From the Founding Director
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Our third issue of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study newsletter highlights a few recent accomplishments of our Faculty Fellows and some news items on the current work of these outstanding scholars. Additionally, I am also pleased to recognize several of our Institute advocates and HEEP fellowship recipients.
As we look to the fall, we are excited to announce our seventh class of Faculty Fellows on September 20, 2018, and look forward to sharing information about these outstanding individuals with you soon. We will have another truly remarkable group of extremely accomplished individuals joining us. Thanks to the combined efforts of many people, the Hagler Institute continues to advance our students, our faculty, the Hagler Faculty Fellows, and indeed, Texas A&M University.
Thank you for your continued support of our Institute.
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Dr. Richard A. Dixon, a 2017-18 Faculty Fellow in Texas A&M University’s Hagler Institute for Advanced Study and inaugural holder of the Eric Xu/Tim Hall Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Chair in Biology, is among 50 eminent scientists from the United Kingdom elected as new
Fellows of the Royal Society
, the world’s oldest existing national scientific academy. The society’s roll of past Fellows includes Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking. The Royal Society officially announced its 2018 Fellows on May 9.
Dixon was also named a
Fellow of the American Society of Plant Physiologist
this year. The American Society of Plant Biologists is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Md., that is devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide.
Dixon is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Science at the University of North Texas. He is a world-renowned specialist in the metabolic engineering of plants. He leads an interdisciplinary research group working to develop a basic understanding of molecular processes that provide bio-based solutions for a sustainable future.
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Dr. Jerry Tessendorf, 2017-18 Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study in the College of Architecture, Department of Visualization, presented a distinguished lecture for students in the Engineering Honors program. The lecture entitled “Simulating Natural Environments” was held on April 26, 2018, with over 300 students in attendance.
Recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2008 for technical achievement, Tessendorf is known for advancing the use of fluid simulations in computer graphics for motion pictures. His algorithms and digital tools allow filmmakers to simulate water, fire and other highly complex systems and to predictably render the results. He is collaborating in-residence here at Texas A&M through the fall of 2018.
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Dr. Yuri Oganessian, a member of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Faculty Fellow Class of 2014-15, was recently presented with the
Lomonosov Gold Medal
from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Acknowledged as a leading figure in experimental nuclear physics, Oganessian conducts research into nuclear reactions with a focus on the synthesis of new chemical elements. In fact, element 118 on the periodic table,
oganesson (Og)
,
was named for Oganessian by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
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As a pioneer in genetics, Faculty Fellow Dr. Richard Gibbs from the Hagler Institute Class of 2015-16 is best known for his work in whole-genome sequencing for the discovery of genetic diseases. His research team recently published its findings in the
American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A
regarding the rare Xia-Gibbs syndrome which affects children. Xia-Gibbs Syndrome (XGS) was first diagnosed in 2014 in individuals with
de novo
(non-inherited) mutations in the AHDC1 gene that result in a wide range of developmental delays, intellectual and physical disabilities. Gibbs is pictured below in Clear Lake, Texas, at a gathering of families with children diagnosed with the condition.
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Norman R. Augustine,
chair of the External Advisory Board for the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study, was recently inducted into the
Colorado Space Heroes Hall of Fame
. The spring ceremony recognized Mr. Augustine as one of three inductees honored at this year’s event hosted by the Space Foundation. The event was created “to inspire future space heroes, to celebrate those who have contributed most significantly to the development and success of Colorado’s space economy, and to highlight Colorado’s role as a hub for all things space.”
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Trisha and L.C. “Chaz” Neely ’62
, Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Legacy Society members, recently received the Texas A&M Foundation’s 2018
Sterling C. Evans Medal
.
This past year the Neely family established the first ever Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Chair for the Mays Business School. Their $1.5 million commitment was matched by the Hagler Institute. 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.
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John L. Junkins Dynamical Systems Symposium
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Texas A&M’s Department of Aerospace Engineering hosted a two-day “John L. Junkins Dynamical Systems Symposium” on May 20 and 21 in College Station, Texas, in honor of Dr. Junkins’ 75
th birthday. The event included two posters sessions featuring over 30 researchers from various universities and private sector entities. The second day of the program included a plenary address by Hagler Institute for Advanced Study Director John L. Junkins, with fourteen other keynotes speakers from various domestic and international universities and national laboratories. Many of Junkins’ former students were able to attend the event. The symposium concluded with a banquet. The
Journal of the Astronautical Sciences will publish a special issue honoring Junkins with selected papers from the symposium.
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Collaboration with Texas A&M Students
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Anna Salvador
received a graduate student fellowship from the Hagler Institute. She is working with 2016-17
Faculty Fellow Dr. Richard Gibbs
, founding director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) in Houston, Texas, to develop mouse models of genetic variants identified at the center. This spring, she had the privilege of attending the Xia-Gibbs Society annual meeting. The Xia-Gibbs Society is an organization comprised of parents and families of individuals affected by Xia-Gibbs Syndrome (XGS). Each year, the society comes together to meet with scientists and medical doctors to provide information to support and advocate for those diagnosed with XGS and their families. Anna and several other HGSC representatives provided XGS families with an update on ongoing research at the center. Ultimately, the XGS mouse model will characterize the mechanism of action by which mutations in AHDC1 result in XGS and holds potential for development of future therapeutics. Anna is a member of the Threadgill Laboratory in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine and a Texas A&M doctoral student in the Department of Nutrition.
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Tarek Elgohary
was awarded a Heep fellowship in 2013-14. He began working with
Faculty Fellow Dr. Satya Atluri
when he visited Texas A&M campus in spring 2014. Elgohary worked with Atluri at the University of California Irvine during the summer of 2014 through the following academic year. During that time, they published three journal articles:
Solution of Post-Buckling and Limit Load Problems, Without Inverting the Tangent Stiffness Matrix and Without Using Arc-Length Methods
;
Time Domain Inverse Problems in Nonlinear Systems Using Collocation and Radial Basis Functions
; and
A Simple, Fast, and Accurate Time-Integrator for Strongly Nonlinear Dynamical Systems
. They also produced one conference paper,
An RBF-Collocation Algorithm for Orbit Propagation
.
Elgohary earned his doctorate from Texas A&M in 2015 and worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the aerospace engineering department in 2016. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the University of Central Florida.
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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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