TAMEST Member News Roundup- August 2021

TAMEST In The News

USA Today: Engineers Ponder What Comes Next as They Seek to Avoid Another Condo Collapse in Florida, TAMEST Member Reginald DesRoches, Ph.D. (NAE), Rice University

Los Angeles Times: Battery-powered Trains Could be a Climate Game Changer. Is Everyone All Aboard?, TAMEST Member Eric Gebhardt (NAE), Wabtec Corporation

The New York Times: Should Vaccinated People Start Wearing Masks Again?, TAMEST Member Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), Baylor College of Medicine

TAMU Today: ERCOT Can Handle Texas Summer, Says Grid Expert; Nationwide Vulnerabilities ‘Much More Concerning,’ TAMEST Member Thomas Overbye, Ph.D. (NAE), Texas A&M University

Select Science: UNT Researchers Further Understanding of Plant Molecules to Make Food More Nutritious for Animals, TAMEST Member Richard A. Dixon, D.Phil. (NAS, FRS), University of North Texas

Spectrum News 1: UT Austin Appoints TAMEST Member as New Provost, Executive Vice President, TAMEST Member Sharon L. Wood, Ph.D. (NAE), The University of Texas at Austin

Mirage News: UTA Joins Texas Health Informatics Alliance as Founding Member, TAMEST Member Marion Ball, Ed.D. (NAM), The University of Texas at Arlington

National Science Foundation: Scientists Developing Inhalable COVID-19 Vaccine Spray, TAMEST Member Jose Onuchic, Ph.D. (NAS), Rice University   

Member Briefs

In Memoriam: Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, Ph.D. (NAS), The University of Texas at Austin

TAMEST mourns the loss of one of the most celebrated scientists of his generation. TAMEST Member and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, Ph.D. (NAS), The University of Texas at Austin passed away on July 23 in Austin, Texas. Dr. Weinberg’s research on elementary particles and cosmology has been honored with numerous prizes and awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics (1979) and the National Medal of Science (1991). He was best known for helping to develop a critical part of the Standard Model of particle physics, which significantly advanced humanity’s understanding of how everything in the universe — its various particles and the forces that govern them — relate. Read More

In Memoriam: Jean Wilson, M.D. (NAS, NAM), UT Southwestern Medical Center  

TAMEST mourns the loss of Member Jean D. Wilson, M.D. (NAS, NAM), UT Southwestern Medical Center, whose scientific discoveries led to profound insights into the mechanisms underlying sexual differentiation and helped develop widely used treatments for prostate disease. His collaborative work with Dr. David Russell and others at UT Southwestern led to important new drugs and therapies. Dr. Wilson was a steadfast supporter of our organization and cherished by his fellow TAMEST members. We are especially grateful for his work to recognize the next generation of Texas researchers and scientists through his service on the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards Committee. Read More

UT System Regents to Bestow Highest Honor on Longtime UT, Higher Education Advocates

TAMEST congratulates TAMEST Champion Kenneth M. Jastrow II and his wife Susan Thomas Jastrow, longtime supporters of Texas higher education and The University of Texas at Austin, for being honored by the UT System Board of Regents with the Santa Rita Award. The award is the highest honor given by The University of Texas System and recognizes individuals or organizations that have made extraordinary, transformational contributions to UT institutions and demonstrate a deep commitment to higher education and service to the wider UT community. Read More

Texas A&M Engineering Awarded Five-Year, Up to $24M Army Research Contract

The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) recently received a proposed five-year, up to $24-million contract from the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to conduct basic research in establishing a collaborative distributed proving ground that will support autonomous vehicle research across various environments and domains at the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC) on The Texas A&M University System RELLIS Campus. The Distributed Autonomous Robotic Experiments and Simulations (DARES) research project will be conducted in coordination and collaboration with ARL researchers at the Robotics Research Collaboration Campus (R2C2) in Graces Quarters at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. TAMEST Member James E. Hubbard Jr., Ph.D. (NAE), Texas A&M University, provided the vision for the DARES project. Read More

Moshe Vardi Wins Prestigious Knuth Prize

TAMEST congratulates Member Moshe Y. Vardi, Ph.D. (NAE, NAS), Rice University, for receiving the 2021 Donald E. Knuth Prize, one of theoretical computer science’s most prestigious annual awards, and the 2020 ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award which he shares with Hector Levesque of the University of Toronto. Dr. Vardi is honored for “high-impact, seminal contributions to the foundations of computer science.” Dr. Vardi, who is also a faculty scholar at the Baker Institute for Public Policy and the leader of Rice’s initiative on Technology, Culture and Society, also received another recent honor, an invitation to give the prestigious annual Vienna Gödel Lecture. Launched in 2013, Gödel lectures explore the fundamental and disruptive contributions of computer science to society. Read More

Solar Power Innovator Named Director of UT Energy Institute

TAMEST congratulates Member Brian A. Korgel, Ph.D. (NAE), The University of Texas at Austin, for being named the next Director of UT Austin’s Energy Institute, effective September 1. A nanomaterials scientist, former TAMEST protégé and 2009 TAMEST Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Engineering recipient, his work examines problems in energy storage, chemical transformations, energy harvesting and conversion, and medicine. Read More  

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Announces Award Recipients

TAMEST congratulates Member Maura L. Gillison, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, for receiving the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which recognizes an oncologist who made outstanding contributions to cancer research, diagnosis or treatment. Read more

Not Just a Phase for RNAs: Former O’Donnell Award Recipient Leads New RNA Study

A new study led by 2016 TAMEST Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine Recipient Joshua Mendell, M.D., Ph.D., UT Southwestern Medical Center, suggests that RNA-driven “phase separation” protects against genome instability, premature aging and neurodegenerative diseases, and may represent a previously unrecognized way for RNAs to regulate cellular processes. The work builds upon previous research by other UT Southwestern scientists, including TAMEST Members Michael K. Rosen, Ph.D. (NAS), and Steven McKnight, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS), who previously found that phase separation participates in many cellular pathways. Dr. Mendell’s research uncovers how phase separation enables some RNAs to regulate the activity of proteins that they interact with. Read More

Understanding the Cause of Joint and Tendon Dysfunction in Osteogenesis Imperfecta

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is the most common genetic form of brittle bone disease and results in defects of both bone and connective tissue. OI patients can have significant problems with mobility due to joint dysfunction due in part to tendinopathy. In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, TAMEST Vice President Brendan Lee, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), and other researchers at Baylor College of Medicine identify a protein signaling mechanism driving this dysfunction and find that inhibiting this signaling pathway can prevent onset of tendinopathy problems in mouse models. Read More

Space Shuttle Simulator Returns to NASA to be Restored for Display

A space shuttle has returned to NASA’s Johnson Space Center almost a decade after it was last “flown.” The shuttle, or more specifically, a simulator of the winged spacecraft’s flight deck, which provided astronauts with a sense of the motion they would experience during their launch and landing, arrived back in Houston nine years after a plan to put it back into use fell through. A volunteer team, including TAMEST Member and Former NASA Astronaut Bonnie J. Dunbar, Ph.D. (NAE), Texas A&M University, who trained for her five shuttle missions using the motion base simulator, is now working to prepare the Motion Base Simulator (or as it was also called, the Shuttle Motion Simulator) for its permanent display at the Lone Star Flight Museum located at nearby Ellington Airport. Dr. Dunbar also serves on the board of directors for the Lone Star Flight Museum. Read More

Texas A&M Energy Institute Director to Receive Prestigious Research Award 

TAMEST congratulates Member Stratos Pistikopoulos, Ph.D. (FREng), Texas A&M University, for receiving the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Sustainable Engineering Forum Research Award. The annual award is presented for basic or applied research results relative to the sustainability of products, processes or the environment. This award recognizes significant technical contributions to research and development activities. Read More