It's official! Results of a study by College Rover show that the artist of choice for intelligent students is Taylor Swift. Case in point, entomologist and Interfaces of Global Change Alumnus, Dr. Derek Hennen. Hennen told the HuffPost, “I’m a big fan of Taylor’s music, and I listened to her music a lot during graduate school. It brought me joy and helped me through some difficult times."

According to the study 38% of students said they very often listen to music while studying, and 27% said they always do. To find the ultimate study songs, College Rover surveyed 1,025 students ages 18 to 23 about their study soundtracks. They also used Spotify’s API to analyze 48,077 songs in study playlists to discover which tunes correlate with higher academic achievement.

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According to College Rover's study: For those looking to boost their grades, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and SZA were the top favorites of students with the highest GPAs (3.5-4.0). The next time you choose partners for a group project, you might want to skip asking about majors and look at everyone’s Spotify playlists instead.

Dr. Hennen, published a paper on his graduate research in the journal ZooKeys describing 17 new species of twisted-claw millipedes from Appalachia.  An avowed "Swiftie" himself, Hennen named one of the species after musician Taylor Swift - Nannaria swiftae. "Since this new species is from Tennessee and she lived in Tennessee for a while, I thought it was a nice fit,” continued Hennen in his Huffpost interview. 

Cover of ELLAS Magazine - Dr. Angie Estrada
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Buzz from Hennen's twitter feed helped the news make national headlines and he was interviewed by Rolling Stone Magazine, NPR, HuffPost and others!  Hennen also made an  appearance on West Virginia Public Broadcasting Radio show, Inside Appalachia. 

Dr. Derek Hennen is a '20 alumnus of the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP. You can learn about his current research on his website. While at Virginia Tech, his research  focused on the systematics, biodiversity, and natural history of Myriapoda (millipedes, centipedes, and others).