By Elle Ciaciuch O’Neill and Cynthia Hollenbeck

Jose Riera, Ph.D. candidate in Washington State University’s College of Education, focuses his research on developing computer applications to help foreign language learners, immigrants, and individuals with communicative disabilities to improve their pronunciation skills. According to Jose, there are 1 billion foreign language learners, 275 million immigrants, and 550 million individuals with communicative disabilities worldwide. With these numbers, Jose hopes this research will make a notable impact on the language-learning world.

One of the main challenges for second language learners is understanding and articulating unfamiliar new sounds in their target language. Jose believes that by providing these learners … » More …

By Cynthia Hollenbeck and Elle Ciaciuch O’Neill

Sarah Kostick, Ph.D., is making great strides in the world of apple breeding at Washington State University. By investigating resistance/susceptibility to fire blight in apples to enable more efficient development of apple varieties with resistance to fire blight, she has found that specific genomic regions (also called genetic loci) are associated with resistance, and much more.

Fire blight is a devastating bacterial disease that affects a range of apple cultivars (varieties). This disease has the potential to cause tree death and, depending on the year, can destroy entire orchards. Fire blight, caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora, can infect … » More …

Tammy Barry selected as new associate dean in the Graduate School. Read More.