News
Secretary of Army Daniel Driscoll visits Montana State
U.S. Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll visited Montana State University July 16 to meet with university officials and researchers about how MSU might expand the ways it helps with national security matters.
Montana State's quantum research facility awarded $31.5 million for sponsored research, test bed expansion
An Air Force Research lab contract will support Montana State University's QCORE for research in quantum applications and the development of novel quantum materials, sensors, devices, and network systems.
ECE graduates a record 8 PhD students in Fall 2025
The Electrical and Computer Engineering department graduated a record number of eight PhD students in Fall 2025, including a record five women. Two of the PhD students (Cole Hammond and Corey Pearson) completed their PhDs through Spectrum Lab.
Front row (l-r): Hezekiah Austin, Corey Pearson, Cole Hammond, Nate Field, Jordan
Baker, Erica Venkatesulu, Farshina Shimim (not pictured: Mackenna Landis).
Back row (l-r): Professors Nakagawa, LaMeres, Babbitt, Snider, Kunze, Dickensheets,
Shaw, Nugent, Whitaker.
Photo credit: Joseph A. Shaw
Layer by layer: MSU researchers 3D print the future
3D printing is enhancing research at Montana State University, including 2-photon polymerization facilitated by Spectrum Lab's UpNano printers.
Sam Fritsch and Katerine Shabalin examine 3D printed optical elements with a microscope. MSU photo by Colter Peterson.
Becoming a world leader
The Gallatin Valley is rich with optics and photonics companies, some of which spun out of MSU-sponsored research.
Read more about the history of optics and photonics in the Gallatin Valley and at MSU!
MSU research engineer Andre Olearain tunes a laser setup in MSU’s Spectrum Lab. The lab was created in 1999 to develop Montana-grown optics technologies and help transfer them to industry. MSU photo by Colter Peterson.
Economic Development Administration awards $41 million grant to regional tech hub focused on critical technologies for U.S. national security
A regional technology hub focused on photonics and smart sensors, of which Montana State University is a founding member, will receive a $41 million federal grant to help create tech jobs across Montana.
A graduate student works in the Spectrum Lab at Montana State University on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in Bozeman, Mont. (Colter Peterson/MSU Photo).
MSU researchers receive $6 million to advance quantum internet
Funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory will support MSU researchers to develop a quantum internet, including an experimental network on MSU's Bozeman campus.
MSU researchers, from left, Charles Thiel, John Roudas, Jarek Kwapisz and Krishna Rupavatharam are leading an MSU effort pushing forward the technology of the quantum internet. MSU Photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez.
International awards highlight MSU's role in Bozeman photonics growth
Montana State University and Spectrum Lab alumni win 2 of the 10 possible Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation.
Stephen Crouch, left, co-founder of Bozeman-based Blackmore Sensors and Analytics and alumnus of MSU's Spectrum Lab, tests a lidar prototype with colleagues at the MSU stadium on April 10, 2018. MSU Photo by Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez.