News

Each summer, high schoolers hungry for competition come to campus, where they are prepared for the next level by the leaders of a program that’s won three national championships and appeared in nine Final Fours. If you’re thinking athletics, that’s not a bad guess; Baylor’s championship-level coaches host camps in almost every varsity sport each […]

WACO, Texas (July 12, 2022) – Baylor University chemist Bryan Shaw, Ph.D., has been awarded a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to take dramatic steps to open chemistry classes and labs to students with blindness or low vision.

Have you ever stopped to think about how it is that seals and walruses eat? Okay, probably not. And you’re not alone — surprisingly few scientists have ever spent serious time in this field, either. But Dr. Sarah Kienle has. In fact, the Baylor biology professor has done more than merely wonder; her research on the unique […]

If you’ve been a Houston sports fan at any point in the last 50 years, you’re likely familiar with John McClain (BA ’75). The hall of fame sportswriter (and Baylor grad) earned the nickname “The General” while working for the Houston Chronicle for 47 years, until his retirement earlier this spring. A Waco native, McClain’s sportswriting […]

WACO, Texas (June 2, 2022) – Baylor University celebrated its 2022 Champions of Change, Solid Gold Neighbor (SGN) Community honorees for their outstanding community engagement and SGN Research Fellows during a May 25 recognition ceremony, hosted by Baylor’s Office of External Affairs.

Improvements in technology are awesome. They make it possible for a car to drive itself. Robots can answer complex questions in a flash. They can even save lives. However, as tech evolves, it’s easy for human connections to get left behind. To combat this, Baylor grad Olivia Gambelin (BA ’17) hatched an idea. Gambelin grew […]

What bonds Baylor musicians in Scotland with business students in Zambia, or student-athletes in Louisiana with nurses in India? They’re all part of this summer’s Baylor Missions trips, which are again deploying abroad after a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. Already, Baylor students have completed a handful of domestic summer mission trips, and soon teams […]

Chances are good that by now, you’ve heard the name “Dr. John Cheng.” The Southern California sports physician died Sunday after literally taking the bullet when a gunman opened fire at an Orange County church. Cheng’s actions almost certainly saved multiple lives. What you may not have heard was that Cheng was a Baylor Bear […]

WACO, Texas (May 19, 2022) - Dr. Ryan Sharp, assistant professor of English, has received a competitive national fellowship designed to support the work of underrepresented faculty members in the humanities and social sciences.

Looking for some summer reading? Whether your interest is sports, healing racial division, or self-care, we’ve got some recommendations for you — all written by Baylor Bears! First up: The Road to J.O.Y.: Leading with Faith, Playing with Purpose, Leaving a Legacy, by Baylor men’s basketball coach Scott Drew. Drew’s rebuilding of the Baylor program has […]

Being 20 years old, away from home at college, and faced with the challenges of a pandemic is hard enough. Now imagine learning that you have cancer and must undergo chemo in the middle of it all. That’s the situation Baylor senior Ellie Kronlokken faced 18 months ago — and yet, this weekend, the Minnesota […]

WACO, Texas (May 12, 2022) – Baylor University Honors College faculty member Candi K. Cann, Ph.D., associate professor of religion in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC), has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to South Korea, a prestigious and competitive fellowship of the Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

WACO, Texas (May 5, 2022) - Baylor English professor Sebastian J. Langdell has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to complete a book collecting the shorter works of medieval English poet Thomas Hoccleve.

Navigating life as a first-year college student is hard enough — a new city, new classmates, new roommates, etc. Now imagine what that’s like for someone who physically can’t see. But that hasn’t deterred San Antonio native Noah Cook. At three months old, Cook was diagnosed with glaucoma, a condition where the fluid in the […]

"Moon Man Walk," the final Baylor Theatre production of the year, shares a remarkable story of family and identity amidst loss and features an all-Black cast. Learn more about the play with director Sam Henderson.

Three years ago, Baylor set a school record when seven Bears earned prestigious Fulbright scholarships — part of the nation’s flagship program for international graduate study and education. This year, Baylor students are blowing that record out of the water. An incredible 13 BU students have already been named Fulbright recipients for 2022 — a number […]

Baylor is large enough to offer top-notch academics and championship-level athletics — but small enough that you still see your friends when walking across campus. That goes for both BU students and faculty. Baylor’s “not too big, not too small” atmosphere allows interdisciplinary friendships to grow among the faculty — and students reap the benefits. […]

WACO, Texas (April 25, 2022) - Jessica Conforti, a doctoral student in analytical chemistry at Baylor University, has received an honorable mention award from the National Science Foundation for her research activity.

Every year, U.S. News unveils its annual ranking of American colleges and universities to the world. Last fall, Baylor came in at No. 75 in the nation — among the top 20% of national universities — and made the outlet’s short list of best schools for both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research opportunities. (Baylor was […]

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. […]

With his sold-out performances regularly airing on Comedy Central and Netflix (and becoming best-sellers on DVD), ventriloquist-comedian Jeff Dunham (BA ’86) regularly ranks among the nation’s most successful comedians. That success likely comes as no surprise to his Baylor classmates, who saw his star beginning to rise back when he was on campus, more than 30 […]

When Sarah Kraut sat down in her first class as a Baylor freshman — World History 1305 — she didn’t know she’d leave that semester with a new best friend. She also didn’t know that very friend would be the one to save her life. But that’s exactly what happened. When she was 14, Sarah was […]

Where will you be on April 8, 2024? It’s time to make your plans, because there’s a total solar eclipse happening on that date — and Waco will be one of the best spots in the nation to view it! In preparation for this incredible opportunity, Baylor and the City of Waco are partnering with the […]

How big is a nanometer? To envision something so small, envision the width of a human hair. Now divide the tip of that hair by 100,000. Now, you’re in the ballpark. Why does Dr. Zhenrong Zhang work so hard to make chemical reactions at the nanoscale visible? Because the reactions that take place at the […]

WACO, Texas (April 7, 2022) – Scientists of the CDF collaboration at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory – including Baylor University researchers with the Experimental High Energy Physics group – announced today that they have achieved the most precise measurement to date of the mass of the W boson.

Students walking between Old Main and Burleson Hall daily pass through a circular brick area known as Folmar Pavilion, which contains memorials to several Baylor legends of the past. Among them is Dr. Dorothy Scarborough (BA 1896, MA 1899), a remarkable woman who, despite the headwinds women faced a century ago, blazed trails in education, […]

WACO, Texas (March 17, 2022) - A Japanese language rap video written and performed by Baylor Modern Languages and Cultures students received an Award of Excellence in the Japanese Rap Competition, sponsored by the Japan Foundation.

Since graduating from Baylor in 2009, Jamil Brown (BA ’09) has already worn a lot of hats: U.S. Space Force Major, political science instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, fellow at the Institute for Future Conflict, space operations officer, Air Force Weapons School instructor, and more. At the Air Force Academy, Brown teaches international […]

In 2013, Baylor Regents approved “Hallie Earle Hall” as the name for the southern part of what would debut that fall as East Village. Since then, thousands of Bears have lived in the building — but to many, “Earle” is still a new name in Baylor history. So let’s answer the question: Who was Hallie […]

WACO, Texas (Feb. 22, 2022) – Dr. Charity Anderson, associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts & Sciences, is one of the inaugural winners of the Alvin Plantinga Prize from the American Philosophical Association.

WACO, Texas (Feb. 16, 2022) – A $40,000 grant from the Louisville Institute’s Sabbatical Grant for Researchers program will allow Dr. Andrea L. Turpin to research a book project titled “A Debate of Their Own: Women in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy.”

WACO, Texas (Feb. 7, 2022) – Baylor University researchers will examine virtue formation in higher education moral communities, both secular and faith-based, with a $2.7 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 27, 2022) – Baylor University has named Hollylynne S. Lee, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Education at North Carolina State University, as the 2022 recipient of the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 20, 2022) – Baylor University senior chemistry major Kate Rojales of Milton, Georgia, is among 18 recipients of the prestigious Churchill Scholarship in mathematics, science and engineering, announced by the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States. Rojales, who conducts research as an undergraduate in inorganic chemistry, is the second Churchill Scholar in just two years of the University being a participating institution in the program.

WACO, Texas (Jan. 19, 2022) – A recent National Science Foundation funded study that included Baylor University paleoclimatologist Steven L. Forman, Ph.D., professor of geosciences, evaluates current and future dust sources in central North America with consideration for climate change. These fine dust fluxes are detrimental to asthmatic and general cardio-pulmonary health for populations downwind, particularly areas of west Texas and New Mexico that have large areas of significant dust sources with dry and drought conditions in the past decade.

Thomas Ward, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy in the College of Arts & Sciences, has received a $40,000 National Endowment for the Humanities research fellowship to prepare a scholarly translation of an influential treatise by Scottish philosopher John Dun Scotus (1266-1308).

WACO, Texas (Jan. 18, 2022) - Baylor University today announced the recipients of the 2022 Baylor Alumni Awards, which honor individuals who embody the distinctive mission of the University and their remarkable achievements. A celebration honoring the impact of alumni around the world and recognizing this year's recipients will be held on campus on Feb. 18, 2022.

It took a lot of effort and persistence, but on Dec. 6, 1976 — 45 years ago this month — the Baylor University chapter (Zeta of Texas) of Phi Beta Kappa was chartered. Phi Beta Kappa, as you may know, is the nation’s oldest scholastic honor society (and the first American society to have a […]

I am overjoyed to share with you some wonderful news we learned this morning. We have received notification from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education that Baylor University has achieved Research 1 status, joining the nation’s top research institutions as a doctoral university with very high research activity and as a preeminent Christian research university.

WACO, Texas (Dec. 16, 2021) – Baylor University has been named a Research 1 university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, joining the nation’s top-tier research institutions as a doctoral university with very high research activity and elevating Baylor as a preeminent Christian research university.

Sometime next summer, it will pop up on newsstands across the Lone Star State, and when it does, everyone will know that football season isn’t too far away. We’re talking about Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, which for 60+ years now has served as a “bible of Texas football,” previewing Texas teams at every level — […]

WACO, Texas (Nov. 29, 2021) – A Baylor University-led study on ethical listening discovered that women and nonmanagers believe that management is not receptive to their feedback and are dissatisfied with organization listening efforts. That, in turn, has led to fewer employees sharing legitimate concerns.

WACO, Texas (Nov. 17, 2021) – Decline in prospective memory — the ability to perform daily intentions — is a key driver of everyday functional impairment in dementia. Baylor University researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, led a study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to determine if smartphone technology could help improve prospective memory functioning.

Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated in the United States each May — but since Baylor students are usually focused on final exams and then headed off for summer then, the university celebrates the month from mid-October to mid-November each year. Regardless of the dates, it’s a good time for celebrating the contributions, […]

WACO, Texas (Nov. 2, 2021) – Pinnipeds — a group including seals, sea lions and walruses — are relatively recently derived marine mammals that evolved from terrestrial carnivorans and reentered the marine environment. Their recent adaptations to an amphibious lifestyle make their evolutionary anatomy of particular interest to Baylor University researcher Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology.

About a month before the 2021 Texas State Japanese Language Speech Contest, Dr. Yuko Prefume (BA ’04, MSED ’06, EDD ’15), a senior lecturer in Japanese at Baylor, asked then-junior Matthew Ho if he wanted to enter the competition. A little hesitant at first, and not knowing much about what would be involved, Ho said […]

WACO, Texas (Oct. 26, 2021) – Baylor University is now home to one of a handful of undergraduate theatre programs whose faculty includes a certified vocologist. This certification brings a new level of educational rigor and professional preparedness to the students in Baylor’s Department of Theatre Arts.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 21, 2021) – Baylor University today announced a $2 million gift from Baylor alumnus Matthew B. Lindner (B.A. ’12) of Cincinnati, Ohio, to support the Department of Film and Digital Media (FDM). The Lindner Endowment for Film and Digital Media will support the Baylor in L.A. program, a residential learning opportunity in Los Angeles for FDM students – currently in early planning stages – that will provide internship and experiential learning opportunities for program participants.

WACO, Texas (Oct. 14, 2021) – New research led by Baylor University biology doctoral candidate William J. Matthaeus and professor of biology Joseph White, Ph.D., considers how plant freeze-intolerance affected forest cover and hydrology during the Pennsylvanian period, roughly 340 million to 285 million years ago during the Paleozoic Era, proposing improvements to climate projections for the past and future with plant function data.

Librarians are the heartbeat behind education, research, and exploration through reading. Texas recently announced a new state librarian — and she’s a Baylor grad! On September 1, Gloria Meraz (BA ’90) began her new role as director of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) and Texas State Librarian. Notably, Meraz is both the […]