page_title: Utah State University
section_title: Research and environmentalism
hierarchical_section_title: Utah State University / Academics / Research and environmentalism
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows the new observatory added on top of the Science Engineering Research Building (SER) in 2009 for use by the Physics department at Utah State University.
context_page_description: Utah State University is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's largest public residential campus. As of Fall 2019, there were 27,810 students enrolled, including 24,669 undergraduate students and 3,141 graduate students. The university has the highest percentage of out-of-state students of any public university in Utah, totaling 23% of the student body.
  Founded in 1888 as Utah's agricultural college, USU focused on science, engineering, agriculture, domestic arts, military science, and mechanic arts. The university offers programs in liberal arts, engineering, business, economics, natural resource sciences, as well as nationally ranked elementary & secondary education programs. It offers master's and doctoral programs in humanities, social sciences, and STEM areas. It received its current name in 1957.
  The university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
context_section_description: Utah State University is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a research university with "high research activity." The National Science Foundation ranked USU 115 in the nation and 2 in Utah for research and development expenditures having recorded $164.8 million in 2014. As of 2016, USU received more than $240 million is research support. In addition to its faculty and graduate work, the university strongly emphasizes the importance of undergraduate research. USU's Undergraduate Research program was founded in 1975 making it the second program of its kind in the nation with Massachusetts Institute of Technology founding the first.
  Along with the University of Utah, USU is an anchor in the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) program, which is aimed at optimizing the university and region's most marketable strengths with the goal of bolstering Utah's high-tech economy. Seven USTAR teams currently perform research at Utah State. USTAR and USU's Advanced Transportation Institute developed charging technology for electric buses. Now, buses can be powered through wireless induction technology. The bus stops over magnetic pads that will charge the bus while passengers load and unload. A prototype of the technology began service on the University of Utah campus in 2012.
  Notable research centers based at USU include the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Energy Dynamics Laboratory, Utah Water Research Laboratory, Center for High Performance Computing, Utah Climate Center, Center for Advanced Nutrition, Center for the School of the Future, National Aquatic Monitoring Center, Intermountain Center for River Rehabilitation and Restoration, Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, and Utah Botanical Center, among others. In 2010, the university received ownership of the more than $30 million Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter outside of Park City. The center consists of a 1,200-acre (4.9 km²) land trust and a 10,000-square-foot (930 m²), state-of-the-art facility dedicated to environmental education. The preserve protects critical wetland and foothill terrain in the heart of one of the state's fastest-growing areas, and the EcoCenter, completed in 2009, is a multi-use facility with space for educational and community activities. The facility is LEED Platinum Certified, the highest standard for design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.
  Through the Department of Physics (College of Science), Utah State University has placed more student experiments into space than any educational institution in the world. A team of USU and University of Idaho researchers were the first in the world to successfully clone an equine. The baby mule, named Idaho Gem, was born May 4, 2003. USU researchers made headlines in 2011 after breeding transgenic goats. Utah State University professor Randy Lewis' "spider goats", the milk of which contains spider silk, are being studied for uses including human muscle tissue and light-weight bulletproof vests.
  Research efforts are underway to produce a cost-competitive bio-diesel from algae. Lance Seefeldt and other professors formed the Biofuels Program at Energy Dynamics Laboratory to develop new and emerging technologies that will produce methane, biodiesel, hydrogen and alcohols from renewable, carbon-dioxide-neutral energy sources, such as consumer and agricultural waste and sunlight. Dallas Hanks, a doctoral student, has initiated a program at the university called FreeWays to Fuel, which is growing oilseed crops for biodiesel in previously unused municipal land such as highway roadsides. Hanks estimates that in the U.S., 10 million acres (40,000 km²) of such unused land exists—land which generally serves no other purpose and currently costs tax dollars to maintain. Early yields from the crops are promising, and the program has spread to other land-grant universities across the nation. He has a goal to produce 50 million US gallons (190,000 m³) of biofuel in five years.
  Utah State University promotes the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Project (open and free un
caption: Observatory built in 2009 on top of the SER building. For dept. of Physics and public use, it houses a 20-inch (510 mm) reflecting telescope.
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