A&S Research News
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.
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 (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.
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.
Felipe Hinojosa Joins Baylor to Serve as Jackson Family Chair for Baylor in Latin America.
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. 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.
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 (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.
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.
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 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 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 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 (March 14, 2023) – Dr. Annie Ginty, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience in the Baylor University College of Arts & Sciences, has received the 2023 Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
Baylor University has plenty of faculty members, across all disciplines, who bring an ethical foundation to their research and teaching; it’s one of the distinct benefits of a Baylor education. That doesn’t just happen on its own; it’s an intentional effort by the university, supported through efforts like the Baylor Ethics Initiative. The leader of […]
WACO, Texas (Jan. 31, 2023) – Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Biomedical Studies and director of the Environmental Health Science Program at Baylor University, has been elected to the rank of AAAS Fellow, announced today by the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
Anyone who has visited the doctor in recent years — whether in-person or virtually — can see that the ways patients and doctors share information is changing. From online patient portals to computerized files medical professionals can reference while talking to the patient, new technologies ensure that everyone involved is both adopting and adapting together. […]
WACO, Texas (Jan. 9, 2023) Silicic volcanoes on the Moon, specifically the mysterious Gruithuisen Domes, are a lunar geologic mystery that still perplexes scientists more than half a century after they were discovered. Based on early telescopic and spacecraft observations, these extinct volcanoes have long been suspected to be silicic in composition, in some ways similar to terrestrial strato volcanoes like Mount St. Helens in Washington state.
WACO, Texas (Dec. 15, 2022) – Baylor University chemist Caleb D. Martin, Ph.D., and his team have developed a new state-of-art Lewis superacid – with applications in the production of most common plastics – that is more efficient to produce, safer for the environment, and could potentially save billions of dollars in manufacturing costs.
WACO, Texas (Dec. 7, 2022) – Baylor University data scientists along with colleagues from four other universities have been awarded one of the largest National Science Foundation grants to explore new approaches to engage and prepare the next generation of data scientists through sports analytics.
WACO, Texas (Nov. 30, 2022) - Athletics can occupy an ambiguous place within a university's greater mission, particularly at religious institutions. Yet, little research has been conducted - until now - to understand student-athletes connection with personal religious beliefs.
WACO, Texas (Nov. 3, 2022) – Ashley Barrett, Ph.D., BA ’07, MA ’09, associate professor in Baylor’s Department of Communication, has earned a highly coveted CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the impact of new information technologies on the communication they facilitate in healthcare settings and seek ways to promote compassionate communication and empathy in these ever-evolving patient-provider interactions.
WACO, Texas (Oct. 17, 2022) – An interdisciplinary team of Baylor University researchers in psychology, religion and bioethics will explore how to tackle the complex problems of human flourishing by training theologians to incorporate the methods and insights of the psychological sciences into their work through a $2.5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
WACO, Texas (Oct. 12, 2022) - Alyssa Mills, who is pursuing a PhD in geosciences at Baylor University, is one of 11 students nationwide chosen as a 2022 John Mather Nobel Scholar by the National Space Grant Foundation.
WACO, Texas (Sept. 26, 2022) –Smartphone users will be disappointed if they expect their devices and social media to fill their need for purpose and meaning. In fact, it will probably do the opposite, researchers at Baylor and Campbell Universities found in a recently published study.
WACO, Texas (Sept. 23, 2022) – Baylor University is celebrating National Research Administrator Day today by recognizing the team effort that supports researchers across campus and helped Baylor attain Research 1 designation – three years earlier than expected – among the nation’s top R1 universities.
Picture the dust bunnies that are probably hiding somewhere around your home. (It’s okay to admit it; we all have them.) Now imagine those dust bunnies, but on a cosmic level. Kind of mind-blowing, right? But that’s the basis of Baylor physics professor Lorin Matthews‘ research. Allow us to explain: Dr. Matthews’ research, both theoretical and […]
There’s a position in higher education that’s deeply appreciated by professors and students, but somewhat unsung outside of those with whom they closely interact: the postdoc. “Postdoc” is academic shorthand for postdoctoral researchers, and alongside professors and students, they’re an important part of the research being done at Baylor. In October 2019, Baylor announced the […]
WACO, Texas (Sept. 15, 2022) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Aaron Wright, Ph.D., as the inaugural James R. Schofield Endowed Chair in Biomedical Studies. Wright comes to Baylor from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington, and will provide interdisciplinary research and leadership from within the Department of Biology.
Baylor’s growing emphasis on faculty and student research is driven by three factors: Compassion — the desire to help people in countless ways; Curiosity — the desire to learn more about the world God created; and Courage — the desire to go places and tackle issues that others might shy away from. Beyond that, each […]
WACO, Texas (Sept. 7, 2022) – Baylor University is listed in the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2021 report released today by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO).
WACO, Texas (Aug. 25, 2022) – Baylor University announced today the appointment of Julia Chan, Ph.D., as the inaugural holder of The Tim and Sharalynn Fenn Family Endowed Chair in Materials Science. Chan, a 1993 Baylor graduate who built an international reputation as a leading scientist focused on the discovery of new families of quantum materials, will provide multi-disciplinary leadership for Baylor’s materials science efforts.
WACO, Texas (Aug. 24, 2022) – In a first-of-its-kind study published in Frontiers of Marine Science, Baylor University marine biologist Sarah Kienle, Ph.D., and her research colleagues gathered baseline data on the ecology and physiology of the leopard seal, the enigmatic apex predator of the Antarctic.
WACO, Texas (Aug. 22, 2022) – A new review article in Science Advances co-authored by materials science researchers with Baylor University and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) connects several decades of research on a family of intermetallic crystalline materials to find practical ways to design strongly correlated electronic, magnetic and superconducting phenomena.
WACO, Texas (Aug. 17, 2022) – A research team led by Baylor University chemists has taken a groundbreaking step forward in eliminating the exclusion of individuals with blindness from chemistry education and experiences by using lithophane – an old-fashioned art form – and 3D printing to turn scientific data into tactile graphics that glow with video-like resolution, enabling both blind and sighted individuals to universally visualize the same piece of data.
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 […]