Inquiring Minds

Every election cycle brings headlines about the lack of voter participation among 18- to 24- year-olds. The conventional wisdom is that young people are too apathetic or tuned out to vote. But, according to George Mason University research from the 2025 election cycle, that story is wrong.

As the university’s Grand Challenge Initiative (GCI) enters its second year, George Mason University today announced funding for seven catalyst research projects and the launch of the Grand Challenge Research Exchange—quarterly convenings for all GCI-related research to accelerate solutions to the grand challenge of our time.

George Mason University has become Virginia’s first R1 research institution to commercialize a product under the state’s new Lab-to-Launch initiative, marking an early milestone in the commonwealth’s push to accelerate university research into the market. 

George Mason University’s leadership in advancing 21st-century education took another leap forward this month when several university researchers were named to a statewide project exploring the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on teaching and learning in higher education classrooms.

George Mason’s Virginia Climate Center (VCC) has unveiled the commonwealth’s first comprehensive, peer-reviewed climate assessment—a landmark report that provides science-based insights into Virginia’s changing climate and its impacts on communities, infrastructure, and the economy.

With the global rise of Korean culture—from K-pop and film to food and language—George Mason University’s Mason Korea campus recently launched the Center for Korean Culture and Society (CKCS), its first independently operating research center.

Cognitive training program implemented by George Mason University social work researchers offers promising, non-medicine-based methods to support brain health in older adults.

Illicit massage businesses (IMBs) run by human trafficking rings are rampant in the United States. A George Mason professor has helped build what may be the best AI-driven tool to root them out.

There are currently more than 80,000 unaccounted-for service members from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, and other conflicts. George Mason University’s ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is exploring new ways of locating the missing remains of those American service members and bringing closure to their families. 

In partnership with Prince William County, George Mason University’s Biomedical Research Laboratory is working to prevent outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases.