with Dance Expertise for Archiving and Analysis brings together a team of dance historians, computer scientists, and Martha Graham Technique(™) specialists to evaluate motion capture, monocular and multi-view video, and computer vision. Producing technical specifications for enhanced 2D and 3D motion modeling, the project establishes a foundation and agenda for multi-modal and AI-enabled research on dance history, choreographic preservation, and embodied legacies.

Check out this teaser from the project!

OSU Dance

08/22/2026

Danica Dillion, a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University, was recently interviewed for a story by Axios discussing the Ohio State fair poster contest being won by an AI entrant. "People really want to feel like they're connecting with the artist's mind, connecting with another person who's depicting genuine experiences," Dillion said.

The backlash reflects deeper concerns about AI, trust and creativity, experts say.