A&S Research News
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.

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 […]
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.
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.
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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

WACO, Texas (Aug. 18, 2021) – Baylor University’s internationally recognized researcher in water quality, Bryan W. Brooks, Ph.D., is one of the collaborative partners of the Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme, which was recently endorsed by the United Nations (UN).

Viewers of the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind were introduced to the story of mathematician John Nash, who dramatically extended the field of game theory — the study of a set of agents, making decisions simultaneously, whose decisions impact one another. Dr. Jameson Graber, an assistant professor of mathematics at Baylor, is among the many […]
WACO, Texas (July 13, 2021) – Climate change mitigation efforts have led to shifts from fossil-fuel dependence to large-scale renewable energy. However, renewable energy sources require significant land and could come at a cost to ecosystems. A new study led by Ryan McManamay, Ph.D., assistant professor of environmental science at Baylor University, evaluates potential conflicts between alternative energy strategies and biodiversity conservation.

Mosquitoes are a fact of life each summer, and they’re far more than an annual annoyance. Globally, they’re a leading source of the spread of diseases like Zika, West Nile Virus and malaria, claiming nearly a million lives each year. We all fight them — but these four Baylor professors have taken the fight to […]
WACO, Texas (June 21, 2021) – Baylor University students Kate Rojales, a senior chemistry major from Milton, Georgia, and Alexis Simmons, a senior physics and mathematics major from Houston, Texas, have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

When it comes to teaching STEM, instructors and students alike rely heavily on viewing images and physical models. But what about students with blindness or visual impairments — how are they to learn these important aspects of the field? Baylor researchers may have found an answer. Earlier this month, a Baylor-led study published in the […]
WACO, Texas (June 9, 2021) – Patterns in American religious attitudes, behaviors and beliefs just after the 2020 presidential election and during the coronavirus pandemic are the latest focus of the Baylor Religion Survey, the most comprehensive national survey studying religion in America.

WACO, Texas (June 8, 2020) – Jameson Graber, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics at Baylor University, has earned a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award will provide nearly $430,000 in funding over five years to support his research, which lies at the intersection of partial differential equations, game theory, economics and political science.

WACO, Texas (June 3, 2020) – Baylor University researchers have unveiled a new color imaging system - called 6P - that has the capacity to dramatically increase the palette of colors a digital screen can display with transcendent implications for television and cinema storytelling.

“Make sure to put on sunscreen.” How many times did you hear that growing up? How many times will that phrase be uttered by parents this summer? There’s a reason why parents have offered that advice for decades, as we know that too much sunlight can lead to problems like skin cancer. That’s where Dr. Jung-Hyun […]