"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."
Casey Kasem's traditional closing line sums up the year in pictures at the nation's top university for innovation.
Walk around any of ASU's four campuses, and you'll come across new buildings and the rehabilitation of older ones. They point the way to the future. What discoveries and solutions will be uncovered in them? Who will make them? The enthusiastic students, motivated researchers and interested faculty.
Venture a little further and find visitors sharing their visions and students pushing others to excel. Others are pushing through Earth's gravitational pull.
What about the Earth-bound inquisitors? Some think about the habits of those below ground, underwater and even into the minds of our children.
There are times at ASU where innovation spurs unbridled excitement — the joy of overcoming enormous challenges, trying something new, sharing spontaneous jokes and hitting the target smack in the center to win the prize.
In 2019, we accomplished our goals; we learned, we laughed, we loved. But that was then. What stars will we reach in 2020?
-
Shovels feature the ASU pitchfork logo at the ceremonial groundbreaking of the 150,000-square-foot first building of the ASU Health Futures Center, adjacent to Mayo Clinic in north Phoenix. The collaborative center will provide educational and research facilities, biomedical engineering and informatics research labs, and opportunities for partnerships with private industry.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Computer science major Loreto Pinto (center) celebrates with others from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at the annual Sun Devil Welcome celebration at Wells Fargo Arena. More than 13,000 first-year students experienced high-energy Sun Devil spirit, pride and tradition during the official welcome for the incoming Class of 2023.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
The annual Sun Devil Welcome celebration for freshmen comes to a close.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Famed "Goosebumps" author R. L. Stine tells stories at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Phoenix, as part of the ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing's Distinguished Visiting Writers Series. The prolific author of witty, creepy and compulsively readable books defined horror for a couple of generations of young readers.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Chicago Cubs strength and conditioning intern Layne Gainer supervises one of the players at the Cubs spring training facility in Mesa. The drafted players are on site for a five-week conditioning camp. Gainer is a senior in exercise and wellness, with an emphasis on sports performance, through the College of Health Solutions.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Postdoctoral astrophysics researchers Melodie Kao (left) and Parke Loyd, of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, observe the countless stars — and a few shooting stars — in the near-dark sky by the Tom Mix Memorial, south of Florence, Arizona. The two are offering their Wilderness Astronomy course in spring 2020.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
The Wilderness Astronomy course will lead students in learning concepts in astronomy, physics, planetary science and outdoor camping that help them better understand and better explore Earth. The course highlight is a weeklong backpacking trip during spring break near Sedona.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Brig. Gen. Todd Canterbury adjusts his helmet after getting in an F-35 in preparation for a six-fighter exercise mission at Luke Air Force Base outside Phoenix. Canterbury, like his father, Major Gen. Henry Canterbury, is the commander of the 56th Fight Wing, Luke AFB. The younger Canterbury earned his bachelor's degree from ASU in aeronautical engineering technology in 1992.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Electrical engineering lead Bob Roebuck (left) and mechanical engineering lead Joe DuBois examine a discolored wire on the eHaWK Solar Array that will supply power to the Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map). The cubesat is a shoebox-size satellite that will search for hydrogen deposits at the moon's south pole when it is launched in 2020.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
(From right) "Zombified" host ASU psychology Assistant Professor Athena Aktipis, co-host Dave Lundberg-Kenrick and guest Professor Clive Wynne get made up before their livestream podcast. The podcast explores how humans can become "zombified," or have their behavior hijacked, by any number of things: each other, social media, stress, dogs, etc.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Cinthia Garcia is a summa cum laude graduate in bilingual/ESL education and in the fall will be teaching sixth-grade math at Centerra Mirage STEM Academy in Goodyear, Arizona.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
While the adult burrowing owl watches her work, ASU wildlife biology Senior Lecturer Kerri Loyd sets up a movement-triggering camera outside the owl's habitat in Lake Havasu City. The urban/suburban ecologist is gathering data as part of her research on the owls funded in part by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Professor James Sulikowski brings his lifelong fascination with aquatic life to the desert, as he moves his Sulikowski Shark and Fish Conservation Lab to ASU's West campus. He poses with the jaw of a bull shark. He also serves as the associate director of the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Christopher Dozier, BA in exploratory theater studies, and others have fun with the balloons following the Fall 2019 Undergraduate Commencement on Dec. 16 at Desert Financial Arena. Around 2,200 undergraduates, their families and friends came to celebrate the baccalaureate accomplishments.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Kailani Rue, 8, of Gilbert, Arizona, is excited about the distance her just-made sling-shot rocket went at the ASU Open Door on the Polytechnic campus. The university’s annual open house drew hundreds of families from the southeast Valley to explore activities and programs in the labs and innovative learning spaces.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Maria Hernandez offers her 2-year-old daughter Almudena Cerecedo a small cupcake from Bee's Sweets at the Prepped Showcase in downtown Phoenix. Fourteen food businesses offered their samples following their immersive training that covered sustainable business operations, food costing and financial literacy, small business marketing, communications strategies, permits and licensing.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Emeritus Professors of English Don and Alleen Nilsen talk about the many places they’ve worked over their careers and their passion for the global study of humor, at their Tempe home. The two recently published "Language of Humor: An Introduction," which won the 2019 Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor Book Award.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Business marketing junior Aleksei Stojanovic celebrates with Sparky after being awarded $1,000 for his GoSurf database, service and application review resource for the surf industry, at the fall 2019 ASU Venture Devils Demo Day pitch competition. Eighty teams gave five-minute elevator pitches, with 26 of them winning a part of more than $145,000 from six funding tracts.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Dance graduate Reayanna Erving kicks up a move as she crosses the stage to pick up her diploma cover at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts convocation. Around 750 of the 900 doctoral, master's and bachelor's graduates participated in the May celebration.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Alexandra Vicknair beams as her mentor, Regents and Distinguished Foundation Professor Donald Fixico, places her hood signifying she has earned her doctorate in history at the Graduate Commencement in May. More than 4,800 students, from more than 140 countries, earned their master's and doctoral degrees.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Educational doctors in leadership and innovation Kira Gatewood (left), Allison Atkins, JoAnn Martinez and Emerald Ochonogor (right) have a group hug at the Graduate Commencement.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Actor/dancer Ausette Anderies shows production members how her silk-web scarves flow in her costume for the "Kiss of the Spider Woman" production at the Nelson Fine Arts Center costume shop. The 1975 Buenos Aires prison performance ran in late October and early November.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
In the gallery below, Ed Garnero is a professor who applies his seismology profession to his bass guitar-building avocation. He creates musical instruments with repurposed wood. He experiments with creating channels that run nearly their entire length. He asks, "How far can I take the traditional electric bass design ... to make it come alive?" Here is his story.
-
Professor Ed Garnero plays one of his four-string fretless basses at his Tempe home studio. Garnero, who researches the nature of planetary interiors using the tool of seismology, builds bass guitars with bodies and necks from reclaimed and repurposed woods (trees that fall in the Valley, such as acacia, sissoo, olive and mesquite).
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero plays one of his six-string fretless basses in his garage workshop.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
The Robby Roberson Band, with Roberson on steel guitar (left) and Garnero on bass, plays a three-set show at Janey's Coffee Co. & Bodega in Cave Creek. Roberson is an ASU assistant professor who studies fungal cell behavior and cytoplasmic order and dynamics. The two met more than 10 years ago when a graduate student brought them together to play at a party.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero checks to make sure there are no more high areas as he sands the rosewood neck of a new bass. He uses a long straight block of wood with sandpaper to ensure there are no low spots. He has already inlaid the maple fret lines. Next, he will seal the wood to prevent it from oxidizing and warping. A local fallen Mediterranean olive tree is the body of the bass.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero uses a band saw to create another template for making bass guitar bodies at the ASU woodshop. One of his side gigs is being a shop monitor so he can use some of the machinery there, including the table saw, jointer, band saw and routers. He also has access to wood scraps, a couple of which will end up as his cutting boards or perhaps the neck of his next bass.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero squares off the routed corners for the bridge to be set in the olive wood body. He experiments with creating channels that run nearly the length of the instrument. He asks, "How far can I take the traditional electric bass design ... to make it come alive?"
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
After cleaning up, Garnero goes through the scrap wood box and finds a fragrant piece of rosewood, which might end up as part of a cutting board or jewelry box.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Professor Garnero answers a student's question before he delivers a lecture to his GLG 490/598 seismology class.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero delivers a lecture to his GLG 490/598 seismology class on the Tempe campus. With each lecture, he has to meet the challenges of reaching both undergraduate and graduate students.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
-
Garnero double-checks his calculations as he leads a discussion on the depth of the location of stress impacts of earthquakes.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
Top photo: This is a mockup of a cubesat robotic arm developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for reaching for previously launched components in space. The arm's controlling "brains" are being developed at ASU's School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, led by Assistant Professor Heni Ben Amor. The arm will be attached to cubesats and will locate and assemble components in space. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU Now
More Sun Devil community
Adventure coaching takes student support outdoors
On a recent sunny morning, a circle of Arizona State University students is flinging colorful balls and toys to each other on a lawn. Each student had to focus on all the items flying through the air…
Photos: 2025 Polytechnic Open Door
Families explored sound, automotive technology and other engineering fun at Saturday's ASU Open Door, where the Polytechnic campus' specialities came into the spotlight.The free annual event welcomes…
Tourism touchdown: ASU students work behind the scenes at Super Bowl
Mariah Vergara is the first to admit she’s not a sports fan.In fact, she said she didn’t know a single player on the rosters of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, who played in the 2025…