Newsletter Issue 4

From the Founding Director

This fourth issue of the Hagler Institute’s newsletter highlights a few of the recent impacts, activities, and awards of the 61 Faculty Fellows that have been brought to Texas A&M in the Institute’s first seven classes. Thanks to endowment earnings, the Hagler Institute is poised to embark over the next seven years on a growth path that will help launch Texas A&M’s pursuit of academic excellence to new heights.  We continue to seek Hagler Institute endowed chairs for each college as our major long range development effort to underwrite the expense of bringing these outstanding scholars to Texas A&M. We have attracted three college Hagler Institute chairs to date, and our goal is to find donors for at least one chair per college. Contributions from our advocates, Legacy Society members, and many other individuals are vital to our success. We would be proud for you to join us in this special opportunity to elevate Texas A&M and its students to international prominence for its research, education, and contributions to society. Best wishes, John L. Junkins

Faculty Fellow Features

Faculty Fellow Robert Kennicutt, Jr. Robert Kennicutt, Jr., 2016-2017 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute is a world-class astrophysicist who co-led the team that measured the rate of expansion in the universe. Following his time as a Hagler Institute Fellow, Kennicutt joined the permanent faculty of Texas A&M, sharing his academic year with the University of Arizona. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced on November 28, 2018, that Kennicutt would join Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology to co-chair the Astro 2020 Decadal Survey, which is expected to be completed in 2020. The survey is conducted every 10 years by the academies to identify key scientific questions and recommend the path to solutions for each of NASA’s space and earth science disciplines. Kennicutt and Harrison will manage this large project, assisted by staff from the Academies’ Space Studies Board and the Board on Physics and Astronomy. This committee is the most important advisory committee in astronomy, as it sets the roadmap for research investments in that science over the next decade. Previous surveys recommended the Hubble Space Telescope and other scientific endeavors. In the photo below, Kennicutt is shown presenting the Hagler Institute’s Fall 2018 Eminent Scholar Lecture, titled “ The Cosmic Ecosystem: Connecting the Life Cycles of Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe.”

Faculty Fellow Alan Needleman Alan Needleman, 2012-13 Faculty Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a prominent materials scientist. Needleman joined the faculty of Texas A&M University to help form and staff a new Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He helped recruit George Pharr—also a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the steward of the United States’ nuclear weapons, announced in October 2018, that Texas A&M will receive $12.5 million over a five year period to lead a new Center of Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids. The University of Michigan, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Connecticut will also be partners in the center.  Along with fellow A&M Professors and co-principal investigators George Pharr, Ted Hartwig, and Michael Demkowicz (who will lead the Center), Dr. Needlem an with be doing basic research, focusing on metals, and how they change shape and undergo damage in response to being hit by a projectile or other force, without nuclear testing. The group will also be training students for a research career. The expertise of Alan Needleman and his colleagues was instrumental in NNSA’s choice, and the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study was instrumental in bringing Dr. Needleman to Texas A&M. The research team is pictured below.

Faculty Fellow Gerald Galloway Gerald Galloway, 2016-2017 Faculty Fellow, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland. Galloway and Sam Brody , professor and director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores at Texas A&M’s Galveston campus, and their research teams recently presented “The Growing Threat of Urban Flooding: A National Challenge, 2018,”  https://today.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/11/Urban-flooding-report-online.pdf . This report, two years in the making, is the first to document the pervasiveness of urban flooding in recent years, identifying causes, many of which are manmade, and recommending solutions. Brody and Galloway presented their findings to congressional staff of Senator Durbin and Representative Quiggly in Washington DC, on November 28, 2018. In the photo taken at the briefing are Jayton Rainey, Texas A&M graduate student; Sam Brody; and Diane and Gerald Galloway.

Faculty Fellow Michael Duff Michael Duff, world-renowned theoretical physicist and member of the 2018-2019 class of Hagler Institute Faculty Fellows, recently co-authored “Gravity as Gauge Theory Squared: A Ghost Story,” in Physical Review Letters, 121, 211601 (2018). He is actively working at Texas A&M on three other papers, once again demonstrating the collaborative value of these outstanding visiting science scholars who come to A&M with the help of the Hagler Institute. Moreover, the Hagler Institute is gaining in International reputation, as it was duly recognized at the University of Bologna, the world’s oldest university, when, along with Nobel Laureate Gerard ’t Hooft, Duff made a presentation in the closing session of the international symposium, “60 Years of Subnuclear Physics.”

Faculty Fellow Katepalli Sreenivasan Katepalli Sreenivasan, a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences and professor at New York University, was in the inaugural 2012-2013 class of Hagler Institute Faculty Fellows. He has continuously been involved with the Hagler Institute and Texas A&M University since that time and is returning now as a distinguished lecturer of the Institute. On August 30-31, 2018, he co-chaired a workshop at Texas A&M called “Perspectives on Turbulence” that featured presentations from several Texas A&M scientists, as well as scientists from Boston University, Cornell University, New York University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Sandia National Labs, as well as universities in Japan, Israel, Italy and Germany. Along with the Hagler Institute, the symposium was sponsored by Texas A&M’s departments of aerospace engineering and ocean engineering.

Faculty Fellow Jerry Tessendorf At the “Capital of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference” held at The University of Texas in Austin, a team of Texas Aggies walked away with the Award of Excellence for Best Presentation of a Creative Work . The award was for their ongoing work on a short film about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, to be completed around May 2019. The winning team works under the supervision of Jerry Tessendorf , 2017-2018 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study and visiting professor of visualization in A&M’s College of Architecture. Tessendorf is an Academy Award winning physicist whose work on water and fluid simulations has appeared in 39 movies, including Titanic and Life of Pi . Tessendorf worked with Sarah Misemer, professor and associate director of LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research at Texas A&M to organize this team of five undergraduates—Jasmine Derry, Yuan-Chi Lee, Lauren Hammond, Marisa Harris and Kiara Stewart.   Dr. Tessendorf is pictured below with students he has been working with here at Texas A&M.

Faculty Fellow Stefan H. E. Kaufman Stefan H.E. Kaufman, Founding Director and head, Department of Immunology, Max-Plank Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany, and Hagler Institute Faculty Fellow of 2018-2019, presented a seminar on August 6, 2018, to Texas A&M’s College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and the College of Medicine, titled “Tuberculosis Control: From Bench to Bed.” He will return in spring 2019 to conduct research in residence with A&M faculty and students.

Faculty Fellow Vanderlei S. Bagnato Brazilians are learning about the Hagler Institute in an article in the SAO CARLOS AGORA —a publication announcing the selection of Vanderlei S. Bagnato as a 2018-2019 Faculty Fellow. Dr. Bagnato is shown below next to Hagler Institute Director John Junkins. Also shown are other professors working with Bagnato in the Instituto de Física de São Carlos, and Hagler Institute staff Clifford Fry and Amanda Scott. Bagnato, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, specializes in physics and materials science. He will collaborate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M. Bagnato has pursued pioneering breakthroughs in atomic and molecular physics, but also works on the application of photo-dynamic therapy for the treatment of cancer.

Faculty Fellow Tom Ginsburg Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and 2017-2018 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, is usually working with faculty and students in Texas A&M’s School of Law in Fort Worth. However, he spent September 17, 2018, giving several lectures on the College Station campus based on his new book How to Save a Constitutional Democracy .   This photo shows Ginsburg during a lecture at the Bush School of Government and Public Service.

Advocates in Action

The Hagler Institute’s External Advisory Board took a special vote to commend Stephanie Sale and Texas A&M Distinguished Alumnus Jim Singleton ’66, for their outstanding advocacy and devotion to the Hagler Institute. Stephanie and Jim have provided housing for Faculty Fellows; other special guests, including Jon Hagler; hosted receptions; and been strong supporters of Hagler Institute events. In the photo, Dr. Junkins is shown at a surprise party for Stephanie and Jim arranged to present the External Advisory Board’s proclamation to them.

Collaboration with Texas A&M Students

Subrata K. Ghosh was awarded a Heep Fellowship by the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study in 2016-17. During that time he worked with Faculty Fellow Christopher C. Cummins and his graduate advisor John A. Gladysz. His research was entitled “Radical Syntheses of Fluorous Phosphines from White Phosphorus (P4).” In this project, he synthesized several fluorous alkyl and aryl phosphines which are highly useful for catalysts and catalyst recycling. The work has been submitted for publication in Organic Chemistry Frontiers , an international peer reviewed journal. Subrata received his doctorate in chemistry from Texas A&M in 2017 and worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the chemistry department in 2018. From Ghosh—"During the time that Cummins was in residence, we held weekly meetings with Dr. Gladysz lasting from 30 to 60 minutes. Cummins introduced us to the use of electronic laboratory notebooks, which allowed us to continue a close collaboration after he had returned to MIT. He had many cogent suggestions for the design and execution of our research, which represented a significant expansion of an observation he published in 2010–in a direction where we had specific needs and applications. This work undoubtedly went quicker than it would have in either laboratory alone, and presages many successful future syntheses of fluorous phosphorus compounds from white phosphorus.”

Texas A&M doctoral student, Arezoo Samimi , received a fellowship from the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study to work with 2015-2016 Hagler Faculty Fellow Kumares Sinha and Texas A&M faculty member, Mark Burris. In July 2018, Samimi presented the results of their research at the American Society of Civil Engineer’s (ASCE) International Conference on Transportation and Development in a paper titled “The Impacts of Connected Vehicle Technology on Network-wide Traffic Operation and Fuel Consumption under Various Incident Scenarios.” Of 146 papers, their work won the Best Paper Award at the conference. In the photo below, Samimi is shown receiving the award with Kristina Swallow, president of the ASCE, and David Hein, president of the Transportation and Development Institute.

Hagler Institute Staff Updates

Ms. Amanda Scott, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Texas A&M University, has been instrumental in the operation of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study since her transfer to the Institute in May 2016. Her time has been shared with aerospace engineering, as she assisted Dr. Junkins with research administration, in addition to Institute activities. Effective November 1, 2018, we are happy to announce that Ms. Scott was promoted to Assistant Director of the Hagler Institute. She is now a full-time employee of the Institute and will continue in a key leadership role, contributing to the success and growth of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.

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 .