TAMEST Welcomes 2022 Protégé Class
TAMEST is pleased to welcome 52 talented early-career researchers ahead of our TAMEST 2022 Annual Conference: Forward Texas—Imperatives for Health as TAMEST Protégés.
The protégé program gives TAMEST members an opportunity to invite an early-career researcher to accompany them to the conference, participate in our TAMEST Protégé Poster Challenge and engage with our highly accomplished members.
Since 2004, TAMEST has honored nearly 1,000 protégés at its annual conferences. Dozens have gone on to become recipients of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards and achieve election to the National Academies and other honorific organizations.
Meet our 2022 TAMEST Protégés below:
Himani Agrawal, Ph.D.
Senior Manager, Data Science
Walmart
Nominated by Amr Elnashai, Ph.D. (FREng)
José Alvarado
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by Harry Swinney, Ph.D. (NAS)
Beau Alward, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
University of Houston
Nominated by Amr Elnashai, Ph.D. (FREng)
Elizabeth G. Atkinson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Nominated by Brendan Lee, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Amarnath Banerjee, Ph.D.
Professor
Texas A&M University
Nominated by Akhil Datta-Gupta, Ph.D. (NAE)
Debjyoti Banerjee, Ph.D.
Professor, Dean’s Fellow (ENMED)
Texas A&M University
Nominated by James E. Hubbard Jr., Ph.D. (NAE)
Matthew Brake, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rice University
Nominated by Pol D. Spanos, Ph.D. (NAE)
Radek Bukowski, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Associate Chair for Investigation and Discovery, Department of Women’s Health, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by J. Tinsley Oden, Ph.D. (NAE)
Francesca Cole, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Nominated by Richard D. Wood, Ph.D. (FRS)
Rebecca Fischer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M School of Public Health
Nominated by Nancy W. Dickey, M.D. (NAM)
Xue Sherry Gao, Ph.D.
Ted N. Law Assistant Professor
Rice University
Nominated by George J. Hirasaki, Ph.D. (NAE)
Piya Ghose, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, NIH MIRA Early Stage Investigator, CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
The University of Texas at Arlington
Nominated by Florence P. Haseltine, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Shawn Gray, Ph.D.
Project Manager and Research Scientist
INCELL Corporation
Nominated by Mary Pat Moyer, Ph.D. (NAE)
Zhu Han, Ph.D.
John and Rebecca Moores Professor
University of Houston
Nominated by Kaushik Rajashekara, Ph.D. (NAE)
Tamia Harris-Tryon M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Nominated by Lora Hooper, Ph.D. (NAS)
Tanya Hutter, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by Bob M. Metcalfe, Ph.D. (NAE)
Christopher Jermaine, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Computer Science
Rice University
Nominated by Lydia E. Kavraki, Ph.D. (NAM)
Binata Joddar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso
Nominated by The Honorable Gordon R. England (NAE)
Rebecca Jones, Ph.D.
Faculty Associate, Institute for Health Promotion Research
UT Health San Antonio
Nominated by Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H. (NAM)
Garrett Kneese, M.D.
Community Health Programmer and Researcher
UT Health San Antonio
Nominated by Carlos Roberto Jaén, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Ivett Leyva, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Head
Aerospace Engineering
Texas A&M University
Nominated by John L. Junkins, Ph.D. (NAE)
XiuJun (James) Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso
Nominated by David E. Daniel, Ph.D. (NAE)
Glen Liszczak, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Nominated by Margaret Phillips, Ph.D. (NAS)
Pengfei Liu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Nominated by James R. Lupski, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Dorothy Long Parma, M.D.
Assistant Professor, Researcher
UT Health San Antonio
Nominated by Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H. (NAM)
Jacob M. Luber, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
The University of Texas at Arlington
Nominated by Marion J. Ball, Ed.D. (NAM)
Kevin J. McHugh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
Rice University
Nominated by Antonios G. Mikos, Ph.D. (NAM, NAE)
Kelly E. Miller, Ph.D.
Planetary Science In Situ Techniques Group Lead
Southwest Research Institute
Nominated by Stephen A. Fuselier, Ph.D. (NAS)
Pawel Misztal, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by Robert B. Gilbert, Ph.D. (NAE)
Nicholas J. Mueschke, Ph.D.
Program Manager
Southwest Research Institute
Nominated by H. Norman Abramson, Ph.D. (NAE)
Ali Nejat, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas Tech University
Nominated by Kishor C. Mehta, Ph.D. (NAE)
Kathryn A. O’Donnell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Nominated by Kim Orth, Ph.D. (NAS)
Jamie E. Padgett, Ph.D.
Stanley C. Moore Professor
Rice University
Nominated by Reginald DesRoches, Ph.D. (NAE)
Ram Ratnakar, Ph.D.
Researcher
Shell International E&P Inc.
Nominated by Birol Dindoruk, Ph.D. (NAE)
Joaquin Resasco, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by Brian A. Korgel, Ph.D. (NAE)
Jacob T. Robinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Rice University
Nominated by Naomi J. Halas, Ph.D., D.Sc. (NAE, NAS)
Nidhi Sahni, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Nominated by Anil K. Sood, M.D. (NAM)
Salvatore Salamone, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Nominated by James O. Jirsa, Ph.D. (NAE)
Anshumali Shrivastava, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Rice University
Nominated by Moshe Y. Vardi, Ph.D. (NAE, NAS)
Ankit Srivastava
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Nominated by Alan Needleman, Ph.D. (NAE)
Irene Tami-Maury, Dr.P.H.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Nominated by Ellen R. Gritz, Ph.D. (NAM)
Rosa A. Uribe, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research
Rice University
Nominated by Bonnie Bartel, Ph.D. (NAS)
Ya Wang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mechanical, Electrical and Biomedical Engineering
Texas A&M University
Nominated by James E. Hubbard Jr., Ph.D. (NAE)
Benjamin Weaver, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Nominated by Melanie H. Cobb, Ph.D. (NAS)
Marissa E. Wechsler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Nominated by Rena Bizios, Ph.D. (NAM)
Geoffrey Wehmeyer, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rice University
Nominated by Pol D. Spanos, Ph.D. (NAE)
Gabriela Wilson, Ph.D.
Professor and Co-Director, Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics
The University of Texas at Arlington
Nominated by Marion J. Ball, Ed.D. (NAM)
Michael S. Wong, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Rice University
Nominated by Pedro J.J. Alvarez, Ph.D. (NAE)
Haibin Xu, Ph.D.
General Manager, Shell Research Alliance
Shell
Nominated by Selda Gunsel, Ph.D. (NAE)
Yan Yao, Ph.D.
Cullen Professor of Engineering
University of Houston
Nominated by Hao Huang, Ph.D. (NAE)
Yubin Zhou, Ph.D, M.D.
Associate Professor and ACS Research Scholar
Texas A&M Health
Nominated by Kenneth S. Ramos, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
To learn more about the conference, visit TAMEST.org/2022.
