Faces of Discovery

Veterinary researcher Daniel Linhares focuses on making existing tools work better, helping pork producers improve animal health and efficiency through data and real-world insight. By layering strategies and tailoring solutions to each farm, his work delivers practical impact: one population at a time.

What starts as a simple sketch or familiar puzzle often leads to surprisingly deep questions. Mathematician Bernard Lidický uses graph theory and curiosity‑driven research to reveal the hidden structures that shape networks, systems, and the world around us.

Bernard Lidický, Professor, Mathematics

As AI rapidly enters classrooms, Evrim Baran is helping educators move beyond hype—using curiosity, design, and partnership to shape responsible, future‑focused uses of AI in education.

Evrim Baran, Professor, School of Education

As a pioneer researcher in digital humans, Ivy studies hyper-realistic AI avatars used in customer service, virtual assistance, influencer marketing, and companionship.

Lingyao “Ivy” Yuan, Associate Professor, Information Systems and Business Analytics

The same persistence that fueled his long-distance races now drives his quest to reinvent electronics manufacturing. Ethan Secor leads a research group at Iowa State focused on aerosol jet printing, a specialized additive manufacturing technique for electronics.

Ethan Secor, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Imagine being accused of a crime you didn’t commit. The evidence is shaky, but the prosecutor offers you a deal: plead guilty and serve 15 years in prison—or go to trial and risk 55. What would you do?

Miko Wilford, Associate Professor, Psychology

By measuring moisture levels across large areas with satellites, we can predict where crops might be struggling long before we see visible signs of drought damage. That means farmers can make better decisions about marketing, conservation, and planting strategies, and we can build better models to anticipate future climate challenges.

Brian Hornbuckle, Professor, Agronomy

In our society, we are so heavily driven on drugs, pharmaceuticals, and finding a cure for everything. But we have 2 million people in the U.S. living with Parkinson’s disease right now, and researchers often forget about this. Who knows if there will ever be a cure. But if there is a way to slow it down, make patients’ quality of life better, and they can do that by just singing? That is a pretty big impact on its own.

Elizabeth Stegemoller, Professor, Kinesiology

Learning from the past and how people have adapted in this ecosystem . . . is invaluable in helping us adapt to the present time and the future.

Julie Courtwright, Associate Professor, History