Category: Featured Stories

Five undergraduate students from Wichita State were among the 26 students recognized at the 23rd annual Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (K-INBRE) Symposium in Kansas City, Missouri.

The WSU students who received an Award of Excellence:

• Yara Abdine, junior in biomedical engineering, gave the poster presentation, “Glycosylation unveiled: Exploring the structure and function of FSH hormone glycoforms”
• Mark White, senior in biochemistry, gave the poster presentation, “Using FRET to Assess Conjugate Binding of Anthrax Toxin’s PA and Antigen Spy0469”

The WSU students who received an Honorable Mention:

• Lauren Hughes, junior in biomedical engineering, gave the poster presentation, “What’s Linker Have to Do With It? Examining the Structure and Stability of Palladin’s Ig3-4 Linker Region”
• Breanna Leach, sophomore in biomedical engineering, gave the poster presentation, “Patterns of brain Ferritin expression in the Drosophila divalent cation transporter mutant Malvolio”
• Julie Tran, senior in chemistry, gave the poster presentation, “Structural Elucidation of the Ig3 Domain of Myopalladin by NMR”

Wichita State has released the list of all 1,242 Shockers who graduated in fall 2024.

Overall, graduates completed a total of 1,378 degrees — 908 undergraduate degrees and certificates and 470 graduate degrees and certificates — with 153 honored as cum laude, 223 honored as magna cum laude and 47 honored as summa cum laude.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently awarded a Wichita State University faculty member $150,000 to further develop a smartphone application that allows visually impaired people to read materials rich in visual content.  

Dr. Darren DeFrain, professor of English and director of Wichita State’s Writing Program, has spent five years developing the Vizling app, which merges the visual and text components of graphic novels, comic books and other image-heavy literature.  

With comic books or graphic novels, stories aren’t always told in a linear format. There are visual clues as to where the readers’ eyes should go next. With Vizling, users can drag their fingers across a device and visualize which way the story is set up. They can also touch different areas of the screen to find out what’s on the screen. 

Dr. Moriah Beck’s journey as a scientist is rooted in the belief that research is a powerful driver of innovation and personal transformation. For Beck, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Wichita State University, research is far more than an academic pursuit — it’s a way to connect with a global scientific community and spark change.

“Undergraduate research is really why I’m here as a professor,” Beck said.

The College of Engineering at Wichita State University is hosting a public 5k run/walk that is open to students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members. The 5k will be from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22 on the WSU campus. Registration proceeds from the 5k will go toward the College of Engineering Needs-Based Scholarship Fund.

“The Needs-Based Scholarship Fund provides financial support to students in need,” said Dr. Jacob Mendez, the assistant dean for student success within the college. “Last year, we were able to raise several thousand dollars to help such students, so we would like to raise even more this year.”

Grace Naylor, senior at Prairie View High School, is the winner of the 2025 Lenora N. McGregor Endowed Scholarship at Wichita State.

The Lenora N. McGregor Endowed Scholarship awards up to $26,000 over four years to an incoming freshman student who has demonstrated academic excellence, has an academic vision for the future and who expresses an interest in advancing knowledge through individual learning. The McGregor Scholar agrees to maintain active membership in WSU’s Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College.

Grant Adler is a busy student who is as devoted to baseball as he is his double major at Wichita State. Organization is key, and he admits he needed help to balance practice, travel, games and studies.

Korryn Hackney, his fiancée, is a nursing student at Butler Community College, and she helped him overcome a tendency to procrastinate. She played soccer at Butler, so the demands of athletics and academics are part of her life.

“She is on top of everything,” Adler said. “When I start falling behind and not doing what I’m supposed to do, she will sit me down and give me a talking to.”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) is investing $2.5 million in Wichita State University, with $1.8 million earmarked as the lead gift to the Wichita Biomedical Campus. The remaining $700,000 will create two endowed Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas nursing scholarships in the WSU College of Health Professions.

“Most of the biggest moments in our lives are tied to health care in some way,” said Matt All, president and CEO of BCBSKS. “The Wichita Biomedical Campus will help make those moments better for Kansans by training the health care workers of the future and empowering them with the best tools and research. We’re thrilled to be a part of making it happen.”

The $1.8 million gift will go toward the remaining $16 million project cost and will ensure that clinical space is included in the $222 million Phase 1 of the Wichita Biomedical Campus construction. The inclusion of a clinic within the campus is an important element of providing applied learning for students while also increasing access to medical services.

Sean Johnson is one of many former Shockers who succeeded in professional baseball after their time at Eck Stadium. None rose higher in the front-office ranks than Johnson, who was promoted to assistant general manager of the Minnesota Twins in January.

“I’ve always loved working for this organization from the day I started,” he said. “I’m around a lot of tremendous people who have poured into me. I’m at that time in my career now when I’m trying to pay that forward.”

Johnson started with the Twins in 2002 as an area scout and was previously vice president of amateur scouting, where he led the club’s work in the player draft. He played catcher at Wichita State from 1996-98 and served as the team’s director of operations from 2000-2001.

Former Kansas City Royals star Mike Sweeney knew a lot about Wichita and Wichita State from his life in baseball. He knows even more now that he is a future Shockers baseball dad.

“It had been a while since I had been in this great city,” he said at Saturday’s First Pitch Banquet at Charles Koch Arena. “When I stepped on campus here, I knew there was something different. When I met Coach (Brian) Green and his coaching staff, I knew they were setting themselves apart from every other staff in the country.”

MJ Sweeney, his oldest son, decided to play baseball for the Shockers and Green in 2026. The recruiting visit brought Mike Sweeney back to Wichita and, ultimately, to spending Saturday as the keynote speaker.