The University of Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY –Mulugeta Gebregziabher, Ph.D., a nationally and internationally recognized public health leader, researcher and educator, has been named a professor and the endowed chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health. “We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Gebregziabher to the Hudson College of Public Health,” said Dale Bratzler, D.O. MPH, dean of the Hudson College of Public Health.

About the Project Research reported in this release was supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number P20GM161969-01.

Engineering Days at the University of Oklahoma give high school students direct exposure to engineering through hands-on, discipline-based experiences on campus. The program brings rising juniors and seniors to the Norman campus for one-day sessions led by OU faculty and supported by current engineering students. Each session focuses on a specific field and places students in active learning environments where they design, test and solve problems that reflect real engineering work.

NORMAN, Okla. – Four University of Oklahoma faculty members have been selected to be a part of the 2026-27 cohort of Fellows of the Southeastern Conference’s Academic Leadership Development Program, an initiative designed to identify, prepare and promote the next generation of academic leaders in the SEC to meet current and future challenges in higher education.

NORMAN, Okla. — A group of University of Oklahoma students spent roughly a month this spring doing something few civilians have ever done: operating a solar-powered autonomous aircraft with a wingspan comparable to a Boeing 747 as part of a record-setting flight campaign. “It is not every day you can be part of a company's history," said Mackenzie Moore, an OU flight instructor and military aviator who served as one of the mission's air vehicle operators.

NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma has broken its fundraising record with over $427 million in gifts during the 2026 fiscal year ending June 30. This total exceeds OU’s previous record of $352 million set in fiscal year 2025. “Years like this don’t happen by chance,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “They happen when people across the OU Family see where this university is headed and choose to be a part of it.

NORMAN, Okla. – A new study tracking soil microbial communities across six years of experimental drought in a tallgrass prairie finds that prolonged water stress diminishes biodiversity, pushing communities toward less predictable, harder-to-reverse configurations. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, fill a knowledge gap that has posed an obstacle to adaptation and conservation policy.

NORMAN, Okla. – The University of Oklahoma is helping address Oklahoma’s teacher shortage through a new, fully funded program designed to support emergency-certified teachers as they work toward full certification. The Professional Readiness for Oklahoma’s Practicing Educators through Learning, or PROPEL, program launched this summer through OU’s Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.

While their findings have now been published, Bautista and the team are continuing to explore the Andes. They plan to travel to the eastern, Argentinian side of the mountain region to study further populations of Andean leaf-eared mice and other small mammals. They aim to see if the same observations they’ve made are part of a larger pattern affecting other species. For Bautista, the research is also helping shed more light on a discovery that remains fascinating.

NORMAN, Okla. – Each year, thousands of patients in the United States wait for a liver transplant, while transplant teams must make rapid and difficult decisions about whether donor organs are suitable for use. Many of those livers, particularly from older or medically complex donors, require careful evaluation before transplantation, and current assessments often sample only a small region of the organ.