From the Founding Director
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The second issue of the Hagler Institute’s newsletter highlights our recent activities and spotlights our outstanding visiting scholars. Our continued success in development is vital to the long-term health of the Institute, so we continue to emphasize our endowed chairs that underwrite the expenses of Faculty Fellows from each college, as well as share news about our advocates, our board members, and the on-going capital campaign.
Overall the Hagler Institute is healthy and continues to make tremendous progress. I appreciate the steadfast support of the University leadership, the Texas A&M Foundation, the Hagler Institute staff, and the Provost’s staff. Contributions from the advocates and the Legacy Society members and many other individuals are vital to our success. Thanks to you all and enjoy a wonderful spring.
Best wishes to all,
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Philanthropist Jon L. Hagler ’58 received a well-deserved warm welcome from the nearly 300 attendees at the gala. Hagler gave the keynote speech on his impressions of economic disparity and their implications for democracy. Founding Director John Junkins (at left) introduced Hagler to the audience and later presented him with a bronze plaque in his honor that matches one displayed in the Hagler Institute.
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James E. Hubbard Jr., Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study for 2017-18 from the University of Maryland, is joining the Texas A&M University faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering. Hubbard designs and develops unmanned vehicles that can perform tasks autonomously. These vehicles can be used as robotic platforms in the air and on the ground to conduct the often-dangerous tasks that put humans at risk. These tasks include crop surveys, atmospheric data collection, search and rescue missions, wildfire fighting, and border patrol operations. A leader in this field, Hubbard will work with faculty and students in the College of Engineering and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
Hubbard is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a senior member of the International Society for Optical Engineering.
Honors include the Smart Structures Product Innovation Award from The International Society for Optical Engineering (1999); Black Engineer of the Year (2002) from the Career Communications Group; Best Paper in Structures Award from the Adaptive Structures and Material Systems branch, Aerospace Division, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (2015); and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Photonics and Instrumentation Engineers (2016).
He has published three books and ninety-six articles in peer-reviewed journals and has been awarded twenty four patents. Hubbard received his doctorate in mechanical engineering in 1982 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Richard Dixon, a 2017-18 Faculty Fellow, is the first holder of the Eric Xu/Tim Hall Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Chair in Biology. Dixon will travel to Texas A&M University for in-residence visits over a five-year period to work with faculty and students in the College of Science. He is Distinguished Research Professor and director of the BioDiscovery Institute in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of North Texas. A specialist in the metabolic engineering of plants, Dixon received his doctorate in botany from the University of Oxford in England. He was recently appointed chief scientist in the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Tree Breeding by Molecular Design, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China.
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A grant from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation will fund Richard Epstein’s 2017-2018 Faculty Fellow appointment with Texas A&M’s School of Law in Fort Worth. Epstein has made significant contributions in many areas of law, including property, torts, and employment. His landmark 1985 book,
Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain, revitalized academic interest in property law. Among the world’s most highly citied legal scholars, Epstein has written twenty books and 336 articles in peer-reviewed publications. He received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1968.
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Spring Eminent Scholar Lecture
V. Kumar
, a Faculty Fellow in the Class of 2016-17, presented the Hagler Institute’s spring Eminent Scholar Lecture on March 6, at Rudder Forum. Regents Professor and the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor of Marketing at Georgia State University, Kumar spoke about the results of his research on engagement marketing. Kumar and his colleagues have developed methods for helping companies better engage with customers and employees to improve profitability. Kumar is a nationally recognized expert on marketing research methods and has received fourteen lifetime achievement awards for his expertise.
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Hagler Institute Distinguished Lecturer: Steven Chu
On January 19, the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study and the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering (IQSE) hosted a symposium, “Celebrating Applied Physics.” This event featured Hagler Institute 2017-18 Distinguished Lecturer Steven Chu, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics and professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University. Chu was the 12th US Secretary of Energy and is the co‐recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997) for his contributions to laser cooling and atom trapping.
Chu presented the opening and closing lectures at the symposium, during which he discussed challenges to mitigation of climate change and the use of nanotechnology in biological and biomedical imaging. Additional speakers included Texas A&M University President Michael K. Young; Nobel Laureate David Lee; Texas A&M professors Olga Kocharovskaya, Dmitry Kurouski, Phillip Hemmer, Alexksei Zheltikov, and Alexei Sokolov; and University of Texas scholar Mark Raizen; and Washington University scholar Lan Yang. Participants were welcomed by John Junkins, founding director of the Hagler Institute, and Marlan Scully, director of IQSE.
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Gerald Galloway, Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland and 2016-17 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, gave the prestigious 2017 Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture on December 5 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The title of his presentation was “Looking to the Future: Too Much, Too Little, or Too Dirty Water: Not a Water Crisis, but a Water Management Crisis.” Galloway is one of the world’s leading flood experts and is working with faculty and students at Texas A&M’s Galveston campus.
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Leif Andersson, a 2013-14 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute and now a faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University, recently received an excellence award from the Swedish Research Council. The award came with funding of approximately $600,000 per year for ten years to support his research lab in Upsalla University in Sweden. Andersson is in residence at Texas A&M for half a year and at his lab at Upsalla the remainder of the time, but collaboration on research between the two universities is on-going. Among the world’s renowned scholars in the genomic and molecular study of domestic animals, Andersson received the 2014 Wolf Prize in Agriculture while serving as a Faculty Fellow.
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Robert Kennicutt Jr. is one of the most prominent astrophysicists in the world, having co-led the team that measured the rate of expansion in the universe. Kennicutt is the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge in England and a 2016-17 Faculty Fellow with the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to his research agenda at Texas A&M, Kennicutt provided guidance in a series of seminars and advanced graduate student classes in late 2017. He is shown here kneeling at the far right on the first row in a group picture with faculty and students. Kennicutt is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society in England, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of Washington in 1978.
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A significant thrust of the Hagler Institute is to attract endowments to establish Hagler Institute Chairs for every college. Chairs established through the Hagler Institute are filled solely by word-class scholars serving their terms as Faculty Fellows and collaborating with Texas A&M faculty and students. Endowment earnings provide salaries for Faculty Fellows as well as funds for the designated host college.
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Thomas W. Powell ’62 established a Hagler Institute chair for the College of Science. A longtime supporter of Texas A&M University, Tom is chief executive officer and chairman of Powell Industries Inc., a publicly traded global leader in arc-resistant technology and electrical-voltage-regulation devices. The Powell/Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Chair for Science was established with Powell’s $1.5 commitment, matched by the Hagler Institute.
When not occupied with his business, Tom enjoys hunting and spending time at his exotic game ranch in Lee County. He received his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Texas A&M in 1962. He is a former member of the Texas A&M-Galveston Board of Visitors and was honored as the namesake of the campus' Engineering Technology Building. In 2013, Tom was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Former Students by the College of Science.
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Walter and Charlotte Buchanan recently established a Hager Institute for Advanced Study Chair for the College of Engineering in their estate plan. Walter earned degrees in mathematics, languages, law, and engineering from Indiana University and Purdue University. He joined Texas A&M University’s College of Engineering in 2005. Since then, he has been a professor and past head of the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M. The Buchanans’ passion for excellence and for Texas A&M, as well as their admiration for the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, has led them to establish this future chair for the College of Engineering. It is a high compliment to the Institute to receive such significant support from a faculty member and non-alumni of Texas A&M.
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The
Chaz Neely
family of San Antonio established the first Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Chair for the Mays Business School with a $1.5 million commitment, which the Institute will match. Known formally as the
Trisha and L.C. “Chaz” Neely ’62 -Hagler Institute For Advanced Study Chair for Mays Business School
, the new chair will forever link the Neely family name with a perpetual stream of outstanding scholars and business leaders.
L. C. Chaz Neely, Jr., Class of 1962, a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M, was a member of the Corps of Cadets and received a bachelor's degree in marketing. After working for Sinclair Refining Company, Hertz Corporation, and Knowlton's Creamery, Neely purchased the small San Antonio Steel Company in 1979. Today, it is a large and fast growing company.
Neely has volunteered his time to Texas A&M University as President of the San Antonio A&M club, a member of the Chancellor's Century Council, the Mays Business School Development Council, the One Spirit One Vision Campaign committee and the 12th Man Foundation. He served on the boards of directors for the Association of Former Students and the Center for New Ventures Entrepreneurship. The Mays Business School honored him with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2005 and he is an inaugural member of the "Aggie 100" recognizing the 100 fastest growing Aggie-led businesses in the world. Born in San Antonio, Neely and his wife, Trisha, have three children: Alison, Class of 1990; Bradford, Class of 1994; and Trey, Class of 1997.
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“I honestly believe that from an academic standpoint this will do more for A&M than any program in history.”
In a letter to Jon Hagler ‘58 following Jon’s $20 million endowment commitment,
Bill E. Carter ’69, a Distinguished Alumnus, expressed these sentiments about the Hagler Institute. Given Bill’s track record of involvement with Texas A&M, his sentiments should not be taken lightly.
Bill received a bachelor of science in agricultural economics from Texas A&M. He served as the student body president and corps adjutant during his senior year. After being designated a distinguished military graduate, he was commissioned as an officer and served in the US Army.
Bill began his financial services career with Financial Services Corporation in Dallas and quickly became successful. He served on various civic boards and associations, including as president for the International Association for Financial Planning, the Foundation for Financial Planning, and the CFP Board of Standards. He is currently president of Carter Financial Management, a Dallas-based wealth management company. Bill has served as a member of the Texas A&M President’s Corps of Cadets Board of Visitors, the Board of Directors of the 12th Man Foundation, past president of The Association of Former Students, chairman of the board of the Texas A&M Foundation, and he was inducted in the Corps of Cadets Hall of Honor. Bill currently serves as an advocate for the Hagler Institute.
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H. Norm Abramson, a member of the External Advisory Board of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, was selected on February 1 as an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This is the highest professional society honor in aerospace engineering and is given to only two or three individuals each year. He will be officially inducted during the AIAA Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on May 2, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC. Norm is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a former executive vice president of the Southwest Research Institute. His expertise has earned him awards in several fields, including the Gold Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
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Collaboration with Texas A&M Students
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A recipient of a graduate student fellowship from the Hagler Institute,
Mohammad Humood, was the lead author on a peer-reviewed article, “Fabrication and Deformation of 3D Multilayered Kirigami Microstructures,” recently published in the nanotechnology journal
Small. Humood co-authored the article with Assistant Professor Matt Pharr and Professor Andreas A. Polycarpou, both in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M College of Engineering, and
John A. Rogers, a 2015-16 Faculty Fellow and holder of the Swanlund Chair at Northwestern University. The Hagler Institute awarded Humood a fellowship in 2016-17 to work with Rogers. Humood is a Texas A&M doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering.
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If you have news to share, please send articles, suggestions, or other information to
Dr. Clifford L. Fry, Associate Director, Hagler Institute for Advanced Study at Texas A&M University,
cfry@tamu.edu
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