RESEARCH
CHANGES
LIVES

NEXT Lab, which stands for Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing Laboratory, is on a mission to provide global solutions to the world’s most critical needs – energy that is less expensive and safer, water that is pure and abundant, and medical isotopes used to diagnose and treat cancer. Their research focuses on molten salt nuclear technology and is sponsored by Natura Resources, a leading advanced reactor developer.

In 2024, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted ACU a construction permit to build a research reactor, marking the first liquid salt fueled reactor licensed by the NRC in American history and the first U.S. university research reactor approved in more than 30 years. NEXT Lab has already been awarded five patents related to this technology, with two more in the application process.

Students of all disciplines engage in important research alongside their faculty mentors, presenting with them at national conferences or sharing as co-authors of published research, and their work often has immediate application to pressing questions of the day.

In the School of Information Technology, students are addressing real-world problems and questions around the use of generative AI in education, conducting research funded by grants from Google and in collaboration with educators and researchers around the world. Their work explores risks and rewards of AI technology and is helping shape future computer science education and curriculum.

Building on decades of thriving research, ACU formally established the ACU Bioanalytics Laboratory in the Department of Biology in 2024. Since 1999, biology faculty and undergraduate students have been engaged in cutting-edge research related to neurodegenerative diseases, currently including Alzheimer’s. The team recently achieved significant milestones by successfully qualifying several important protein biomarker assays using the innovative Ella platform developed by Protein-Simple. In addition to neurodegenerative diseases, bioanalytics researchers at ACU are involved in studies related to COVID-19 antibodies and the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn’s disease.

ACU is a university where scholarly activity and innovation are valued and encouraged. Allowing our students to participate in undergraduate research and other forms of scholarship engages their intellectual curiosity, challenges them to think critically, satisfies their thirst for discovery, and gives them an outlet for their creativity.

The Office of Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation supports the participation of undergraduate students in scholarly research and creative projects through grant funding, hosting the ACU Undergraduate Research Festival, and other collaborative initiatives.

Find out more about undergraduate research initiatives at the button below.