• Three women in green lab coats holding plants and notebooks talk inside a greenhouse. Three women in green lab coats holding plants and notebooks talk inside a greenhouse.

    Division for Research & Economic Development

  • A man in a suit and eyeglasses uses a remote control with a large red button to control two robotic arms. A man in a suit and eyeglasses uses a remote control with a large red button to control two robotic arms.

    Division for Research & Economic Development

  • A man and a woman stand and smile for a camera in front of a huge digital globe showing live weather patterns. A man and a woman stand and smile for a camera in front of a huge digital globe showing live weather patterns.

    Division for Research & Economic Development

  • A woman in a black sweater stands inside an ornately decorated library. A woman in a black sweater stands inside an ornately decorated library.

    Division for Research & Economic Development

Diverse, Relevant & Publicly Engaged Research

From advancing weather forecasting to using AI to predict tumor growth, researchers at the University at Albany are tackling some of society’s biggest challenges. 

The Division is committed to advancing research and scholarship, while training the next generation of scientists — including individuals from underrepresented groups, who make up over 40% of our student body. These efforts place UAlbany at 38th on U.S News & World Report's national social mobility rankings for 2022-23.

The University's total research and development expenditures, investment in graduate scholarships and the number of scientists working on cutting-edge research in state-of-the-art facilities ensures UAlbany’s place among the top-tier Carnegie Research-1 institutions. We are excited to further expand our research capabilities by reunifying UAlbany and CNSE.

 

Upcoming Events

Explore our programming, which includes coffee hours, lightning talks, workshops and more.
 

Partnership Opportunities

Access the talent, resources and expertise your business needs to find greater success.
 

Divisional Transformation

Learn about upcoming growth in the Division for Research & Economic Development.
 


 

Research Highlights

 

A woman with braids wearing a white lab coat, blue gloves and wire frame glasses writes in erasable marker on a clear board.
Health Sciences

UAlbany researchers at the RNA Institute are fighting muscular dystrophy with a $2.5M NIH grant, studying gum disease with a $2.3M NIH grant and won an NSF award for COVID-19 research. The Cancer Research Center has been awarded a $1.7M grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the role of nutrition in breast cancer. And the School of Public Health's decades-long partnership with the New York State Department of Health fosters collaborative, much needed research that benefits local communities.

Five researchers stand on a building roof as they release a white weather balloon into the air.
Climate Sciences

New York’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation invests $1M annually in the Center of Excellence in Weather and Climate Analytics. The Center and the University partners with industry leaders, including IBM, National Grid and Con Edison, to address extreme weather’s effects on transportation systems. With the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and NYS Mesonet, UAlbany is home to one of the largest and most prominent coalitions of atmospheric science experts in the country.

A student with black hair and a black sweater sits at a desk typing while looking at two computer monitors, which show a map of New York State and the logo for the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services.
Emergency Preparedness & Cybersecurity

The College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity is focused on protecting the nation. Since 2020, the U.S. Department of State has awarded $2.1M to our researchers, who are helping government and industry leaders improve their preparation and response to threats involving WMDs. Our researchers co-lead the $1.5M Virtual Institute of Cyber Operation and Research funded by U.S. Department of Defense.

A woman in jeans and a sweater talks to a man in a suit stand talking in a research center hallway.
Artificial Intelligence

The Albany AI Supercomputing Initiative delivers the high-speed computational power needed to design and test the latest generation of microchips, new AI algorithms and machine-learning systems. With the support of a $75 million investment from New York State, UAlbany is significantly expanding the state's artificial intelligence supercomputing resources for STEM, arts and humanities teaching and research.

Research News

 

Study: Pandemic Had Disproportionate Impact on Female Educators

A study conducted by NYKids, a research-practice partnership housed within the University’s School of Education, found that female educators experienced the COVID-19 pandemic more negatively than their male counterparts. Published in the journal Community, Work and Family, the study adds to emerging research showing the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on women in the workforce, who have dropped out at much higher rates than men. It also lends new insight into the factors driving teacher shortages across the state and nation, with implications for policy and practice.

Study: Scientific Creativity Peaks Early in Biomedical Research Career

A first-of-its-kind study co-authored by economists at the University at Albany shows that scientific creativity peaks earlier among biomedical researchers, with quality declining as authors get older. The study, published online in the Journal of Human Resource, used a dataset covering nearly the universe of biomedical publications over a 30-year period from 1980 to 2009. Results showed older authors use fewer new scientific concepts, cite older and less impactful references, and cite a narrower range of references across fewer fields than younger authors. For the average researcher, a scientific article published late in their career was cited one-half to two-thirds less often than an article published early in their careers.

UAlbany, SUNY Poly Awarded $459K to Explore Nutrient's Link to Cancer, Aging

Collaborating research teams at UAlbany and SUNY Poly are using a $459,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to investigate how a selenium deficiency can chemically modify RNA, which may promote aging and cancer. Led by Thomas Begley, associate director of The RNA Institute, and André Melendez, interim dean of SUNY Poly’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the research will utilize cutting-edge tools available for biomedical and life science-focused research at both institutions. Students will be able to gain firsthand lab experience and training opportunities in RNA science and technology throughout the grant’s three-year research term.

Arctic Sea Ice Loss Leads to More Frequent El Niño Events, Study Shows

The rapid shrinking of Arctic sea ice over the past four decades has been one of the most significant indicators of climate change, with projections showing the Arctic could see an ice-free summer by 2040. In a new paper published in "Nature Communications," researchers show that the magnitude and pattern of Arctic sea-ice loss is not just disruptive to coastal cities and small island nations. It also can directly influence El Niño, causing a lasting impact on global weather patterns.

Prehistoric Humans Simplified the World’s Food Webs, Study Finds

While the human link to mammal extinctions has been long known, a study in the journal Science sheds light on how those losses reverberated throughout food webs, which characterize how species interact in an ecosystem. Extinction alone can impact the links in a food web, but so too can reductions and shifts in geographic range due to human impacts, such as habitat destruction. Using a novel machine learning algorithm that relied on known predator-prey traits such as body mass, locomotive capabilities and habitat type, researchers reconstructed ancient food web structures and simulated the impact of species loss to show that while only about 6 percent of mammal species have gone extinct since the Late Pleistocene, more than half of mammal food web links have disappeared.

 

View More Research News