Other NM universities announcements

The Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship at New Mexico State University's Arrowhead Center is inviting NMSU students to apply to Talent Lab, a six-month fellowship that prepares aspiring entrepreneurs to build venture-ready careers in New Mexico's advanced energy economy. The Hunt Center will sponsor selected NMSU students to participate in the program. 

Talent Lab is a program from Dangerous Ventures designed to find, nurture, and accelerate entrepreneurial talent across New Mexico, with a focus on candidates from Native and underserved communities. The fellowship combines Design Thinking methodology with the rigor of a top MBA curriculum, hands-on startup experience, executive coaching, and a Silicon Valley capstone immersion. Selected participants are known as Entrepreneurs-in-Training. 

A statewide network aimed at strengthening and expanding education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics has officially launched out of its home base at New Mexico State University.

The New Mexico STEM Innovation Network was created with state legislative funding, in partnership with the New Mexico Public Education Department, to help align STEM education across the K-12 system with NMPED priorities. Its main mission is to connect systems and establish an infrastructure to support pre-K through college STEM pathways and better prepare students for STEM careers.

NM FAST at New Mexico State University's Arrowhead Center is accepting registrations for a virtual workshop designed to help early-stage New Mexico founders navigate startup funding pathways, intellectual property strategy, and licensing considerations as they pursue Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer awards. The workshop, "SBIR: Startup Funding, Licensing & IP," will be held on Wednesday, June 17, from 9 to 11 a.m. MDT via Zoom. 

Led by Daniel Jones, a startup operator and advisor with more than 20 years of experience working with technology companies in healthcare, ag-tech, fintech, and Internet of Things, the session will cover capital raising strategies, different funding sources, and how founders can build an intellectual property strategy that strengthens their competitive position. Participants will also learn key licensing concepts and how to navigate technology commercialization opportunities, including work with academic and corporate spinouts. 

More than 2,100 students will graduate from New Mexico State University this weekend.  

NMSU will recognize spring 2026 graduates at three commencement ceremonies at the Pan American Center on the Las Cruces campus. University leaders will award a total of 2,148 degrees across its colleges. 

Commencement weekend kicks off Friday, May 15, with a graduate ceremony for students earning master's and doctoral degrees, beginning at 6 p.m.  

It continues Saturday, May 16, with two undergraduate ceremonies. The first starts at 9 a.m. for students earning bachelor's degrees from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, the College of Business, and the College of Health, Education and Social Transformation. The second begins at 2 p.m. for students earning bachelor's degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering. 

In 2022, 19 cattle and 19 elk were found dead from suspected plant poisoning at a New Mexico ranch. Three years later, 10 additional cattle and an unknown number of elk died from the same issue – toxic plants – at the same ranch, which spans about 24,000 acres, making traditional ground assessments impractical.

Since then, Casey Spackman, a range management specialist for New Mexico State University's Cooperative Extension Service, has made it his mission to find an effective solution in identifying toxic plants across extensive landscapes. He has zeroed in on unmanned aerial systems, also commonly known as drones.

After months of reconstruction, New Mexico State University's Alumni Pond will reopen to the public on or before June 1, restoring a central campus gathering space while work continues to rebuild its ecosystem. 

Visitors will see a newly reconstructed pond and surrounding landscape still recovering from extensive construction. As aquatic vegetation becomes established, water levels are expected to fluctuate and conditions will continue to evolve through 2027. 

"There's been a lot of progress made in bringing Alumni Pond back online," said Jose Loera, executive director of Facilities and Services. "Creating a new ecosystem for a 'put-and-take' fishery involves a lot of people, hard work and good timing." 

Shelley Lusetti, New Mexico State University professor and department head of chemistry and biochemistry, is the principal investigator of the New Mexico IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (NM-INBRE). This year, Lusetti was elected vice president of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI).

NM-INBRE's legacy at NMSU began in 2001. Its mission is focused in three areas: building access to infrastructure at New Mexico universities; building up individual faculties' research programs; and training students. Lusetti has been its principal investigator for the last 10 years. In 2024, NM-INBRE received a five-year, $19.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Working with 10 colleges statewide plus the National Center for Genome Resources and two pueblos, Lusetti has been expanding the organization's impact.

Water, biochar, soil health and more will be discussed during the first field day of the year, hosted by New Mexico State University's Agricultural Experiment Station.

The Leyendecker Science Center will host its field day from 7:30 a.m. to noon June 3 at the center, located at 7200 Plant Science Circle in Las Cruces. Lunch will be provided to attendees.

Presentations include arid smart irrigation, conserving natural enemies for alfalfa pest suppression, understanding sorghum-barely crop rotation for managing weeds in chile peppers, soil health assessment in cover cropping systems under restricted irrigation, the promising jujube fruit crop in New Mexico, biochar amendments and soil health in cotton systems, biorational management of soilborne pathogens, growing prickly pear cactus as an alternative crop, and pecan irrigation and water use efficiency research.