News

The newly renamed Department of Physics and Astronomy reflects a growing interest in space-related teaching and research among Baylor students and faculty.

Each December, Christianity Today announces the winners of its annual book awards, books CT deems “most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” This year’s winners included a slew of Baylor alumni — especially in the “Culture, Poetry and the Arts” category.

Christianity Today recognized four books in this area — a winner, an award of merit, and two finalists — and three of the four honorees were written by a group of five Baylor English doctoral graduates.

Baylor University senior Isabella Zárate, an international studies and environmental studies double major from Katy, Texas, has been awarded the highly competitive Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University.

In this installment of Creative Spaces, a look at distinctive offices in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, we visit the memorabilia-filled office of Dr. Julie Sweet, professor of history.

Baylor University’s student chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) has been honored by the national organization with an Outstanding Chapter award in the category of Celebrating Culture. Students and faculty representing SACNAS at Baylor received the award Oct. 31 while attending the National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) conference in Phoenix.

Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Baylor University, talks about gratitude as more than a seasonal sentiment on Baylor Connections.

Baylor students played important roles as the University hosted the 2024 Eugene Scassa Mock Organization of American States Program's 28th Summit of the Americas. The Baylor OAS team represented Panama and debated resolutions to manage transnational migration, provide access to drinking water and keep corruption out of elections.    

At a recent international competition in Washington, D.C., Baylor's Model United Nations team was named an Outstanding Delegation for its work representing the Republic of Korea. Team members grappled with topics including global peace, sustainable development and human rights.

Baylor students can gain skills and new perspectives through on-the-job experience. Internships give students the chance to test out an industry or profession to see if it’s a good fit for them, and can give them ideas about the kind of jobs they might or might not want to pursue.

Meet this year’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award honorees for excellence in research, teaching and dissertation.

Dr. Ginger Hanchey, director of literature and creative writing and senior lecturer in English and Director of the Core in the College of Arts & Sciences, says Baylor’s English department is making the courses it offers better suited to both student interests and today’s fast-changing world. 

Advisors in College of Arts & Sciences Advisement (CASA) make it their mission to help students get to where they want to go in life.

Four aviation sciences majors at Baylor will be representing the University at a pair of prestigious national aviation conferences in the spring of 2025.

Baylor alumna Kristen Mittelman is using state-of-the art DNA technology she helped develop to assist law enforcement in catching criminals and identifying missing persons.

Baylor alumna Claire St. Amant is using her nationwide crime reporting experience to teach students and publish her first book.

Fellow designation honors Dr. Gesztesy’s distinguished contributions to the mathematical sciences.

Ivan Korendovych, Ph.D., the inaugural James. R. Schofield Endowed Chair in Biochemistry at Baylor University, has been recognized by the American Chemical Society as the preceptor for this year’s Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, a national ACS award that recognizes an outstanding graduate student and instructor in chemistry.

Alyssa Mills, a Ph.D. candidate in geosciences at Baylor University and a graduate affiliate of NASA's Europa Clipper mission science team, is using machine learning to map the seafloor of Europa. 

Baylor study finds differing perceptions in PR professionals' expectations versus performance and prompts changes to PR accreditation and certification exams.

In Texas politics, there have been few more influential figures than Baylor’s own Bob Bullock (JD ’58), a longtime elected official and Baylor law graduate. So it stands to reason that the professorship named for him in Baylor’s Department of Political Science would be held by a professor with his own recognized expertise on the influence of politics and public policy on citizens.

Dr. Patrick Flavin came to Baylor in 2010 and now serves as the Bob Bullock Professor of Political Science at Baylor. Over the last 15 years, a wide array of academic journals and popular media outlets have come to Flavin for insights on his key areas of research: political inequality, politics and quality of life, political behavior, and more.

Baylor University’s Corey P. Carbonara, Ph.D., professor of film and digital media, Master Teacher and an innovator in advancing new frontiers in media production technology, has been selected to receive the 2024 Presidential Proclamation from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE).

Microbiome researcher Aaron Wright, Ph.D., has earned a $5.6 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative Research Award that could lead to personalized treatments for gut microbiome diseases like IBS, Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis and more. 

New research from Baylor University reveals that coyotes, like domestic dogs, have the ability to produce the famous "puppy dog eyes" expression, challenging the hypothesis that this facial feature evolved exclusively in dogs as a result of domestication.

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has announced that Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D., professor of history at Baylor University and The John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair for Baylor in Latin America, is among the 45 fellows who will make up the sixth cohort of its Leadership Academy/La Academia de Liderazgo.

Did you know that one of the oldest continuously published collegiate literary magazines in the country is run by Baylor undergraduate students? The Phoenix is annually edited, published, and produced by Baylor undergrads from its home in Carroll Science, and has been running since the 1950s.

The Phoenix “represents a unique opportunity for Baylor students both to have their creative work published and to gain experience producing, all on their own, a significant literary review,” says Baylor English professor Arna Hemenway, one of the magazine’s faculty advisors.

Dr. Kimberly Kellison, Associate Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and Associate Professor of History at Baylor University, has been awarded the 2023 Guittard Book Award for Historical Scholarship for her book, Forging a Christian Order: South Carolina Baptists, Race, and Slavery, 1696-1860. 

Baylor's 10th annual Boundary Breaking Women’s Panel to take place from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, on the fifth floor of the Cashion Academic Center. The event features 10 Baylor faculty and staff members in campus leadership roles of leadership to highlighting showcase 10 women boundary-breakers.

This fall, Baylor University is joining universities and communities around the country to increase public awareness and prevention education about sexual assault and interpersonal violence as the Equity, Civil Rights, & Title IX Office brings awareness to The Red Zone.

The Baylor Libraries Author Series will highlight Baylor faculty authors Dr. João Chaves and Dr. Mikeal Parsons and their publication, “Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story of Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy” (Eerdmans, 2023). This author series session will take place on Tuesday, September 24, at 3:00 p.m. in the Schumacher Flex Commons on the main floor of Moody Memorial Library, as well as online via Zoom Webinar. Dr. Beth Allison Barr, the James Vardaman Endowed Professor of History at Baylor, will interview the authors.

Ten Baylor University faculty members have been selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., to serve as 2024-2025 Baylor Fellows for their excellence in teaching and desire to advance Baylor’s commitment to transformational education.

Peter J. Hotez, M.D, Ph.D., an internationally recognized leader in tropical medicine and vaccine development who serves as University Professor of Biology at Baylor University, has recently received two prestigious national awards for his research and contributions to science and global health.

Earlier this year, Pamela Tremont (BA ’90, MA ’92) was sworn in as the United States ambassador to Zimbabwe — the culmination of a road to foreign service that began at Baylor three decades ago.

At Baylor, Tremont earned her bachelor’s in political science and her master’s in international relations, during which time she was also a part of Baylor Ambassadors, the Foreign Affairs Association, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. Upon graduating from Baylor, she embarked on a career that has included stops at U.S. embassies in Turkey, the United Kingdom, Zambia, Cyprus, Ukraine, and Sweden, most recently as deputy chief of mission in Stockholm.

Through her research at Baylor University with Dr. Peter James, Allie North had the opportunity to present at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) in March 2024. Allie's poster presentation was about the work she has done over the Gruithuisen Domes, which are volcanic constructs on the moon. Allie was recently notified that she received the Stephen E. Dwornik Planetary Geosciences Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award. 

The John and Nancy Jackson Endowed Chair in Latin America & Professor of History, Dr. Felipe Hinojosa, looks to add to this year's Hispanic Heritage Month events by bringing in esteemed guest faculty for three lectures. 

Come enjoy the James Vardaman Lecture featuring Dr. Carolyn Muessig on Thursday, August 29, 2024 in the Armstrong Browning Library from 3:30 - 5:00 pm. 

FirstGen Forward, formerly the Center for First-generation Student Success, has announced Baylor University as one of 14 higher education institutions selected to its inaugural class of FirstGen Forward Network Champions.

A new Baylor certificate program trains students in the rapidly growing field of health communication.

Baylor’s newest MFA degree aims to produce Oscar-worthy filmmakers.

As students head back to class, they may feel challenged by the adjustment of waking up early to make it to class on time. This is especially true of adolescents, whose natural sleep pattern tends to be late to bed and late to wake, said Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor University’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and associate professor of psychology and neuroscience. 

Baylor's BRIGHTS Center seeks to help people reach their potential.

Longtime Baylor English professor Coretta Pittman is heading up the effort in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences to advance diversity and belonging.

Researchers document groundbreaking insights into the reproductive behaviors of a mysterious apex predator.

Baylor Arts & Sciences alumnus and Baptist minister Steven Reece has spent almost two decades helping to restore historic Jewish cemeteries in Poland.

Dr. Francis Beckwith, professor of philosophy in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has received a 2024 Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from the Heritage Foundation.

Baylor’s Ministry Guidance Program helps students discover and fulfill their Christian calling.

Twenty-seven years after their graduation from Baylor University, the Hansen Quadruplets of San Antonio talk about their families and careers and recall some fond memories of Waco.

Dr. Julie Sweet discusses why - and how - she makes history come alive on the Baylor Connections podcast.

After 40 years as one of the faces of San Antonio’s KSAT, Jessie Degollado (BA ’72) is stepping out of the spotlight.

Degollado was one of a host of KSAT veterans to retire July 1, ending an era in San Antonio. Whether reporting on issues affecting San Antonio, South Texas or both sides of the Rio Grande, Degollado used her journalistic nose, her knowledge of Hispanic culture and language, and just plain hard work to keep the people of San Antonio informed for four decades.

As we survive through this hot Texas summer and hopefully enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle of the school year, parts of Founders Mall are being reimagined. If you look now, you will see the construction fences that signify years of preparation coming to fruition.

The Department of Mathematics at Baylor University will host a workshop on Abstract Elementary Classes (AEC) July 25-27, in honor of the 70th birthday of renowned mathematician Rami Grossberg, Ph.D., of Carnegie Mellon University. 

Baylor University planetary geophysicist Peter B. James, Ph.D., assistant professor and founder of the Planetary Research Group at Baylor, has been recognized by NASA with the 2023 Planetary Science Early Career Award (ECA). 

Three faculty members and three doctoral students from the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences have received 2024 grant awards from Louisville Institute.

The Air Force ranks include more than 61,000 officers; only 108 of those have reached the rank of brigadier general. In December, Baylor graduate Randall Cason Jr. (BS ’95) joined that esteemed group — and he chose to return to his alma mater to mark the occasion.

Garritt J. Tucker, Ph.D., The Eula Mae and John Baugh Chair in Physics, is part of a multi-institution, interdisciplinary effort to discover new materials and create innovative pathways for advancing materials performance under extreme conditions. The $12.5 million research team was funded through the Department of Energy (DOE) for the next five years.

Baylor University faculty members Julie Hoggarth, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology, and Jeffrey C. Petersen, Ph.D., professor of sport management, have been selected to receive the 2024 Centennial Professor Awards for summer research projects on the impact of drought on the Mayan collapse and the expansion of administrative staff within collegiate sports, respectively. 

The Baylor Model Organization of American States team represented the Republic of Chile at the Washington, D.C. MOAS Summit in April 2024.

Three Baylor undergraduates went to Niigata, Japan, in March 2024 to participate in the Niigata Animation Camp, described as “a cutting-edge development program tailored for aspiring young directors, staff and students in the realm of international animation.” 

For the first time in team history, Baylor Model United Nations teamed up with another program, Japan Model United Nations, to participate as a joint delegation at the National Model United Nations New York Conference.

WACO, Texas (April 19, 2024) – Three Baylor University faculty members -- Dr. Ericka S. Dunbar, Dr. Rebecca Flavin and Dr. Jennifer L. Hargrave -- are recipients of the 2023-2024 Core Curriculum Virtues Recognition Award from the College of Arts & Sciences. 

Baylor University mourns the death of beloved alumna and unofficial Independence historian Lanella Spinks Gray, B.A. ’54, of Houston on April 6. Gray, who was known as ‘Miss Baylor,’ became well known among Baylor’s students while serving as host to Baylor Line Camp groups visiting the University’s original campus site in Independence, Texas.

Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, has received the prestigious Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.

Twelve Baylor University professors have been honored with Outstanding Faculty Awards for teaching, scholarship and contributions to the academic community for the 2023-2024 academic year.

DIGNITY FOR DEEPLY FORGETFUL PEOPLE
How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer's Disease
By Stephen G. Post

Thursday, April 18, 2024

5:00 PM

Baylor Sciences Building Room D110

 

During Eclipse Over Texas on Monday, 50+ representatives of Baylor’s Department of Physics were on hand at McLane Stadium to assist and educate those in attendance. We asked a couple of them — Dr. Lorin Swint Matthews (BS ’94, PhD ’98) and Dr. Barbara Castainheria Endl — to help us understand what we saw during the eclipse.

Baylor University and the Waco community will have the opportunity to hear from Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar and author Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. during this year’s Beall-Russell Lecture in the Humanities at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, at Waco Hall, 624 Speight Ave. 

Guided by their faculty mentors and supported by the Office of Engaged Learning, Baylor University undergraduates are off to a record-breaking pace for attaining some of the most prestigious and highly competitive fellowships and awards at the national and international level.

With Waco, Texas in the path of totality for the 2024 solar eclipse, Baylor University researchers have a first-hand opportunity to study the effects that people might feel as they witness this once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Levi Garza is a second-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Baylor University. He invests his time and effort into making chemistry accessible to the visually impaired and those with mobility issues to increase inclusivity in science. Levi wants all people to have the opportunity to study chemistry if they desire. He is putting in efforts to ensure that all individuals have access to a diverse range of commonly used and highly practical options.

WACO, Texas (March 21, 2024) – The Human Biology Association has honored Samuel S. Urlacher, Ph.D., assistant professor and graduate program director for the Department of Anthropology at Baylor University, with its premier early career award in the field – the 2024 Michael A. Little Early Career Award – for Urlacher’s work and research as a human evolutionary biologist.

Countless women have come through the halls of Baylor before going on to do amazing things. Here’s a look at some Baylor Bears who have made names for themselves in the arts — locally, nationally and internationally:

Yang Li, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental science at Baylor University, has won a competitive NASA Early Career Investigator Program in Earth Science award that supports outstanding scientific research and career development of scientists and engineers at the early stage of their professional careers. 

Countless women have come through the halls of Baylor before going on to do amazing things. Here’s a look at some Baylor Bears who have made lasting changes in the world of politics and law — at the local, state and national level:

The 2022 Guittard Book Award for Historical Scholarship was awarded to Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg, for her book, Women, Dance and Parish Religion in England, 1300-1640. 

When Baylor was chartered in 1845, it was one of the first coeducational colleges or universities west of the Mississippi River — about 10 years before any public institution of higher learning would introduce mixed-gender learning, and a full 75 years before American women were guaranteed the right to vote.

Dorina, Marius and Irina Mitrea complete “epic journey” with five-volume research monograph that lays foundations for a new genre of mathematics.

The team traveled to the University of Central Oklahoma to qualify for the NDT in a rigorous 8 round competition against other universities from a district covering Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Caleb D. Martin, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor University and a leading researcher in synthestic boron chemistry, has received a prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has recognized Baylor University as a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for students selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

WACO, Texas (Feb. 12, 2024) – More than 250 U.S. cities have made pledges to transition to 100% renewable energy sources by the year 2050. However, in a new study published in the journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, Baylor University researchers found that, despite efforts, the target date to move to fully sustainable energy sources is unrealistic. 

WACO, Texas (Jan. 31, 2024) – The Center for Public Justice has awarded its prestigious 2024 Hatfield Prize to Baylor University senior mechanical engineering major Jackson Boone and Colby Humphrey, Ph.D., lecturer in political science at Baylor.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 30, 2024) – Baylor University Advanced Japanese students received the International Award for their calligraphy display at the 36th International Kakyou Calligraphy Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. 

 WACO, Texas (Jan. 23, 2024) – Baylor University today named Jay L. Banner, Ph.D., F. M. Bullard Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, as the 2024 recipient of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 18, 2024) – Dr. Andrew Hogue, associate dean for engaged learning in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has received the 2024 Churchill Adviser Award from the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States.

Baylor graduates make an impact in virtually any field you can think of; this year’s Baylor Alumni Award winners are no different, with recipients leading the charge in areas ranging from financial stewardship to fighting hunger and poverty to chaplaincy.

Students explore person-centered care at the intersection of science and the humanities.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 11, 2024) – Baylor University is mourning the death of Roger E. Kirk, Ph.D., Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Statistics and the University’s longest tenured faculty member at 61 years. Dr. Kirk died Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 10, 2024) – Featured on the cover of this week’s prestigious journal Science Advances, a first-of-its-kind tactile learning device developed by Baylor University chemistry professors to make science accessible to students with blindness or low vision has opened the possibility of the transfer of any scientific data or images for sighted students into functional, thorough formats for students with blindness.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 13, 2023) – Lorin Swint Matthews, B.A. ’94, Ph.D. ’98, chair and professor of physics and associate director of Baylor’s Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research (CASPER), was appointed as a 2023 Fellow of the American Physical Society. She is the first faculty member to earn an APS Fellowship at Baylor.

WACO, Texas (December 12, 2023) – Lee Nordt, Ph.D., professor of geosciences and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor University, participated in a historic, comprehensive study on the relationship between climate and CO2, the results of which were published Dec. 7 in the journal Science.

NBC News covers Baylor professor’s efforts to make science labs accessible to students with blindness.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 5, 2023) – Dorina Mitrea, Ph.D., department chair and professor of mathematics at Baylor University, was named a 2024 Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, one of only four mathematicians from Baylor to be honored with the prestigious designation.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 27, 2023) - Two students working in the laboratory of Dr. Jason Pitts, associate professor of biology, have won awards for presentations of their research involving mosquito behavior and ecology.

Understanding how social connectiveness mitigates the effects of historical and childhood trauma.

Dr. Matt Gerber was awarded the 2023 American Forensics Association (AFA) Distinguished Service Award for his decades of service to the college debate community.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 14, 2023) – Leading Baylor University positive psychology researchers, Sarah Schnitker, Ph.D., and Jo-Ann Tsang, Ph.D., who specialize in the study of gratitude, have identified three science-based mechanisms that can cultivate gratitude and improve empathy. This work is especially timely during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 10, 2023) – Guinness World Records has confirmed that Dr. Alexander Pruss, professor of philosophy in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has set the world record for the fastest vertical mile on a climbing wall.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 9, 2023) – Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D., The James Vardaman Professor of History and author of “The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth” has been recognized on the Michael Ramsey Prize 2023 Longlist of 13 books being considered for the award. 

WACO, Texas (Oct. 31, 2023) – Does a fine-tuned life provide evidence for a multiverse? A Baylor University philosophy professor’s co-authored article on the topic has been judged one of the best academic journal articles published in philosophy in 2022.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 26, 2023) – Baylor University today announced a $2 million gift from Scott and Susan Orr of The Woodlands, Texas, establishing the Scott & Susan Orr Family Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities & Christian Faith to support teaching, mentorship and innovative research in the Medical Humanities Program within the College of Arts & Sciences.

In a History class this semester, students learned that research can be fun and engaging. With Dr. Julie Sweet leading the way, Baylor students learned all about the Boston Tea Party, then took the campus by storm, marching to the Waco Creek Bridge with a crowd of more than 100 ready for an adventure to watch as students in coattails and stockings reenacted their research, right here on campus.