{"id":79941,"date":"2026-10-16T11:45:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T18:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=79941"},"modified":"2026-10-30T10:19:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T17:19:41","slug":"nau-in-the-news-october-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-in-the-news-october-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU in the news: October 2026\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-teams=\"true\">This month, NAU researchers made headlines for their work in Arctic permafrost, a host of space research, including alien life, and mapping clean water on the Navajo Nation. To read more about high-impact research happening at the university, read <a href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/\">The NAU Review&#8217;s coverage<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Franklin Vernon<\/strong>, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Geography, Planning and Recreation, along with a team of undergraduate and graduate students, is helping build a trail stretching from one end of Arizona to the other. His research was recently covered in the <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.williamsnews.com\/news\/from-nau-a-trail-to-healthier-communities\/article_b1140659-c4bb-4a89-bcb1-2806bfc0c7a0.html\">Williams-Grand Canyon News<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"2\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Cristina Thomas<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, who led the research team in NASA\u2019s 2022 DART mission, spoke to <\/span><a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/asteroid-comet-missions\/four-years-ago-nasa-punched-an-asteroid-europes-hera-probe-arrives-this-month-to-inspect-the-wreckage\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Space.com<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> about the European Space Agency\u2019s Hera mission. The mission is collecting data about the effects of DART, which involved crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to knock it off course as a possible defense mechanism if an asteroid is headed toward Earth.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A study led by SICCS research associate <strong>Andrew Abraham<\/strong> that looked at the role large animals like elephants and whales was picked up by <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-10-large-animals-mitigate-climate-complicated.html\">Phys.org<\/a>, <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2026\/10\/large-animals-are-living-carbon-stores-does-that-make-saving-them-a-climate-solution\/amp\/\">Mongabay<\/a> and <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africanelephantjournal.com\/large-animals-are-living-carbon-stores-does-that-make-saving-them-a-climate-solution\/\">Journal of African Elephants<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Research led by<strong> Corina Kellner<\/strong><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, a biological anthropologist and professor in the Department of Anthropology,\u00a0<\/span>on four pristine mommies found in Huaca del Oro, a large archeological site along the southern coast of Peru dating back to the Nasca civilization, was published in two online publications, <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/archaeologists-found-4-nazca-mummies-in-the-wrong-place-it-could-turn-the-story-of-an-ancient-empire-upside-down-2000820434\">Gizmodo<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.promusic.news\/other\/archaeologists-found-4-nazca-mummies-in-the-wrong-place-it-could-turn-the-story-of-an-ancient-empire-upside-down\">ProMusic News<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"1\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ted Schuur<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, a Regents\u2019 professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, has done significant research on the climate effects of the thawing permafrost in Arctic Alaska. His research was recently covered in <\/span><a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/climate-thawing-permafrost-arctic-alaska-91fcc04d32a1d7522afe2f6a456ac0eb\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">AP News<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The new MPaCT Lab in the Steve Sanghi College of Engineering had a reporter from Arizona&#8217;s Family tour the lab and experience the dozens of high-tech machines. <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kold.com\/2026\/10\/26\/nau-opens-microelectronics-lab-train-semiconductor-workforce\/\">Watch the news story online.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Research led by Regents&#8217; professor <strong>Paul Keim<\/strong> of the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute into how a dangerous bacterium went from toxic to Botox was covered by <a style=\"color: #5533ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/how-scientists-domesticated-killer-bacterium\">Science<\/a>. The research looks at how humans have tamed this bacterium over the last century.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"3\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A team from the Department of Anthropology and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/radiant.nau.edu\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">NAU\u2019s Radiant Center for Remote Sensing<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> has partnered with the National Park Service on the architectural documentation and digital mapping of Wukoki Pueblo to make it accessible to people throughout the world. Read the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kjzz.org\/education\/2026-10-11\/nau-researchers-use-drones-to-study-wukoki-pueblo-in-the-wapatki-national-forrest\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">coverage in KJZZ<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"4\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Ecoinformatics professor <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Chris Doughty\u2019s<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> research into alien life was covered in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/science\/alien-life-close-to-earth-study\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Popular Science<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/articles\/older-alien-worlds-might-still-be-stuck-in-the-slime-age\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Universe Today<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, among others. The research looks at the likelihood of other planets having more advanced life than Earth does.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"5\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Regents\u2019 professor of chemistry <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Jani Ingram<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> led a team to create a map showing which wells on the Navajo Nation are safe to drink from, which was covered by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/tribes\/2026\/09\/20\/nau-professor-creates-map-showing-safe-drinking-water-on-navajo-nation\/91785426007\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Arizona Republic<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/money\/general\/indigenous-water-supplies-threatened-by-abandoned-mines\/ar-AA2cdYpc\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">MSN<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, among others. Much of the groundwater in the Navajo Nation has been poisoned as a byproduct of uranium mining.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"6\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Doctoral student <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Anastasia Morgan<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> led a study into Trans-Neptunian Objects that was covered in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/astronomy\/james-webb-space-telescope\/james-webb-space-telescope-and-hubble-discover-27-puzzling-new-objects-orbiting-the-sun-far-beyond-neptune\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Space.com<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. The study was one of the first in history to harness the joint power of NASA\u2019s Hubble and Webb telescopes.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"7\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Doctoral student <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Darby Bergl<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> led a study, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/weather\/climate-change\/warming-winters-weaken-new-hampshire-forest-s-carbon-sink-over-20-years\/ar-AA2bm6TE\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">picked up by MSN<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, that found that temperate forests may not be absorbing and storing carbon at the same rate they had in the past. The research examined data from 20 years of a New Hampshire forest.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"8\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Doctoral student <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Bryan Carlin<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> from herpetologist <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Erika Nowak\u2019s<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> lab is leading an effort to reintroduce the narrow-headed gartersnake into Oak Creek following the 2014 Slide Fire. Though the work was interrupted by the Pocket Fire this summer, Carlin had several reporters visit Oak Creek for the release of snakes. Read the coverage in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/azdailysun.com\/news\/local\/slide-fire-gartersnakes-navigate-serpentine-road-to-release-in-oak-creek\/article_e4a94f7e-f8c8-4c09-b3a7-b496275170af.html?utm_source=second-street&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=azdailysunnewsalert&amp;emailmd5=59d068733c3da4c8a6ef6ca722715395&amp;emailsha1=13926981609112721615820847642271841110574181123&amp;emailsha256=a4a449a8e5e42b190c9cd457f2c2b29b5b3efc3ea3a9813676138e3ce455e2e7\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">Arizona Daily Sun<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li data-leveltext=\"\uf0b7\" data-font=\"Symbol\" data-listid=\"1\" data-list-defn-props=\"{&quot;335552541&quot;:1,&quot;335559685&quot;:720,&quot;335559991&quot;:360,&quot;469769226&quot;:&quot;Symbol&quot;,&quot;469769242&quot;:[8226],&quot;469777803&quot;:&quot;left&quot;,&quot;469777804&quot;:&quot;\uf0b7&quot;,&quot;469777815&quot;:&quot;hybridMultilevel&quot;}\" data-aria-posinset=\"9\" data-aria-level=\"1\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Doctoral student <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sam Hopkins<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> from <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Zach Lerner\u2019s<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Biomechatronics Lab was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kjzz.org\/the-show\/2026-09-23\/an-nau-doctoral-student-inspired-by-iron-man-is-making-newer-better-orthotics\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">interviewed on KJZZ<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> for his work into creating an ankle orthotic to help people walk and live more independently. Hopkins recently won a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to continue this work.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-in-the-news-october-2026\/\">This month, NAU researchers made headlines for their work in Arctic permafrost, a host of space research, including alien life, and mapping clean water on the Navajo Nation. To read more about high-impact research happening at the university, read The NAU Review&#8217;s coverage. Franklin Vernon, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Geography, Planning&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2797,"featured_media":79982,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1831],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nau-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2797"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79941"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80268,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79941\/revisions\/80268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}