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Newsletter Issue 29, March 2023
A Message from the Founding Director
Greetings to all. There is much to report, and it is all good news!   

We are currently recruiting the 2023-2024 group of Fellows of the Hagler Institute. We have signed up ten new Fellows already, and it is only late March.  

We have a new timetable for receiving and evaluating nominations. This new timetable allows us earlier contact with scholars approved for recruiting by our Faculty Advisory Board. Additionally, I now make the first call to prospective Fellows, resulting in a consistent and thorough message about the fruits of being a Fellow. Associate Director Clifford Fry is now preparing draft offer letters for the colleges and schools, and he sometimes negotiates terms on their behalf with prospective Fellows. Assistant Director Amanda Scott works closely with the colleges and schools on routing for signatures required to make formal offers, speeding up the recruiting process. These initiatives make our process of recruiting Fellows much more efficient.

Although the number of Fellows will fluctuate from year to year, the average number of Fellows in the next decade is expected to be closer to fourteen than the nine average number of Fellows during the Institute’s first decade. Whether the Institute can sustain this higher level of recruiting depends upon our finances. We have an accumulation of funds due to the COVID period delays in recruiting and Fellow visits. This accumulation allows support of Fellows numbering in the mid-teens. However, by the academic year ending in August 2028 if we do not add funds then we will drop back to an average recruitment year of 9 or 10 Fellows, close to what we experienced in our first decade. Fortunately, we have time on our side, the Aggie network, and a pure vision of excellence.

We are not seeking to maintain our current state. We seek to grow at a moderate pace to reach an optimum size of 20 Fellows per year.

We have adopted a goal of raising one $3 million endowed chair each year for the next decade, with the earnings on these funds devoted to supporting Fellows of the Hagler Institute. The endowments to support Fellows can be in the colleges and schools rather than directly for the Institute, and most often this is our preference. Chair donors can support Fellows forever in their chosen fields, and those endowments also motivate nominations perpetually because earnings are designated to support Fellows. We have an additional objective of raising at least two $800,000 endowments per year for the Hagler Institute to fund fellowships for graduate students to work with the Hagler Fellows.

We are so appreciative of the Aggie Network for stepping forward to support the Hagler Institute. The success of this institute and the excellence pursuit at Texas A&M go hand-in-hand.

Recent months have been busy ones for the Hagler Institute. This newsletter provides some highlights for your reading pleasure.
Cameron Jones and Our Rising Stars
in Chemistry
One of the major contributions of the Institute’s elite group of scholars is to work closely with our rising star faculty and graduate students. A perfect example is Cameron Jones, a 2018-2019 Fellow of the Hagler Institute, who visited Texas A&M’s Department of Chemistry in 2019 and 2020. Dr. Jones works closely with several faculty and students at Texas A&M.
 
The latest publication to result from his A&M collaborations appeared in December 2022 in Chemistry – A European Journal, doi.org/10.1002/chem.202202103, titled “C-H Activation of Inert Arenes Using a Photochemically Activated Guanidinato-Magnesium(I) Compound.” One of his co-authors was an A&M graduate student, Gerard Pierre Van Trieste III, who has just earned his Ph.D. degree. Another co-author is Asim Maity, an A&M graduate student at the time, who has since earned his Ph.D. degree and joined The Dow Chemical Company. Another co-author is David Powers, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M. These people joined three others from Monash University, Jeremy Mullins, K. Yuvaraj, and Ysxiao Jiang, to complete this work.
 
Dr. Jones comes to Texas A&M from his home institution, Monash University in Australia, where he is the R.L. Martin Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the leader of a team of researchers called the Jones Research Group. His visits to Texas A&M University were interrupted by COVID-19, but he hopes to be able to arrange at least one other visit in 2023. Dr. Jones is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry and is the recipient of prestigious awards, including the 2014 Frankland Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK for outstanding contributions to pure and applied research in organometallic chemistry or coordination chemistry.
2022 Hagler Institute Holiday Party
Shortly after M. Katherine Banks became President of Texas A&M, she offered to the Hagler Institute the eighth floor of Rudder Tower as a needed upgrade from its smaller offices in the Williams’ building. The new facilities provide the Hagler Institute a conference room for meetings with its External Advisory Board, Faculty Advisory Board, and Administrative Council, among others. The new facility also provides space where Hagler Fellows can meet with other Fellows, rising star students, and Texas A&M professors, including former Hagler Fellows who have joined A&M’s faculty. 

When Fellows join Texas A&M’s permanent faculty, the Hagler Institute designates them as Permanent Members and provides a medallion, engraved with their name on one side, commemorating the appointment. 
Photo of the Jon L. Hagler Medallion.
The COVID-19 pandemic prevented Director Junkins from awarding some of the medallions. He made up for it on December 9, 2022, when the Hagler Institute held its annual holiday party. Below are photos of four now permanent Fellows receiving their medallions, celebrated by more than fifty other Hagler affiliated attendees.
Pictured below, Director Junkins awards the Hagler Medallion to 2016-2017 Hagler Fellow, William Sage, who recently joined Texas A&M’s School of Law. Dr. Sage is one of those rare individuals who has earned a Doctor of Medicine degree and a law degree, both from Stanford University, where he went after earning his bachelor’s degree in biomedical sciences from Harvard. Dr. Sage is an elected member of both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Science.  
William Sage receives the Hagler Medallion.
Dr. Luiz Davidovich, a physicist and Hagler Fellow in the class of 2019-2020, joined the Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, located in the College of Arts and Sciences. He came to Texas A&M from the Universidade Federal Do Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. His wife, Solange, joined Luiz for the presentation. Dr. Davidovich is a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the World Academy of Sciences, and is a former President of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Luiz Davidovich receives the Hagler Medallion.
William G. Unruh came to Texas A&M in the Hagler Fellow class of 2018-2019 from the University of British Columbia, where is a professor of physics. Dr. Unruh is known for the breadth of his research, which includes a collaboration with the late Nobel Laureate Stephen Hawking refining the foundations of quantum mechanics to model the physics of black holes. He is a member of the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada, and he is a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Unruh accepted his Hagler Medallion with his wife, Pat, who frequently shares her musical talents, as she plays an early bowed string instrument called the viola de gamba. Dr. Unruh and Dr. Davidovich spend 50% of the academic year at Texas A&M.
William Unruh receives the Hagler Medallion.
Rice University could not have been pleased with the decision by Edwin “Ned” Thomas to join Texas A&M’s faculty. Ned, a 2019-2020 Fellow of the Hagler Institute is recognized globally for his expertise in materials science and engineering. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ned was dean of engineering at Rice for 6 years and was the head of the Materials Science and Engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology prior to joining Rice University. Ned joined Texas A&M’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, being the third national academy member in that department, along with Alan Needleman (another former Hagler Fellow) and George Pharr. Ned also received his Hagler Medallion on December 9. 
Ned Thomas receives the Hagler Medallion.
What would a Christmas party be without a couple of festive sweaters? Thanks to Adrienne and James Hubbard, we did not have to find out. 
Pictured left to right: Adrienne Hubbard, James Hubbard,
Charlotte Jameson, and Antony Jameson.
James, an MIT graduate, and a Hagler Fellow from the class of 2017-2018, joined A&M’s faculty and is the head of the Morpheus Lab at Texas A&M University. He focuses his research on smart systems with application of smart materials and adaptive structures. The photo above shows the Hubbards with Charlotte and Antony Jameson. Antony is a world-renowned authority in aerodynamics and the physics of fluid flows; he is a professor in Texas A&M‘s aerospace engineering department. James Hubbard is an authority in smart structures and autonomous systems. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors. Anthony Jameson is a Fellow of the Royal Society in the U.K. and is a Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. 
Many faculty, campus leaders, and advocates of the Hagler Institute with whom the Institute works were at the celebration. Below we see Dr. John August, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Dr. Stratos Pistikopoulos, head of Texas A&M’s Energy Institute.
Pictured left to right: John August and Stratos Pistikopoulos.
Guy Bertrand and Stefan H.E. Kaufmann are Fellows of the Hagler Institute, Guy in the Department of Chemistry and Stefan in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. As with all Fellows, these two are at the top of their profession. In March 2023, Stefan, who came to us from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Germany, punctuated the completion of his Hagler Fellow appointment by helping lead a symposium on immunology with Hagler Fellow, Dr. Peter Hotez. 
Pictured left to right: Guy Bertrand and Stefan H.E. Kaufmann.
Pictured above, Director Junkins chats with Ned Thomas amid the “culinary celebration” area, with Elouise Junkins in the forefront of the picture.
Brunch for the Hagler Institute Fellows
Most Fellows arrive in College Station the night before the annual Hagler Institue gala to attend a brunch hosted by institute advocates, Stephanie Sale and Jim Singleton. Jim and Stephanie are well-known throughout the Bryan/College Station area for their numerous contributions to the quality of life in our community. The brunch takes place at their home.

Stephanie and Jim are the ultimate hosts, and the brunch offers much more than food. It is the first time the new Fellows assemble together. Given their different fields of study, most Fellows do not know each other and meet one another for the first time at the brunch. The occasion is a spirited gathering of very accomplished people in their chosen disciplines who have only one thing in common – they are the new Fellows in the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study.  To give you a flavor of the event, here are several pictures.
Pictured left to right: Breda and Mark O’Malley along with Jean-Paul Rodrigue
with his wife Gordana Petrovic.
Special guests at the brunch were members of the Hagler Institute’s External Advisory Board (EAB). Left to right in the picture below are: Ron Skaggs ’65, Past National President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Chairman Emeritus and CEO, HKS, Inc., Chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows, and Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University; Norm Augustine, Chair of the EAB, former Chair and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation, Former President of the National Academy of Engineering, former Under Secretary of the Army, and recipient of the National Medal of Technology; Ray Bowen, member of the EAB, Former President of Texas A&M University, Former Chair, National Science Board, Former Division Director and Deputy Director, National Science Foundation, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rice University; Sally Bowen, wife of Ray Bowen, mother of two children, and grandmother to six grandchildren.
Pictured left to right: Ron Skaggs, Norm Augustine, Ray Bowen, and Sally Bowen.
Pictured above, circling left and then back on the right, the woman with her back to the
camera is Rachel Cullen, daughter of John and Frayda Cullen. Fellow John Cullen also
has his back to the camera. Next to John are Michelle Bertrand and Laura Eckhardt,
wife of Michael Young, with Frayda Cullen facing the group on the end. Fellow Michael Young
 is sitting next to Fellow Guy Bertrand. 
Pictured left to right: Hagler Fellows Howard Frumkin,
Lawrence Que, and Donald L. Sparks.
Pictured left to right: Director John Junkins, Ed Kane (who was coaxed into playing piano for the group), Fellow Dimitar Filev, host Stephanie Sale, Mominka Filev, Joerg Steiner (Faculty Liaison for the Hagler Institute), and Fellow Hui Cao. 
The 2023 Hagler Institute Gala
On February 24, 2023, the Hagler Institute officially inducted thirteen of the fourteen 2022-2023 Fellows and one Distinguished Lecturer at its black-tie gala. Following a red-carpet entrance by all attendees, the new members of the Hagler Institute entered with their escorts through a saber arch provided by the Ross Volunteers, members of Texas A&M’s Corps of Cadets who serve as the official honor guard for the Governor of Texas.  
Pictured above are gala guests Fran and Bill Carter on the red carpet.
Pictured above is Hagler Fellow David Zilberman escorted by
student ambassador Heather Raun through the saber arch.
Pictured above is Master of Ceremonies,
Director of the Hagler Institute, John Junkins.
Director Junkins reviewed the accomplishments of each of these world-class scholars, mentioning a few of their honors and awards. 
Pictured left to right: Chancellor John Sharp, Fellow Mark O’Malley,
and President M. Katherine Banks.
After posing for a picture with Chancellor John Sharp and President M. Katherine Banks, each of whom later addressed the audience, each inductee signed the official membership book. 
Pictured above are gala guests Stephanie Sale and Jim Singleton.
Attendees enjoyed a wonderful dinner and dancing to the Greg Tivis Orchestra.  
The 2022-2023 additions to the Hagler Institute pictured above, left to right:
 
Not pictured are:
  • Odile Eisenstein, University of Oslo, Norway, chemistry (not in attendance)
  • Mark O’Malley, Imperial College London, United Kingdom, wind energy systems
  • David Zilberman, University of California, Berkely, agricultural and resource economics
Rothrock ’77 Receives the Malina Renaissance Medallion Award
Few individuals view global challenges as personal quests, but Ray Rothrock, a 1977 nuclear engineering graduate of Texas A&M University, is such an individual. At the recent Hagler Institute gala, Director John Junkins announced that Ray Rothrock ’77 is the second recipient of the Frank J. Malina Renaissance Medallion Award. 

The award recognizes an individual’s breadth and depth of technical expertise, outstanding support of the arts, and their own artistic achievements. Such individuals have made big impacts on Texas A&M University.  

Upon graduating from Texas A&M, Rothrock earned an MS from MIT and an MBA from Harvard. Rothrock joined Venrock where he invested venture capital in new technology. Later he founded FiftySix Investments, a seed investment fund that focuses on cyber, energy, satellites, and sustainability. 
 
Rothrock has served as chair of the National Venture Capital Association and on numerous boards to oversee business and product development. A visionary always, he promotes nuclear energy, while as a Director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative he works to eliminate nuclear weapons. He joined the External Advisory Board of the Hagler Institute to enhance academic excellence at Texas A&M, and he helped establish an institute at A&M to address cyber threats and educate future digital leaders. 

While a graduate student, Rothrock read many history and philosophy books and became convinced of how important the arts and critical thinking are for an educated populace. He decided to promote both among America’s youth. He and his wife, Meredith, have been staunch supporters of a broad range of liberal and performance arts in our schools. Rothrock, a lifelong musician, plays bass in a Bay Area band. In 2016 Rothrock was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University.
Pictured above are Director John L. Junkins and award winner Ray Rothrock '77.
Hagler Institute Lectures
Professor
Department of English
Georgetown University

Each semester the Hagler Institute hosts an eminent scholar lecture for the university community and the public. In the fall of 2022, Dr. Lena Orlin, of Georgetown University, was the featured speaker. 

You might think that there is little left to learn about Shakespeare. That is, until you hear about Dr. Orlin’s research, or read her latest book, The Private Life of William Shakespeare, published by the Oxford University Press. For one, Dr. Orlin is the first to make the case that we know what the man, William Shakespeare, looked like. From detailed arguments, Orlin concludes that his true image is the Shakespeare funerary monument located in Holy Trinity Church at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.

In her recent book, Professor Orlin argues that Shakespeare’s life must be understood within the context of the period in which he lived, documents of the time, and the lives of his friends. To meet this high bar, Professor Orlin traveled throughout Great Britain, studying houses, and exploring manuscript archives for legal records, property documents, and family papers from the 16th and 17th centuries.

In the fall of 2022, only a few days prior to her Eminent Scholar Lecture, Professor Orlin received a prestigious award. The Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference awarded her the ROLAND BAINTON PRIZE FOR LITERATURE.  Here is a portion of what they had to say.  

"Lena Orlin’s The Private Life of William Shakespeare sets a new standard for literary biography. Comparing the key documents of Shakespeare’s biography to a wide array of similar documents from Shakespeare’s contemporaries, Orlin manages to separate what is fact and what is probable about the life of England’s most influential writer from what is mere speculation. …She conducts rigorous comparative analysis of the documents and lets them speak to us across the intervening centuries…. here, Orlin’s ability to contextualize Shakespeare’s documents becomes crucial. Early modern scholars will likely be reading and re-reading this book decades from now, perhaps arguing over this or that detail, but Orlin’s approach will remain uncontested—a new benchmark for the field."

"Let me conclude by remarking …we encountered so many strong monographs this year—so many worthy of the prize, but the committee was unanimous that The Private Life of William Shakespeare stood out above the rest. It is our honor to award the Bainton Prize for literary study to Lena Cowen Orlin."

Those who attended Professor Lena Orlin’s lecture witnessed the world’s greatest Shakespeare scholar in action.
Pictured above, Dr. Orlin speaks to the audience.
Pictured above are lecture attendees.
Pictured from left to right: Lena Cowen Orlin and John Junkins.
Dean, National School of Tropical
Medicine
Professor
Departments of Pediatrics and
Molecular Virology &
Microbiology
Endowed Chair in Tropical
Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine
Head, Department of Immunology
Founding Director
Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
Germany
Stefan Kaufmann has been featured in several previous Hagler Institute newsletters, and with good reason. During his four-year period as a Fellow, he published fifty papers with his co-authors, and on each one he listed the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study as an affiliation. Much of his work in those papers is devoted to his efforts to eradicate tuberculosis in India and in Africa.

For his last presentation here, Dr. Kaufmann suggested a symposium on “Critical Topics in Immunology” with Dr. Peter Hotez, who quickly agreed to the idea. Likely no practicing vaccine researcher was more visible in the media during the COVID pandemic than Dr. Hotez. He has been a staunch proponent of educating the public about vaccines, vaccine development, and preparing for future pandemics.

Their February 17-18, 2023, symposium was heavily attended. The audience consisted of faculty and students from the School of Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, among others.  

Symposiums such as this one help bring faculty and students together from different fields and highlight the importance of interdisciplinary research. Certainly, this broad engagment with faculty and students is an example of how the Hagler Institute stimulates both internal and external faculty-student interaction on cutting-edge research.
Peter J. Hotez speaks at the conference.
Stefan H.E. Kaufmann speaks at the conference.
Professor
Department of Global Studies and Geography
Hofstra University

Jean-Paul Rodrigue, professor in the Department of Global Studies and Geography at Hofstra University, works with those at Texas A&M’s Galveston campus. He is a recognized expert on transportation and economics of global freight distribution. In 2022, he published his latest book with two co-authors, titled Port Economics, Management and Policy. Since his work pertains to management of ports, and especially since the recent supply chain crisis, it attracts international interest. On November 3, 2022, Rodrigue delivered the keynote address at the Busan International Port Conference held in South Korea. 
Pictured above, Dr. Rodrigue speaks about the conference.
Pictured below, lecture attendees enjoy the presentation.
Since Dr. Rodrigue has been a Fellow of the Hagler Institute, he has indicated this affiliation in all his work, and it is assured that the Hagler Institute will receive more mention as a consequence of the March 28-29, 2023, transportation study called for by Congress and sponsored by the Federal Maritime Commission. Most containers filled with goods supplied to the U.S. are shipped via multiple types of transportation before arriving at their ultimate destination. In March 2023, the National Academy of Sciences announced Dr. Rodrigue’s appointment as a member of the Transportation Research Board committee to study how the U.S. can most efficiently receive a steady supply of chassis for trucks, railroads, and marine terminal operators.  Among the committee members are several faculty of Texas A&M University, underlining the university’s prominence in this area. 
Distinguished Professor
University of California, Irvine School of Law

Do children of illegal immigrants have a right to free education in our public schools? If they stay in the U.S. and have no education, then they will likely be rendered into poverty for life and contribute to crime and unemployment. If they do attend our public schools, then citizen taxpayers will have to fund the expansion of facilities and teachers necessary to provide the education.  Such questions do not have trivial answers and involve both economic and legal issues.

Rachel Moran is the Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, working with faculty and students at Texas A&M’s School of Law in Fort Worth, TX. She has devoted much of her career to educational issues. On October 24, 2022, Professor Moran presented a draft of her paper “Personhood, Property, and Public Education: The Case of Plyler v. Doe” at Texas A&M University’s School of Law. The paper is part of an upcoming symposium on “Education as Property” hosted by Columbia Law School and organized by Texas A&M law professor, Tim Mulvaney. The Plyler v. Doe case is important because it is the only time the Supreme Court has ruled that children here illegally could attend public school.  

The case has an interesting history. The State of Texas enacted legislation denying school districts state funding for children of illegal immigrants in order to protect the property of its legal citizens.  The law authorized school districts to ban these children or charge them tuition. When districts adopted these policies, attorneys brought a lawsuit on behalf of children of illegal immigrants. The children resided in the school districts, their families paid taxes indirectly through rents, and the argument was that excluding such children from school violated equal protection under the law. For this 1982 case, Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court, ignoring the children’s illegal status, ultimately agreed that the children could attend public schools freely, as it viewed education as a public good. The court, however, refused to find that education is a constitutionally protected interest. Some view this ruling as based on weak grounds and want the case revisited for a firmer ruling guaranteeing these children the right to attend public schools.

In her talk, Professor Moran examined competing conceptions of education at play in Plyler. One is that those here illegally have a property-like entitlement in residency as a basis for inclusion. Another is that the children deserve to attend public school due to the Equal Protection Clause. How all of this plays out will be of concern to illegal immigrants and legal citizens. 
Pictured above, Professor Rachel Moran presents her lecture.
Pictured below, the Dean of Texas A&M's School of Law, Robert B. Ahdieh with Professor Moran.
Professor and Holder of the Integral Hydraulic
Engineering Chair
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

One of the biggest risks to life and property in Texas is flooding caused by coastal hurricanes.  A huge challenge for the scientists at Texas A&M’s Galveston campus is to address this problem. Helping them do so is one of the world’s best at flood management, 2022-2023 Fellow, Sebastian “Bas” Jonkman, professor of Hydraulic Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands. His specialty is hydraulic structures and flood risk.

On March 10, 2023, Bas Jonkman made a major presentation at Texas A&M’s College Station campus, co-hosted by the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study and the Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and more specifically their Construction, Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Division. The title of his presentation was “Challenges in Coastal Flood Risk Reduction in the Netherlands and Texas.”  His presentation was in three parts:

  • Overview of developments in flood risk management in the Netherlands, including recent innovative solutions.
  • The nature of flood risk challenges for the Houston-Galveston Bay area, and discussion of how innovative concepts developed by Dutch academicians might apply, including for nature-based solutions.
  • Challenges in civil and ocean engineering posed by coastal protection strategies for Texas and the Netherlands. 

The teamwork with Bas Jonkman is a perfect example of how the Hagler Institute can bring together great minds from anywhere in the world to solve great problems.
Pictured above are Sebastian Jonkman and his wife Annick de Vries at the 2023 annual gala.
University of North Texas
National Academy of Sciences
GP Scientific Prize
Groupe Polyphenois

Richard Dixon, now retired from the University of North Texas, still works closely with students doing research at Texas A&M who he met during his time as a Fellow of the Hagler Institute. Dr. Dixon is now a Distinguished Lecturer of the Hagler Institute. While he was a Fellow, he was the inaugural holder of the Timothy C. Hall Chair, the first Hagler college chair. This chair was endowed by Eric Xu, Baidu co-founder and Ph.D. student of the late Timothy Hall.

On March 21, 2023, Dr. Dixon returned to Texas A&M to make a presentation in the Department of Biology’s Seminar Series, titled “Plant Cell Wall Engineering – Prospects and Problems.” The seminar was highly technical, as the audience consisted of professors and students in biology. However, it pertained to the polymer-rich plant cell wall and its role in engineering polymeric bioproducts, including biofuels. This is important research given the push to increase reliance on biofuels and improve their cost effectiveness. For you readers with a biology background, or for those who might want something new to bring to the conversation at dinner parties, this is for you. From Dr. Dixon’s abstract,

“This presentation will outline the rationale for specific modifications of lignin content or composition to improve the bioprocessing of lignocellulosic materials and discuss our emerging understanding of how altering cell wall structure causes ectopic activation of defense responses.“ 
Pictured above, Dr. Dixon presents his lecture.
Pictured below, lecture attendees listen to Dr. Dixon.
In Memoriam
H. Norman “Norm” Abramson (March 4, 1926- December 19, 2022) was a gentleman, a talented researcher, a gifted manager and teacher, and a strong advocate for the Hagler Institute for Advanced Study. He served on the Institute’s External Advisory Board for approximately five years, contributing greatly to the mission of the Hagler Institute. This newsletter was one of his recommendations.  

Norm Abramson received his bachelors and master’s degrees from Stanford University and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas. He was a very accomplished professional engineer. Norm is well known in the fields of theoretical and applied mechanics and, particularly, in aeronautics and astronautics. His contributions to problems of dynamic behavior of liquid propellants in rockets and spacecraft earned him an international reputation. During his career, he received many awards and recognitions, including induction into the National Academy of Engineering.   

From 1956 until 1991, he worked in various capacities at the Southwest Research Institute (“SRI”), a private company based in San Antonio that specializes in solving difficult problems. At SRI he rose through the ranks to Executive Vice President. With 2500 employees, he frequently had to engage in difficult technical issues and discussions where disagreements had to be resolved. He always did his homework rigorously and was a good listener. His combination of friendly directness and wit could work through otherwise very tense moments in search of the best approach and to achieve buy-in necessary to make progress. Dr. Norm Abramson is a man to be remembered. 
Upcoming Eminent Scholar Lecture
Hagler Institute Spring Eminent Scholar Lecture

"Molecular Neurobiological Studies in
Rett Syndrome and MECP2 Disorders"

April 24, 2023
4:00 pm
Memorial Student Center
Gates Ballroom, Room 2400
Reception immediately following.

Rett syndrome is a delayed-onset childhood disorder, typically found in girls, that causes a broad range of severe neurological disabilities, including loss of the ability to speak and socialize, and the development of tremors, ataxia, seizures, autonomic dysfunction, and stereotypic hand-wringing movements. We discovered that loss-of-function mutations in the MECP2 gene cause Rett syndrome, and before long it became clear that milder mutations in MECP2 can also cause other neuropsychiatric phenotypes ranging from autism to bipolar disorder. Using genetically-engineered mice, we learned that the brain is acutely sensitive to MeCP2 levels; both decreases and increases in the amount of MeCP2 protein can lead to neurological problems that are also observed in humans. Nonetheless, normalizing MeCP2 levels reverses symptoms in a humanized mouse model of MECP2 duplication syndrome, a disorder that results from excess MeCP2 and typically affects boys. Most recently we have found an approach that could delay onset of Rett symptoms, suggesting that earlier diagnosis through screening may be worthwhile for these disorders.

Please RSVP to hias@tamu.edu if you would like to attend.
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