News

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. 22, 2024) – Dr. Katharine Hayhoe and Dr. Peter J. Hotez will take part in a panel discussion titled "Climate Change in the 21st Century on Jan. 29, 2024, in the Baylor Sciences Building.

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. 

Dr. Mona Minkara, a bioengineering professor at Northeastern University in Boston, was in Waco last week — a long way from the campus she calls home.

The reason for her trip? To join Baylor Chemistry’s Dr. Bryan Shaw in his lab, demonstrating to students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI) what she longed to hear at their age.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 16, 2023) – Baylor University announced today the launch of the Baylor Research in Growth and Human Thriving Science (BRIGHTS) Center, a multidisciplinary center designed to catalyze research related to the science of human flourishing.

As Baylor pursued and received R1 research recognition, leaders across the university noted it was about more than mere prestige; it was about having a “seat at the table,” where Baylor professors could bring a Christian research university’s viewpoints and ideas into settings where real impact can take place.

The litany of significant awards, appointments and assignments Baylor sciences faculty have received in recent months suggest that dream is coming true.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 11, 2023) – Baylor University has received its first-ever Fulbright-Hays grant that will assist the University in strengthening its East Asian language programs (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) and Asian Studies program.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 11, 2023) – Research has demonstrated that increased stress and all-night study sessions can lead to lower cognitive functioning and test scores, adding even more pressure on college students. 

Baylor horror film expert lists 10 movies that give thrills without too much of the chills.

After earning a Fulbright as a Baylor student, Ross Natividad has served others through international and immigration law.

The 2023-2024 Readers Meet the Author series begins on Thursday, Oct. 12, at 12:15 p.m. on the first floor of Moody Memorial Library in the Schumacher Flex Commons. Dr. Greg Garrett, professor of English and the Carole McDaniel Hanks Chair in Literature and Culture, will discuss his recently published novel, “Bastille Day” (Paraclete Press, 2023).

WACO, Texas (Oct. 2, 2023) – The noonday sky will put on a spectacular show Saturday, Oct. 14, as the annular solar eclipse will be visible in North America for the first time since 2012. Unlike a total solar eclipse, an annular eclipse means that the outer corona of the sun will be visible, producing a beautiful “Ring of Fire.” 

Felipe Hinojosa Joins Baylor to Serve as Jackson Family Chair for Baylor in Latin America.

According to the recently released data from the Academic Philosophy Data and Analysis (APDA) project, covering a 10-year period from 2013 to 2023, Baylor has secured the #2 spot out of 147 programs worldwide for permanent academic position placement.

WACO, Texas (Sept. 20, 2023) – Richard Rankin Russell, Ph.D., professor of English and graduate program director of English at Baylor University, has been selected as a member of the inaugural cohort of Inklings Project Fellows for the academic year 2023-2024. Based out of the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, the Inklings Project is an intercollegiate initiative that invites scholars to explore the worlds of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and the other members of the famed Inklings author group.

Yoaav Isaacs, Ph.D., had a co-authored article selected as one of the 10 journal articles included in the 2022 Philosopher’s Annual.

Baylor University has appointed Doug Weaver, Ph.D., as the Barbara Jo Beard Driskell Endowed Research Chair in Historical Studies.

Two history professors are using their heritage to engage students

WACO, Texas (Sept. 7, 2023) – John L. Wood, Ph.D., The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and co-director of the Baylor Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Lab, has received the Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products from the American Chemical Society.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 30, 2023) – George Cobb, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Science at Baylor University, has been selected to serve as chair of the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC), which provides independent advice on science and technical issues to assist the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act

WACO, Texas (Aug. 30, 2023) – Ten Baylor University faculty members across the disciplines have been selected by Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., to serve as 2023-2024 Baylor Fellows for their excellence in teaching and commitment to pedagogical innovation, inspirational teaching and the cultivation of these areas among Baylor faculty.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 28 , 2023) – Michael A. Trakselis, Ph.D., professor and director of graduate affairs for the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, overcame two barriers to conduct his groundbreaking research on a novel DNA enzyme. 

WACO, Texas (Aug. 28, 2023) – Hot flashes are one of the most concerning and most reported symptoms among menopausal women and breast cancer survivors. In an article published this month in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, researchers at Baylor University tested the efficacy of paroxetine by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of six clinical trials, finding that the benefits of paroxetine in the treatment of hot flashes to be comparable to that of the placebo response.

Many Baylor fans may not realize that one of the key reporters they’re reading or watching in CBS Sports’ college football coverage is a fellow Bear — in fact, one whose work they may have read right here on campus.

Less than a decade after his days writing for The Baylor Lariat, Shehan Jeyarajah (BA ’16) has established himself as a leading national voice who now serves as a national college football writer for CBS Sports.

Will Erickson, Ph.D. Baylor Mathematics Postdoctoral Associate won the 2023 George Pólya Award, awarded by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

WACO, Texas (Aug. 17, 2023) – Baylor University is mourning the death of Provost Emeritus John S. Belew, B.A. ’41, Ph.D., who served as a longtime chemistry professor well into the 2000s, The Jo Murphy Chair of International Education, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and later as provost, the University’s chief academic officer. Dr. Belew passed away Aug. 9 at the age of 102.

Joining Baylor from Duke University, Benjamin Rose, Ph.D., will serve as co-principal investigator on a project infrastructure team preparing space telescope for use by 2027.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 1, 2023) – Dr. Coretta M. Pittman has assumed the newly created position of associate dean for diversity and belonging in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences.

WACO, Texas (July 27, 2023) – Daniel Romo, Ph.D., The Schotts Professor of Chemistry at Baylor University and co-director of the Baylor Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Lab, is providing synthetic chemistry leadership on an international team of researchers in pursuit of a groundbreaking drug to treat hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI) in newborns.

WACO, Texas (July 26, 2023) - Baylor University announced today the appointment of Garritt J. Tucker, Ph.D., as the inaugural Eula Mae and John Baugh Chair in Physics with a focus on innovative research and teaching in the area of materials science.

When Hunter Harlow (BS ’10) graduated from Baylor with a degree in geosciences/geology, he didn’t imagine taking the road less traveled.

It all started with an idea to create a cooler hat for Big Bend National Park; Sendero Hat Co. created a fun design that included a topographic map inside the bill of the hat. Soon enough, they rebranded to Sendero Provisions Co. and went from packing up hundreds of boxes during their lunch break to hiring about 20 people full-time and operating their own warehousing, fulfillment and distribution. Today, the brand is international.

As a child growing up in Nebraska, Richa Sirohi (BS ’18) never imagined she would pursue a career in space exploration — but a few signs were already there.

Today, Sirohi serves as an end-to-end information systems engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab, working on a project called NISAR — a spacecraft that utilizes radar imaging to understand how the Earth is changing. The work has implications for climate science, resource management, and more back on Earth.

Did you know that a Waco hotspot appeared in Food & Wine’s list of the best coffee shops in America?

It’s true: in 2019, Pinewood Roasters turned heads nationally with a place on the elite list. Waco shined in the description as well: “Is Waco secretly one of the coolest places in Texas right now? This out-of-the-way find, where the house coffees are handled with care and there’s always a good record on the turntable, is one of the growing number of excellent small businesses making a very strong case.”

WACO, Texas (July 12, 2023) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Felipe Hinojosa, Ph.D., as the inaugural Jackson Family Chair for Baylor in Latin America, expanding Baylor’s international footprint and providing additional leadership to advance the priorities of the Baylor in Latin America initiative. 

When Dr. Alan Keister (BA ’92) began offering free health screenings in Amarillo schools 10 years ago, the overwhelming response made it plain: People in his community were suffering and in need of health care resources. Those early services grew into what is now Heal the City, a healthcare organization with clinics providing free services to Amarillo’s uninsured.

In 2018 and 2019, Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, and her colleagues collected movement and dive behavior data and samples from leopard seals off the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Their goal was to compile crucial baseline data on the ecology and physiology of this enigmatic species.

WACO, Texas (June 16, 2023) – Five Baylor University faculty members have received the 2022-2023 Core Curriculum Virtues Recognition Award from the College of Arts & Sciences for inspiring moral, intellectual and/or spiritual virtues in their students.

WACO, Texas (June 15, 2023) – Baylor University is well-represented on a prestigious list compiling the top most-cited researchers in the world. In a database compiled by Stanford University, 36 current or retired Baylor faculty members appear among the top 2% of the most-cited researchers across 22 disciplines.

WACO, Texas (June 6, 2023) – Caleb Martin, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor, and a team of international researchers set out in 2022 to determine first-ever challenge of elemental analysis validity, which has sparked conversations among journal editors and chemists about reevaluating this current threshold.

WACO, Texas (June 2, 2023) -- Heidi Pullmann-Lindsley, a doctoral candidate in biology, has been selected to make a presentation about her mosquito research at the Rising Stars in Entomology Symposium at the Entomological Society of America annual meeting.

How did a Baylor professor play a role in adjusting what scientists thought they knew about Africa’s historic timeline — by 10 million years?!?

It all comes down to a lot of digging, a decade’s worth of research, and the definitive presence of warm-weather grasses.

WACO, Texas (May 30, 2023) – Baylor University’s Department of Religion has announced that Ba Wool (Paul) Kim has been named the recipient of the 2023 Robert L. Gilbert Scholar in Religion Graduate Stipend. Kim has been accepted to the University’s Ph.D. program in religion with a concentration in Old Testament studies.

WACO, Texas (May 17, 2023) – Baylor sleep researcher Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Blake Barley, doctoral candidate in psychology in Scullin’s sleep lab, examined how institutional factors, biological factors and behavioral choices play a role in sleep problems for college students and if these "chronotypes" may more flexible than current theories suggest.

WACO, Texas (May 16, 2023) – For most of U.S. history, tattoos have been associated with sailors and bikers, but not church-going people. As tattoos have become more popular, with nearly one-third of U.S. adults sporting at least one tattoo, religious-themed tattoos have also increased. A recent study examined the behaviors of college students with tattoos, including religious tattoos.

WACO, Texas (May 9, 2023) – Twelve Baylor University professors have been honored with Outstanding Faculty Awards for teaching, scholarship and contributions to the academic community for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Every spring, the Baylor Family bids happy retirement to professors and staff who have dedicated their professional lives to the university and its students. It’s always a bittersweet mix — sadness in seeing them go, happiness for a well-deserved next step — but we wish them all well in the next phase of their lives.

Here, we honor some of the longest-serving and most recognizable professors who are retiring this year — men and women whose faces will be missed, but whose impact will not be forgotten:

Last year, Baylor set a school record when 13 Bears earned prestigious Fulbright scholarships — almost twice the previous BU record! — as part of the nation’s flagship program for international graduate student and education. The year also included a Truman Scholar (BU’s first in 15 years), a Goldwater Scholar, a Churchill Scholar, and two Critical Language Scholars.

And yet — 2023’s student honors may be even more impressive.

WACO, Texas (May 2, 2023) – Results from the Waco COVID Survey have provided needed insights into how the dynamics of COVID-19 transmission, health behaviors and COVID-19-related attitudes changed across the first two years of the pandemic in the McLennan County, Texas.

​WACO, Texas (May 1, 2023) – May 1 marks the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Manila Bay – the first battle of the Spanish-American War.  Baylor University military historian David A. Smith, Ph.D., senior lecturer in history, is the author of A New Force at Sea: George Dewey and the Rise of the American Navy, which tells the story of one of the most important officers in the U.S. Navy between the Civil War and World War II. 

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Fueled by the post-war boom, 1947 was a busy year at Baylor -- and an important year in our nation’s history, as President Truman enacted legislation that created the United States Air Force as a separate military service, breaking ranks from the U.S. Army. Mere months after that birthday — on July 1, 1948 — Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) was formed at Baylor, making our Detachment 810 one of the oldest in the nation.

How does your body respond to stress? What is the impact of stress on heart health? When it comes to answering these and related questions, Baylor can rely on one of the top scientists in the field.

WACO, Texas (April 24, 2023) – Baylor University faculty members Julie deGraffenried, Ph.D., department chair and associate professor of history in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Karon LeCompte, Ph.D.,  associate professor of curriculum and instruction in the Baylor School of Education, have been selected to receive the 2023 Centennial Professor Awards for summer research projects.

WACO, Texas (April 24, 2023) – Baylor University students from across the disciplines have continued their strong momentum into the 2022-2023 academic year by receiving some of the most prestigious – and highly competitive – scholarships and fellowships at the national and international levels for public policy and diplomacy, critical language study, STEM research and more.

WACO, Texas (April 19, 2023) –  Thomas D. McGrath, Ph.D., senior lecturer of chemistry and undergraduate program director in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Baylor University, has been selected as the 2023 Collins Outstanding Professor, an honor voted on annually by the senior class.

WACO, Texas (April 17, 2023) – Richard Rankin Russell, Ph.D., professor of English and graduate program director of English at Baylor University,  was presented with the 2023 Cornelia Marschall Smith Professor of the Year at the annual Academic Honors Convocation on April 14.

WACO, Texas (April 14, 2023) -- Baylor's Model Organization of American States team successfully represented Argentina in a recent international competition in Washington D.C.

WACO, Texas (April 13, 2023) – Something as simple as a grass can fundamentally change the understanding of life in the prehistoric world. A pair of studies funded by the National Science Foundation and published in the journal Science document the earliest evidence for locally abundant C4 grasses in eastern Africa and how C4 grasses and open habitats influenced early ape evolution.

WACO, Texas (April 12, 2023) – Baylor University Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., announced today that Mikeal Parsons, Ph.D., professor and The Macon Chair in Religion at Baylor University, has been designated as Baylor’s inaugural University Distinguished Professor, the highest honor bestowed on Baylor faculty.