TAMEST Welcomes 2025 Protégé Class
TAMEST is pleased to welcome 62 talented early-career researchers to our TAMEST 2025 Annual Conference: Transformational Breakthroughs as TAMEST protégés.
Each year, TAMEST members have a unique opportunity to help nurture the next generation of researchers in Texas. Through the TAMEST Protégé Program, early-career researchers are selected on an individual basis by TAMEST members to attend the TAMEST annual conference. They also have the opportunity to participate in the TAMEST Protégé Poster Challenge, which recognizes research and technology that could have significant impact on scientific understanding and society.
This opportunity provides protégés a chance to showcase their research and innovation to research and industry leaders. Attendees include National Academy members, CEOs and business leaders, federal agency leaders and the greater scientific research community in Texas.
A maximum of fifty posters will be invited to participate in the poster session on a first-come, first-served basis. Posters will be self-organized into one of four categories: Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology. Please note: posters do not need to connect with the overall theme of the meeting (Transformational Breakthroughs).
The overall protégé program is designed as a mentorship tool for early-career researchers (ideally within 15 years of their first academic appointment or are early-career industry professionals). Protégés benefit from the mentorship of TAMEST members and get to network with top researchers in the state at the conference. New this year, Protégés will have special networking reception to meet others in the program and build and expand their networks.
Since 2004, TAMEST has hosted 1,232 protégés at its annual conferences. Forty-one of those protégés have gone on to become recipients of the O’Donnell Awards, Hill Prizes or Mary Beth Maddox Award and Lectureship and 54 have gone on to achieve election to the National Academies and become TAMEST Members.
Meet the TAMEST 2025 Protégés:
(Nominators are listed in italics after each protégé.)
TAMEST 2025 Protégés
Mahmoud Salama Ahmed, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Thomas Abbruscato, Ph.D.
Deji Akinwande, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Bob Metcalfe, Ph.D. (NAE)
Sharilyn Almodovar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Kendra Rumbaugh, Ph.D.
Raymundo Arroyave, Ph.D.
Professor
Texas A&M University
Alan Needleman, Ph.D. (NAE)
Guha Balakrishnan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering
Rice University
Richard G. Baraniuk, Ph.D. (NAE)
Victoria K. Baxter, D.V.M., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas Biomedical Research Institute
Larry S. Schlesinger, M.D.
Blair Benham-Pyle, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Margaret A. Goodell, Ph.D. (NAM)
Diana Berman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of North Texas
The Honorable Gordon R. England (NAE)
Tania Betancourt, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of the PREM Center for Intelligent
Materials Assembly
Texas State University
Nicholas A. Peppas, Sc.D. (NAM, NAE)
Xiaolu (Lulu) Lim Ang Cambronne, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Alan M. Lambowitz, Ph.D. (NAS)
Francesca Cole, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Sharon Y.R. Dent, Ph.D. (NAS)
Jeannie B. Concha, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso
Sudip Bajpeyi, Ph.D.
Qian Cong, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Johann Deisenhofer, Ph.D. (Nobel Laureate, NAS)
Katherine Davis, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Don Russell, Ph.D. (NAE)
Ali Davoudi, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Texas at Arlington
James J. Coleman, Ph.D. (NAE)
Alex Demkov, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Allan H. MacDonald, Ph.D. (NAS)
Bruno Di Stefano, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Helen Elisabeth Heslop, M.D., D.Sc. (NAM)
Jafaru M. Egieya, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Scientist
Texas A&M University
Stratos Pistikopoulos, Ph.D. (FREng)
Akhilesh Gaharwar, Ph.D.
Professor
Texas A&M University
Roderic I. Pettigrew, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM, NAE)
Teja Guda, Ph.D.
Jacobson Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Rena Bizios, Ph.D. (NAM, NAE)
Denise Hernandez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Arlington
Marion J. Ball, Ed.D. (NAM)
Frankie D. Heyward, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Russell DeBose-Boyd, Ph.D. (NAS)
Jennifer Kohler, Ph.D.
Professor of Biochemistry
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Margaret A. Phillips, Ph.D. (NAS)
Aravind Krishnamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University
Ali Erdemir, Ph.D. (NAE)
Harish Sarma Krishnamoorthy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Houston
Kaushik Rajashekara, Ph.D. (NAE)
Changzhi Li, Ph.D.
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Programs
Texas Tech University
Kishor C. Mehta, Ph.D. (NAE)
Xingpeng Li, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Houston
Hao Huang, Ph.D. (NAE)
Hadi Nasrabadi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Akhil Datta-Gupta, Ph.D. (NAE)
David B. Nelson, M.D.
Associate Professor, Division Director for
Maternal-Fetal Medicine
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Catherine Y. Spong, M.D. (NAM)
Rita Esuru Okoroafor, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University
Nathan Meehan, Ph.D. (NAE)
Jihan Osborne, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Melanie H. Cobb, Ph.D. (NAS)
Matt Pharr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
J.N. Reddy, Ph.D. (NAE)
Wilson Poon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso
Thomas Boland, Ph.D.
Maysam Pournik, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Jianzhi Li, Ph.D.
Guan Qin, Ph.D.
Professor
University of Houston
Christine A. Ehlig-Economides, Ph.D. (NAE)
Balaji Rao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas Tech University
Danny D. Reible, Ph.D. (NAE)
Alison Ravenscraft, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Arlington
Florence P. Haseltine, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Benjamin Sabari, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Joan Conaway, Ph.D. (NAS)
Nirakar Sahoo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Biology
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Robert Dearth, Ph.D.
Lina Sela, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Robert B. Gilbert, Ph.D. (NAE)
Krishna Mohan Sepuru, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
The University of Texas at Austin
Keiko Torii, Ph.D. (NAS)
Jian “Jason” Shi, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Houston
Joseph P. Colaco, Ph.D. (NAE)
Punith V. Shivaprasad, Ph.D.
Technology Manager – Immersion Coolants
Shell
Selda Gunsel, Ph.D. (NAE)
Kristi Shryock, Ph.D.
Frank and Jean Raymond Foundation Inc. Endowed
Associate Professor in Multidisciplinary Engineering
Texas A&M University
George T. Ligler, D.Phil. (NAE)
Olena Shtanko, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas Biomedical Research Institute
Larry S. Schlesinger, M.D.
Irtisha Singh, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Texas A&M University
Kenneth S. Ramos, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Reagan Tichenor
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Saad B. Omer, Ph.D. (NAM)
Ufuk Topcu, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
Karen E. Willcox, Ph.D. (NAE)
Nicholas Tran, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Baylor College of Medicine
Brendan Lee, M.D., Ph.D. (NAM)
Todd J. Treangen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Rice University
Moshe Y. Vardi, Ph.D. (NAE, NAS, FRS)
Donghai Wang, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Southern Methodist University
Ali H. Dogru, Ph.D. (NAE)
Jianhui Wang, Ph.D.
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Southern Methodist University
David J. Meltzer, Ph.D. (NAS)
Taylor H. Ware, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Frances S. Ligler, D.Sc., D.Phil. (NAE)
Benjamin Weaver, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
David J. Mangelsdorf, Ph.D. (NAM, NAS)
Katherine Wert, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Kim Orth, Ph.D. (NAS)
Marissa Wechsler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Nicholas A. Peppas, Sc.D. (NAM, NAE)
Yingfei Xue, Ph.D.
Lead Scientist/Associate
ECS
Ryan Spitler, Ph.D.
Vicky Yao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Rice University
Lydia E. Kavraki, Ph.D. (NAM)
Simon W. Young, D.D.S., M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Department Director of Research
UTHealth Houston
Antonios G. Mikos, Ph.D. (NAM, NAE)
Qingwang Yuan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Co-Founder and President of Association of Geological Hydrogen (AGH)
Texas Tech University
Ganesh C. Thakur, Ph.D. (NAE)
Mengmeng Zhang, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
The University of Texas at Dallas
Ray H. Baughman, Ph.D. (NAE)
Weidong Zhou, Ph.D.
Professor
The University of Texas at Arlington
Dereje Agonafer, Ph.D. (NAE)
Click here to learn more about the TAMEST Protégé Program.
