TAMEST Member News Roundup – August 2025
TAMEST loves to share the accolades of our membership. If you have been nominated for an award, been interviewed by the media or otherwise have a reason to celebrate, please share your news with TAMEST.
TAMEST In The News
Dallas Morning News (Subscription Required): Dallas Researchers Find Cancer’s Secret Weapon to Defeat Death, TAMEST Member Ralph J. DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), UT Southwestern Medical Center
MSN: Texas Women’s Hall of Fame Welcomes Three Influential Houston Women, TAMEST Members Bonnie J. Dunbar, Ph.D. (NAE), Texas A&M University and Vicki A. Hollub (NAE), Occidental Petroleum Corporation
NBC: As AI Data Centers Drive Up Texas Energy Demand, New Local Solutions Aim to Help, TAMEST Member Dereje Agonafer, Ph.D. (NAE), The University of Texas at Arlington
Science: Devices That Pull Water Out of Thin Air Poised to Take Off, 2021 O’Donnell Award in Engineering Recipient Guihua Yu, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
San Antonio Express News (Subscription Needed): SpaceX Rocket Carries NASA’s Tracers Mission to Orbit for Space Weather Study, TAMEST Board Member Stephen A. Fuselier, Ph.D. (NAS), Southwest Research Institute
Scientific American: This is How We Fight Bird Flu if H5N1 Becomes the Next Human Pandemic, Texas Biomedical Research Institute
PNAS: A Critical Role for Vibrio Parahaemolyticus LPS to Mediate Evasion of Host Immune Response During Infection, TAMEST Board Secretary Kim Orth, Ph.D. (NAS), UT Southwestern Medical Center
TPR: UT Health San Antonio Initiative Receives $256 Million for Opioid Use Disorder Services Expansion, UT Health San Antonio Vice President for Research Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Ph.D.
The New York Times (Subscription Required): Bird Flu May Be Airborne on Dairy Farms, Scientists Report, TAMEST 2026 Annual Conference Speaker Andrew S. Bowman, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Houston Chronicle (Subscription Required): UT Regents Appoint Melina Kibbe as Next UTHealth Houston President, UTHealth Houston President-Elect Melina R. Kibbe, M.D. (NAM)
Member Briefs
TAMEST mourns the loss of beloved TAMEST Member David J. Mangelsdorf, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Mangelsdorf was a pioneering scientist, a treasured member of TAMEST and a true leader in the Texas research community. He was a tireless champion of our organization and a shining example of its potential. Dr. Mangelsdorf received the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from TAMEST in 2007 and, just a year later, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, becoming the first O’Donnell Award recipient to be elected to a National Academy. His later election to the National Academy of Medicine and recognition as a recipient of the TAMEST Hill Prize in Biological Sciences demonstrated his creativity, innovation and discovery at UT Southwestern and beyond. Beyond his own accomplishments, he was always looking to elevate others, nominating two recipients of the O’Donnell Awards and mentoring many proteges over the years at the TAMEST annual meeting. He will be dearly missed. Read More
Lydia Kavraki Elected to European Academy of Sciences
TAMEST Member and Hill Prize in Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee Chair Lydia E. Kavraki, Ph.D. (NAM, NAE, NAS), a pioneering researcher in robotics, computational biomedicine and artificial intelligence (AI) at Rice University, has been elected to the European Academy of Sciences. The honor will be conferred in Geneva in December, placing Dr. Kavraki among an elite group of scientists whose work drives progress in both academia and applied technology. Dr. Kavraki, the Kenneth and Audrey Kennedy Professor of Computing, holds multiple appointments across engineering and scientific disciplines at Rice, embodying a commitment to interdisciplinary research and innovation. Read More
UT Austin Named UNESCO Chair in Open Data, AI and Water for Cities
The University of Texas at Austin has been named a UNESCO Chair in Artificial Intelligence, Water and Cities and will be led by TAMEST Member Bridget R. Scanlon, Ph.D. (NAE). This designation recognizes UT Austin as an international resource in research to enable cities to make data-driven decisions to become more resilient to disasters, weather extremes and water scarcity. Read More
Circadian Gene May be a Key to Humans’ Unique Cognitive Abilities
The CLOCK gene, which serves as a master controller of circadian rhythms, may play a key role in the extraordinary cognitive abilities of humans as well as neuropsychiatric disorders that afflict them, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers including TAMEST Member Joseph Takahashi, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), report. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, shed light on human evolution and could lead to new treatments for seasonal affective disorder, depression, schizophrenia and other conditions. Read More
Teresa Davis Honored with Establishment of National Nutrition Award
The American Society for Nutrition recently debuted the Teresa A. Davis Award in Growth and Protein Nutrition, honoring TAMEST Member Teresa A. Davis, Ph.D. (NAM), Texas A&M University, Director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture for her national leadership and service in nutrition science. The award will be presented annually to a researcher whose work, published in The Journal of Nutrition, advances fundamental or applied nutrition research relating to protein and amino acid metabolism. Read More
90,000x Faster: Breakthrough Cuts Rocket Engine Simulations from Days to Seconds
A team led by The University of Texas at Austin researchers including TAMEST Member and Hill Prize in Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee Member Karen E. Willcox, Ph.D. (NAE), has created reduced-order models that slash rocket‑engine simulation time by an astonishing 90,000x, opening the door to faster, smarter design of next‑generation propulsion systems. The work targets cutting‑edge rotating detonation rocket engines (RDREs), which ignite fuel with spinning detonation waves. RDREs could outperform the propulsion devices used in today’s rockets, but their complex combustion physics makes computation painfully slow. Read More
UTA Discovery Could Power Next-Gen Devices
Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington including 2025 Hill Prize in Physical Sciences Co-PI J. Ping Liu, Ph.D., have discovered a surprising new type of magnetic property that could lead to stronger magnets made from tiny particles of common iron oxide. This breakthrough could enhance the performance of everyday technologies while reducing on the need for rare-earth metals — materials that are more costly, less sustainable and harder to obtain. Read More
Innovative Early-Career Engineers Selected to Participate in The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering 2025 Symposium of the National Academy of Engineering
Five highly accomplished, early-career engineers in Texas including TAMEST 2025 Protégé Jian Shi, Ph.D., University of Houston, have been selected to participate in the 2025 Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, a signature activity of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Read More
Honoring Leaders of Healthcare Innovation
Championing the biomedical industry and its contributions to the lives of the citizens of San Antonio, BioMedSA has named Texas Biomedical Research Institute President Larry Schlesinger, M.D., as the 2025 Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience Awardee. Bringing to bear his competitive spirit, teamwork and willingness to take risks, Dr. Schlesinger launched a 10-year strategic plan and put Texas Biomed on a path to more than double its annual revenue in less than 10 years, creating jobs and impact in what is already the city’s largest economic sector – healthcare and bioscience. Read More
