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Graduate students make up about 11% of the student population across 57 master’s degree and Ph.D. programs and 30 graduate certificates offered at South ��ֱ���� State University. Each graduate student is immersed in research and scholarship with the support of their advisor and the Graduate School staff. April 7-11 is Graduate Student Appreciation Week, a great opportunity to highlight a few graduate students at SDSU and the work they are accomplishing. 

Researchers from South ��ֱ���� State University's Department of Natural Resource Management are leading a collaborative effort to increase the availability and accessibility of native seeds.

When NASA announced the finalists for its prestigious RASC-AL space design contest, South ��ֱ���� State University had doubly good reasons to celebrate. Both of its entries in the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concept-Academic Linkage contest were selected in the small lunar servicing and maintenance robot division. A total of 14 teams were selected in three divisions.

Two doctoral students in the South ��ֱ���� State University College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences have received prestigious Certified Angus Beef awards. Becca (Grimes) Francis and Sydni (Borders) Lammers were among eight students to receive graduate awards for their leadership experiences, academic standing and work in the beef industry.

Researchers from South ��ֱ���� State University's Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physics contributed to a global study that found cyanide — a highly poisonous chemical in large doses — plays a major role in the normal functioning of our bodies.

Innovative drone technology proposed by a quartet of South ��ֱ���� State University mechanical engineering students has lifted them to the finals of NASA contest. The team was one of eight schools chosen to compete in the finals of the NASA Gateways to Blue Skies Competition at Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California, May 20-21.

In new research from South ��ֱ���� State University, a novel framework for accelerating the speed at which reinforcement learning algorithms are trained has been developed by researchers in the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering.

Two South ��ֱ���� State University graduate students from the Department of Natural Resource Management received recognition for their research and presentations at the 2025 annual meeting of the South ��ֱ���� Chapter of The Wildlife Society held recently in Brookings.

Xufei Yang, a South ��ֱ���� State University assistant professor and Extension environmental quality engineer, is developing a novel method for assessing surface water quality through drone imagery and smells.

Avian metapneumovirus is a highly contagious virus causing respiratory and reproductive disorders in poultry, leading to significant ��ֱ���� welfare concerns and economic losses. The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research is providing South ��ֱ���� State University a $150,000 Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research grant to develop a diagnostic tool and vaccine for the virus. SDSU is providing matching funds for a total investment of $300,000.