ATLANTA, Nov. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Spelman College recently received an almost $400,000 grant from NASA, with the purpose of curating a STEM research pipeline for students and further investigating the impacts of climate change on plant life in Atlanta. The project is a collaboration with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Stony Brook University.

“This award is significant for Spelman College students — it will develop a STEM graduate school pipeline with Stony Brook University,” said Jessica Terrien, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental and health sciences at Spelman. Dr. Terrien, the principal investigator, worked alongside Guanyu Huang, Ph.D., co-investigator and assistant professor at Stony Brook University, to secure the grant. “This pipeline introduces students to career opportunities at NASA and research related to NASA TEMPO satellite data.”

The project, officially titled ‘Using TEMPO Satellite Data to Assess Ozone Injury to Plants in Atlanta, Georgia, while Building a Student Research Pipeline at Spelman College,’ aims to examine how ozone exposure relates to plant injury in Atlanta using NASA data and observations from the Spelman College Ozone Garden.

Through the grant, Spelman hopes to expand its capacity in Earth science education and research, as well as the utilization of air quality datasets, through educational opportunities such as internships, research positions, mentoring, and curriculum integration.

“For the next two years there will be professional development opportunities open to any Spelman student interested in STEM and two application-based student research opportunities, one here at Spelman and one at the NASA Marshall Center in Alabama over the summer,” said Dr. Terrien. 

The collaboration aims to strengthen STEM participation at an HBCU and establish a long-term framework for future NASA-related research and student development. 

About Spelman College

Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,700 students. Spelman is the country’s leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 34 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 34 for undergraduate teaching, No. 2 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 20th year among historically Black colleges and universities. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors, minors and programs have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, refugee studies, gaming, and the first undergraduate cosmetic science program at an HBCU. Collaborations have been also established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others. 

Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University professor and former Dean Evelynn Hammonds, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.

To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.


Brijea Daniel
Spelman College
brijeadaniel@spelman.edu

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