TAMEST Celebrates 20 Years of Innovation and Impact at Pegasus Park
On Tuesday, September 3, TAMEST gathered more than 70 National Academy members, research institution leaders and others from the research community to attend a special 20th Anniversary Reception and networking event at Pegasus Park in Dallas.
The evening featured an on-stage conversation with Former United States Senator The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison, who co-founded TAMEST in 2004, TAMEST Board President Brendan Lee, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), Baylor College of Medicine and UT Southwestern Medical Center President and TAMEST Member Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D. (NAM).
The program showcased TAMEST’s history and growth over the past 20 years and its potential in the future.
Origin of TAMEST:
“We weren’t getting enough recognition in Texas for the great work that was being done here, and we weren’t getting the kind of support we needed,” said Senator Hutchison. “So, I started having meetings with the Chancellors and Presidents of our medical schools [and research universities] to learn what the Federal Government was prioritizing, so our leaders could put forward more multi-institutional proposals and encourage more sharing between our schools.”
Senator Hutchison said TAMEST started with the idea of bringing together the best and brightest researchers from across the state to create a powerhouse society for innovation, collaboration and more. The aim was to recruit and retain talent in Texas and encourage more research funding to stay in the state.
“I remember in the first meeting, we started talking about having an organization where there’s one criterion to membership: you’re a member of a National Academy elected by your peers, so there’s no politics in it,” said Sen. Hutchison. “We just wanted the very best and we wanted it not to be judgmental. We wanted everybody to be able to come together.”
The initial group developing the vision included: Nobel Laureates Michael Brown, M.D. (NAM, NAS) and Joseph Goldstein, M.D. (NAM, NAS), and Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM), of UT Southwestern Medical Center; Malcolm Gillis, Ph.D., and Nobel Laureate Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. (NAS), of Rice University; Larry R. Faulkner, Ph.D., of The University of Texas at Austin; John L. Junkins, Ph.D. (NAE), of Texas A&M University; and John Mendelsohn, M.D. (NAM), of MD Anderson Cancer Center. The group then started recruiting other top talent to make the idea a reality.
“We started talking about who should start this,” said Sen. Hutchison, who invited Nobel Laureates Michael Brown, M.D. (NAM, NAS) and the late Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D. (NAS) to serve as Founding Co-Chairs. “I started seeing that this could really work because there was an excitement about meeting and learning about what other researchers were doing across our state.”
In 2004, TAMEST (Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology) was officially founded.
“Rick Smalley made a huge impact on TAMEST,” said Sen. Hutchison. “I told him what we envisioned, what we wanted to do, and he said, ‘Senator, I hate organizations. I hate meetings. I don’t even like people very much, but I love this idea, and I’ll do it.’”
The First 10 Years (2004 – 2014)
The first TAMEST conference was held in January 2004, in San Antonio, Texas, with opening remarks from Senator Hutchison and Drs. Brown and Smalley. The topic centered on New Frontiers in Texas Research.
The early successes of TAMEST were helped in large part thanks to the generosity of Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. and the O’Donnell Foundation. They really set TAMEST up for success through establishing donations to both the TAMEST Endowment and Edith and Peter O’Donnell Endowment.
“I think Peter O’Donnell Jr. believed in the power of high expectations … TAMEST brings together those who have already accomplished so much while also creating an avenue for those who have talent and aspirations to make a significant impact,” said President Podolsky.
Protégés were invited to TAMEST conferences from the very beginning to help mentor the next generation of researchers and give them early exposure to the academies. Since 2004, TAMEST has honored more than 1,000 protégés at its annual conferences. Fifty-two have gone on to achieve election to the National Academies and other honorary societies. Forty have gone on to become recipients of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards, the Hill Prizes or the Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship.
In 2006, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards were created to recognize rising star researchers in the state. The idea was to help shed light on the exceptional research being done by young Texas researchers and create a pipeline to help them become members of the National Academies.
“Once you win an O’Donnell Award, you have the notice of your peers,” said Sen. Hutchison. “It started with just three academic awards in Medicine, Engineering and Science, but very soon thereafter, we expanded it to include the Technology Innovation award to emphasize the importance of the private sector and industry to TAMEST and to the State. And I think that’s been a spectacular addition.”
Of the more than 75 recipients of the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards, 16 have since been elected to a National Academy, and four have gone on to be elected to multiple academies. UT Southwestern Medical Center has received 17 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards. Seven of those recipients have subsequently been elected to a National Academy, two were elected to multiple academies, and one won a Breakthrough Prize.
“The secret sauce is identifying people with talent, passion, and giving them the means to pursue their scientific vision,” said President Podolsky. “At UT Southwestern, I think it builds upon itself, having faculty with the talent and accomplishments that attracts innovators. TAMEST at large is a force to attract more of that kind of talent across all of our Texas institutions, further multiplying the momentum we have as a State in the domains of all the National Academies.”
The Next 10 Years (2014- 2024)
“When we now think about the second 10 years, from 2014 to the current day, TAMEST has tried to impact and serve the broader community,” said Dr. Lee.
“The Shale Task Force was well-received and a great success,” said Dr. Lee. “There was also the health crisis of COVID-19 where TAMEST tried to convey information broadly through a series of public webinars. More recently we hosted a two-part Natural Hazards Summit with Texas Tech University and University of Houston that were really timely in terms of the impact of natural hazards in our state.”
The panel also discussed the expansion of programs at TAMEST including a fifth Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in 2022, thanks to a $1.15 million gift from the O’Donnell Foundation. The awards now recognize recipients in the categories of Medicine, Engineering, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences and Technology Innovation.
Then, in 2023, Lyda Hill and Lyda Hill Philanthropies launched an important new prize for scientific research in Texas, the Hill Prizes. They chose TAMEST to administer the prizes because it had established itself as a key player in recognizing and rewarding talent and innovation through the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Awards, which continue to spotlight timely, innovative research from the top rising stars in the state.
“Lyda Hill is a leader akin to what’s been set forth with the tradition of Edith and Peter O’Donnell,” said Dr. Lee. “The Hill Prizes focus on high-risk, high-reward ideas that could impact our state and the world broadly, and as we know, they were very generous with funding five projects in the first year, to the tune of $2.5 million.”
After an incredibly successful first year of the prizes in 2024, Lyda Hill Philanthropies has committed over $10 million in funding to continue the prize program for at least the next three years, including the addition of a new prize in the category of Public Health, resulting in six prizes per year of $500,000 each. And at least $1 million in discretionary research funding will be allocated by Lyda Hill Philanthropies on an ad hoc basis to highly ranked applicants and finalists not selected as recipients.
“What Lyda Hill is doing is taking the next step,” said Sen. Hutchison. “The Hill Prizes are significant, and I think Ms. Hill is now turning to TAMEST to be the judge of what research should objectively be funded in our state. She wants it done the right way, just like Peter O’Donnell did, with absolute integrity. It allows great thoughts and great people to pursue their groundbreaking work.”
The Future of TAMEST
Twenty years after its founding, TAMEST has grown from just an idea in an office to a monumental society supporting nearly 350 National Academy members, 8 Nobel Laureates and 23 member institutions in Texas. It has expanded its programs and initiatives to include 13 annual awards and prizes, a thriving protégé program, research summits and more.
“TAMEST will continue to be an incubator for people to come together, hear what is going on in terms of innovative research in our State and think about what can be done to further it,” said Sen. Hutchison. “That’s why we have increased our National Academy members, and also what we do in Texas.”
“At its heart, TAMEST continues to bring people together to interact in a way that stimulates new perspectives because we focus on the multidisciplinary approach,” said President Podolsky. “I think as long as you bring talent close together, the reactions will happen, and TAMEST will continue to play a role that is quite remarkable.”
That multi-disciplinary approach will be featured at the TAMEST 2025 Annual Conference: Transformational Breakthroughs, February 4-6, 2025, at the Westin Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.
Since its founding, Texas has gone from three to 11 Carnegie R1 research universities and the panel ended its discussion highlighting TAMEST’s part in helping facilitate such growth for research in the state. Just last year, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, announced a major new federal health research hub being brought to Texas.
“When you think about the history of Texas it was great big personalities that established the state, and I think TAMEST was established that way as well,” said Dr. Lee. “It’s about investing in people, and I’m happy to say that, in terms of the TAMEST Board of Directors and our strategic plan moving forward, we will aim to broaden our support to the full spectrum. We want to continue to emphasize the secret sauce of TAMEST, which is the idea of bringing great people together and advancing their recognition.”
You can view photos from the TAMEST 20th Anniversary Reception here.
