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The third annual CATALYST: Summer Research and Leadership Program welcomed 18 incoming WCU students representing a variety of academic majors and interests.

Do you want to know how the world ends? Visit Antarctica. Travel to the southern tip of South America to the port city of Punta Arenas, Chile. Then board a small research vessel with 20 other scientists from a dozen universities across the United States and cross the perilous seas of the Drake Passage.

The 2026 Research and Scholarship Conference at Western Carolina University had the largest participation in the conference’s history.

Western Carolina University’s annual Research and Scholarship Conference is fast approaching. This year's event will be the largest ever, with the Research Exposition and Symposium featuring over 200 presentations, spanning undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.

In partnership with the North Carolina School for the Deaf, Western Carolina University professors Jess Weiler and Cathy Grist were awarded a $70,000 grant from NC Collaboratory to conduct an organizational assessment of NCSD’s administrative structures.

Western Carolina University’s annual Research and Scholarship Conference will be held on Wednesday, March 25 and Thursday, March 26.

Kristin Daiber, the director of the Office of Student Retention, recently received a TRIO grant from the Department of Education for $1.4 million.

As an undergraduate student at North Carolina State University finishing her psychology degree, Malinda Pennington, assistant professor in the Special Education and Inclusive Learning program at Western Carolina University, needed an internship to fulfill the requirement for an abnormal psychology course.

The second annual CATALYST: Summer Research and Leadership Program was held in summer 2025 at Western Carolina University, welcoming 18 enthusiastic incoming honors students. A collaboration between the Office of Research Administration and the Brinson Honors College, the program underscores the vital connection between undergraduate research and leadership.

Several cattle tanks filled with swarms of tadpoles were all that kept the dusky gopher frog from going extinct. Now, Joe Pechmann, professor of biology at Western Carolina University, is helping the frogs return to their historical range and populations.