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Third Annual N.C. PSI Hackathon Brings in Record Numbers

N.C. PSI News

Adrian Percy

Jan 11, 2024

Welcome from Adrian Percy

From the seed of an idea for creating solutions to the world’s biggest agricultural challenges, the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative has blossomed. At the state-of-the-art Plant Sciences Building laboratories… 
Christmas tree in the Blue Room of the White House.

Dec 18, 2023

Extension Teams Up with NC Family to Grow White House Christmas Tree

The towering Fraser fir that heralds the holidays in the Blue Room of the White House this year is a prime example of what can happen when NC State’s Christmas Tree Extension Team partners with the growers. 
Craig Yencho and Mercy Kitavi work with sweet potato samples in a lab in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dec 12, 2023

A Patented Winner

The National Academy of Inventors named NC State University’s Craig Yencho a 2023 fellow for his contributions to improved sweetpotato and potato breeding and genetics, with an impact reaching from North Carolina to Sub-Saharan Africa. 
N.C. PSI plant sciences initiative graduate students research learn from farmers and NC State Extension

Dec 12, 2023

Researching Agricultural Challenges on the Backroads

In the second annual N.C. PSI Backroad Tour, graduate students and postdocs from several colleges visited farmers and producers across the state. 
Christmas tree farm in Avery County just outside Newland.

Dec 1, 2023

3 Benefits of Genetically-Improved Christmas Trees

NC State researchers are working to develop “elite” Fraser fir trees that look better, grow faster and retain their needles longer. 
Man in a research lab

Nov 30, 2023

The Quest for Net Zero

On this episode of Farms, Food and You, Joe Sagues, principal investigator of the Biocarbon Utilization & Sequestration (BUS) Lab in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, discusses carbon recycling and the potential it holds for farmers, entrepreneurs and society in general. 
Scott Collins and Kathryn Poloff of Hoofprint Biome pose smiling in their lab coats.

Nov 21, 2023

Trusting Their Gut: NC State Spinout Company Knows Cows Hold the Key to Quickly Cooling the Climate

Hoofprint Biome, which recently closed a $4.25M pre-seed round of venture capital funding, was founded by two NC State Ph.D. grads with the mission to improve cattle’s gut health and, as a result, reduce methane — a major contributor to climate change. 
three women looking at plants in a greenhouse

Oct 27, 2023

Ensuring Sustainability and Food Security in Perpetuity

Michelle Schroeder-Moreno, Endowed Distinguished Chair in Sustainable Community-Based Food Systems, reflects on what’s next for the Center for Environmental Farming Systems. 
Micaela Robson wearing a white lab coat looking into a microscope

Oct 27, 2023

Bacteria Could Help Build Structures in Space

CALS graduate student Micaela Robson is studying how to use bacteria to create “bio-bricks” in Outer Space as a research fellow with the NC Space Grant. 

Oct 26, 2023

Third Annual N.C. PSI Hackathon Brings in Record Numbers

The third annual N.C. PSI Hackathon brought in a record 74 student and postdoc participants to compete across three days and three tracks for prizes and bragging rights.