With Rivalry Week in full swing on both the University of Utah campus as well as Brigham Young University (BYU), collegiate rivalry often takes center stage. Yet, in just the past 10 years, faculty from both colleges have coauthored 1,388 research projects together—from air quality and atmospheric research to developing safer dating apps and language studies.

While athletic competitions between the two schools get a lot of headlines, academic collaborations get a lot of important research done. And it’s been this way for quite some time.

“We have a long history of academic collaborations with the University of Utah, some of which go back more than 50 years and are ongoing today,” said BYU Associate Academic VP Larry Howell.

The rivals on the field are, in fact, not rivals in the lab. In fact, many full-time BYU faculty studied at the University of Utah and vice versa: Of BYU’s roughly 1,500 faculty members, 202 of them have a total of 262 degrees from Utah, including 111 doctorates, 78 masters, 68 bachelor’s and five others.

But that partnership is not limited to employees. Some 1,443 U graduates have applied to BYU graduate programs over the past decade, and countless other BYU students have worked alongside Utah colleagues on research projects.

“The University of Utah and BYU share a longstanding tradition of impactful research and academic collaboration,” said University of Utah Vice President for Research Erin Rothwell. “Together, our efforts advance knowledge to address societal challenges and make a lasting difference for Utah communities and beyond.”

Here are a few examples of noteable academic collaborations between the U and BYU:

• A collaboration between faculty and students at the U, BYU and in Nepal is studying air pollution’s impact on humans in Nepal by measuring brick workers’ exposure to pollutants and to assess their respiratory health.
• Ramesh Goel, U professor of civil and environmental engineering, in collaboration with BYU geology professor Greg Carling, studies Utah Lake sediment interactions with algal-bloom-forming nutrients loads in Utah Lake. The two have worked directly with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality on many of their findings.
• Chemical Engineering professors Andrew Fry (BYU) and Kody Powell (the U) have carried on the legacy of energy collaborations that date back to the 60s and 70s. The two recently finished a project at the Hunter Powerplant to integrate AI to make the plant more flexible to adapt to new conditions.
• Great Salt Lake nematodes: Byron Adams of BYU is working with Michael Werner at the U’s School of Biological Sciences to identify several species of roundworms Werner’s lab has discovered in Great Salt Lake mircrobialites, the reef-like structures that cover about a fifth of the lakebed.
• Faculty at the U and BYU regularly collaborate on air quality and atmospheric research. A 2020 study, for example, characterized the overall effects of air pollution on Utah’s health and economy. The study involved 16 researchers across two BYU departments and three U departments. The team estimated that air pollution shortens Utahns’ lives by around two years and costs Utah’s economy nearly $2 billion annually.

One of the most consequential pieces of recent Utah-BYU academic collaboration has had a major impact on Utah law regarding sexual assault. Utah has higher rates than the U.S. average for sexual and gender-based violence, with 1 in 6 women reporting having been raped. Online dating has become the most common way for couples to meet and in some of the first research of its kind, researchers at the U and BYU are investigating how to make dating apps safer.

In a 2022 study, the research team found that apps were hunting grounds for sexual predators. In response, the Utah Legislature passed HB18 in 2023, requiring apps to provide information on sexual assault and a clear way to report them.

“When we look at the research, we find that the gaps in our understanding are Grand Canyon-sized. We have to study this difficult topic to create safer and healthier communities,” said Julie Valentine, who initiated the research at BYU and is continuing the collaborative work as the Ida May “Dotty” Barnes, R.N. and D. Keith Barnes, M.D. Presidential Endowed Chair at the University of Utah College of Nursing. “The way we stop it is through research and then using that research to drive policy and positive change.”

The study and bill passed while Julie Valentine was still at BYU. She is continuing this research as faculty at the U in collaboration with Leslie Miles of BYU.

This article was jointly written by members of the U’s communications department, University of Utah Health science communications and BYU’s communications department.