• Students sitting at computers participating in e-sports
  • Archaeology students working at Valley of Fire
  • Student working in a research lab

Highlights

From creating community partnerships and advancing student achievement, to promoting research, scholarship, and creative activity, we work hard to achieve our goal of becoming a top 100 American research university. Check out our highlights to learn our impact.

Two young students wearing lab coats and goggles during the Nevada Science Olympiad, hosted at 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ.

From summer camps to science fairs and dentistry to drama, 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ offers children of all ages ample opportunities to discover their future careers. A College of Sciences program, for example, pairs grad students with local schoolteachers to develop curriculum and conduct hands-on activities.

camera crew doing an interview

When state Sen. Dina Neal approached the Boyd Law School to help residents of Windsor Park, a historically black community built over a geologic fault, its students came up with a unique solution. They teamed up with counterparts in the College of Fine Arts. Their award-winning documentary brought long-overdue attention to the problem, compelled officials and developers to work together, and supported efforts to secure millions in funding for homeowner restitution.
 

51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ student, Lushawn Threats, dedicates time to teach a Pre-K classroom at Earl N. Jenkins Elementary School in Las Vegas.

The College of Education’s many partnerships with the school district, charter schools, and private schools are addressing the teacher shortage and helping current teachers improve their skills. A new fast-track program, for example, is helping classroom support professionals earn degrees and become licensed, full-time teachers, all while remaining in their jobs.

Jeffrey L. Cummings, MD, ScD. Research Professor, Director, Chambers-Grundy Center for Transformative Neuroscience in front of a brain scan.

Two studies offer hope that science is turning a corner in fighting Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Jeffrey Cummings’s annual review of clinical trials reveals important trends in the drug development pipeline. And another study by 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ’s Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine shed light on the strong link between certain gut bacteria and the common form of dementia. These interdisciplinary studies demonstrate the immense role research institutions play in advancing human health.

A glass plaque with a white NASA logo embossed.

Every great space epic features Rebels, right? At 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ, work that seems straight from a sci-fi movie is actually happening in real life, with researchers uncovering the mysteries of deep space and unlocking clues to how stars, planets, and entire galaxies form (and fall apart). They’re also helping to chart the course of NASA’s Mars rover and studying risks and stressors associated with space travel – and perhaps engineering a sustainable food source for those brave souls who will one day make the trek among the stars. 

Two men crossing the street in Las Vegas with The Sphere at the Venetian in the background. The Sphere is lit up as a basketball.

As Las Vegas ups the ante as dynamic professional sport destination, 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ is right there, bringing insights on the industry to policymakers, studying social media’s influence on gender equality in sports, finding new ways to diagnose brain disorders due to contact sports, and aligning academic programs to feed the growing workforce.

Three students putting books into a box.

Through the service-learning course Books for the Unhoused, students first took a dive deep into studying housing insecurity issues. Then they spent six weeks working in the community to organize book drives and reading fairs at shelters like The Shade Tree for women and children in crisis. Professor Maria Jerinic got the idea for the class when she realized her own book donations were popular with the people local shelters serve.

Student Troy Petite presents during a 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Innovation Lab session at a past G2E Global Gaming Expo at the Sands Convention Center.

Students in the 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ Gaming Innovation course are taking their ideas from the drawing room to the casino floor. The course pulls together students from hospitality, engineering, art, law, and more to develop novel concepts into marketable games. 51³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏ students can now lay claim to more than two dozen patents, as well as licensing agreements and job offers, as a direct result of their classwork.